Sevilla Week Four

This week was a little rough. We had two tests this week in our classes and besides that I was just not feeling it. It rained all week, which normally would be no big deal but this city is really supposed to be in the sun and the rain just makes it depressing. Portland is gorgeous and magical when it rains and I never mind it but here it sucked the life out of everything. I’ve been feeling even more isolated than normal and it’s been very lonely here. Because of the rain I didn’t go wandering or read by the river like I normally do and being cooped up in my room got me thinking and that’s a bad thing. I frankly miss home. Friends, classes, Portland, family, communication with other people, more than 13 people to talk to, food, and mostly Janel and Joseph. I love this incredible experience but it’s not perfect. I wouldn’t trade my experiences here for anything and I am so lucky to be here. However, there’s a lot here that I really don’t like and I do wish I were home sometimes. I hate that I wish that but there it is. I guess this is just the second step they tell you about traveling and living in a new country. My euphoria for this place has worn off a bit and now I’m just frustrated. I was bound to hit this point and it is getting better.

 

Wednesday night was pretty great, however. We had our first test in Inmigración and afterwards our professor, José Sanchez, took us out to a restaurant for tapas. We all had a really fun time and José and I talked a bunch about the British Royal Navy because it turns out he’s quite the enthusiast and is stoked to chat with me about it. He’s going to bring me a book about the Battle of Trafalgar and wants me to send him the document I wrote my Historical Materials paper on. After we all ate, José bought all of us a couple of rounds of shots of this Bailey’s type Spanish drink that was super tasty (José and I toasted to Lord Nelson!). Seriously hilarious that in Spain your professor takes you out to dinner and buys you shots after a test. Love it.

I was out on the town with some friends on Saturday night when Richael texted me to Skype so I ducked out and went home to talk. My host mom was in the living room so I went into the kitchen to talk because I get internet in there. I got to chat with Richaelly for a good 40 minutes in between her shows. I hadn’t spoken to anyone from home in a few weeks and it was so nice to see her. I miss my sister and I’m so proud she passed her oral exams! After that Janel and Joseph skyped in and we talked for an hour and a half. I needed to see them and it honestly sucked being on the wrong side of the computer screen. But it was exactly what I needed. I am so excited to live with them this summer. Well all of my skyping brought me to about 5am so my night’s sleep was more like a nap.

I got up on Sunday at 7:30 and took a two and a half hour bus ride to Ronda. Totally worth it.

 

Ronda is this little pueblo that stretches across a giant cliff. It’s spectacular.

We also got to go to the oldest bull fighting ring in the world.

It also had a cool museum about bull fighting and a pretty impressive collection of old fire arms. But that’s just a side note. After this we went to the main bridge that stretches across the rift in the mountain that this town is on.

We hiked down this tiny and really long path along the cliff side down under the bridge and to the waterfall. Here’s me and my friend Marissa:

And then us again at the waterfall:

 

And the bridge from below:

 

While exploring we found this cool old battlement and I snuck up through a little staircase and we got an incredible view of the city.

We had a really great time and I think Ronda is one of the coolest cities I’ve ever been to. 

Sorry this post was a few days late. I have a few great posts coming up. I'm currently in Almería on a four-day viaje.

Sevilla Week Three

This week was full of highs and lows. I got this really bad cold on Monday and I’ve been fighting it ever since. Every minute I didn’t have class I slept. It was pretty crappy because I didn’t want to risk getting any of my friends sick so I pretty much stayed to myself. I’ve been very homesick this week and frustrated with the distance and lack of communication due to internet and time differences. Richael and I got Whatsapp working so getting to text her was exactly what I needed. By Thursday I was feeling way better and this weekend has been excellent.

Thursday night the Center (my school) threw a party for its students and their intercambios so we could meet each other. The Center places us with intercambios, or natives who wants to learn English and so we can practice our Spanish. It’s a great way to not only improve your Spanish but also to meet Spaniards. I’ve been trying to get in touch with the woman I was paired with but she hasn’t responded and I’m working on getting another one. However, I met a ton of my friend’s intercambios at this party. There were plenty of tapas, wine and beer to get us talking to people and we ended up meeting a bunch of new people. A few Spaniards took us out to some super fun local bars afterwards and we had a great night.

