Let's start with the 5th of March, Carnival in Cádiz. Cádiz is a small, historical beach town in the south of Spain and once a year they have one of the biggest festivals in all of Europe. Everyone dresses up crazily (Halloween Costume Style) and stomps around the streets all day and night. Definitely a can't miss event. I went with one of the local tour companies for study abroad-ers, DiscoverSevilla for a night of fun. We spent the evening meeting people of all kinds in ridiculous costumes. Some looked like a tornado in a costume store while others had Mardi Gras type masks. Lots of fun.. until I lost my jacket. :( It was on my chair and then it wasn't. It wouldn't have been a great loss except that my keys, camera and ID were in the pocket and it turned freezing around midnight. So, needless to say the fun ended a bit early for me. However, the once in a life time experience didn't. Upon my return to Sevilla, I had to call in the robbery and explain what I had lost so I could fill a report in case my stuff made a reappearance. After talking to a rather bored sounding woman who spoke very stiff english for 30 minutes she informed me that I had to go to the nearest police station to sign off on the report, La policía nacional de Sevilla. That sounded easy enough; I google-mapped the place, it turned out to be only a few blocks from my house and decided to head over there. Problem was, when I got there, there was no police station, only a couple of very run-down buildings with bricked up windows... I quickly turned around to go back the way I came. On my way, I ran into a very nice woman who said she'd give me directions since I looked lost. After a debate over exactly which station I was looking for, she told me to go to the Station near the center on the city about 20 minutes away. I still had 2 hours before my next class so I walked down to the station. Once I arrived, the building guards seemed a bit confused about what I wanted but one showed me where to go and told the clerk inside what I needed. The guard in the clerk's office had me take all of my metal off and do a security check... seemed a little bit much, but I figured if I could get this over with it was worth it. Then, he sat me down in a "waiting area" that seemed more like an interrogation room with a dingy lamp hanging over a small table. I waited for about 20 minutes until the first guard came back and asked the clerk's guard why I was waiting. The clerk's guard said that I was in the wrong place... SO WHY LEAVE ME WAITING?!?! Anyway, the two guys then explained to me that I actually had to go to a different station that was about an hour walk... did I mention that through this adventure there were 20 mph winds and pelting rain? No? Well, there were. Luckily the guards said that I could take the metro... Phew! Okay, I though, easy enough. Let's get this over with. So, I took the metro, then walked another 20 minutes in the rain to find this tiny station barely 20 sq ft.... they had described it as "you can't miss it"... riiiight. So, at last, after 2.5 hours, I was at the right place, and got to sign the form! Jeez, after that I deserved a bag of gummies (which are SUPER popular here and on every street corner!) So, I grabbed a bag at the nearest store and jogged back to the metro station, barely making it to class on time. They always say studying abroad is a once in a lifetime experience... this is one experience that I really hope is Once. in. a. lifetime.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Sevilla: Where tomorrow's another day in the sun and sweet smelling trees line the streets
So, I'm a bit behind... eeek! Sorry! Here's a snippet of something I was going to post a while ago but never did.... After I post this I am going to attempt to make a vlog (video log) in order to catch up some time... but I make no promises that it'll work! haha In any case, enjoy this part (revel in my misfortune... silly me) and I'll post again soon(ish).
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
The start of a normal life... kinda... okay, not really...
So, let's begin today's post with a little summary of what I've learned so far about daily life here is Sevilla.
So, a bit of an update now on what I've been up to in Spain!!! Crazy to think that I've now been here for be bit over two months! In that time I've actually made a few Spanish friends, believe it or not. One guy, Malik, was passed onto me by a friend for an "intercambio" (which is where you hang out for 2 hours or so and speak half in english, to help them, and half in spanish, to help me). He's pretty awesome; a real free spirit. We've had some very interesting conversations over the differences in the types of relationship here versus in the States and religion and more. Though after I've hung out with him for a few hours my head hurts from thinking so much in Spanish about these crazy topics!
