I more or less forgot about this blog over the past month, but for good reason. Most of you probably already know about this, but it´s been a very crazy past few weeks for me. Here´s the Reader´s Digest version: Towards the end of March I had to be taken to the hospital in Spain for what they thought was kidney stones. Turns out they misdiagnosed me but they couldn´t tell me what the problem was without further tests, so I had to go back to the US. Turns out I had ovarian cysts, so I had a one-day surgery in Charlotte and got them taken care of. All in all I was home for 2.5 weeks. I was really disappointed to miss so much time in Spain, but I´m back here now so I´m just going to make the most of my last two weeks. Plus I was home for final four, so I got to go to Chapel Hill for the national championship - best night ever.
Tomorrow I go to Barcelona for the weekend, and then to a beach in Southern Spain for a few days. After that it´s finals week, then Madrid, and then the eurail travels start, so I´ll definitely have a lot more to write about. ¡Hasta pronto!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Monday, March 16, 2009
Roadtripping through Ireland should be on everyone´s life to-do list
As indicated in the title of this post, I spent the second half of last week on a roadtrip through Ireland with three of my friends here from UNC. Without a doubt it one of the most incredible experiences I´ve ever had and easily the best trip I´ve ever taken. Ireland is beyond amazing, I fell completely in love with it the second I got there. That being said, it was the most jam-packed 4 days of my life. Planning our trip was pretty easy considering my entire family it seems has traveled there before (thanks especially to timmy and chris for your travel advice, it was so helpful!), so going into it Elizabeth, Amanda, Jason, and I had a good idea of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see. Naturally we wanted to see just about everything, so sleeping was very low on the priority list and now I am officially exhausted.
The journey started on Wednesday afternoon. We flew out of Malaga because it was cheapest, so Elizabeth, Amanda, Jason, Lauren, and I had to take a 2.5 hour bus ride from Sevilla. When we got to Malaga we took a bus from the bus station to the airport and then took an 8:40 flight from Malaga to Belfast. Our flight got in around 11:00 because Ireland is an hour behind Spain and then picked up our rental car at the airport. We immediately found out through the woman working the rental car desk that the Irish people are some of the nicest, most helpful people that I´ve ever met. Literally we didn´t come in contact with anyone who was the least bit rude or unpleasant the entire time we were there. Example: when the woman at the desk asked us what our plans were and we told her that we were planning on roadtripping through all of Ireland she gave us a free GPS system for our car because she was afraid that we were going to get horribly lost. In hindsight she was completely right because that GPS saved our lives, there´s absolutely no way we could have made it anywhere without it. After picking up the car we hooked up the GPS and Patty (our name for the GPS voice) got us to our hostel in Belfast around midnight. This was a bit of a low point - the hostel was pretty rough. It´s hard to complain about, though, considering we paid 12 pounds each for the night. Plus we had to get up at 5:45 the next morning anyway. It was a pretty awkward experience though - there were five of us, and we were in a room for six people. When we got upstairs to the room we found that there was another person in there, and he/she was asleep, so we never turned the light on. We just showered quickly and went to sleep for a couple of hours. It´s pretty weird - I can´t tell you anything about the room we stayed in because I never saw it. The other guy/girl (we never found out which because we never turned the light on) must have thought we were nuts.
On Thursday morning we got up at 5:45 because Lauren was going to Dublin that day instead of roadtripping with us and had a 6:50 train, so we had to drive her to the train station. After dropping her off, the journey really began. We all took 22 pounds out of the ATM the night before to pay for the hostel, so we had 40 to burn off before we left Northern Ireland. We found a grocery store and bought 40 pounds worth of food. I´m just going to note that food from the grocery stores here in Europe is significantly cheaper than it is in the US. 40 pounds bought us an obscene amount of groceries, far more that I ever could have bought for the same amount at Harris Teeter. After shopping, we piled back in the car and set off for the west coast of the Republic.
Driving was not nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be. The fact that we were on the left side of the road was not hard to get used to, the only time it got tricky was when we had to turn because our reflexes are backwards - for example, when we would make a right-hand turn it would be hard to remember that we were crossing two lanes of traffic instead of one, so we had to look both ways instead of looking just to the left. Amanda took the first leg of the trip. We set up our GPS to go towards Connemara National Park because of Timmy´s advice that he gave me. The drive was long but so much fun. Because of Patty we didn´t have to pull a map out once and therefore just sat back, listened to music, ate our snacks, and enjoyed the absolutely incredible scenery. Every now and then we would have to pull over to take some pictures from the side of the road because the landscape was so beautiful. As we got closer and closer to County Galway and Connemara, the roads got absolutely ridiculous. You couldn´t even call them roads. Patty had us taking multiple turns onto gravel pathways that were in theory two-lane roads but in reality were not wide enough for our car alone that weaved through miles and miles of green fields and nothing else. Multiple times we had to stop because there were sheep in the road. Again I say, Patty saved our lives, there is absolutely no way we could have navigated Ireland without her.
Our first stop in Connemara was Kylemore Abbey, a beautiful old manor house that sits on a lake at base of a group of mountains. We thought about touring the house and gardens, but it cost 8 euro a person, there wasn't a student discount, and we were feeling cheap - so we just settled for admiring it from the outside. After spending some time at the Abbey we headed over to Connemara National Park for some hiking. When we got there the information center was closed, but the trails were marked well enough so we threw the ingredients for PB&J's that we bought at the grocery store into a bag and set off. We picked the long trail that went farthest up the mountain, we just didn't realize at the time that it went literally to the very top. The hike was very challenging physically - at one point the trail gave way to huge steps made out of slate rocks that were each at foot high. Once we got to the top, however, it was well worth it - the view was incredible. The sights were great on the way up but once we were at the top we could really take the whole area in. It felt as though we could see forever, mile after mile of rolling hills, mountains, and sheep fields. In addition to the sights, the park was completely silent. It really felt as though the four of us were the only ones around for miles. It was a very peaceful experience - we just sat down and had a picnic of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
After hiking back down we piled back in the car and set off for Galway, where we were spending the night. It took about a little over an hour, so we got in just after 6. We checked into our hostel (which was significantly nicer than the one in Belfast...at least as far as I could tell because I never really saw the Belfast hostel), showered, and then headed out for dinner. My first impression was a good one, and held for the rest of the night - Galway is an awesome place. I don't really think you can call it a city, it felt much more like a bigger town with a very authentic Irish feel to it. I've never seen so many pubs in my life. We stopped at one for dinner. I ordered Shepherd's Pie and it was delicious, especially after the hike. After dinner we went around to a bunch of different pubs. All of them were great - they all had live Irish music and were filled to capacity with some of the friendliest people I've met since being in Europe; everyone seemed interested in having a conversation. We were having a great time, but headed back a little early because we were exhausted.
