¡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. 

Intercambios ¿¡vale!?

So I went on a day trip to Córdoba this past Saturday and it was fabulous, and I took about a million pictures. I'm working on a blog post to go along with them but it is taking forever, and I really wanted to post today so here it goes.

Today was my first day of REAL classes here in Sevilla, up until now I had just been taking a two-week intensive grammar class. That being said, my 'real' class that I took today, Culture and Cuisine of Spain, was much more relaxed than my grammar class. All we did today was meet our professor and she explained what we would be learning about and how the class would be graded, it all took less than half an hour, and class is scheduled to be an hour and a half... This can only mean one thing, I'm finally going to get to experience the much talked about but highly elusive "syllabus week", where you just show up for class and don't have to worry about learning or homework. People claim this happens back at UW-Madison but those people must not be taking the classes that I have been, 95% of all my classes back in Madison always start off with a lecture right away.

After class I headed home, and shockingly all of the shops were open, advertising the final week of sales. This was dangerous and very tempting, although I resisted I ended up with a caramel colored real leather jacket with quilted lining for just 35 Euros, and a skirt. Did I really need another coat, probably not. Has it already become the best coat I've ever bought, yup. It really makes me blend in with all of the people here and it is the perfect weight for the weird weather thats been going on here in Sevilla, cold in the morning and night but scorching during the day. Over lunch my Señora and I talked about the movie streaming site Megavideo being shut-down, she was very upset about it because none of the traditional sites such as Netflix or Hulu work here. It ended in me awkwardly trying to explain SOPA to her, I'm not sure how much got through but I tried.

Now for the most exciting part! Today was my first meeting with my intercambio group. The intercambio program is run through my school, CIEE, and is a way for Spanish and American students to get to know each other and work on their English and Spanish. My intercambio group consists of six Spaniards, two girls and four boys, and 5 Americans (including myself), four girls and one boy. We met at the Universidad de Sevilla at 6 pm and went to a café nearby where we stayed until 10 pm! The café had a promotion called "Super Lunes" or "Super Monday" and the deal was two mugs of beer and a plate of nachos or fries for 2 euro, we took advantage of this deal. We spent four hours talking about everything from where we were from, to our majors to how to say certain words in each other's languages. They loved to hear us speak English almost as much as we liked to listen to them try to speak it. I thought that was interesting because Spaniards usually get a kick out of Americans trying to speak Spanish not English. I think a lot of it was due to the fact that the five of us were all better at Spanish than they were at English. One of the funniest things that happened this evening was spending five minutes trying to teach them how to pronounce the words "bird", "beer" and "beard" differently. It was hysterical.

We meet every Monday night which is perfect for me because I only have one class on Mondays, at 9 am so I'll have plenty of time to do homework and hangout with my intercambios. The Spaniards are all really excited to have intercambios because there aren't enough Americans to go around, so if you get one you are kind of special! In addition to meeting some new Spanish friends I met new American friends as well, the other four Americans are here with CIEE but through the business program. I'm in the Liberal Arts program so I'd never met any of them, but the were all very welcoming and included me even though they all knew each other already. I think I will get a lot out of the intercambio experience, and I'm really looking forward to Monday nights now!

On a less happy note, as I'm assuming you all know there is a decent amount of financial unrest in Spain right now. They're broke, they have a ridiculously high unemployment rate and the people are not happy. Although I'd read about this in the news back home it had never affected my experience here. I hadn't seen any protests and you see less homeless people here than in Madison, but today I saw my first protest. It was in la Plaza Nueva which I walk through to get to the Universidad. Funnily enough I didn't know a protest was happening until I stumbled across it, because it was 5 pm and the streets are really busy during this time so I thought it was just the usual crowd until I saw the flags. Even though I walked right into it I didn't feel unsafe, it was very quiet and peaceful and unlike some of the protests I've experienced (read Madison) the protestors left me  and everyone else alone. There was no heckling or even trying to explain to passersby why they were protesting. I was curious as to why exactly they were protesting so I looked it up, apparently they were protesting the threat of having some of their social security benefits taken away. I'm glad I know what it was about but I hope things stay as calm as they have been in Sevilla while I'm here.

Tomorrow I'll probably post about Córdoba but I'm going out for my friends birthday so we'll see! Hasta Luego.

Mercados and Milestones

It's been a whirlwind week here in Sevilla, lot of exploring, adventures with friends and of course school. This past week I've had to do a lot of writing for class and it made me less than enthused about the prospect of blogging, which as why I haven't been very diligent in my posting this week. On the bright side I'm done with one whole class!!!! It still blows me away that I get three credits for a two week class, but I'm not complaining. One class down, four to go! I had my final exam today, it was the same format as the first, so fingers crossed that it went as well as I think it did. I'm getting ahead of myself though, so much has happened this week.

On Wednesday, as an out of class assignment we had to go to another mercado on Calle Feria. Last week we went to a flea/antique market, this time it was the Sevillano equivalent of a farmers market. I loved this assignment because I'm obsessed with the farmers market in Madison and I wish I could shop at it daily for fresh fruits and veggies, but alas it is only open on Sundays. So this market fufilled all my dreams and more when I realized it is the market where my Señora buys our fruits and veggies. I'm ecstatic that it is close to my house and I can swing by and pick up a pear as a snack whenever I want.

