20 Jan:
The first day was very overwhelming—everything looks so different, from the buildings to the street signs to the elevators—everything is much smaller, too! I was exhausted from sleeping like 2 hours on the plane ride so it was hard to stay awake. I wish I had explored the city a little more yesterday but I was just so tired. Dinner was interesting—we just got plate after plate after plate, literally like 15 courses, of different appetizers. I couldn’t eat most of them, but a lot of them were seafood which I don’t like anyways. My salad had a shrimp thing in it with eyes that were staring at me! After dinner me and my two hotel roommates, Jennifer and Jillian, went out to a bar and had a glass of wine—I don’t like wine, but it felt europe-y so I did it anyways! I’m hoping I will eventually learn to like it, or at least tolerate it! I am very glad I have snacks with me though because everyone else was stuffed after dinner but I was still hungry.
Today we went to the Prado museum this morning. We had to wait a long time outside which sucked because it was cold. We took a guided tour in Spanish—the woman was very nice and funny and I understand almost all of what she talked about. I wish I was speaking more Spanish to the other students but it’s very hard to switch to Spanish, especially when we’re all tired and a little shaky on our Spanish speaking. A girl from Mexico, Claudia, is here to practice her English! It seems backwards to me—we are worried about our Spanish so we’re speaking English and she can speak perfect, fast Spanish! I also met my roommate, from Colorado - I think she will be a fun roommate. El Prado was really cool because I learned about all of the paintings in high school from senor hastings and I actually got to see them in person! El Tres de Mayo was my favorite I think—it was so moving to see it up close, the emotion in the faces is amazing. I also really like las jardines de las delicias por el bosco. It was so detailed and everything had a meaning to it! We walked around a little after and I got to take some pictures of all of the cool buildings—most of them I don’t even know what they are! We were disappointed el museo de reina sofia wasn’t open though—I really wanted to see Guernica by Picasso.
I’m a little sick of living out of a suitcase so I am anxious to get to Sevilla and settle in—right now we still feel a lot like tourists because we travel everywhere in groups and speak English. I hope it will feel more homey when we get to Sevilla and hopefully adjust to the language and the food and the eating times and everything. Right now everything still seems so strange and different and I definitely feel like an outsider. I also think (and hope) I will feel better about the food situation once I talk to Carmen and hopefully get meals I know I can definitely eat.
I actually have internet at the hotel and hope I am able to use it sometime in Sevilla. I miss my family and Bennett and my friends already although I was lucky to talk to them a lot yesterday. I need to figure out how that calling card works and figure out a good time with the time difference, which is still so strange to think about!
Some of the girls came over to watch the inauguration—it was fun and we got to talk to them and get to know them a little better—and I’m glad they all liked Obama a lot and hate Sarah Palin! We walked around this afternoon, which was really fun. We tried speaking Spanish to each other for awhile and I realized how bad I am at it! Every building here is so cool though, even if it’s just an apartment building or something. We went to dinner at kind of an expensive place—I got baked lamb. Jen got ostrich and it was so good! I was very surprised.
21 Jan:
Today was el Escorial and it was incredible. It is a palace built by Philip II and it is 9 acres big! The library was so beautiful with tons of books of gold and the ceiling painted beautifully. Everything was amazing and so old! I can’t believe there’s still a school and a monastery in there. The tombs were amazing—it was very spiritual and humbling, plus a little creepy. I’m really glad I am religious because it made it that much better—to admire all of the religious paintings and understand a little more some of the things there and to feel more connected—the old chapel was amazing, all though I was very disappointed that the basilica was closed because I really wanted to see that. The tomb for the children was so sad, as was the double tomb for the lady and her husband but he got remarried after she died and chose to be buried with his second wife instead! One of my favorite parts were the intricately designed doors—they were beautiful and each different color in the design was a totally separate piece of wood. I can’t even imagine how long that must have taken and how much skill and patience was needed by the artist. I could not get over it. Also, the actual building was very impressive—the towers and the shape, and the continuity of the symbolism of the grill for the saint who died a martyr. The mountains in the background made it even more beautiful, as did the huge gardens behind the palace.
