carnaval in cadiz.

So on Thursday I was still suffering with some kind of weird cough/chest cold/bronchitis deal. I actually went to the pharmacy and explained to the lady in my spanglish how I was sick, how I’m asthmatic, and how my doctor in the US wants me to be on antibiotics but I didn’t have a prescription. The pharmacist lady actually gave them to me with no problems. Thank you socialist healthcare.

Anyways, this weekend was a lot of fun. Fridays are always good bc there is no school. We slept in and then went adventuring in the afternoon we were actually trying to find the Jardins de Murillo on the edge of the city center, but didn’t end up finding it so we just wandered. We stumbled on this FCSevilla store and so we bought some futbol gear in hopes of wearing our new soccer paraphernalia to a futbol partido mas pronto.

Saturday night was Carnaval in Cadiz. In the morning, Amir and I just went walking around the city getting lost again, which is always an adventure. In the afternoon, the girls and I went to Aldi’s which is like a really cheap German market (or grocery store – as Sharlarose would say); apparently they have Aldi’s in the US too. Aldi’s makes their food/items so cheap bc only have like 3 people working in the store at a time, they don’t spend money on unnecessarily advertising in their store, or doing like food item displays, oh and they also charge for bolsittas (plastic bags – they want you to bring your own to save the earth!). And they’ve all been telling me about Aldi’s in Los Remedios so we went and got food, necessary items, and such to get ready for Carnaval. We went over to Amir’s apartment to get ready for the festivities and then we had to meet the DiscoverSevilla buses @ Plaza de Espana at 8pm, so the day ended up going by really fast.

Carnaval was SO CRAZY. So much fun though. It was just like a huge botellón– where people just party and drink in the streets. Oh and it was like a huge costume festival, some people were dressed up as weird things, it was just wild, with tons of people. I didn’t really have a costume bc I didn’t feel like buying something new and adding to my Halloween collection. I couldn’t bring anything over here bc my bags were too heave but Mallory, Daniella, and I had like mardi gras masks that ended up lost/broken by the end of the night. And I also wore like a cute purple serapi thing. Carnaval was tons of fun, we left Cadiz at 4AMish and got home around 6 in the morning then slept until lunch on Sunday. I’m glad I took my camera so I had pictures of all the craziness. They told us not to bring purses bc there are so many people there and you’d probably lose it or get robbed. So we brought drinks in plastic bags, yes, a plastic bag was my purse for the night. I was really worried about taking my camera too, but I put my camera, keys, my cell, and money in my boots, so it ended up being just fine.

Sunday, Ally and I went to climb up the Giralda Tower in the Cathedral but it happened to be closed yesterday. So instead we just sat outside, had a nice chat, and enjoyed the sun. It was such a nice afternoon. Then I had a skype date with Gma Elsa, Christine, & Sharlarose. It was so good to hear their voices, it made me happy.

I think this weekend exacerbated my cold/cough/bronchitis deal thing. Today (Monday) it was actually so bad that I felt like I was dying at school and I haven’t been sleeping that much because I will wake up and cough for like 30 minutes and then sleep for an hour. It’s awful. Part of the reason I’m so sick is because I refuse to sleep too, I don’t want to be stuck inside bc the weather is so good and bc I’m in Spain of course. But my cough/symptoms have gotten worse over the weekend partly bc carnaval too. Anyways, so I finally went to some crazy Spanish doctor today (which I was really apprehensive about to begin with but my senora has just been pestering me so I went so that so she would stop talking about it). The doctor actually wasn’t crazy and I talked to him in Spanish about my sickness and he thinks I have pre-stages of pneumonia aka I have walking pneumonia while in a foreign country. Wonderful, right. But I’m really proud of myself bc I didn’t need Mary Alice to get on the phone and translate, and I had a fluent conversation with him in Spanish all by myself even when I was feeling like crap. Yay. Anyways, he gave me three different medicines including more antibiotics so hopefully they work and I will be able to stop hacking during the night/through my classes. We’ll see.

Pictures won't upload.. bc my connection is slow right now, I will upload them later.

si mueres sin ver la alhambra, no has vivido.

