Viajes

Finally booked all of my TRIPS! Just to update everyone on where I will be traveling...



February 18-21: PARIS



February 25-27: MOROCCO

March 5: CADIZ - Carnaval!



March 11-12: CORDOBA/GRANADA



March 17-20: ROME



April 8-10: BARCELONA



March 25-27: LISBON

And now I'm broke! haha well not yet...I will be spending Holy Week in Sevilla (of course) and then it's back to good old America on April 30th! Time flies y'all...

Semana Santa: SEVILLA (notice the Giralda?)

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Reales Alcazares y Catedral



"New" wall built in the 18th century



Yesterday we visited the Reales Alcazares (pronounced ray-AL-es al-CA-thar-es in Spanish), which was originally a Moorish fortress in the 12th century. Throughout the years various kings added on to it for a collection of small palaces and gardens.

Garden Maze, modeled after those of Versailles



Mini palace constructed as a dining room for the king.
It's surrounded by gardens which were supposed to cool
the room  down in the heat of the summer. It was also
a place where the kings would entertain their mistresses.





Tile decoration around the mini dining room. All hand painted from Sevilla, cerca 15th centry.



 

Bath houses of Maria de Padilla, mistress of Peter the Cruel. She was hated by the people  and a soldier had to test the water before she could enter every day. One time a soldier refused and King Peter had him swiftly executed.





View of the gardens





In one of the palaces



Ceiling of one of the palaces

Upside down map tapestry...they made it that way to focus on the battles at sea.

Patio de las Doncellas (Courtyard of the Maidens)
Referring to the legend that the Moors demanded 100 virgins every
year as a tribute from the Christian kingdoms on the Iberian Peninsula.

After that we went to the Cathedral. It was kind of funny that the only thing anyone could mutter when we walked in was "holy shit"...there was a lot of holy shit in there that's for sure...one being the preserved body of a saint!

Ok ok a little history...it was originally a mosque that was built in the 10th century, but when Ferdinand III conquered Sevilla from the Moors in 1248 he "Christianized" the mosque. The construction of the current cathedral began in 1402 and the decision of the builders was to "Build a church so beautiful and so great that those who see it built will think we were mad." They did just that, it is the 3rd largest Cathedral in the world behind St. Peter's at the Vatican and St. Paul in London. Construction finished in 1506, over 100 years later.

Patio de Naranjos
(from the top of the Giralda)

Giralda...35 ramps to the top
100 meters tall

Church workers gave half of their salaries for builders, architects, and many other expenses. The main source of funding came from the chapels. There are over 80 small chapels surrounding the main area that were paid for by the super rich of that time. They each had their own chapel for their own family to attend mass.

The builders kept 2 things from the original mosque that had been built in 1184...the entrance court (now the Patio de los Naranjos) and the Giralda (originally a minaret, now a bell tower).

The Cathedral is home to many tombs. Tombs of Castillian kings and queens from the 13th & 14th centuries can be found under the altar, but two very very important people were also laid to rest there.





Tomb of Cristobal Colon


• The first is Christopher Columbus, and everybody knows who that is. He was originally buried in Santo Domingo but was moved back to Spain during the Spanish-American war. During the destruction of a church in Santo Domingo a box was found with Christopher Columbus' name enscribed on it. The only way to find out if Sevilla had the real remains or if Santo Domingo had the real remains was to do DNA testing. It was confirmed that Sevilla did have (some) remains of Christopher Columbus, but the Dominican refused to do testing so no one knows if they have some too or not.
• The second is Saint Ferdinand III. His body is actually fully preserved in a tomb behind the high altar and is only open to the public once a year. His body remains incorrupt...our guide told us that he still has skin, hair, nails, and eyes after 759 YEARS! If you remember from my history lesson earlier, he was the one who reconquered Sevilla from the Moors in the 13th century, and for that he is ever remembered by the Sevillian people. He was canonized by Clement X in 1671. Unfortunately I won't be here this year when they allow the public to view him, but my hostmom said it was an incredible sight...and the lines wrap around the Cathedral multiple times!

