The Two Sides of Cadiz!

22 February

                On Friday, we went on a day trip to Cádiz, a city about an hour and a half away from Sevilla, right on the coast. My friend Ellen and I spoke Spanish the entire bus ride there, I was so proud of us! Our first stop was a wine cellar for a wine tasting of different types of wine/sherry made in Jerez (a town near Cádiz). It was interesting to hear about how the wine was made and to try all the different types of wine, but I don’t really like wine so it was kind of wasted on me! I did enjoy the free peanuts and snacks with the wine though haha. After that stop, we headed onto Cádiz to a beautiful little beach to spend the afternoon. I brought my bathing suit but didn’t end up swimming because it was a little cold with the wind blowing and the water was cold (well, not compared to New England water, but cold for Spain!) I walked around and enjoyed the sun, found some shells, and took a lot of pictures. We also walked through the town to get some ice cream and I had the best ice cream bar of my life. It was a very relaxing day and I couldn’t believe I was hanging out on a sunny beach in the middle of February!

                The next day, Saturday, was Carnaval so we returned to Cadiz that night for a very different trip! I had spent most of Saturday making my costume (I actually had to sew!) My costume inspiration was these little gold lucky cats in the windows of a lot of the bazars here (little dollar stores usually owned by an asian family). You can see the pictures in the photo album of what the cat looks like and then what my costume looked like – it’s hard to explain! But I liked how my costume came out, I thought it was pretty creative – plus I was relatively warm for most of the night, unlike a lot of my friends! Carnaval is CRAZY. It is just a huge street party and absolutely everyone is wearing a costume and drinking. It’s like Halloween but with alcohol instead of candy and it’s pretty much all teenagers and adults. There were some amazing costumes and other really strange ones (a lot of cross-dressing men, even within my API group!). The best part is that even though there were a TON of people and there was no order or rules to anything, it was never scary or dangerous – there were no fights, nothing set on fire, no cars flipped over. Even though everyone was drunk and singing and acting crazy, no one was fighting or causing too much trouble. I wish I could say the same thing about events like this in the US, like when the red sox won the World Series! Overall it was a long night because there are sooo many people and it’s hard to stay in a group without losing people but it was so much fun to see everyone’s costumes and experience Carnaval – it was definitely a once in a lifetime chance and I’m very glad I went! I hope you enjoy the pictures – I think you will be able to appreciate my explanation better once you’ve seen them!

Expect another blog very soon about this past week when my family was here! As always, thanks for reading! <3

Cadiz for the day...

And Carnaval at night!

Feb 15:

Friday was my first day teaching English and it went pretty well. I had quite an adventure trying to get to the h house – it’s very far away from my house and I was running a little late so instead of taking the bus halfway, I decided to ride my bike. Well I was pretty sore already from riding a bike so much lately and all of the construction made it very difficult to maneuver. So I dropped off my bike at one of the stops and started to walk when I realized it was much further still than I had thought. I see another bike stop so I grab the only bike there and start riding – it was making kind of a funny noise but I didn’t think anything of it (a lot of the sevici bikes kind of suck) until a few blocks later when I look down and realize my back tire is completely, hanging on the rim, riding on metal flat. I can’t find another sevici stop so I have to ride back 3 blocks to the one where I originally had picked this bike…all while having only one usable tire. By this time I’m quite let and call Jose to let him know what happened (I had to look up how to say both tire and flat haha).

Eventually I get to his house, which is very nice, and he lets me in – and I’m attacked by 4 children and a tiny dog. Pedro and Maria, the two oldest, just come running down to say hello and start asking me questions, Marta is jabbering away in Spanish that I can’t understand and Claudia, the youngest at 4, leaps onto me and attaches herself to my legs. And all this time I’m trying to meet Jose’s wife, apologize for being late, and understand the instructions they are giving me. It was very overwhelming - I had almost forgotten just how loud children can be and it’s even harder when you can’t understand a word they’re saying! So I sat with Pedro and Maria in one of their bedrooms and talked to them in English for a little while, just basic questions like how old are you, what’s your favorite color or sport or animal. They did pretty well but sometimes they had trouble understanding. Then we played go fish! It was very funny because they would speak in Spanish to each other but then in the game they would say “Peter, do you have any sixes?” “No I do not, Mary, go fish.” It seemed to go pretty well and I have another session this Wednesday – I’m hoping to have time to make a memory match game, maybe with animals, because it’s hard to just have a conversation for an hour with a 10 and 7 year old, especially when they have very limited English vocabulary.

It was very hard on my brain switching back and forth from English to Spanish the whole time I was there – The parents only speak Spanish so I have to speak Spanish to them, but they don’t want me speaking any Spanish to the kids, only English so they get used to hearing it, even if they don’t understand everything. This part was very hard because when they speak Spanish to me, my mind is in Spanish mode and I kept starting to respond in Spanish, only to go back and correct myself to English. I hope it will get easier as I get more used to it, and I’m hoping Pedro will speak a little more English while I’m there.

