Final Farewells

A few weeks ago, Isabel told us about when her daughter studied abroad in England. "Is your father a bull fighter?" her host parents asked her. "Is your mother a gypsy?" After her daughter said no to both of these, the mother was very surprised. Later, she showed her a telephone for what she thought was the very first time. "You can call people with this," she explained to her. "I know, I have one at home," her daughter replied.

Now, when I left for Spain, I certainly did not think that every guy was a bull fighter and every girl was a gypsy. I also did think it was a third world country, as the British family that Isabel's daughter lived with seemed to think. Still, I did not know exactly what I was getting into and there was a lot that I did not know about Spain. Here I am though, four months later and Spain seems very comfortable to me. I have learned so much about their culture and I will never forget this experience.

After our final exam on Friday, we said  our final goodbyes to all of the teachers and everyone who would not be flying on the group flight. Our class of intermediate students bought a picture frame for Ana with a picture from our dinner at her house.

Saying goodbye to Isabel was definitely one of the hardest goodbyes. She said she was not going to wake up as we left because she did not like goodbyes. Instead, she just wanted to pretend like we would see her the next day and we said "hasta luego" (until later) followed by some besitos (the cheek kisses) and thank-you's before she went to bed. I will definitely miss her and how she definitely did everything she did for us with love.

For our final night on the town, we enjoyed one last Flamenco concert before heading to bed for two hours, as we had to leave at 3:30 to walk to the airport bus stop. The sleeping did not actually happen for me, as my mind was racing with feelings of happiness yet sadness.

After a quick flight to Madrid, we had what was supposed to be a short layover before getting onto the plane bound for Chicago. After we were all ready to go and on the plane, we got the terrible news that they found a problem with the brakes. We did not have to wait too long before this was fixed, but then we had to wait another 40 minutes before we could take off because of Portugal's fly-over restrictions. After the 40 minutes were up, we thought we were good to go. Wrong. Now there was a problem with the de-icer and we waited another hour and a half before we could finally take off.

I said goodbye to this as I walked over the bridge for last time.

So, after spending over 12 hours on the plane, we finally landed back in the United States. A lot of the students missed their connecting flights because of the delay, so it was a very hectic atmosphere as we said our goodbye's.

Overall, I am sure this semester will stick out to me as I look back on my college life. I have learned a lot of Spanish and hopefully I will find opportunities to continue practicing it. I am very happy to be home right now for Christmas and I can not wait to see all of the people I missed for so long. Thanks for reading my blog!

Christmas is in the Air

Walking around in Sevilla at night just got even more enjoyable. Now there are Christmas lights over almost every street, and each street has a different theme. It is a sign that Christmas is very near, and it also means that we are almost done with our semester abroad. 

The last couple weeks have been filled with "villancicos," or Christmas carols. First, we sang them at the Hospital de Caridad," where I had been playing bingo and dominoes every week. We sang what seemed like  20 carols for them, most of which were bilingual. The men seemed very happy to hear us despite our general lack of talent as a singing group.

The next week, we sang songs for the children at a convent at their Christmas party. We had bake sales throughout the year to raise money for the party, so we were able to buy all the kids gifts. In Spain, the main "gift givers" are the three wise men and not Santa, so who better to give the gifts than the three guys in the program? It was great getting to see the kids open what would probably be one of their only Christmas presents with such enthusiasm.

We also played a holiday-themed game with the kids. We divided into teams and then raced to blow up balloons as fast as we could. This was the easy part. Next, we had to stuff 4 balloons into each leg of a pair of nylons, which proved to be much harder than I would have thought. The point of this was that when you put the balloon-stuffed nylons on your head they looked like reindeer antlers. We had eight separate teams so at the end of the game, we had eight reindeer running around with their new, very floppy, antlers. 

I also got to see Isabel setting up her nativity scene, which seems to be a very big deal here in Spain. Several of the churches had signs advertising their nativity setup inside the church and there was a huge fair going on for the past month outside of the Cathedral that sold figurines for the nativity scenes along with any animal you could possibly want to accompany them.

The Great Peacock Debate (along with some other site seeing)

Despite having lived in Sevilla for so long there were still a few must-see places that we still had not visited until recently. Therefore, we dedicated the last two weekends to doing just that.

First, there is the palace called the Alcàzar. Most of the palace is now open to the public, but some of it is still private so the royal family can still use it. The inside of the palace is yet another example of the Muslim influence from their reign in Spain. It has a lot of traits of the Muslim architecture including baths, mosaics and a dome. 

My favorite part of the Alcàzar, however, was the world of gardens outside the main building. If you are walking in the central of Sevilla, it is hard to picture where they would possibly be able to fit so many gardens right in the middle of a city, but they were there.  

The gardens are complete with a small hedge maze, waterfalls, fountains and, of course, peacocks. A fun fact is that peacocks in Spanish is "pavo real," which means "real turkey." There were peacocks all over the gardens, but  we also saw a cat, and we wondered if it would try to attack the peacocks. 

Thus sparked what has now become the "Great Peacock Debate." For the past week, Luke and I have been arguing with Mark about who would win in a fight between a peacock and a cat. The two of us are convinced that with a cat's agility, claws and teeth it could easily take down a "real turkey" after the initial shock of their huge feathers. We have been asking teachers, students, and senoras alike what they think about who would win, most of whom agree with us. However, Mark still thinks the peacock would win and the subject is sure to come up again. 

Despite tempers flying in the debate, Mark and I were still able to go on a trip together to Aracena, a small city about an hour and a half west from Sevilla. 

The most noticeable thing about the small town is that there is a castle on the top of a hill that you can see from almost every spot in the city. When we went up here, we could see everything including bulls that, are used in the bullfights according to Isabel.

We also went on a cave tour while in Aracena. The caves were beautiful and there were huge crystal formations all over along with some of the clearest water I have ever seen. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures in the caves, but they probably would not have done them justice anyways. 

The final must-do thing that we did was climb the Giralda, the huge tower connected to the Sevilla Cathedral. It is kind of sad that we had not done this yet, but we were waiting for a non-busy Sunday, when it is cheaper. 

