Saliste anoche?

I had a fabulous weekend here in Sevilla. On Thursday night Allison, Mckenzie and I went out with some of our Spanish friends, Lucas, Antonio and Miguel. We met them while Allison and I were making a music video for Lucas' band. Me in a music video? Sounds crazy I know, but I'll explain all that in a later post, and will post the video here as soon as it comes out as long as you all promise not to make fun of me!

They took us out to La Alameda de Hercules, Calle Alfalfa (one of the best places to be on a Thursday night) and to a discoteca we'd never been to before. It was great to not have to worry about getting lost or wondering if a certain bar would be open or which one is good to go to, and the discoteca was so fun, and there were many more Spanish people and less Americans which was a plus. Lucas, Antonio and Miguel are fabulous tour guides and so much fun to talk to. They are trying to practice their English, so they speak to us in English and we respond in Spanish, it can be a little tricky and I'd be lying if I said we didn't revert to our native languages every once and awhile but it is still so helpful! They are also great people to ask about words I don't know or where to stand on Semana Santa.

Lucas, McKenzie, Allison, Miguel and I in a bar on Calle Alfalfa!

Sorry that this was such a short post and that I have been slightly negligent in my blogging but hopefully this will tide you all over until I can post about my adventures in Cádiz, filming a music video and more! Un saludo!

"I wonder if the birds know how lucky they are to live here?"

On Saturday I took an impromtu day trip to Ronda, Spain, with Allison, Mckenzie and Matt. We all met up at Plaza del Duque at 9:15 AM to catch the 10 AM bus, there was one earlier but Matt said that we would've all been mad at him if he'd bought those tickets, which is true. The bus ride took about two hours and it was a beautiful drive, the only annoying part was the guy sitting next to us, he kept laughing really loudly at the show he was watching on his iPad. I never knew someone doing a "quiet" activity could be so loud.

Where Ronda is located.

After a quick bathroom break the first thing we did when we got to Ronda was buy a map, we didn't know it but the map came in three languages, English, Spanish and French. We accidentally picked one written in French, of all of the choices we managed to pick the only one we couldn't read, but luckily the store owner let us exchange it. So with a map that we could read we set off for our day long adventure. We had such good luck all day, we kept just stumbling upon places that we wanted to visit. First we visited the Puente Nuevo, or new bridge, which was built in the 18th century so it isn't so new. 

Puente Nuevo.

We spent some time on the bridge and then we saw that there were people in the bottom of the canyon, immediately we wanted to be down there too, but we couldn't figure out how to get there. Matt yelled down to some people in the canyon and they told us we had to go to La casa del Rey Moro, so we went crossed the bridge and found out that we had to pay 4 euro to go through the old mines to get to the bottom of the canyon, it was well worth it!

The canyon we went down into. 

Canyon reflecting in the water. 

Something was really funny, but look how blue the water is. 

We walked into the place where you buy tickets to get to the bottom of the canyon and the woman selling them asked us "are you the four people who were yelling about how to get down into the canyon?", we said yes we were, which she thought was hilarious. We walked down through the abandoned mine, which was very cool. There was one room that was built so that you could stand in one corner and whisper and the person in the opposite corner could hear it as if you were standing next to them. On the way down through the mine there were a lot of little jut outs where you could look down into the canyon and Matt was leaning out and dropped his sunglasses on another tourists' head, oops! The water at the bottom of the canyon was so clear and blue it looked fake, it was amazing.

Stopped at one of the scenic outlooks. 

After we trekked back up from the canyon we were hungry so we decided to go have tapas for lunch. The first place we went was an adventure to say the least, we ordered a mixed plate of tapas to share and didn't know what 75% of them were, and none of them were very good. Disappointed and still hungry we decided to go "tapa-hopping" and headed to another tapas place. This one was much tastier, I had some fabulous spinach croquettes and we liked everything that we tried there. 