Saturday was the trip to Gibraltar, which was very fun. It was about a 2 and a half hour bus ride, and the scenery was beautiful – lots of cows and animals, rolling green hills, tons of wind turbines – I really enjoyed looking out the bus window, especially on the way back when the sun was setting. So we get to Gibraltar and get off the buses to walk through the border patrol with our passports – Gibraltar has been a British territory since the early 1700’s. IT has a very interesting history, with all the fighting and disputes over its ownership, as well as the military history. The island all together is less than 3 square miles in area! Although they have added some space where there used to be water. We drove up the rock, getting really beautiful views of the harbor and the town. In order to cross onto Gibraltar, you literally have to drive/walk across the landing strip for the airport! That’s how small the island is, haha. We drove through the tiniest little tunnels that didn’t even look like a bus would fit through. Some of them were made of limestone and they were very wet and dripping – our tour guide (very British, fun accent) told us the water is from when it rained two weeks earlier because the limestone absorbs the water! We stopped at a lookout point where you could see Africa (Morocco) and Spain out in the ocean. There was also a very pretty mosque and a lighthouse. In the past, people thought that the world ended after the Mediterranean Sea so Gibraltar was known as one of the two Pillars of Hercules. It was very windy and a little cold, but definitely cool to see.

We then drove up to St. Michael’s caves, and when we got off of the bus the Barbary apes (cute little monkeys with no tails) are everywhere! Just walking around the road, on the walls, in the trees, jumping onto the buses – they were so cute! Then we went into the cave, which was beautiful. It is all made out of limestone and has made really cool formations after millions of years. They once used the caves as a military shelter and a hospital, and today it is used as a theater where you can see plays, concerts, recitals, etc. After exiting the cave, we went to see more monkeys and take some pictures with/of them. At first they seem very cute and everyone wanted to touch them or hold one – then some of them started being a little scary! We were told to leave our food on the bus because they’ll smell it in your bag and like attack you to get at it. One girl had a food wrapped in her shirt pocket and one of the monkeys heard it crinkle and leaped on her and was pulling and digging at her shirt and jacket to try to find it and it bit her when she tried to push it away! Another one leaped onto this kid Jon, from API, and started unzipping all of the zippers on his backpack – and then zipping them back up when it didn’t find anything! And if you tried to get it off, it would hiss and scratch at you. It was scary! After that, I didn’t want one on me! I just took pictures of the cute baby ones – the huge ones were a little frightening.

After the monkeys, we had free time down in the town square to wander around and eat lunch. I had brought a lunch but Julia got fish and chips – very British! We then walked around and went into some of the cute little shops, the combination of the Spanish and British culture is very interesting. Most of the residents speak both languages and you definitely heard both throughout the day, but the education and official language is English. I think it’s very strange that people actually live there – when I was younger I didn’t realize there was like a town there, I just thought it was a big rock out in the ocean! It was a lot of fun though and I’m glad I got the chance to go. Enjoy the pictures! There will be more coming soon from my stroll around Sevilla the other day but I haven’t uploaded the pictures yet. Thanks for reading! <3

Gibraltar

Italica, bicicletas, Pedro

8 Feb:

The first week of classes went pretty well, luckily I got into all the classes I wanted to be in so my schedule I think will work out pretty well even though it’s gonna suck to have to get up so early on Mondays and Wednesdays. I’ve been looking at flights and trying to figure out where I want to travel, which has been a little stressful – there are so many places I want to visit while I’m here but I have limited time and money! but I’m very excited to go to Greece with Jackie! We are going the last weekend in april for 5 days – we are going to spend a day in Athens and then head down to Monemvasia, where my cousin has a lot of family. It looks so beautiful and I’m very excited.

This Thursday night I went out with SJ and Karen – we started at Buddha, a discoteca where we met a lot of the other API students. Then we headed out to try to find a flamenco show but we weren’t having very much luck – the streets were eerily deserted. We finally found a few little bars but nothing too exciting so we decided to start heading back. We took out our map to figure out the fastest way home when this drunken spainard and two of his friends came over, speaking broken English, and dragged us into one of the bars we had just been into. But this time, there was a guitar player and a singer and some spainards dancing. So we talked to a few of them, they were very nice and wanted to practice their English like we wanted to practice our Spanish. A very pretty Spanish girl tried to teach SJ how to dance – how to move our hands and hips and feet - I am still terrible but it was really fun! And there were a lot of cute Spanish boys haha. It was so authentically Spanish – we were the only Americans – and it was so drastically different from the crowded discoteca from earlier, I liked it much better. So we ended up being out very late and I had to get up early the next day to go on a field trip to the roman ruins of Italica, right outside of Sevilla. It was the first major roman city in Spain and has one of the most well preserved amphitheaters in all of Europe! It was very cool to see all the remains of the buildings, especially after so many years have gone by! It was very windy and cold though, I can’t wait until it gets warmer!

