¡Clases!

Now that orientation is over, we're starting our real classes. After spending a ridiculous amount of time freaking out and trying to make sense of my schedule I think I've figured out more or less what I'm taking (though this could change drastically in the next few weeks.) We have 3 types of courses we can take on the program. First, our program seminars. These are just for the kids on my program and they tend to be classes of about 10-15 students. I'm taking two of these; Español para Negocios (Spanish for business) and Democracia y Dictadura en España en el Siglo XX (Democracy and Dictatorship in 20th Century Spain--though you probably could have figured that out.) The second type is "Cursos concertados." These are taught by Universidad de Sevilla professors specifically for foreign students so I'll be with kids from my program as well as all other study abroad programs in Sevilla. I'm taking one of these, Cine Español Contemporáneo (I won't even bother translating) which is one of the most popular courses apparently. I've really enjoyed watcing Spanish films in high school and NU classes, so hopefully I'll get to see more great movies. Finally, Northwestern demands that we take one regular university class, so I'll be mixed in with all the Spanish students. I'm planning on taking Geografía Humana y Demografía which seems to be kind of a mix of an anthropology and sociology class. The content seems really interesting--I hope I'll be able to keep up!

Assuming this all pans out, I think I'll be able to squeeze in a couple extracurricular activities too. My professor for Español para Negocios teaches English at a local grade school and offers "internships" to students who spend 2 hours a week assisting in an English classroom. Maybe it's because I miss being a camp counselor, but I think it'd be so much fun to work with kids here and 2 hours a week is definitely doable. The Sweet Briar office is also trying to coordinate cooking and flamenco classes for us--both of which I'd be interested in if I have time. If not, Gloria has said she will teach me to cook so no matter what when I get back you all have to come over so I can make you delicious Spanish food!

This should keep me pretty busy (especially since most of this takes place Monday-Wednesday and I have long weekends of traveling!) but I'm excited to really settle into a normal routine. I already feel very at home in my apartment and every day I become more familiar with the city, but I think taking classes every week and getting to know more Sevillanos will make me feel more established here and less like I'm just on a long, awesome vacation. Not that I'm not super excited for all the actual vacations! Emily, Marissa and I sat down earlier this week and made a list of the things we want to see in Paris and lately I can't put my guidebooks down. This weekend is our last program retreat for a while--we're going Saturday to Chiclana, this beach town southwest of here and spending the night. Should be nice and relaxing--not that life here (aside from my class-selection catastrophe) is that stressful. At all. :)

¡Besos y abrazos!

Más churros, por favor...

Alright, to prove I have been doing things other than planning trips and taking siestas here are some photos.

These are from Itálica, the over 2000 year old Roman ruins we saw a couple of weeks ago. The mosiacs were the floors of houses. It's hard to see but the second one is of the Roman gods that the days of the week are named after. Also, the amphitheatre which was the 3rd largest in the empire, seating about 25,000.

Next, here are some of my favorites from la Catedral. The box being carried by the 4 statues supposedly contains Christopher Columbus's remains. If I understood our guide correctly, his remains were first buried somewhere else in Sevilla, the moved to Santo Domingo in what was a Spanish colony but is now the Dominican Republic. When the Dominican Republic was no longer under Spanish control, they were moved to Cuba. When Spain lost control of Cuba, they were returned to Sevilla to the cathedral. Not surprisingly, there is speculation that somewhere in the shuffle, Colombus's real remains were lost or stolen and replaced. Still, it's a cool display--the four statues represent the kings of Castilla, Aragon, Navarra and León who formed the united Spanish kingdom after the Reconquista. Bored yet?

This is La Giralda, the cathedral's bell tower. We climbed up it after our tour and interestingly...there are no stairs. There are 34 (rather steep!) ramps, and no other way to get to the top. Apparently, it's because back in it's earliest days as a mosque, the Arab armies would ride their horses to the top to use the tower as a look-out point. Unfortunately it was pretty cloudy, but the views were still worth sore quads.

This last one is from Carmona; another small city with Roman ruins. We saw a pretty cool Necropolis but if I'm being honest, the highlight of the excursion was definitely walking through the cute modern part of the city and eating their famous churros with hot chocolate for dipping. The program bought a TON and each table got a whole big plate of them...but I think I could have gone on eating them for hours. Really, it's a miracle we made it to the top of this building.

Well that's enough for now. We finish our orientation courses tomorrow and start our regular classes next week. I'll let you all know what I'm taking as soon as I do. On Saturday we're going to Jerez and Cadiz for the day to visit a bodega and I'm not sure what else. Supposed to be very pretty though.

