Civil Sevilla

I spent the Saturday and Sunday in Sevilla.  It wasn't off to a great start when I woke up at 5:30 for our bus at 7:00.  This was the first time I went to the bus station and it was easy, so I'm not worried for future ventures.  But, I slept on the bus and we got to Sevilla by 11:00 AM.  We went straight to the hostel that we booked called The Architect.  Now, I haven't had great experiences with hostels in the past, so I didn't have high hopes for this place.  As it turns out, it's really really nice.  The beds were comfy and weren't built by hand with pieces of wood stabilizing them.  The bathrooms were clean.  And breakfast was included.  So Nick, my friend from API, and I dropped off our stuff and immediately went out to see the city.

Sevilla is a beautiful city with an old-timey feel.  It has a very specific pallet that consists of mainly of pastel colors.  Important buildings had a white, black, and golden yellow scheme.  The first thing we saw when we left the hostel however, was the Catedral, the 2nd largest cathedral in the world and the largest Gothic cathedral in the world.  We walked through the free parts and snapped a couple of photos.  Then we moved to a fountain that featured a woman standing on a platform that was carried by children.  The children were crying, too.  I don't know what this was supposed to represent, but it creeped me out.  From the fountain we went to the Fabrica de Tobacco, which used to be a Tobacco Factory but was converted into a university where they teach people things that probably include not smoking.  They had this interesting art exhibit that didn't really grab my attention, but at the end, they had really old books and other artifacts.  At least that was interesting.

From there we found the Parque de Maria Luisa where the famous Plaza de España.  This is where La Junta, or the government of Andalucia is based and did they pick the right place.  It is a building with two towers on each end that connect a crescent shaped building.  In the center of the this moon building was a giant fountain that gave off mist, an ingenious design that takes into account the scorching days in Sevilla.  It was 75 degrees (25 degrees Celsius), so the mist was very welcoming.  From there, we crossed the courtyard to the building.  At the base there were tiles of each providence.  We looked at them all and I got a better understanding of where each is located.  We even stopped at the Granada one where a tile depicted the surrender of the moros to the Reyes Catolicos, Catholic Kings.  The detail that was put into each province was incredible.  Even the railings were decorated with painted ceramic.  This was my favorite place that we visited.

From there, we went to find some of the typical tourist attractions, but none of which were anything too interesting.  We did try to cross the river Guadilquivir, which happens to be the same river that Cristo Colon sailed from on his search for India.  So, we crossed the river looking for some more attractions, but we could tell from our first steps that this side of the river was much different.  On our search for this monastery we were attacked by gitano dogs and saw the scariest trees that I have ever seen.  Instead of leaves, they had spikes and they did not look inviting in the slightest.  After walking for an hour or so, we took the first bridge back and searched for this place with statues of Hercules, but that too was less exciting.  The two statues were small statues atop a tall, thin pedestal and they weren't even in a park, they were in the middle of this plaza full of people.  From here, we walked back to our hostel and found a nice little plaza right in front of the town hall.  There were lots of street performers including a mime who danced with a puppet woman.  He drew the largest crowd, but there was also a quartet singing and a man made up like an orc.

After returning to the hostel, we picked up our chaquetas, jackets, and headed out in search of food.  We landed on this place called Osiris Pizza and I got an exquisite BBQ, bacon, and meat sauce pizza that couldn't have been a traditional Spanish dish even if I tried.  Nevertheless, I ate it with pride and it really filled my empty stomach.  After this, we went back to the hostel to sleep, an activity we hadn't done since 5 AM.

DAY 2: Since we did so much walking the previous day, we decided to check out some museums.  We first went to el Museo de Bellas Artes, or the Fine Arts Museum.  They had very, very old pieces of work from the 12th century that all had one thing in common: Christianity.  Though I know the impact that this religion has had on the world, it is surely evidenced by the art.  Every painting or sculpture had Jesus or a Saint represented.  This was very interesting and though the art wasn't the best I've seen, it was still astounding to see how people thought back in the old days.  While in the eleventh sala, I got a phone call from an old friend: Rachel Sadok.

