Sevilla Week Six

Or The Week I Discover That the Rain in Spain Does Not Stay Mainly in the Plain. It just goes wherever it wants to. Just to spite everyone and everything.

So yeah. It’s been wetter than Portland here. Thus the whole city basically shut down because it’s built for sun and there’s very little to do without it. It was kind of a good week for it though. We had two tests and they were not easy. It was a slow and sort of boring week but still enjoyable. I can’t even break down the days because they were just full of classes and laying out my clothes on chairs close to a heater and climbing into bed shivering.

In Portland we don’t believe in paraguas (umbrellas). Rain is a fact of life and so we just tough it out like the badasses we are. You just don’t use an umbrella in Portland. But the rain there is continual and drizzly and goes on for days and days. Here it just dumps in torrential sheets. Also I think it might have it out for me because everytime I step outdoors it likes to say hi. With this kind of rain, rain jackets just don’t cut it. My walk to school is about 15 minutes and by the time I would get home I was utterly soaked. Like wringing out my pants and jacket and taking a towel to my hair soaked. After days of modeling through (I don’t know why I just felt like a Tyra quote wouldn’t go amiss there) I finally broke down and bought a super cheap umbrella. Who knew umbrellas were so cool? I certainly didn’t. We Sevilla L&C kids are starting a rebellion when we get home and are using umbrellas. They are great.

Anyway… On Wednesday we had an art history exam. This is definitely the most difficult of our classes and there is a scary amount of material. It’s a full on art history class with gobs and gobs of vocab and ALL IN SPANISH. I now know how to describe the ramparts on the top of a dodecagonal tower that is separate from the defensive wall from the twelfth century in the Almohade Muslim style. It’s pretty awesome actually. I thoroughly love this class and I intend to take another art history class at L&C if I have the chance. The funny thing is that I don’t know the English equivalents to all these technical terms. I couldn’t tell you the first thing about the Cathedral of Sevilla in English but I could write three pages about it in Spanish (and I did). The test consisted of ten photos of buildings or parts of buildings and we had to write everything about it from the style, date, name, regime, types of arcs, building materials, decorations, reasons for designs, historical significance, ect. Then we wrote an essay about the characteristics of Gothic painting. Nerdy Haley came out in that hour and a half because I actually enjoyed writing those identifications.

Thursday we had an exam in Contemporary Issues in Spain about Franco, the Spanish Civil War, and the 60’s and 70’s economic turn around. Did you know that Franco could have won the Civil war after only one year of fighting but instead of taking Madrid and ending the war when he had the chance, he took Toledo instead in order to prolong the fighting? He added two years to the horrible war just to secure his place in power. Franco was one bloody-minded political genius. For someone who abhors modern history, I am enjoying this class. I think it’s because our professor, José Grillo, is an awesome and hilarious teacher and I want to be him one day. I think I did well in both tests and I celebrated by staying in on Thursday night to watch my drenched pants drip onto the flood echoing the rain outside.

Friday night a bunch of us met up with the same Spanish women that we went to the fancy club with the week before at a cute little bar in los remedios for 40 cent beers. There were a good twenty of us there with us the intercambios, Cade’s brother Jake, and Gabbi’s boyfriend Matty. It was super fun and we had a wonderful time chatting. We then split up and us L&C kids went to our friend David’s apartment for one of his housemate’s birthday. The place was so full of German kids (the birthday boy is from Germany) that we ended up calling the living room Alemania (Germany). I love going to David’s place because there are always new people I haven’t met from all sorts of different countries. That night I spent a good three hours talking with a few French girls on the porch about languages, living abroad, Spanish culture, ect. The two I spoke to the most speak fluent French, excellent Spanish, and pretty good English. In order to practice our weak points, I spoke only in Spanish and they responded only in English. It would have been fun to watch. This week definitely marked my “click” moment, as Lorena calls it, when I officially feel like I can hold a conversation in Spanish with very few mistakes or pauses. I now know that I can become fluent in this language. It won’t happen anytime soon but I’m on my way. Anyway my conversation partners were super fun and we’re going to hang out again soon. One of the girls lives about a block away from me in Triana and so we walked together on our way home in the rain. I had my super cheap umbrella and it was so windy it kept blowing inside out. We had so much fun laughing our butts off clutching the umbrella dodging puddles. The streets were running with water and we kept pointing out “ríos” or “lagos” (rivers or lakes) as we picked our way through the streets in the torrential downpour (at this point we were rattling away in Spanish). All in all Friday was one of my favorite nights in Sevilla so far. I don’t think I spoke a word of English from 11pm to 4:30am.

