Hello everybody!
When I left off, I had just gotten back from Paris. The week following that trip was pretty busy with school work because we were approaching the half-way point in the semester and I ended up spending a lot of time at school. Major upside - the weather has been incredible lately. For the past two weeks it´s been nothing but sunshine and 75 degree temperatures. Another cool thing that started last week was the start of my meetings with my intercambio ("interchange"). It is a program set up here at school that pairs an American student learning Spanish with a Spanish student learning English. Once or twice a week we get together, usually at the cafe at school, and talk with each other. My intercambio´s name is Maria Jose and she´s 22 years old and really nice. When we meet we usually meet with at least one other pair of intercambios. We alternate back and forth between the two languages but usually we, as in the UNC kids, speak in Spanish and the other girls speak back to us in English. I´ve met with Maria twice now and it´s been really cool getting to know Spaniards my age; it allows me to see a different side of modern Spanish culture. Also it´s been great practice considering it´s difficult to speak at home because our señora never stops talking and Elizabeth and I can never get a word in.
This past weekend a bunch of us went down to Cadiz, a beach city on Costa de la Luz, for Carnaval, a two-week long Carnival. I´m honestly not sure what the event really entails because when we were there it was more or less just one big costume party in the streets, very similar to Franklin Street on Halloween. I went with Grace, Emilee, Natalie, and April and the five of us dressed up as gypsies (we tried to keep it as cultural as possible). We took a bus from Sevilla at 8:30 Saturday night, got to Cadiz around 10:30, and then more or less hung out in the streets all night. It was absolute madness, literally wall to wall people everywhere you went. A lot of people compare it to Mardi Gras in the US. We hung out for awhile, met some people and walked around, and then caught a 3:30 bus back to Sevilla and got home around 6:00. It was a lot of fun, but needless to say I spent most of Sunday sleeping.
Every kid in my program has been referring to this past week as Hell Week, and ít´s definitely a deserved name. I feel like I haven´t done a thing schoolwise since being here and then all of a sudden I had two tests, a quiz, three papers, and a ton of reading all in one week. Because of all of that more or less every night I spent either at school or at home doing schoolwork. We all took a break on Tuesday however to celebrate our friend Amelia´s birthday and Mardi Gras. The kids from Los Remedios went out for dinner at a tapas bar and we found a great place that had outdoor seating right next to the Cathedral. After dinner we went to a small bar called Bodega where our friend Lauren made friends with the bartender and who allowed us to throw a Mardi Gras/Birthday party there for all of the kids here from UNC. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of us had to leave early because of a test the next day.
I´m leaving for a 3-day trip to Morocco tomorrow, so the next post should be more exciting than this one. ¡Hasta pronto!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
La Guerra y Paris
I left off with the Spain/England soccer game, so I will start there now. Everything you have ever heard about the madness of European soccer is completely true. If what I witnessed on Wednesday was just because of an international friendly that didn´t count for anything then I´m not sure what else to expect for a FIFA Qualifier or something really important. A guy in the street referred to it as "La Guerra" (hence the title of this post). Translation: The War.
The city was buzzing all day because of the game. After our morning classes finished up April, Amanda, and I went to run a couple of errands through El Centro. We passed a park on our walk that was having a huge Spain pep rally, so we paused to check it out. There were booths everywhere selling Spanish national team jerseys and merchandise, bars, and small fields set up for juggling and soccer tennis. We hung out there for awhile and then kept walking. Further into El Centro we started running into huge crowds of English fans. The biggest gathering of them was at P. Flaherty's, an Irish pub that we go to a lot. At the time that we walked by they seemed pretty tame, but according to our friend Keith who was in El Centro later on in the afternoon things got a little out of hand - apparently the riot police came to Flaherty's and started beating the English fans with those little black bats because they were all drunk and had started throwing oranges at every taxi that drove by the pub. I guess we could say the afternoon was a good prequel for what was to come.
