finishing up the weekend and my first day of class

so yes, now that everyone has learned about bullfighting in spain, i supposed i can continue on and talk about the rest of my weekend.

after the bullfight, chelsea and i walked back to the center of town with our friend, saxon. we then found this really great italian restaurant right near the center! the dinner was FABULOUS! we had bruschette (my favorite!), and then i had a gorgonzola gnocchi that was absolutely to die for (even if the creamy pasta sauce did make me sick later in the evening... it was still totally worth it!). i really enjoy spanish dinners. we went into the restaurant right when it opened for dinner (9:00 pm), and we were seriously the only people in there. by 10:30, when we left, every table was full! it´s so nice to sit and linger at the dinner table. i love feeling like there´s never a rush here in spain...

after absolutely gorging ourselves on italian food, we decided that it was only appropriate to get ice cream! as we made our way across the center of town, we came across this large, outdoor art display. the display features dozens of large black-and-white pictures depicting various flamenco-related scenes. the art was installed during our second week here in town, and chelsea and i walk past it every day on our way to the center. for a while, i´ve joked about conducting a photo shoot with the rather interesting pieces of art, and we decided that friday night was the perfect night to do it! so we proceeded to take pictures of the three of us in various combinations with most of the photos (we didn´t bother with the boring and non-dyanmic photos). it was pretty interesting and a lot of fun! we gathered an audience as we moved from picture to picture, and some other tourists were so delighted with our antics that they begin to take our picture too! it was very interesting! we had lots of people laughing and clapping each time we´d strike our decided pose. needless to say, i enjoyed myself immensely! after the photo shoot and the ice cream, chelsea and i walked saxon home (she lives in our barrio, though about 1.5 or 2 miles away), and the walk was nice. it´s amazing how many people are out and about on the streets at 1:00 in the morning. it doesn´t even feel dangerous or scary at all, because there are so many people around.

pictures from our photo shoot:

i´m not sure why this particular flamenco dancer has mickey mouse ears, but it looks as though she really doesn´t mind...

this is one of my favorite posters. who on EARTH sports a giant black bow with so much pride?

the three of us (saxon, me and chelsea) striking poses from dance class. we ran into some tourists from pennslyvania who appreciated our friday night activity and offered to capture a pic of us all.

i think this woman looks like she wants to eat my soul... what do you think?

after our fabulous photo shoot, chelsea and i got home and fell into bed. saturday morning, we woke up to pouring rain! it was a bit of a disappointment, as we had previously planned on heading over to cádiz (a local beach town). those plans were obviously cancelled in light of the rain. after lazing around the house for a while, we finally donned our rain jackets, grabbed our umbrellas, and decided to make the most of it by meeting up with saxon and heading to the local shopping mall! it was my first time inside the shopping mall, and it was pretty interesting. some of the fashions in spain are pretty ridiculous, and some are absolutely WONDERFUL! the color of the season this fall is purple--my weakness--and i definitely enjoyed the indoor romp. i walked away from the mall with four shirts, a pair of purple skinny jeans (we´ll see if those don´t get returned... they´re very me and highly flamboyant...), and a pair of gladiator sandals. in addition to the shopping part of the mall, the mall houses a large movie theater with more than 20 screens. we decided to go see a spanish movie, and we chose the movie los girasoles ciegos (the blind sunflowers). the movie was a dramatic and powerful film about a family living in spain during the aftermath of the spanish civil war. i especially enjoyed the movie, because it touched on the life of a woman during the franco era, when women´s freedoms were severely restricted. the movie has been accepted to represent spain in the foreign film genre of this year´s academy awards. if you get a chance, check it out. it´s highly interesting.

though the film was great, my favorite part of the whole experience was the fact that i could understand 90% of everything SAID in the movie! this is a huge accomplishment, as the movie had no subtitles. just goes to show that i´m actually learning something in spain and that my language skills are actually developing... i mean, that is the whole point for this trip, so i´m thrilled!

sunday was another rainy day, and chelsea and i spent almost the entire day lazing around the house. we magically received the internet that day, so i spent some time posting pictures of my adventures on facebook (check them out if you have a chance!). we ate a long lunch with rosario and talked about our travel plans and our spanish experience. rosario is seriously so sweet! she´s a wonderful woman who has definitely gone above and beyond in her care for chelsea and me. not only does she clean our rooms, cook us food, and do our laundry, she straightens everything (even though it is not specified in her contract), makes us the most DELICIOUS meals while keeping in mind my weird dietary needs, and she even irons our underwear! i seriously don´t know what i´m going to do when i have to go back to the states and take care of myself! it´s going to be rough!

after lunch, chelsea and i actually went for a jog (if you know me, this is probably the most staggering and surprising information you´ve read in my entire blog). it was surprisingly refreshing, as the weather was cool and a light rain kept me from getting too disgusting. i think we´re going to try and make it a ritual to run three times a week... we´ll see how i fare. tonight is supposed to be night number two...

yesterday was a nice day of sunshine. now that my new schedule has commenced, i´m finding myself with a lot more extra time to explore and enjoy the city. i slept in yesterday until 9:30 (which isn´t really late, but considering my average monday started at 6:55, it felt wonderful!). i met chelsea in the center (she unfortunately has class at 8:45 every school day...) and we walked over the parque maria luisa (maria luisa park) in order to explore. we walked in to the park to find that the park is hosting a large feria de nacions (international fair, so to speak) full with different boths selling artisan artifacts and food. we wandered around the fair for a while. some were very cool--booths from senegal, india, siam (currently thailand, i believe), peru, argentina, and other countries. however, some booths were less than authentic. we ran across one booth sporting an odd assortment of wishing fairies and curses designed for different zodiac signs. additionally, i accidentally happened upon some pornographic keychains, which were incredibly shocking and definitely not culturally significant to any country (at least, not one that i am aware of). after examining a love potion and becoming dizzy from the weird scent of a rainbow of incense sticks, chelsea and i debated for a while about what country this booth represented. the conclusion: it´s just out of this world (ha--punny).

we returned home from the fair with the idea of returning on wednesday (they have a greek food booth that i am anxious to try), we relaxed for a while before eating lunch with rosario. we returned to the center around 4:00--chelsea for dance class and me to write in my blog. at 5:00, i had my first class--spanish art history. the class is full with about 17 girls (yep, no boys interested in art). the professor seemed very kind and knowledgable, and the syllabus wasn´t overwhelming (even though i do have a 10 page paper due at the end of the semester), so i think i will be fine. class ended a little bit early, and then i went to my second class--spain during the franco era. this class was interesting, as it contains several people with incredibly strong (and varied) political convictions. the first hour of the class was spent debating the fine points of our professor´s assertions, which is fine for the first 15 minutes. the last 45, however, were somewhat mind-numbing and ridiculous. despite a rough first day, i am still excited about that class. i am interesting in learning how franco gained and maintained power in spain for 40 years while the rest of europe transitioned away from nationalist or fascist dictatorships. class ended early, and i was able to make it home by 9:30 (when class is actually scheduled to end...) i´m not really looking forward to being out until 10:00 pm every night, but it is a small price to pay not to wake up early or have class on tuesdays or thursdays. i´m sure i´ll pull through.

