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.