We planned on getting on the road by 9:00 the next day, so I set my alarm for 7:45. When we woke up the sun was still down, which made it that much harder to get out of bed. We went down to breakfast and then packed up all of our stuff to go check out. At that point Jason checked his watch and saw that it was only 7:15 - apparently I forgot to change the time on my phone, and since Ireland is an hour behind Spain, I accidentally had everyone wake up at 6:45. Whoops.
We started the day by driving about 90 minutes to the Cliffs of Moher. Just as we arrived we heard on the radio that they are under consideration for being named one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Now I haven't seen a lot of the world, nor do I know what other sites are being considered, but if the cliffs received that title I wouldn't be surprised. They were incredible, the most beautiful sight I've ever seen. They even outshone Ronda, and that's a tough thing to do. It's more or less impossible to describe them - hundreds of feet high, made of slate rock washed almost black by the water and covered in green moss, with violent waves crashing at the bases. I felt as though I could have spent hours looking out at them. Unfortunately we were on a bit of a schedule, plus the weather was really cold, so we stayed and walked around the site for a little while before getting back in the car.
Next we set off for the Ring of Kerry. Before the trip Chris had e-mailed me an article from the WSJ about roadtripping through Ireland and it had two distinct days for the Cliffs of Moher and the Ring of Kerry - unfortunately we didn't have an extra day to spare, so we had to do the two in one. We set Patty up to take us to Kilarney, which is where our guidebooks recommended starting the Ring of Kerry drive. Again, we didn't pull out a map, we just listened to the GPS. We got to Kilarney around 3:30 and started the drive according to the National Geographic Ireland travel guide. It ended up being a great source because in addition to the general drive (which was beautiful in itself) it gave directions to a couple of recommended side sights that were all amazing - we saw a great lookout point over a mountain lake, a rocky beach on Dingle Bay, and old stone forts from the Iron Age that were still perfectly preserved. The drive took all afternoon, but it was well worth it. The Ring of Kerry was just as beautiful as everyone makes it out to be.
When it turned dark and we couldn't see the scenery anymore we set off for Kinsale, a small harbor town south of Cork that Chris recommended we visit. This part of the drive was difficult - imagine the same type of "roads" that I described earlier, only at night. We stopped off in Kenmare to get Fish n' Chips for dinner (delicious) and then got to Kinsale around 10:15. We made one more stop off on the side of the road by the lake to take in the night sky because it was the clearest one I've ever seen. It seemed as if we could see every star, shooting stars included.
We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in Kinsale - great decision. It was so comfortable, the woman who ran it (like just about everyone in Ireland) was so nice, and the traditional Irish breakfast in the morning was awesome. I didn't realize how sick I am of having nothing but toast every morning until I got eggs and bacon. After breakfast we explored the town a little bit and after about 5 minutes I decided that I want to move there. It was the absolute cutest town I've ever seen - cobblestone streets, pastel-colored buildings and houses, and a small harbor filled with little white sailboats. It was ideal in every way possible.
We left Kinsale in the morning and set off for Blarney Castle - we figured we couldn't go to Ireland and not kiss the Blarney Stone. The castle itself was pretty cool and the grounds were gorgeous; the stone was a little anti-climactic, but I kind of expected that. After Blarney we went to Kilkenny for a late lunch and to see Kilkenny Castle. Again, another awesome town. After that we headed for Dublin and got in around 6:30. We checked into our hostel and ate the rest of our PB&J for dinner. We went out to the pubs a little while afterwards and there were people everywhere, naturally because it was the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day so everyone was going crazy. It was a lot of fun and we went to some pretty cool bars, but I definitely prefer Galway. Dublin more or less just felt like any other big city.
On Sunday morning we went to Powerscourt House and Gardens on the outskirts of Dublin. I didn't think Ireland could have gotten any greener until we got inside the grounds; the grass was so green it seemed to be glowing. We wandered around the gardens for awhile before heading back to Dublin to see St. Patrick's Cathedral (beautiful, but I've seen a lot of Gothic style cathedrals over the past two months and they're all starting to blend together) and to get lunch. After that we headed to the airport because our flight left at 3:40. This part of the trip got tricky. Our flight was scheduled to land in Malaga at 7:35. The last bus from Malaga to Sevilla left at 7:30, so that was out. There were two trains going back to Sevilla that night, one at 8:13 and one at 8:15 (how that schedule makes sense I don't know but whatever). If we missed those trains, our next option was hanging out in Malaga to catch a 3:15 am bus and then having to go to class about 2 hours after arriving in Sevilla. Obviously no one wanted that so we were determined to make one of the trains. A last testament to how nicely the Irish treated us, when we landed the entire plane let us get off first, which saved us a lot of time, we all jumped in cabs, and made the 8:15 train.
So at the end of the day, I was exhausted yet exhilarated. Ireland is an incredible place, I plan on getting back there as soon as I can.