I've also made some triathlon friends! They're really nice and always trying to arrange to hang out. Pepe, one of the directors at the study abroad center, hooked me up, through his brother who happens to be an amazing triathlete, with Felipe who's studying kinesiology (well, the equivalent here) at one of the other local universities. From there I met two of his friends who also do tri, Ali and Rocío. These girls are great and so accommodating.... that is when I actually have TIME to hang out. School's been much more taxing than I had thought it would be.
I'm taking 5 classes here, the minimum to be considered a full time student, but all of the classes are really time consuming! I'm taking classes on Superior Processes of the Mind, Difficulties in Learning and Development (where we actually have to find and diagnose a real, random kid--aka this makes it quite challenging), Thinking and Language, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, and a Spanish Creative Writing class. All very interesting but they all include tons of long, Spanish readings which is quite a drag when I've got a whole city to enjoy. Oh, well! I'll figure it out.
Thankfully, I've also been able to check out some other cities on the weekends to give my mind a bit of a break. With the study abroad group we went and checked out Granada, which was simply gorgeous. The old palace of Queen Isabel is located there, in Al Hambra, and it's perched atop a tall hill overlooking the rest of the city. Truly jaw dropping. The city of Granada has a very strong Arabic influence since it was the last city to fall from the Moorish rule to the catholics so, we tried some authentic Arabic/Moroccan cuisine... DELICIOUS! The couscous was definitely my favorite.
Plus, we had a long weekend the last weekend in February, so, one of the other girls in my program, Kristen, and I decided to head down to the Canary Islands. We flew down to Tenerife (one of the islands) and saw AFRICA on the way. There's a giant volcano in Tenerife, so we took a day trip and climbed to the top... above the clouds. Then the next day we did the opposite and went under the sea to go SCUBA diving! We saw a bunch of sting rays, barrels of tropic fish in every color of the rainbow, we had a spider crab crawl up our arms, AND we got to pet a sea turtle. It was really magical and I cannot wait to go scuba diving again. In fact, I think I've decided to change my career plans and move back to Australia to teach Scuba! ;)
That's a recap of what I've been up to in Spain so far. In the next month and a half I intend to go to Morocco, Belgium (to meet up with my dad!!!), and Portugal. Stay tuned for more adventures! Don't forget to keep in touch and let me know what you guys are up to back home! Miss you all dearly!
- Palomas, or Pigeons, do not have enough sense to fly away when a person gets too close to them. The other day I stepped on a pigeon's tail... whoops! I swear the pigeons here have smaller brains than the ones in the US... which I didn't even know was possible! Poor thing!
- Manners do not apply in everyday situations here. If you say thank you to your waiter, he will give you a weird look or make fun of you. Plus, if you say please or thank you to your friends, expect to be the laughing stock of the group... weird, ya?
- Safety precautions are unheard of... wearing a helmet while biking... What's a helmet? Or how about seeing kids still in middle school smoking? Did you check the news lately, smoking can kill you. Dios mio.
So, a bit of an update now on what I've been up to in Spain!!! Crazy to think that I've now been here for be bit over two months! In that time I've actually made a few Spanish friends, believe it or not. One guy, Malik, was passed onto me by a friend for an "intercambio" (which is where you hang out for 2 hours or so and speak half in english, to help them, and half in spanish, to help me). He's pretty awesome; a real free spirit. We've had some very interesting conversations over the differences in the types of relationship here versus in the States and religion and more. Though after I've hung out with him for a few hours my head hurts from thinking so much in Spanish about these crazy topics!
I've also made some triathlon friends! They're really nice and always trying to arrange to hang out. Pepe, one of the directors at the study abroad center, hooked me up, through his brother who happens to be an amazing triathlete, with Felipe who's studying kinesiology (well, the equivalent here) at one of the other local universities. From there I met two of his friends who also do tri, Ali and Rocío. These girls are great and so accommodating.... that is when I actually have TIME to hang out. School's been much more taxing than I had thought it would be.