Upon entering the cathedral, we saw yet another breathtaking display of pipe organs, altars and Christopher Columbus' grave. After taking all this in, we headed to the tower and walked up 34 small ramps once used by men on horses to ring the bells, and finally arrived at the highest point in Sevilla. 

From the Giralda, we could see everything from the Plaza de Toros to the huge bridges along the river. I could have stayed up there for a lot longer than I did, but it was still an amazing site. We waited for the sun to set behind the mountains before making our way back down.

This week, we have yet another week of holidays, with classes only on Wednesday and Friday. I am going to try to make the most of it as it is the last week before exams and then my return. 

Two Fantastic Feasts

When she heard that some of the students in our class still had not tried paella, our professor was shocked. So shocked that she invited all six of us in her class over for dinner on Monday night just so we could try the paella along with some other Spanish favorites.

Professora Ana

So, on Monday night we all went over to Ana's house where we met her two sons and a family friend who I actually already met at church. We all gathered around a small table in her living room and enjoyed chicken paella, tortilla de patatas, and my personal favorite, arroz con leche for dessert.

The meal tasted wonderful and we all loved spending time with Ana outside of class. It was really cool that she likes enough to want to make us a meal and spend time with us discussing something other than what we are learning in class.

A few days later, it was Thanksgiving, where we had another delicious meal. Before that, however, we spent the morning in Italica, a city just outside of Sevilla that contains Roman ruins.

The first stop on our tour of Italica was the monastery where I think everyone will remember a moment with our tour guide, professor Jose Maria. While walking through the monastery, we came upon a painting. "Now the lion in this painting," Jose Maria explained, "is what you would call a little...gay." Everyone laughed at this because we just did not see it coming from him, but it was true that the lion did not look like a typical, scary lion.

After the monastery, we walked to the third-largest amphitheater in the Roman empire. I was surprised by how much of the structure was still in tact after so many years. When we went to the middle, where they had the actual events, we could see tunnels that were dug out underneath the ground where animals or gladiators would emerge to surprise the fans. Obviously, after being in such a cool building, us guys were inspired to watch "Gladiator" the following night.

Thanksgiving ended with a feast at a Cuban restaurant with everyone in the program. All of the professors have been saying that this is usually one of the most special nights of the fall semester, so we were excited.

Everyone got dressed up and we ate all the American foods (turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and stuffing)...at a Cuban restaurant...in Spain. It was in fact a great meal, but it was still strange to be away from my family on such a family-oriented holiday.

The night ended with the exchange of our "Amigo Invisible" gifts, which is what they call "secret santa" here. When I received my gift, I knew exactly what it was and who it was from because Luke happened to draw my name. It was a deck of Spanish playing cards, which is basically the same as American cards but with a few extras.

Service Weekend

A few weeks ago at our worship service, called "encuentro," a speaker came and invited us to a Christian camp run by several local churches. The deal was that we could stay there overnight and get free meals in exchange for our labor one day. This past weekend, about 12 of us finally decided to take them up on the offer, and we headed out into the country to see what we would find.

I say "see what we would find" because none of us really knew what to expect in terms of what kind of camp this was, what kind of work we would be doing, and where we would be staying. All we knew is that the camp was about an hour away in a town called "Pedroso" and it was in the mountains. 

When we arrived at the bus stop we were greeted by Richard, one of the main workers at the camp. Richard was only able to take a few people to the camp as he only had a small truck, so the rest of us waited. This action  of meeting a new person who worked at the camp and then taking between 2-5 people repeated itself about 4 times until finally everyone was at the camp. I am still not sure why they did not use a bigger vehicle, but it was funnier this way. 

It was dark when we arrived Friday night, so we did not explore a lot. However, we did get a good look at the stars from an open field and then we got to sit by a fireplace, which was nice considering it was much colder here than in Sevilla. 

Our group had a huge room filled with a few smaller rooms that had several bunk beds in them. In my room there was...Luke and Mark of course, the only other guys. It got pretty cold at night, but I was smart enough to bring a bunch of blankets from home so I was fine. However, I did not know that Luke did not have a blanket all night and I felt pretty selfish when I woke up in the morning to find out he had suffered through the night in the cold. 

Saturday morning, we woke up to a light drizzle. However, after a quick  breakfast it was soon raining much harder, but this did not stop us from working. We walked to the fields of the camp where we saw farm animals of all kinds. As we walked to our site, we saw a flock of sheep, one of which was a two-day-old black sheep. We also saw two huge dogs named Princessa and Bruto, or Princess and Brute. 

Being the only guys there, we had the task of cleaning out a room that they were currently renovating. We had to lift a bunch of random stuff including mirrors, beds and tiles into a truck and bring them into another building. Meanwhile, the girls whitewashed the walls of the room we were cleaning out. By the end, we were very wet but we finished the job. 

Finally, we got to enjoy a great meal together. My favorite part of the meal was croquetas, something Isabel has made us before that kind of tastes like a chicken pot pie fried into little balls. There are different types, but these were chicken. I am used to only having a few, but we had a huge platter and of course the girls did not eat very many of them so I had all the croquetas I wanted for once. While at the camp, I also tried mussels, which looked bad but tasted a lot like fish. 

On the drive back, we were all quite tired and wet, but I think everyone had a good time doing something different for a weekend and happy that we were able to help out some very nice people. 

The Ups and Downs of Ronda

Five days of school would be a lot to come back to after such a long break, so instead of regular class on Friday we had an excursion to Ronda,  a city about two hours away from Sevilla. 

Instead of my regular professor, Ana Maria, the two male professors came along on this trip with us. So, for the first time since school started I was spending time with some different professors, not to say that I do not like Ana Maria. 

We quickly discovered that Ronda, like every other city in Spain besides Sevilla, is very hilly. The city actually seems like it is on the top of a mountain because at every balcony there was a huge gorge overlooking trees, fields, and more mountains. 

When we went on one largest balcony to overlook the view, Salva, one of the professors, told us that the balcony has a nickname among the natives, but he could not tell us the actual name because it was a swear word. Instead, he told us to ask someone that lives in Ronda if we really wanted to know, so we did just that.

Before our actual tour of the city, we had time to explore so I went on a hike along with some other students. We heard that there was a waterfall that we could get close to, so went on a search for that. It did not take long to find, and after a quick walk, (quick because it was completely downhill) we arrived at the waterfall. We also found a dark cave to walk in, but it did not last long because the girls were afraid of a big spider that they soon noticed. 