i´m coming up to the official one-month mark of my time in spain. really, i like it quite a lot. i have seen some very awesome things here, and some incredibly weird ones. chelsea and i were recounting stories last night, and it´s funny to think of how different spain is. for example: last night, while riding the bus home from school, i was looking out the window. at a stoplight, i saw a couple kissing each other quite passionately. to my shock, i watched at the couple moved from first base to third base, all while standing out in a very public place on a very public street corner! it was incredibly interesting, and not something i´m sure i´d ever see in the united states. another example: one day, chelsea and i were walking around plaza nueva when i saw a woman wearing a t-shirt dress. the odd thing about this t-shirt dress was that i actually think it was her husband or boyfriend´s t-shirt, because it BARELY covered her butt! in fact, a breeze caught the tails of the shirt (which don´t button because they are meant to be tucked in), and i definitely caught a glimpse of some things i really didn´t want to see. suffice to say, spain is delightful though incredibly quirky. i can´t wait to see what other strange and interesting things happen while i´m here. i´ll try to post the best anecdotes in my blog without forgetting...

speaking of my blog, thanks to everyone who has been reading and commenting. i really appreciate you taking the time to not only read this thing but actually comment. it´s amazing how isolated you can feel in another country! blog comments help me feel a little bit more connected with people from home, so if you read and feel like it, comment :)

alright, i´m off to do homework (boo!)... until a later time!

-m

and now, about the bullfight

this past weekend was so much fun and incredibly relaxing! friday afternoon, i made the final class switches with the academic director here at the center and it is official: the only class i have on tuesdays and thursdays is dance class. yay! that means more time to relax, explore, and enjoy being in spain and NOT in the classroom. i´m pretty delighted with my decision.

before my meeting with the academic director, rachel, sophie, chelsea, and i went to this lovely little juice bar called bliss. it´s very close to school and has amazing crepes and all fresh-squeezed juices. i´m pretty sure we each fell in love a little bit! it was so nice to kick back and celebrate the end of the intensive period. i was so ready for it to be over, too! sitting in a classroom for 3 hours is just too hard. people need to move and breathe--especially when they are somewhere as alive and wonderful as spain! needless to say, the celebration was great, and i will definitely go back for bliss when i need a crepes pick-me-up! after snacking at bliss, chelsea and i walked down calle sierpes in search of a new pair of sandals. the one pair of flip-flops that i brought with me completely broke on friday--it was very upsetting! fortunately, i found some really cute ones on sale and spent a little while enjoying the shopping and the atmosphere down on calle sierpes. i definitely think that it is one of my favorite places in sevilla.

after returning home, chelsea and i ate lunch and then took a lovely spanish siesta. we woke up in time to get ready and grab our cameras for the bullfight! bullfights in sevilla are very important and historic traditions. the plaza de toros de la maestranza (bullfighting ring in sevilla) is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful and important bullfighting rings in the world. it seats upwards of 12,000 people, and tickets can cost as much as $400 or $500 for an important match. we, being the poor american students we are, did not pay that much. in fact, we only paid about $25 and went to a novillada instead of a full on corrida. a novillada is a bullfight for professional matadores who are still making a name for themselves. a corrida is a bullfight with famous, well-respected matadores. here in spain, matadores are like rockstars or famous actors--they make lots of money, are frequently stalked by the papparazzi, and have torrid love affairs with spain´s most beautiful and wealthy women. not a day goes by when a matador doesn´t pop up during the lunchtime gossip news (which we watch daily with our host mom). anyways, even though the novillada has younger, less experienced matadores, it is still worth going. because these matadores are less well-known, they are willing to take greater risks in order to impress the crowd and gain fame.

anyways, here´s an explanation of the bullfight and how it works (including photos from my experience to illustrate the sport):

the parade and entrance of the torreros in the plaza de toros de la maestranza.

the bullfight is unlike any sport i have ever encountered. it is a sport in which the players risk their lives in order to succeed. all of the torreros (all those invovled in the bullfight) confront the bull in some way. the bull is bred especially for the sport. spanish fighting bulls are raised in the fields and can grow as large as 1200 lbs. only the best and bravest bulls are used for the bullfights. the rest are used for meat, as the bull´s meat is very tender and tasty since the bulls are raised on a good diet out in the fields. at the beginning of the bullfight, the band (which oddly enough resembles a high school pep band) will play victorious entry music. at this time, all of the torreros will parade through the stadium, acknowledging the crowd. the matadores lead in their elaborate, glittered-covered costumes, followed by their banderillos and picadores. each bullfight (corrida or novillad) features three matadores, and each matador kills two bulls. the first matador to fight has the least seniority. this doesn´t always reflect on his talets (as the least senior bullfighter at our show was quite good), it just means that he´s been a professional matador for a shorter amount of time.

after parading through the ring, the band sounds the trumpet and the arena is cleared. in comes the first bull. spanish fighting bulls are beautiful animals. they are very strong and very large, and it was pretty awesome to see them running around. after the bull explores the ring for a few minutes, the matador and his banderillos enter the ring with a bright pink and orange cape. this cape is very heavy. they use the cape to test the bull and learn about his personality--is he adventurous, will he go for the cape? is he more hestitant, does he wander back towards the door? after feeling out his movements for a few moments, the trumpet sounds again, and the banderillos leave.

banderillos running the bull so that the matador has a good idea of how he will move.

a close-up of a banderilla and the bull. the bull has a few ribbons stapled into its back. this is done to weaken the bull´s large back muscle before he comes face-to-face with the torreros.

with the second trumpet sound, the second act of the bullfight begins. during this act, the picadores and the banderillos do their work. the picadores are men who ride in on horses. the men and their horses wear very heavy armor so as to avoid injury. the banderillos use their capes to lure the bull towards the picador. when the bull charges the horse (sometimes lifting it off the ground!), the picadores use their large stick to puncture the bull´s back muscle. the picador´s stick only has a point about 1 in long, so it does not penetrate very deeply into the bull. however, now is when the blood starts to flow, and when the more squeamish people begin to wonder if they´ve made a mistake. according to the rules of the bullfight, a minimum of one pico must be made, but the bull cannot be stabbed more than three times. during this time, the bull, whose natural insticts tell it to charge things, feels a great sense of release when finally making contact with the horse because, remember, until this point in time, it´s just been chasing capes.

a picadore stabbing a bull. note the heavy armor on the horses. it is industrial strength, and the horses also wear blinders and are tranquilized so that they don´t freak out.