The journey started on Wednesday afternoon. We flew out of Malaga because it was cheapest, so Elizabeth, Amanda, Jason, Lauren, and I had to take a 2.5 hour bus ride from Sevilla. When we got to Malaga we took a bus from the bus station to the airport and then took an 8:40 flight from Malaga to Belfast. Our flight got in around 11:00 because Ireland is an hour behind Spain and then picked up our rental car at the airport. We immediately found out through the woman working the rental car desk that the Irish people are some of the nicest, most helpful people that I´ve ever met. Literally we didn´t come in contact with anyone who was the least bit rude or unpleasant the entire time we were there. Example: when the woman at the desk asked us what our plans were and we told her that we were planning on roadtripping through all of Ireland she gave us a free GPS system for our car because she was afraid that we were going to get horribly lost. In hindsight she was completely right because that GPS saved our lives, there´s absolutely no way we could have made it anywhere without it. After picking up the car we hooked up the GPS and Patty (our name for the GPS voice) got us to our hostel in Belfast around midnight. This was a bit of a low point - the hostel was pretty rough. It´s hard to complain about, though, considering we paid 12 pounds each for the night. Plus we had to get up at 5:45 the next morning anyway. It was a pretty awkward experience though - there were five of us, and we were in a room for six people. When we got upstairs to the room we found that there was another person in there, and he/she was asleep, so we never turned the light on. We just showered quickly and went to sleep for a couple of hours. It´s pretty weird - I can´t tell you anything about the room we stayed in because I never saw it. The other guy/girl (we never found out which because we never turned the light on) must have thought we were nuts.
On Thursday morning we got up at 5:45 because Lauren was going to Dublin that day instead of roadtripping with us and had a 6:50 train, so we had to drive her to the train station. After dropping her off, the journey really began. We all took 22 pounds out of the ATM the night before to pay for the hostel, so we had 40 to burn off before we left Northern Ireland. We found a grocery store and bought 40 pounds worth of food. I´m just going to note that food from the grocery stores here in Europe is significantly cheaper than it is in the US. 40 pounds bought us an obscene amount of groceries, far more that I ever could have bought for the same amount at Harris Teeter. After shopping, we piled back in the car and set off for the west coast of the Republic.
Driving was not nearly as hard as I thought it was going to be. The fact that we were on the left side of the road was not hard to get used to, the only time it got tricky was when we had to turn because our reflexes are backwards - for example, when we would make a right-hand turn it would be hard to remember that we were crossing two lanes of traffic instead of one, so we had to look both ways instead of looking just to the left. Amanda took the first leg of the trip. We set up our GPS to go towards Connemara National Park because of Timmy´s advice that he gave me. The drive was long but so much fun. Because of Patty we didn´t have to pull a map out once and therefore just sat back, listened to music, ate our snacks, and enjoyed the absolutely incredible scenery. Every now and then we would have to pull over to take some pictures from the side of the road because the landscape was so beautiful. As we got closer and closer to County Galway and Connemara, the roads got absolutely ridiculous. You couldn´t even call them roads. Patty had us taking multiple turns onto gravel pathways that were in theory two-lane roads but in reality were not wide enough for our car alone that weaved through miles and miles of green fields and nothing else. Multiple times we had to stop because there were sheep in the road. Again I say, Patty saved our lives, there is absolutely no way we could have navigated Ireland without her.
Our first stop in Connemara was Kylemore Abbey, a beautiful old manor house that sits on a lake at base of a group of mountains. We thought about touring the house and gardens, but it cost 8 euro a person, there wasn't a student discount, and we were feeling cheap - so we just settled for admiring it from the outside. After spending some time at the Abbey we headed over to Connemara National Park for some hiking. When we got there the information center was closed, but the trails were marked well enough so we threw the ingredients for PB&J's that we bought at the grocery store into a bag and set off. We picked the long trail that went farthest up the mountain, we just didn't realize at the time that it went literally to the very top. The hike was very challenging physically - at one point the trail gave way to huge steps made out of slate rocks that were each at foot high. Once we got to the top, however, it was well worth it - the view was incredible. The sights were great on the way up but once we were at the top we could really take the whole area in. It felt as though we could see forever, mile after mile of rolling hills, mountains, and sheep fields. In addition to the sights, the park was completely silent. It really felt as though the four of us were the only ones around for miles. It was a very peaceful experience - we just sat down and had a picnic of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
After hiking back down we piled back in the car and set off for Galway, where we were spending the night. It took about a little over an hour, so we got in just after 6. We checked into our hostel (which was significantly nicer than the one in Belfast...at least as far as I could tell because I never really saw the Belfast hostel), showered, and then headed out for dinner. My first impression was a good one, and held for the rest of the night - Galway is an awesome place. I don't really think you can call it a city, it felt much more like a bigger town with a very authentic Irish feel to it. I've never seen so many pubs in my life. We stopped at one for dinner. I ordered Shepherd's Pie and it was delicious, especially after the hike. After dinner we went around to a bunch of different pubs. All of them were great - they all had live Irish music and were filled to capacity with some of the friendliest people I've met since being in Europe; everyone seemed interested in having a conversation. We were having a great time, but headed back a little early because we were exhausted.
We planned on getting on the road by 9:00 the next day, so I set my alarm for 7:45. When we woke up the sun was still down, which made it that much harder to get out of bed. We went down to breakfast and then packed up all of our stuff to go check out. At that point Jason checked his watch and saw that it was only 7:15 - apparently I forgot to change the time on my phone, and since Ireland is an hour behind Spain, I accidentally had everyone wake up at 6:45. Whoops.
We started the day by driving about 90 minutes to the Cliffs of Moher. Just as we arrived we heard on the radio that they are under consideration for being named one of the seven natural wonders of the world. Now I haven't seen a lot of the world, nor do I know what other sites are being considered, but if the cliffs received that title I wouldn't be surprised. They were incredible, the most beautiful sight I've ever seen. They even outshone Ronda, and that's a tough thing to do. It's more or less impossible to describe them - hundreds of feet high, made of slate rock washed almost black by the water and covered in green moss, with violent waves crashing at the bases. I felt as though I could have spent hours looking out at them. Unfortunately we were on a bit of a schedule, plus the weather was really cold, so we stayed and walked around the site for a little while before getting back in the car.