The walk back up was not as easy since we were now going completely uphill, but when we finally made it we enjoyed our sandwiches before heading back for the tour. 

Ronda is divided into two parts: the old town and the new town. For the tour, we mostly walked around the old town where we saw some old houses, churches, and other buildings. 

Next, we went into an old building that used to serve as a walkway for slaves to get down to the river to collect water. The group slowly made our way down to the water, just as the slaves did, through the damp and dark passageway. When we got to the river at the bottom of the building, those of us that went on the hike for free time quickly realized that we were right across from where we had been. 

After making our way back up the stairs, we went finished our trip by entering the oldest bullfighting ring in Spain. The ring was not as pretty as the one in Sevilla, nor was it as big, but the seats were all in the shade, something that I think they should have done in Sevilla as well. Soon, a lot of students were acting like bulls, just as we have seen in all of the pictures of past students who have been here, but fun nonetheless. 

The Last Legs of the Trip

In Venice we saw a lot of water. The water that paved the streets, of course, was expected, but unfortunately there was another form of it as well: rain. It pretty much rained on and off the entire time we were in Venice, but this did not keep us from exploring our third city on the trip.

We arrived Thursday afternoon to our bed and breakfast about 15 minutes outside of the city and rode the bus in for the night. Being used to the Spanish culture, we were shocked to see most of the restaurants and stores already closed by 8. It was clearly not the tourist season because the city was very dead when we went on our first walk through the city. Luckily, there were still a few pizza bars open where we could experience actual Italian pizza. 

We spent most of Friday walking around Venice again. According to the traveler's book we read, we were supposed to get lost in Venice, so we did just that. A lot of the city seemed to repeat itself; there were hundreds of shops that sold masks, toy Venician boats, and other souvenirs all over and of course there were many bridges.

Honestly, I was glad that we only spent one full day in Venice because it may have gotten long if we were there another day. The rain did not help because it made the idea of riding a boat much less appealing so we decided against it.

At night, we decided to make use of our stove in our apartment so we made our own Italian dinner with pasta and pizza around our kitchen table. It ended up being a great night with friends even though the rain made us a little grumpy during the day. 

Finally, it was Saturday, and time for our last leg of our trip. Originally, we were just going to go back to Sevilla from Venice, but we found that it was actually cheaper to fly to Barcelona first and wait until an early flight on Sunday to return. 

By this point in the trip, everyone seemed kind of burnt out from all the big city attractions that take quite awhile to get to, so we just decided to go to a few main places. 

First, we went to the Sagrada Familia, a cathedral that is still in the process of being built because the artist, Antoni Gaudi, died before completing it. It was obvious that this was a much newer cathedral as it had a completely different feel to its outside. The sculptures had more square faces and the towers were much skinnier than those of Sevilla or Notre Dame.

After a long eight days, we went back to the airport and waited for our 6 a.m. boarding. It was a long night, but we played some Uno, got some free french fries from some generous people at the cafeteria, and even got a few hours of sleep on the floor before returning to my soft bed in Sevilla. 

Spectacular

What began as a trip in another bustling city quickly became a relaxing one with some of the most beautiful views  I have ever seen.

We spent our time at Champfleuri, a retreat center just outside of Grenoble where Luke's mom has connections through her missionary work. It serves as a camp in the summer, and it is currently being used by a program for students to study the Bible in French. We were picked up from the train station by Damion, an American pastor who is in charge of Champfleuri.

Once we arrived, we quickly got to know the students who are living there until February. This year's program has eight girls, so the guys were back in the minority ], just like in Spain. Most of the girls were using this program as a break between college and high school and all of them spoke at least one other language to go along with the French that they were currently learning and using. At one point, we heard French, German, and English being spoken at the same time in one room, so we started speaking in Spanish just to get a fourth language in there.

It was awesome getting to know all the students who likewise were  happy to meet some other people outside of their small program. There were so many different countries being represented there and it was amazing to hear all their different stories from the different places they have been. One girl was from Germany and had also lived in Australia and Argentina before coming to France.

On Monday morning, the five of us went on a hike to further explore the mountains. As we began the hike we quickly realized how perfect it was that we were here during this time of year; the yellows, oranges and reds that coated the mountains made an already breathtaking view even better. Between the trees, mountains, countryside French houses and farm animals, it was almost impossible to walk forward without stopping to take in every new view.

For lunch, we ate at a picnic table overlooking the mountains, some of which actually had some snow on the top, before heading back to Champfleuri.

Wednesday was Luke's birthday and he was lucky enough to be able to spend it with his mom, who happened to be in the area for work on the same week we were off for vacation. For his birthday, she took us to a castle where a lot of meetings resulting in the French Revolution were held. The best part of the castle was the balcony, which overlooked a park filled with geese, ducks and swans.

On Thursday, we finally had to say goodbye to all the new friends we met and also to France because we were on our way to Venice.

Perusing Paris: Part 2

Saturday, we hit the streets again for some more sightseeing. First on our list was the Arc of Triumph, a huge arc decorated with carvings and dedicated to those who fought in French wars. I found that I could read some of the French because of its simmilarity to Spanish, but I still missed a lot of what was written.

Next; we got a look at the Eiffel Tower in the daytime while heading toward a market that is open twice a week and sells a variety of French foods that we could try.We took our findings to a park where we settled in for a relaxing lunch. Here, a French woman said "bona petite" as she walked by, adding something more to our French experience.

We spent some of the afternoon in the apartment of two Americans  with whom one of our friends from another Sevilla program was staying for the weekend. They were nice enough to invite us in for some drinks while helping us plan out the rest of our day in Paris. It was nice having someone who knew the city, knowing we would no longer have to guess about where to go next.

Later, we went to a statue garden that I believe was once someone's very fancy backyard. The most famous statue here was "The Thinker," of which there are actually a few copies in the world, but this was the first one cast and therefore the coolest.

The next day, the guys and girls seperated and us guys went to another art museum, the Orsay. Unfortunately, we were not able to take pictures here, but I  suppose art mueseums are not the best place for this anyways since the art is always better in real life. There were several works from Van Gogh and Monet, some of which I had just seen in their travel to Chicago a year before. I am just following them all around I guess. 