Everyone going to the game finished class by 7:45, so we all just left straight from school. Our senoras packed us bocadillos (sandwiches) to bring with us, so we headed straight for the stadium to botellon (the Spanish equivalent of tailgating - it's a pretty recent phenomenon apparently; basically all the younger kids buy alcohol and drink in the street in huge groups). It was absolute madness outside the stadium, thousands upon thousands of people all in red and gold singing, dancing, and drinking. We hung out for a bit to talk to some of the Spanish fans, went to the stadium store to buy some Spanish soccer gear, and then went inside. We had pretty good seats, especially considering we only paid 10 euro. The Spanish fans were pretty awesome - they didn't go five minutes without singing or starting a new cheer or doing the wave. I was impressed with the English fans too, although they were on the complete opposite side of the stadium from us so we couldn't hear what they were saying. I was pretty curious because some of the things coming out of the Spaniards mouth were pretty foul (especially when David Beckham was on the field), and apparently the English fans can be even more brutal. It was a pretty exciting game but in the end Spain dominated and won 2-0. It was a pretty awesome experience, I hope I can get to another game before I leave. We game ended around midnight, and I went straight home because I was leaving the next morning.
That brings me to one of the biggest things I've done since being in Europe - my trip to Paris. I had such an awesome weekend, the city was great. My flight left the Sevilla airport at 9:55 on Thursday morning. I left my apartment around 7:30 that morning hoping to catch the 7:45 bus to the airport, just to make sure I had plenty of time. I didn't factor in how much my luggage was going to slow my walking down (I packed way too much and paid for it in sore arms the next day), so instead I caught the 8:15 bus. I got to the airport and on my flight with no problems. I didn't really consider the fact that I don't speak a word of French until I had already landed in Paris and was trying to get a cab to my hotel; luckily my driver was really nice and spoke decent English. I got to my hotel around 1:15 and met up with Jocelyn (one of my UNC roommates studying in Paris) around 2:45. It was so good to see her; at school we are more or less attached at the hip but we haven't been able to talk much since being in Europe. We spent basically all of Thursday just catching up - we got lunch at a Brosserie (I might have spelled that wrong), walked around the city some, and then went back to her apartment to cook dinner with her roommate and our friend Misha from UNC who is also studying in Paris. We hung out with them for most of the night, went to get coffee, and called it an early night because she had exams the next day and I was exhausted.
On Friday Elizabeth and Amelia came from Sevilla, so I had to switch to their hotel. After checking in Joce and I did a little sightseeing. Les Invalides, Musee Rodin, and the Eiffel Tower were the highlights of the afternoon; unfortunately the weather was cold, wet, and foggy so my pictures didn't turn out that great. Later on we met up with Elizabeth, Amelia, Kara, and Sarah (friends of Elizabeth who are studying in the UNC program in Florence who came to Paris for the weekend) for some shopping. After shopping we all went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner; the other girls went off again and I met up with Joce and Misha to go to dinner for one of their friend's birthday. We actually ended up at a South American restaurant with a waitress who spoke either French or Spanish, so I had no trouble ordering. After that we went to a bar called Footsie in the 9th arrondisment. It was a Dow Jones bar, which means the prices of drinks went up and down throughout the course of the night depending on demand. It was a pretty cool concept, but we didn't end up staying long because it was a really nice place and therefore insanely expensive (although everything in Paris is, I don't know how anyone can afford to study there). After Footsie we went out in an area of the city called the Latin Quarter, which is known for being very young and ecclectic. It was a really good time; we went to a couple of bars, bought crepes from a street vendor (incredible), went to one of Jocelyn's friend's apartment, and then called it a night.
