Weekend

Busy weekend! Friday after lunch, Alyssa, Alice, Alex and I (all of the girls who have boyfriends on the trip) wandered around the city. We had planned to go to the hippie market and the museum of archeology, but didn't actually make it to either. We got caught in the rain and ducked into a coffee shop where we had Cola Cao, a type of hot chocolate that everyone drinks in Spain. It's served as a packet with hot milk and sugar, and you have to mix it together. We sat and talked in the coffee shop for awhile, and by the time we got to the archeology museum we decided it was too late to see it since Alyssa had to be home for dinner at 8:30.

That night Alyssa, Alex, Delaney, Steph and I went to a tetería, or tea house. I found it on this great site called exploresevilla.com, which has lists of things to do in Sevilla (I'm starting to think I'm never going to get it all done!) The tetería was awesome--and a great alternative to going out for the night, since we had to be up early for a class trip in the morning. It reminded me of Jerusalem Gardens mixed with World Coffee, two of my favorite places to go in Asheville. It had rooms with low couches and cushions decorated to look like it was out of Morocco. I had banana-flavored tea, and it was delicious. There was supposed to be a belly dancer, but we learned when we got there that she went on vacation the day before and wouldn't be back for a month! So sad!

The tetería

We made some new Spanish friends. They were hilarious and it was great to be able to practice our Spanish!

Each tea had its own silver teapot.

Saturday our program took a trip to see the Roman ruins in Italica. We saw the old amphitheater, which reminded me of the Colosseum, stood on a Roman road and saw the remains of old houses and the baths.

The amphitheater

Remains of a huge Roman house. You can still see the mosaics that made up the floor

We were here!

After lunch on Saturday, Cherise, Alex, Alice, Alyssa and I decided to walk around Parque María Luisa. It was a beautiful day! Then we caught the sunset over the river.

Chilling at the Plaza de España

Parque María Luisa

After dinner at 10:00, we were going to hit up a discoteca with Delaney and Steph. However, the one that they were going to was across the river in their neighborhood, Triana, and I found out it'd take me 38 minutes to walk there! And I was tired... so we ended up getting beer and cake at the Oh La La! next to our apartment.

Cherise is tired of me taking pictures

This morning (Sunday) I got up early to go with Delaney and Steph to a local art market. The market is held every Sunday in front of the Museo de Bellas Artes. It was awesome to walk around and admire all of the different types of paintings-- basically like a free art exhibit! I will have to go back and take pictures.

Then we went to a church across the river. It was interesting because it was a protestant church, and it was much more contemporary. It was great, but very long!

After church I met Alyssa and Audra for tapas downtown, then went home for lunch. After lunch I ended up sleeping for most of the afternoon! I guess I was worn out from the weekend!

Wednesday

Sorry for the lack of posts the last couple of days. Honestly not much is new here. My plan to do something new or cultural every day has failed this week due to unpleasant coldness and threat of rain, along with trying to figure out housing for next semester!

My roommates and I got an email over the weekend saying that we needed to decide by February 4 whether or not we wanted to stay in Ram Village next semester. I messaged them on Facebook, and since then we've been looking up off-campus apartments and houses, trying to figure out the best thing to do. We've found some pretty sweet deals-- many for $200 less a month than we'd pay in Ram Village-- and I think they are going to go look at some of them on Friday and Saturday. It's been a lot of research, though!

I've also had more tarea this week-- ensayo (essay) due on Tuesday and a prueba (quiz) today, with another ensayo due Friday.

I'm finding out that I have a lot more free time in Sevilla than I realized I would. It's basically like being in school, but I'm done with class by 12:30 or 1:45 every day and it's not nearly as much homework as UNC. Also I have someone else who cooks all my food, does all my laundry, cleans my bathroom and cleans my room for me. Sweet life, except when I get bored, and then mad at myself for being bored because I am in Sevilla and I should be making the most of every second!

Today was more exciting though. I went with some friends to Cien Montaditos, the restaurant downtown that offers everything on them menu for only 1 euro on Wednesdays. I think it's quickly becoming a Wednesday tradition. We went early this time, and it was misting, so we were able to find a table inside. We sat and talked for a long time, drinking some lovely tinto veranos which were basically wine mixed with sprite. Then we went to a bar and caught the last half of the Sevilla-Madrid game. Sevilla lost, unfortunately, but it was still an exciting game. Since our apartment is just across from the stadium, Cherise and I could hear the yelling that began 2 hours before the game started, and as we walked downtown to meet our friends we passed huge crowds of people dressed in red heading for the stadium. I was happy to watch it from the bar, since it was raining.

That's really all that's new for now-- I promise more exciting posts in the future!