The museum was our final destination in Paris, so after this we walked to the train station for our next, and very different, part of our travels in France: the peaceful countryside of Grenoble.

Perusing Paris: Part 1

When I returned from my run on Thursday morning, Isabel was sitting on her couch, hand on forehead and a distraut look on her face. "Do you know what happened?" she asked. I said no, so she preceded to tell me that she accidently fell back asleep after her alarm went off and was not able to give Luke his breakfast or say goodbye before our trip. "pobrecito" she kept saying, which means "poor thing." This is just how much our host mom loves us and it was sad but very sweet to see how worried she was.

The Louvre

Our trip began with a two hour flight to a city just outside Paris and a quick bus ride over to our hostel where we got our first look at that huge tower that everyone knows. It was pretty late at that point so we went right to bed after getting a quick tour of the hostel. We were a little worried about the quality because it was such a good deal for being downtown, but it ended up being a nice place. The only downside was the 8:00 breakfast, but it forced us to start our day early.

Friday, we took our first walk through the city over to the "Louvre," a huge building that is now a giant art mueseum. The courtyard has some giant glass pyramids that serve as the the entrance to the mueseum as well. It was here that we discovered we could get into all the mueseums in Paris for free because we had a student visa, a very exciting discovery.

The mueseum was gorgeous with too many beautiful works of art to admire in the short time we had. In every room, my eyes did not know where to look first. We quickly made our way to the Mona Lisa, where there was a swarm of people taking pictures of the very small but famous work.

Notre Dame

Next, we looked at all the statues, many of which I have seen in my history and art books, but never knew where they were held. My favorite statues were the Greek gods, being the fan of Greek mythology that I am.

After enjoying some sandwiches that Isabel gave us the day before, we went to our next famous landmark, the Notre Dame cathedral. It is the only cathedral with square towers instead of pointed ones. Honestly, I felt a little spoiled with the cathedrals because this one was not as imressive as the ones in Sevilla or Toledo, but it was obviously still very fancy and awesome to experience such a famous place.

Finally, we made our way over to the big landmark: the Eiffel Tower. It was easy to find in the night sky, and we ate dinner outside at a restaurant where we coud see it sticking its head out right over a building. The restaurant was frustrating because we could not speak French, so wehad to resort to pointing out everything on the menu foolishly. It made me realize how easy it is to get around Sevilla though, with the amount of Spanish I know.

Following the delicious meal, we sat in the park right in front of the tower. The pictures that we took in front of it looked like they were in front of a green screen because they were so surreal and perfect. Every hour, the tower started sparkling with flashing lights for about five minutes, so we stuck around for two rounds of that before making our way back to our beds.

Cold and Wet

We took a little break from the Spanish culture and enjoyed pizza, pop and a movie at the school on Friday night. Almost everyone in the program came for the "noche de chic@s." (The "@" means chicos and chicas because it looks like an o and an a, and I thought it was cool so I utilized it.) The group voted on "New in Town," a romantic comedy. Of course, it was not complete without popcorn and candy, of which I ate way too much.

Saturday afternoon, some of us went to the area called San Juan del Aljarafe, just outside of the city. We quickly became masters of the metro and figured out how to get there with ease. I had already ran to the area a couple of times, but it was great to finally go with a camera and without being in a rush.

The most distinguishing feature of this area is the two statues that overlook Sevilla. First, there is a smaller statue of Mary holding her baby . Further up the mountain, there is a huge statue of Jesus that is connected to a church. We were able to take an elevator up the hill and enjoy the view of Sevilla from a distance while eating our sandwiches from our loving host moms. 

Saturday night, my roommates and I had a "guys night," along with our friends from another program and Mark's intercambio, Alvaro. Sadly, I made the mistake of only wearing shorts and a t shirt. If it were any other night in Sevilla thus far, this would have been fine. Unfortunately for me, however, Saturday night marked the beginning of chillier weather. In reality, it was probably in the high fifties, but having been accustomed to the eighty plus days and nights of Sevilla, it was a shock for my body. 

The cold air was not the only change in the weather. On Monday morning, it rained a lot. When I say a lot, I mean it dumped all the rain that has not fallen since the second day I arrived. This made for a very wet run, a nice change from the hot and humid ones in the past. A lot of students got blasted by water from passing cars driving over puddles on the way to school, but I was lucky enough to avoid this. 

This brings me to today. Today I am packing for my 9 day trip along with Luke, Mark, Kristen, and Kirsten. We have been excited for this trip since the day we planned it, and we are leaving tomorrow after school. Paris, Grenoble, Venice, and Barcelona are all in our plans and it is sure to be an adventure. 

Getting In the Groove

The past week of living in Spain has just flown by for me. I am definitely getting more and more comfortable with living in a different county and the huge differences that were so obvious when I first came are not as noticeable anymore. I no longer think it is strange to eat dinner at 9:30 at night and thankfully my stomach is getting used to it by now too. I can listen to a whole conversation without noticeably translating every word to English in my head. However, I still have some work to do when it comes to responding quickly. 

On Wednesday, Spain celebrated Columbus day, which meant that all the schools and most businesses were closed. It was a lot like our Independence Day. 

In the morning, we celebrated not having school by eating a huge breakfast. First, Isabel served us some American breakfast food: bacon and eggs. It was the first time I had something other than bread for breakfast at our house and it was great. I would have been content with just that, but then she made us fried bread and churros, a special Spanish treat. Of course, the churros and bread would not be complete without some sugar to add to it, and Isabel was not afraid to give us some. She melted a huge pot of chocolate and also gave us cinnamon and sugar to top it off. 

The night parade (from my balcony)

At night, there was a parade along the streets of Sevilla. I had one of the best views in the city because it passed right down our street. I was able to watch the parade from the comfort of my balcony while people below struggled to see what was happening. First, the band came with trumpets, drums, and tubas. After that, there was a huge golden altar and a lot of incense that ended up causing our whole bedroom to smell. 

On Saturday, Luke, Mark and I visited the Museum of Art and Customs. The museum was a little heavy on the "customs," end and had less of the "art," but there may have been more art in the area that was closed for remodeling. Most of the exhibits contained tools, furniture and clothes from the past. We spent the longest time looking at an exhibit that had replicas of rooms in a well-known Sevillan family's house. 

