Procrastination Station

So I have a lot of homework to do today, but I don't feel like doing any of it so I've spent the day doing other important but non-essential tasks. Such as running, snuggling with Pantera, submitting my courses for credit back at UW-Madison (ok so that one was important) and now blogging. I thought I would take this time to address a few things that I know some of you may have been wondering about.

1) Does your host mom have a job? (This is one my parents ask a lot.)

To some this may seem silly, she is a grown woman living alone, of course she has a job. However, in Spain it is common for people to not have jobs and having a study abroad student, such as myself, is how they make some extra money. Now I suspected that my host mom had a job because she was gone everyday at the same times, but I didn't know for sure. I was hesitant to ask because I couldn't think of a great way to ask if she had a job, it just seemed awkward, and I do everything in my power to avoid awkward situations. However, we had a lovely three hour lunch last Wednesday and the answer just fell into my lap, she is going to school, studying theatre. So she doesn't really have a job, but she does do something during the day.

2) Why is the cat named Pantera? (so I realize no one asked this but it's a funny story)

I asked why she named the cat Pantera and I got a much more interesting story than I had bargined for. She told me that one day she was walking down the street and saw a scrawny, filthy kitten. So she decided to pick it up, take it home and care for it, however, the kitten had other plans. It scratched and bit and was just generally angry because "it didn't know me yet", my host mom said she was covered in scratches and bleeding. Due to the black/dirty color and it's wild nature when she found it, she decided to name it Pantera.

Now I was really surprised by this story for two reasons, first because Pantera is a really pretty cat, she looks purebred like someone would pay a lot of money for. Secondly, and most importantly I couldn't believe she had scratched my host mom like that because Pantera is the sweetest, cuddliest, most friendly cat I have ever met.

Do I look like a mean street cat?

How about now?

3) Does your host mom speak other languages?

I found out that she speaks German as well as Spanish and very rudimentary English. She lived in Germany for 6 years, I had her say something to me and her German sounds very pretty, much less throaty and phlegmy than real German, probably because of the Spanish accent. She then asked me if I spoke Dutch, because of my last name, which of course is a big NO. Then she asked me, once again why I'm so dark. I told her I don't really know but I'm German too. She thought about this for awhile and then said well, I guess some of them are dark too, but do you have any Native American in you. I just laughed at that, I think it is funny how interested she is in how "dark" I am. She almost died when I told her that my sister is a blonde.

Hopefully you had been wondering about some of these things, or at least found them interesting!

Tableta de chocolate

My second week of class was a lot more enjoyable than the first, we have moved on from syllabus reading to actually learning interesting things. I think that my favorite class so far is probably 'Spanish for the health professional', I really like the professor. He keeps things interesting and really tries to improve our grasp of the Spanish language while teaching us things relevant to the course like the parts of the body and how to make a doctors appointment. What I like the most though is when he teaches us Spanish phrases, two of my favorites so far have been "soltero y entero" or "single and ready to mingle" and "tableta de chocolate" or "six-pack abs", he taught us both of these on Valentine's day, how useful.

The other class that I like a lot is 'Culture and Cuisine of Spain', we spent ALL of last week learning about 'aceite de oliva' or 'olive oil'. Which is fitting because Spain is the largest producer of olive oil in all of Europe, which according to my professor, makes the Mediterranean angry, so they hate Spain. On Thursday, we spent the class period sampling different types of olive oil with some delicious freshly baked bread. It was interesting because they all did taste a little different, I could mostly tell them apart based on how much "picado" or "bite/sting" they had in the back of my throat.

On Thursday I went to a play with my interest group called "Por los pelos", which is an interactive play. The general premise is that there are four people in a beauty shop, when their annoying, piano playing, upstairs neighbor gets killed. The police arrive and investigate the murder and the audience gets to ask questions and in the end decides who the murderer was. Although I didn't understand a lot of the words, I understood what was going on and it was still a very funny play.

After the play Allison, Kate and I went out looking for a place to eat because the play started at 8 PM and didn't get over until 11 PM, which meant we had missed dinner at home. The only problem was there weren't a lot of choices of places to eat dinner at 11:30 on a Thursday, unless we wanted McDonalds. We were all so hungry this was tempting for a moment, but we finally stumbled upon an Italian restaurant, which sounded good to us all so we looked no further. We enjoyed some really great pizza and pasta and then called it a night.

