A Religious Experience

Okay. So this is my Saturday night in Barcelona. Which deserves its own post. You can read about the rest of my trip in my earlier one.

At around 6 on Saturday, Claudia and I were walking back from our day out around the beach and Barceloneta. Our hostel is literally half a block away from the Apolo theatre, which is apparently this huge club/venue/restaurant thing that we’ve passed every day. Claudia wanted to go inside and ask about it, and as she was going in the door, I noticed a white piece of paper with black typing on it. Seriously, a piece of paper, not a poster or anything with a picture or large letters. It said:

8:30 Doors Open.

9:00 Josh Ritter.

9:45 The Swell Season.

I stared at this thing for a long time and just pointed at The Swell Season, because this is the name of the band made up of Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, two of my very favorite musicians, that after winning an Oscar for Once, don’t really do small venues in the US…at all. You have to pay a lot more money to see them from a lot farther away in an impersonal setting. So, I stared at this thing in disbelief. And then I thought, surely, the date is going to be months away. But it was that Saturday night, in three hours.

We walked back to the hostel and I searched on computer at their official website, because I was convinced it couldn't be them. Upon searching, I realized they were indeed going to be a half block from my hostel that night and tickets were 18 euros. By the time I decided I was going to go see if I could buy tickets, it was around 7, and when I walked back out the door, there were tour busses and a line already forming. I got in it alone, met some awesome people around me, and just…waited. I had to ask in Spanish several times about which line to be in, and I swear, I have never spoken so fluently in my life – the Spanish just flowed out of me. I was going to get into this concert.

I had to wait until 8:30 when they opened the doors to buy a ticket, and by the time they opened the doors there was a huge crowd outside because Glen and Marketa were just walking up and down the sidewalk moving things from their bus.

The opening musician, Josh Ritter, was very very good, I highly recommend him, but I can’t even begin to tell you the musical experience that awaited me with The Swell Season. I was two feet away from these guys and they put on the best concert I have ever seen. The music was so good I could have died. Glen Hansard came out first and played a song from Once above my head, acoustically.

After this, the Frames and Marketa came out, and they played together. Occasionally, Marketa would switch to guitar and Glen would go to the piano.

Javier Moss was also there. He’s a guitarist from Barcelona that is one of their idols. He played Spanish style guitar at really a staggering level of musicianship and together they covered a Van Morrison song. Glen Hansard looked so happy and humbled to be playing beside him it was really fantastic to see.

They got so into the concert they played waaay longer than they were supposed to. He asked frequently for audience participation. By the end of the concert, every string but one was broken from his guitar, and the audience was singing the guitar part while he sang along without being able to play.

The fact that I walked by this place and literally saw this typed on a piece of paper is the most astounding thing to me. Seeing them on the sidewalk would have been enough but to have seen these two people play within arms length of me was just an amazing experience, I love musicians that care about music as passionately as they seem to – and I loved the way they spoke about their songs and what they mean and how they came about. Truly, one of the best experiences of my entire life, I am a sucker for good music. Thank you Barcelona. Thank you magic arch (See last post).

I'll try to put video on facebook.

A Tale of One City

Okay, time for Barcelona recap. I think I’m going to start with a post about the city itself and then dedicate an entire post to my Saturday night. Let’s begin.

We flew into El Prat on Thursday and went to our hostel: Hello BCN. I highly recommend this place if you stop by Barca for a bit, it was very clean and quite awesome – they had computers in the lobby with free internet, free breakfast in the morning, free coffee all day, a full kitchen, a lounge area, and at night it turned into a bar where I had the opportunity to meet some very interesting people from various parts of the world.

After arriving, we walked around a little bit and saw Las Ramblas, the market, and the port. I had half a bocadilla and cappuccino flavored gelato for dinner. It was heavenly. We went back to the hostel to look for something to do that night and we were offered to go on a pub crawl by a crazy Croatian - which I recommend always saying yes to.

We went first to Chupitos, which comes highly recommended, and we actually ran into a lot of other people from our program there. Chupitos is a LOT of fun and full of fire and wonder.

After that we went to another bar and then to a few clubs by the beach where we got to see some legitimate break dancers and see the Mediterranean. So, nooot a bad night.

Friday was a Gaudi filled day. We went to Park Guell, which is really really impressive and sports an amazing view.