I spent most of Sunday with my intercambio, Nehemias. We went to his church to help set up for the service followed by getting coffee with one of his friends. His friend was from Mexico, so when we walked back to the church someone commented that the three of us made a very diverse group. 

Favorite Child

On Saturday, my "intercambio," Nehemías, invited me to a birthday party for one of his friends. At first, I was a little hesitant about this because I knew that Nehemías would be the only person I knew at this party, but I decided to go.

The birthday party was held at Nehemías' church, and I knew that I should probably show up a little late since that is the Spanish thing to do. Unfortunately, I did not show up quite late enough, so I ended up making it there a little bit before Nehemías did. Luckily, everyone at the birthday party was welcoming and I had the opportunity to practice a lot of Spanish, being the only English-speaker there.The party ended up being a really good time complete with as many hot dogs as I could eat and good conversation with Nehemías and his friends.

For Sunday's lunch, I was the only one home with Isabel so she decided to make me something special, paella. I have heard a lot about the legendary paella, a dish with vegetables, rice, and different types of meat, but this was my first time eating it.

When I told our professor about my special treatment (getting to eat paella) the next day, she taught us the phrase "ojito derecho," which literally means "right eye," but it is a phrase used for the favorite child. She said I must be the ojito derecho of us three guys. After this, I asked her if she had a ojito derecho between her two sons. I expected the obvious "I love both my children equally," but instead she quickly responded by saying her younger son was her favorite because he is around more often. Honesty is the best policy for Spaniards.

On Tuesday, I went back to the Hospital de Caridad for the service class. I was sick of playing dominoes, so I decided to bring along my "Uno" cards for a change. Only one guy wanted to learn, but it was still a success in my mind because I was able to explain the whole game in Spanish. While we were playing, he tried to tell me that he was only 56 years old, but I did not buy it for a minute.

Touring Toledo: Day 2

Day two of our Toledo trip was just as great. After a peaceful sleep without the loud sounds of the city, we began the day with the hotel breakfast. 

After eating toast for breakfast every day for the last month, I would have been happy with a normal hotel breakfast, but this hotel went above and beyond. There were so many options and I did not know where to begin. Coffee cakes, melons, yogurts, donuts, ham, all of the options looked so great. I decided to just go for it and stuff myself with as many great foods as I could and in the end, our table was filled with plates from everyone's successful meal. 

The Lords Supper, outside of the entrance 

Next, we headed to the cathedral of Toledo, about five minutes away from our hotel. The cathedral was obviously quite a bit smaller than the one in Sevilla, but seeing as I have not fully explored that one, this one was very impressive. Outside, there was a huge carving of the Lord's Supper. When we got inside, we learned that the cathedral was intentionally set up to resemble a cross. The whole area was dimly lit and we made our way from the bottom to the top. 

At the bottom, we were surrounded by more amazing stone carvings and an area for worship. Next, we moved to the middle where we saw enormous wooden seats for important members of the church. The seats also had carvings, mostly of mythological creatures that represented the evil that lies outside of life in the church. 

In the center was my favorite part of the cathedral, the altar. Behind where the priest stands, there were amazing golden figures that depicted several scenes from Jesus' life. It was hard to take it all in at once, but there were scenes all the way from his birth in the stable to his death on the cross at the top, near the ceiling. 

As we continued, we went into the room where important members of the church made decisions. This room was much brighter and it was covered in paintings of past cardinals of Toledo. In the room following, there was a huge mural on the ceiling along with about 20 paintings on the walls, most of which were by El Greco. 

As a whole, the trip to Toledo went really well. I got to see some breathtaking artwork in the form of architecture, paintings, sculptures, windmills, and most importantly breakfast foods. 

Touring Toledo: Day 1

The past week of class was exceptionally good. Why is that? We only had three days of class followed by an overnight trip to Toledo, a smaller city not far from Madrid. It took a long bus ride to get there, even longer considering a Spanish law that says we have to stop for at least 45 minutes on the way, but we made it by about 2 PM on Thursday.

Before entering the actual city, we stopped at the "Windmills of La Mancha," which are an important part of the famous story of Don Quixote. In the story, he fights the windmills believing them to be monsters. It was great to finally be in the countryside and the windmills were huge.

The first thing I noticed about Toledo when we arrived is that it was much hillier than Sevilla. For this reason, nobody was riding bikes and running was difficult to say the least.

When we got to the hotel the girls were all anxious to see who there new roommates would be for the night, but us three guys knew we would not be separated. When we first entered our room, we thought there was a problem with the power because none of the lights turned on. Luckily, we figured out that we had to put our hotel key in a special slot in order for them to work before asking the front desk. I am guessing they do this to save on electricity, since it is much more expensive in Spain.

After settling in, we went on our first tour to a church called Santo Tomé. The church was famous for its huge painting by El Greco, about 15 by 12 feet. The painting depicts a burial on earth while people in heaven are taking care of the body's spirit. One of the people in the painting is actually  El Greco himself and he also hid his son in the picture.

The courtyard in the monastery 

Next, we went to a monastery. There was a huge courtyard for the monks to pray along with a huge worship center. To most, the sanctuary would seem very fancy. However, it was actually considered dull and simple because there were not that many paintings or decorations. Nonetheless, it was still a huge room with amazing architecture.

After the tours, we were free to explore the city. As we explored, we found sword and knife shops around almost every corner. We soon found out that this was because Toledo is where all of the swords from "The Lord of the Rings" movies were crafted.

Night Race

A few weeks ago, I signed up for a road race mostly along the river and along the streets of Seville. Friday, it was finally time. It was my first night race and it was also one of the longest races I have ever ran, 12 kilometers. 

At 9:10 PM, Isabel was anxious about the fact that I had not left yet. I did not think this was a big deal but fifteen minutes later, when I arrived to the scene of the race, I realized why. Thousands of people were lined up at the starting line. There were huge groups of teams, all wearing matching running attire. There were people dressed up as cows, matadors, and guys dressed like girls. I had to try to get my way to the front of this pack before the gun went off. 