22 Jan:Toledo was amazing. It is so pretty and all the buildings are unique looking and beautiful. The view of the whole city is breath taking. I loved the painting the burial of count(senor) orgaz, it was beautiful and so huge. I loved the mixing of the three cultures, like the synagogue built by the Muslims and converted into a catholic church. The cathedral was beautiful and so decorated—there was so much to look at it and the gothic style was amazing. There were also a lot of cool shops that I wanted to go in but we didn’t have time.
That night we had a longgg drive in the rain to Sevilla to meet our host families—I was so nervous to meet Carmen! But she was very nice—it was hard to fit all our luggage into the car but it was fun. I understood actually most of what she was saying and did okay speaking back to her. Dinner was delicious and it was fun talking to Carmen at dinner—SJ (my roommate) and I did well speaking/understanding but we were getting a little tired and then she got excited about a story and just took off! It was so fast and hard to understand, but she is very funny and loves to talk to us. I’m glad I have SJ so we can help each other understand and explain things.
The apartment is a little small but I expected that - and I really like my room, it's very bright and happy looking - it gets very cold though! the tile floors are freezing, it's a good thing we have a space heater. Our apartment is in el barrio de las naranjas - which means the neighborhood of the oranges, because we have so many orange trees! I can't wait until the spring when all of the orange blossoms bloom, it is going to be so beautiful.
23 Jan:
We went on a bike ride around Sevilla this morning – we almost didn’t make it because Carmen was running late, but she drove us so we made it just in time. It was very fun – there are bike paths all over the city and even though it was overcast, it was a lot of fun to ride around and it was very pretty, especially down by the river and in el parque de maria luisa. SJ and I got a little lost trying to take the bus back here—we actually got off a bus because we thought we were on the wrong one but it was the right one so we got back on the same bus—good thing we have monthly passes! Later we explored the city – we were supposed to meet Jen, Jill, and Ellen but we were late and the bus took too long so we missed them—but we needed some soap and things like that so we looked around for a store to buy them and got a little lost – we did find a really cute area with lots of shops, both fancy designer shoes and wedding dresses and flamenco dresses, as well as cute, cheaper shops. We actually found our way home (with lots of help from the map) and met Karen, our third roommate. She is very nice and it’s definitely helpful that she was here already for a whole semester and knows how to get around.
24 Jan:This morning we went to the gypsy fair (mercadillo) with Carmen, it was very sketchy but fun and they had some nice stuff, I definitely want to go back another time, even though it’s a little bit of a pain to get to. After lunch, Carmen’s daughter Ruth came over, which was very fun. She talks very fast but was so nice and energetic, it was enjoyable. When Carmen drove us earlier, someone had blocked her car in cause there’s a ton of cars parked on her street – so she pushes the other car out of the way and just walks away as it rolls down the hill! It almost hit the car behind us haha. Tonight we went out and walked around for a bit and ended up going into a small bar – I’m definitely not used to the smoking, all my clothes smell so gross! We talked to another American student who was very nice, as well as a British guy and two French guys, all of whom go to Pablo de Olavide. We came back at what seemed late to me but is actually early for Spain and Europe! It’s crazy how late people go/stay out.
26 Jan:
Yesterday SJ and I walked down to the river Guadalquivir, which is a pretty close walk from our house – SJ went for a run and I walked around and took some pictures of the bridges and of the cool, artistic graffiti. The sun came out and it was warm, even with the wind – I can’t wait until it gets really warm here!