Next we set off for the Ring of Kerry. Before the trip Chris had e-mailed me an article from the WSJ about roadtripping through Ireland and it had two distinct days for the Cliffs of Moher and the Ring of Kerry - unfortunately we didn't have an extra day to spare, so we had to do the two in one. We set Patty up to take us to Kilarney, which is where our guidebooks recommended starting the Ring of Kerry drive. Again, we didn't pull out a map, we just listened to the GPS. We got to Kilarney around 3:30 and started the drive according to the National Geographic Ireland travel guide. It ended up being a great source because in addition to the general drive (which was beautiful in itself) it gave directions to a couple of recommended side sights that were all amazing - we saw a great lookout point over a mountain lake, a rocky beach on Dingle Bay, and old stone forts from the Iron Age that were still perfectly preserved. The drive took all afternoon, but it was well worth it. The Ring of Kerry was just as beautiful as everyone makes it out to be.
When it turned dark and we couldn't see the scenery anymore we set off for Kinsale, a small harbor town south of Cork that Chris recommended we visit. This part of the drive was difficult - imagine the same type of "roads" that I described earlier, only at night. We stopped off in Kenmare to get Fish n' Chips for dinner (delicious) and then got to Kinsale around 10:15. We made one more stop off on the side of the road by the lake to take in the night sky because it was the clearest one I've ever seen. It seemed as if we could see every star, shooting stars included.
We stayed at a Bed and Breakfast in Kinsale - great decision. It was so comfortable, the woman who ran it (like just about everyone in Ireland) was so nice, and the traditional Irish breakfast in the morning was awesome. I didn't realize how sick I am of having nothing but toast every morning until I got eggs and bacon. After breakfast we explored the town a little bit and after about 5 minutes I decided that I want to move there. It was the absolute cutest town I've ever seen - cobblestone streets, pastel-colored buildings and houses, and a small harbor filled with little white sailboats. It was ideal in every way possible.
We left Kinsale in the morning and set off for Blarney Castle - we figured we couldn't go to Ireland and not kiss the Blarney Stone. The castle itself was pretty cool and the grounds were gorgeous; the stone was a little anti-climactic, but I kind of expected that. After Blarney we went to Kilkenny for a late lunch and to see Kilkenny Castle. Again, another awesome town. After that we headed for Dublin and got in around 6:30. We checked into our hostel and ate the rest of our PB&J for dinner. We went out to the pubs a little while afterwards and there were people everywhere, naturally because it was the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day so everyone was going crazy. It was a lot of fun and we went to some pretty cool bars, but I definitely prefer Galway. Dublin more or less just felt like any other big city.
On Sunday morning we went to Powerscourt House and Gardens on the outskirts of Dublin. I didn't think Ireland could have gotten any greener until we got inside the grounds; the grass was so green it seemed to be glowing. We wandered around the gardens for awhile before heading back to Dublin to see St. Patrick's Cathedral (beautiful, but I've seen a lot of Gothic style cathedrals over the past two months and they're all starting to blend together) and to get lunch. After that we headed to the airport because our flight left at 3:40. This part of the trip got tricky. Our flight was scheduled to land in Malaga at 7:35. The last bus from Malaga to Sevilla left at 7:30, so that was out. There were two trains going back to Sevilla that night, one at 8:13 and one at 8:15 (how that schedule makes sense I don't know but whatever). If we missed those trains, our next option was hanging out in Malaga to catch a 3:15 am bus and then having to go to class about 2 hours after arriving in Sevilla. Obviously no one wanted that so we were determined to make one of the trains. A last testament to how nicely the Irish treated us, when we landed the entire plane let us get off first, which saved us a lot of time, we all jumped in cabs, and made the 8:15 train.
So at the end of the day, I was exhausted yet exhilarated. Ireland is an incredible place, I plan on getting back there as soon as I can.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Granada Weekend
Hello again everybody!
This past weekend our program took us to Granada, a smaller city in Andalucia that sits at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mounains. The good thing about this trip was that Granada is an awesome city. The bad thing was that I was sick so I couldn´t enjoy it to the fullest. One of the best things about the trip was that it was put together by UNC Study Abroad, so we didn´t pay for anything - and they spoiled us. We stayed in a 4-star hotel, had breakfast and dinner provided for us (which were some of the best meals I´ve eaten since being in Spain), got into all of the historical sites for free, and got student discounts at the hotel spa.
We left Sevilla around 10:00 in the morning on Friday and arrived in Granada around 2:00. My impression of the city was that it was absolutely beautiful and unlike a lot of the places I´ve seen in Andalucia thus far. Because it sits on the bottom of the mountains, the city was very hilly with narrow cobblestone streets giving way to big, open plazas. Even from the bottom of the hills the views of the mountains were awesome - most were still snowcapped. We checked into our hotel and, since it was siesta time, took a nap. Afterwards Emma, April, and I explored the city for a little while before going back to the hotel for dinner. After dinner our teachers/tour guides took us to a lookout point on the mountain to see La Alhambra at night. Quick background history - La Alhambra is one of Spain´s main attractions and the third most visited site in the world after the Louvre in Paris and the Coliseum in Rome. Granada was the last Muslim stronghold in Spain until Fernando and Isabel conquered it in 1492 and restored Catholicism there, so La Alhambra is the royal palace/military headquarters used under both periods. It´s enormous and at night it was completely lit up, so the view from the lookout point was great. After seeing La Alhambra, I went with April, Vincent, David, and Andy to a Teteria, which is an old Arab tea shop. It was an awesome place - everyone sits on short backless stools or big cushions, drinks tea out of old silver tea pots, and smokes hookah. We hung out there for a little while and then April and I went back to the hotel because we had an early wake-up call and neither of us was feeling very well.
Saturday morning we ate breakfast and then went to two historical sites. We started at La Capilla Real, the site of the tombs of los Reyes Catolicos (the Catholic King and Queen, Fernando and Isabel). They were the most important royals in Spanish history and we´ve learned more about them than anything else in our classes here so I enjoyed the visit a lot. Afterwards we went to the Cathedral (no suprise there - if you don´t enjoy old churches and castles then you won´t enjoy sightseeing in Europe). The Granada Cathedral, unlike most others I´ve seen so far, was built during the Renaissance years instead of Medieval period, so the style was different but I preferred the Renaissance style architecture.