Friday was nice and relaxing. A bunch of us sat on the river and did homework and chatted all afternoon in the sun. After dinner I went with my friend Mia to meet up with her intercambio and her friends. This woman is 27 and she and her seven friends were what we would consider typical Spaniards. They’re sophisticated, stylish, elegant, intelligent, gorgeous people and Mia and I, almost a decade younger than some of them, were a bit intimidated at first. They welcomed us and made us feel so comfortable, however, that before long we were all laughing and getting along really well. I was proud of myself for holding actual conversations in Spanish and they taught me all sorts of local phrases. Mia told them I sang and so they made me sing for them, which was hilarious. A few of them sang along and then started singing some Sevillana (flamenco type music intended for the dance, Sevillana). I think it was one of my favorite nights here so far. Despite the fact that we are super young and American, they genuinely enjoyed our company and want to go out again soon. See, Dad, I’m meeting some non-gringos!

Saturday I dragged myself out of bed at 7am and rode a bus for three hours. Why? Gibraltar. That’s why! The Center offered a viaje to Gibraltar for a great price and about half of our group went. This place is so cool.

  

I knew I would love it and all of my friends were cracking up when I started geeking out about all the naval history. Yeah I was happy: 

We got some free time that we spent eating fish and chips and wandering around the little city, which is completely overrun with everything tourist. All the British flag kiosks were disappointing but as soon as we started our tour of the rock, my mind changed entirely. We drove up about half way to look out at the straights. It was a bit hazy so we couldn’t actually see Morocco but the view was awesome. We drove up higher up and found the monkeys. One of them got in our bus and ran around on all our heads! 

Then we went to a huge natural cave within the rock. It’s pretty impressive what water and millions of years can do. It honestly looked like a gothic cathedral. I couldn’t get a picture that even kind of captured the beauty of this place but here’s the jist:

 

  From there we walked down a little ways to play with more monkeys and see the view.

In short, Gibraltar was super cool. I could just imagine the port two hundred years ago filled with ships of the line… Guys, I might have been born in the wrong time. With all the history, just being there was great but then add the monkeys and the cave and we had a grand old time. 

I took Saturday night off to read. I'm twenty pages away from finishing my third O'Brian novel since I left Portland... That makes eight in four months. It turns out that I've replaced hanging out with Joseph and Janel with a sea captain and an Irish naval surgeon. 

Well there you have it. Now time for homework and another week of classes. Another post next week!

Week Two

Week two draws to a close. We had a little bit of fun here in Spain this week.

To start off, I need to talk about last Friday’s trip to Itálica. Only about a twenty-minute drive from Sevilla are the ruins of the first Roman city in Spain founded by Traigan in 206 B.C.E (or antes de Cristo en Español). The ruins are really well preserved because the city was abandoned and not used again after Rome fell. We finished up our unit on Hispano-Romano art this week in art history so it was perfect timing. This was an amazing trip to say the least. It’s so amazing that this is twenty minutes from where I live!

 

This week went smoothly and was pretty normal. Just the usual homework, coffee (café con leche is my jam), good friends, tapas, classes, river time, reading, reading, reading. Everyday here is an adventure. Classes are going well, my Spanish is improving, I’m getting along with Josefa, my roommate and I are bonding, and I love my group more and more everyday. We’ve gotten into the habit of finding a new tapas place each night to share little portions of cool Spanish food. Fried goat cheese with honey is incredible.

Saturday we were a little crazy but pulled the “we’re in Spain we can sleep when we go home” card and went to Córdoba during the day and then Carnaval in Cádiz all night. So we woke up at 7am and drove two hours to Córdoba. This was probably one of my favorite cultural trips yet. The Mezquita was absolutely amazing. This giant mosque was built when Muslims occupied Córdoba and they expanded it four times. When the Christians recaptured the city, they converted the mosque into a cathedral. Most of building is the beautiful Muslim architecture with double arches of stripped red and white brick and long marble columns. In one little section, however, there is an ornate very Christian cathedral. It’s the strangest melding of cultures I’ve ever seen. The beauty and history of the place overwhelmed me.