After this we walked down to both of his famous houses but we didn’t go inside, they were really expensive. Barcelona gave my feet a beating, but I enjoyed walking the city.

Friday night we went to the Magic Fountain show, which was indeed magic – full of lights and music. The fountain even chanted “Barcelona” which I thought was fittingly epic.

After the fountain we wandered around the Gothic District until we found a place for dinner – it was a strange place, but we were intrigued. By the time we got out of the restaurant it was after 11, and then on the way back to the hostel, when we were trying to decide what to do, Sydney got her phone pickpocketed. That kind of put a hold on the night, though I really enjoyed the day I had anyways.

Saturday morning we went to La Sagrada Familia, which was really unusual to me at first – its so different from any other cathedral I’ve seen. Obviously its still under construction and isn’t going to be finished for another 15 years (at least) but what you couldn’t see inside the cathedral was made up for by the museums and information they had inside – it really shed a lot of light on why things were styled the way we were – Gaudi is quite the impressive architect and things make a lot more sense once you understand where he was coming from in his design.

After seeing the cathedral we went back to the Gothic District to meet up with a free walking tour of this part of the city. It was informative in unusual ways that I wouldn’t have known about before. We were shown places that had bullet holes from where people were executed during the Franco regime…and then we were shown the place Picasso supposedly lost his virginity. Strange.

During one part of the tour, our guide explained that there’s an arch in the Gothic District that legend has it if you walk under it with your back to it, your wish will come true, so she had all of us do this. I felt a little silly, but obliged….and I think my wish actually came true. I wanted an awesome night in the city, and it delivered on a fantastic level, which will have to be what the next post is about.

So you can go read that, but first here’s my impression of Barcelona: It’s a gorgeous city with really unique architecture. It’s very lively, in a beautiful location with mountains and the coast, and it’s a LOT of fun. While I loved my visit, I’m glad I didn’t study there (Sorry Monica.) English is EVERYWHERE, and the culture isn't the Spanish culture that I experience every day in Sevilla. Instead, it really is a unique mixture of everyone. While I like this for a city, I wouldn’t like it while trying to be immersed in a culture – which I truly feel like I get to experience in Sevilla. The creeper level is also exponentially more noticeable in Barcelona, we were followed a few times and like I said, one of us was pickpocketed. Judging by the conversations I had with people in the hostel, this is really common. One girl had been staying in Spain since February because she legally can’t leave the country – all of her documentation was stolen the first day she got to Barcelona. But, it’s a big city, and stuff like that comes with it. I really enjoyed my visit and my Saturday night, so…I shall post about that specifically….

(This elephant was not involved in my Saturday night...)

This is Typical Weeknight Stuff, Obviously

Wednesday was our last day of classes for the week because Sunday is Andalucia Day, celebrating their beginning as an autonomous community. Obviously, this holiday requires us to have a 5 day weekend....

Wednesday night we went to "Euromania" at 100 Montaditos, a chain of bars around Sevilla. Montaditos are little sandwiches...and as you can guess, there are literally 100 on their menu. Everything from simple ham to delicious conconctions with grilled salmon. Every Wednesday the entire menu, including drinks, is one euro. It was a chaotic mess to shove our way through and find out how to order, and then I had to clarify to the lady that she had forgotten all of our drinks...but at least I got to practice my Spanish. I have to say these little sandwiches are absolutely delicious and Im looking forward to next Wednesday...only 99 more to try!

Thursday we flew out for Barcelona! It was a really bumpy flight and I got a little motion sick, but I dont know what I can blame that on, the weather was really crappy when we left Sevilla and it was a smaller plane. Luckily coming into Barcelona, its been gorgeous. I plan to have a full update on the trip with pictures, etc, but I wanted to make a quick post about the beginning of the weekend before I had to write a long winded essay upon coming home. Lets just say our first day in the city consisted of gelato for dinner, shopping by the Mediterranean, a pub crawl with a crazy Croatian, and clubs on the beach. Today was a LOT of walking around by Park Guell and the Gaudi houses.

I really love Barcelona so far but its definitely in a different way than how I love Sevilla. This is such a metropolis here and there is so much English (and every other language). I dont think I would have liked to try to learn Spanish here. The creeper count here is also considerably higher. But its been a blast so far for a visit and its such a gorgeous city, Im glad to still have a day and a half left.

Sun!

