Madrid

I haven't written much in a while, mostly because Sharon was visiting me and we had such a great time together. It was really fun to be able to show the city to someone because I finally know it so well and to be able to use my Spanish and for her to meet all of my friends here. I'm trying to remember all the things we did while she was here - we went to the Cathedral and the Palace, we walked around Barrio Santa Cruz, we went out with my friends for my roommate's birthday, and we hung out in the park and by the river. I feel like I got to show her a really good representation of what my life is like here and all the things I really like about Seville - the food, the bars, the history, everything. I think we were both exhausted by the end of the week, though, and I put her on a bus at 1am Thursday morning, only to get on the same bus 1 day later with my friend Hilary because the two of us decided to venture off to Madrid for the weekend.



So we left Seville at 1am for a 6-hour bus ride to Madrid. You would think that everyone would be sleeping, but actually everyone was talking on the phone. Nice. So I didn't sleep that much, but enough so that I was able to enjoy the day. We got the bus station in Madrid and we had decided to take another bus to Toledo, the Visigoth capital of Spain that remained the capital until the 1500s. Toledo is a very interesting city because even though religious tolerance was lacking in most of Spain after la reconquista, it remained in Toledo for much longer. After a delicious breakfast which consisted of toast that we ate with forks and 2 cups of coffee, we wandered around trying to find the important sites to see. Toledo's streets are worse than Seville's - there is no way to figure out where you are even with a map. But there is a beautiful cathedral as well as 2 synagogues, both of which are decorated in Muslim style and one of which was not only turned into a church at one point but was also used to station Napoleon's troops. We also saw some works of one of Spain's most famous painters - El Greco (The Greek, because the Spaniards couldn't pronounce his Greek name). Around 3pm, we decided to head towards the bus station to catch the bus back to Madrid to check in to the hostel. We didn't do much for the rest of the day because we were so exhausted. We were planning on going to the Prado (Madrid's most famous art museum) because it was free for a couple of hours, but the line was so ridiculous that by the time we got in, we wouldn't have had enough time to see everything. We showered, went out for dinner, and called it a night.



Saturday was basically an art marathon - 3 art museums in one day and a picnic in a plaza. Unfortunately it was a little cold and started to rain, but we ended up going to this awesome place for dinner that had really expensive drinks which actually came with tapas. Dinner and sangria for 6 euros, not a bad deal after all. Hilary had run into a friend from Tufts who is studying in Madrid who recommended it to us. We talked to some Spanish students for a while and then headed back to the hostel.



Sunday morning (after losing an hour of sleep, since Spain finally decided to change their clocks), Hilary took a train home but I went to explore the Royal Palace and a couple other sites around the city. Then, I met up with my friend my school and her friend from home, who are both studying in Denmark and who are traveling around Europe together during their 3-week vacation. We wandered around the park, got lunch, and actually went to a bullfight! Pretty gruesome, so we didn't stay for the whole thing. We had some dinner and then hung out in their hostel for a while, watching a movie. Everyone was really tired after traveling so much, and I had to get on a bus at 1am. I got back home at 7:30, just in time for a quick nap before class.

Pictures of Madrid

I have a ton of stuff to do this week, especially since I'm leaving on Thursday. Between applying for summer jobs (yes, still) and planning for trips to come, there's barely a minute to do anything. And, believe it or not, I actually have a little bit of homework this week. And an open note test on Wednesday. But Ethan's coming when I get back from Paris, so I'm really excited!

Funny picture of the week:


translation: the cow that laughs

Is the Weekend Longer than the Week?

What a crazy couple of days. Last week was pretty relaxed for the most part in the beginning of the week - Tuesday I read for a few hours by my favorite statue of the 3 women in different stages of love in the Park near the university and then went to dance class, Wednesday I had class all day and then we went to this thing called Euromania at a tapas chain called Cien Montaditos (100 little sandwiches), where on Wednesdays everything is a euro. Then Hilary and I sat around the Plaza Nueva and read for a while because we were supposed to have an intercambio but the girl never ended up calling us. I don't really know what happened because I got a text message with all her missed calls the next morning, but my phone never rang. Sortof disappointing because it is really fun to meet up with Spanish students to practice, but I guess there's always next week.

Wednesday night I decided to go out with Hannah, Liz, Kelly, and Kelly's friend who was visiting who is also named Kelly. People were a bit confused because we were a group of 2 Kelly's and 2 Elizabeth's and a Hannah. Oh well. We hung out for a little while outside by the river and then went to this place called Boss, which was supposed to cost 8 euros but ended up being free because Kelly's Senora knows the people who own it. We were originally going to go to a party for Erasmus (what the program for study abroad is called in Europe), but we decided that it was a little too far and that since this was going to be free, we might as well check it out. It ended up being really fun and we stayed out til about 5! Not so good because 3 of us had class the next morning at 9am. I was pretty tired, but it wasn't the worst thing in the world because class consisted of a walk around Seville. We are reading a short novel by Cervantes called Rinconete y Cortadillo, and the professor took us to a bunch of the places in Seville that are mentioned in the novel. It was really interesting and fun to take the walk that Cervantes imagined these 2 robbers taking, haha. After that, I went over to the hostel to pay for Ethan's stay because he is coming for part of Semana Santa so they don't want him to cancel as well as to pick up some information about going to a flamenco show when Sharon comes. Then I walked over to the school to volunteer and work with the kids, but I was pretty much exhausted by then. I went back to my house for lunch and then had an interview for a summer job on Skype. Luckily it wasn't a video interview so I could easily pretend that I was not tired while I sat there in my sweatshirt and jeans. Sometimes being abroad works in your favor. I went out Friday night for like a half hour and then decided I was too tired and needed to sleep.

