La semana de mi familia!

27 February

This past week my family came all the way to Sevilla to visit me! They got here Sunday night and I met them at their hotel, which was very close to my house. The hotel was really nice and the location was really convenient for me. Sunday night we just hung out in the hotel and caught up on things and took a little walk down to the river. Monday morning I had to go to class very early so we planned for my parents and nick to go to the cathedral to take a tour and I would meet them for lunch after my classes. Well the cathedral was so packed in the morning that they couldn’t even get in to take a tour. And then there was some confusion on where we were supposed to meet. But finally we found each other and I gave them a tour of the cathedral, including walking up the 38 ramps to the top of the Giralda! We then went to the Alcazar to find out that it’s closed on Mondays and I had to head back to the university for 2 more classes. So I sent them to Parque Maria Luisa and the Plaza de Espana to spend the afternoon, which seemed to work out fine. That night Carmen had invited them over for dinner so I met them at their hotel and we walked to my house. Dinner was interesting – Carmen can’t speak any English and my parents can’t speak any Spanish! So everything had to be translated and stories had to be explained twice, but I think overall it went very well. A few times I started speaking to my family in Spanish because I forgot to switch languages after telling something to Carmen! It was very confusing. But Carmen is a great cook, even Dad and Nick liked her food, and I was very glad my family got the chance to see where I live and meet Carmen.

Tuesday we had quite the adventure. Nick really wanted to go skiing while they were here and the Sierra Nevada mountain range, the 3^rd highest in Europe, is about 3 hours away from Sevilla. So we rented a car, a tiny little standard that my dad could barely fit in, and a GPS and headed to Granada. Well to get up to the ski resort you have to literally drive up and over the sierra nevadas, up this hills and around huge curves, it was ridiculous. The view was gorgeous but it was very stressful for my dad who was driving, I don’t even know how the car made it up some of those roads! You will be able to understand better once you see my pictures! By the time we even got to the ski place it was like 1:30 in the afternoon and my dad didn’t feel like skiing after such a harrowing drive. So Nick and I rented skis and took the gondola up the mountain – there were so many people from all over Europe and the mountains were absolutely beautiful. It was literally above the tree line, it was very strange to be skiing on just snow and not see one tree on the trails! The mountain was really big, with lots of ski lifts that would take you part of the way up the mountain. The sky was the most beautiful blue color I’ve ever seen, especially against the bright white snow, and the view from the top looking down the mountain was amazing – you could see so far because we were literally at one of the highest points of the mountain range. It was incredible – I took so many pictures! It was sunny and a beautiful day, not too cold, and the snow was awesome – powdery, but a little different feeling compared to what I’m used to. Nick and I skied for a few hours then headed all the way back down the mountain to meet Mom and Dad. We returned our skis, walked around the cute little ski town for a little bit, and went back to the car. Now Nick and I can both say we’ve skied in Europe!

Now comes the “fun” part of Tuesday. We were heading back and Granada is very close by and it is one of my favorite places I’ve visited in Spain so far so I obviously wanted to show it to my family. So we drive up by the Alhambra and we can kind of see a few of the towers but it’s a one way street and we can’t drive down it. So we turn around and try to get into the actual city of Granada. So we get there and we’re driving and there doesn’t seem to be a place to park – the last time I was there I was just walking so I didn’t really know much about driving around the city. So we decide we’ve seen enough and we should turn around and head back to the highway. Well at this point we are on a one way street with no way of turning around. So we’re following the car in front of us as the road is getting smaller and smaller and not paved and there are tons of people walking on it. Finally we reach a dead end and have to go up this huge hill. So we’re driving up this two way street that only has room for one car. We get to the top and take a left somewhere, trying to get back down to the center of the city. Of course the GPS is absolutely useless, telling us to turn down staircases and into people’s houses. So we finally see a left hand turn that looks like a real road and start to turn down it when a car is coming up it. Then my dad can’t get the car to go into reverse, so nick gets out and tries to push the car back up the hill. I’m trying to ask the people watching for help but of course I have no idea how to say reverse or back up in Spanish so I can’t really explain the problem. Finally a man comes over speaking English and asks if we need help. He shows my dad how to get the car into reverse because there was some trick to it, and his directions for getting back to the center of town? Umm try to take a left somewhere? Helpful. So we finally find a road that goes down the hill and we are so close to the center of the city…when we hit a police blockade and there’s a detour heading back in the wrong direction. Eventually we find our way back out to the highway and the GPS actually knows where it’s going. But I felt really bad because it was my fault we got stuck in that situation that was really stressful for my dad – I just really liked Granada and wanted to share it with my family!

Wednesday went much better overall – my family headed to the bull fighting arena to take a tour in the morning while I went to my first two classes. I met them later for a little souvenir shopping and showed them to the Alcazar while I went to teach English and go to my other two classes. Then I met them later at their hotel to go out to dinner. I had found a few gluten free restaurants on Sevilla online and wanted to try one of them. We get to the restaurant and the host says they don’t have a gluten free menu but they can tell me what I can eat off of the regular menu. I don’t eat out very often because Carmen is such a good cook so I’m not very good at understanding Spanish menus. But I tried my best, asked out waiter a lot of questions about what words meant, and we all ordered. Well mine was wonderful, I had veal hamburgers with sautéed onions and tomatoes, and specially made French fries for me. My dad’s was good – some sort of lamb and potato. And my mom’s was good, ham and onions and potatoes. But nick’s…whoops. It was scrambled eggs with ham but it also had these gross brown things in them that I think were seafood and smelled disgusting. So nick ended up eating bread and parts of everyone else’s meals – but I don’t think ¾ is bad! Overall the waiter was very helpful and I liked the restaurant a lot – I’m hoping to go back there again.

Thursday, my family’s last day here, went very well. I met them at their hotel in the morning and we walked through the city to get to the centro area. I was looking for a certain street that we didn’t end up finding but they still got to see what the real city looks like, not just the monument and shopping area. We bought some more gifts for people and headed to the parque maria luisa to ride bikes. We rented one of these akward, four person bike carriage things (see the picture because it’s hard to explain!) and rode around the park for a little bit, which was fun. We then headed over to the river to go on a river cruise. We got a nice tour of the city surrounding the river and it was very relaxing, although the breeze off of the water was very cold. After that we got an ice cream and my family headed back to their hotel to pack while I went off to my class. I met them later on so my mom and I could go to a flamenco show and we got tapas (appetizers) on the way, which were really good. My favorite is patatas bravas, kind of like homefries with this delicious hot sauce on them. The flamenco show was in a pretty cool place, it was like an indoor patio. The singer, as always with flamenco, was very over the top and passionate and emotional – I usually find it’s better to watch the guitar players because they’re always very good! The singing is not my favorite but when you put the dancer in with the singing I love it. The woman who was dancing wasn’t my favorite I’ve seen but she was still very good. The man flamenco dancer was incredible though – he was very good and very interesting to watch. Flamenco is a little bit of an acquired taste I think but I hope my mom enjoyed it – you can’t come to Andalucía without seeing a flamenco show! Then I headed back to the hotel with them to pack up and say goodbye – I was very sad to say goodbye but it was a very fun week (albeit tiring because I still had all my classes and homework!) and I’m very glad they got to come and see what I beautiful city I live in and have a better idea of how I’m going to be spending the next 3 months in Spain.

Thanks again for reading, hope you enjoyed the stories and the pictures! <3

Sierra Nevada

The Rest of the Week with the Family

Some pictures from around Sevilla from a few weeks ago that I haven’t posted yet!