Saturday the weather improved significantly - it wasn't quite so cold and it was sunny. Joce and I started the day by going to the Arc de Triomphe and then we walked up and down the Champs-Elysees. We met up with the other girls for lunch on the Champs and then went up to Sacre Coeur. Before I went to Paris I asked Chris what he did when he was there during his semester in Ireland and he mentioned that he went to some cool place with a bunch of steps that overlooked the city, but couldn't remember the name. I'm pretty sure Sacre Coeur was the place. It was an awesome sight - the church is in the northern part of the city and sits on top of a hill. Just like Chris said, you can sit on the steps leading up to the church and look down on pretty much all of Paris. We toured the inside of the church, which was beautiful, and hung out on the steps for a bit. After Sacre Coeur we figured it was Valentine's Day, so we treated ourselves at some fancy chocolate shop. I really have no idea what I ordered, I couldn't pronounce any names so I just pointed to something that looked good; it was some kind of chocolate cookie/cake thing and it was amazing. After the chocolate shop we went to Moulin Rouge. Then we split up again and Joce and I went to the Louvre. Unfortunately we were 15 minutes late too late to buy tickets to go into the museum, so we just wandered around the atrium in the glass pyramid and then walked around the plaza outside. We then started walking in the direction of the Seine river just in time to see the sunset over the river with the Eiffel Tower in the background; it was absolutely beautiful. After standing by the river for awhile we went to one of the major Parisian department stores for more shopping and then went back to Joce's apartment to cook dinner because it was so much cheaper than going to a restaurant. Later that night we went out with all of the other UNC girls, Misha, and some of the kids from Joce's program.
The next day Elizabeth, Jocelyn, and I went to 10:00 mass at Notre Dame. We got there around 9:30. The cathedral, like pretty much everything in Paris, was gorgeous, easily the most beautiful church I have ever seen. It was very odd though because even though there was a mass going on at 9:30, the church was still very much open to tourists; people everywhere were taking pictures, there were audio tours going on, and there was even a souvenir stand open. It seemed pretty disrespectful and inappropriate for all of that to be going on during the mass. However, for whatever reason you didn't really notice the commotion going on on the outskirts of the church's interior when you sat down in the pew; it all seemed to just disappear. The mass was one of the most special that I've ever been to because, besides the fact that it was in Notre Dame, all of the singing was done by the monks in Gregorian chant. It was incredible, and it didn't even matter that I didn't understand a word of anything (it was all either French or Latin). All in all the mass at Notre Dame blew the mass at the Sevilla Cathedral out of the water - when Elizabeth and I went to mass in Sevilla it was very dull, didn't not have music, and was over in about 30 minutes; not exactly the special experience we were looking for. We are thinking about trying to attend mass whenever we travel because most places we are going have very famous churches; for example, we want to go to St. Patrick's when we are in Dublin next month.
After mass Elizabeth left to go see her friend who came up from Montpellier for the weekend (if you haven't already guessed, studying abroad second semester sophomore year is big at UNC and pretty much everyone has friends spread all over Europe). Joce and I got a traditional French breakfast at a cafe along the river and then went back to the Louvre, this time to actually go inside the museum. I actually really enjoyed it, much more than I thought I would. We spent about two hours just walking around. The museum was insanely big and pretty crowded. I actually enjoyed the museum itself, which was the palace for the King of France before Versailles, more than the artwork; the building was one of the most elaborate I've ever seen. Going through the museum was fun with Joce because we took an art history class together during our first semester at Carolina and absolutely hated it because our professor drove us crazy, but it was pretty cool being able to identify a lot of the works, even if we did so grudgingly. After the Louvre we slowly headed back in the direction of my hotel. I bought one last baguette and a couple of chocolate croissants for people back in Sevilla (another incredible asset of French food) and then Elizabeth and I took a cab to the airport around 3:15. Minus the fact that I think I spent more money in 4 days in Paris than I had in 1.5 months in Sevilla (you couldn't even find a coffee for under 4 euro), the weekend was pretty much flawless. Paris is an amazing city and Jocelyn couldn't have shown me a better time; I really hope I get the chance to go back someday.
