...Sevilla...

Sunday May 25, 2008
-We actually got to sleep in today for once! I woke up around 11 to Brttany’s phone call saying there was a fair outside our house next to the supermarket Al Campo. We decided to go around 1 to look around. In the meantime, I took a shower and played with Pablo on paint.
-The fair was basically a flea market. They had so many things! Clothes, fans, SHOES, jewelry, and everything was so cheap! We were limited on time because we had to leave by 1:45, but we were definitely coming back next Sunday (they had them every Sunday).
-We had a tour of the Alcazar Palace and gardens at 3. The palace was beautiful, such intricate architecture. The gardens were also fabulous, and since we could get in free anytime with our ISIC card, I will probably go back there sometime.
-At 6 we went to tour la Catedral, but it was closed for some reason.We then had an hour free time until the Bull Fight. We ate ice cream, and walked over to the Plaza de Torros. I wore heels again today, I don’t know why, but I learned my lesson for sure now :)
-We had pretty good seat, right on the ring. Later I found that the tickets for those seats had cost 30 Euros! And this fight featured novilleros! (those who were trying to prove themselves and not professional, exWe had pretty good seat, right on the ring. Later I found that the tickets for those seats had cost 30 Euros! And this fight featured novilleros! (those who were trying to prove themselves and not professional, experienced matadors). This is why bull fights are typically for the wealthy, kind of like operas.
-The bull fight was something I had never seen before. It was exactly as Dr. Ingles had explained it- he’s a very good tour guide! It was cool to see the theatrical effects of the matadors, but also sad to watch the bulls die. The first bull was deemed unfit, so they brought out other bulls so he could follow them out of the arena, and they would kill him in the back. The fight was a typical fight, nothing out-of the ordinary for the standards of a Corrido de Torros.
-After the fight (3 matadores killing 6 bulls, so 2 each) we had dinner at a very trendy Italian restaurant. It was nice that they seated us right away because we usually wait around for at least 5 minutes before we know where to sit. I ordered something called “scallopinni gorgonzola.” I didn’t think it’d actually be scallops because many of the items had the word scallops in it. Lets just say the meal was very interesting, but I wasn’t sick the next day so its all good! After dinner we actually made it home using buses instead of taxis! This was a first! And we went to sleep.

Saturday May 24, 2008
-Today was our Cordoba trip! It took 2 hours to get there by bus. The city of Cordoba is absolutely gorgeous. The first thing we did was tour another set of Roman ruins called Madinat al-Zahra. They were similar to Italica, but more was remaining in comparison to Italica where most of the structures had fallen.
-We next went to the central city area and toured the Mezquita Cathedral. This was a very interesting place. It is technically the largest mosque in the world. Once the Christians took power over Spain, they built over the architecture of the mosque, but did not replace all of it. They also hired Arab workers to build some parts. Thus, the now “Cathedral” of Cordoba was quite different than other Christian churches. Instead of facing East-West, it faces Mecca like the mosque. Much of the embellishment on the walls also had Koran verses etched in Arabic. It also has paintings hanging everywhere, rooms for royalty, ect.
-After the Mezquita, I truly regretted getting shoes with heels now. Me duelen los pies mucho! We had about 4 hours of free time before we had to meet back at the bus to return to Sevilla.
-We shopped around in the little tiendas for a bit, and did our extra credit, which was to try a new tapa. I ordered “gambas rebozadas” thinking it would be like gumbo, but it was actually fired shrimp. Too bad I have a fear of seafood making me sick hahaha-so I gave most of it to Amy. We then did our homework, which was to interview a native a Cordoba. Kokila decided to speak loudly about it in the tapas bar so that someone would get intereseted. It worked and the couple sitting next to us was curiously looking over. I asked them if they were from Cordoba; they said they were not but would do the interview regardless-good enough for us! They were actually very nice people. I was shocked because all the people I had met thus far had been apathetic or unkind. I was thrilled to have made contact with nice natives! I loved Cordoba! No one stared me down or was unpleasant. The city was clean and quiet. This is probably because the town is more tourist oriented so people are used to foreigners.
-After this, we tried to go see the Alcazar Gardens, but they were closed because of siesta time. They would not open again until 5:30 when we ad to leave, so we just walked around and took pictures.
-We returned to Sevilla around 7:30 and spent some time at Café de Indias. We then went home for dinner, and our mama’s grandkids were over. They were a blonde 5 yr old boy named Pablo and a 3 yr old girl named Carmen. They were so adorable!! We played with them a while, and then many family members came over. Kokila and I felt awkward, like we were intruding on a family gathering, so we just went to our room and slept.