This weekend I am not traveling anywhere, and am just relaxing in Sevilla. I spent a lot of time sleeping on Friday, catching up from my busy week and today I went for a run and sat by the river for a few hours soaking up the sun.

I am planning on doing some site-seeing later, maybe some plazas or museums and fitting in some time to drink some cafe and do my mountains of homework.

Fin de semana Granada

¡Hola chicos!

This past weekend was a whirlwind of site-seeing and traveling! On Friday I went to the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo with my interest group. The grounds of the art museum have been used as a Muslim university, a monastery and a ceramics factory in the past, so needless to say they are beautiful. There are tons of gardens, fountains and orange tree groves, in addition to a church and remnants of the chimneys of the ceramics factory, the grounds of the museum were more interesting to me than the art itself because I don't really care for modern art. However, I would have never gone there by myself so it was a good experience, and I found out that you can sit and study on the grounds for free whenever you want! CAAC is only ten minutes from my house so when it gets warm out I plan on doing a lot of studying there. One of the coolest things there was a tree that Christopher Columbus brought back from the Americas and it has been growing in the garden ever since.

Sitting on the tree roots. 

Then on Saturday I had to get up bright and early to catch the bus for the three and a half hour bus ride to Granada. The scenery on the ride to Granada was much more beautiful, there were rolling hills and lots and lots of olive groves, Andalusia the region of Spain I live in is the first in the world for olive oil production! As we approached Granada I could hardly believe my eyes, it is a little town about of fourth the size of Sevilla nestled in the hills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.

The Sierra Nevadas are snow covered all year round!

Granada from above.

Soon after arriving and checking into our hotel it was time for lunch, it was a buffet complete with dessert which was a treat because many of us rarely get desserts here. Then we grabbed our warm jackets, mittens, sunglasses and cameras just in time to reunite with our guides in the lobby for a tour of La Alhambra, the most famous tourist site in Granada. La Alhambra is a Muslim word that literally means 'red fortress' because the type of stone it is made out of glows red at sunset.

La Alhambra

What I didn't know before the tour is that La Alhambra isn't just one building, it actually refers to a collection of five buildings. A fort la Alcazaba, which is what people think of then someone says Alhambra, and four palaces, two Catholic and two Muslim. The history of the Alhambra and Granada is that it was the last city to be taken over by the Reyes Católicos in 1492, ironically the same time that Cristobol Colon found the Americas.

One of the palaces in la Alhambra is that of Carlos V/I, I was so excited to visit it because, as nerdy as it is he is my favorite Spanish king. Yes you read correctly I have a favorite Spanish king. His life was just so interesting, he was the first king to rule ALL of Spain, which was previously divided into smaller provinces. He was also the Holy Roman Emperor, this meant that he had the largest and most powerful kingdom in the world, and pretty much ruled all of Europe. He decided to build his palace touching the already existing Muslim palace, as a result only two of it's four walls are sculpted and decorated.

The outside of the palace is a square. 

It's courtyard is a perfect circle.

We also toured the three Muslim palaces in la Alhambra. They were of course beautiful and incorporated many water features and ceramic designs. The particular Muslim king who ordered this collection of palaces to be built like to play mind games so he played a lot with reflections, and had his throne room be very dark. He would have his visitors wait in the bright courtyard and then have them come into his dark throne room and they would be blinded and unable to see him, it was his way of keeping control over people.

Reflecting pool looking towards throne room.

Ceiling of throne room, seven levels of stars that represent the seven levels of heaven.

Court of the lions. 

The ceilings were built to mimic the look of a cave.

After a long, but fun day of touring the Alhambra a bunch of girls and I headed down the mountain to explore the town. We did some light shopping, I bought a really pretty scarf and some postcards. Then we went back to our hotel to take a siesta and freshen up before dinner.

Roommates for the weekend :)

Then we walked back into town, where we decided to have tapas for dinner. One aspect of Granada that is really neat is that if you order a drink you get a tapa (appetizer) for free, the only catch is you don't get to choose what they bring you. We soon found out that it didn't matter what they brought us because it was all excellent. We ordered some Sangria and they brought us a plate of two types of sandwiches, tortilla (potato and egg omelet) and fried mushroom, along with some olives. It was all really nummy! Around midnight we went back to the hotel because we had to be up bright and early for our tour of one of the oldest neighborhoods in Granada.