Unfortunately I had a pile of work waiting for me when I got home. I should probably get back to that now. Will update again as soon as I have something to write about besides my essay on Spanish poetry. Miss you all! <3
The city was buzzing all day because of the game. After our morning classes finished up April, Amanda, and I went to run a couple of errands through El Centro. We passed a park on our walk that was having a huge Spain pep rally, so we paused to check it out. There were booths everywhere selling Spanish national team jerseys and merchandise, bars, and small fields set up for juggling and soccer tennis. We hung out there for awhile and then kept walking. Further into El Centro we started running into huge crowds of English fans. The biggest gathering of them was at P. Flaherty's, an Irish pub that we go to a lot. At the time that we walked by they seemed pretty tame, but according to our friend Keith who was in El Centro later on in the afternoon things got a little out of hand - apparently the riot police came to Flaherty's and started beating the English fans with those little black bats because they were all drunk and had started throwing oranges at every taxi that drove by the pub. I guess we could say the afternoon was a good prequel for what was to come.
Everyone going to the game finished class by 7:45, so we all just left straight from school. Our senoras packed us bocadillos (sandwiches) to bring with us, so we headed straight for the stadium to botellon (the Spanish equivalent of tailgating - it's a pretty recent phenomenon apparently; basically all the younger kids buy alcohol and drink in the street in huge groups). It was absolute madness outside the stadium, thousands upon thousands of people all in red and gold singing, dancing, and drinking. We hung out for a bit to talk to some of the Spanish fans, went to the stadium store to buy some Spanish soccer gear, and then went inside. We had pretty good seats, especially considering we only paid 10 euro. The Spanish fans were pretty awesome - they didn't go five minutes without singing or starting a new cheer or doing the wave. I was impressed with the English fans too, although they were on the complete opposite side of the stadium from us so we couldn't hear what they were saying. I was pretty curious because some of the things coming out of the Spaniards mouth were pretty foul (especially when David Beckham was on the field), and apparently the English fans can be even more brutal. It was a pretty exciting game but in the end Spain dominated and won 2-0. It was a pretty awesome experience, I hope I can get to another game before I leave. We game ended around midnight, and I went straight home because I was leaving the next morning.
That brings me to one of the biggest things I've done since being in Europe - my trip to Paris. I had such an awesome weekend, the city was great. My flight left the Sevilla airport at 9:55 on Thursday morning. I left my apartment around 7:30 that morning hoping to catch the 7:45 bus to the airport, just to make sure I had plenty of time. I didn't factor in how much my luggage was going to slow my walking down (I packed way too much and paid for it in sore arms the next day), so instead I caught the 8:15 bus. I got to the airport and on my flight with no problems. I didn't really consider the fact that I don't speak a word of French until I had already landed in Paris and was trying to get a cab to my hotel; luckily my driver was really nice and spoke decent English. I got to my hotel around 1:15 and met up with Jocelyn (one of my UNC roommates studying in Paris) around 2:45. It was so good to see her; at school we are more or less attached at the hip but we haven't been able to talk much since being in Europe. We spent basically all of Thursday just catching up - we got lunch at a Brosserie (I might have spelled that wrong), walked around the city some, and then went back to her apartment to cook dinner with her roommate and our friend Misha from UNC who is also studying in Paris. We hung out with them for most of the night, went to get coffee, and called it an early night because she had exams the next day and I was exhausted.
On Friday Elizabeth and Amelia came from Sevilla, so I had to switch to their hotel. After checking in Joce and I did a little sightseeing. Les Invalides, Musee Rodin, and the Eiffel Tower were the highlights of the afternoon; unfortunately the weather was cold, wet, and foggy so my pictures didn't turn out that great. Later on we met up with Elizabeth, Amelia, Kara, and Sarah (friends of Elizabeth who are studying in the UNC program in Florence who came to Paris for the weekend) for some shopping. After shopping we all went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner; the other girls went off again and I met up with Joce and Misha to go to dinner for one of their friend's birthday. We actually ended up at a South American restaurant with a waitress who spoke either French or Spanish, so I had no trouble ordering. After that we went to a bar called Footsie in the 9th arrondisment. It was a Dow Jones bar, which means the prices of drinks went up and down throughout the course of the night depending on demand. It was a pretty cool concept, but we didn't end up staying long because it was a really nice place and therefore insanely expensive (although everything in Paris is, I don't know how anyone can afford to study there). After Footsie we went out in an area of the city called the Latin Quarter, which is known for being very young and ecclectic. It was a really good time; we went to a couple of bars, bought crepes from a street vendor (incredible), went to one of Jocelyn's friend's apartment, and then called it a night.