Monday was a gorgeous day here in Sevilla – finally! I’ve been trapped by rain for so long its so nice to come back from a trip and have warm, clear weather. It was in the 20’s! (Celsius, of course). I went running by the river in shorts and a jacket and I actually got a little toasty.

Tuesday turned out to be one of those days where I realize how lucky I am to be having an experience as unique as the one I’m being allowed this semester, and nothing truly exceptional actually happened: it was just a normal day full of fun experiences that I think I’m going to miss when I go home.

After a delicious lunch and a siesta, I met up with Candace and Christin to use the internet at Melie’s, but they realized they had to go meet their intercambio, so I was pulled along. We went to a bar where he knew the owner, and we tried some tapas and had good conversation - I learned some useful Spanish and we got to teach him some useful English, including the difference between ham and jam.. During dinner, our roommate told us she was going to a nearby pub to watch a soccer match with some friends from her class, so we got to go along and sit in a Spanish sports bar watching Barcelona play a German team with all of her German and Eastern European classmates – it was a lot of fun, I’ve truly enjoyed the diversity of people I’ve been allowed to meet here; one of her classmates is a cultural anthropologist doing PhD research on gypsies.

Wednesday is my last day of classes for the week – we have a 5 day weekend for some random reason. We’re headed to Barcelona on our first weekend excursion not planned by our study abroad organization, so it should be interesting, and I’m definitely excited to see that city.

"I Wish I Could Fly..."

Oooh where do I even start about this weekend….

Thursday night, in short, consisted of going out with the new roommates Since one of them studied in Sevilla 5 years ago, she had a Sevilliano friend who came and met us. We restricted our conversation to almost all Spanish, which I really enjoyed.

Friday we had an afternoon train to Madrid. We arrived and went out to sightsee by around 6:30, so we had a few minutes of daylight and then it turned into a freezing cold night tour.

My impression of Madrid was that it was similar to most other metropolitan cities that I’d been to, walking down the streets you could easily forget you were in Spain and think you were in New York – Madrid even has its own “broadway.” I liked seeing the Plaza Mayor and the historical parts of the city – but I felt that compared to Sevilla, it was lacking, but then maybe I’m just spoiled. I just know that Madrid has a lot of banks and that its several degrees colder than I care to be, but again, I'm spoiled.

Friday night, Candice, Christin and I went out to look for food in Chueca, the “alternative” district of Madrid that our wonderful tour guide, Paco, recommended. We stumbled upon an awesome pizza place nearby and had one of the best pizzas in my life, it was perfect.

I just want to take a detour now and explain for a moment how freaking good the hotel breakfast buffet was. In Spain, they don’t really care about breakfast much, which makes me really sad, because this country does so much right as far as food goes, if they would only realize that breakfast is the best meal ever, the potential would be unlimited. Luckily, this hotel had everything from croissants and pastries, eggs, every kind of fresh fruit, coffee, orange juice, cereal, it was a smorgasbord, basically. They even had random things like meats and cheeses. Few things have inspired such joy in me as this buffet did.

But anyways. We had some trouble getting everyone out of the hotel on time, as usually happens with groups of people, so we were late getting to the train station. Our walk to the train station (which was a considerable distance away) consisted of Olympic pace speed walking…followed by jogging…leading to a full on sprint to our train. We literally hopped on the train as it said “Leaving immediately,” and we were in such a hurry we just jumped in the first open door we saw, not even paying attention to whether it was the right car. The train was moving by the time we found our seats.

But we got to Toledo. And I’m glad we did, because it is an absolutely gorgeous city that I wish everyone could visit. It’s up on a hill surrounded by a river, which explains why it was developed as much as it was, it used to be the capital of Spain.

Paco gave us a full tour of the city, and we saw a cathedral, a mosque, and a synagogue.In learning about Spanish history its so interesting to go to all of these towns and see examples of these buildings and the history behind how the religions interacted with each other and how thats reflected in the architecture.

We also saw the painting by El Greco and his grave that are in Toledo. We couldn’t take pictures of the painting, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, but that’s probably best, since I don’t think a picture could have done this thing justice, it was truly fantastic.

Now, I’ll go ahead and admit that I’m a broke college student studying abroad, and my lunch consisted of things I had stashed from the breakfast buffet. Those of us who hoarded were able to explore with our free time rather than going to eat at a restaurant, and we got to look in a lot of the shops and see the products Toledo is most famous for: Gold, Swords, and Marzipan. In fact, Toledo was where they made the swords used in the Lord of the Rings movie. Enjoy that trivia.