Friday May 23, 2008
-Thank goodness it’s Friday! I think mama’s trying to fatten up Kokila and I because we had 3 pieces of toast this morning instead of our usual 2. After becoming accustomed to consistently forgoing breakfast, finishing 3 pieces of toast can be quite a feat to accomplish so early in the morning.
-We had another quiz in class, and I think it went well. Inaki played the guitar for us today, and he’s actually amazing at playing flamenco!
-For lunch today, mama made spaghetti with meatballs for the first time after I described it lol-that means she understand rite??? It was very tasty! Me lo gusta mucho.
-After lunch, I skipped siesta to shop instead. Brittany went to this street called Calle Ferria yesterday and said they had pretty neat stuff. It was a flea market and I wanted to see what they had. Brittany, Kokila, and I went in search of this street, but unfortunately we learned that is closed everyday besides Thursday mornings. We decided to just go back to school and catch up on emails since we had to meet there at 5 anyways.
-At 5, Dr. Ingles gave a presentation on bull fighting. It was very interesting, and I learned a lot; however, skipping siesta had made me extremely tired by the end of it.
-After the presentation, we went to calle Sierpes to do some shopping. I really needed to buy some close-toed shoes since I didn’t bring any with me, and Sierpes was the most famous shopping street in the city. We had walked through it during orientation, but I didn’t shop there yet. We got there, and it was actually hard to find the shoes I wanted in white, I thought white would math more things. I finally found white shoes, but they had a slight heel on them. I knew they weren’t the best walking shoes, but I also thought they were so cute so I bought them anyways.
-As we were trying to leave Sierpes, it started to rain. None of us had an umbrella, so we had to walk through the rain to our busstop, which we couldn’t find. We ended up taking a taxi home becuae we were drenched and had no idea where our stop was.
-A girl in Brittany’s class, Lina, just had a Birthday so we all had dinner at a restaurant called Buddha. It was good.

Thursday May 22, 2008
-Today was an uneventful day…more like a day of rest that was much needed. I went to class, came home, eat, slept, studied for my quiz tomorrow, and slept again. I had a long conversation with my host mom about differences in America, Spain and India. It’s getting much easier to talk to her.

Wednesday May 21, 2008
-Today was not bad weather, thank goodness; although it probably should rain more because Spain has droughts during the summer. After class I stayed at the TTU Center to upload pictures to my photo-page so I would still have my photos if anything ever happened to my camera or computer. Brittany had stayed also so we started walking home for lunch. We realized that we didn’t actually know where to go because thus far, we had taken the wrong bus every time to return home. We decided to just walk to the train station which actually isn’t far from school. The right bus comes there and we knew we wouldn’t get lost.
-After lunch and siesta, Brittany and I went to the Parque de Maria Louisa to study. We were supposed to go to this famous garden next to the Cathedral to study because we planned to go to the Cathedral tonight. It was the festival of Corpus Chrsti (Body of Jesus) tomorrow in Sevilla, and there was a procession for it tonight. We would have to take the bus there so we thought we learn our way early to avoid getting lost. Well, we got off at the wrong stop anyways and ended up going to the park because it was closer to us.
-The park was absolutely breathtaking. It’s huge, and similar to a botanical garden. Plus there are these cool cylcotour things you can rent (I’ll explain it later) so we decided we would come back some day to ride them. Anyways, we found a bench under an over hanging of plants to sit and study. We were 5 minutes into studying when I heard a rustling sound above us. I thought the sound was rather loud to be a bird. I asked Brittany “What is that noise?” We slowly peered up as we heard it again, and to our astonishment, there was a HUGE RAT scurrying on the narrow beam right above our heads! I quickly grabbed my stuff and moved out from the overhanging, and Brittany screamed as she gathered her belongings. I looked back at her and saw that people sitting on benches near us were laughing their heads off at our misfortune. I began to laugh too. Something like this would only happen to us! We found another bench, away from trees and plants, to use. These weird gypsy looking ladies came by and tried to sell us sutff. Also, we were getting bitten by ants, so we decided to just leave.
-On our way back, we stopped by a famous coffee shop called “Café de Indias”. I ordered the café de indias which is layered coffee (layers of whipped cream, coffee, chocolate, and condensed milk) for 3.50 Euros, and it was soo worth it. I usually don’t like coffee but this was amazing! We had some technical difficulties getting it though lol.. apparently, coffee shops in Spain are like restaurants as in you are waited on by a waiter. I didn’t know this so I went up to the bar/register to order. I also went back up to pay when I was done. The workers thought we were weird and dumb, and gave us funny looks. I hate not knowing the customs here, but with all the mistakes I make, I’m sure I will learn them all by the time I leave J
-After dinner we tried to go to the Cathedral for the festival. We were going to get off the bus by school and walk to the hotel we first stayed at because the cathedral is next to it. Well, we took a wrong turn somewhere and did not find the hotel. Instead, we got lost in the middle of the center, which is a maze of narrow streets We never made it to the Cathedral, so we just went to a birthday dinner for a girl in Brittany’s class.

