...Sevilla...

Wednesday June 4, 2008
-We received our graded tests, and I made 100!
I did not go home for lunch today since we had to meet at the cathedral at 4:30, and I usually did not have lunch until 3. I stayed at the center and worked on my presentation for a while.
-We walked with some people to the Cathedral and did not get lost for once! On the way, we stopped by the famous ice cream shop Rayas, and they truly live up to their legacy of having amazing ice cream! I am truly going to miss the ice cream of Spain.
-The Cathedral is the largest one we’ve visited. As I mentioned before, it is the largest gothic cathedral in the world. The paintings and decorations inside were stunning.
-We also went up the famous Giralda. An interesting fact about this is that Dan Brown writes about it in his novel Digital Fortress, and describes the protagonist running up the Giralda 2 steps at a time. This is funny because there are actually no steps in the Giralda! Its all ramps, and there are 34 floors to climb to the top….but the view is worth it!
-We walked around Sierpes for a while, and then I went home to work on some homework.

Tuesday June 3, 2008
-Our test today actually was not bad at all. I feel very good about it.
-We made the train to Cadiz finally!
-The beach there is one of the prettiest ones I’ve ever seen. The water was so blue, and actually clear! It was not too cold either, we swam for a while since it was bearable to be in. There were some jellyfish in the sea, which I did not see, but someone caught some and brought them to shore….I know, they didn’t get stung! It was cool looking, like clear jelly.
-We took the 8 pm train home, and I reached my house by 10:30. I was exhausted, so I ate, showered, and went to sleep.

Monday June 2, 2008
-All of class today was spent reviewing for our test tomorrow. After class Brittany, Christina and I went to buy our train tickets for Cadiz tomorrow early so we would have less of a reason to miss the train. I missed it so many times already, I couldn’t miss it again!
-I went back to school with Brittany after lunch to study. I was very sleepy, and made the mistake of getting on a computer. It actually wasn’t too much of a mistake because I actually got to talk to people on aim for once which was nice. I was happy about that.
-class reviewed for test tom
-I went home when the center closed around 8:30, studied some more, and went to sleep.

Sunday June 1, 2008
-I went to the flea market again today, but was disappointed that a man selling fans would not bargain, so I didn’t buy anything. I did not have enough time to look around because I was to go to Cadiz!
-Brittany and I missed the 11:00 train because a bus did not come in time, so we planned to just take the 12:10 train, but of course we don’t have good luck. When we got to the train station we found that the 12:10 tickets had sold out and we wouldn’t be able to go until 2. This would be a waste of time since we would only have 3 hours on the beach, and the tickets were somewhat expensive. There were 6 other people that missed the train and we decided to go to the bus station and go to the other beach, Mata Las Canas, instead. We would only have 3 hours there too, but it was cheaper.
-The bus did not leave until 3 pm, so Brittany and I decided to paddle boat for an hour since the bus station was next to the river. We had a lot of fun and saw some ducks,and a beautiful side of time we had not yet seen. It was actually sunny today, and it hadn’t been for a while.
-The beach was very fun. There was nothing too special about it, just a normal beach. The water was a little cold, but the waves were pretty big, so we had a good time.
-We reached Sevilla around 9, but only reached our house at 10 because the city buses apparently run very slowly on weekends.

Saturday May 31, 2008
-Today I woke up early to go on an optional tour with Dr, Ingles. I saw Jeromiane monasteries and their church. This church was particularly interesting because its construction was completed by the wife of the late Gran Capitan. She was very wealthy, and wanted her husband buried in the church. This was unusual since at the time, only clergy members were buried in churches; however, this woman had money to donate to the church so it was permitted. She hired an architect and gave him the liberty to design however he pleased. This was also unusual since an architects dream is always to have endless funding, and liberty of design. The wall behind the altar had the most gold in architecture I have ever seen in my life. The word “extravagant” is not even enough to describe it.
-After this, Brittany, Kokila and I went to find the Parque de las Ciensias. We assumed this would be a nice place to take pictures, and on the map it was green like a park. We walked for 40 minutes to get to it, only to find that it was not a park, but a scoence museum, with an entry fee! We didn’t bother going in because it did not seem to special, and the amount of time left was not worth the price. We took a taxi backto the hotel so we wouldn’t miss the bus for the next excursion.
-We visited the palaces and gardens of the al Ahambra, as well as the Alhambra itself. Everything was huge and beautiful. There were some very pretty views of the city, and I took some neat pictures. Our guide spoke in Spanish during the tour, and I actually understood most of what she was saying. It was a Muslim palace for the Sultan, a very interesting place.
-After this, we stopped by a fast food place for quick dinner, and headed home to Sevilla!

Friday May 30, 2008
-This morning we woke up early to catch the bus to the city Granada. Granada was the last Muslim influenced city in Spain before the Muslims were overtaken, Therefore much of the architecture has Muslim influence. I was disappointed to find 5 mosquito bites on my face and more on my arm when I woke up, the window had been open all night.
-Our hotel room was exceptionally nice. I took a nice nap before our excursions that day because I was not able to sleep on the bus ride
-We visited the Cathedral of Granada which is very beautiful. We also visited the tombs of Ferdinand III and Isabel. The tombs were enormous…and knowing I was in front of their bodies was bone chilling.
-After the touring, we had free time for the rest of the day. I shopped for a while in the Arab streets, which strongly reminded me of India, especially since some of the shops played Indian music.
-I also went to the spice market where they sell spices such as saffron and vanilla for cheap prices, but I did not buy any
-On the way back to the hotel, I ran into what is called “aire libre tiendas” which are basically a bunch of little tents set up for shopping. I bought some funky capris I had been wanting for myself. There was a stage set up in the middle of all the tents, I was lucky to be right on time for a flamenco show. A flamenco school’s students performed about 7 dances. They ranged in ages from 4 yrs to 19 yrs. This show was ten times better than the one from the night before. I’m glad I saw it.

