a post in honor of my favorite sevilla landmark!

as the title would suggest, this blog post will be primarily dedicated to my recent fieldtrip to my favorite sevilla monument, sevilla´s lovely gothic cathedral. chelsea and i finally returned on tuesday to climb up the giralda (bell tower), and it was very lovely. the cathedral is such a beautiful building, with its vaulted cielings and small chapels. i just really like visiting and even walking past it. it gives me such a sense of peace. so here are some pictures! enjoy!

one of the cathedral´s side doors. the sevilla cathedral is the third largest of its kind in the world, and it certainly is spectacular.

this picture makes me laugh, because it looks like a divine light from heaven is shining
down on me... this was taken in the cathedral´s huge open area.

on our way up to the top! chelsea and i climbed to the top of the giralda without too much effort. instead of stairs, you climb up on ramps, which makes it easier. they also have tons of windows along the way, providing beautiful views of the city and the cathedral itself.

gargoyle!

a look at the cathedral´s roof from about halfway up the giralda. are those flying buttress i see (core 250, anyone)?

another section of the cathedral´s roof.

a look at sevilla from the very top! the view is absolutely beautiful, and i was surprised by how many buildings i could recognize. in the bottom lefthand corner is the real alcazár (palace),a nd the square building on the right is the archivo de indias (archive of the indies).

another view of the city from a different side of the giralda. this view shows more of the industrial, modern part of sevilla.

me, wearing one of the cathedral bells as a hat. the bells are huge and automatically rung by a machine (which was a little disappointing... i´d hoped that there would be a bell ringer and maybe i could bribe him to let me ring the bells).

looking out across the cathedral´s center patio filled with orange trees. the orange patio and the bottom half of the giralda are the only remaing features of a once huge mosque. the catholic rulers destroyed the mosque and built their cathedral on top of it.

looking out through the gated windows at the cathedral...

one last view of the cathedral´s towers before heading back down...

me and the giralda, my favorite part of my favorite sevilla monument!

the rest of my week really hasn´t been that interesting. after our cathedral trip on tuesday, chelsea and i returned home for lunch, then i returned to the center for dance class and some bonding with the internet. dance class still continues to be a frustration. we´re currently working on our third dance, and it involves some complicated steps that remind me of a very toned-down riverdance move. even though it is toned down, it still haunts me and i blow it everytime. very frustrating. fortunately, after class, i headed out into an evening of freedom. i stopped by fnac, sevilla´s borders/best buy hybrid and bought a book in english. i spent the rest of the evening reading and doing yoga on the rooftop with chelsea. then, we ate dinner and watched 'herederos', as is our weekly tuesday custom. 'herederos' was really interesting this week, but i had some trouble paying attention because our hostmom kept asking me clarifying questions. i seriously couldn´t understand how we were both watching the same television program in the same room and she could be so confused about what was going on! i mean, the show is even in her native tongue! i guess this is a good sign that my language skills are growing, so at least there´s that...

wednesday, i woke up and headed into class, where we talked about spanish youth and alcohol consumption. it wasn´t really that interesting. afterwards, chelsea and i grabbed our sack lunches and ate out in plaza nueva. i fed the birds again, and we just relaxed in the sunshine like a couple of old ladies. it was great! afterwards, we headed over to bliss for a crepe and some juice. it was, as always, fabulous. we spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out in bliss until chelsea had to leave for dance class. then i headed back to the center, used the internet for a while, and then buckled down for four hours of class. class was actually interesting. we are learning about art during the roman period here in spain, and it´s incredible to see what a huge influence the romans had, even all the way over here in spain! their art is everywhere, and it´s incredibly interesting. after that, we watched a documentary in my franco class about the lincoln brigade, a set of volunteer troops who snuck into spain to fight in the spanish civil war. it was amazing to hear these former troops share the stories about what they saw and experience in spain during the 1930s. it´s also hard to imagine anyone in america (let alone 3000 people) volunteering to fight another country´s battle. i can´t imagine that happening today. it was also interesting to hear their perspective on the situation, as some of the things they talked about didn´t quite match up with what we have learned in class. i guess it just goes to show that the story always changes depending on its source.

today has been a very lazy day. i met chelsea in the center, and we spent about two hours walking through the beautiful neighborhoods surrounding the cathedral area. it was nice. we didn´t have an agenda, so we just wandered. we stopped at this cute little bakery for a snack, and we split the most wonderful sweet bread. it was really delightful! we made it home just in time for lunch. i didn´t eat very much (having just consumed half of a very large spanish pastry), and shortly thereafter, i took off for dance class, which was again disastrous. i think that i´ll probably have to practice this weekend so that i don´t continue to look like a total fool in class. this evening is going to be filled with homework, as i have 125 pages of reading due for my franco class tomorrow (yikes!). part of this is the result of good, ole fashion procrastination. the other part is the result of my professor not assigning us the reading until last wednesday. oh well--homework is homework, and i could be doing it in spokane or in spain. pretty easy to pick which one i prefer :)