Saturday the weather improved significantly - it wasn't quite so cold and it was sunny. Joce and I started the day by going to the Arc de Triomphe and then we walked up and down the Champs-Elysees. We met up with the other girls for lunch on the Champs and then went up to Sacre Coeur. Before I went to Paris I asked Chris what he did when he was there during his semester in Ireland and he mentioned that he went to some cool place with a bunch of steps that overlooked the city, but couldn't remember the name. I'm pretty sure Sacre Coeur was the place. It was an awesome sight - the church is in the northern part of the city and sits on top of a hill. Just like Chris said, you can sit on the steps leading up to the church and look down on pretty much all of Paris. We toured the inside of the church, which was beautiful, and hung out on the steps for a bit. After Sacre Coeur we figured it was Valentine's Day, so we treated ourselves at some fancy chocolate shop. I really have no idea what I ordered, I couldn't pronounce any names so I just pointed to something that looked good; it was some kind of chocolate cookie/cake thing and it was amazing. After the chocolate shop we went to Moulin Rouge. Then we split up again and Joce and I went to the Louvre. Unfortunately we were 15 minutes late too late to buy tickets to go into the museum, so we just wandered around the atrium in the glass pyramid and then walked around the plaza outside. We then started walking in the direction of the Seine river just in time to see the sunset over the river with the Eiffel Tower in the background; it was absolutely beautiful. After standing by the river for awhile we went to one of the major Parisian department stores for more shopping and then went back to Joce's apartment to cook dinner because it was so much cheaper than going to a restaurant. Later that night we went out with all of the other UNC girls, Misha, and some of the kids from Joce's program.
The next day Elizabeth, Jocelyn, and I went to 10:00 mass at Notre Dame. We got there around 9:30. The cathedral, like pretty much everything in Paris, was gorgeous, easily the most beautiful church I have ever seen. It was very odd though because even though there was a mass going on at 9:30, the church was still very much open to tourists; people everywhere were taking pictures, there were audio tours going on, and there was even a souvenir stand open. It seemed pretty disrespectful and inappropriate for all of that to be going on during the mass. However, for whatever reason you didn't really notice the commotion going on on the outskirts of the church's interior when you sat down in the pew; it all seemed to just disappear. The mass was one of the most special that I've ever been to because, besides the fact that it was in Notre Dame, all of the singing was done by the monks in Gregorian chant. It was incredible, and it didn't even matter that I didn't understand a word of anything (it was all either French or Latin). All in all the mass at Notre Dame blew the mass at the Sevilla Cathedral out of the water - when Elizabeth and I went to mass in Sevilla it was very dull, didn't not have music, and was over in about 30 minutes; not exactly the special experience we were looking for. We are thinking about trying to attend mass whenever we travel because most places we are going have very famous churches; for example, we want to go to St. Patrick's when we are in Dublin next month.