I knew that Rachel was going to be in Sevilla around the same time, but this was the first time we talked over the phone.  We planned to meet up at the Cathedral and it was really cool to see her because I hadn't seen her for over a year, when we both went to UMass.  We sat at a bar that had a jarra, or mug, of beer and a small sandwich for only 2€, but then she had to catch a flight, so she left and Nick and I decided to go inside the Cathedral.

This was amazing.  Here, Christobal Colon is buried and is also the home of the Giralda, a giant bell tower that over looks the entire city.  We climbed up the 17 story building and got a look at the river and the Plaza de España and we could see the intense amount of white buildings.  White buildings were actually something that the Arabs brought to the peninsula.  They believed in the inner soul and therefore they didn't have flashy, decorative exteriors of their houses.

After the cathedral, we headed to two free, smaller churches.  Both were very humbling, but also very stunning.  They had stained glass windows and a decorative piece behind the altar.  This was a real testament to Spain's wealth if even their smaller churches had elaborate decorations.

Then, we stumbled upon this weird looking geometric structure.  I was confused at first because it looked like a 3-D squiggle, but then I remembered the pictures that my friends who are studying abroad in Sevilla.  This area is called Plaza Mayor and is actually on top of another plaza that holds ruins from Roman time.  Yes, from the 2nd and 3rd century.  You could climb up to the top and look out to the city.  It cost euro and we were done spending money, so we just kept walking.

After all of this, we finally caught our bus home.  Again, like in Cadiz, I found myself missing Granada.  It is more familiar, it doesn't have a scary part of town, and I will never get sick of seeing the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the distance.  After the 4 hour bus ride back, at 3 AM, we went home and went to bed.

The next day, I took a relaxing break and caught up on sleep.  But today, me and a couple of friends decided to go to the beach.  We took the 11:00 bus to Salobreña, a beach town that is only an hour away from Granada.  It seemed like the perfect beach day: sun, 60+ degrees, but when we got to Salobreña, it was cloudy, windy, and chilly.  We waited it out for an hour and then our luck began to change.  The sun was peaking it's head through shade of the clouds, but the wind was still pretty strong.  We tried to go into the Mediterranean Sea, but it was even windier that close to the shore and I actually didn't have a towel.  We did, however, climb little rock thing that was about 50 feet above sea level.  They said you could jump off of it, but that seems like an activity for when it's warmer and there are some locals doing it so you know what to do.

As you can see, this 5 day weekend was very eventful.  As for other cities in Andalucia, I would like to visit Cordoba because of the Islamic influence and because my host mom is from Cordoba.  Once it gets warmer, I will definitely venture back towards the beach, though there are better ones like Nerja and Almuñécar that are a little further away.  And the Science Museum will definitely get another visit because there is no way that I saw everything.  It seems like I'll have a lot of things to do in the coming months, but first, after two days of classes and one day off, I'm going to Roma with my program.  From Saturday to Tuesday we will be seeing the beauty and splendor that everyone goes on and on about.  After Rome will probably be the next time that I blog, so until then, ¡hasta luego!

Parque de las Ciencias

¡Hola a todos! Now, I don't know if you know this or not, but last Tuesday, Fat Tuesday, is also known as Pancake Day in England.  That bar that I told you about, Totes y Amigos, where I go for intercambios is a British bar and to celebrate Pancake Day they gave us pancakes, or crepes, as our second tapas.  This was a great business scheme to coerce us into getting two beers and thus getting the pancake with the second one.  Though Pancake Day was described as a day where housewives would get together all of the foods that they wouldn't be able to eat after Ash Wednesday to create pancakes, these ones fell a little flat.  They were the average size of pancakes, but they were much thinner.  Instead of syrup, they actually gave us a choice of lemon or orange.  I opted for orange and they served me my flapjack with a quarter of an orange on the side.  I saw someone squeeze their orange over the pancake and sprinkle sugar, so I followed suit.  Then I tasted the pancake, and you know what, it wasn't half bad.  Even though this experience was strange for me, it must have seemed even stranger to Silvia, the Spaniard I was talking to.  I chuckled when she asked if we had Pancake Day in the United States because I was just as surprised as she was.