I slept in Friday morning and then did some work on my trips with Hannah in a nearby cafe that overlooks the Alameda. It was pretty cool because we could just stare out the window at 2 Roman columns that were taken from the middle of the city. I got a lot done, and then we went back for lunch and I went to meet up with Hilary to do a little bit of shopping. We ended up going over to the river to just sit and read, and then got some ice cream. Her family had introduced her to this amazing ice cream place with basically the best flavors you can imagine. I got banana and truffle, but I had pretty hard time deciding. On the way home, I told Hannah that I felt back for anyone who was eating another kind of ice cream. I think we'll be making just a few more trips there this semester - Hilary said her plan was to try spoonfuls of a few flavors every time she goes and to have tried everything by the end of the semester. Sounds good to me. Going to read by the river is probably my favorite thing to do in the afternoon. It is just so beautiful and peaceful, and there are a lot of people around hanging out with friends, listening to music, doing work, having a drink, or just sitting and watching the sunset.


Friday night I went out again with Hannah, Kelly, Kelly, and Hilary to the Alameda, which is a plaza about 4 blocks from our house (something close!!) and it was really fun. Although again we ended up staying out til about 6am, and realized we had to get up at 9:30 Saturday morning. Not such a hardship, though, because we were taking a bus to the beach in Huelva, about an hour bus ride. It was great, we spent the whole day lying on the beach reading and listening to music and then we came back to Seville around 8pm. I decided not to go out so that I would be able to function on Sunday, and Hannah and I watched The Sweetest Thing while my Senora was at the Cirque de Soleil with her kids. I fell asleep before it was over, as usual.


Sunday Hannah and I went to the flamenco museum which is fairly new and has everything in 6 languages. It was very cool and uses a lot of technology. After lunch, I went to the river to reach again and to finish reading Rinconete y Cortadillo for Tuesday. I have an exam on Thursday, so I guess I might have to study for that a little bit. Maybe. I am also reading Twlight in Spanish. It was the perfect book to read in Spanish because I kindof want to read it in English but feel a little bad because it is written for 14-year-olds I think. But since it's tough for me to understand books written for people my age in Spanish without looking up every other word in the dictionary, I decided to go for it. It has been good so far, and I really enjoying reading in Spanish in general. It's much easier than the beginning of the semester. I have been noticing lately how much better my Spanish has gotten. I even had Spanish in my dream, which was exciting! When I was out the other night, we ended up talking to a few people we met and I was able to have a conversation with them for over an hour without any big communication barriers.

Speaking of communication barriers, funny story. So Hannah wanted to tell Loly (my Senora) something that had happened to her yesterday when she was at Starbucks, but Loly could not understand our pronunciation of Starbucks, even when we tried to put a Spanish accent on in. It was so funny, we even tried spelling it out loud and we just couldn't understand each other. Finally, we wrote it down for her and she was like 'ohhhh estarbu!' I love the Spanish pronunciation of English words. Basically if you can imagine the word McDonald's being pronounced like Madonna, you have it. We all laughed for about 10 minutes.

Cordoba, the Centro, and the Macarena

Last week I bought tickets for my trip to Berlin, Prague, Vienna, and Budapest. A plane ticket to Berlin and a plane ticket back from Budapest, and transportation to be decided for the in between. I can't wait to plan the rest and to see everything that those cities have to offer. I'm going to be traveling with 5 friends who are all also studying abroad in Seville, and I think we're basically just going to be bringing backpacks. It's going to be a great experience, 9 days of nonstop travel, I can't wait. So planning took up a lot of last week, but I also had the regular dance class, volunteering at the school, and eating lots of meals with my Senora and Hannah and practicing my Spanish.

Thursday night Hannah and I went out to a place called La Fabrica, which is a place that brews their own beer and has taps on the tables. They closed about 30 minutes after we got there, but it was still fun to be there for a little while. Then we went to meet up with the rest of the group and we all ended up dancing at this place called Buddha. Funny enough, mot of the clubs play English music, which the Spaniards try to sing along to but end up mumbling words that aren't real. They love to listen to us sing because we all know all the real words! Overall, it was a good night, and we didn't get back too late.