after the picadores have finished their job, the banderillos get to work again. there are generally three banderillos per matador, and each is armed with two banderillas. the banderillas are sticks about 1 foot long. the tops are decorated in bright colors, and the bottoms have a spike shaped a bit like a fish hook. it is the banderillos job to approach the bull and place the banderillas into its back muscle. in order to do this, they have to run fast and side jump the bull. they get so close to the bull! it´s incredibly terrifying and exhilirating to watch! as i said, each banderillo has two banderillas, and they only get one chance to place them. if all banderillos fail, that means that the matador has to fight a bull who is not only very angry, but also still very strong, as the banderillas serve to weaken the bull further.

a brave banderillo mid-air as he places his two banderillas. note that the matador and banderillo costumes are very similar. it amazes me how a sport that is so macho is so many ways embraces incredibly flamboyant costumes, including pink socks, glittered jackets, and ridiculously TIGHT pants!

after the banderillos are through, the trumpet sounds again, announcing the third act of the bullfight. during this act, the matador alone stands in the ring, facing the bull. a good matador will plant his feet and use his cape in order to make the bull complete passes. he will only have to pivot his feet in order to keep the bull moving in a circle around him. during these passes, the bull is only inches away. it´s pretty incredible. on top of that, when the matador does need to readjust his positioning, he often turns his back to the bull and walks away. i was completely amazing that no one got gored (though one guy was awfully close). also, because these matadores are trying to make a name for themselves, they´ll do very dangerous things, like place themselves between the bull and the cape and then quickly move out of the way during a pass. it´s an incredibly dramatic and rivoting scene. the whole crowd is quiet except for the excited olés that people shout when the matador does a good job. here are some pictuers of the matadores at work--they explain far better than i can!

a matador completely a pass with the bull. note how close they are (and how shiny his suit is... and the pink socks!).

this is the matador that almost got gored. see how he dropped the cape and the bull´s head is actually butting against his body? pretty scary stuff. when something like this happens, the banderillos run out with their pink and yellow capes to distract the bull and allow the matador to escape safely.

here is a matador completing a pass. you can see how he arches his body to avoid contact with the bull. you can also see how close the two of them are and how bloody the bull is because of the various injuries inflicted by the picadores and the banderillos.

the matador is staring the bull down. pretty intense staring contest, if you ask me!

after the matador has done series of passes, the time comes when he finishes his job by killing the bull. by this time, the bull is tired and has lost a significant amount of blood from the various injuries inflicted by the picadores and the baderillos. the matador has a time limit for the amount of time he has to impress the crowd and then kill the bull. at 10 minutes, a warning trumpet sounds, letting the matador know that he only has 5 minutes left. after another 2 minutes, another trumpet sounds, and then, when the matador only has 1 minute left, the final trumpet sounds. it is an embarrassment for a matador not to kill the bull before he runs out of time. it is also considered poor form if he requires more than one attempt before killing the bull. to kill the bull, the matador uses a sword that is slightly curved down at the tip. he will entice the bull into lowering his head towards the cape. when the bull is appropriately positioned, the matador advances, thrusting the sword through the bull´s back muscle, between a small opening in its shoulder blades (only about three inches long and maybe an inch and a half wide). if done correctly, the sword will enter, puncturing the bull´s heart. in a matter of seconds, the bull will be down and dead, without extreme suffering or pain. unfortunately, not all matadors can bring the bull down in one shot. in fact, we had one who required three tries--it was pretty difficult to watch.

the matador inserting his sword between the bull´s shoulder blades and into his heart.

after the matador has killed the bull, several bullring janitors (i´m sure that´s not their professional name, but that´s what i call them) come out and attach the bull to a horse-drawn cart. the bull is then pulled in a circle around the ring and then exits. i appreciate this part of the ceremony, because i don´t have to sit and look at a dead bull for a significant amount of time. clean-up is swift and easy. the dead bulls are taken to a butcher shop located in the plaza de toros. the bull´s meat is considered very high-quality, and all parts of the bull are used. the skin for leather, the muscle for meat (the tail is an especially fine delicacy--or so i´ve been told)... even the bull´s penis is used to make a whip (i actually have a picture of me with one of these whips... i´ll have to post it online). it´s a bit of a relief to know that the animal hasn´t died purely for sport, but will be used as food and other material.

dragging the bull around the arena. you can see the bull attached behind the horses. directly behidn the bull, a man runs along sweeping up the bloody dirt so as not to leave a trail. it´s pretty interesting...

when a bullfighter does an excellent job, the crowd stands and waves white handkerchiefs. if enough people respond with excitement, the plaza judge will decide to award the matador a prize. a good matador will receive one of the bull´s ears. a GREAT matador will receive two ears. and a truly exceptional and wonderful matador will receive both ears and the bull´s tail. here in sevilla, the maximum award is two ears. i was fortunate enough to see a bullfight where the matador did a good enough job to win one ear. the judge cut the ear off with a knife and presented it to the matador, who then took a victory lap around the ring, blowing kisses and waving to the crowd. it was pretty interesting, as many women threw their fans at the matador. he would kiss the fan and through them back to the crowd (i imagine this to be somewhat like the groupie bra-throwing at rock concerst in the 70s and 80s, albeit a little bit classier). it was pretty great to see this, though, as i never have before. the matador did do an excellent job, and i read that, in the past 12 fights he has complete, he has won more than 34 ears--you do the math! he´s an exceptional matador!

the matador receiving his prize from the plaza judge.

all in all, the bullfight was an excellent experience, and i definitely could appreciate it, thanks to my lesson in history and culture from judy. well, this post is long enough, so i´ll finish writing about the rest of my weekend in another post! hope you enjoyed this lovely foray into bullfighting 101!

me watching the bullfight in a fairly crowded plaza de toros de la maestranza.

we´ve all become big fans of the bullfight! there´s candace, ashley, rachel, saxon, me, and chelsea.

and the spanish adventures continue...

hola a todos! the last few days really haven´t been that exciting. i´ve been pretty busy with class. this week is my last week of the intensive period (thank goodness), so i´ve been wrapping things up. here´s a breakdown of the past few days:

monday:
i posted about halfway through the day on monday. after my post, chelsea and i made our way through the rain to the palacio libreja. it was a short walk, and definitely worth the visit. the palacio libreja isn´t really a palace at all. it´s a beautiful old mansion built and furnished by a spanish contessa. she constructed the house in the 17th century (i think). then, she spent her whole life filling it with archaelogical and cultural treasures. as the spainards were excavating itálica (a set of roman ruins about 45 minutes outside of sevilla), she purchased many of the original mosaics from the itálica and used them as decor in her home! she has the largest private collection of roman mosaics in the world, and they were pretty impressive. in addition to the mosaics, her house was simply beautiful. she had numerous treasures from the new world (mostly pottery and things like that), in addition to some beautiful artwork and gorgeous tile work. our visit to the palacio libreja was pretty short (only about 45 minutes), but it was totally worth it!