After mass Elizabeth left to go see her friend who came up from Montpellier for the weekend (if you haven't already guessed, studying abroad second semester sophomore year is big at UNC and pretty much everyone has friends spread all over Europe). Joce and I got a traditional French breakfast at a cafe along the river and then went back to the Louvre, this time to actually go inside the museum. I actually really enjoyed it, much more than I thought I would. We spent about two hours just walking around. The museum was insanely big and pretty crowded. I actually enjoyed the museum itself, which was the palace for the King of France before Versailles, more than the artwork; the building was one of the most elaborate I've ever seen. Going through the museum was fun with Joce because we took an art history class together during our first semester at Carolina and absolutely hated it because our professor drove us crazy, but it was pretty cool being able to identify a lot of the works, even if we did so grudgingly. After the Louvre we slowly headed back in the direction of my hotel. I bought one last baguette and a couple of chocolate croissants for people back in Sevilla (another incredible asset of French food) and then Elizabeth and I took a cab to the airport around 3:15. Minus the fact that I think I spent more money in 4 days in Paris than I had in 1.5 months in Sevilla (you couldn't even find a coffee for under 4 euro), the weekend was pretty much flawless. Paris is an amazing city and Jocelyn couldn't have shown me a better time; I really hope I get the chance to go back someday.
Unfortunately I had a pile of work waiting for me when I got home. I should probably get back to that now. Will update again as soon as I have something to write about besides my essay on Spanish poetry. Miss you all! <3
Monday, February 9, 2009
Very Andalucian
First and foremost - HAPPY 20th BIRTHDAY COURTNEY SICA!!!
So I said that would get back to cultural immersion, and I did in a big way.
The beginning of the week was pretty boring; we spent a lot of time inside because the weather was pretty bad, rain every day. Elizabeth and I spent a lot of time planning upcoming trips instead of doing our homework. That probably wasn't the best idea because now I have a lot of work over the next few days.
On Thursday we continued our tradition of going out to dinner, only this time it was a much smaller group - 4 people as opposed to the usual 8-10. We decided to go out for tapas and just found a small bar in the center of the city. Amanda's language professor recommended a couple of tapas that are popular in Sevilla. We ordered 4 dishes, 2 of which he recommended. They were all awesome. The most interesting were queso machego, which is a local hard cheese, and cola de torro, bull's tail. I know, it sounds really weird and maybe even gross to some people, but it was amazing. We split a pitcher of fresh sangria with the food. All in all it was a great meal.
Friday was rainy...again. We continued the Fridays at Fridays tradition and it ended up being a really popular idea - we had over 15 UNC kids show up. I didn't go out because I had to get up really early the next morning for a field trip, so instead Elizabeth and I planned our trip to Ireland for the weekend before St. Patrick's Day.
Saturday morning the program had arranged a field trip to Cordoba, another city in Andalucia. At one point in time it was the capital of Spain during the years of Muslim rule. We left Sevilla around 8:30 am and got to Cordoba by 10:30. It was a really nice day (finally after all of the rain), a little chilly but very clear and sunny. The city was beautiful - it was very similar to Sevilla, only slightly smaller and far less busy and crowded. We started our tour of the city at El Puente Romano (The Roman Bridge), a 2,000 year old bridge over El Rio Guadalquivir. We then moved to La Mezquita (Mosque), the landmark that Cordoba is most famous for. I had actually studied it in the art history class I took at Carolina during the first semester of my freshman year; to this day that has been one of my least favorite classes ever, so it was good to see that all of the pointless information I learned from it had at least a little relevance to real life. La Mezquita is an old mosque that was turned into a cathedral during the Christian reconquest of Spain. It is famous for the 500+ arches and 1000+ columns of red and white striped brick throughout the huge interior of the building. The second part of the building is the gothic-style cathedral that was literally built inside of the mosque when the Moors were pushed out of Cordoba. It was a really cool site, and one of our teachers whom we all like a lot was our tour guide, so the tour was very interesting.
Next we went through the barrio - just like in Sevilla, it is a region of the city with very narrow and winding cobblestone streets, whitewashed buildings, balconies filled with flower pots, and orange and lemon trees. The barrios are easily one of my favorite parts of Spanish cities, there really isn't anything like them in the United States. We walked through until we got to the old Jewish part of the city and went into an old synagogue; we only stayed there for 5 minutes, it only consisted of one small stone room with nothing really to see.