Thursday May 29, 2008
-Today was the long awaited beach day of the week, but unfortunately things were not in our favor. We had planned on going to the beach today and worn our swimsuits to class; however, the weather turned out to be terrible. There was an 80% chance of rain, so everyone ditched their beach plans, including me.
-We now had a free day, with nothing planned to do. A few of us decided to go watch a movie, and Indiana Jones had recently come out in theaters. We wanted to watch it in English so we could understand it, and luckily there was one English movie theater in town!
-Before the movie, Brittany, Kokila and I stopped by Nervion plaza to do a little shopping. To our surprise, the flea market, or ferria, was set up there, so we went to look at all the stuff. There were really good imitation, or perhaps authentic, name brand items there such as lacoste polos and dolce and gabana shirts. I did not buy anything but Brittany and Kokila bought some DVDs in Spanish.
-The movie was very entertaining, and the tickets were surprisingly cheap. It was only 4.50 for a student, which is basically 8 US dollars, which is equivalent to the regular price of a movie ticket in Lubbock.
-After the movie we went home to change, and then attended a flamenco show! I was very excited because I love to watch dances, and this one was free. It was at a bar close to the hotel Fernando III. We arrived at 10:30, and the show only starts at 11, but we still had seats in the back. We met some other study abroad students from A&M there. The show itself was alright, not what I expected. The dancer was a bit manly, and did not seem very interested in her performance. The length of the show (1 hour) also seemed too long.

Wednesday May 28, 2008
-School was regular today, except there were problems booking hostels for Lagos next weekend, but it all ended up working out.
-I slept for waaay to long today, but I didn’t have anything else to do, and it was cold outside so why not?
-Dinner was the scariest one I’ve had since I got here. Even worse than the squid soup! So I walk in the living room and see what looks like a giant red flan, or jello sitting on the table. I’m thinking, man I don’t know how I’m going to finish that, but as I get closer I realize its not flan at all. It’s actually a lump o rice covered in what looks like…..ketchup!! O no! I hope my mom didn’t misunderstand me and think I like ketchup with rice now! Also, there are 4 hotdogs next to it. Kokila takes the first bite, and thankfully it’s a little better than ketchup, it’s spaghetti sauce. We earnestly try to finish as much as we can, but it’s just too hard. My mom tells me it’s Cuban rice, and I tell her it’s good so she doesn’t feel bad. I’ve eaten 2 hotdogs, and am full. I don’t even like hotdogs, and now I have to eat 4! I make a deal with Kokila to finish the rest of her rice if she can eat one of my hotdogs. Our plan works and we finish the food! I hope we don’t have to eat this again later on. Also, I hope our mom doesn’t keep increasing our food portions, last time we had hotdogs we got 3 each.
-I go lye on my bed for a while, hoping the food will digest an I won’t throw up hahahah. I then go to sleep since school starts early tomorrow because I’m actually going to go to the beach!! :)

Tuesday May 27, 2008
-Today, class would have regularly begun at 8 so we could go to the beach at 12, but weather forecasts had reported rain so the beach day was moved to Thursday.
-The first thing we did in class was go eat breakfast. Inaki knew this very cheap, but good bar right around the corner that ad excellent “chocolate y churros.” We all went, and it was very crowded. There weren’t enough tables to sit at, so I sat on a bench and ate with some other people in my class. The churros are similar to funnel cake, its like long pieces of fried cake, or a really light donut. They’re good! And you dip them in the chocolate that’s basically thick hot chocolate…also good! And it only cost 2.50 Euros. That bat also has tapas for 2 Euros so I may come back some other day.
-After class, I had lunch and a short siesta, because we were going back to the parquet de Maria Louisa today to do the cyclotour!
-The cyclotour thing is actually called a cyclobus. Its like a golf cart that up to four people can sit in (there’s one’s for 2 people too), and everyone pedals to make it move! The front 2 seats have steering wheels and rearview mirrors. It’s pretty awesome, en mi opinion lol. Amy, Brittany, Kokila and I went together. It cost 14 Euros for one hour. We were supposed to stay on the paved roads in the park, but we didn’t realize that until after we had been riding through the trail areas for about 20 minutes. That was the best part! The trails were barely narrow enough for the bus thing to fit, so it was like we were going through a jungle. There were so many times we almost crashed into trees, and one time even people! We switched driving after half an hour so everyone could have a chance to steer. Its funny because we realized that though there were 2 steering wheels, the left one was just a dummy because it didn’t actually do anything! Luckily, I was on the right side so I got to drive!
-After our fun hour, we took some random pictures in the park, and proceeded back to our bus stop where we got lost again. We eventually found our stop and went home for dinner.
-We had some interesting hamburger for dinner. The meat was pink, and was not would you see in a typical burger but it was alright. I studied a little and went to sleep.

Monday May 26, 2008
-It’s Monday again, and that means school. Class was pretty regular, nothing new or exciting. I was really tired for some reason, I guess just worn out from the weekend. After class I spent some time at the center uploading pictures and stuff.
-I got home for lunch which thankfully wasn’t overwhelming. We had been reviewing the imperfect tense in class so I decided to talk to my mom about things I did while I was younger. I mentioned I used to eat rice with ketchup, and I would regret this later.
-I took my usual siesta after lunch, and was supposed to go back to the center with Brittany and Kokila at 5, but was too tired so just slept instead. When I woke up, I actually worked on my personal statement. I got the introduction done, it needs much more work, but it’s a start.
-Dinner was, too much food as usual, but o well.