We spent an hour or so wandering around the town of Ronda, we visited the Plaza de toros and a few scenic outlooks, and I found my new house. From one of the outlooks we saw a waterfall and I was determined to get closer to it. So we started off and found a path that seemed to lead to the waterfall, we got a great view of the countryside. Then I found another little path that was slightly off the beaten track, we did some slightly more extreme hiking, at one point we weren't sure how we would get back up to the top. We finally ended up at the foot of the water fall, at a private pool with lots of mini waterfalls, that seemed like it didn't get many vistors. Words can't describe how gorgeous this place was, we stayed there for over an hour, throwing rocks off the edge, dipping our feet in the water and just relaxing. We were so disappointed when it was time to hike back to the bus, but it was a wonderful day trip and Ronda definitely near the top of the list of my favorite places in Spain.

Relaxing by the waterfall.

Waterfall we hiked down to.

Looking down from the bridge on the pool we sat by.

100 Montaditos and intercambios

So before we get into the details of my fabulous daily life here in Sevilla I bet you’d like to see some pictures from my picnic in the park wouldn’t you? Well here you go:

Liz, Melissa, Alicia, Me, Amanda L., Amanda B., Gilana, Marianna at our park picnic!

Zoe, Liz and I.

 That was such a fun day, I think I’m having another picnic tomorrow with the girls who don’t have many classes on Wednesdays!

This week has gone by quickly so far, I bought the Divinci Code in Spanish and I plan on reading it when I have weird amounts of time between classes to improve my Spanish and get some reading in. I’ve also been wearing my new shorts that I bought here last week. They’re very comfy and according to my mom make me look very Spanish, I showed them to my family via skype in Starbucks, probably not one of my most dignified moments but I don’t really mind. Also, when I wore them I got a “guapa” from my Señora, and she doesn’t just toss those around so I must look alright.

Speaking of my Señora, I had a little bit of an embarrassing moment with her. We were eating dinner and it was a soup with shrimp in it, so Pantera really wanted some. Eating the seafood soup got me to thinking about other ocean animals and I somehow ended up on sharks but I couldn’t for the life of me remember the word for shark in Spanish, which is silly because I’ve totally watched Finding Nemo in Spanish. I must have been staring off into space because she asked me what was up and I awkwardly asked the word for shark, describing it as “a fish that’s not a fish, with really big teeth” and then making the shark fin on my back… She understood what I meant and helped me out, the word is “tiburón” by the way. I was really excited when I heard the word which she thought was hysterical, but she then made Pantera do a gangster dance to the Spanish rap song that came on the radio so I think we’re even for now.

My Spanish for the Health Professional was really great this week, we had a pediatrician Miguel Lazara come speak to the class. Listening to him talk was very interesting. He told us what a pediatrician in Spain does, the different types of pediatricians, the vaccine schedules and finally typical childhood ailments. One thing that was particularily interesting to me is that children don’t get the chicken pox vaccine until they are twelve years old! That seems really strange to me because in the US even before the vaccine most kids got chicken pox when they were very young.  He also told us that there is a vaccine that can prevent diahrea, which I didn’t know. Additionally, in Spain children only go to the pediatrician until they are fourteen, after which they go to a family doctor. He asked how the system worked in the US and I sheepishly admitted that I STILL go to the pediatrician, and that you can go until you are twenty-one, since my birthday is in May I guess I need to start looking for a doctor. Those are just some of the things he told us that stood out in my mind or are interesting enough to share but his whole presentation was fabulous and I really learned a lot. I liked it because that was what I had expected this course to be like so I was happy that it was living up to my expectations.