We finished with the visits by noon and then had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. We walked around the city some more and then went to a tapas bar for lunch. They do tapas differently in Granada than in Sevilla - instead of ordering off of a menu, we just ordered drinks at the bar and they brought us a free tapa with it. It was awesome - I paid 2 euro for a glass of sangria and got a free lunch with it.
Unfortunately I really started to feel sick after lunch, so I went back to the hotel to sleep for awhile. When I woke up April had come back to the room and even though I didn´t feel that great I was desperate to get out of the hotel room, so she and I went for a hike to another lookout point to watch the sunset. It was not an easy hike by any means, especially considering we were both sick in the first place, but it was so worth it - the view was incredible and I was able to get some really good pictures.
We went back to the hotel and ate dinner, and then everyone started to get ready to go out. I ended up going out for a little while because I had heard such good things about the nightlife in Granada. I didn´t stay very long and only went to a couple of bars before going back to the hotel to sleep. One of the bars was one of the weirdest/funniest experiences I´ve ever had. Apparently it´s normal in Granada for thirteen year-olds to go to bars, because literally in one of the places we were the only ones over the age of 18. Everyone else was about a foot shorter than us, had braces, and stood in two distict groups, one for girls and one for guys, on opposite sides of the dancefloor. Suddenly I was back at a middle school dance. It was so awkward, but hilarious to watch.
The next day was our visit to La Alhambra. It was a lot of fun and very interesting, but very, very long - we were in there for almost three hours. There were two main parts to the site, the military headquarters and the royal residence. The site itself sits on top of a mountain, so we had great views looking down on the city. Afterwards we stopped just outside of Granada for lunch before heading back home. We got into Sevilla around 8:00 and had plans to watch the Duke/UNC game at Tex Mex Saloon, but 1) they weren´t showing it and 2) we didn´t consider daylight savings time in the US, so we were off on the time by an hour. Emilee was able find a link to stream it online, so I was able to catch the last ten minutes on my laptop. Naturally I went to bed very very happy - ACC Regular Season Champions and a #1 Ranking. We Rule.
This past weekend our program took us to Granada, a smaller city in Andalucia that sits at the base of the Sierra Nevada Mounains. The good thing about this trip was that Granada is an awesome city. The bad thing was that I was sick so I couldn´t enjoy it to the fullest. One of the best things about the trip was that it was put together by UNC Study Abroad, so we didn´t pay for anything - and they spoiled us. We stayed in a 4-star hotel, had breakfast and dinner provided for us (which were some of the best meals I´ve eaten since being in Spain), got into all of the historical sites for free, and got student discounts at the hotel spa.
We left Sevilla around 10:00 in the morning on Friday and arrived in Granada around 2:00. My impression of the city was that it was absolutely beautiful and unlike a lot of the places I´ve seen in Andalucia thus far. Because it sits on the bottom of the mountains, the city was very hilly with narrow cobblestone streets giving way to big, open plazas. Even from the bottom of the hills the views of the mountains were awesome - most were still snowcapped. We checked into our hotel and, since it was siesta time, took a nap. Afterwards Emma, April, and I explored the city for a little while before going back to the hotel for dinner. After dinner our teachers/tour guides took us to a lookout point on the mountain to see La Alhambra at night. Quick background history - La Alhambra is one of Spain´s main attractions and the third most visited site in the world after the Louvre in Paris and the Coliseum in Rome. Granada was the last Muslim stronghold in Spain until Fernando and Isabel conquered it in 1492 and restored Catholicism there, so La Alhambra is the royal palace/military headquarters used under both periods. It´s enormous and at night it was completely lit up, so the view from the lookout point was great. After seeing La Alhambra, I went with April, Vincent, David, and Andy to a Teteria, which is an old Arab tea shop. It was an awesome place - everyone sits on short backless stools or big cushions, drinks tea out of old silver tea pots, and smokes hookah. We hung out there for a little while and then April and I went back to the hotel because we had an early wake-up call and neither of us was feeling very well.
Saturday morning we ate breakfast and then went to two historical sites. We started at La Capilla Real, the site of the tombs of los Reyes Catolicos (the Catholic King and Queen, Fernando and Isabel). They were the most important royals in Spanish history and we´ve learned more about them than anything else in our classes here so I enjoyed the visit a lot. Afterwards we went to the Cathedral (no suprise there - if you don´t enjoy old churches and castles then you won´t enjoy sightseeing in Europe). The Granada Cathedral, unlike most others I´ve seen so far, was built during the Renaissance years instead of Medieval period, so the style was different but I preferred the Renaissance style architecture.
We finished with the visits by noon and then had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted. We walked around the city some more and then went to a tapas bar for lunch. They do tapas differently in Granada than in Sevilla - instead of ordering off of a menu, we just ordered drinks at the bar and they brought us a free tapa with it. It was awesome - I paid 2 euro for a glass of sangria and got a free lunch with it.
Unfortunately I really started to feel sick after lunch, so I went back to the hotel to sleep for awhile. When I woke up April had come back to the room and even though I didn´t feel that great I was desperate to get out of the hotel room, so she and I went for a hike to another lookout point to watch the sunset. It was not an easy hike by any means, especially considering we were both sick in the first place, but it was so worth it - the view was incredible and I was able to get some really good pictures.
We went back to the hotel and ate dinner, and then everyone started to get ready to go out. I ended up going out for a little while because I had heard such good things about the nightlife in Granada. I didn´t stay very long and only went to a couple of bars before going back to the hotel to sleep. One of the bars was one of the weirdest/funniest experiences I´ve ever had. Apparently it´s normal in Granada for thirteen year-olds to go to bars, because literally in one of the places we were the only ones over the age of 18. Everyone else was about a foot shorter than us, had braces, and stood in two distict groups, one for girls and one for guys, on opposite sides of the dancefloor. Suddenly I was back at a middle school dance. It was so awkward, but hilarious to watch.