The walk back to the train station was so much better than the sprint to it, and we were back in Madrid around 4. Sybil, Candace, Christin, and I decided to go exploring instead of going back to take a nap. We found the Jardines de los Retiros, and it is quite massive, and contains things like the "Crystal Palace" and the Estanque.

As it started to get later we made the decision to have an earlier dinner, rest, and then spend some time going out tonight. Unfortunately, Madrid conspired against us. We wandered for a while and picked the restaurant we wanted to eat at, but of course it wasn’t open yet, because Spaniards don’t eat dinner until late, and these restaurants weren’t opening until 9. So we killed time until then with a little shopping and wandering, but my legs were killing me and at this point I was starving. Highlights of this period of the night include unknowingly walking into a gay sex store and being pinned against a wall by a small child on the street.

Finally, it reaches 9, and the restaurant opens. There’s a line outside it, but we’re near the front, and we’ve already picked out what we want, we are ready for this food. Once we get inside (it’s still freezing outside, by the way, and I should also point out that at this point I’ve had to pee for the past 2 hours), we tell the host a table for 4, and he tells us he’s full. At this point, we begin to laugh, because EVERY TABLE IN THE RESTAURANT IS UNOCCUPIED. But as we laugh, we notice he’s not laughing. Apparantly they completely filled up on reservations, which restaurants aren’t supposed to do. After some heckling from the people in the line, we realized that we weren’t actually going to get to eat here. At this point, I’m near bladder-infection desperate for a bathroom, pissed off, and starving. So where does one find themselves in that kind of mood? McDonald’s. It’s sad but it’s the truth.

Honestly after the dinner ordeal I was beyond tired and could not even consider going out. My legs hurt so badly I thought they were going to snap off in the streets of Madrid. I had been walking for literally 12 hours straight and it began with a train station sprint. So I went back and took a glorious shower, put on my pajamas, and we stayed in and watched Up on Candace’s computer.

Sunday morning included a tour of the Prado, which I really liked. Having a guided tour by Paco was really great, we got the background and meaning and details of all of the paintings, and I really got to appreciate them more. I’m a big fan of El Greco, I’ve decided. I also have come to realize that these paintings in person are so much more impressive than seeing it on paper.

We left with plenty of time to get back to the train station – I will never put myself in the position for sprinting to catch a train ever again, and I’m happy to be back in Sevilla. I liked Madrid, but I’m really glad to be studying here instead, I just find it to be such a prettier place and not as fast moving - but I guess I am biased. Toledo, however, was completely impressive and absolutely gorgeous.

Sorry for the long winded recap but this weekend felt like a century.

And now to rest my legs before I leave on Thursday to do this all over again in Barca…

Mojitos y Intercambios

Tuesday and Wednesday ended up being decent weather days, making up for the wash out that was most of my weekend. It rained at really odd intervals, and a couple of times when the sun was completely shining, but we got enough of a break that I could actually go outside with some confidence that I wouldn’t need a canoe to get back home (I’m looking at you, Monday.)

During my siesta on Tuesday I dreamed that I “visited” home again, this is at least the second dream I’ve had of this nature. I just drop by back home like I would if I was still at Clemson, get a bunch of things that I need, talk to my family, and then go back to Spain, like “Oh no big deal, just visiting for the weekend.” A couple of people in my program have said they’ve had similar dreams. Its always a weird experience waking up and realizing I won’t be going home again for over 3 months. Not that I’m sad about that, its just weird to realize it.

At dinner on Tuesday, the two girls that are staying with us for a little while said they were going out and extended an invitation. We went to a place called “Azucar de Cuba” to watch/dance salsa, buutt there wasn’t any salsa dancing going on, probably because it was a Tuesday, but regardless we ordered drinks and I got to know them a little better. They are really nice and both in their last year of med school, so I got to compare how I pass out when I get my blood drawn to their stories about being in operating rooms when organs are gushing blood. They also had a lot of horror stories about poop. Sorry to my friends in the health science majors…

Azucar de Cuba has really delicious mojitos, but its also expensive as hell. I would go back to see the salsa, and a sign said they have salsa lessons on Fridays, but I will not be buying anything from them again.