after our visit to the palacio, chelsea and i hopped the bus back to home and spent the afternoon homeworking (yes, that is a verb) and hanging out. both of us had tests and papers due this week, so we spent lots of time homeworking.

tuesday:
tuesday started out much like monday, with clouds and light rain. chelsea and i made it to school, and i spent the majority of class talking about internet romances and watching the spanish movie, volver. volver was very interesting, and i think that i like spanish cinema. the themes in spanish cinema seem to be much darker and much deeper than in the average american film, which is sometimes nice. i am considering signing up for a spanish cinema class here at the center, but that is another story...

after class, chelsea and i hung around the center because we had an orientation meeting. in the hour between the end of class and the meeting, we wandering over to fnac, a local store that is a hybrid of barnes & noble and best buy. it was really cool! we spent time wandering around the store, and i found some awesome stuff, like an english book section (yay for my mother tongue!) and a section of cool old records (like actual RECORDS records). they had some really good ones, like the beatles and the monkees, and i enjoyed flipping through them and looking at the crazy cover art. after some fun exploring fnac, we came back to the center for our orientation which was, essentially, a huge waste of time. i was incredibly frustrated afterwards. the meeting consisted of them giving us two papers, one with basic information about the school that, if we didn´t know before our arrival, we have certainly all learned it during our three weeks here, and another with safety information. i was pretty irritated, seeing as we had already been in sevilla for three weeks and they JUST gave us the safety information on tuesday. seriously, not a good way to run a university. of all of the things in spain, the only thing that i have encountered that i seriously dislike and that seriously irritates me is the center´s very poor communication skills.

after the meeting, chelsea and i had made plans to get lunch at an italian restaurant in the center with our friend, kyle. unfortunately, we arrived at the restaurant to find it mysteriously closed (even though, according to the posted hours, it should have been open). ravenously hungry and on a tight schedule, we ran across plaza nueva to calle sierpes (my favorite street) and grabbed food at a local restaurant. the food was fine, but not great. i think that chelsea and i have both decided that it´s no use going out to get food, because the food in our homestay is so delicious! needless to say, i ran from lunch to dance class, where we started working on our second dance again. i feel as though i have a good understanding and am able to dance our first dance well, which gives me a strong sense of accomplishment. if you are ever awake early in the morning on a tuesday or thursday (as in 7:00 am spokane time or 8:00 am boise time) and want to catch a glimpse of my dance class, the CC-CS website (www.cccs.com) broadcast live video footage of their patio, where we just happen to have dance class! you´ll probably have to click around a little bit to find it, but it might be a great way to start your morning!

after dance class, chelsea and i headed homeward with a quick stop at the cortes inglés for some very big necessities: peanut butter, teddy grahams, and chocolate. the cortes inglés is such a fun place, because it is HUGE and seriously has everything. i could probably dawdle in there for hours. we made it home at a pretty reasonable hour (about 6:00 pm versus the usual 8:00 pm or later), and the rest of the evening was spent homeworking, chatting, and eating dinner with our host mom. tuesday nights are los heredores nights (the crazy spanish television show that somehow manages to captivate my attention every time), so dinner is always a little bit longer with a little bit less talking (we all get into it). if your bored, try to find the plot online. seriously, it´s ridiculous! i can barely keep up with it!

wednesday:
wednesday was a pretty good day, as it was the last official day of class for the intensive period! i was itching to get out of the classroom, and was so happy when the end of class came. unfortunately, wednesday are also the days of my culture class, meaning that class ended and i got to stay in the exact same room and sit some more. my culture class is kind of a joke--like a freshman seminar class, only in spanish and with even less instruction. yesterday, however, we talked about the changes in the spanish family over the past 40 years, and it was pretty interesting. spain is just now reaching the statistics of the average western nation, meaning that its divorce rate has soared, marriage rate declined, and the number of children per family also declined (spain has the lowest average number of children in the western world at 1.2 kids per family). it was intersting to hear our professor blame the situation on the recent women´s rights movements. i suggested other factors (such as a decline in religious moral values as well as other economic and social factors), but he kind of brushed them off. then, he went on to talk about how many anthropologists have discovered that men and women are not meant to be monogamous. i posed the question that, if men and women aren´t meant to be monogamous, how can they explain marriages that have lasted happily for 20, 40, 50 years? he again brushed me off, explaining that marriage is sort of a joke, as more than half of marriages end and, of the other half that last, only about 25% are actually happy marriages. he then said that those who thinkt hey will get married and stay happily married for life are dreaming. it was then, in a moment of sheer sassiness, i told him that i am dreamer. pretty interesting class, if you ask me...

after class, chelsea and i ate a sack lunch in the plaza nueva and people watched for a while. then we headed in to the computer lab and bought plane tickets for italy! that´s right--i´m going to italy! we have a fall break at the end of october/beginning of november, and we will be in florence and milan for 5 whole days! i´m incredibly excited for this adventure, as i have never visited italy and can´t wait to get a taste of the italian life! after finishing those plans, i worked on plans for my trip to barcelona and secured a reservation at a pretty cheap but nice hostal--it will be my first hostal experience! all of this planning felt so nice and comfortable--it´s amazing how stressed out i get when i can´t plan things coughcoughstupidcc-cscoughcough.

many hours of computer work and homework later, chelsea and i went outside to the patio to hear a guest speaker. the speaker´s name is david benioff and he is an american. why he is in sevilla and why he spoke at the center, i have no idea. anyways, he is an author and a screenwriter (he wrote the script for troy, kite runner, the 25th hour, and the new x-men wolverine movie). he was a pretty interesting man, but what was even more interesting was listening to his translator. his translator was the founder and director of cc-cs, and after listening to his translation, i would have to recommend that he take a few classes here. he made lots of errors and cut out about half of what david benioff said simply because he could think fast enough to translate it all. it was fairly interesting. the spanish news media showed up, and one man stuck a camera right in our faces, meaning that i was probably on the news somewhere in spain. yea!

after listening to david benioff, chelsea and i made our way down towards the guadalquivir river to the patio sevillano, where we had tickets to see a flamenco show! the show started at 10:00 and was obviously a ringer for the tourist circuit, as the only people that were there were from cc-cs and about 8 tour busses parked close by. despite feeling a wee bit unauthentic, the dancing was INCREDIBLE! i absolutely love flamenco dancing! the best way to describe it is as mix of irish step dancing (think riverdance), argentinian tango (lots of passion), and tons of butt-shaking and hand twisting. that description may not make it sound very beautiful, but it totally is. i was totally captivated the entire time, and didn´t want the show to end! i can´t wait to go to another show when i have visitors (yes, i am already making plans!), as i think it is probably the singular most wonderful cultural experience in spain.