 Monday night I had my weekly intercambio friend group meeting, we didn’t have it last week because too many people in the group were travelling since Tuesday was a holiday, so it was great to see everyone again. We went to our usual spot right across from the university, 100 Montaditos, for ¡Dos jarras de cerveza y una tapa por solamente 2€!, that is what the advertisement for Super Lunes says. It is really nice though because for a couple euros each we get to sit at tables right off Calle San Fernando and people watch and chat for hours. Very cheap entertainment, but it works best with an even number of people, last night we were uneven so Alfonso and Nolan split the extra cervezas. It’s funny because although we are supposed to speak equal amounts of Spanish and English, they get really uncomfortable when we speak English for prolonged periods of time and the language always switches back to Spanish. We talked a lot about the differences between public/private universities in Spain and American and about life in the US in general. It doesn’t matter what we talk about though, it is always one of my favorite parts of the week. 

Intercambio group hot spot.

 I hope all of your weeks are full of picnics and 100 montaditos just like mine ;)

Spring is in the air

¡Hola queridas! I’ll hopefully be back to blogging with more regularity now that I’m a little less busy, no jetting off to another continent anytime soon. I have midterms coming up so for the next few weeks I’ll just be enjoying the relaxing Sevillan lifestyle and exploring some of the surrounding towns. There are a few I have heard about from friends that are a must see, Carmona and Ronda. Carmona has ancient roman ruins and a castle while Ronda boasts great hiking trails and a waterfall! As a write this post I’m sitting on a nice sunny bench with a river view in my favorite park here in Sevilla, I know sounds like a pretty rough place to do homework and blog. I don’t have much homework this weekend so I’ve been enjoying a lot of time with my Señora and mis amigas, but before I tell you about my weekend let me catch you up on the week I had.

Classes for me were a little bit of a joke this week. I had my one class on Monday as usual, then Tuesday was Día de Andalucía, which is a regional holiday so all of the businesses were closed and of course school was cancelled. My friends and I planned a picnic in Parque de Principe, which is a park on the other side of the river form my house in Triana. I don’t get over there very much so it was good to venture out of my comfort zone. It was a beautiful day for a picnic, we spent six hours eating our bocadillos (sandwiches), laying out in the sun, it was at least 75, playing the card game “Spoons” with our indestructible Spanish cellphones in place of spoons and walking by the river enjoying a cup of helado. It was a wonderful day and it definitely made me wish school was cancelled everyday, but we’ve decided that these picnics should be a weekly occurrence now that it is nice out, so I’m looking forward to that. On Wednesday, I only had one class again and after trying out traditional Semana Santa treats for about half an hour our teacher let us go because her throat hurt, so Thursday was the only day I really had class this week, and man those three classes were a little shock after such an easy week.

Now onto the weekend, I stayed in on Thursday night because I had a really bad sore throat and stuffy ears, and I was worried I was getting sick. Turns out I’m just allergic to spring in Sevilla, and now after a few days of heavily medicating with my allergy medicine regime and some Dayquil I feel like my normal self.  Friday night I went out to a Latino dance club with three of my friends, we wanted a change from what we would usually do on the weekends here and it was tons of fun. We went to what is supposedly the best Latino dance club in Sevilla, and when we got there we found out that we picked a good night to come because Fridays music was a lot more reggaeton/hip-hop and less salsa/merengue. I had an awesome time, all of the music was great to dance to and I even learned a few salsa moves!

Today I just caught up on some homework and did a little bit of shopping. The rebajas are over but I needed some shorts. I had no idea how hot it would get here but it is becoming clear if I want to survive until May, more shorts will be necessary. Tonight I think I’m going out with some friends, so that should be fun. This weekend has been nice and relaxing, it was just what I needed after last weekends travelling extravaganza. I hope all your weekends are just as wonderful as mine is shaping up to be! As my Señora would say, ¡Un Beso!