This past weekend I went to Granada with Mallory, Daniella, Brian, and Amir. I loved Granada. It was a lot smaller of a city than Sevilla is (which made it feel a lot less city-ish) but it still has a lot of Moorish influence and a very Spanish feel to it. Granada was very hippie-ish and bohemian so maybe that was why I was drawn to it as well. We left Friday morning like early in the AM. We were all up at 5am actually, it was so early. Daniella and I met Mallory at Prado (which is our bus stop to go to school) because it’s closer to Santa Justa (the train station). We walk to Prado everyday so we didn’t think it would be that big of a deal. But what I think we didn’t realize was that it’s like a 30minute walk to Prado but it takes longer when you have luggage aka I had my rolling bag/airline carryon on the cobble stone streets = that sucks. Then we thought the walk from Prado to Santa Justa would take ten minutes, ya, it definitely took another 30. Whatever, walking is good for you. The boys just took at taxi from Los Remedios, and for the entire walk there I was wishing I went with them. Anyways, it was an adventure in the early AM of Friday morning. But we got there on time for our 7am train and I slept most of the way there which was good.

We arrived in Granada around 10am and walked to our hostel by 11ish. It was crazy finding our hostel too because we didn’t have a map of Granada and we were just asking people where to go then eventually we were like we should get a map. Then we diverted our location to the tourist office (which was equally hard to find). It was lots and lots of walking. But we finally walked up to Albaicin and we found our hostel. It was super cute and very like unhostel like, it was like this lady’s downstairs of her house and she didn’t even know we were coming because she didn’t have internet. CRAZY. It looked more like a house than a hostel, which was cool. Oh, and this whole time Amir was like deathly ill and needed to go to the doctor. So he went to the doctor to get medicine and what not but Brian, Mallory, Daniella, and I went to go see the Alhambra.

The Alhambra is a military based planted in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Influenced by Spain’s Moorish architecture it really reminded me of the Real Alcazar in Sevilla. It was so gorgeous. There were gardens, water pools, courtyards, castle walls, and we had amazing views of the city from the windows in the Alhambra. It was huge we walked around for four hours! There is this Spanish saying, “Si mueres sin ver la Alhambra, no has vivido,” meaning If you die without seeing the Alhambra, you have not lived. So obviously I’ve lived since I’ve seen the Alhambra and all its beauty.

I took lots of pictures too and my CF card didn’t crash either so that’s good. I was really really worried about it the whole time. But when I got home, the first thing I did was load my pictures.

Two more things that Granada is famous for: free tapas & schwarmas. We embraced while in Granada. Well, tapas are only ‘gratis’ (free) when you buy drinks aka wine, beer, café, tea something of the sort, all the restaurants bring you ‘un regalo’ – a gift (as Manoli explained to me before I left) of free tapas. Tapas are savory-like appetizers, southern Spain and Andalucia, which is the region I live in is famous for wonderful tapas. Another thing that we loved was the schwarmas (you can also call them kebabs). Brian loved the schwarmas. They are like pita sandwiches with meat from this rotisserie thing – I don’t really understand it, but you put lettuce and such, with falafel, and then salsa stuff in it. It’s good with just vegetables and falafel, that’s what I ate. It is supposed to be a Mediterranean food thing.

Saturday, we went up to the Sierra Nevadas. We took a bus for 10 euro. Ahaha it was great, getting there we almost missed the bus. The last bus to go up to the mountains for the day left from the station at 10am but we didn’t leave our hostel until 9:15 (because Mallory and I wanted breakfast from this Panaderia and it took long). So we were like running into Plaza Nueva to catch a bus to the bus station. Anyways, the entire time Amir and Brian were like we’re not going to make it, we’re not getting on this bus. And I was just you wait and see, we’ll make it. So we run into the bus station and there’s like this HUGE line to buy bus tickets, even at the automatic ticket machine too. It sucked. So we look at the screen and it says the bus going up to the mountains is bus 10, so we run down to the bus port to see if we can get on without tickets and just pay the bus driver or something, right? He was not friendly. We had to wait and see if everyone who bought a regular ticket got on the bus before he could give us our seats/tickets that were overpriced bc we didn’t buy them upstairs at the counter (they were like two euros over.. but still, he jipped us.) He let like 10 more people on and Brian, Amir, Mallory, and I were among those 10 which was exiting. Daniella stayed in the city for the day because she was feeling sick and didn’t want to go up to the mountains. But I was like ha. we made it on the bus.