Arch where the market was. 

Weights hanging above the arch. 

 When the Catholics took over Granada they kicked out many of the Muslims and just took over their homes. However, the Catholics were used to much larger homes than the Muslims had, to fix this problem each person would take several Muslim homes and convert them into one big house with a courtyard in the center. This style of home, very common in Granada is called a 'Carmen'.

A Carmen we walked past. 

Dried fruit being sold, smelled so good!

So much tea!

A Magdalena. 

As part of the tour we stopped at a convent and some people bought treats from the nuns. The nuns at this convent live in cloister so you can't look at them, to allow them to still sell their baked goods they have a lazy susan type thing that they put the baked goods on and spin towards you, then you put the money on and spin it back.

The final stop on our Granada tour was the Capilla Real, where the Reyes Católicos Fernando and Isabel are buried, along with their daughter Juana la Loca, her husband Felipe el Hermoso and the Infante Miguel. Another one of my favorite stories is about Juana la Loca, it is said that her husband Felipe was quite the ladies man and was always with other women, this made Juana extremely jealous. It is said that when he died she took his corpse and put it in her room so that he couldn't cheat on her in death like he had in life. Whether or not that is true, no one knows. However, it is a fact that later on in her life she was forced to live in a convent and had her ruling powers taken from her because she had been deemed insane. During her forced confinement she believed that the nuns were trying to kill her, although there is no proof that anything like that ever occurred. Doctors now believe that she may have been Schizophrenic due to centuries of inbreeding.

We got to see their sarcophagus' and there were stairs leading down below the sarcophagus' and a whole cut out of the wall where you could see their actual coffins! In the same room as the sarcophagus' there was a giant, I'm talking floor to ceiling shrine honoring the St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, it was ridiculous, very gruesome but also magnificent. There was also an entire room dedicated to the personal effects of the King and Queen, it included their robes, crowns, scepters and swords. It was all really cool but unfortunately there was no photography allowed, I though about sneaking some pictures but I don't want to get kicked out of Spain yet so I restrained myself.

¡Córdoba por fin!

Finally, the post I hope you've all been waiting for, Córdoba! It should be extra exciting for two reasons, I have a lot of pictures and I learned how to do captions, yay.

I traveled outside of Sevilla for my first time this past Saturday! I signed up for a day trip, through my CIEE program to Córdoba. Córdoba is just about an hour and a half bus ride to the northeast, so not a long ride at all, and everyone slept most of the way there. Although Córdoba is very close to Sevilla it was about 2º C colder and much windier there.

See? Totally close. 

After an hour and a half of driving through the countryside, which looked shockingly similar to the Midwest if you ignored all of the palm tress, we arrived in Córdoba around eleven. We were met by tour guides who took us to three of the major site-seeing places in Córdoba; la Mezquita, la Sinagoga and the Alcázar de los Reyes Cristianos. The tour started off by the river and it was immediately clear that Córdoba was very different from Sevilla. For instance, our guide told us that people don't really live in the old part of the city because it is uncomfortable and more of a tourist attraction, whereas in Sevilla I live in the oldest part of the city, and it is very common to do so. Also, much more of the Roman influence on the city has been preserved, the first landmark we saw was the Puente Romano, or Roman Bridge, it has been around for thousands of years and is still in perfect condition. There is also a Roman water wheel, used for hydro power, that has prevailed throughout the years. The bridge also held a shrine to the Arcángel San Rafael or Archangel Saint Rafael, he is the protector of Córdoba and there are many shrines and statues to honor him throughout the city. 

Side view of the Puente Romano.

Water wheel built by the Romans. 

Shrine to the Arcángel San Rafael.

Old Roman entrance to the city. 

Once we got into the city we had a little bit of free time to use the bathroom or get a coffee. It had been a long bus ride and it was very chilly so we all took full advantage of the fifteen minutes of free time before the tours started. Some friends and I grabbed a coffee in a little cafe that had cured legs of ham hanging from the ceiling, we couldn't decide if they were actually used or just for decoration.

Jamón on the ceiling?