 

We had some free time in the city to roam and enjoy the cute little city and then we drove the two hours back to Sevilla. It was almost too close for comfort because we got back to Sevilla five minutes before the bus to Cádiz left. Our whole group sat together on this bus with the rest of the students from the Center and we did each other’s make up and threw glitter everywhere. Two hours later we arrived in Cádiz for one of the biggest parties in Spain all year. Carnaval is basically a celebration when everyone dresses in crazy costumes and parades in the streets. Cádiz holds the biggest party. This thing was like Halloween, mixed with winning the superbowl, mixed with New Year’s Eve. It was crazy. I have never seen so many people in one place before. There were all kinds of hilarious and strange costumes. Everyone was happy and laughing and dancing. I’ve never seen anything quite like it before.  Anyway, we got home about 4am and that makes for eight hours of driving in a day. So worth it. Last night was one of the greatest nights of my life.

 I don’t have internet in my house anymore and won’t anytime soon. It’s kind of good for me. I can receive email but can’t really send any. I have been going to cafes with WiFi to use the internet occasionally but it may take me a few days to get back to people. Continue to send me things though! I’m just a bit slow on the uptake. Anyone who wants to Skype (yes please!) let me know and I can figure something out. That’s all for now! I’ll post again next week.

Sevilla Week One

Hey guys! I've been in Sevilla for almost a week now and it sure has been a whirlwind.

I moved into my host mom's apartment in a really cute neighborhood/bario called Triana across the river from my school and it's full of super cute restaurants and cafeterías (coffee shops). It's a fifteen minute walk to the Center for Cross-Cultural Studies or el Centro notreamericano and you won't believe the view.

 

I live with a lady named Josefa who's about 70 years old and a bit intense. She speaks super fast and has the thickest Sevillan accent I've ever heard. A Sevillan accent consists of slurring everything together, leaving off whole syllables, using "th" instead of "s," and not using normal grammar. She rattles on for a full 20 minutes and I catch about 5% of what she says. However, even after just a few days, I can understand way more. This is the best practice I could possibly get. Once I can understand her, I'll be able to understand anyone. She means well but she's super intimidating and this will be quite a challenge. 

The food is pretty bad but I'm working with the center to see if we can improve it. She basically cooks bad grandma casserole-style food (Nana I do not implicate you in this statement whatsoever my dear) with lots of canned stuffs and only uses the microwave. She uses her oven to store Tupperware. Now that my roommate is here I may have an ally though I will have to do the talking. Again, a challenge.

My roommate, Merisa, is from a suburb outside NYC and goes to school at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania. She moved in yesterday and she seems nice. She's a little overwhelmed by jet lag, culture shock, and homsickness and all the stuff I've been working with this last week so she's pretty quiet right now. She's not a sorority bimbo so I'm happy. At this point that's all I care about. Our little room:

 

We've had three days of classes so far. I have Spanish grammar class Monday through Thursday at 9am followed by a class about contemporary issues in Spain which right now is a sort of survey history course. Carmen, our Spanish professor, is just the sweetest. She was with us in Madrid so we know her pretty well. Her class is going to help us stay grammatically correct while we learn how to speak. Our history professor, José Grillo, is great and holds a discussion-oriented class and doesn't rely on teaching only names and dates. I would love a hardcore Spanish history class but with this group, I think it's better to keep it more theme-based rather than detail oriented. Monday and Wednesday I have art history. The professor, Conso, is a bit of a hardass and she's going to whip us into shape pretty quick. We're going on trips to museums and out around the city to look at the art that she lectures about in class. There's also a lot of reading in Spanish about terms that we have to learn on our own. I'm looking forward to this class the most though it will be a lot of work. Monday and Wednesday nights we have a class on immigration with a guy named José Sánchez. We will see how that goes... We also are taking a Sevillana class two days a week. Richael you'll like this. Sevillana is a type of dance similar to flamenco. It's actually fun because our teacher is hilarious. We look absolutely ridiculous but I'm enjoying it, surprisingly. Janel you win, I am learning to dance. Yep please continue laughing at that image.

My favorite activity at the moment is sitting in the sun by the river at this one cafetería reading copious amounts of Patrick O'Brian and sipping a cafe con leche. This city is overwhelmingly beautiful.

 

I'm having a wonderful time with my group and we're becoming great friends. Here we are in Toledo. 

I'm super homesick and missing everyone more than I thought I would and that's saying something. But I am enjoying myself a lot and working really hard to improve my Spanish. More updates to come!