....Sevilla....

Tuesday May 20, 2008

- So remember how I’m supposed to go to the beach today? Yeah…..didn’t happen lol

-I went to class thinking I would go to the beach right after (already wearing my swim suit under my clothes). Class starts and ends earlier on Tuesdays so we can catch the train to go to Cadiz where the beaches are. (it’s a 2 hr trip) As soon as it ends, a group of us walk to the train station. We loose our way, how strange lol, and loose about 5 minutes going to the train station. The train leaves at 12:10, and we get there at 12:05. I think we could have made it if we got the tickets and ran, but we spent too long debating on going. By the time we decided to go and bought tickets, it was too late for that train, and we had until 2 for the next train. I was ok with this, except it seemed unreasonable, We would only reach Cadiz at 4, and have to leave at 7 to catch the train again. That’s only 3 hours assuming that the beach is next to the train station. Also, I think we were ripped off because everyone said tickets would be 10 Euros, but we paid 17.70 Euros each. On top of all this, there was a 50% chance of rain. After considering all these factors, we reached the conclusion that we would return our tickets and go next week. O the ticket vender was not pleased! But he was rude anyways so it worked out ok.

- We were now free, so Amy and I returned to the center (school) to use the internet to find something cool to do while Kokila and Brittany stopped by their rooms to drop off books.

-Amy and I found a really cool activity. There’s a historical site here called “Plaza de Espana” and it has a moat around it. You can rent row boats and row through the moat…how awesome is that? I asked Donna Wright about it and she said it was a great place, but unfortunately they ceramic tile painting were being restored so the moat was not open for boating. She told us it was a site worth seeing regardless, and so we went to see it.

-We left the center, and I was still a little upset that we were not at the beach….but that antipathy quickly turned into light-heartedness due to Brittany’s clumsiness. We were crossing the street while our bus pulled up, and Brittany began to run because she thought we’d miss the bus. I was fidgeting with my umbrella and I hear a loud noise. I look up and see Brittany on the floor, as well as a toppled bicycle and its rider. I hurried over, and fortunately Brittany was ok as well as the other girl. She kept apologizing, but Brittany told her not to worry, as it was her fault, and it truly was for not looking in the bike lane before crossing it. Soo…..Brittany got run over by a bicycle!!! Oh I laughed for about 2 hours, and I still laugh every time I think about it. Its just such a cliché incident, I can’t believe it actually happened. I was in a good mood for the rest of the day.

-We stopped by a statue Brittany needed to visit for her class and then went to the Plaza. It was raining along the way so perhaps its best we skipped the beach. The plaza was absolutely gorgeous. We took many pictures and decided to return on a sunnier day to get better picture, and also buy souvenirs for people since they had an abundance. It was truly a site worth seeing.