anyways, the show ended around 11:45, which meant that sophie, rachel, chelsea and i had a long walk home. we took a different route which wove through the barrio de santa cruz (santa cruz neighborhood), which is known for it´s great food, great shopping, and beautiful architecture. i appreciated the chance to explore, but not the fact that i was doing it at midnight while wearing high heels (yes, a fatal error indeed). we we finally arrived home around 12:45, i was completely exhausted and just fell into bed.

thursday:
yay for thursdays! i think that thursday is my favorite day of the week at the center, because class is short and an excursion promised! that is the one sad thing about the termination of the intensive period: no more weekly excursions.

class today was an exam--my second and last exam for the class. things went well, and my professor let us out 40 minutes early, which was positively delightful! afterwards, i headed over to sevilla´s majestic cathedral with a group of students and a faculty guide. the cathedral is located right in the heart of town and is the third largest structure of its kind in the entire world (after st. peter´s in rome and st. paul´s in london). the inside of the cathedral is absolutely beautiful. it was built in the gothic style, and has gorgeous arched cielings and beautiful stained glass windows. all throughout the cathedrals, small chapels to various saints are set up. the cathedral is home to two giant organs carved in the baroque style especially for the cathedral. the organs are made out of wood that was brought back to the americas when the americas were still new and exciting. in addition, the capilla mayor (major chapel) houses a HUGE facade depicting numerous bible scenes. the facade is carved out of wood (again, from the americas), and then everything is covered in gold leaf. our professor informed us that scientists estimate that 60% of the world´s supply of gold and silver has passed through sevilla at one time. during the 15th and 16th century, sevilla was the central port for spain, monopolizing the shipping industry. this means that all of the gold stolen from the americas traveled through sevilla. it´s pretty awesome when you think about it.

in addition to lots of gold detailing and beautiful architecture, the cathedral houses the remains of christopher columbus (our favorite spanish hero!). columbus was originally buried in the dominican repulic, but spain removed his remains and brought them to sevilla after the spanish american war. his moment is very large and very distinct. in addition to all of this, the most spectaculr of all is the huge belltower, the giralda. the giralda was originally built as a minaret for sevilla´s mezquita (during the time of moorish dominance), and fernando III (who reconquered sevilla and drove the moors out), built on top of it after his success. it´s beautiful and has very distinct architecture. i really wanted to climb up it, but didn´t have enough time today--though i definitely have plans to do it at least twice while i´m here.

after leaving the cathedral, chelsea and i ran home for a quick nap and lunch. then i ran back to the center for dance class, during which we watched a movie about semana santa (holy week or easter week) in sevilla. after that, i finally got my schedule. unfortunately, it´s totally screwed up. instead of putting me in the classes i requested, the registered me for a spanish society class and waitlisted me for the two classes i wanted, citing a scheduling conflict. you can imagine my frustration. i went straight to the academic director´s office and made an appointment with her tomorrow. so hopefully, by then, i will have a definitive schedule that is to my liking. right now, however, it looks like i am going to have class at night on mondays and wednesdays, with dance class being my only class on tuesdays and thursdays (unless i add the spanish cinema class). though i really would like to take spanish cinema, the temptation to slack off is strong. i don´t need the credits and i would really like to NOT have class during family week, when i have visitors. i´m going to talk things over with a couple of friends and get their advice before the meeting tomorrow. but man, how tempting is a two-day courseweek? additionally, that frees up time for me to explore sevilla and work on homework at a leisurly (read: not stressful) pace. so we´ll see what happens.

after i finish up this blog, i´m starting my spanish paper and then heading out to meet with my intercambio--yay! i´m excited to meet with her, as she seems very nice in email. tomorrow is my absolutely LAST day of the intensive period, and, after my meeting with the academic director, i have a whole glorious weekend to myself. tomorrow night, i´m headed out to a bullfight (olé--expect lots of pictures on monday) and then hopefully a good dinner out on the town with friends.

i miss everyone in the states. i can´t believe that i´ve already been in spain for three weeks! if this were janterm, i would be prepping myself to come home. starting on monday, i will have been in a foreign country for the longest period in my life--yikes! i am so enjoying the european life and can´t wait to see what adventures each new day brings. if you ever get a chance to live abroad--do it! it´s totally worth the sacrifice...

until later! m

a weekend, córdoba, and spanish current events

hola a todos! today is monday and i am back at school after an incredibly full, wonderful, RELAXING weekend!

friday, after class, chelsea and i returned home for lunch and a good ole spanish siesta. i, personally, appreciate the spanish siesta very much, but unfortunately, have not had much time to take advantage of said siesta. friday afternoons are my saving grace, because i have no class, no meetings, and am able to finally relax and catch up on some sleep. so after a fabulous nap, chelsea and i headed out for the center of town. we first stopped at the cortes inglés (a giant hybrid between nordstroms and fred meyer) to buy a few essentials. then we made our way down town, where we walked around the center, enjoying the night life, and finally stopped at a little cafe for tapas. the food was great! we had some delicious garlic noodles and then a spanish form of brushetta (with ham instead of tomatoes), and it was delicious. after a leisurely spanish dinner (we didn´t finish until 11:30), we made our way across town to the fine arts museum. sevilla´s cutural arts office opened a bunch of museums friday night until 3:00 am. entrace was free, and they had special exhibits and shows. we went to the fine arts museum, and they had people dressed up as characters from famous works of art. these actors were explaining the significance of the piece, and it was so cool! it reminded me of the gilmore girls episode where they have the festival of living art (or something like that... mom knows what i´m talking about!).

anyways, we left the museum around 12:45--pretty early considering the spanish lifestyle. we returned to the center where we discovered (to our dismay) that the busses we definitely not running. so, we walked the 4 miles home, which was LOOONG! i got home and i was so exhausted that i completely fell into bed! it definitely made me grateful that i don´t go out late very often, because it´s such a long walk from anywhere cool (i.e. the center, barrio triana, etc.) to our house.

saturday morning came way too early, and chelsea and i headed out for the bus to córdoba. the drive to córdboa lasted about 1.5 hours, and we passed through some beautiful countryside. lots of olive groves and small villages. it was nice to be outside the city for a while. i´m definitely not as much a city girl as i´d like to think. i´m learning here that i need open spaces. anyways, we arrived in córdoba to a searing hot day (over 95 degrees... yuck!). our first stop was the alcázar en córdoba, and it was cool. the building definitely wasn´t as impressive as the alcázar in sevilla, but they had some absolutely beautiful gardens. i learned a lot about moorish arquitecture, and i even got to go inside an arab bath! the arabs used to bathe from head to toe before every prayer, and they pray 5 times a day! the baths featured a cold shower, a warm shower, and then a hot hot HOT shower! after reaching the hot shower, they would then use the warm shower and leave with a cold shower. it was interesting to learn about their history and also about how spot-on their method was as far as cleaning out impurities from their pores.