This is the Rio Genil, the river that is right in front of Totes y Amigos

Another event of Pancake Day is the Pancake Race.  This involves flipping a pancake, or dar la vuelta, in a pan and running to a predetermined spot and back.  Then you pass the pan to the next person in line.  My team almost won, but in the last second Alberto snuck in and took the lead.  I was ashamed because a.) he beat me and b.) that means my cousin Michelle's team had won.  But it was fun nonetheless.

That was Tuesday night.  I also went to intercambio Thursday night, but the group I talked to weren't really talking back.  They started out talking and willing to learn English, but then one went home and the other went on her cell phone, so I moved to another table.

That was Thursday night.  Friday, today, we went El Parque de las Ciencias, or the Science Museum.  Because I had been spoiled with the MoS from Boston, I didn't have as high expectations for this.  Still, being the science major I am, I spent the 6€, and boy, was I glad that I did.  This museum is especially known for it's planetarium, but we decided not to see that today.  Instead, we went to the main attraction: the T-Rex that we had seen on posters all around the city.  More on that later.

We started in what seemed like the little kids section because they were very simple science experiments and optical illusions.  Still, we were impressed by some of the facts like: no matter what a hole looks like, the shadow it makes will be round...assuming it isn't right next to the ground.  We also found an echo creator, a tube that was really long, and heavy rocks that would move because they were sitting in water.  That phenomenon seemed to be a favorite as it appeared all over the place.  One thing that caught my eye was this series of interconnected rails that had balls rolling around on them.  I remember as a kid we would go to the Children's Museum in New Hampshire and they had this machine that was essentially a machine trying to achieve perpetual motion.  This had a similar feel except that it called on us to keep the ball rolling, as it were.  The ball would stop at some places and we were have to pull a lever to move it up the stairs or crank a screw to bring it to it's next location to keep it going.  We enjoyed this for awhile, we were still in the kids' section, but then we moved on and found maze.  The maze was simple.  I say simple because I figured it out with only two wrong turns, but I was also racing against my friends.  Still, I had fun doing it because who doesn't like getting lost?

After the maze, we moved to the butterfly exhibit, a humid, hot room that housed under 10 butterflies, or mariposas.  But more than just butterflies, there were turtles and koi fish.  The butterflies were so tame that we could get up close and snap a good picture of them.  They may have been too tame though because we saw a kid pick one up by it's wings and then drop it to the ground.  A friend of mine went over and yelled at the kid in ok-Spanish talk and the kid walked away.  I'm sure he learned his lesson.  After, we went outside and enjoyed the air with almost 100% humidity less than the room we had just left, and walked towards the Birds of Prey show they were putting on.  This was amazing.  They started off by showing us a barn owl that kind of resembled Hedwig from Harry Potter.  She was graceful and beautiful, but it still seems cruel to tether them to leashes.  The handler said that the only reason why they fly is because he is holding food in his hand.  They don't actually enjoy flying as we might if we were to have wings.  Nevertheless, they brought out the second bird which was an eagle.  It didn't look like your typical bald eagle as it was black and small and had a large tail.  This bird they didn't have on a leash so they let it fly all over the small arena.  Then came the showstopper, a giant, blue-gray hawk.  This hawk can fly as fast as 300 km/h (186 mph!) and they showed us just what it could do.  The trainer had this leather doll tied on to the edge of a rope and he would swing it around as the bird flew all around us.  At the moment of its strike, it went straight towards the ground and then directly towards the doll, which evidently, was full of meat.  It was incredible to see it change speeds so quickly and remain in control.  Each time it hit the doll even though it was moving through the air.  Nature can be simply amazing.

Next, we went to search for the big attraction: the T-Rex.  On the way we saw this lightning exhibit that resembled the one they have at the MoS.  I remember going there with Nana and Chelsea when I was a lot younger, but we left because it was too loud.  Though we didn't do it today, I think I'm old enough to handle it.  Right across the way, found the T-Rex and he was massive.  He was situated next to his triceratops friend, who was also just a skeleton and then there were some "realistic" 3-D depiction of the T-Rex.  I say "realistic" with quotations because we really don't know what they looked like.  We can piece together their bones, but there is no evidence of their skin color or type.  Another cool scene they had set up involved mechanic dinosaurs that were attacking other dinosaurs.  Now, in the United States they may not make it as gruesome because they know that kids might see it, but here they couldn't care less.  There was one scene where the T-Rex was eating the intestines of a triceratops and another where these little dinosaurs were eating a big platosaurus.  It was cool to see dinos in action, but they probably could have done it a better way.