The next day was our visit to La Alhambra. It was a lot of fun and very interesting, but very, very long - we were in there for almost three hours. There were two main parts to the site, the military headquarters and the royal residence. The site itself sits on top of a mountain, so we had great views looking down on the city. Afterwards we stopped just outside of Granada for lunch before heading back home. We got into Sevilla around 8:00 and had plans to watch the Duke/UNC game at Tex Mex Saloon, but 1) they weren´t showing it and 2) we didn´t consider daylight savings time in the US, so we were off on the time by an hour. Emilee was able find a link to stream it online, so I was able to catch the last ten minutes on my laptop. Naturally I went to bed very very happy - ACC Regular Season Champions and a #1 Ranking. We Rule.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Morocco
After 3 very long days of traveling I made it to, through, and home from Morocco. Best way to describe it would be to say that it was definitely an experience.
I took the trip through a travel company here called Discover Sevilla that caters towards American college students with three other girls from my program (Natalie, Emilee, and Jenna). I left my apartment around 4:30 am on Friday morning because our bus was leaving at 5:15 am and I had a bit of a walk. We took the bus to Tarifa, a port town on the southern coast of Spain about 2.5 hours from Sevilla and then caught a 9 am ferry from Tarifa to Tangiers. The ferry ride was a lot of fun, but very bumpy. The boat traveled through the area of water near the Straight of Gibraltar where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, so the water was very rough. The views were great, I was able to get some good pictures. We docked in Tangiers around 9 am (Morocco is an hour behind Spain), deboarded, and got back on the bus. Automatically cultural differences were everywhere - for example, we were not permitted to take pictures at the port (I never found out why); also, the dress was very conservative and the majority of the women wore the traditional head scarves.
We got back on the bus around 10:00 am and then set off for Rabat, the administrative capital of Morocco, situated right on the Atlantic coast. The trip took about 2.5 hours and we got into Rabat just in time for lunch. The trip was all-inclusive, so they had already arranged our meal for us at a restaurant right on the beach. It seemed pretty nice to me, and we got the impression that it was easily one of the nicer places in the city because they had a table of photographs of famous people who had eaten there and one of the photos was of Obama. The food was different but really good - they served us some giant pastry filled with chicken and cous cous and topped with powdered and brown sugars. After lunch we walked around the beach for a little while, which was beautiful. The coast was jagged with large rock walls that stretched hundreds of yards out into the ocean. After the beach, we headed toward the center square of the city, which included the mosque, the mausoleum of Mohammad V, and the tower from which the daily prayer is called. Muslims are supposed to pray at five specific times throughout the day and when we got to the square it was at the time of one of the calls, which was a really cool thing to witness. We weren't allowed in the mosque, but we toured the mausoleum, which was very elaborate and very beautiful.
After our tour of the square we went to an old Castle/Fort in the city that overlooked the ocean. It was all outdoors and walking through the castle led straight to the Medina (old islamic city). The Medina in Rabat was awesome to walk through - it consisted entirely of alleyways of whitewashed buildings with light blue paint splashes and accents. When we got through the Medina we got to the edge of the fort that had some great views of the Atlantic. Again my pictures turned out great. The castle/medina concluded the tour of Rabat. We got back on the bus and drove to Fez, the "cultural capital" of Morocco. The trip took about 3 hours. We checked into our hotel in Fez, which was really nice, and then went straight upstairs to the hotel restaurant for dinner. We ate some kind of green soup that sort of tasted like broccoli cheddar and then a plate of rice, vegetables, and chicken in some kind of weird sauce. Again, different but really good. After dinner everyone was so exhausted that we more or less fell straight into bed.
The next morning Natalie and I met Jenna and Emilee for breakfast in the hotel restaurant at 8 am. The restaurant was at the top floor of our hotel and had glass windows all around, so there was a great view of the city and the surrounding Reef Mountains. At 9:00 we all got on the bus and started our tour of Fez. We started out at the Royal Palace, where the King Mohammad VI was currently residing. The palace was cool, an ideal example of Islamic architecture. After that we walked a little through the old Jewish quarter, which really wasn't anything special. Then we got back on the bus and drove to the Medina, which was the main stop of our tour of Fez.
The Medina of Fez was easily the craziest place I have ever been in my life, if only for the incredible culture shock that it caused. It consists of over 9,600 alleyways, the widest of which were just a foot or two longer than my wingspan, that twist into a dark labyrinth that is absolutely impossible to navigate. Luckily we had a guide, though I still don't know how anyone could ever learn their way around. Imagine the opening scene of Aladdin when he is trying to escape after stealing the bread - I'm convinced now that Disney modeled that scene after the Medina. Stores, workshops, and street vendors were spilling out everywhere and at least once every 1-2 minutes a man pulling a donkey carrying a load as wide as the alley itself would come marching through. It was absolute madness.
We made 4 stops in the Medina. The first was at a carpet store where they served everyone mint tea and showed us all of the differences between different Moroccan carpets. It sounds dull but it was actually really cool. Natalie and I went back into the room where the women were weaving the rugs and they were so nice - they immediately scooted over, had us sit down, and taught us how to weave a carpet. Unfortunately they only spoke French and Arabic (most people that we came in contact with in Morocco spoke at least 4 languages), so we couldn't really communicate with them much. Our second stop was at a fabric store where they made clothing, linens, and scarves. Everything was beautiful, but the salesmen were obnoxiously pushy so I didn't buy anything. After the fabric store we went to lunch at a restaurant in the Medina; the food was awesome here. They gave us so much of it that I won't even try to describe it because that would be a blog entry in itself, and this one is going to be way too long anyway.
After lunch our third stop was at the leather tannery, one of the most famous places in the Medina. We went into the store and straight up 5 flights of stairs that looked over the tannery from above. It was open-air and consisted of hundreds of deep clay tubs built out of the ground and filled with different dyes. After the leather was taken from the animal, cleaned, and tanned it is brought into the store and made into every kind of leather good you can imagine to be sold. After the tannery we made our last stop at a spice store, which was probably my favorite place. The owner demonstrated how they made everything from cooking spices to perfumes to medicinal remedies; it was almost like watching an old witch doctor.
