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