José x 3

28 Feb

I had planned to hang out with my friend Ellen on Saturday (she’s from rhode island!) but we hadn’t decided on plans yet – then Saturday morning when I got up, she called me and said that she had some Spanish friends who wanted to take us to Córdoba. So I got ready really fast and headed out to meet up with Ellen, and her two friends (both named José!) They were really nice and I was doing very good practicing my Spanish. We met up with a friend of theirs (also named José!) who lives in Cordoba and José 3 gave us a very nice tour of the city, from the cute little streets and plazas, to what the city is famous for: La Mezquita. It’s a huge mosque with beautiful white and orange arches lining the entire inside. However when the Christian kings took over the city, they constructed a gorgeous cathedral right in the center of the mosque.  It’s very strange to see all these catholic figures next to tiles with verses of the Koran but it was all very beautiful. I love the Arabic style architecture that’s so prevalent here in southern Spain – the tiles, the arches, the stucco, and wooden carved ceilings – it’s very unique, I never get tired of looking at. After La Mezquita we headed out to a beautiful bridge and sat next to the river to eat lunch – unfortunately the day was very overcast but it was still nice. We then found a cute little plaza where we got warm drinks and then started walking back to the car. We found a cool little bar on the way and I was helping José 2 with his English – it was fun to try to explain different English phrases to him and when to use them. He kept being worried that I was bored but I actually found it very interesting! Overall it was a fun day and I got to practice a lot of Spanish, which I’m happy to say is definitely improving. And I’m hoping to hang out with the José’s again sometime because it was a lot of fun and I’m so glad I went!

pictures from Córdoba