Audra, Steph and Alex in Cien Montaditos

Delaney and Alyssa at Cien Montaditos

The bar where we watched the soccer game

Córdoba-- Pretty but SO COLD

Went to Córdoba yesterday with my group as a field trip. We had to wake up at 7 a.m. and the bus ride was a long two-and-a-half hours, but I sat with Alyssa and we planned our trip to Paris!

So far there are definitely three of us going to Paris-- me, Alyssa and Alice. We lucked out because the week after Elly leaves is Semana Santa, meaning we have no class and will be able to stay a few extra days to tour the country!

Plans so far: we are flying from Sevilla to Paris on Friday, April 8 after class is out. We'll stay in a hostel in Paris (to be determined, but luckily a girl who stayed in my apartment before me left a really good book called "hostels in european cities" that tells us all about which hostels are good and which ones are not.) In Paris we will meet up with Elly and Caroline and see all the sights until Elly leaves on Monday. Then we will either take a train to Marseille and spend a day there, then go back to Paris and fly back to Sevilla (Alice really wants to see Marseille, but it's super expensive to fly from Marseille to Sevilla) OR we will go to Brussels, spend a day there and fly from Brussels to Sevilla (the cheapest option.)

I am also planning trips to Portugal (Lagos or Lisbon?) and to see Taylor Swift in Madrid-- more information to come!


Anyway, we got to Córdoba and it was SO COLD. (Actually it was only about 40 degrees, but that is cold to us.) Córdoba was a pretty little town. The main part of the trip was the tour of the mosque-cathedral, which was given by our professor, Fernando.

The mosque-cathedral was interesting. It started out as a pagan temple, then was converted into a mosque. After the Spanish reconquest, it became a Roman Catholic church and a cathedral was inserted into the building. Walking through it is bizarre. When you first come in, you are greeted by a big, open room filled with rows and rows of columns and archways in a red and white striped pattern. It looks exactly like a Muslim praying hall.


Then, suddenly, in the middle of this mosque you come to an elegant and elaborate cathedral.

Striped arches of the mosque and the elaborately decorated cathedral together

Me and Alex in front of some of the arches

After the tour of the mosque-cathedral we walked through the old Jewish quarters of town, which were a lot like Santa Cruz, the Jewish quarters of Sevilla-- very narrow streets with flowers overflowing from balconies. We went into the synagogue, which was a very small building compared to the huge cathedral-mosque.

After the tour ended I went with some friends to Oh-la-la!, a pizzeria WITH HEAT. We had churros and coffee and hot dogs.

Overall a good trip, though I wish it hadn't been as cold and we could have explored the city some more!


Last night we tried to go out, but it was a total bust because we were a huge group of Americans and none of the discotecas would let us in! We ended up eating late-night Mexican food!

Then this morning I went to mass in the Cathedral in Sevilla. Yes, that's right, THE cathedral. It was pretty awesome. Even though it was in Spanish, I could at least tell which stories they were reading from the Bible and which part of the litergy they were doing.

THIS is where we had mass

Other than this morning, not much has been going on today. Cee Cee called me last night and left a message telling me to call her back, and I found out through facebook that SHE IS ENGAGED. I have been trying to call her all day but she hasn't been answering.

That's about it for now. More later---

El Río, el Parque y la Catedral

Hola! I have a lot to catch up on this round! Yesterday, on our quest to do something cultural for the day, Audra, Cherise and I decided to go to la Torre de Oro, a old watchtower along the river in Sevilla that is supposed to have a very pretty view of the city. But when we got there we found out it was closed, so we ended up just walking along the river. We sat by the edge and watched the kayakers paddle along the water as the sun set. So pretty!

Cherise and Audra

As the sun set and the lights came on

Today we had our class visit to the Cathedral of Sevilla. Our señora packed us bocadillos, so after class Cherise and I went to El Parque María Luisa after class to eat them. The park was beautiful-- a little oasis in the middle of the city. It is right next to La Plaza España, and borders the river.

The first thing we came to was this enchanting little stone bridge over a pond

Me and Cherise on the bridge

This is where we ate lunch

After lunch we met our class at the plaza in front of the cathedral. Our teacher, Fernando, took us on a tour of the massive cathedral-- apparently the biggest in all of Europe! It was beautiful, although it felt more like a museum than a church. In the huge main part of the dome it even had exhibits about the New World up, and only a very small part had pews and a traditional church setting. I thought that was interesting-- it was a different feel than most cathedrals I've been to in Europe, which feel more sacred and holy.

The outside

The inside

Our professor, Fernando, giving a tour (in Spanish)

This is what Fernando called a "comic." It was designed for people who couldn't read, because when it was created only five percent of the world was literate. It depicts the life of Jesus carved out of gold.