Have I bored you enough yet? I LOVE history. I like knowing why what I'm seeing is important! Here's what you all have been waiting for...

Puerto del Lagarto
An Egyptian king gave this alligator and that elephant tusk along
 with a giraffe to Spain in effort to establish diplomatic contacts.

Notice how the naves make a cross?

High Altar...over 2000 kilos of real gold folks.



Organ anyone?



And this concludes my history lesson for the day. They no longer hold masses at the Cathedral except for special occasions (when the current king's daughter got married). Hope y'all enjoyed!

PS...I'M GOING TO PARIS THIS-COMING WEEKEND!

Leia Mais…

Super Bowl

So I felt like I slept alllll day Saturday and Sunday...but my host family did too so I didn't feel so bad! Sunday night Hill and I got a couple invites to some Super Bowl watch parties at different bars in town. She went to one in Nervion, I went to another at a bar by the Cathedral. 6 Euros got you in without a cover, and paid for 2 drinks! There were about 12 of us from my program there. It was kind of funny, the bar was divided exactly in half by English-speakers and Spanish-speakers! They also had American buffet food go figure!

YUM.



We were supposed to pay 12 Euros...but we only paid 6 ;)



Now, for y'all the Super Bowl started around 5:30pm...that was 12:30am for us! I ended up drinking 5 tinto veranos (sangrias) and losing 2 bets. I owe Carlos a shot of tequila and Pam a drink! And the only reason I was rooting for Pittsburgh is because I had a black and yellow outfit, and not a green and yellow outfit! Yeah I gave about 2 shits for the teams but it was a nice American experience here. We finally left when it was over, around 4am. I got home at 4:30 and realized I didn't have an alarm! I wrote Esme a not in Spanish asking her to wake me up at 8:30 for my first day of class but I wasn't sure if she would even be up by then! I kept waking up every hour making sure I hadn't overslept, so needless to say, I got zero sleep. I finally got to make up for it today though, slept all afternoon and it was great :)

Half of the group at Flaherty's!

Class is interesting here. And by interesting I mean different. My business Spanish class starts at 10 and lasts 50 minutes every day. Today she gives us a packet and tells us to do these exercises and we don't even know what the definitions of the words are in ENGLISH muchless the English translation of the word! Not very effective Coro.

Then I go to advanced Spanish language where the teacher doesn't permit ANY English and lots of people in the class need it still. I find it a catch-22 when I get frustrated that we're reviewing easy things (the difference between preterito perfecto, preterito, imperfecto, y pluscuamperfecto) and also frustrated when we're learning hard things HA. Maybe I'm just never satisfied...but I'd rather be learning NEW things than reviewing old even though that's pretty much what every Spanish class has been since the beginning.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays that's all I have! I'm done by noon...how great is that? No class on Fridays either, perfect for traveling! But on Mondays and Wednesdays I have 2 more classes. My European Union class is 4-5:50 and my International Marketing class is from 6-7:50. EU is way more interesting that Mktg...I'm learning so many new things in that class that I didn't know! Whereas Mktg has been a review of all of my previous marketing/trade classes so far. At least the teacher is somewhat interesting...unfortunately he lets documentaries decide his stance on certain issues without reading further into it (Food, Inc. was talked about specifically in class). He was also kind of hating on Wal-Mart. I wanted to be like yo dude, Wal-Mart owns half of my school and Tyson owns the other half so we're pretty informed on these topics, watch what you say! I didn't of course, but how epic would that have been?

He did say something interesting though, Americans have a whole aisle in Wal-Mart dedicated to salad dressings. Ranch, fat free Ranch, Bacon Ranch, Buttermilk Ranch...what ever happened to olive oil and vinegar? That's all they use here and it's no wonder why. Andalusia is a world producer of olive oil and it is amazing. Just something to think about...