after the alcázar, we made our way through the jewish district of town and stopped at one of the local synagogues. the jewish population of spain was heavily persecuted during the inquisition, and many of spain´s old synagogues were converted into catholic churches. today, this synagogue is one of few that remains. it has beautiful arab arquitecture (somewhat ironic, right?), complete with intricate carvings in hebrew around every crevice of the wall. it was pretty beautiful, but not particularly impressive as more than 100 people were crammed into the very time one-room syanagogue. from the synagogue, we made our way down the street to córdoba´s mezquita (mosque). the mezquita is the largest and most impressive mosque outside of the middle east. its construction began in the 8th century, and, like most buildings in spain, it was changed and altered over time. it reached its current state in the 16th century, when it was converted to a catholic cathedral. fortunately, during the conversion, the spainards actually left much of the mosque in tact. the building is beautiful. a seriously of gorgeous striped arches support the entire structure and make an elaborate maze. i´ve posted pictures of the inside, but they really don´t do it justice. it´s an incredibly impressive structure. during its height as a mosque, córdoba was the most popular muslim center in europe, and numerous famous muslims (i couldn´t tell you names...) proclaimed that it was the most beautiful mosque in the world.

after leaving the mezquita, we had some free time, so chelsea and i wandered around for a while, shopping at the local artisan shops and trying to get too lost. we returned home to sevilla and were pretty exhausted, so we spent the rest of our saturday evening relaxing and dinking around the home. sunday morning, we woke up to the sound of rosario´s two grandsons, jaíme and carlos, playing around the front of the house. man, those boys are so cute but they have a TON of energy! we ate lunch with rosario, her daughter ima, and carlos (jaíme was taking a nap), and it was nice to have a leisurely lunch. afterwards, chelsea and i worked on homework for a while. then, she had a meeting with her exchange student. i went with her, as they were meeting at the large shopping mall near our house, and i wanted to explore. when i showed up, though, EVERYTHING was closed! i was a little shocked. i thought for sure the shopping mall or the cortes inglés would be open on sunday, but was i definitely wrong. so, instead, i hung out with chelsea and her intercambio, irene. irene is in her mid-20s and she´s a business person here in spain. she has studied abroad in italy and she speaks italian fluently (pretty impressive, really). she was incredibly nice, and i enjoyed chatting with her and chelsea.

life in spain is very different from life in the u.s. even though irene has a good job and is fairly successful, she lives at home because she cannot afford her own place. living in spain costs a LOT of money, and people generally can´t afford to move out unless they do it in pairs. this means that most spainards live at home until they are at least 30 years old. it´s pretty interesting, because that is definitely NOT the norm in the u.s. i couldn´t imagine having a good job and making a decent salary but still being unable to afford even an apartment. it makes me feel really happy to live where i live and enjoy the things that i´ve been able to enjoy. europe is great, but it´s definitely not for me for forever.

the rest of last night was spent working on homework, eating dinner with rosario, and going to bed. i woke up this morning to a cloudy day, which made me incredibly happy! it´s nice to have a little bit cooler weather, and i am DEFINITELY ready for fall! today marks my last week in the intensive period, and i am so glad! i´m ready for a little bit of variation in my schedule. i have orientation tomorrow, and i´m hoping that they´ll provide me some information. communication here at the center is a little bit frustrating. i don´t know my schedule yet for the continuation period and i feel like i never find out about anything until the last minute! it drives me CRAZY because i am such a planner! anyways, in class today, i learned that ETA (a terrorist group here in spain) is on the move again. last night, there were three car bomb attacks in three different cities in northern spain. fortunately, only 5 people were hurt and only one man died. the attacks seem to have been planned to damage buildings, not kill people. the damage though was pretty devastating. one bomb exploded next to an elementary school and completely ruined the entire building. it makes me worried and a little scared to think that there are people--spanish citizens--who are terrorizing their own people. ETA is comprised of basque people, and the basque people live in northern spain and want their independence (for those of you who did not know). anyways, it seems like the issue is pretty complicated (as all political issues seem to be), and though they haven´t struck for quite a long time, they struck last night. on top of ETA attacks, spain experienced some terrible flooding last night. i saw pictures of córdoba on the news, and the streets were swamps. houses where under a foot of water. in madrid, a mudslide destroyed an important road, and several streets where completely flooded with water, making driving impossible. it was weird to see córdoba so affected, when i had just been there on saturday. with all these things happening, please pray for my continued safety here. i honestly don´t feel at all at risk here in sevilla... the people are friendly and i feel safe, but it never hurts to pray, right?

on my way back to the center today, i got caught in a torrential downpour and my clothing is still wet two hours later. awesome. later this afternoon, chelsea and i are taking a tour with the center through the palacio lebrije, so that should be fun.

ciao!
-m

a few more pictures because i have time...

more photos from recent adventures (check out the post below for even more!)

hanging out in the large, beautiful gardens at the alcázar. it was so nice to see green! i feel ike sevilla (like lots of other cities) is buildings, buildings, and more buildings, with very little green to break it up.

i bonded with these trees (i think they are hemlock?) because the scent reminded me of boise and spokane! man, i miss the smell of pine trees!

roommates hanging out and eating delicious tapas! it may not look good, but those spinach crepes were awesome!

the top of the cieling in the sala de embajadores in the alcázar--sorry this one is out of order! i wasn´t going to put it in there, but it´s too beautiful not to! again, the picture does NOT do it justice! the cieling is a beautiful gold color that is covered in wonderful tesselations (yay for 7th grade math!). the tesselations are stars, because the ferdinand and isabella wanted to be ruler of everything--and the stars represent the universe. intersting (at least, i think so!).

the promised pictures...

the past few days in sevilla...

me, channeling my past life as a great matador! the cape i´m wearing is an authentic matador cape, and it weighs a TON! it´s made out of fuschia silk and the inside is canary-yellow courdoroy... quite flamboyant, if you ask me! the hat is also an authentic matador hat. these hats are extremely expensive--anywhere from 150-200 euros! yikes!

outside of the real alcázar--sevilla´s local palace. the palace is tucked away behind city hall (which you can see on the left).

inside one of the arabic courtyards in the alcázar. arabic architecture is beautiful and very ornate. the arabics also did all of their detailed work in plaster. they understood that plaster wasn´t necessarily a long-lasting material, but they preferred to work with it because God was the only true permanent thing, and try to to build something out of ´permanent´materials was out of the question...

a look inside the sala de embajadores (ambassador´s room). ambassadors came from all over europe to seek a meeting with the kings and queens of spain--especially king ferdinand and queen isabella. the room is filled with incredibly intricate and ornate details and has absolutely gorgeous coloring. i´m a little disappointed in my camera, because it definitely doesn´t do the room justice.

a more modern part of the alcázar. this part was constructed by carlos the V (i think...), and it definitely has a more gothic structure. the colors in adalucía are beautiful. buildings all over sevilla are painted white with bright yellow or orange trimming. it´s lovely!