Sitting outside the synagogue was a gypsie who was begging for food/money. This was the one bleak spot of the day. Gypsies are pretty common in Spain, and thus far our experiences with them have been few and far between, but pretty funny. One time our friend Ricky was walking down the street when one stopped him and made him show him his palms so that she could tell him his future. She stuff rosemary in both hands and told him he would live a long and happy life - then she made him pay her two euro for the rosemary. Anyway, this was the first time that I've ever felt upset after seeing a gypsie because she had a crying infant with her and was speaking very broken Spanish. A bunch of us had leftover food from lunch, so we gave it to her.
So I said that would get back to cultural immersion, and I did in a big way.
The beginning of the week was pretty boring; we spent a lot of time inside because the weather was pretty bad, rain every day. Elizabeth and I spent a lot of time planning upcoming trips instead of doing our homework. That probably wasn't the best idea because now I have a lot of work over the next few days.
On Thursday we continued our tradition of going out to dinner, only this time it was a much smaller group - 4 people as opposed to the usual 8-10. We decided to go out for tapas and just found a small bar in the center of the city. Amanda's language professor recommended a couple of tapas that are popular in Sevilla. We ordered 4 dishes, 2 of which he recommended. They were all awesome. The most interesting were queso machego, which is a local hard cheese, and cola de torro, bull's tail. I know, it sounds really weird and maybe even gross to some people, but it was amazing. We split a pitcher of fresh sangria with the food. All in all it was a great meal.
Friday was rainy...again. We continued the Fridays at Fridays tradition and it ended up being a really popular idea - we had over 15 UNC kids show up. I didn't go out because I had to get up really early the next morning for a field trip, so instead Elizabeth and I planned our trip to Ireland for the weekend before St. Patrick's Day.
Saturday morning the program had arranged a field trip to Cordoba, another city in Andalucia. At one point in time it was the capital of Spain during the years of Muslim rule. We left Sevilla around 8:30 am and got to Cordoba by 10:30. It was a really nice day (finally after all of the rain), a little chilly but very clear and sunny. The city was beautiful - it was very similar to Sevilla, only slightly smaller and far less busy and crowded. We started our tour of the city at El Puente Romano (The Roman Bridge), a 2,000 year old bridge over El Rio Guadalquivir. We then moved to La Mezquita (Mosque), the landmark that Cordoba is most famous for. I had actually studied it in the art history class I took at Carolina during the first semester of my freshman year; to this day that has been one of my least favorite classes ever, so it was good to see that all of the pointless information I learned from it had at least a little relevance to real life. La Mezquita is an old mosque that was turned into a cathedral during the Christian reconquest of Spain. It is famous for the 500+ arches and 1000+ columns of red and white striped brick throughout the huge interior of the building. The second part of the building is the gothic-style cathedral that was literally built inside of the mosque when the Moors were pushed out of Cordoba. It was a really cool site, and one of our teachers whom we all like a lot was our tour guide, so the tour was very interesting.
Next we went through the barrio - just like in Sevilla, it is a region of the city with very narrow and winding cobblestone streets, whitewashed buildings, balconies filled with flower pots, and orange and lemon trees. The barrios are easily one of my favorite parts of Spanish cities, there really isn't anything like them in the United States. We walked through until we got to the old Jewish part of the city and went into an old synagogue; we only stayed there for 5 minutes, it only consisted of one small stone room with nothing really to see.
Sitting outside the synagogue was a gypsie who was begging for food/money. This was the one bleak spot of the day. Gypsies are pretty common in Spain, and thus far our experiences with them have been few and far between, but pretty funny. One time our friend Ricky was walking down the street when one stopped him and made him show him his palms so that she could tell him his future. She stuff rosemary in both hands and told him he would live a long and happy life - then she made him pay her two euro for the rosemary. Anyway, this was the first time that I've ever felt upset after seeing a gypsie because she had a crying infant with her and was speaking very broken Spanish. A bunch of us had leftover food from lunch, so we gave it to her.