Waka waka esto es Africa

***I'm having internet troubles here so there is a lack of pictures but this should link to an entire album so you can look at approximately 207 pictures! Until I can put up more or if you just want to see them all. Just click the link below!****
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I took my first trip out of Spain this past weekend and what a trip it was,  in just three days I went to two continents, three countries and five cities! It all started with me waking up really early (or at least according to Spanish time) and walked about 35 minutes to the Plaza de Cuba where I was to meet the bus and my friends. Miraculously, the bus left on time and we were off on our marathon journey, the first stop was the English province of Gibraltar. Something I bet you all didn’t know, because I certainly didn’t, is that Gibraltar is on the Spanish peninsula and was occupied by the Spanish for many years, until the 20^th century when the British took over. As a result all of the inhabitants are bilingual, speaking both English and Spanish, this was a little bit of a shock for us, it meant we didn’t have our “secret language” anymore and for better or worse, everyone walking down the street could understand us. We walked through border patrol from Spain into Gibraltar, we found out that some people send their kids to school in Gibraltar but live in Spain so they cross the border everyday. Once we were officially in Gibraltar we hopped on a bus for a tour of the city and the rock of Gibraltar. Despite obvious Spanish and British influences, Gibraltar had a distinct island feel that was all it’s own.  It actually really reminded me of the Cayman Islands, from it’s close proximity to large bodies of bright blue water and slower pace of life right down to its very own terrifying landing strip. 

A helpful reference map, and the flag of Gibraltar. 

Just chillin on the runway, with the Rock of Gibraltar in the background.

Walking through passport control.

Mediterranean on the left, Atlantic on the right.

Me and Zoe taking the classic telephone booth picture, we were in the UK after all!

After taking a short tour of the city and stopping to take in the view of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, we headed up the rock of Gibraltar to see the caves and monkeys. The caves were amazing; composed of giant stalactites and stalagmites it was like stepping back in time. Throughout the years the caves have been fitted out as a hospital in times of war and nowadays are used for concerts and the Miss Gibraltar pageant.

Stalactites and stalagmites.

Can you find me? :) 

More awesome cave action. 

Up next was a short visit with the monkeys who were very mischievous. I witnessed them run into a store and steal a candy bar off the shelf. They also stole a bag of cough drops out of one girls bag while she was trying to get a picture with them. Our tour guide told us that although the monkeys are a nuisance Winston Churchill declared that some number of them must always remain in Gibraltar because he believed if the monkeys ever left Gibraltar the people would too, so he ordered that thirty monkeys were kept on the island, today there are over two hundred. Our guide also told us that people can’t bring dogs up onto the rock of Gibraltar because the monkeys will gang up and kill them. This made me take the other piece of advice we got from our trip coordinator more seriously. He told us in imperfect English “don’t touch the monkeys, let the monkeys touch you.” The monkeys didn’t touch me or climb on me like they did for some people in our group but I didn’t really mind, I was kind of afraid of them so I was content to enjoy the experience from a distance.

Their feet freak me out. 

Me and my monkey friend. 

Monkey with a cough drop.

 Family of monkeys.

After our tour of Gibraltar we traveled to the Spanish port from which we would be taking a ferry to Africa. We took an hour-long ferry ride to the city of Ceuta, which is technically in Africa but is Spanish territory. Then we got back on our buses, which made the intercontinental journey with us in the belly of the ferry, and we crossed the border into Morocco. We had to wait over an hour to cross the border, but our bus (BLUE BUS!) passed the time with a singing contest and a sing-a-long to camp songs and some old school hits such as Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. Finally, after traveling for over twelve hours, we arrived at our hotel in Tetuan, Morocco at 9:30 PM. Tetuan is in northern Morocco and is a very popular vacation spot in the summer because it is right on the Mediterranean, think Club Med, and it doesn’t get as hot as some cities in the south, which can get up to 55 degrees Celsius. That night we went to dinner, which we were so grateful for because we were starving, it was delicious and I tried flan for the first time. Then we jumped at the chance to shower with unlimited hot water and good water pressure, and later we watched some Arab Idol. After watching Arab Idol we realized two things, one we couldn’t tell if the singers were good or not because we had no idea what good Arabic singing sounds like and two we had better go to bed because we had to be up at 7:30 the next day.

First view of Africa from the ferry.