an ordinary week of class, homework, and visiting a castle

since monday, this week has been a pretty normal, nothing-too-special week. i´ve been pretty busy with class and homework. i had my first exam on tuesday, and i left the exam feeling like it went okay, but i ended up getting an A, which was delightful! i also turned in a paper on tuesday, and gave two presentations on wednesday. between working on those projects and completing my other homework, this week hasn´t been as filled with exploration and adventures as i would have liked. just the same, it has been busy and fun.

on monday, chelsea and i went shopping and she bought a really cute green purse. the shopping here in sevilla is pretty fabulous. most of the clothes are pretty cute, but some of them are completely strange. for example, the height of fashion here in spain is wearing aladdin pants--you know, pants that are cuffed at the bottom, really baggy on the legs with a long baggy crotch? yeah, definitely not the most flattering thing, but i´m seriously considering purchasing a pair, just so i can show them off when i get back to the states. they are hilarious! another weird fashion trend is girls wearing boxers and then wearing really lowrise pants. it reminds me of the boys in junior high and high school who used to wear their pants around their thighs and have a good 6 inches of boxers peaking out--only these are teenage girls! definitely strange, but the fashion in the stores is cute, and i´m sure i´ll do a little bit of shopping one of these days...

after shopping, we hung around the center of town until 9:30, when we met up with one of our classmates, kyle, and his girlfriend, caitlin, who is studying in madrid. together, the four of us went out to an irish pub, which was actually quite wonderful! they had traditional irish drinks (like bailey´s and guinness), and then they had non-spanish food, which was WONDERFUL! the food here is good, but it´s all spanish food! i´m used to eating several different types of food, like chinese, italian, american, etc., in the states. but in spain, they really just have spanish food, so it was nice to eat something a little different. i totally chowed down on a club sandwich, and it tasted so good. it was nice to hang out with kyle and caitlin. they are both really cool people, and caitlin has traveled to some pretty interesting places, so it was good to hear her advice about where to go in spain and where to avoid (not that there´s really anywhere to avoid...). chelsea and i ended up getting home around 11:15, which made tuesday morning really rough!

tuesday was exam/paper day, so class didn´t feel too long. after class, chelsea and i ran home for a quick lunch, and then ran back to the center for dance class. afterwards, we stuck around the center for a while, because we had signed up for an educational meeting about the spanish bullfights. i have already been to a bullfight, so i wasn´t really expecting to learn much, but it was an incredible talk! the woman who spoke, judy, was originally from the united states, and she moved to spain more than 25 years ago to teach at a center like CCCS. while in spain, she became a big fan of this local artist, john. ironically, john was originally from the states. in addition to being an excellent artist, he was also the only american ever to be a full matador. well, the two of them ended up falling in love, and judy became a total insider on the spanish bullfighting circuit. it was so interesting to hear her story and listen to all of the centuries of history behind the bull fights. it definitely gave me a greater understanding of the fights and greater appreciation of them. after the talk--which lasting a very short 2 hours--chelsea and i talked with judy for a while and took pictures with some of her authentic bull fighting gear! i´ll definitely try to post those sometime soon... we then returned home and grabbed some dinner with rosario. rosario´s two grandsons, jaime (about 18 months) and carlos (about 6 or 7 years old), were staying with her that night because their parents were at the madonna concert (that´s right--madonna gave a concert in sevilla for more than 50,000 people!). they were the cutest little boys, but i couldn´t understand a word of what they said! it was fun to see rosario dote on them, and i´d heard so much about them that it was great to finally meet them. after dinner, chelsea and i headed to bed!

yesterday was a low-key day--thank goodness! the spanish life really isn´t very stressful, unless you´re a student, waking up early to go to class, staying up late doing fun things and homework, and then missing out on siesta because you don´t have time. then, the life is a little rough. yesterday, i gave a presentation on a spanish song in my language class and another presentation about learning to live in another country. both went really well, and i felt a great amount of release after they were finished. while i´ve been here, it´s been surprising how naturally the language will come sometimes, and how difficult it can be at others. i definitely have a harder time speaking and thinking when i´m tired, which makes dinner conversation difficult (dinner doesn´t take place until 10:00 pm). after class, chelsea and i both made our way to a local cafe for lunch. we ordered the house special and it was an absolutely DELICIOUS spanish tortilla, made of potato, egg, and ham. it was fabulous! we both scarfed it down with big smiles and a lot of satisfaction. afterwards, we ended up just wandering around for a little while. we found this fabulous pastry shop with the most wonderful-looking desserts, and i can´t wait to give it a try someday. after that, i came back to the center and hung out while chelsea was in dance class. together, we returned back to the house and i FINALLY got to take a nap! it was wonderful! i ended up sleeping for an hour and half, and, when i woke up, i spent time working on homework, talking to my family (yay!), and then eating dinner with rosario. dinner was followed by more homework, and then bed.

today was our day of excursions! every thursday we take a fieldtrip somewhere in the city, and today, i went with a group to the alcazar. the alcazar is a palace located in the heart of sevilla. it was built over the course of several centuries, starting with the moors, then king ferdinand and isabella (the catholic rulers), and then finally carlos the V. because it was built over such an expanse of time, the palace is a beautiful mixture of arabic, classical, combined arabic/classical, and gothic architecture. it was amazing to see the detail that was put in to creating such a marvelous structure. in additon to the architectural beauty, the palace has a large, lovely garden filled with palm trees, flowering bushes, and other green life. it´s so nice to see something green! i feel like sevilla has very little green life in the city, and i was delighted to find the garden. overall, the alcazar was an absolutely beautiful structure, and i look forward to going back (students get in for free!). while chelsea and i were in the garden, we ran into a couple from washington d.c. who were on vacation. they asked us where we were from, and when i told them boise, the woman looked shocked. she said--i didn´t know that people actually lived in idaho, and i certainly didn´t think they traveled! well, i was mildly offended but very kindly informed her that yes, more than a million people live in idaho and that definitely more than a handful of them are well-cultured and well-traveled. i think she was a little shocked. it was kind of ridiculous, but at least it gave me a chance to show off my idaho pride!

after our excursion, a quick trip home for lunch, and a bus ride back to the center, i went to dance class. things went really well! i felt, for the first time, like i truly understood the movements and could actually do them in a way that somewhat resembled the dance. it was a good feeling. later this evening, chelsea and i are spending time at the center, eating tapas with our professors! it should be fun and, as i haven´t really had any tapas yet, i look forward to sampling some new things. after that, the center is having a party to welcome the students (which doesn´t really make sense since we´ve already been here for two weeks) as well as their intercambios (exchanges). every student is required to have an intercambio, and the center pairs them with a local spanish student who is currently enrolled in their english learning program. i just received my intercambio assignment on tuesday, so i wasn´t able to contact her with enough notice, and she won´t be able to come to the festival. i´m excited about meeting, her though! she is an architecture student here in sevilla, and i´m hoping that she can show me some of the really cool places in town that not many tourists know about. it should be a good thing, and i´m excited to practice my spanish even more.

tomorrow will be a short day of class, and chelsea and i are already plotting our afternoon/evening activities. saturday is a day trip to córdoba, and then sunday is a day of rest (thank goodness!). my time here is going really well, and i´m surprised by how fast things seem to be moving. i´ve been chatting with some friends about planning a trip to barcelona and, when i consulted the calendar, i realized that i only have a few weekends free this entire semester! between trips to córdoba, mérida, morocco (yay!), granada, madrid, family weekend, portugal (probably again, because i liked it so much!), and then barcelona, there just really aren´t that many weekends left! i know that time is going to fly, so i´m trying to enjoy every second as much as possible, though it´s definitely hard at times because i miss my family, friends, boyfriend, home, english, quizno´s, diet coke with vanilla, etc...

i´ll try to post pictures of the past couple of days soon, and i´ll definitely post pictures of córdoba whenever i get those taken.