Hasta luego, queridos!

Viajes!

Ok, I'm too lazy for pictures right now. I just spent almost two days agonizing over travel plans and I think I finally have everything set. After a whole lot of miscommunication with travel sites (in two different languages!), I have my tickets.

Here's the plan:

October 4th-7th: Paris with a bunch of kids on my program and hopefully meeting up with some friends studying in France.
October 11th-14th: Dublin; meeting Christine and Jackie!
October 26th-27th: Granada; overnight trip with our program.
November 1st-4th: Morocco with some kids from my program through a company that plans Morocoo trips for students.
November 8th-11th: Barcelona with my parents, Jackie, Christine and anyone else who feels like joining!
November 15th-18th: Prague to visit Laura with Jackie and maybe some others.

That's what I've got for now; I still wanna spend some weekends in Sevilla maybe doing day or overnight trips around Spain. I might plan one more trip for the weekend before I leave in December but I'm holding off on that for a while. It's gonna be crazy but I'm super excited. Can't wait to visit people/have people visit me--I'm really enjoying meeting people here and getting to know the kids on my program better but it's going to be so nice to see familiar faces when I'm so far from home. If anyone wants to meet up or has any suggestions for things I must do or see please let me know!

Vamos a la playa...

Hola!

I don't have too much exciting to tell from these last few days...but I do feel like I'm getting used to it here. We made it to the beach Sunday after a bit of adventure. We were told the train would drop us off right by the beach but that was not the case. We walked around this tiny little town for a while, asking people who would point us in different directions, and finally found the tourism office where they showed us the bus we needed to take. It worked out well though, because it was extremely cloudy and a little chilly right up until we arrived when all of a sudden the sun came out and it was perfect beach weather. The beaches here are really pretty. There was a little boardwalk with restaurants and ice cream shops and cafes. Also, the sand feels different here; I think it's finer than I'm used to. Oh, I only got a little bit sunburned!

Other than that I've been going to orientation classes and continuing to explore Sevilla. Today we took a tour of La Catedral (I'll post pics soon) which was really interesting--Christopher Colombus's remains are there (supposedly--long story, I'll tell it with the pics.) We walk a lot here but I absolutely love it. When I've got some time to kill I'll just pick a direction I haven't been yet and walk for an hour or so, sometimes stopping to buy a Coca-Cola light (that's what they call Diet Coke here) or a candy bar or something. By the way, I've all but kicked my Diet Coke addiction out of necessity since Gloria doesn't keep soda in the house and I haven't asked yet if I can buy some and keep it in the fridge. I'm down to about one a day and I think I've had days here where I haven't even had one! I do need my coffee in the morning and sometimes afternoon though.

We went out earlier this week to this horribly touristy "American" bar. It's decked out in Coca-Cola signs and license plates and they blast everything from Bon Jovi to Usher. It's pretty much every American stereotype in one convenient location--but I have to admit it did feel kind of familiar and fun. Still, I'm determined to have more authentic Sevillano experiences, even if that means hauling my lazy ass out to a discoteca til 4am. (Don't worry Mom and Dad, not very often!)

I'm still figuring out classes and traveling but I should have some definitive plans by this weekend. I've figured out I can't do it all--but I already know I'm falling in love with Spain and Europe. So I guess anything I can't fit in these next 3 months I'll just have to come back and do, right? :)

Pictures and Cathedral stories soon!

Algunas fótos

So finally here are some of my pictures...I keep forgetting to charge my camera batteries so I've missed several good photo ops so far. This should give you an idea but I'll probably be posting more complete photo albums on Snapfish or Webshots or Facebook...I haven't decided yet.



Here is the view from the roof of our hotel in Madrid:

This is the royal palace of Madrid that now serves as a museum and they occasionally host state dinners. Really pretty and ornate inside but I wasn't sure if we were allowed to take pictures.

Here is the other Lily!

This is La Catedral in Sevilla. We're taking a tour of it next Thursday.

These are from El Real Alcazar. It's a group of palaces and gardens originally built by a Catholic king about 500 years ago but the architecture is very Islamic-influenced and there are Arabic words inscribed over the entrance. Kings have added to it over the years and it's still where the current royal family stays when they are in Sevilla.




El Alcazar is my favorite place we've toured so far but I'm eager to see the inside of the Cathedral.