We were in the Medina more or less all day and I left with mixed emotions. When I first got there it was so unlike anything I had ever seen before, which was thrilling in a lot of ways. It turned out to be a very guilded first impression, however, because as the day wore on a lot of the negative aspects started to cloud my initial excitement. For one, the poverty factor was a lot to take in. All of the buildings (if you can even call them that) were completely decrepit. Easiest way to describe it would be to tell you to go see Slumdog Millionaire and pay close attention to the opening scene when the boys are running through the slum; the Medina was the same. There were beggars at every corner and it became much worse in the afternoon when school let out and all of sudden children were asking for money. In many ways I felt I was thrown into a time warp; it was a civilization completely foreign to me. Secondly, the men were so rude and disgusting, the harassment didn't stop all day. It was only verbal and by no means did I ever feel unsafe, it just got so annoying to listen to. By the time I left I felt completely drained mentally.
We went back to the hotel and had about an hour and a half before dinner, during which Natalie and I just relaxed in the room. After dinner we hung out with Emilee and Jenna for a little while before going to bed.
The next day was a very long one travelwise. We left Fez around 8:30 for Assilah, a small fishing village on the Atlantic coast. The bus ride took forever, we didn't get to Assilah until 1:00. Before we got off our tour directors told us something that again painted the reality of life in Morocco- they told us that if we talked to anyone we should not tell them that we were going to Spain because of the probability that they would use us to get on the bus so that they could get out of the country. That said, once we got to Assilah we just kept to ourselves. They provided us with picnic lunches, so we headed straight for the beach. Assilah's coastline was very similar to Rabat's, only more beautiful and more dramatic. We ate our lunches on the rocks that sat high above the water and spent the afternoon exploring the coast and the village. The town itself was very pretty, much like the Medina in Rabat with the whitewashed and blue buildings. I saw two things I've never seen before - a herd of camels and a man with a monkey on a leash.
We left Assilah at 3:30 and headed to Tangiers to catch the ferry back to Spain. On the way there the tour directors warned us again in regards to the possibility that some Moroccans would be trying to sneak out of the country and into Spain and that it could get slightly hectic as we got closer to Tarifa. They weren't kidding - when we were about 30 minutes from Tangiers a group of younger teenage boys started running down the bus, jumped onto the back bumper, and hung onto the outside while the bus was moving full speed down the highway. Every now and then they would have to jump off because of a passing police officer, but the trend continued more or less the whole way there. At one point there were five boys hanging on the back of the bus. It was both absolutely insane and heartbreaking to witness to think of how tough life must be that they would be so desperate to get to Spain. From what we learned on the trip the immigration problems with Morocco and Spain are similar to those of Mexico and the United States.
The trip back had multiple delays that added up and by the time we got back to Sevilla it was after 1:00 in the morning. All in all, the trip was incredible in every sense of the word and I am so glad that I went. It was one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life and though it sounds so cliche, it really demonstrated how many blessings I have in my life. I'm not sure if I would go back to Morocco or not but being there made me want to travel to Subsaharra Africa more than ever before. I was completley exhausted by the end of it all - let's just say I didn't make it to my 9:30 class on Monday morning.
Now I'm back in Sevilla and the weather is cold and rainy again, so everyone is pretty much spending their time being lazy, myself included. I'm going to Granada, another city in Southern Spain, this week through a trip that the UNC program arranges for everyone. My roommate, who is in a different track of the program, went a few weeks ago and had an incredible time so I'm really looking forward to it. I'll be back to update after that. Miss and love you all - adios!
I took the trip through a travel company here called Discover Sevilla that caters towards American college students with three other girls from my program (Natalie, Emilee, and Jenna). I left my apartment around 4:30 am on Friday morning because our bus was leaving at 5:15 am and I had a bit of a walk. We took the bus to Tarifa, a port town on the southern coast of Spain about 2.5 hours from Sevilla and then caught a 9 am ferry from Tarifa to Tangiers. The ferry ride was a lot of fun, but very bumpy. The boat traveled through the area of water near the Straight of Gibraltar where the Atlantic meets the Mediterranean, so the water was very rough. The views were great, I was able to get some good pictures. We docked in Tangiers around 9 am (Morocco is an hour behind Spain), deboarded, and got back on the bus. Automatically cultural differences were everywhere - for example, we were not permitted to take pictures at the port (I never found out why); also, the dress was very conservative and the majority of the women wore the traditional head scarves.
We got back on the bus around 10:00 am and then set off for Rabat, the administrative capital of Morocco, situated right on the Atlantic coast. The trip took about 2.5 hours and we got into Rabat just in time for lunch. The trip was all-inclusive, so they had already arranged our meal for us at a restaurant right on the beach. It seemed pretty nice to me, and we got the impression that it was easily one of the nicer places in the city because they had a table of photographs of famous people who had eaten there and one of the photos was of Obama. The food was different but really good - they served us some giant pastry filled with chicken and cous cous and topped with powdered and brown sugars. After lunch we walked around the beach for a little while, which was beautiful. The coast was jagged with large rock walls that stretched hundreds of yards out into the ocean. After the beach, we headed toward the center square of the city, which included the mosque, the mausoleum of Mohammad V, and the tower from which the daily prayer is called. Muslims are supposed to pray at five specific times throughout the day and when we got to the square it was at the time of one of the calls, which was a really cool thing to witness. We weren't allowed in the mosque, but we toured the mausoleum, which was very elaborate and very beautiful.
After our tour of the square we went to an old Castle/Fort in the city that overlooked the ocean. It was all outdoors and walking through the castle led straight to the Medina (old islamic city). The Medina in Rabat was awesome to walk through - it consisted entirely of alleyways of whitewashed buildings with light blue paint splashes and accents. When we got through the Medina we got to the edge of the fort that had some great views of the Atlantic. Again my pictures turned out great. The castle/medina concluded the tour of Rabat. We got back on the bus and drove to Fez, the "cultural capital" of Morocco. The trip took about 3 hours. We checked into our hotel in Fez, which was really nice, and then went straight upstairs to the hotel restaurant for dinner. We ate some kind of green soup that sort of tasted like broccoli cheddar and then a plate of rice, vegetables, and chicken in some kind of weird sauce. Again, different but really good. After dinner everyone was so exhausted that we more or less fell straight into bed.