Going up to the Sierra Nevadas was fun. It was neat to see a Spanish mountain town. We were planning on sledding but when we got up there we didn’t really feel like it so we had lunch in a café then we played in the snow for a few hours and took the bus home at 4.

Daniella, Mallory, and Brian went out to a few tapas bars later but Amir and I just stayed in because I was starting to get sick and he was already dying. We left on Sunday afternoon and Mallory and I laughed the whole way home on the train at this 20ish yr old guy with a Twighlight book (his was in English) and Mallory had hers in Spanish. We didn’t even say anything to each other and we tried to explain to Amir without saying anything because obviously this guy spoke Spanish and English. But Amir didn’t get it. Mallory and I just thought t was really funny and we were sitting across the aisle from each other, so we just laughed. We got back to Sevilla around 7ish. All in all it was a really good weekend. It was a lot of fun.

I’m still sick, it’s actually gotten worse. I ran out of Tylenol cold and so I’m taking some foreign medicine that’s pretty sketch and my mom is worried about, but what can you do right? I might go to the doctor if it doesn’t get better by Friday because I am going to Cadiz for Carnavale celebrations this weekend. And it’s going to be colder there than it is here, so it will probably exacerbate whatever cold/flu/virus thing that I have. Sad story, but it will be fine. It will get better soon… hopefully. It’s been a really quick week because I’ve been trying to catch up on things in Sevilla this week, we’ve been trying to get wireless internet but it’s still not working, and oh, I wrote my first paper for my civ&culture class too. I’m really excited for Saturday in Cadiz and it will be tons of fun so I need to be better already!

Pictures: 1 & 2 - In the Sierra Nevadas, 3 - getting free tapas in Granada on Friday night, 4 & 5 - views from the Alhambra

flamenco show.

Last week was a great week. It went by really fast too. On Monday, Ally, Erica, Amir, Brian, Lola, Daniella, Mallory, and I went to a flamenco show put on by the University of Sevilla. The music, dancing, and flamenco dresses were amazing. I took some videos and I will try posting them later bc blogspot is not wanting to upload them, you will definitely have to watch them at some point. Then Tuesday, Amir, Brian, Mallory, Daniella, and I spent the afternoon planning our trip to Granada. We booked a hostel and went to the Renfe office to buy tickets for the train (it’s cheaper to go there than buy them online). Wednesday and Thursday were a blur because I was trying to finish up homework, pack, and get ready for my trip to Granada this weekend.

Granada was wonderful. The Alhambra and the Sierra Nevada mountains were gorgeous. The weather in Granada turned out to be better than I expected and it was nice to be in a different city for the weekend. I’m a little sick this week and I’m trying to get better for Carnavale in Cadiz this weekend so hopefully some rest and the last of my stash of Tylenol cold that I brought from home will help cure me before Saturday.

I will write more about my trip to Granada and post pictures later this week – after I catch up on sleep and homework. Oh, and we might get internet at our house this week which is muy muy muy emocionante! (very very very exciting!!)

Pictures/videos from the flamenco show we saw put on by the University of Sevilla. The videos/picts aren’t that great of quality because we were sitting in the middle of the theater and I wasn’t able to use flash. But they are still fun to look at!!

dieta mediterránea y siesta.

When I was in Chile for two weeks this past Fall, something that I absolutely loved was that we had amazingly fresh vegetables with every meal, especially avocado. I love love love avocados, so that helped too. Here in Spain, it’s not avocados that they eat with everything but it is aceite de oliva (olive oil). Literally, Manoli cooks EVERYTHING with olive oil. She will give me vegetables/ensalada(salad) with olive oil and vinegar (She made me a plate of steamed but cold broccoli the other day with olive oil and vinegar on it… I went back to my room and ate granola bars instead). Also, in the cafeteria at school and in all the restaurants in Sevilla instead of having salt and pepper on the table, it’s olive oil and vinegar. It’s definitely interesting putting olive oil in everything; it eventually kind of makes everything taste the same. Manoli brags about how good it is for your body but oh, what I would give for a Hillstreet vegetarian omelet with hash browns or Chipotle.

