...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.