Today we took the placement exam this morning, which was alright, and took a short tour of the school – I hate waiting for the first bus to get to the other bus station, I really want to get a bike – there’s a program here that you can rent a bike for the semester for pretty cheap and there are little bike stations everywhere that you can use – I love how there are bike paths all over the city and its really pretty to bike down by the river or in the Park Maria Luisa. After a quick lunch with Carmen (I swear I have eaten more vegetables in the past week than in my whole life but even stuff I don’t really like still tastes delicious when Carmen cooks it, her food is amazing! I got so lucky) SJ and I went to the cathedral, which is beautiful. I took so many pictures, especially from the tower – it’s called La Giralda and you can walk up the 38 ramps to the tops (they used to ride horses up it!) and it is an amazing view from the top, especially on a clear sunny day like today. You can literally see the whole city, it is incredible. I can’t wait to show my family and Bennett when they come to visit.
28 Jan:
Yesterday we went to see el Real Alcazar, which is the oldest royal palace still in use today. The gardens are beautiful, lots of orange and palm trees as usual, plus a bunch of lemon trees. You can’t eat the oranges from any of the trees on the street but some of the trees in the garden has sweet oranges – it’s illegal to pick them but our tour guide told us to watch for guards and she climbed through the bushes and starting pulling off oranges for all of us to eat! The palace itself was gorgeous as well – it is modeled after el Alhambra in Granada(which I will be seeing this weekend) it has amazing tiling on the walls and floors, carved and gilded wooden ceilings and amazing stucco designs. There are arcs everywhere and cool shaped windows – it was very beautiful and I took a lot of pictures! I hope to go back there in the spring when it’s warm and just hang out in the gardens.
We had an orientation that night at the university – I didn’t do as well on the placement exam as I would have liked to, for some reason I bombed the essay which I’m usually good at. Fortunately the test doesn’t really matter that much and I’m still taking all of the classes I want to be in. The first day of classes was today. SJ and I got up early to go but the buses were so late so SJ was late to her first class, which was stressful. I have to switch my schedule around a little bit because a class I was scheduled for has an English and Spanish version and I want to switch to the Spanish version. But it looks like ill have Spanish language and Spanish culture & civilization on mon and wed mornings, go back home for lunch, then have art history (in English) then ecology(also in English but my the teacher can’t speak it very well) that night. Then tues /thurs I will have history and practice of flamenco in the evening! At least I hope that’s how my schedule will work out.
Tonight we are going to watch a Spanish movie! Carmen has a ridiculous DVD collection – she just whipped out this hugeeee book thing absolutely filled with DVD’s.
29 Jan:Today I went to my early class which i was hoping to switch to mon and wed instead but it looks like there might not be space. I am not going to like it if i have to get up early every day, but at least I will probably be able to go home and eat lunch instead of having to bring a sandwich and stay at the university all day! i have to take 2 different buses to get to school (hopefully it will just be one bus after i get a bike that i can ride to the bus station) because our house is very far away from that end of the city. I think I am starting to learn my way around but I definitely need a little more practice - although I am getting pretty good with the buses! Good thing I am used to public transportation in the US - the buses here are much cleaner and nicer!
I am getting a little better at understanding spanish already, practicing with carmen helps a lot even though i tend to get lost when she tells her stories - tonight she told us she used to have a dog named bowie after david bowie because the dog had two different colored eyes and crazy hair! And she told us one time she brought the dog somewhere, tied it up, and forgot it there! We were laughing so hard, especially at the way she pronounces "bowie." It took us so long to figure out who she was talking about!
I still can't believe I am going to be living in this beautiful city for 4 months - the palm trees and orange trees everywhere continue to amaze me, as do the gorgeous architecture of all the buildings, especially the really old churches. I have taken so many pictures and I hope you have and will continue to enjoy them! The links to the pictures i have put on the internet so far are below (they are the ones from facebook if you already looked at them) and i will definitely be putting some more up - probably very soon because we leave for a 2 day excursion to granada in the morning!
Thanks for reading - they won't all be this ridiculously long, i promise!
Madrid: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=72850&l=67dce&id=535832790
Toledo: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73160&l=e5def&id=535832790
Sevilla: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73457&l=59432&id=535832790
Alcazar (castle): http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73944&l=8407f&id=535832790
Cathedral: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73604&l=99035&id=535832790