It has been almost three weeks since I first got here. I’m still getting used to eating at such crazy meal times (desayuno @ 7ish because of school, then Merillat and I eat galletas (cookie-ish things that we take from breakfast every morning) in between classes, almuerzo @ 2:30, y cena @ 9pm). I’m still working on taking siesta regularly too. I often find myself trying to finish homework, pre-write emails, pre-write my blog, or make a list of errands to do for the rest of the day, when I’m really suppose to be napping. I was talking to a friend about it on Friday and we were talking about how it’s just culturally a very different mindset because Spaniards put a lot of value in rest. Being American, I feel so inclined to be busy ALL THE TIME, or just constantly finish my list of things to do. It’s just different and takes some getting used to I guess.

Pictures: 1) Olive oil & vinegar at Mama Terra (a restaurant), 2) ensalada fruta - Manoli makes this every sunday night. It is literally AMAZING. Oranges, apples, bananas with honey, carmel, and chocolate sprinkles. 3) ensalada with vegatables and instead of dressing, olive oil and vinegar.

sevilla, weekend 2.

Friday was wonderful. I got to talk to both Sharlarose and Christine on skype so it made my day. Christine even showed me the new pictures on the fridge (don’t ask), their new fish, and I got to say hello to Winston too!

On Saturday, the sun came out! It only sprinkled a little, for like five minutes while I was studying in Plaza Jerez.

Danielle and I went exploring and happened upon the Archivo de Indias, which the Archive Museum of the Indies. Really, we just walked in and we were like, ‘What is this?’ It was really interesting; there were paintings, maps, journals, and archives of various conquistadors of Spain including Hernan Cortez. “The exhibit was built to show the importance, duration, reach, and influence of the legacy of colonial Spain in the actual United States of America” – says my brochure. We weren’t able to take pictures of the inside but I’m definitely going to go back and sneak some photos.

Saturday after siesta, Danielle, Amir, Brian, and I went to go see the Real Alcazar, which is this awesome castle in the middle of the city with an amazing jardins (gardens). But it had closed at 5 so we just hung out took pictures outside the castle walls and enjoyed the good weather.

Saturday was also the FCSevilla vs. Betis soccer game, which was a huge deal. People were wearing scarves, jerseys, and team colors around town all day. FCSevilla and Betis are both Sevillian futbol teams and so it’s like an inner city rivalry. FCSevilla is read and white. And Betis is green. Everyone was really excited for the game. We were actually trying to get tickets to it this week but the game was sold out, so we just wanted to get jerseys and go to a bar and watch to watch the game on Saturday night. The jersey excursion failed and we had a hard time finding them anywhere for less than 85euro! Ah, outrageous! We ended up supporting FCSevilla by wearing red & white and watching the game at Phoenix in Plaza de Cuba. It was a lot of fun and it was an exciting game. But it was just as well, that we didn’t go to the game because Betis scored two goals and beat Sevilla by one goal.

Sunday, I was able to catch up on my rest. I slept in until 10, ate breakfast, went back to sleep for a bit, got up and did some homework, ate lunch, and then after lunch I didn’t take a siesta but instead I went on an adventure with Danielle, Brian, and Amir. We went back to the Real Alcazar and actually got to go inside this time! It was just beautiful. We took pictures forever and got to explore the castle and the gardens. I would have loved to live in that castle in Spain centuries ago. After getting lost in the Real Alcazar, we had to hurry out to make it to Catedral for church. Danielle, Brian, and I went to Catholic misa (mass) at 5pm in a small side chapel of Catedral. I hadn’t been inside Catedral before and it was so gorgeous. They have daily tours that you can go on and they cost 2euro so I will definitely have to do that soon and see everything inside.

AH! Okay so I got home from our Real Alcazar adventure and tried to load my pictures onto my computer. But some of the files (like at least half of them) wouldn’t load or copy to my computer. There was an error message saying “this file is corrupt, cannot copy.” SO upsetting. I talked to dad about it this morning and basically I need to try to reformat the card in the camera, but I will definitely lose that portion of the shots. It’s better that it happened while I was in Sevilla because really I can go to the Real Alcazar again this week, but it’s such a bummer.