Unfortunately, I did not make it very far; there were simply too many people and nowhere to go so I settled for a very mediocre starting position. When the race started, I had to walk at first. This slowly progressed into a light jog until I finally had enough space to start weaving around people. I continued doing this for the first two miles of the race until I finally had enough room to run in a straight line at the proper pace. 

The Olympic stadium, where we finished the race

We ran along the river and it was the perfect time to run because everyone was out at this time on a Friday night. Fans were everywhere and it helped me stay positive. Although it was annoying starting so far back, it made it fun because I spent the entire race passing people. 

When we got toward the end of the race, there was Spanish rap music playing to pump me up. Finally, we got to the Olympic stadium, where we finished the race with a lap around the track. I finished in 44:39, which I was happy with considering all the people I had to weave around. 

Even though there was no entry fee , I still received a goodie bag that included a t-shirt, running shorts, and a medal. It was a great experience and my legs are still pretty sore. 

Loud Noises and Soft Voices

Crick, crick, crick, crick, crick, crick, crick. Imagine that sound, over and over, louder and louder. This is what we have had to deal with in our house over the last few nights because there is a cricket in the living room. It is no ordinary cricket, it is a cricket with an over-sized larynx that it is not afraid to use. Every morning, Isabel tells us that she could not sleep because of the grillo (cricket) and no matter how hard we try we cannot find it.

Other than the cricket, it has been a good week so far. On Monday, we started our second class. I thought it was going to be a literature class but I must have been mistaken because so far it has just been a continuation of our last class, grammar. Most of it has been review for me, which is nice but also makes it kind of boring.

On Tuesday, I went back to the nursing home as part of my service learning class. The nursing home is called "Hospital de Caridad." It was used as a hospital for a long time before it became a nursing home.  I will be going there every Tuesday to hang out with the guys and possibly help with feeding and dressing as well. For my first day there, I mostly played dominoes with three other guys and one spectator. One of the men kept calling me "joven," (young) every time he addressed me.

The courtyard of "Hosiptal de Caridad"

Like most older people, the men were kind of hard to understand because they spoke very quietly. The difference was that they spoke quietly in a language I am still learning. This made it really hard to understand several of the guys I talked to, but I am hoping to improve. I felt better when I helped push one man in a wheelchair to a store down the street. The owner of the store had to get really close to him and needed him to repeat himself several times to understand what he wanted.

Wednesday night, I went to "encuentro," our worship service. Mark got there ahead of time to practice with the band and he decided it would be funny to hide under the stage and pop out during the first song. What he was not planning on was a guest speaker before the singing started, so he ended up waiting under the stage fro about 30 minutes.

Three Views and a New Friend Too

On Saturday, Mark, Luke and I visited  one of Sevilla's newest attractions, "Las Setas." "Las setas" is actually a nickname which means "mushroom,"and it is appropriate because the giant wooden sculpture looks just like mushrooms from below. The word on the street is that most of the natives do not like las setas because it does not really fit in with the rest of the area that is filled with such rich history. The best part about las setas is that you can enjoy three very different views. 

View One: Ground Level

The first view of the sculpture was from ground level. Although I have already seen the giant "mushrooms" several times, it is still awesome to look at one of the largest wooden sculptures in the world. I am not usually a fan of modern art, but this is definitely an exception for me.

The next view of las setas has nothing to do with the sculpture itself but what the sculpture is actually meant for: the ancient Roman ruins below it. When the ruins were discovered, several artists offered their models for a sculpture that would protect and attract people to the ruins below. 

The ruins were awesome to see and it was hard to imagine just how old they had to be. Most of what we were looking at was in pretty bad shape, but you could still make out some pillars and a bath house too. Also, on one of the floors there was a mosaic design of Medusa, snakes and all. This design was probably my favorite part of the ruins since I am a fan of Greek mythology and it was great to see it actually come to life by seeing actual art honoring this story. 

View Two: The ruins below

The final view of las setas is from the top. The thee of us rode an elevator up and got to see a spectacular view of Sevilla. There were ramps all around the top which made it easy to see the city in all directions. 

View Three: From Atop

In our school program, we also had the opportunity to sign up for "intercambios," which is a program meant to set student up with local Spaniards who are interested in learning English. The people usually call the school if they are interested and are interviewed for safety purposes. For me, my first meeting with my intercambio was today. 

I met Nehemias at Mc Donald's, where we got to know each other. It was kind of like a blind date at first, which was a little weird, but the two of us had a great time learning about each other. Nehemias is the opposite of me in his language skills; he is able to speak English really well but has a hard time understanding whereas I could understand everything he said but could not always respond without making a lot of grammatical mistakes. 

Overall, I was really happy with my experience talking to Nehemias; I was really surprised how easy it was to communicate one on one with someone in a different language. We spoke in Spanish pretty much the whole time, so I will have to give him the opportunity to practice English more the next time we meet. 

Flaminco Dance

This past week was a busy one; between doing homework, working at my internship, and studying for our final grammar test, I was busy most of the week. On Friday, we had a written and oral test for grammar, which means we are finally moving to literature.

On Friday night, we had a guys night since most of the girls went to Portugal for the weekend. Mark, Luke, and I met up with two friends who we met at church. Both of them are from California and are studying in another program here. It is great to have two more guys to hang out with, bringing our total all the way up to five. The two also joined our prayer groups since their program is not Christian but they still wanted the opportunity to worship.

 The five of us went to a small pizza place and shared some really tasty pizza. The owner of the shop was nice too and he loved telling us about a typical Spanish passion, fútbol. There are two fútbol teams here in Sevilla, so there are plenty of opportunities for the Spaniards to debate on which is the better team.  

After the pizza, we went to a flamenco bar where I finally got to see the famous dancing that I have heard about over and over since I got here. The room was packed with people all gathered around a small stage with three people: a singer, a guitar player and, most importantly, a dancer.

The dance was impressive and unique at the same time. The woman did not look like she was enjoying herself since she did not smile at all, but I am guessing it is part of the dance style to look professional. The most impressive part of the dance was that her dance shoes were more like high heels. Despite the uncomfortable shoes, she was able to spin, stomp, and swirl quickly and to the beat of the song too, for the most part.