Friday, since we don't have class, Hannah and I went on a tour of the Macarena (pictures), which is a section of Seville (the northeast part). It is mostly residential, but there are a lot of Churches of very different styles. We got a little lost because we had never been there before, but it was really fun to see everything. It is also nice to go on a tour with just us because we can spend as long or as short an amount of time at the places as we want. I ended up running a little late to my intercambio with my friend Hilary and a 19-year-old Spanish student named Maria who our program director set us up with. We went to have a cup of coffee with her and talked for about an hour. It was great, and really cool that we could talk to her for an hour without any real problems in communication. We wanted her to speak a little bit of English with us, but she was embarrassed because she said her English isn't that good. She spent about a month in San Francisco, but it was a while ago. Eventually we'll get her to speak English with us - we're planning on meeting up with her about once a week for the rest of the semester. The funniest part of meeting up with her was that she suggested that we meet in the morning, which means 1pm in Spain. I love it here.

Saturday we went on a group trip to Cordoba, which is about 2 hours by bus from Seville. When we got there, we walked across the Roman bridge to the city and took about a 2 hour tour of the Mezquita, which is the Mosque that was turned into a Cathedral by the Christians when they conquered Spain. Basically what happened was that the King didn't want them to build over it but accidentally agreed to it when he was preoccupied with fighting a war. What remains is an absolutely gorgeous Mosque with a beautiful Cathedral right into the center. It is pretty cool. After that tour, we went to the only Synagogue in the city, which is tiny, and on a little walk through the Juderia. Then we had some time to ourselves for lunch and a walk around the city. I actually met up with my friend from home, Jen, who is studying in Cordoba for the semester. I had decided to stay with her in Cordoba overnight, so she met up with me as my group was leaving. We had a lot of fun - we played soccer with her friends, went out to a great dinner, and hung out with some of her friends in their apartment. On Sunday, we went to a tiny little Zoo and the Gardens across the street, and then she walked me to the bus station to get back to Seville. I was really happy we got to see each other, and did I mention she lives in a palace?! Her house has 4 floors and there are Roman ruins in the basement. Crazy stuff. There is also a pool on the roof and a fantastic view of the Palace Gardens. Pictures of Cordoba. We also got to go to the Puerta de Sevilla, which I of course had to take a picture of.


Today, after class, Hannah and I went on a little tour of the Centro - basically the Center of the city. We got to see a lot of little things - churches, the city walls, a Cervantes statue and some plaques that point out areas of the city that are mentioned in his books. Pictures of the Centro.

That's it for now I guess. This week and next week Hannah and I are trying to get as much in as possible because we realized that once it is April, we are basically traveling for most of the month and then it is May. It's going by pretty fast.

24 Hours in Ronda

More Pictures of Ronda
Friday at noon I got on a bus to Ronda, which is one of the pueblos blancos (white villages) in Andalucia. We got to Ronda around 3, after almost getting off at the wrong stop (oops!) and checked into our hotel, which was a quad with a kindof sketchy looking carpet. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the city looking at the various puertas, the Arab baths, the city's main church, and a very strange museum that was located in a mansion built on the side of a mountain. The main attraction in Ronda is a fantastic bridge built by the Romans that is still used today and connects the old and new parts of the city. Between them is a huge gorge, providing some beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. We spent a while wandering around and taking pictures before we headed back to our hotel to shower and rest before dinner.





After dinner, we tried to find something to do, but were surprised to find out that the nightlife in Ronda is kindof a bust. We ended up finding this place that has individual taps of Cruzcampo (the local beer) on every table and a TV screen that shows the total amount of beer for each table. Pretty genius selling technique, if you ask me. We hung out there until it closed at 12:30 and then went back to the hotel to sleep.

Saturday morning we woke up and got everything organized to go see the Cueva de la Pileta (Cave of the Pileta), which is about 20 kilometers away from Ronda and inaccessible by public transportation. We took a cab there, which took a little longer than we expected because we had to go a different way due to some construction. Luckily, as the cab driver had told us to run up the stone stairs carved into the side of the mountain, we were the last 4 people to be able to take the tour that morning, but not for another hour since the one at noon had filled up. The cab driver charged us a little extra but waited the hour which was nice. The cave was really cool - stalactites, stalagmites, a lack, and prehistoric cave paintings. No pictures allowed on the inside, and they only let a certain number of people in per day and a certain number of people in at a time so that the paintings are not damaged. The only slightly disappointing thing was that most of the painting collections are in places they did not take us on the tour because they are 80 meters under the cave. I guess that's understandable.



After the cave tour, we went back to Ronda, got pizza for lunch, and bought our bus tickets back to Seville. We spend our last half hour in this place called Chocolat, getting the best hot chocolate I have ever had in my life - it was basically syrup. I couldn't even finish it, and that's saying a lot. Hilary and I were in heaven.



On the way back, the bus only ended up taking less than 2 hours because apparently there are local buses and direct buses. Who knew? Good thing the schedule really makes those things clear to us. So we got back to Seville around 7, and I got back to my house a little before 8, just in time to eat dinner with my Senora.