After class on Wednesday was an intercambio event, so I asked for a packed lunch and stayed at the school the entire afternoon. The intercambio was a fun experience, even though it did get really awkward at times. It was just a room full of American students and Spanish students, and then we were asked to find someone to talk to, and then told to switch around after a while. All of the Spanish students spoke English and were majoring in translation, which is why they were there, but it was fun to go back and forth between English and Spanish. Some conversations went so much more easily than others, but I enjoyed it, overall.

One Spaniard told me that I spoke Spanish very well, which I’ll take as my accomplishment for the week. That makes up for the last group of girls I talked to that stared blankly at me for 90% of the conversation.

Tomorrow I leave for Madrid! I'm really excited to see the city but not looking forward to the freezing temperatures!

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

The weather here has been muy mal lately. It’s been anywhere from 4-12 degrees Celsius, and while that’s above freezing and better off than a lot of other places in Europe (and even SC, apparently), it just feels colder because of how southern Spain is designed. I know I’ve talked about, but I feel like I can’t stress it enough, because I need people to understand why its 50 degrees outside and I feel like pulling a space heater into bed with me.

On top of the chilly temperatures, it’s going to rain all of this next week, and this is really not good when you’re a student on study abroad that walks everywhere and doesn’t have a lot of the usual “rainy day” comforts like a television to watch or a movie collection. I’ve even run through all of the books that I brought with me. I’m trying to read a book by Gabriel Garcia Marquez in Spanish but it exhausts me after about 3 pages.

I asked Antonio what I should do because of all of the bad weather, and he told me to twiddle my thumbs, which is what he plans to do this next week. Thanks Antonio. So, if any one is wondering what CRAZY things I’m doing on study abroad – I’m twiddling my thumbs with Antonio, my septuagenarian host father.

Okay no, it shouldn’t be that bad, though the rain will probably push me to finish all of my schoolwork and do a lot of work on my computer, which is probably good since I’m traveling this weekend and next weekend (Madrid, Toledo, Barcelona, respectively)

Just so this post isn’t all sad about the rain, I’ll throw in an uplifting story. It was raining on Saturday and it was frigid outside, so I (almost) literally ran to an internet café to do some work indoors. I was ready to be a Debby Downer about the weather when a woman came over and started speaking to me in Spanish. She asked if I was Spanish, and I told her no, but I can speak Spanish. So, in Spanish, she begins to tell me about how she can’t get on the internet and she has to send an important email. I told her I knew computers well and that I could look at hers. She was so glad to hear this, whipped out her computer from the bag, and introduced herself to me as Maria. Her computer was in Spanish, of course, I don’t know why I was surprised when it logged on and told me “Beinvenudo,” but I still managed to fumble around and fix her wireless. She thanked me and asked me a few more questions that I understood and apparently gave her a satisfying answer to.

So, for every frustration I have, there’s always the occasional triumph. This makes up for the atrocious email conversation I had to have IN SPANISH with the customer service of a travel website. That didn’t have a satisfying result, this did.

Peacock Pandemonium

After lunch on Monday, Candace, Christin, and I decided to go to the Alcazar because we are the only people left in the group who haven’t seen it. We got there kind of late and had less than an hour or so to look around, but regardless we went in, it’s free for us since we’re residents, so we always have the option of coming back…and we definitely will.

The Alcazar here makes the one in Cordoba look like a trailer, seriously. It’s HUGE. The gardens are gorgeous, and go on forever, and inside them there are PEACOCKS. This amused us for a good portion of our time there. We stalked them, chased them, verbally accosted them (so they would put their tails up), and had a lot of fun. One of them got angry and literally chased us for several yards.

Another woman who was looking at the gardens was laughing hysterically as this peacock chased us, probably because 3 adult women getting chased by a giant bird is just a funny thing to see. She said something to us in Spanish but we couldn’t catch what it was.

We have two more students staying with us temporarily; both of them are grad students in medicine here for a Spanish program. They don’t lunch with us, which is the meal we eat with Ana and Antonio, but they do eat dinner with us, which we have previously eaten at the table by ourselves. The new students, even though they’re American, help facilitate more Spanish conversation at dinner, which I like. Usually we sit at the table and eat while Antonio watches TV, so its easy to sit there in silence while the television is on, but now that there are four of us eating and Antonio watching TV it’s a lot easier to get a conversation going. Tuesday night we talked about politics, so I was actually able to interject some things I’m learning in my classes.