I had another first on Friday night too; for the first time I witnessed a sleepwalker. Luke, whom I share a room with, warned me that this would happen but it was still a little scary when he woke me up by yelling followed by standing right next to my bed. On the bright side, he spoke in Spanish while he was walking, so his mind is obviously getting used to the new language. 

Weekend in Sevilla

I spent this weekend in Sevilla, but it was still far from a boring one. On Saturday, we went to the Plaza de España, a beautiful building that we visited  during our photo scavenger hunt, but the time was much too brief for such an awesome building.

Unlike our last time there, the fountain was actually on which added a lot of aesthetic appeal. After this, we climbed the stairs and looked at it from below. Like always, there were a lot of people in boats along the moat and others enjoying the designs of the huge building. 

After our trip to the plaza, we went to one of our leader's apartment and watched a movie on her roof, which was great because we could see the cathedral in the distance along with the rest of Sevilla, which provided the perfect atmosphere for a perfect night. 

Sunday, however, was not peaceful due to one thing: the bull fight. It was one of the last fights of the season and although seeing bulls die is definitely not something I thought I would enjoy, I felt like I had to experience it seeing as how I am in Spain. 

The fight started out with a procession with all the matadors along with some dressed-up horses. After this, the bloody battle began. Each bull went through the same stages, each one meant to make it angrier and weaker. 

Plaza de Toros with my new bull shirt

During the first stage, about six men waved pink drapes at them from different spots. When the bull came running at them, hid behind a gate where the bull could not reach them until it went on to its next target. 

Next, a man on a horse entered the ring. He called the bull over and it charged at the horse and usually stabbed it with its horns before the man could get the bull away with his spear. The third bull that we saw actually ended up charging so hard that the horse fell over along with the man on top of it. However, the man got back on his horse (corny, but I had to say it, it was too perfect) and trotted away while the other men redirected the bull. 

After this, it got worse for the bull. Three men with what looked like very large crochet needles took turns calling the bull over and quickly sticking them in the bull before running away as fast as they could. Now the bull was weak enough for one-on-one combat. 

The matador then took out his red drape and wore the bull out by having it continually charge at his drape. Each time, it inches away from running right into the matador but he did not seem to think they were close calls.

Finally, after the bull seemed worn out, he put the final sword in the bull and the horses were called out to drag the body away. 

The most "exciting" part of the night was when bull number four actually sent the first guy he encountered into the air and trampled him a little before getting called over by someone else. It was crazy to see, but the man seemed fine and continued fighting as soon as he stood up. 

In the end, they killed six bulls, something that was disturbing to watch every time. I pretty much walked out of the ring with the feeling I expected, it was sad but I was still glad that I experienced it one time. 

Bingo With the Abuelos

This week went by quickly, mostly because I had a lot of school work to do. On Wednesday, we had our first test already so I was busy studying for that in the begining of the week. I did some of my studying by the river, where I saw a lot of interesting people who distracted me from studying. In Sevilla, people rarely put leashes on their dogs so I got to see a lot of people struggle to pull their dogs apart while walking along the river.

I also got an internship at one of the many tourist agencies. The agency mostly works with students studying abroad and plans trips to nearby cities. They told me that I would have several different tasks, but this week they were busy with a trip to Portugal this upcoming weekend, so I mostly helped them get ready for that.

On Wednesday, I went to the program´s church service again and I was happy to see that there were two new males there. Sunday, we met two other guys from California at our church, and we invited them to the service. They were also interested in some of our other programs, so our numbers are growing slowly.

Thursday afternoon, our group had a service project; we played bingo at a nursing home near our school. All of the residents at the nursing home were guys, so they were mostly interested in all of our girls. One guy in particular wanted an individual picture with every single girl. After that was over, I forced him to take one with me too.

When we brought the bingo sets out, one guy was particularly excited and he went to the table as fast as he could. The rest of the guys did not seem that excited at first, but once we began the first round, several guys migrated from the television to the bingo table.

Sadly, I did not win any rounds of bingo. However, I did get to practice my Spanish a lot with people who did not necessarily know we were learning Spanish and talked at their normal rate instead of slowing down for us. I am planning to return to the nursing home on Monday for my service learning class so hopefully I will be remembered.

Un Fin de Semana Relejante (A Relaxing Weekend)

On Saturday, nearly all 28 of the students in our program bought a bus ticket to Madalascañas, a beach about an hour away. The bus station is only about a ten minute walk from my house, but a little further for most people.

Image from lincolnbrody.wordpress.com

About 100 feet away from the coast of the beach, there was what looked like a huge rock. We spent a lot of the  time climbing up the rock, getting cut by the many barnacles along the way, and jumping from the top of it. When we first got there, it was hard to climb to the top because the tide was low. Therefore, the three men had to help most of the girls who wanted to get up by pulling them. However, when the tide got higher, it was much easier to reach the ledge and pull yourself to the top. 

After we got tired of the rock, we dug a huge hole which ended up being a play area for several Spanish children who were lucky enough to find it. 

When we returned to our house, we told Isabel about our experience with the rock. She informed us that it was actually an upside down watch tower and it was illegal to jump from it, so we will not be doing that again. 

When we got to the dinner table there were about ten pairs of little eyes staring at us because we were having shrimp. The shrimp were huge, and Isabel told us that children always complain and will not eat them because they have eyes. Her response to this is that turkeys and cows have eyes too, and they are still willing to eat those. 

For my run on Sunday morning, I decided I wanted to go to the nearby city. I didn't see any way to get to it except through a field, where I  saw  some trailers, one of which had three dogs. I was pretty far away from these dogs, but they still ended up seeing me. First, they started a deep bark and then I saw them heading toward me so I started going faster. Once they got on the same trail as me I put it into high gear, but these were not exactly dogs you could run away from; they were huge greyhounds.

I kept running and every time I looked back, they were much closer. I looked for a weapon but there was nothing. I panicked and screamed pretty loud, but it was still a manly scream. 

The dogs cornered me and growled but they did not attack. I slowly walked away and they just glared at me. Once I was far enough away, I caught my breath and decided I would not be going that way to run ever again. 

After this intense morning, however, Sunday was peaceful. I went to church where I understood a lot more than last week. It is awesome to see how much my listening skills have improved after only a week; I am looking forward to getting even better though.

Crashing Córdoba

Instead having regular class on Friday, the group took a day trip to Córdoba, a city about two hours northeast of Sevilla.