Finally, we went through the human body exhibit.  I was especially pleased for this one because I was a neuroscience major and because I am a biology major.  I even took human physiology last semester and it was my favorite class in high school.  I was also traveling with two other science majors, the only two other science majors on the program, so we were all excited.  The museum did not disappoint.  We started out with the origins of life and the primordial soup where molecules came together and formed organic molecules which led to cells which led to prehistoric creatures.  There are even these shrimp like creatures that exist today, called fossil animals because there are fossils of the same species from millions of years ago.  After we found out where we evolved from, we dove right into the human body.  We looked at x-rays and compared hearts of different species with ours.  We saw where the most heat was on our body and how to do a sonogram.  There was even a whole room on the brain.  The highlight was Mind Ball.  In order to play, two people had to sit down and put their forehead against the head rest.  Then someone pressed the button and the game started.  A ball in the center would move away from a person who was not thinking at all.  The objective was to force the ball towards the other person by simply not trying.  At the same time, they showed your alpha and theta (I think) brain waves.  When they were equal, you were doing well, but when the theta waves were higher, you were thinking too much.  We even saw this happen because we would talk to the person and they would answer, but before they answered, we saw a spike in theta brain waves.  Truly amazing!  Unfortunately, we were all getting tired so we left.  I at my host mom's bocadillo, or sandwich, that she had prepared for me.  It was a Spanish tortilla with chorizo, a juicy meat that resembles pepperoni.  It was delicious.

After the museum, I went to buy tickets for Sevilla, another city of Andalucia, the province that Granada is in.  This experience was quick and easy as I hopped on the 10 bus to the bus estación, or station, and just ordered the tickets right then and there.  Fortunately and unfortunately, we are leaving at 7 AM on a four and a half hour bus ride.  At least we'll get to see a lot of the city and not waste an entire day traveling.  Anyways, that's where I'm going to leave you and I'll have exciting stories from Sevilla after the weekend, which is a five day weekend, if I might add.  Also, if I might add, we're going to Roma the following weekend.  Yes, I'm just living the life.  ¡Hasta luego!

Integración

¡Hola!  So, I have another week of Spanish under my belt and several new cultural experiences to share with you.  I went to my first intercambio at this restaurante se llama Totes y Amigos, called Totes y Amigos.  I went on Tuesday with a couple of friends to this place that overlooks the Rio Genil and is about 40 minutes walk from my house.  It's very small and can probably hold 30 people max.  Well, that didn't stop the Spaniards from coming in huge groups.  By the time we got there, there were probably 30 Spaniards and 3 Americans conversing at an table filled to the brim with people.  The British owner was more than happy to seat us with some Spaniards to reduce the ratio between English speakers and Spanish speakers.
I sat down next to two younger Spaniards who are studying at the University of Granada.  One, Alberto, is a Computer Science major and Silvana, the other one, is a Biology major studying stem cells.  We talked a lot about American TV Shows that they watch including How I Met Your Mother and Dexter.  When I talked, I only spoke Spanish and when they talked, they only talked English except if we needed to explain a word.  And as per the rules, we had to have at least one drink.  I ordered a cerveza, or beer, and it came with a free tapa, which I have explained before as a small appetizer to go with your drink.  They gave me a ham wrap and french fries, which hit the right spot.  I enjoyed speaking to them so much that I promised them that I was going to return on Thursday.

Graffiti from near my apartment.  I don't have a picture of the intercambio

And return I did.  On Thursday I ventured back to Totes y Amigos and this time there were more people stuffed into the small restaurant.  It was actually quite overwhelming, but the British woman came out and started matching people together.  I got matched with Silvana, again, and another, older man.  The older man is from Monchila, a small town in the Granada province.  Monchila is known for it's hiking paths and is a must see stop while living in Granada. Javier told me all about Monchila and then showed me where it is using his iPhone.  I found it quite comical that he not only texts, but has other more complicated apps that I wouldn't expect someone of his age to have.  After we talked for about an hour, we started discussing grammar in our respective language.  I actually got complemented twice: they said that when I spoke slowly, I had a really good accent, and that I look like a Spaniard. I felt happier about the second one because I was worried that I would stick out as an American and that would make it more difficult to immerse myself in the culture.  Apparently my dark hair and jawline gives me a Spanish flair even though I probably don't have any Spanish blood.  Overall, I had another good time at the intercambio and I think I am going to make a pattern of going to Totes on Tuesdays and Thursdays after my 8:00 PM class.