Picts: Here are some of the pictures from the Real Alcazar that didn't get corrupt.

roman ruins of Italica.

This week went by so fast. It rained a lot on Monday through Thursday. I was actually going to go by new rain boots but it didn’t rain today. Thankfully, it didn’t rain because UPO took us on a school field trip to the Roman Ruins of Italica. Italica was the first Roman province in Spain and so it’s one of the oldest towns of Spain’s Romanization. It was really neat to go there. Sometimes I forget that I live in a city center, which is so different from living in La Canada or Fort Worth, which are more suburb towns. The city puts you on guard, and there are always people alive and well (even at 4 in the morning), and it’s always so fast paced so it was nice to have a change of pace for the day. We took like three charter buses on a twenty minute bus ride outside of Sevilla to Italica. I didn’t bring the DSLR because I was afraid it might rain and ruin the camera. Italica wasn’t rainy but it was definitely windy. I really hope it doesn’t rain anymore this week in Sevilla because it torrential downpours one minute and then the next it’s totally fine. And it’s not like Texas rain. I love Texas rain. Also, I didn’t bring very good rain boots to fight the puddles either so that’s a problem. It drops like 10 degrees when it rains too so that’s unfortunate.

Thursday was also the last day to add/drop classes, so my class schedule is finally finally done! I am taking four classes, three of which are in Spanish and the other one in English. At first, I was trying to do school for only two days a week instead of four because its an hour commute to school and then an hour back each day but it was just two very long days if I would do that. So I settled for four. I’m taking Spanish Reading and Composition, Intermediate Spanish, Spanish Conversation, and Spanish Civilization and Culture in English. I’m so excited about my classes because it’s a good load and I know that taking three language classes will help my Spanish.

Today was a beautiful day in Sevilla and the sun came out. It was 12 Celsius, which is 60ish degrees, or whatever that transfers into. Exploring the city and starting classes has been a wonderful adventure thus far. On days like today, I walk outside and pinch myself because I can’t actually believe that I’m living here and doing this, and it’s so amazing because it’s actually real.

plaza de espana.

Saturday was an excellent day. We went with Mary Alice on a cultural excursion to Plaza de Espana and I got to take tons of excellent pictures. I was so so excited. The lighting outside was amazing. Manoli had packed us lunches con bocadillas (with sandwiches) but a group of us were craving American food for lunch so we went to this pizza place called Sloppy Joe’s. It was wonderful to have cheese pizza. It drizzeled a little on our way home and it rained Saturday night while we went out so I came home soaked. But after we went out to a few bars, we went and got food from this burger truck. It kind of looked like our taco trucks at home, but they make burgers instead. I explained to the guy (in Spanish) that Soy vegetariana (I am a vegetarian) and he made me eggs in a hotdog bun with all the burger condiments. It was like the best thing ever because I’ve been wanting breakfast food so bad. For breakfast in Spain, we eat the same thing every day. We eat galletas (little cookie things) with nutella or jam, fruit, have tea/coffee/or hot chocolate, or we eat pan (bread – but its not like bread in the US its like cruton texture half the size of a piece of bread… it’s not my favorite) con mantequilla (butter) y mermelada (jam).

Today, it literally rained all day. I’m not a fan of the rain. I went to Rodilla (which is like a sandwich place) after desayuno (breakfast) because Rodilla has free wi-fi (well you have to buy something of course but you can stay there as long as you want.) But Rodilla is over by Catedral (the Cathedral) which is across the bridge and probably a 20 minute walk from my house. Anyways, on my walk to Rodilla I saw un protesta de trabajadores (a protest) in the streets. Workers were protesting the economic crisis all over Spain today. They were protesting in Madrid in the snow, in Sevilla in the rain, and all over Spain because of the recession. It was crazy; I wish I had my camera with me so that I could take a picture of all the people singing, shouting, and holding signs.

Getting to the café in the rain and back was miserable. Manoli says that it barely ever rains in Sevilla but this winter they’ve had lots of rain so far (especially in the last week that we’ve been here). It has rained three days I think, but it’s very on and off. And Sevilla is not a city that was meant for rain. I was telling Manoli that on my way home mis calcitienes y zapatos y mi mochila estan mojado porque hay muchos lloviendo y mas charcos en los calles (my socks, shoes, and backpack were wet because there was so much rain and many puddles in the streets).