I'm taking 5 classes here, the minimum to be considered a full time student, but all of the classes are really time consuming! I'm taking classes on Superior Processes of the Mind, Difficulties in Learning and Development (where we actually have to find and diagnose a real, random kid--aka this makes it quite challenging), Thinking and Language, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, and a Spanish Creative Writing class. All very interesting but they all include tons of long, Spanish readings which is quite a drag when I've got a whole city to enjoy. Oh, well! I'll figure it out.
Thankfully, I've also been able to check out some other cities on the weekends to give my mind a bit of a break. With the study abroad group we went and checked out Granada, which was simply gorgeous. The old palace of Queen Isabel is located there, in Al Hambra, and it's perched atop a tall hill overlooking the rest of the city. Truly jaw dropping. The city of Granada has a very strong Arabic influence since it was the last city to fall from the Moorish rule to the catholics so, we tried some authentic Arabic/Moroccan cuisine... DELICIOUS! The couscous was definitely my favorite.
Plus, we had a long weekend the last weekend in February, so, one of the other girls in my program, Kristen, and I decided to head down to the Canary Islands. We flew down to Tenerife (one of the islands) and saw AFRICA on the way. There's a giant volcano in Tenerife, so we took a day trip and climbed to the top... above the clouds. Then the next day we did the opposite and went under the sea to go SCUBA diving! We saw a bunch of sting rays, barrels of tropic fish in every color of the rainbow, we had a spider crab crawl up our arms, AND we got to pet a sea turtle. It was really magical and I cannot wait to go scuba diving again. In fact, I think I've decided to change my career plans and move back to Australia to teach Scuba! ;)
That's a recap of what I've been up to in Spain so far. In the next month and a half I intend to go to Morocco, Belgium (to meet up with my dad!!!), and Portugal. Stay tuned for more adventures! Don't forget to keep in touch and let me know what you guys are up to back home! Miss you all dearly!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
That's right, folks, a whole month!
It's true. I've already been a makeshift Sevillana for an entire month... I can't believe it. CRAZY! So, let's recap the month since, as most of you have made me aware, I haven't been doing a good job with the blogging so far.
Week of the 10th January: I met up with the rest of the crew at the Hotel on Monday. On Tuesday, we took a bus tour and on Wednesday we started our orientation class through the program center! Talk about a quick start. The class continued everyday until the 3rd of February. Each day we had an hour and 10 minutes of lecture, 50 minutes of small group discussion and an hour of grammar. We skimmed the entire history of Spain, investigated centuries of Spanish art, learned the basics of Spanish culture, threw ourselves into Spanish current events and finally, we delved into the Spanish gender biases. Lots of information in only 15 classes!
Okay, so back to the week of the 10th, I met my new family for the next 6 months on Friday!! I am living with Carmen! She has five adult children ranging from 22-38 years, and two grandchildren! The 22 year old daughter "lives" with us but I see her about once a week. The other four stop by every now and then and we've had Marco (the most adorable 2 year old!) sleepover a few times. I also have a dog, Rumba! She's a snuggly, mature yellow Lab (I think... she's small for a lab though.) I have my own room but another girl from my program, Kelly, lives with me. Carmen makes WONDERFUL food, so, I've had to invest in a gym membership to ensure that I don't turn into Augustus Gloop!
Week of January 17th: We had several meetings to discuss signing up for classes at the University, Security, and finding activities for the next few months. THEN! on Thursday we took a trip to los Baños Árabes... basically a spa. There was a warm pool, a freezing pool, a HOT pool, a salt pool, a steam room, and a jacuzzi pool. Plus, there was Turkish tea. Yum! A wonderful to de-stress after a super busy first week. On Friday, the group went to Madrid for the weekend where we check out the Prado Art Museum, the Reina Sofia Art Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Museum, and the Royal Palace. We also checked out a Galician Restaurant for one of the girls' birthdays. We were lucky to meet Angela who is a journalist from Sevilla who was on vacation with her Husband. She gave us half of her meal, and ordered everything for us to ensure that we had plenty and enjoyed everything. Definitely a wonderful evening.