I’m finding that Antonio is really funny, when we first got here we thought he only said like 5 words every day, and it was usually when correcting our Spanish, but I’ve found he’s a pretty witty guy. I can barely understand him at all when he speaks - It’s in Spanish, with an Andalucian accent, and he’s had surgery on his lungs so he speaks in a low, raspy voice. It’s pretty much an impossible task, but some of the gestures he accompanies with his words help a lot, and he loves to teach us things about what’s happening on the television.

I think my favorite thing is when Anna yells at him through the house, it’s the same cadence every time “ANTONIO!” and then a proceeding wave of Spanish at lightning speed I can’t understand. Every day at lunch we have to wait for her to serve Antonio and then we can serve ourselves, and after one scoop from the hot dish he always says “Basta” or “stop” and Ana makes fun of him and tries to feed him more anyways. He left the table to get her a glass today and she ladled more on his plate while he wasn’t looking, while mockingly saying “Basta, Basta” to us.

Some things transcend all language barriers.

"I Just Want to Make Friends!"

This is going to be a long post, but that’s because Saturday was a really long day (In the good sense).

It was quite an early wake up call for our day trip to Cordoba, our train left a little after 9 and we had to meet before then at the train station. We decided to walk, which took 40 minutes, but at least we got some exercise in?

This was my first time on a train and I have to say I kind of prefer it over flying. The security (or lack there of) was so much simpler and the train itself had so much more room than an airplane.

When we first got to Cordoba it was foggy and cold, and we super power walked over to the Mosque to meet our tour guide, who was a very funny woman, without meaning to be. She was Spanish but learned her English in London so she had a bit of a British accent, she was very knowledgable about the mosque and I loved learning about it, but she repeated things several times and would slow down so we would hear words…except she almost slowed down too much so I couldn’t tell what she was saying. For those of you back in the states, please ask for an impression when I return.

This section of the mosque itself is kept in its “oar-ree-gee-nal” (as she enunciated) condition from the 700s and has only been restored to preserve the architecture. Several sections were added on from 700-900 as the town of Cordoba became more important. When the Moors ruled the area after the Romans and German Visigoths, they named it Al Andalus (Where modern day Andalucia comes from), and Cordoba was the capital.

This section of the mosque is called the “kibel” and points toward Mecca. This was part of the rennovations in the 900s that expanded the mosque to make it even larger. Inside where it goes back into the wall is where the Qu’ran would be kept, and that section of the mosque was blocked off for the Iman and the Emir (Muslim King and the worship leader)

All of the pillars in this first area of the Mosque were recycled, so some go back as much as 2,000 years.

During the Reconquista, the period in 15^th century Spain where the Christians conquered the country, a cathedral was built inside the Mosque - pretty impressive, right? Mass is still held here.

The tower outside used to be a minaret, and it is now a Christian tower, the minaret is incased inside.

The royal palace is nearby the mosque and it used to connect through passageways. Christian kings stayed in this palace, including Ferdinand and Isabella, and this is supposedly where they met Columbus for the first time. The history buff in me was very excited to hear this. We ate our lunch in the gardens of the palace (no big deal).

We took the train back and were home around 4. I was in dire need of a siesta, but I didn’t have much luck.

Regardless, we went out last night, and Candace, Christin, and I were determined to make some new Spanish friends. We got the opportunity on accident, when someone was bumped in to, and this turned into an interesting conversation in which I struggled through some Spanish. I learned that they know what Gilmore Girls is over here.

After this we met a man from Paris, who was really sweet, but he happened to be with an obnoxious friend from London who dominated the conversation talking about how he gets wasted starting on Wednesday night and got kicked out of his host family’s home. Lovely. I wish we could have talked to the Frenchman more, but he said he goes to our school, so maybe we’ll see him again?

After they left, we met another group, made up of three guys, of which “Lopez” spoke the most English and did a lot of the talking. We switched back and forth between English and Spanish, and it was quite entertaining.

One of them asked me what the weather was like where we were from, because he has friends from Chicago, which is freaking cold. We told him we were from South Carolina, so the weather is about the same as it is here. He seemed to recognize Carolina, and mentioned California, which I pointed out was far away (Why does everyone here think Carolina is California?) He asked me if I had ever surfed, (I think….he was making the motion for surfing) and I said once, in Hawaii. I don’t know what he thought I said, but he just kept pointing at me and saying “Hawaii!”

