sábado, 26 de noviembre de 2011

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.

lunes, 21 de noviembre de 2011

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. 

domingo, 13 de noviembre de 2011

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. 


domingo, 6 de noviembre de 2011

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.

martes, 1 de noviembre de 2011

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.