We had the rest of the afternoon to walk around the city. Rafa (our tour guide) suggested that we go to a tapas bar and order two dishes that Cordoba is famous for, so that's what we did. The tapas were salmorejo, which was a cold cream soup served with ham and egg. It's was very similar to gazpacho. It was ok, but not my favorite that I've tried since being here. The second dish was really good - berenjenas con miel (eggplant fried in honey). I'll definitely order that one again - it sort of tasted like french toast.
The drive between Sevilla and Cordoba is absolutely beautiful - it is literally just miles and miles of huge, rolling hills with the greenest grass I've ever seen. I slept most of the way to Cordoba, so I purposely stayed awake for most of the ride home; I was actually able to get some good pictures of the countryside from the bus.
That night was a big night in Sevilla because the two professional soccer teams here in the city - Sevilla Futbol Club and Real Betis Futbol Club - were playing in the final of La Copa del Rey (translation: The King's Cup). We didn't even try to get tickets because they were so expensive, so we went up to El Centro to find a place to watch it. Every bar in the city was packed, so we met up with some of our friends who already had a table at a restaurant. Betis (the underdog) won and fans were celebrating in the street all night. After the game we went out to a different bar before going home.
The next morning Elizabeth and I woke up early and met 11 other kids from our program at the bus station to catch the 10 am bus to Ronda, a town farther South of Sevilla. The day ended up being hands down the best day we've had since being here, and one of the best experiences of my life. Ronda was easily the most incredible sight I have ever seen. The town sits on the edge of cliffs hundreds of feet high overlooking miles of countryside sitting at the base of the Sierra Nevadas, a mountain chain in southern Spain. The town is most famous for el Puente Nuevo, a huge stone bridge sitting above a waterfall and gorge. We hiked down into the gorge and found a stretch of rocks that jutted out into the center of it about 2/3 of the way down and had a picnic. I really can't describe how amazing the scenery was, and even our pictures, which turned out great, can't do it justice. After lunch we went down into an old mine that was fully enclosed until it opened up at the bottom of the gorge with a sightseeing deck just above the river. It was a little eerie while we were making our way down, but still was one of the coolest things I've ever done - it felt like I was in the Goonies. By the end of the day we were all exhausted but exhilarated at the same time. I hope to make it back down there before the end of the semester.
I got some exciting news this week. I received an internship offer for the summer in London working with Health Protection Agency (similar to the CDC in the States). I'm really excited about it and very relieved at the same time because when I left for Spain my summer plans were still very much up in the air, and this worked out so smoothly. Of course this means I'm going to be in Europe for two more months that I expected, so I'm going to have to have my mom bring me more clothes when she comes to visit (for the first time in my life I actually underpacked). Best part about the internship is that I got to work out the dates with the company, and they are allowing me to finish in time to get home for OBX - a serious plus because most of the other programs I was applying to lasted into August and I was worried I would have had to miss the 20th anniversary of the best family vacation ever. Now all I need is for Carrie to study abroad at Oxford this summer...
This week is very, very busy for me (I actually have a test in an hour that I probably should be studying for but instead I'm updating this...). Tomorrow I have four classes and a presentation to give. Then right after my presentation I'm meeting a bunch of friends and going straight up to the Sevilla soccer stadium for a game between the Spanish and English national teams. Apparently the teams hate each other; the game was supposed to be in Madrid, but the English team refused because the Spanish fans there were so ridiculous. The game is a friendly, so we were thinking that neither team would be using all of its starters, but we saw confirmation on the news today that Beckham will be starting for England. Apparently they are also stationing English police around the stadium to protect the English fans and to help prevent riots. It should be a nuts atmosphere, we are all so excited. The game starts at 10 pm and will probably go to 12:30 or 1:00. After that game we are going to the Texas bar to watch the UNC/Duke game, which won't be on until 3 am here. Then I leave for the airport at 7:30 am to catch a flight for Paris. It's going to be a very long day, but I'm so excited for everything!
I'll update this again after the weekend and talk about how everything went. Love and miss you all and I hope everyone is doing well!
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