-m

and now, a post about portugal!

if you are reading this blog without reading the post below it, than you are missing out on some new photos and an entry that i just posted today--just letting you know!

saturday, we woke up early to head off to portugal. we all boarded the bus in the center of town at 9:00 am. about 35 or 40 people went from the center, and it took several hours to drive across the border. the spanish/portuguese countryside looks a lot like the greek countryside--lots of olive groves and rolling hills. i tried to stay awake for as much of the ride as possible, but i definitely fell asleep. around 1:00 pm portugal time (we lost an hour when we crossed the border) we arrived at a small port. all of us hopped aboard a small ferry boat and headed across a shallow bay to the small island of tevira. tevira was absolutely beautiful! the island was really small and basically all it had was the beach, some bathrooms, and a few restaurants and snack bars. there were lots of locals on the beach, and the weather was perfect! it was breezy and comfortable on the beach, but warm enough to wade in the ocean. the ocean was FREEZING! it seriously felt like an ice bath whenever i stepped into the water. either way, it was incredibly beautiful and i spent a good chunk of the afternoon lazing around on my towel looking out at the sea.

during the afternoon, chelsea and i took a walk down the beach and explored the pier at the end of the beach. off of the pier, people were fishing, and there was a group of young kids taking sailing lessons! it was fun to watch them sail, and i was pretty impressed by their skill. after walking to that side of the beach we walked all the way down the other side of the beach. as it became less crowded, we began to encounter lots of nude sunbathers. europe is really lax when it comes to beach wear, and i was definitely surprised to see people just hanging out, naked, on a public beach. all of them were so tan everywhere, which totally made my entire body hurt. after walking for quite a ways, we turned back and just spent more time kicking it on the beach. around 4:00 pm, we took the ferry back to the mainland and hopped back on the bus. we drove for another hour before arriving at our hotel in the city of lagos. our hotel wasn´t anything special. in fact, the rooms, though clean, were pretty shabby, but it was in a beautiful location! the buliding was set up against the cliffs with a short walk down some stairs to reach a beautiful beach. the beaches in lagos are surrounded by gorgeous rocky cliffs, and lagos is known for it´s beautiful grottos.

at the hotel, everyone showered and got ready to head out to cabo de san vincente en sangres. this point was about an hour away and, during the time of columbus, everyone thought it was the end of the world. once i got out there, i could totally understand why. there aren´t words to describe how beautiful it was! large rocky cliffs plunged down into the ocean, and a functioning lighthouse sat at the edge of the cliff. the colors of the sunset were beautiful (even though we got caught in traffic and actually missed the actual sunset--it was a really big bummer), it was still immensely impresionate (impressive). we spent an hour hanging out in the wind and the salt, talking pictures and enjoying the cool climate (the atlantic breeze made the temperature about 10 or 15 degrees color). i honestly can´t describe how beautiful it was, so i´ll post pictures, but even my pictures don´t do it justice!

once we returned from cabo de san vincente, we all gathered together and walked into center of town. the walk was pretty long, about 30 or 40 minutes, but the center of town was so cute! it had lots of cute restuarants, shops, and bars. we picked a seafood restaurant for dinner, and i enjoyed a delightful vegetarian pizza (because i don´t really like seafood). the food was good, and i enjoyed spending time chatting with chelsea and getting to know some new friends (there were 5 of us total who went to dinner together). afterwards, we explored the center of town a little bit before headed back up to the hotel. the walk back to the hotel took about an hour because, of course, we got completely lost. finally, we found a portuguese man who spoke english and he gave us good directions. we arrived back at the hotel in time to fall into bed, completely exhausted.

i woke up the next morning around 8:45, and we had to grab breakfast and gather all of our things. we checked out of the hotel, loading our bags onto the bus for storage, and headed down to the beach. the beach was, again, incredibly beautiful. it was surround by rocky cliffs and jagged rocks. the day was really hot, so the frigid water actually felt pretty good, though i never did get more than my legs and torso wet. chelsea and i walked up and down the short beach and explored for a while. after a time, we decided to get lunch at one of the restaurants, and we ended up spending 2 hours eating lunch! this wasn´t by choice--things in portugal just run a little bit more slowly, i guess. we finally left and headed back to the beach, where we hopped in a boat for a tour through the grottos. our boatdriver was completely CRAZY! he kept saying ridiculous things in english (which he did speak) and he kept pointing out all of the nude beaches and making fun of the people on them. everytime we passed another boat or a group of kayakers, he definitely hollered at them saying who knows what (in portuguese). the grottos were so impressive! some of them have very distinctive shapes, and our guide told us their names (little elephant, the titanic, kissing lovers...). it was really cool. at one point, our guide told us to duck down into the boat. at first, we though he was joking, but the he took us through this incredibly small opening into this gorgeous cave. it was beautiful, with the light filtering down through an opening at the top, turning everything this luminescent green. i totally saw my life flash before my eyes, but it was worth the scare.

we returned from the boat ride in time to grab our things and climb on the bus. i slept on the drive back to sevilla, and we ended up arriving home around 10:00. after a phone conversation, dinner, and homework, i had a pretty late night last night, making class this morning really difficult. tomorrow, i have my first exam (yikes!) and a paper due (double yikes!), so after this blog, i´m dedicating myself to homework all afternoon long. later this evening, chelsea and i are going out with some friends for tapas, and i´m pretty excited. i have been pleasantly surprised by the food here, as i didn´t really like it the first time i came to spain. i think i like it so much because my host mom is a really good cook and she always prepares food that is healthy and tasty.

well, i miss everyone and boise a lot. it´s hard for me to believe that i still have another 94 days here--it feels like i´ve already been here for so long! i´m working with friends to make travel plans to barcelona, granada, cadíz, madrid, liboa (lisbon, in portuguese), and pretty much anywhere else the wind will take me! i hope you enjoy the pictures of my travels... until later!

m