Saturday I took it easy, read, updated tons of photos, and went to bed at midnight because I was to wake up at 7 on Sunday to drive to Salamanca.

To be continued…

Sevilla Week Five: Granada y Almería

This week we went on a four-day study trip. Monday we drove the four hours or so to Granada where we checked into our hotel. We then went to lunch by the river. In Granada and places near by tapas places have different rules than in Sevilla. Instead of ordering tapas, you order a drink and get a free tapa of their choice with it. It’s a great way to try new foods.

After lunch we visited the Alhambra y Generalife. The forces of Ysabella y Ferdinand captured the city of Granada in 1492 and ended the long Reconquista of the Iberian Penninsula. It was the last Moorish stronghold in Spain and it still feels more Muslim in style and architecture than any other city we’ve seen yet. The Generalife is located slightly north of the city up on the hills. It’s the Moorish king’s summer palace and has an incredible view of the city. 

From there we went to the Alhambra that was the Muslim fortress and it’s very close to the Generalife. Nazarí style is all about horror vacui or a dislike of open space so they fill everything up with incredible detail.

 We had time and money to get dinner for ourselves Monday night so we decided to go on a tapas crawl. Verónica, one of our group leaders for this particular viaje, is about thirty and super cool. She came with us and found some great young and interesting places to go to and we had a really fun time. Granada is awesome. I’m going to try to find a weekend to go back and visit a bit more. 

Tuesday we visited the Capilla Real, which is a cathedral-type thing that holds the tombs of Ferdinand y Ysabella. They were the people that united two parts of Spain under one rule by their marriage and are considered the most important and best of the catholic Spanish rulers. They were pretty damn cool in my book. I have now seen the tombs of almost all the Spanish rulers from the time of the Reconquista to present. Crazy times. I love this country. We then had free time and my friend Cade and I decided we wanted avocados. Nothing tastes better than an avocado eaten plain with a spoon after months without any. From there we hopped on the bus again and drove to Guadix for lunch and then on to Almería. We checked into the hotel and had a few free hours. My roommate, Gabbi, and I are big fans of the TV show Suits and we hadn’t seen the last few episodes so we had a bit of a geek out session over the new ones. I’ve missed living with Gabbi and we were both glad that we had the same roommates this trip as well. We all ate dinner in the hotel together and then turned in for an early night.

Wednesday we went to the cathedral and walked around the city a bit. We then visited Los Refugios, which is the enormous bomb shelter underneath the city used during the Spanish Civil War. It’s a long, two-level maze thing made out of concrete that goes on for miles. It held over 30,000 people for bomb scares during the many years of the war. Pretty scary stuff. Afterwards we found a restaurant/tapas place that had Moroccan food and pigged out on hummus and beat pureed something or other. Then we all met up at the beach and listened to hip/hop oldies and sang along. I really love our group. After a short lecture about the large greenhouse area close by and its influence on Spanish agriculture and immigration, we had dinner in the hotel where I bonded with Helena even more. Our trip leader, Juanka, and his wife, Lorena, have this adorable daughter who I’ve talked about before. She’s four and honestly the cutest thing ever. She thinks I’m really funny and loves to play with me. It’s easy to make her laugh by just pretending to try to eat her fingers and tickle her. She sat on my lap all throughout dinner and we got into a giggle fest. I adore this little one. Now every time I’m not with the group she asks where I am and then greets me with a running jump. I’ve got a friend :D

Later that night we all met up in Gabbi and my room and played never have I ever. It’s a stupid and pretty hilarious game that got us bonding even more. A bunch of us went out to a few bars afterwards and had a fantastic night.

The next morning we packed up and drove to Antequera for lunch. Despite our bonding, tempers began to flare after a week in close quarters and we were all glad to be back in Sevilla by 7pm. It was really sweet getting home actually. My host mom seemed happy to see me and the three of us had some interesting conversations over a good meal. I feel like we’re settling into a “familial routine” and it’s nice. Four of us went out to a hookah bar for a chill night and drank tea and talked. I got home no later than 1:30 and it was perfect.