This week I am trying to fix my class schedule and finalize what classes I’m taking. It’s just kind of a headache because I have to sit in on classes and see if they are at my Spanish level and then I have to get the teacher’s signature to get into the class. But the problem is that a lot of classes are filling up and I’m on waiting lists for a few of them but at the same time if I don’t get into certain ones, I should be sitting in on others. Ah! It’s just annoying and I wish they did drop/add online with PeopleSoft like TCU does.

I’m posting pictures from my Plaza de Espana adventure & walks around Sevilla on Facebook/Flickr today. I’ve been taking lots of pictures this weekend with Steve’s Nikon D70. When I go out at night and randomly during the week I will take my Canon point and shoot to take pictures with. But when I’m sight seeing or walking with the intention of taking pictures, I take the DSLR.

During the week, I can get wi-fi at school so that I have internet and after class I have time to post pictures, email, and catch up on life. On the weekends, we go to Gary’s/Seville Internet Café (owned by Gary, that’s why we call it Gary’s) to get internet or I take my computer to Rodilla. TCU gives us 2000 minutes at Gary’s that is included in our program fee, which is nice. But both Gary’s and Rodilla are like a 15-20 minute walk away from my house, so it’s a little inconvenient to walk to at night and especially when it rains.

picture (1) This guy was cooking chestnuts by Catedral and it looked so cool. I didn't buy any though. (2)Plaza de Espana - was built for the Iberian Expo in Sevilla. It's absolutely gorgeous.

getting to know sevilla.

My school schedule at UPO is still crazy and hasn’t been figured out yet. I sat in on a bunch of classes on Thursday and tried to get signatures from professors to transfer in the classes. But really I only got on a couple waiting lists and in other classes I’m feeling out how difficult they will be. It’s stressful but there’s not a whole lot to do about it and I know I’ll figure it out sometime next week.

The culture differences have definitely taken some getting used to with different meal times, lifestyle changes, and Spanish ideas/notions of the world. It’s definitely humbling thinking about how little you can live on and still live comfortably. Spaniards think Americans are so wasteful taking hour long showers, unnecessarily doing laundry, and overusing our heating/air conditioning. I’ve continued to take 5 minute showers and wear thick socks and layers to bed, to help myself acclimate to this culture. Also, this Thursday was laundry day. Manoli gave us this blue laundry bag that is probably 24” by 24” inches, which is not a lot of laundry when you think about it. She’s actually really good about laundry and in our house we have a dryer too which is nice (so that laundry comes back to us a few days later, not weeks later, because it is getting dry on a clothes line). She washes our sheets and our towels every Thursday as well, which most families don’t do either.

Anyways, it was really funny because Thursday was laundry day and the other night before dinner Manoli brought out some of our clean clothes. She looked at me with a worried look and picked up my stack of socks and she said, “Valerie tu calcetines sin compañeras!” (your socks don't match) She had been putting all the socks together and realized that most all of my socks have no matching pair. We all just laughed hysterically. I showed her that I was wearing mismatch socks at that very moment too. Then I explained how I always wear calcetines sin compañeras.

We’re not going out every night but we have definitely taking advantage of the fact that Spain is a nightlife country and different cultural practices. Thursday night, we went to a club called Buddha, which is really awesome to go to on Thursday nights. It was a lot of fun and we met some other students studying abroad at UPO with us and also some Semester at Sea kids. We stopped at this pastry stand on the way home and had really yummy churros with chocolate. They were so good!

On Friday, we slept in because UPO doesn’t have class on Fridays for foreign exchange students, so no one had school. After almuerzo (lunch @ 2:30), Ally, Erica, Rachel, and I went walking around taking pictures and really just exploring the city. It was a lot of fun and I was able to take some neat pictures.

(1) This is one of the places we went on our adventure today. El Corte Ingles has tent vendors who sell jewelry, dresses, bags, scarves, wrist bands, and little nick knacks for cheap.
(2) Sevilla is very famous for flamenco dancing. Ally and I saw this statue near El Corte Ingles and we loved it.
(3 & 4) Sevilla has some of the most gorgeous buildings and orange trees.