Week of January 24: We had a jam-packed week this week. Along with class every afternoon, we had a cultural excursion every morning! On Monday we went to the Sevilla Cathedral, on Tuesday the Caridad Hospital (a famous old hospital with an amazing, ornate chapel), on Wednesday the Alcazar (another palace of the king... but he never uses it... which I don't understand since it's absolutely gorgeous!), on Thursday the Museum of Beautiful Art which is filled with fantastic religious artwork, and on Friday we took a day trip an hour and a bit south to gorgeous Cadiz! This was definitely my favorite trip so far. We visited the Cathedral in the morning, then had free time to wander the streets, try 10 different kinds of fresh Spanish pastries (YUM!), and take a knee-high paddle in the OCEAN! The water was as warm as Lake Michigan is in Summer... and it's winter here! Absolutely fantastic! I can't wait for weather that's a touch warmer for beach time! Currently it's in the low 60's here during the day and low 40's at night. In about a month it's supposed to maintain a temperature around 70! Unbelievable.
Week of January 31: We finally had a bit of a break with just classes in the afternoon which was a nice relief after going going going for a week straight. Then on Friday we took another day trip to Cordoba. It's a bit over an hour north between Sevilla and Madrid. We toured the mosque turned cathedral and then journeyed though the quaint town on our own. We devoured a delectable lunch of Salmorejo, a traditional Cordoban cold soup... like Gazpacho, three different kinds of Paella (a Spanish rice dish): Black, squid Ink rice, meat and seafood mix rice, and veggie rice, followed by an apple pastry.
So, that sums it up... my first month in Spain! I'm currently planning trip to other towns around Spain and a few international trips to Portugal, Morocco (hopefully.. if the violence stops!), and perhaps a few others.
I think that about wraps it up for this post. I miss you all so much! Be sure to let me know what you're up to!
Week of the 10th January: I met up with the rest of the crew at the Hotel on Monday. On Tuesday, we took a bus tour and on Wednesday we started our orientation class through the program center! Talk about a quick start. The class continued everyday until the 3rd of February. Each day we had an hour and 10 minutes of lecture, 50 minutes of small group discussion and an hour of grammar. We skimmed the entire history of Spain, investigated centuries of Spanish art, learned the basics of Spanish culture, threw ourselves into Spanish current events and finally, we delved into the Spanish gender biases. Lots of information in only 15 classes!
Okay, so back to the week of the 10th, I met my new family for the next 6 months on Friday!! I am living with Carmen! She has five adult children ranging from 22-38 years, and two grandchildren! The 22 year old daughter "lives" with us but I see her about once a week. The other four stop by every now and then and we've had Marco (the most adorable 2 year old!) sleepover a few times. I also have a dog, Rumba! She's a snuggly, mature yellow Lab (I think... she's small for a lab though.) I have my own room but another girl from my program, Kelly, lives with me. Carmen makes WONDERFUL food, so, I've had to invest in a gym membership to ensure that I don't turn into Augustus Gloop!
Week of January 17th: We had several meetings to discuss signing up for classes at the University, Security, and finding activities for the next few months. THEN! on Thursday we took a trip to los Baños Árabes... basically a spa. There was a warm pool, a freezing pool, a HOT pool, a salt pool, a steam room, and a jacuzzi pool. Plus, there was Turkish tea. Yum! A wonderful to de-stress after a super busy first week. On Friday, the group went to Madrid for the weekend where we check out the Prado Art Museum, the Reina Sofia Art Museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Museum, and the Royal Palace. We also checked out a Galician Restaurant for one of the girls' birthdays. We were lucky to meet Angela who is a journalist from Sevilla who was on vacation with her Husband. She gave us half of her meal, and ordered everything for us to ensure that we had plenty and enjoyed everything. Definitely a wonderful evening.