The next morning Natalie and I met Jenna and Emilee for breakfast in the hotel restaurant at 8 am. The restaurant was at the top floor of our hotel and had glass windows all around, so there was a great view of the city and the surrounding Reef Mountains. At 9:00 we all got on the bus and started our tour of Fez. We started out at the Royal Palace, where the King Mohammad VI was currently residing. The palace was cool, an ideal example of Islamic architecture. After that we walked a little through the old Jewish quarter, which really wasn't anything special. Then we got back on the bus and drove to the Medina, which was the main stop of our tour of Fez.
The Medina of Fez was easily the craziest place I have ever been in my life, if only for the incredible culture shock that it caused. It consists of over 9,600 alleyways, the widest of which were just a foot or two longer than my wingspan, that twist into a dark labyrinth that is absolutely impossible to navigate. Luckily we had a guide, though I still don't know how anyone could ever learn their way around. Imagine the opening scene of Aladdin when he is trying to escape after stealing the bread - I'm convinced now that Disney modeled that scene after the Medina. Stores, workshops, and street vendors were spilling out everywhere and at least once every 1-2 minutes a man pulling a donkey carrying a load as wide as the alley itself would come marching through. It was absolute madness.
We made 4 stops in the Medina. The first was at a carpet store where they served everyone mint tea and showed us all of the differences between different Moroccan carpets. It sounds dull but it was actually really cool. Natalie and I went back into the room where the women were weaving the rugs and they were so nice - they immediately scooted over, had us sit down, and taught us how to weave a carpet. Unfortunately they only spoke French and Arabic (most people that we came in contact with in Morocco spoke at least 4 languages), so we couldn't really communicate with them much. Our second stop was at a fabric store where they made clothing, linens, and scarves. Everything was beautiful, but the salesmen were obnoxiously pushy so I didn't buy anything. After the fabric store we went to lunch at a restaurant in the Medina; the food was awesome here. They gave us so much of it that I won't even try to describe it because that would be a blog entry in itself, and this one is going to be way too long anyway.
After lunch our third stop was at the leather tannery, one of the most famous places in the Medina. We went into the store and straight up 5 flights of stairs that looked over the tannery from above. It was open-air and consisted of hundreds of deep clay tubs built out of the ground and filled with different dyes. After the leather was taken from the animal, cleaned, and tanned it is brought into the store and made into every kind of leather good you can imagine to be sold. After the tannery we made our last stop at a spice store, which was probably my favorite place. The owner demonstrated how they made everything from cooking spices to perfumes to medicinal remedies; it was almost like watching an old witch doctor.
We were in the Medina more or less all day and I left with mixed emotions. When I first got there it was so unlike anything I had ever seen before, which was thrilling in a lot of ways. It turned out to be a very guilded first impression, however, because as the day wore on a lot of the negative aspects started to cloud my initial excitement. For one, the poverty factor was a lot to take in. All of the buildings (if you can even call them that) were completely decrepit. Easiest way to describe it would be to tell you to go see Slumdog Millionaire and pay close attention to the opening scene when the boys are running through the slum; the Medina was the same. There were beggars at every corner and it became much worse in the afternoon when school let out and all of sudden children were asking for money. In many ways I felt I was thrown into a time warp; it was a civilization completely foreign to me. Secondly, the men were so rude and disgusting, the harassment didn't stop all day. It was only verbal and by no means did I ever feel unsafe, it just got so annoying to listen to. By the time I left I felt completely drained mentally.
We went back to the hotel and had about an hour and a half before dinner, during which Natalie and I just relaxed in the room. After dinner we hung out with Emilee and Jenna for a little while before going to bed.
The next day was a very long one travelwise. We left Fez around 8:30 for Assilah, a small fishing village on the Atlantic coast. The bus ride took forever, we didn't get to Assilah until 1:00. Before we got off our tour directors told us something that again painted the reality of life in Morocco- they told us that if we talked to anyone we should not tell them that we were going to Spain because of the probability that they would use us to get on the bus so that they could get out of the country. That said, once we got to Assilah we just kept to ourselves. They provided us with picnic lunches, so we headed straight for the beach. Assilah's coastline was very similar to Rabat's, only more beautiful and more dramatic. We ate our lunches on the rocks that sat high above the water and spent the afternoon exploring the coast and the village. The town itself was very pretty, much like the Medina in Rabat with the whitewashed and blue buildings. I saw two things I've never seen before - a herd of camels and a man with a monkey on a leash.
We left Assilah at 3:30 and headed to Tangiers to catch the ferry back to Spain. On the way there the tour directors warned us again in regards to the possibility that some Moroccans would be trying to sneak out of the country and into Spain and that it could get slightly hectic as we got closer to Tarifa. They weren't kidding - when we were about 30 minutes from Tangiers a group of younger teenage boys started running down the bus, jumped onto the back bumper, and hung onto the outside while the bus was moving full speed down the highway. Every now and then they would have to jump off because of a passing police officer, but the trend continued more or less the whole way there. At one point there were five boys hanging on the back of the bus. It was both absolutely insane and heartbreaking to witness to think of how tough life must be that they would be so desperate to get to Spain. From what we learned on the trip the immigration problems with Morocco and Spain are similar to those of Mexico and the United States.
The trip back had multiple delays that added up and by the time we got back to Sevilla it was after 1:00 in the morning. All in all, the trip was incredible in every sense of the word and I am so glad that I went. It was one of the most eye-opening experiences of my life and though it sounds so cliche, it really demonstrated how many blessings I have in my life. I'm not sure if I would go back to Morocco or not but being there made me want to travel to Subsaharra Africa more than ever before. I was completley exhausted by the end of it all - let's just say I didn't make it to my 9:30 class on Monday morning.
Now I'm back in Sevilla and the weather is cold and rainy again, so everyone is pretty much spending their time being lazy, myself included. I'm going to Granada, another city in Southern Spain, this week through a trip that the UNC program arranges for everyone. My roommate, who is in a different track of the program, went a few weeks ago and had an incredible time so I'm really looking forward to it. I'll be back to update after that. Miss and love you all - adios!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Carnaval and Mid-Semester Madness
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!
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!
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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