Here lies Christopher Columbus! Apparently four different countries thought they had the remains of Christopher Columbus, but they did a DNA test on the decayed body and compared it to his descendents, and found that the actual remains are indeed in Sevilla.

The highlight of the tour was the climb up the Gibraltar bell tower-- a huge tower with a 350 view of the city. Incredible!

The view showing part of the roof of the cathedral, the Castle of Alcazár, and the Parque de María Luisa and towers of the Plaza de España in the distance

After the cathedral tour I went out for coffee, hot chocolate and pastries with some friends at a cute little place outside of the cathedral. We stayed there for an hour talking (not in Spanish, unfortunately, I really wish people would start speaking in Spanish so I would begin to learn it...) I had chocolate caliente, but it was incredibly rich and thick, pretty much just like a melted chocolate bar. I could only drink half of it!

Tomorrow we go to Córdoba with a class trip! So excited! Hasta luego!

My first partido de futbol

Went to my first soccer game yesterday night! Sevilla, ranked #10, was playing Villareal, ranked #3 in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey. We played them last week and tied, and we were expected to lose this game. But we won 3-0, so now we're going on to the semi-finals!


The soccer stadium is literally across the street from my apartment, which is incredible and super convenient. I met up with 17 other people from the group and we bought tickets together, then climbed our way up up and up to the very top of the stadium. Everyone was staring at us, they could clearly tell we were American.

The game itself was awesome! Sevilla had two back-to-back goals at the beginning of the second half. So much energy! Instead of doing chants the Spaniards would actually sing songs, so the stadium came alive with deep voices belting "Ohhhh, Sevilla!" I took two videos, watch them here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky203xHi-uw

This was hilarious-- as soon as the clock said it was halftime, on cue every person in the stadium bent down, picked up their bocadillos wrapped in aluminum foil, and started eating them. Apparently it's what Spaniards do, especially when the game is at 10:00-- dinner time! I felt dumb for not knowing and eating the bocadillo my señora had packed me just before the game!

Hospital de la Caridad

So I've decided to try and do one cultural thing a day (and now that I dropped my literature class and have my afternoons open, I am able to do that! Yay! I am taking another advanced Spanish language class in its place, which is in the morning.) Today my cultural activity was Hospital de la Caridad which I went to with Cherise and Audra.

Hospital de la Caridad (The Charity Hospital) was founded in 1674 to care for the sick by Miguel de Mañara. Now it is still a facility for the elderly and infirm. From the outside it seems like a plain building in downtown Sevilla, but it has a spectacular and ornate chapel that was really interesting to tour (which we did by little radios that we held up to our ears-- no formal tour.)

The chapel focuses around the theme of hospitality. It has exquisite paintings from some of the most famous artists of Sevilla, including Juan de Valdés Leal and Murillo. It also has incredible sculptures which come out from the walls and the front of the church.

I was fascinated by the two angels holding up aumbry candles at the front side of the church. They popped out from the wall and I didn't understand how they were attached, or how their tiny little hands could hold up the hanging candles.

The ceiling was beautiful

Along the top of the walls on the side of the church were four paintings by Murillo, who was a friend of Mañera's (Mañera was the godfather of Murillo's children.) The first one depicts three angels appearing to Abraham, who welcomes them into his home, demonstrating to the Brothers of the Caridad to welcome the stranger. The next shows the prodigal son returning home dressed in rags, a reminder to clothe the naked. The next is Jesus healing the lame man, saying we should help the sick and the next is an angel freeing Peter from prison, saying that we should visit the imprisoned. "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."

The two paintings you see as you enter the chapel are very morbid. One shows a skeleton standing on a pile of gold and jewels, etc., to show that possessions are meaningless when you die. The other shows two skeleton/corpses, one is a pope and one is a king, to show that no one can conquer death and that in death we are all equal.

Me standing next to the front of the church, which is carved from gold and shows elaborate figures depicting carrying Jesus to the tomb, I think. It specifically shows Jesus as helpless.

It was a good little trip, I really enjoyed it (as you can probably tell.) As Cherise said, it gave us our dose of spirituality for the week. I'm thinking about possibly using some of the paintings as a topic for the 10-page paper (in Spanish, which makes it 10x harder,) that we have to write for Fernando's Art and Culture class.

Side note for food of today: Lunch today we had hot dogs (minus the bun,) rice (arroz,) eggs and salad. She didn't tell us the spanish name for any of it... but I will have to ask later. We ate with the maid who cleans the house every Monday, Carmen. For dinner we had a salad-rice mix and pork, which was pretty good. Also for breakfast usually Inés is rushing out of the house and Ana has already gone, so she always leaves us cereal, which I love although it isn't a lot to tie you over until 3:00 in the afternoon!

More tomorrow! Hasta luego!