–We came home early, and I had time to do homework, etc. I felt like I actually did something today, and that felt nice :)

Monday May 19, 2008
-The first day of school. Kokila, Brittany and I take the bus to school. It takes 40 minutes to get there, and we miss our stop as usual lol. We get there in time, and I get to check my email after what seems like ages!
-Class begins, and its not as bad as I thought it would be. I still feel like I don’t know anything but the teacher Inaki is understanding and an overall good teacher. He presents the material well, so after leaving I don’t feel that I will be having major issues with the class.
-We look for the shopping street Siempres after class (its like Harwin but Spanish), but get lost….what else is new? We just take a bus home for lunch.
-Mama Carmin eats with us for the first time today. I try extra hard to converse with her, and it works! After lunch Kokia and I show mama pictures of our families. Its nice and I get to practice my family vocabulary. After a while mama says she has to go to school….wait school? For what? I should ask her next time, but o well for now.
-After siesta we go get Brittany’s phone fixed because the screen was broken. We then go shopping at Corte ingles, but find that its exactly like Dillards, only twice as expensive. We leave ther rather quickly and take a bus to school again to check our email, but miss our stop again. We eventually get there, butt as we leave to take the bus home, we get lost again. I am so sick of being lost all the time! I even studied a map before my nap, but that didn’t seem to help much. First of all, I have no sense of direction. I never know where N, S, E, and W are. Second, none of the streets are straight, but most importantly, you can’t ever see the freaking street signs! They are glued to the corners of buildings, and a lot of them are covered by trees or something like that. Anyways, we finally find a bus stop with our bus and get home.
-Once home, we eat dinner, do homework, ad go to sleep so we can be well rested for the beach tomorrow!!!!

Sunday May 18, 2008
-We wake up early to take a taxi to the bus station to visit ruins of the Roman city Italica.
-The ruins are very beautiful. I took a lot of pictures…but with no people in them hahaha.
-We get back and tried to take the bus home, but ended up going in a huge circle, and it was time for a meals so we took a taxi again so we wouldn’t be late. That’s 3 times I’ve taken a taxi in the past 2 days! I really need to figure out this bus system.
-After lunch we had our regular siesta (I’m beginning to love those) and then we got ready to attend our first soccer or futbol game!
-We took the bus to the game and surprisingly did not miss our stop! We were an hour early and went to find our seats (in the very back of course)
-We found a bunch of other Tech people and went to sit with them. The game was a fun experience! The Sevillanos were soo entranced and it was entertaining to watch their chants and spirit. The stadium was a bit intimidating because there were barely any railings, so if you fell, you would probably die, seriously, everything was cement like an olden age ampitheater, but it was nice.
-The game was between the Sevilla team and an Athletic club team of Seville. Seville won!! Que Bueno!
-After the game a bunch of us went to a Tapas bar. I had always assumed that a tapas bar was a regular bar where they served tapas, which must have been some sort of tortilla. I was shocked when we got there and it was a café! Also, tapas are just smaller portions of a meal…not tortillas! You could get almost every single entre order as a tapa…cool huh?
-We took a taxi hom after the tapas and I got some rest….school starts tomorrow…that’s what I came here for right? :)