Welcome to Ceuta, Spanish province in Africa.

View from our hotel window.

Saturday morning after a yummy breakfast complete with fresh squeezed orange juice and a quick romp in the Mediterranean, we left our hotel in Tetuan and got on the bus for a gorgeous ride to the mountain city of Chefchauoen.

A city we passed on the way to Chefchauoen.

Pretty mountain lake.

The tour of the city was amazing, each town in Morocco has its own colors, Chefchauoen’s are blue and white, the blue is said to keep away mosquitos and the white is to keep the houses cool. We also learned that historically the entry ways of homes were built to match the height of the man of the household so anyone taller who tried to enter would automatically have to bow and would be forced to pay their respects. While in the city we visited a blanket cooperative and saw some examples of their masterful weaving. It can take up to two weeks just to dye the silk or camel hair and weave each blanket. Later we had a little free time to enjoy the mountain views and of course shop. Some friends and I stopped for a cool drink, and since we couldn’t drink the water that left us with the choice of pop or pop. So we settled for some cokes and were pleased to find that they had Arabic on them! 

After an enjoyable morning in Chefchaouen we piled back onto the bus for the journey back to Tetuan for lunch and a tour of the city. Lunch was delicious, we had been wondering when we would get to try some authentic Moroccan food and we got our wish. They served us a soup, kabobs, a puff pastry filled with chicken and Moroccan mint tea.

Both the Arabs and the Berbers inhabit the city of Tetuan, we were able to see both of these cultures traditional dress. It is pretty much the same for men but the women’s clothing is very different. The Arab women wear the face veils and long dress, while the Berber women wear a more colorful dress and the sombrero-esque hat that their name is derived from. As part of our tour we visited a traditional Arab pharmacy in Tetuan, which was very interesting, they had all kinds of natural remedies and most importantly to all the girls, argon oil. Argon oil is the main ingredient in Moroccan Oil, which is prized for its ability to make hair silkier and shiner. The only problem is it is very expensive in the US, sometimes $30 for 6 ounces, however in Morocco it was about a sixth that price. We then toured the different markets in Tetuan, they have a separate market for each thing, including markets for produce, clothing and gold.

 

Although we were exhausted from touring two cities in one day we powered through and after a short rest we were ready for dinner. We experienced authentic couscous, although I have to say I preferred my Señora’s, and got a dinner time show of belly dancers and acrobats. After dinner we went to a private party at the hotels “discoteca” it was one room with a dance floor, and but they played decent songs and we all had fun dancing for a few hours.

 

The next morning, after a breakfast that paled in comparison to the last, we left the hotel to tour Tangier. We visited Hercules’ Grotto, where we saw the point where the Atlantic and Mediterranean meet and had the chance to wash our faces with some Herculean holy water. Then it was the part I’d been waiting for, camel time! Our tour guide kept calling the camels the Rolls Royce of Morocco, which cracked us all up. There was the cutest baby camel, but it must have missed its mom because it kept crying. I got to ride a camel, and even managed to do it with no hands. Riding them wasn’t scary at all, it was easier than riding a horse, but getting down was terrifying. I only screamed a little bit. 

 

Finally, we were wisked away to our final desination, Ceuta. Although we’d been there before we hadn’t taken a tour of the city yet. After a “five minute” bathroom break, fifty girls and they thought we could be done in five minutes, yeah right, we took a bus tour of Ceuta. We stopped at a scenic lookout for one last glimpse of the ocean before it was time to leave Africa for good. Our guide told us the legend of Hercules and that he put the rock of Gibraltar and the cliff we were on in Ceuta in the ocean as landmarks so everyone would know where the land ended. 

Then all that was left was a marathon bus ride back to Sevilla, I slept pretty much the whole way, and woke up just as we were entering the outskirts of Sevilla. It was an amazing trip, the travel company I went with did a phenomenal job and I feel so lucky to have visited a part of the world not many people get to see.

 

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.