The second cultural activity I did was Carnaval: an event held in many cities over the world where people dress up in costumes and socialize with many other people.  There is usually a parade involved, but the people we booked the trip through had us go home early.  My costume was a bandito, which turned into a white collar bandit.  At the chino store, a type of store owned by Asians that sell cheap items from clothes to gardening tools.  I bought a white fedora and a white tie and a zorro costume (for 6 euros), which I wore with a black shirt and black pants.  The key was the zorro mask because masks are a key part of Carnaval.  Usually, they are sequenced masks that cover your eyes and have a feather coming off a side.

Once I dressed in my suit, I met up with a few friends and went to the bus stop and got on the bus for the four hour bus drive.  It's actually a law in Spain that bus drivers have to take a 45 minute break for every four hours, so we had to stop about halfway through the drive.  I tried to sleep, but it was really uncomfortable, but it was definitely worth getting to Cadiz and seeing the beauty of the Atlantic Ocean.  Cadiz is known for its beaches and we actually have an excursion there in May to relax and sun bathe.  I immediately saw the reason because it was 65 degrees and the beaches had sand without any impurities.  There were rocks that people were sitting on that looked out to the ocean and a jedi people walked on.  We actually leaped from rock to rock until the last rock and thought it synced with high tide, it also synced with sunset.  And what a sunset it was.  The orange-yellow glow from the star hid from Europe, but hovered towards you guys back home.  It was amazing to see how populated the beach was by kids our age.

 

After the beach, we went looking for food.  At first turn that we took a man greeted us and invited us into a restaurant called Mar 3 where we were given glasses of vino tinto, red wine.  The man also ordered us a Spanish tortilla that was delicious.  In Spanish, if you say os invito, which literally means "I invite you guys" but actually means, "I will pay your tab." This was great luck as we were very hungry and didn't want to pay anything.  They kept giving us drinks and bread and told us  where to go because there is actually a whole section of the city that is for younger adults.  We gave them adieu and went to some of the places they told us about.  We found churros and coffee to give us energy and then found Plaza de San Antonio where this great musical was going on.  The theme was Cadiz beating Napoleon's forces back in the day.  The main performer was actually one of the best singers of all of Spain.  She wasn't the only one singing, though.  The majority of the audience would sing along and cheer at the appropriate parts.  This picture is actually gypsy dancing flamenco at the show.  Everyone clapped in time with the music as she moved gracefully from one side of the stage to the other.

 

From the show, people went in different directions with the majority of people my age going to Plaza de Mina, a large area with islands of trees that had bars surrounding the perimeters. This is where I took pictures with Smurfs, cows, and all different types of disfraces, or costumes.  It was amazing to see all of these people just standing and chatting and singing.  Though I thought there would be more from the Cadiz Ayuntamiento, or town hall, I still enjoyed hanging out and meeting new people.  On the way back, we went by the cathedral and there were even more people packed together.  We literally had to push people in order to get by them when we had to leave for our bus at 4 AM.

This has been the most amazing trip thus far and I had such a great time.  Next weekend I have a five day weekend (no classes next Monday and Tuesday) and then I'm going to Rome on Saturday., so hopefully they live up to this huge experience that I have just had.  Don't worry, I'll keep everyone informed of all my goings on.  ¡Hasta Luego!

¡Esperaos!

Lo siento for not writing at all this week, but that's because I have a big weekend ahead of me and I didn't think that what happened this past week would be enough for one blog post.  I did go on two intercambios and I also bought my ticket for Carnaval for this weekend.  Nana, I promise to give you a new blog post on Sunday!  Until then, look at this image of Carnaval that I found on Google.