For the assignment I met up with a few girls in from my class and we went to the market to observe what we saw. We then had to write a paper describing the market, similar to a travel magazine article but utlizing the five senses. It was a fun assignment, and a real authentic Spanish experience.  I wish I had pictures but sadly, I forgot my camera at home. If there is one thing I've learned so far here it is to always bring your camera because you never know when you're going to want it.

After the market we still had an hour or so before class, and we all stopped at Starbucks (my first "american" purchase here) where we chatted and finished up some last minute homework before heading to class. When I got home I finally had some free time to spend up on my rooftop terrace, the view is really something else.

My rooftop terrace, shockingly laundry-free. 

View into the center of the city. 

Out towards the river, you can barely see the bridge. 

Creeping down on another terrace. 

That night, I had my first group meeting for the Cultural Expression club I've joined. Now I won't rehash the series of unfortunate events that led to my being in this specific club, but I will say that I wouldn't switch clubs even if I could. The group leader Abraham, is really nice and kept telling us how all he wants is that we have fun with this club, and all of the girls seem really friendly too. This weeks meeting was just an overview of all of the activities and trips we have planned throughout the semester, which culminates in a weekend trip to Madrid. I found out that we will be seeing two plays, visiting the history of fashion and taking a train there!

In the second part of the meeting Abe talked about some of the difficulties that come with studying abroad, such as culture shock, homesickness and loneliness. He talked about how they happen to everyone and that the good news is they don't last forever, especially if you get involved. I know that hearing this was reassuring to everyone in the group because everyone I've talked to, including myself have experienced one of these things to some degree and it is always nice to know you aren't alone. Then we wrote down our personal and academic goals for the semester and in april we have to meet with Abe and discuss how what helped us to achieve our goals and what prevented us from reaching them. My goals for the semester were to better my spanish, obviously, become less self-concious about my speaking and to not let my insecurities keep me from making the most of my time in Spain. So for me that just means putting myself out there and not missing a single opportunity, because really what is the worst thing that can happen? On this trip I've tried hard to be more outgoing and so far only good things have come from it.

I also learned that I will be part of an intercambio group. This is a group of six spaniards and seven americans and we all meet up once a week and go to a park, café or the cine to talk and improve our english and spanish respectively. I'm really excited about that, the first meeting is this coming Monday, it will be a great way to get to know more people and maybe even make a spanish friend. When I finally got back home at 10 pm this is what Pantera did to me, she likes to ride around on my back. It's all fun and games until she digs her claws in and refuses to get off.. She does it all the time, even when I'm eating.

Pantera riding on my back...

Thursday I finally got to sleep in until 10 on school day, wow, it felt so nice. My señora made fun of me for it though, as usual. Then I went to class, my final full day of class with Óscar, it was bittersweet. On the one hand I'll miss the class, but on the other I'm so glad to be done with grammar and move onto the "fun" classes. Speaking of new classes, we got our final schedules on Thursday and I was lucky enough to get all of the classes at the times I wanted. SO much less stressful than registering for classes back at home! As I was walking out of school I ran into Allison, and she asked me if I wanted to go to the Plaza de España with her later because it is supposed to be beautiful at night. I was so happy she asked because due to scheduling conflicts I wasn't able to make it to either of the Plaza de España tours, but I had been dying to go. 

The Plaza de España is really special, when it was built they tried to incorporate all the major types of arcitecture that is common in Spain, so there are Catholic and Muslim influences. Also, each province of Spain is represented by a tile alcove in the Plaza, and there is a moat that you can row boats in surrounding the whole thing. Fun fact, the bridges of Plaza de España were used in the filming of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and a lot of the college students at the Universidad de Sevilla were extras in it! I could go on and on about the plaza but instead here's some pictures.

The main part of the Plaza de España. 

 Artsy shot of side building/reflecting pool.

An example of all the lovely tile work.

 Me Vanna-ing the Barcelona alcove.

 The entrance arches.

 The arches are gigantic!

 Nonchalant on the bridge.

More bridges.

Messing around in the Plaza. 

On the walk back from the Plaza de España something amazing happened, Allison and I ran into a bunch of lost looking American girls, who were trying to ask some Spaniards for directions. We stopped and asked them if they needed help and they were so excited when they realized we spoke English. They were in Sevilla for the weekend with their program and they were looking for a place to eat, it was a good thing we found them when we did because they were headed in the total wrong direction. We were able to help them find somewhere to eat, and tell them how to get back to the river. It was a real milestone for me, because my knowledge of the city was finally at a level where I could help someone else find their way. You know that you truly understand something when you can explain it to someone else. It was a great feeling and we spent awhile talking to these girls and they were so sweet and grateful for our help. They are studying abroad in Madrid, hearing about their program makes me so glad I chose CIEE and Sevilla, because from what they told me I think I am getting a much more authentic and enriching experience than I would in their Madrid program. 

Well I'm going on a day trip to Córdoba tomorrow so I'll be back with lots to say and tons of pictures on Sunday, Nos vemos!