Week of January 24: We had a jam-packed week this week. Along with class every afternoon, we had a cultural excursion every morning! On Monday we went to the Sevilla Cathedral, on Tuesday the Caridad Hospital (a famous old hospital with an amazing, ornate chapel), on Wednesday the Alcazar (another palace of the king... but he never uses it... which I don't understand since it's absolutely gorgeous!), on Thursday the Museum of Beautiful Art which is filled with fantastic religious artwork, and on Friday we took a day trip an hour and a bit south to gorgeous Cadiz! This was definitely my favorite trip so far. We visited the Cathedral in the morning, then had free time to wander the streets, try 10 different kinds of fresh Spanish pastries (YUM!), and take a knee-high paddle in the OCEAN! The water was as warm as Lake Michigan is in Summer... and it's winter here! Absolutely fantastic! I can't wait for weather that's a touch warmer for beach time! Currently it's in the low 60's here during the day and low 40's at night. In about a month it's supposed to maintain a temperature around 70! Unbelievable.
Week of January 31: We finally had a bit of a break with just classes in the afternoon which was a nice relief after going going going for a week straight. Then on Friday we took another day trip to Cordoba. It's a bit over an hour north between Sevilla and Madrid. We toured the mosque turned cathedral and then journeyed though the quaint town on our own. We devoured a delectable lunch of Salmorejo, a traditional Cordoban cold soup... like Gazpacho, three different kinds of Paella (a Spanish rice dish): Black, squid Ink rice, meat and seafood mix rice, and veggie rice, followed by an apple pastry.
So, that sums it up... my first month in Spain! I'm currently planning trip to other towns around Spain and a few international trips to Portugal, Morocco (hopefully.. if the violence stops!), and perhaps a few others.
I think that about wraps it up for this post. I miss you all so much! Be sure to let me know what you're up to!
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Day 2 - Will the rain ever stop?!?
The saying is false... the rain in Spain does NOT stay mainly in the plain... it stays mainly on me. Definitely did not check the forecast when we ventured out this morning... mistake. We got completely soaked! By "we" I mean Alexis and I, my fellow Michigan study abroad-er. We both thought it was a good idea to come a few days early to get a feel for the city before we jump into a schedule. Thank goodness we did, between jet-lag and the language barrier it's taken us a while to figure everything out.
Yesterday, we arrived in Sevilla after an 8 hour flight from O'Hare to Madrid then another hour flight from Madrid to Sevilla. We got our bags speedily and trotted outside to a gorgeous, warm, though rainy, city. While our cab driver didn't speak a word of English, his driving impressed the two of us to no end. He maneuvered the puny Sevillan streets with ease. And let me tell you, these streets are barely a foot and a half wider than the car. Yikes! We hung out the in the hotel for a while after learning that we have FREE WIFI access from our room! Score! We ventured out for a late lunch at one of the many quaint cafes and enjoyed plenty of shopping at the crazy busy stores! Rebajas (sales) are in full swing and everything is 50+% off... goodbye dinero! I filled my suitcases to the max (yea, that was probably not the best idea, I'm well aware) as well as my two carry-ons... so, we shall see how I can work this out. But, don't you worry... I'll find a way. No worries!
Today, we indulged in a late breakfast at a perfectly European sandwich shoppe, then hit the shops for round 2. Again, people were going crazy on the sales! CRAZY I tell you. If you've seen Confessions of a Shopaholic picture the scene at the designer close-out sale where she fights over the boots... it's exactly the same here. Plus, if you don't push yourself through to where you want to go you will likely be shoved aside. No joke! We're anxious to see what the shops are like once the sales cease... hopefully much friendlier. We also decided to take a trip to la universidad de Sevilla to check it out. It's gorgeous! Only problem was I wore my rain boots and carried my umbrella yesterday and decided that they were useless... turns out they're not. Today the rain absolutely TEAMED down. Our once perfectly straight hair begun doing somersaults. Bummer. But! We did try the oranges, and they are definitely what they call "agrio"... tart. But it would seem you could never go hungry here since the orange literally line every street. So, this evening I forced Alexis to try my favorite favorite favorite type of food: Indian! I would say she was not entirely impressed when the waiter came out with a plate of "puke". After I made her try some she decided that it wasn't that bad. Phew! We were planning on checking out the nightlife in the city, but, as you might've guessed... it's raining. Go figure.
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