Tomorrow night we're going out to some tapas bars with Spanish students from the University of Sevilla who want to improve their English. We'll do that one more time next week, then if you want, you can request an intercambio partner. Just you and one student from the U of S who meet on your own. I'm reallllly hoping to meet some Spanish friends through this!

Friday we're visiting the Cathedral and Alcazar...get ready to be amazed by the pictures I post. Did you know the tomb of Christopher Columbus is in the Cathedral of Sevilla?

Hasta luego!

Leia Mais…

Lazy Saturday

Yesterday was my first day at the Universidad Internacional de Menendez Pelayo in Sevilla. The group met at 10 at Plaza Nueva and then walked to the UIMP to take our Spanish placement exams. Hill and I only live maybe 8 minutes from Plaza Nueva but we asked our host mom how to get there but we weren't confident enough with our understanding to take the small streets...it ended up taking us about 30 minutes on the main streets. The placement exam was cake until about question 60 out of 80. We had 20 minutes left and this was the hardest part of the test. If I had had more time I could've been more confident in my answers but I didn't so I just prayed that my solid answers on 1-60 were good enough to get me in Advanced so I can FINALLY finish my minor...







Ever been to the Cheesecake Factory in KC?
They have a replica of this, the Giralda Tower.







Main entrance to the Cathedral



After that we went on a mini tour of the centro in Sevilla. We saw the Cathedral and Alcazar (old fortress), but didn't tour them. Our program has the tours already planned for next week, though. We also saw many plazas that all have their own church and lots of tapas bars. Tapas are small appetizer-like foods, some are finger foods, others are small sandwiches, etc. After the tour Hill and I and a couple of our guy friends went out for tapas. I had my first Spanish tortilla there and it was amazing. It's made out of potatoes and egg, not your typical Mexican tortilla! Hill had patatas bravas which is potatoes with mayo and a ketchup-like salsa...a delicacy here. We then walked around the centro some more and finally went back to UIMP to begin our classes in English.



Side view...it's GIGANTIC!



Spanish Tortilla (and sangria of course)



Alcazar









European Union: Economy & Politics in the 21st Century was my first class yesterday. Normally we don't have classes on Fridays but it was just syllabus day so we can hit the ground running next week. I'm really excited about this class, and no I'm not a nerd! There are a total of 12 students, smallest class I've EVER been in. The teacher is funny, down to earth, and passionate about the EU. Oh did I mention I already have a presentation due Wednesday on Winston Churchill?

We got out early (it will usually last 2 hours, 2 days a week) so I went down and got my schedule. I got into Business Spanish and Advanced Language. I've heard Business Spanish is pretty intense and that I get to do a lengthy presentation in Spanish about a company towards the end of the semester, but how else will I ever learn? I've got to do it. Looks like I'll be finishing my minor up here in Sevilla!

My last class yesterday was International Marketing. Hill and I have that together which is good because I think there's a partner presentation due at the end of the course. It's a huge class, but the teacher is hilarious. Yesterday he said, "If you know English and you know Spanish and you're an international business majory then you are the shit." Everyone died laughing. He also told us that we could excuse ourselves to take important phone calls outside of the classroom. He said once he had a student who did that and went outside the building to talk. The windows in the classroom were open and he and the entire class heard the kid talking to a Spanish marijuana dealer. He told a few other stories as to why we shouldn't do some things in class because of past occurrances and they were all so funny! I think I'm going to like that class.