Friday my roommate and I both slept in to noon and stayed pretty close to home all day. I have a few tests this coming week and so I reviewed all my art history terms. Gabbi’s intercambio has connections with the best night club in Sevilla and managed to get all of us in for free that night with free drinks and a VIP service. We went all out with clothes and makeup and as fancy as we could. Her intercambio and about four of her friends met us there and we had a great night. These ladies are fun and super sweet and genuinely loved talking to us in Spanish and then we would help them with their English. We got a little photo happy with Alyssa’s camera and giggling issued followed by a night full of dancing. It was the first night that everyone in our group came out to the same place and it was surprisingly smooth.

Saturday was a reading and sleeping day. These long trips with our group riding on buses for four plus hours a day are exhausting. I was in bed by 1:30 last night after another chill night with a few friends.

This morning we were supposed to go to Doñana to ride horses on the beach but because it was drizzling the tiniest bit they cancelled the viaje. We were all ready to go, by the bus having walked 40 minutes to get there and the other dumb Americans from the Center started whining about the rain. Us Portlanders wanted to go but because of them it was called off. Silly people. Don’t they know that a light drizzle means we get our swimsuits on and sunbath in the nice weather at home! They’ve rescheduled for the other people on the trip but it’s for after our program is over. Oh well. We’re getting reimbursed and are going to try to plan it ourselves for an upcoming weekend. A few of us walked around for a few hours and went to the fútbol stadium and bought tickets for a game tomorrow night. Through the Center we got a deal and they were only 5 euro instead of the normal 20. I haven’t been to a game here yet so I’m excited. The rest of the day today has been more studying and reading. Marisa’s parents are in town this week and this afternoon they came by the house and we had coffee and pastries with Josefa. Josefa seemed really nervous and kept looking at me for reassurance, it was super cute. Marisa’s dad tried to speak Spanish to her but really can’t so I ended up translating most of it. It was good practice. I think my Spanish is better than I thought. I’m learning! Yay!

Anyway I’m on to a new week. We have very few classes in the Center this month because of a long 10-day trip we’re taking next week and then Semana Santa (Rome!). !Hasta Domingo!

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! 

Picasos, Armadas, and Clubs

Friday rolled around and we got some free time between class and museum time. Instead of taking the popular route to the shops, I chose to go on an adventure to el Museo Naval by myself. The Prado is five minute walk from our hotel and a few meters more takes you here:

Anyone who knows me even the slightest bit can imagine my state of mind while taking these photos. This place is heaven. I have never seen so many models of square riggers in one place before. There were paintings of naval battles, fully rigged and armed three-decker First Rates, sextants, surgeon's chests, officer's uniforms, weather- and battle-worn flags and pendants, naval insignia, maps (including the oldest map to include the Americas--see the third picture), portraits of admirals, replications of captain's cabins, guns, swords, brass 9-pounders, naval treaties, ah it goes on an on!! I ran into Marissa and Charlotte from my group at the museum and they just laughed when they saw my face. I was not to be disturbed while in my natural habitat.

As I said: my heaven.

Our group then went to el Museo Reina Sofia and saw all the cool modern art. Usually there is a full exhibit of Dali but it is on exhibit in Barcelona right now and there are only two left in the museum. Seriously sad we didn't get to see them but look at some of the things that are there:

They let us take pictures of everything except the rooms close to Picasso's Guernica. In those rooms were all the political paintings about war, fascism, communism, and death. I have always been fascinated by the Guernica but the real thing is a whole new thing entirely. It's absolutely heartbreaking. I think these rooms were my favorite of all the paintings we've seen this week, and that's saying something.

Of course, it being Friday night in Madrid, we had to go to a club. The thing is, Spaniards follow different schedules than us Americans. They have an early breakfast, a HUGE lunch at 2pm, dinner at 9pm, and then party until 6am. The clubs don't open until 11 and literally no one is there before 1am. One of the largest clubs in Europe is a block from out hotel so we decided to check it out. We got there at about 2am. I got home at 5. We woke up at 7 and drove to a full day of museums in Toledo. Yeah. Spaniards don't sleep. I guess we don't either. Experiences! Yay!