Holy Toledo y Primeros Dias en Sevilla

toledo con mis companeras de cuarto

vista encima de la giralda

grafitti al lado del rio guadalquivir

After our first days in Madrid we had a six or seven hour drive to Sevilla and we stopped at Toledo on the way. Toledo is a really interesting city mainly because of the collision of three main religions there, Muslim, Christian and Jewish. We saw a synagogue that was once a mosque but also had a cross hanging and had been converted into a museum. We also saw the cathedral and as far as cathedrals go I thought it was pretty, but freeezing!! Our guide told us that the larger Sevilla cathedral is the jewel case while Toledo's cathedral is the jewel, which I would have to agree with. While in Toledo we stopped to see El Greco's painting El entierro del conde del orgaz, which I thought was really beautiful in an eerie sort of way, kind of like Las meninas...After a long day of traveling we arrived in Sevilla at night and we were greeted by our families. Brittany, Kerry and I got off to a rough start with our family since they seemed legitimately pissed at how much luggage we brought...(which doesnt surprise me since I had 120 dollars worth of extra baggage and overweight charges..oops) but it got better as we struggled through dinner in broken Spanish. While Fina and Eloy aren't your typical warm fuzzy host parents they are nice enough and are always willing to talk if you approach them first. They are pretty blunt and they will tell you exactly what they expect of you in terms of how they want things to be in their house which is good and bad. My second day in Sevilla was possibly the busiest day of my life. We met at 9:15 near the school which is about a 20 minute walk, across the river from our house. From there Kepa showed us where our classes would be and showed us around the city. We ended up in the old section of the city which I think is the most beautiful and we toured the cathedral. I think that I've already reached my cathedral limit and it's only the first week, so hopefully there aren't too many more to visit. The cathedral was still very interesting especially because of its world record size and la giralda. We climbed the 39 ramps to the top of la giralda (not stairs because when it was built they needed to be able to ride their horses to the top) and saw great views of the entire city. After that I went back to the apartment and had lunch, with just my host parents and me...it was pretty intense but I can understand everything they say and I really feel like my speaking has improved already. At around four we met again for a bike tour around the city. It was incredibly long, over two hours, but I loved it and it was an awesome way to see the city. We were mainly biking along the river which was amazing and easy enough since every sidewalk has un carril para los bicicletas. We biked over a bridge and through el parque de alamillo, it was tiring but fun and a nice change from walking everywhere. For dinner Fina made hot dogs which I thought was funny since its pretty much the most American thing I can think of but it was good and it made me feel more at home. After that we went to pregame at a bar in Plaza de Cuba called Phoenix where a beer came with a free shot (weird I know) and then we went off to Buddha, a multiple story club that basically the coolest place I've ever been to...we didn't get home til 4;30 so today I was exhausted and skipped a chance to see the alcazar which is kind of a bummer but now I know I need to see it before I leave. Things are still a little awkward with our host family and Brittney Kerry and I got yelled at for leaving our space heaters on when we were asleep :-/ but I have four blankets and I'm always freezing so I really hope it warms up soon...the weather outside es bien but its like ten degrees colder in our apartment, no se porque. We had a meeting this morning at the university which was quite a struggle and I may or may not have fallen asleep during it...but they told us about classes, volunteer opportunities and intercambios. I really want to have an intercambio cause it seems like a great way to meet a Spanish student and get more confident with speaking the language. Eso es todo ahorita, hasta pronto!

Bienvenidos a MADRID!

Our first few days of Spain we stayed at Hotel Regina, a really nice hotel in Madrid. I was so jetlagged and tired because I didn't sleep at all on the plane. We met our director Kepa, he's really nice and from the Basque territory of Spain. He took us on a bunch of walking tours and we saw the Plaza Mayor, Puerta del Sol  and Palacio Real which took about 25 years to build and had something crazy like 1,000 rooms. There were dressing rooms, throne rooms, dining rooms, bedrooms, all with marble, crystal and gold everywhere they were so pretty and reminded me of a fairytale. All of the ceilings were really detailed and had frescoes painted directly on the ceiling. While we were in Madrid I tried to eat authentic food and I sort of succeeded. The most authentic place we went was El Tigre, a tapas bar where you had to stand the whole time and if you ordered a drink (I got cider which tasted like a sweeter version of beer) you just got about four heaping plates of tapas for free. So I tried croquetas and a few other mysterious things...I still don't know what they were. While in Madrid a bunch of us got churros con chocolate  and paella and lots of sangria so I think I we did good enough on trying Spanish food. We went to El Escorial, a mountain town an hour outside of Madrid, where the summer palace is located. All in all the whole place is a palace, a monastery, a school and a cathedral, it was huge. There were a lot of tombs of important dead people that were really ornate and cool to see. After that we went to El Museo del Prado where we saw a lot of Goya and Velazquez paintings. My favorite was Las Meninas by Velazquez. Our guide was really energetic and knowledgeable and told us about alot of the aspects of each painting in Spanish and she was really easy to understand unlike some Spaniards who have hardcore lisps and talk really fast. We went out one night in Madrid when we were walking through Puerta del Sol and some guy came up to us, offered us free entrance and a free drink to a club and brought us down a side street. I was pretty sketched out and I don't think I would do that at home but we were in a big group and apparently this type of club promotion is pretty common in Spain. It ended up being awesome and they played the weirdest music including Cotton Eyed Joe, Spice Girls, Destinys Child and some other pretty weird stuff with some fun American music mixed in like Teach Me How to Dougie. All in all I loved Madrid but it made me even more excited to get to Sevilla!!