Saturday May 17, 2008
-I was supposed to wake up at 8 this morning since we had to be packed and ready to go by 10, but I forgot to set my alarm and didn’t wake up until 9:15 when my roommates woke me up. Panic! I hurriedly packed all my belongings and was actually completely ready by 9:50.
-I didn’t have enough time to eat breakfast so Brittany got a muffin for me.
-Kokila and I met our host mom. She is extremely nice. We took a taxi to her house, which is actually like an apartment. Good thing she picked us up in a van taxi or I don’t think all our luggage would have fit.
-Kokila and I were having a difficult time understanding mama Carmin, but it got easier with time.
-We live on the 9th floor of building 79 in our complex, and are room A.
-The house is extraordinarily neat, and also very elegant. It is just mama Carmin and her daughter Beatrice (she works all the time so we won’t see her), and tiny little perrito Lola…we think
-We go to the market right next to our house with mama. It’s called “Al Campo” and is like a Walmart inside a mall…weird I know. The supermarket is actually more advanced than America’s because all the cashiers have seats and there is a conveyer belt which brings the filled grocery bags to the cart so you don’t have to pull them.
-We eat lunch at 2 because we are starving, but mama laughs and says its too early. We then take a nap, because there’s nothing else to do really.
-We wake at 4 because Brittany and her roommate Jaime want to explore the bus system so we go do that (we have to take the bus tomorrow to meet to go to Italica)
-We first take the bus route to school…and when we get there we find there’s a soccer game tomorrow night. We walk to the stadium to buy tickets, and its really far away! We finally get there after like half an hour, and tickets are 35 Euros, but it’s a once in a lifetime thing, so I get one-even thought I don’t exactly love watching soccer games
-The stadium is right next to a mall so we shop a little. Kokila and I need to buy house slippers because our mom wants us to. Here in Spain, no one walks around barefoot at home. I hate shoes so that stinks lol
-We don’t get slipper s at the mall, and I realize how expensive everything is since the dollar value sucks, so we try to take the bus to tomorrow’s bus station. That is a complete failure because we ended up getting off too early and try walking the rest of the way. It gets late so we say forget it and take a taxi home so we’re not late for our first dinner at home. Dinner is good, but we realize there is a random man with Carmin now. It’s not her husband, and his name is Julio.
-I take a shower right after dinner and it’s complicated because there’s no where to put shampoo, soap, etc. It’s just a stand alone shower, so I keep my stuff on the sink counter and have to keep opening and closing the shower door when I need to get something. Luckily, I didn’t spill water everywhere but I hope I figure out a more efficient way.
-Kokila and I go to sleep around 11:30 and find that mama is going out with Julio! He must be her boyfriend? Now I felt lame, my 62 year old mom is going out on a Saturday night and I’m going to bed, but o well! There’s a first for everything right?

Friday May 16, 2008
-Today was a MUCH better day than yesterday. I had a tour of Sevilla with the entire group. We walked to the TTU center, but stopped by many sites along the way so it took an hour and a half to get there.
-One of the sites we stopped by was a beautiful cathedral. It is the largest gothic cathedral in the world. I hope to attend mass there one Sunday. I learned that surprisingly, though Spain is over 90% Catholic, less than 10% of people attend weekly mass, and most that attend are very old, or members of a convent.
-Another site we passed through was a large shopping center. There were many many shops, and the street reminded me much of India. I will probably go shop there before I leave.
-We finally arrived at the center and the first thing I saw were computers! I was so excited to check my email, and I finally had one from my family :)
-We then had a presentation by a cell phone company. My parents and I discussed the option of getting a cell phone while I’m here, and it was decided that I wouldn’t get one; however, I realized tat there was really no better option to contact my parents since I would not be able to use the house phone often, and pay phones were hard to find. More than that, there would be no internet connection at my house so I would need to depend on the limited amount of computers at school-which was literally like 15. So I got a phone!!! This made me happy. Any calls I received would be free so I’m just not going to make any calls hahahaha
-After the presentation, we went back to the hotel for lunch and I stopped by an ATM machine. Wonderful! Now I had a phone and money! What else do I need? Lol
-Lunch was good, except I had this weird rice/seafood soup…it was ok until I saw tentacles floating in it and suddenly lost my appetite.
-After lunch we had a break and went back to the center for orientation. The group left without me and a smaller group so we went on our own, a shorter way. We got there in time and sat through a looong boooring lecture on safety we had already heard twice. I was starving by the time we ended which was 9.
-We returned to the hotel for dinner and ad to wait until 10:30 to be seated as there was a crowd before us. We finally ate (some fish which I normally dislike, but I was hungry so whatever) and then I took a shower and went to bed. I had to wake up early to meet my host family tomorrow.

Day 1: The Journey to Spain

Thursday May 15, 2008
9:55am: We arrive at the airport in Madrid
-Everything seems ok. We get off the plane, get our luggage, use the bathroom which is surprisingly neat and clean!!

10:30am: We begin our trip from the airport to the train station
-This is supposed to be a simple endeavor. We are supposed to take a taxi to the train station and buy a ticket to Seville. WRONG! Instead, we get the bright idea that all our luggage won't fit in a taxi, plus we thought we'd get ripped off, so we decided to take the subway.