After the cafe it was time to head off to our first stop on the tour, la Mezquita or mosque. La Mezquita is a very interesting building because of Córdoba's tumultuous history, it has been ruled at some point by the Romans, the Visigoths, the Muslims and the Catholics. The history of the Mosque is a little confusing, it was originally a pagan worship center for the Romans, but then in the year 600 the Visigoths invaded and built the Christian church, San Vincente, OVER the pagan worship center. Then in the year 785 Khalifa Abd-ar-Rahman I came in and took over Córdoba, he began re-purposing and expanding the church into a Mosque, construction and expansion of the mosque continued for many centuries until King Ferdinand the II reconquered Córdoba in 1236 and expelled the Muslims and built a Cathedral INSIDE of the mosque. Although it is still referred to as la Mezquita and is the largest mosque in Europe and the third largest in the world, it is no longer used of Islamic worship. It is technically considered a cathedral. 

What is left of the Romans pagan worship center.

In following with Islamic beliefs all of the designs and patterns in the mosque are either geometric designs. In the parts of the mosque that have remained untouched by Christianity you won't find any animals or humans in the designs, because they believe that spirituality can't be defined in a certain shape because it is unknown and they don't want to encourage icon worship. The Mezquita is filled with thousands of arches and pillars. In the old part of the mosque pattern on the arches in the mosque is made from alternating stone and brick, however the arches in the newer half of the mosque just have the design painted on because they were short on funds when it was built. No two pillars in the mosque are exactly the same and they are built of materials such as alabaster and many different colors of marble. 

The arches of the mosque.

Such a big place. 

Another example of trying to bring the outside in. 

The Mihrab, where the Iman led prayers. The writing around the outside is all of the names for Allah.

Rose marble pillar.

Blue marble, with the signature of the builder.

Alabaster pillar. 

After many years of Muslim rule the Catholics came in and reconquered Córdoba. They re-purposed the mosque, by blocking off a lot of the openings to the outside and building a cathedral inside, because apparently there was no where else to build churches? So although it is still referred to as la Mezquita it is in fact a Catholic church. The Catholic contributions to the mosque include the addition of many crosses, statues and religious works of art. The mosque also houses the Catherdral Treasury, which contains many works of art, crosses and lots of gold and silver. It was crazy walking through the treasury and seeing so many priceless artifacts just sitting around, with very little security.

Shrine to San Teresa de Avila, she was a crazy nun.

A fraction of the silver in the treasury, it was floor to ceiling. 

Crystal and gold cross. 

Ridiculous artwork every where you looked. 

Corpus Christi. 

When the Catholics blocked off the entrances to the outsides the replaced them with tombs. The nobility of Córdoba were buried in them.

Close up of the tomb.

There were two chapels in the Cathedral, they were both fabulous, but my favorite one is the one below. It had two organs from the hundreds of years ago, a huge vaulted ceiling and mahogany everywhere. Christopher Columbus brought back the mahogany used in the Cathedral from one of his journeys.

Mahogany pews, with carved with scenes from Jesus and the Virgin Mary's lives. 

Mahogany alter

The other, much newer chapel. 

The there was so much to take in at the Mosque it was really overwhelming, I could have spent hours there. In fact, my friend Gilana and I did spend a little too much time there, we got fifteen minutes of free time to take pictures and before we knew it it had been almost thirty. We didn't panic though, we regrouped and met our group at our next destination, la Sinagoga.

There wasn't much to see at the synagog, it was very small and historical but not beautiful. Also, it is the only synagog in all of Anadalusia, which is pretty much all of southern Spain. There was a cute little garden associated with it that we used for a photo shoot!

After meeting back up with our group, it was time to go the Alcázar de los Reyes Catolicos. Alcázar basically just means palace when the royals stay, so there are many Alcázars throughout Spain, our guide told us that this one is not as beautiful as the one in Sevilla because the King was running out of money when he built it. The palace is nothing to write home about but the garden was beautiful, and the perfect place to eat our lunch and take some pictures.

Roman pillar still intact in the ground. 

Fountain in the garden of the Alcázar.

Reflecting pool. 

Lemon tree! I can't get over all of the citrus trees, they're everywhere.

Christopher Columbus got permission for his first voyage to the Americas in this Alcázar. This statue represents that meeting. 

View of the city from one of the towers of the Alcázar.