This weekend has been fun so far. I'm glad we're in classes because I need to be forced to speak and improve my Spanish but I'm grateful for the free time. Yesterday we went to a big mall that could have been any mall in the United States except it had a big outdoor plaza in the middle with giant trampolines. We have to see a Spanish movie for class so we saw a "dark comedy" called Club de los Suicidas, a take off on the Robert Louis Stevenson book, The Suicide Club. I was glad I could actually follow the movie, but it was mostly dark and strange and not so much a comedy. Maybe some of the jokes were lost on us, though I really don't think so.

Today we went to Italica, where there are ruins of the first Roman city built in Spain. I'll take someone else's pictures when they put them up--the ampitheatre was definitely worth seeing. Apparently they used some shots of it for the movie Gladiator! I'll probably spend the rest of today figuring out what classes I want to take when our orientation classes are over and maybe even investigating some possible weekend trips. Tomorrow we're going to the beach during the day. It's been so hot here all I really feel like doing during the days is lying around so it'll be nice to get some color too--I might be the palest person in southern Spain.

Adios for now!

una ciudad muy bonita!

Sevilla is absolutely beautiful! It's also completely unlike any city I've ever been to. There are so many parks and plazas with amazing architecture and lots of open space for people to walk and sit and relax. The streets are sort of windy and confusing but they give the city a very old European feel. That being said, there are plenty of modern shops (including more than one Starbucks) and restaurants. I promise I'll figure out pictures soon so you can see for yourself--it's kind of hard to explain. The lifestyle here is definitely going to take a little getting used to. The night life is a very important part of the culture of Sevilla--especially for younger people--and they go out very late! I've always been a night owl and I manage on relatively little sleep often but for some reason her I'm totally thrown off.

We usually have to either go to class or meet for a tour around 9:30 or 10 in the morning. My señora works early in the morning during the week and is gone when I wake up so I make some toast and coffee or something before heading out. I get back from class around 1:00 pm and we eat lunch around 2:30. Then there is time to rest or take a siesta or walk around but so far most of us having needed the siestas! We'll sometimes meet up around 6pm to grab a soda or something (later today we're going shopping!) and then go back to our homes for dinner . My señora likes to eat around 8:30 or 9pm which is earlier than some others. Then we have some time before going out. For Sevillanos, the prime time for going out seems to be about 1:30-2:00am and they go home around 4:00am or even later. This is what I'll need to get used to--staying out til 4am and then waking up at 8am for classes? It does seem like a lot of people sleep almost as much during siesta as they do at night. I'm sure I'll adjust and find a routine that works for me, but right now it's a bit disorienting.

Last night we went out around 11:30 in search of icecream and a relatively relaxing night. The ice cream shops closed by the time we got to them but our program assistant, Jaione, a grad student who did the program a few years ago, met up with us and took us to a really cool bar called la Carboneria. It's like a cave inside and they have live flamenco every night from 11-midnight which is really cool. We caught the very end of it but I definitely plan on going back. There was also a nice patio outside where we were able to sit and talk and have a low-key night, which was what we were looking for.

We started orientation classes today which I'm thankful for. It's nice to have some structure and the JYS staff is really helpful and doing everything they can to make sure we have a great experience. And my Spanish definitely needs work so the classes should help a lot.

I'm going to get ready for lunch...sorry this was a bit rambly. Pictures soon!
Hasta luego!

Estoy aquí!

Hola!

So we arrived in Sevilla today and were immediately taken to our homes by our señoras. The woman I'm living with is named Gloria. She is very nice and actually speaks a little bit of English because her daughter lives in the U.S. now. I told her my Spanish needs some improving and she said we can help each other. Her apartment is very nice and I'm told were close to the university and the center of the city though I haven't actually seen much of it--I'm hoping to explore later today. And here's a crazy coincidence: Gloria has a cat named Lily!

I'm eager to get settled in here and start to get a feel for Sevilla. Madrid was a lot of fun but it felt like a field trip where everyone was constantly battling jetlag. I did see some incredible art at The Prado and the Reina Sofia museums--Picasso's Guernica is so different up close than it looks in textbooks! We also toured El Palacio Real--a ridiculously ornate palace that no one lives in anymore. I'm sure there was plenty we missed in Madrid but they kept us pretty busy(somehow our meals took about as long as museum tours!) and we were probably too tired to handle much else.

I'm going to start unpacking now and hopefully get out into Sevilla for a bit before dinner. I should have some pictures from Madrid up pretty soon and my first impressions of the city.

Hasta luego!