10:40am: Riding the Metro
-After talking to 2 information desks, we finally find out where and how to buy metro tickets.
-it was a long walk to the automated ticket kiosk and i was beginning to regret packing so much as my luggage was a tad on the heavy side (understatement!!-I had 1 large rolling bag, 2 duffel bags, and a backpack). Once we bought tickets for just 2 Euros, we realized that we were going to have to ride 3 different lines to get to the train station Atoche. This meant getting on and off 3 separate subways, going up and down 6 different sets of escalators, and much to our dismay, up and down REGULAR sets of stair, ALL with our luggage!!!
-This subway journey was probably the most difficult part of my trip (so far at least). I had an incredibly hard time dragging all my luggage. Fortunately, Brittany and Kokila switched off carrying my lighter duffel bag so my weight was decreased a bit. Some help was better than none! i also got lucky because a few times random people helped me take my luggage down the stairs.
-On top of this, the subway was sooo sketchy!! The information desk attendant had advised us to wear our backpacks on our chest rather than our back in order to be more cautious of pickpocketers. We did this and looked like class A tourists lol. Here we were, 3 students with massive amounts of luggage, backpacks on our chests, and crappy clothes (sweatpants/t-shirts) basically screaming "rob me!" We had meant to change clothes at the airport but figured there would be enough time at the train station to change.

12:20 pm: We arrive at the train station Atoche.
-By now my shoulder was aching like crazy! Especially my left one because my backpack strap had been uneven. Due to this, I had been dragging my luggage with my right hand which had now formed 8 blisters! They hurt a lot :(
-We found the counter to buy train tickets to Sevilla and it was annoyingly similar to a DMV office. We had to get a ticket and wait until our ticket # appeared on the screen in order to go to the counter to buy a ticket.

1:15 pm: Our ticket # finally appears on the screen.
-We go to the counter expecting to get tickets for the 2 pm train (they come every hour) but find that everything is full until 7 pm! It was a holiday in Madrid and no one told us! This was a disaster! We were supposed to be at the hotel by 5 pm for orientation and now we couldn't even leave Madrid until 7! This meant we'd only get to the hotel by 9-completely missing everything! This was a major dilemma, but our best option was the 7 pm train. It was too hard to go back to the airport to try and find a flight, and there were no other trains, so we grudgingly bought the tickets.
-Now we had to figure out how to contact our program coordinator to inform her we would be late. None of us had phones or phone cards, and there was no internet service anywhere near. All of a sudden, a miracle happened. We heard a girl on a cell phone say "Donna Wright" Donna Wright was our program director!! We hurried over to her and found she was in the same problem as us, only she had a phone! We had company now! Her roommate was currently trying to get an earlier ticket, and was able to buy 1st class tickets leaving at 4 pm. We followed this example and bought 1st class tickets for 5 pm because 4 pm was now sold out. The 2 girls we met took our names and would inform our director we would be late. A wave of relief came over us.

2:30 pm: Waiting for the train.
-Yes, we were now all relieved, but I was now very upset. I just spent 120 Euros for a first class train ticket. That's basically $210., and I could have easily just had a flight to Seville with that money. Also, this problem could have been avoided if we ordered tickets early online, but Donna specifically advised us not to do this because there was "no way tickets will sell out" Yeah right! They sold out, and we were still going to miss orientation, plus we had to wait around the train station forever, which is not safe! but what do we do? There were no other options. We were just stuck...waiting...waiting

5:00 pm: We board the train.
-We were now in the 1st class section on a high speed train to Seville. I was glad we were finally getting somewhere, but felt bad because everyone in first class was dressed well, and we looked like we were homeless hahaha The seats were only a little bigger than coach seats, but whatever-we paid for the time, not the quality. It was funny how the attendants was speak to all the passengers in Spanish and switch to English for us. The scenery was also beautiful. i took pictures instead of sleeping.

7:30 pm: We arrive in Seville.
-We got off the train and picked up our luggage. i almost didn't get one bag because they switched my bad sticker with someone else, but I got mine. i got to use Spanish to describe what my bag looked like and they understood1 This felt like an accomplishment.
-We now had to get taxis to our hotel. I went on my own beacuse we would not all fit, but it was fine.

8:00 pm: We arrive at the hotel.
-We made it! We got to the hotel and found that everyone had trouble with trains! in fact, many students were taking the 6 pm train so we were there early! they had even cancelled orientation for that day beacuse so many students were late so we were perfectly fine! Life felt better!
-I was still worried becuase i couldn't call home to tell my family I made it, but i knew the next day would be better :) I had a nice shower, dinner, and finally went to sleep.