Finally after that, the group walked up to Nervion to a hotel for a meeting and more tapas (they have tapas for like 2 out of the 5 meals everyday). The meeting was boring as always but he did talk about asking for an intercambio partner, which I'm GOING to do. An intercambio partner is a student from the University of Sevilla who wants to work on their English and we get paired up with them in order to work on our Spanish. I'm really excited to meet mine, though I'm not sure when that will happen. The tapas after the meeting consisted of cream cheese stuffed smoked salmon, roasted veggies and chicken, calamari, fried fish pieces, a bacon yogurt parfait type thingy (disgusting) and a few other interesting handhelds. I ended up eating plenty but Hill and a couple other girls were hungry after so we went for tapas...YET AGAIN. I had 2 copas de vino instead :)

When we returned home our host mother and Marta were awake and talked to us about our day. We tried to explain our schedules to her but we ended up just giving our papers to her. We told her we might go out if our friends called us but we weren't sure. I skyped with Whit and Mom, and Brittany briefly, then one of my friends chatted me and told us they were headed to Betis Street. La Calle de Betis is similar to Dickson, but times 2 or 3. So we got ready and made the 25 minute walk across the river. The bars on Betis are mostly Spanish but the people are mostly tourists, though there were quite a bit of Spaniards there...I danced with one (of course). They're so much more outgoing than American guys I mean come on, I didn't even know the guy and he just grabbed my hand and we danced out onto the dancefloor! Hill told me later she was nervous because I went off with some Spaniard and she didn't know what to do...I told her there was nothing for her to have done, she has a lot to learn about me. My guard is up here, don't get me wrong, but dancing in the middle of tons of people (many people from our own program) isn't going to get me "taken". I honestly believe Mexico is worse than little old Sevilla...

We finally decided to head home around 3am. When we got home we turned on the hall light to open our apartment and then once inside I tried to turn it off but couldn't, so I pushed the button beside it but that was a mistake. It was the DOORBELL to our host family's apartment and it was LOUD! I'm honestly surprised they didn't come running out to see what was wrong since it was 3:30am at that point...my bad.

We slept in until after 12...not on purpose. Our room is so dark with the blinds down! I took a shower and Hill went for a run. I went out to try to find a phone but since it was after 2 all of the stores were closed for siesta so I had an ensalmada and cafe con leche instead...YUM. Then when I got back she was cooking almuerzo for us! So I of course, ate again. She fried a chicken breast and made up a cold pasta salad complete with an orange for dessert. I told her I was eating wayyyy healthier here than I have ever probably. Maybe I'll actually lose weight...we'll see...

It kind of sucks that we haven't had a meal with the family. They're not all always here though, the dad works a lot and the girl is in school but even our mom won't eat with us, she just prepares it and talks to us as we eat. I hope this changes but I'm not sure it will.

Not sure what our plans are for the rest of the day but it's currently 61 and sunny...as it will be for the next 10 days at least. I think I might take a siesta on the roof. 

Adios. 

Leia Mais…

Madrid, Toledo, y por fin SEVILLA

WELL...I've had quite the week! Tuesday we toured the Prado museum where many masterpieces are housed. We saw Las Meninas by Velazquez and it took my breath away. It wasn't just a painting of a princess, it's one of the most popular and widely analyzed works in Western paintings. The princess (Margarita) in the painting can be found EVERYWHERE throughout Madrid. I could go on and on about this painting but I don't want to bore anyone so you can check it out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Meninas. We also saw many works by Goya as well and I bought postcards there! Haven't written them yet but some of you will probably receive one :) I have very few pix from the Prado because we weren't allowed to take them inside but here's a few.

Front of the Prado

Statue of Goya outside of the Prado

After Prado we went to the Royal Palace. It was GIGANTIC! We spent over an hour and half there, saw 10+ rooms and it was only 10% of the entire palace. The royal family doesn't live there anymore, I think it's only used for special occasions.