When we first arrived at the city, the professor gave us headphones and a headset linked to her microphone so we could hear her talking about what we were seeing if we were too far away. If anyone had any doubt about whether or not we were tourists, it was gone after we put these on. 

To begin, we stepped into a strange combination of a building- a mosque with a cathedral in the middle of it. The mosque was built during the Islamic conquest of the area. When the Spanish reclaimed it, they decided to build the cathedral in the middle of it instead of tear it down. This was definitely a good decision because the mosque was breathtaking. 

When we first entered the mosque, it was hard to know where to look first. The room was dimly lit with large red and white striped arches everywhere. There were also designs lining the walls and paintings that had different scenes from the Koran. Our professor told us about all the history behind the beautiful room before we moved on to the cathedral in the middle. 

The arches in the mosque

The cathedral was  well-lit in contrast to the darker mosque. Gold lined the area where the priest spoke and  huge pipes for the organ came out of both sides. Paintings the size of garage doors were in the back, hung up all the way up the enormous wall. There were too many hand-crafted designs to count, especially on the ceiling. There were seats for the clergy that were crafted out of wood along with pews for the congregation to sit. 

After our time in the cathedral/mosque we went to ancient worship center of yet another religion, a Jewish synagogue. Here, we had a very animated tour guide. He said we could ask him any question we wanted as long as it was not about politics. He then added that he only talked about politics if he had a cerveza (beer). 

The guide showed us around both the synagogue and the ancient house that surrounded it. It was not fancy, but it was still great to hear the history behind it. I was able to understand a lot more of this tour because there was not as much background noise and therefore I did not get distracted while translating in my head. This tour ended with the guide playing an old Jewish song on the drum while another man played the violin.

Fútobol and a lot of Ice Cream

Wednesday and Thursday were busy and fun-filled days. After class on Wednesday, we had a program called "Encuentro," a bilingual worship service at the same church I attended on Sunday. Some of the songs were in English, others were in Spanish and some were both. It was nice to worship in our native tongue for a change as well as practice more Spanish.

After "Encuentro," Mark and I went to a play soccer with some guys who invited us a few days before. They claimed that it would be a laid back game, but when we got there it looked like a pretty intense match. There were eight guys, most of whom were native Spaniards.After I joined the game, they slowed  down, but I still managed to embarrass myself quite a few times with my inferior soccer skills. 

Isabel, our Señora, continues to make us laugh daily. During Wednesday's lunch, she took out a jar from the refrigerator and handed it to me. "Un hombre fuerte," she said, (which means " a strong man') and motioned for me to open it. 

Thursday night was exciting as well. We had "Noche de Chicos," (guys night) which was funny because when it was originally planned I am sure they expected more than three guys. For guy's night, Katie, the program director, took us out to eat for ice cream and said we could get any size we wanted. Mark took this very seriously and ordered a huge banana split. 

When we finished the ice cream, we rented a boat and rode it along the river. I took the lazy  man's seat and got to sit while the other guys paddled the boat, which was perfectly fine with me. We had an hour to paddle down the river and back. The only thing that disturbed our peaceful ride was the big tour boats that honked at us and sent some big waves our way. 

When we got in our fill of man time, the girls joined us for going out to dinner with our tour guides from last week. We got a few large plates to share along with our own personal plates. Personally, I went with the swordfish which ended up being a great choice and one of what I am sure to be many experiences with seafood here.

Next, we went out for frozen yogurt. I do not think our tour guide knew that us guys had already went out for ice cream before, but we were not about to turn down free frozen yogurt. I justified my second trip in only a few hours by ordering kiwi as one of the toppings,  a healthy addition to the chocolate sauce and candies that went along with it.

Class Time

Monday and Tuesday were my first two days of class. I am in the intermediate class along with four other students including my roommate, Mark. During the orientation, we had to sign a contract that said we would not speak any English while at the school, forcing us to use Spanish even if we do not know how to say something. Personally, I like this because we learn to work around words that we can not remember or do not know.

Class here reminds me a lot of elementary school because we have the same teacher for both classes in the same classroom. Our teacher's name is Ana Maria, which is easy for me to remember because it is the same name as my cat. 

My classes only last from 10-1:30 every day, giving me more free time than I have had in a very long time. On Monday, I used this time to go to a coffee shop with some other students. The atmosphere in Spain much more relaxed; when people go out for dinner or to the cafe, they typically stay there for a couple hours, talking with one another, instead of leaving once their food is gone. 

I made a friend while running on Tuesday morning. I planned to do a workout, but a few minutes into picking up my pace, I passed another runner. He started asking me questions when I ran past him, so I decided to let him catch up and talk with him instead of continuing my workout. The combination of the man's deep breaths in between words and my lack of knowing Spanish perfectly made it hard to understand him, but it was still exciting to have a running partner for a little while. 

On Tuesday night, after an extra long siesta, I practiced my Spanish with Mark and Luke. We did this by going through most of our Facebook pictures and describing them in Spanish. It ended up being a great way to learn about one another along with using Spanish. 

A Tiny Church and a Huge one

Sunday was my first time at a Spanish church service. Most of the Presbyterian churches in Spain are very small and this one was no different. The church only had one room and it was filled with about 50 people.

We started by singing several songs, most of which were the same songs we have in English. The words were mostly the same with a few changes so they would still rhyme and flow together. I was excited to know exactly what I was singing the whole time instead of guessing. 

After each song, there was a list of 100 songs on the screen. For the first few songs, we went down the list and I was terrified that we were going to sing all 100 of these songs. However, I finally noticed that people were shouting out numbers after every song and giving requests. 

To my pleasure, I could understand most of what the pastor was saying during the sermon as long as I focused completely. The second I stopped trying to translate in my head, I had to wait for the next point to begin.  

Later that day, we were able to go into part of the cathedral. First, we went into a large room that was open to anyone. All around there were figurines in different scenes from Jesus' life. The ceilings were very high, like in all cathedrals, and they had designs everywhere. In the front, there was an altar with Mary sitting on a throne with baby Jesus on her lap.  

After this, we were going to go into the other rooms and outside tower but we did not know that we needed our passports for a $10 discount so we decided to save it for another time.