Lopez was playing the role of wingman, obviously, though he explained it as: “I want to…how you say…sell my friends to you?” …one of the many things that got lost in translation. Another was when he said that he “liked to gander.” I liked hearing him struggle through English sentences, because it reminds me of how I sound in Spanish. It’s endearing.

After almost being awake for 24 hours straight I was beyond ready for bed, but I would certainly count this as a successful weekend.

Gladiators!

Today our school arranged an excursion for us to the Roman ruins of Italica outside of the city, so are you ready for a history lesson? Here's some information you can put to use in Jeopardy and/or a crossword puzzle in the near future:

Italica is one of the oldest Roman cities in Spain, even though it wasn't the biggest. The Romans came in to the Iberian peninsula for its awesome location and its natural resources/gold and basically conquered it completely from the native Iberians, Celts, and Carthenogens that had immigrated in as well. They named it Hispania, which is where España, or Spain, derives.

At the ruins you can see an old house structure that used to be where a wealthy family lived. They ate in the atrium towards the center and front of the house, where they didn't have a roof so the sun could come in. Our wonderful tour guide demonstrated how Romans ate on the floor, always with wine, and usually took hours to dine and socialize.

Around the atrium is where the slaves lived, and the family lived further back within the house for safety.

You could also see the communal baths, which was the gathering spot for socializing with others in the village. Once a day, usually in the evenings, they would go to the baths to chat with the other people of the town. There were hot baths, heated by the sun, called caldariums (where the Spanish word "calor" comes from, meaning heat), and there were cold baths, hidden from the sun, called frigidariums (Where we get the word refrigerator).

The coolest part, though, of the entire place, is the ampitheatre, where Italica used to host gladiator shows where thousands of people from all over would gather to basically see brute violence and bloodshed. The slaves would be forced to fight animals, and middle/upper class people would fight the animals as well, but they would fight for valor or social recognition. The animals usually won, but when a citizen won, they would basically become a celebrity.

The pit in the middle would have been covered when the ampitheatre was used, and there would have been doors that opened down to it to toss the dead.

The sun started to come out while we were there and it turned into a really pretty day. Tomorrow is our trip to Cordoba, and despite the very early morning that will require, I'm really excited.

El fin de semana

It's approaching the two week mark for being in Spain (even though it feels like a lot longer), and I can already tell that my Spanish is improving a lot, especially listening. I still feel at a loss for words when it comes to speaking, but I think as far as listening I've improved exponentially since being here. Today we watched our typical lunchtime television and Ana and I were both fussing over a girl on the television who was convinced she could look like a model. Ana agreed with me that she didn't have the body and was a little ugly. This is the kind of Spanish they just don't teach you in a classroom!

On Saturday we walked to the Plaza de Americas to visit some of the museums. The museums themselves are gorgeous but I have to say they didn't hold my attention for long, we went to the archeological museum and the museum for "popular customs," but I think I would enjoy the fine arts museum better, which I have to visit for a class later in the semester. Anyways, I'm glad I got to see them once while I was here, but if you're making a quick trip to Sevilla, you don't have to worry about skipping these two.

Saturday night we went out for tapas and drinks at a TexMex restaurant, which I think is funny to have in Spain, since so many people get the cultures confused. They had a really good guitar player going around to the tables singing and I enjoyed getting to talk to our waiter in Spanish, even though he did try to trade us liquor for our phone number. We enjoyed some good conversation until about 2 in the morning; I still find it strange that you can sit in a restaurant here until 2 in the morning and still be going in early.

This Sunday I went to my first mass in the large Cathedral with Candace and Christin. Even despite the language (and denomination) barrier, I still recognized a lot and was able to follow along. I recognized the reading from First Corinthians in Spanish (Without love...)! Lunch on Sunday happened to be one of the best meals I've had since being here, which makes me feel like this Sunday wasn't too different from being home, after all. We had delicious pasta (All of the pasta here is just unreal, for some reason) and Ana made us this custard like dessert with graham cracker crust and just set out this can of whip cream. She tried to feed me more of it but I knew if I didn't stop myself I could have made myself sick eating it. Que delicioso!