At Palacio Real

In front of the royal cathedral

 We walked around Plaza Mayor and Plaza del Sol for the remainder of the afternoon. Hill and I both bought Real Madrid jerseys...I'm officially obsessed with Sergio Ramos. We ate some montaditos (mini sandwiches) and had some vino for lunch then headed to the indoor mercado (market). They sold fresh fish, fruits, vegetables, homemade pasta and soooo much more. There we also had some fresh sangria with lemons and apples and it was delish! We also saw wine on tap at the mercado. After that we went back to the hotel & we were so tired we ended up sleeping for almost 3 hours! Around 10 we got up and got ready to go out. We met one of Hill's friends studying in Madrid at a pub and had a couple drinks with him. We went back to the hotel around 1 and were on the internet until after 3am...jetlag had definitely set in.

Mercado

Sangria

Wine on tap

We woke up a little late the next morning but at least we were on time for the bus to Toledo...they ended up leaving 2 people because they couldn't find them! Toledo was INCREDIBLE. If you've ever wondered where the phrase "Holy Toledo" comes from, all you have to do is look at the city...it's also a pretty holy city too since it has influences from Christians, Jews, and Muslims. The guide told us it was over 5000 years old! And it was the original capital of Spain until the 16th century when they moved the capital to Madrid...a much younger city. First we went to the Monasterio San Juan de los Reyes which was commissioned to be built by Ferdinand and Isabella and was originally supposed to be their burial site, but they ended up being buried in Granada. 

The chains represented all of the Christians who were freed from Moorish captivity.
The used to cover the entire facade but damn Napoleon and his army...





Ceiling of the chapel

Altar of the chapel

Cloister view (courtyard-type area)

We got to see one of the oldest Jewish synagogues still in existance there even though they no longer have a Jewish community. Then we went to the church of Santo Tome which houses El Greco's masterpiece "The Burial of Count Orgaz". Apparently the count was a very pious man and on his burial day at that church a miracle happened when St. Stephen and St. Augustine came down from heaven and buried him with their own hands in front of the community. We were basically on the site of a real miracle and viewing the 2nd most visited painting in the world at the same time (second only to the Mona Lisa at the Louvre)...breathtaking to say the least. Check more of it out here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burial_of_the_Count_of_Orgaz.

Synagogue

Star of David under the columns

 After that we went to the square of the city and saw the great cathedral. It's the second largest gothic cathedral in the world (second only to the one in Sevilla). The building began in the 13th century and didn't finish until the 15th century. The king in the 13th century had just won Toledo from Muslim control, decided to destroy the mosque in the center of the city and replace it with this very cathedral.

In the streets of Toledo with the cathedral in the background

We spent the rest of the day at our hotel which was on the other side of the city. We watched the Real Madrid vs. Sevilla futbol game in the lobby bar and Real Madrid won (yay Sergio)! We left Toledo around 10am and arrived in Sevilla around 5:30pm FINALLY....

View from our hotel room, the city is to the left

Pool area at our hotel, unfortunately it was a little chilly!

 Our host family is AMAZING. Our parents know no English, but their 12-year old daughter, Marta, knows quite a bit. I guess all of her classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays are in English! Mama Esme speaks very clearly so Hill and I can understand her, but Jose Manuel and Marta speak very fast and it's going to take some time getting used to that and the Sevillano accent! I'm glad they don't speak English though, how else would we learn? Our apartment is very cute, very new. They've only lived here for 2 months. Hill and I have our own room and share a bathroom. The view is amazing especially when you go out on the roof...you can see the top of the Giralda Tower from it! They told us in March it's perfect for "tomar el sol"...sunbathing :)

View from our roof, Giralda in the background kind of masked by sunlight

View from our apartment

Just had a wonderful dinner of mixed veggies, cheese and mayo omelet, and banana yogurt. It's 10:30pm, I was going to eat anything put in front of me and I did I was so hungry and this is the NORM! Also I'm all for the European mentality of conserving everything but...wait, no I'm not I'm actually totally against it...and I'm FREEZING in my room right now because we had the window open all afternoon and now it's dark and central heating and cooling simply don't exist! Brr...can't wait for 60s tomorrow though. All of you snowpocalypse survivors be jealous.


Hasta luego!

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