12 Feb:

I got a bike! My Sevici (the city bike system) card came in yesterday so I’ve been riding my bike all over the city! There are bike paths everywhere, it’s really nice. The way it works is that there are bike stations scattered around with locked bikes and you put your card into the machine and it lets you take one of the bikes and when you’re done riding it, you just return it to the nearest station. It seems like a pretty good system although it’s a pain when the closest station doesn’t have any bikes left. My legs are sore because I’m not used to riding so much, but I think I will be using this a lot, especially one nice days (it almost hit 70 today!) plus it cuts down my commute to school by a lot. It’s also useful at night because the buses stop running at 11 and my house is very far from everything.

In other big news, I got a job! One of my professors asked if anyone was interested in teaching English to children because one of his colleagues needed someone. I went and met with the man (he works in the ecology lab at the school) and I’m going to be teaching/helping his 10 year old son Pedro with English twice a week. There are also 3 younger girls: Maria (7), Marta (5), and Claudia (3). I might also be playing games in English with them just so they get used to hearing English; I’m only allowed to speak English with them while I’m there. My first day is tomorrow and I’m a little nervous but very excited – I think it’s going to be a lot of fun, plus it will be nice to be making a little money instead of just spending everything I have!

Here are the pictures from Italica last week, and there will be a lot more pictures coming up soon because I’m taking a tour of Sevilla tomorrow and going to Gibraltar on Saturday.

Thanks again for reading my blog, I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for your emails, and feel free to leave comments on here (sorry if the instructions are in Spanish!)

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Italica: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=76586&id=535832790&l=bb50f

Granada

31 Jan:

Yesterday we left for Granada– it’s about a 3 hour bus ride but the country-side is so pretty! Even the crumbling old buildings and random little towns and farms on the hills are so interesting to look at. I love the vibe of Granada – it has a middle eastern/Arabic kind of style that I really like. There are so many cool little stores with everything from scarves and clothing to tea sets and lanterns. It’s all so fun to wander around and look at – I wish I had a lot of money so I could buy all of the cool stuff I saw! I did pick up a few gifts for people though! Karen, SJ, and I went to the authentic Arab baths Friday afternoon, along with a lot of other API girls, and it was amazing. You change into your bathing suit and go into this room that looks kind of like a basement except it has cool lanterns and candles everywhere. There is a cold pool in the middle with a little fountain and then all around are this different shaped hot pools and you alternate between the different temperature pool – it is supposed to be very cleansing, it opens up all your pores and everything. Then I got a 15 min massage, which was very enjoyable and soothing. Then we got to stay in the pools for longer, as well as having free tea in the little tea room off to the side – it was this delicious Arabic tea that I liked a lot. It was so relaxing, especially when some of the other girls left so not as many people were talking. And it was only 26 euro! I definitely recommend it!

After the baths, we went to a teteria (basically a tea house) and sampled some of the exotic teas – it was so much better than the stuff at the Arab bath, it was so good. They have all different interesting blends of red, black, and green teas along with assorted fruits and spices – the strange combinations were so good. I drank a lot of tea and then I had so much energy because of all the caffeine and sugar! The decorations at the teteria were really cool, too. I feel like Brooke would have enjoyed it a lot – I want to try to find one in the US to go to!

After dinner, we walked all the way across the city, up and down a lot of hills on cobblestone streets (heels weren’t the best choice of footwear!) to an authentic flamenco show, up in the sacromonte caves where the gypsies live. The show was very interesting, I enjoyed it. The dancing is so cool, I don’t know how they move so smoothly and keep such good rhythms with their hands and feet. The beat is very catchy! I really want to learn how to do flamenco and wear a pretty flamenco dress, at least for the fair in april! I am taking a class at school, but we’ll see if I actually learn it – it looks so hard! They even had some of the students get up and try to dance with them – thankfully they didn’t pick me! I was so amazed by the older woman who was dancing and singing – she was amazing and she must have been doing this for many, many years – it looks so strenuous and hard on your body but she was still incredible to watch!

After the show we walked back to the center of Granada and went out with a couple of the girls from the program – we went to a couple of bars and then went to a big discotheque called Granada 10 – there were a lot of people there, a lot from our API group, and it was a lot of fun. I’m still not quite used to how late things start at night here in Europe, never mind how late they are open until!

On Saturday, we visited La Alhambra – unfortunately the warm, sunny weather from Friday changed into cold, rainy weather, which doesn’t make for the funnest tour, however it was still an amazing sight. It really is a whole city inside the palace walls and it has the most gorgeous views of Granada because it’s up on the hill. You can also see the snowy peaks of the Sierra Nevada mountains, which are beautiful. The palaces themselves are quite impressive – the Alcazar in Sevilla that I mentioned before is based on La Alhambra so we saw a lot of the same amazing style of tile work and wood carvings, along with the arcs that the Arabic/moorish style is known for. Even in the rain it was very beautiful and I obviously took a lot of pictures! I couldn’t imagine people actually living in such a grand, opulent place – I was overwhelmed just visiting it!

Arab bathes

Grenada

La Alhambra