God Spoils Me...Month 1 in Santiago

Hello Everyone!
So it has been a little more than 2 years since I wrote in this blog. The time before, I documented my semester abroad in Spring 2009. Now I am writing from Santiago de Compostela, Spain where I am an "auxilar de conversación" (I'll explain exactly what that is a little later). Since Sevilla, I have graduated, spent 6 months in Costa Rica and lived with my parents in Denver for a while. I am now back in my element and feeling grateful to be. I want to write this first blog with the intention of setting the scene of what this next year (or two or three) will look like. I want you to know what I'm doing! I arrived in Santiago about a month. Since then, I have moved into an apartment, received my NIE (a temporary social security number for registered foreigners), opened a bank account, started my job and a number of other things. Not to mention, I have taken part in a lot a Spanish "rights of passage" which include: eating tapas, staying out until 8 am in the morning on a Saturday night, participating in a spanish sing along in the street, drinking café con leche (a lot), trying to decide whether to order wine or soda with dinner (because wine and beer are cheaper than soda) and a ton of other things.

My Job: I am what the Spanish government calls an "auxilar de conversación". I am here on a grant from the Department of Education. I got assigned to a high school to help the English departments with their conversation skills. Programs like this exist in many countries (including the United States). The goal is to have a native speaker of a foreign language present to give guidance that a Spanish teacher teaching English wouldn't have solely because it is their second language. I basically visit every single English class once a week to do an interactive, conversational activity that allows the kids to talk to me and vice versa. Because I go to all the English classes and don't have my own, I end up seeing a LOT of kids every week. So far, I feel like I overwhelm the kids because they're not used hearing a native speaker. I wish I could show you guys the faces I see on a daily basis when trying to do an activity.

My City: I live in a city called Santiago de Compostela. It is the northwest area of Spain right above portugal. It is also the ending point of a famous Catholic pilgrimage called El Camino de Santiago. It's a 800 km long piligrimage from Southern France. The reason people do this pilgrimate is about St. James remains are supposedly buried here. I see "peregrinos" all the time here. You are spot them by their huge backpack and walking stick that has a shell with a red cross tied to it. Thousands of people perform this pilgrimage all year so you can imagine that Santiago has a lot of visitors from all over the world. There is also a huge univeristy here that is one of the best in the country. I live right across the street from the south campus and I see students constantly. I live with 3 Spanish girls who are studying there. Besides the camino and the university, this city and this province is absolutely stunning. It is green and moist with rolling hills. It looks a lot like what you would imagine Ireland to look like. Being from Colorado, I'm not sured to so much green. I'm about an hour away from the ocean to the North and West and I've been able to visit it on the weekends.Take a look at my pictures on facebook to get an idea of how beautiful it is here.

My average day: I wake up in the morning, get ready and head to school around 8:30 in the morning. I stay there until about 3pm and then go home. I eat lunch when I get home and then I have private lessons every night. The people that I give private lessons to varies. I have a few 20 somethings and some older groups of women. I love being able to help them with their English while getting to know them. English teaching is interlaced with reading, skyping and drinking a LOT of coffee (It's so good here!)

New Friends: I have made some awesome friends here so far. Right when I arrived, I met up with some other Americans (thank God for facebook) who I've been traveling with and hanging out with. They are amazing. I also have 2 "intercambios" (language exchange partners) who I've developed close friendships with. One is a 25 year old girl named Rosa who lives in the next town over and the other is this 23 year old guy named Enrique. We meet up to speak a little bit of English and Spanish and correct each other. I've loved the conversations that I have with them. We just pick each others' brains over each other's history and culture and customs. I feel like I've learned a lot from them.

Things to get used to: Spanish culture is very different from what I'm used to. For example, they eat lunch at 3 pm and dinner at 9 pm. They also go out a LOT longer than Americans. Bars and clubs don't close until 6-8 in the morning so you'll see people stumbling home around 8. It's hard to stay out that late, but I've been able to do it a few times. I mostly just find myself angerly staring at my Spanish friends as 4 am thinking, "How the heck are you able do to this?"

Final note: I am so incredibly blessed to be here. I am completely in my element. I love other cultures, I love Spanish, I love teaching, I love new adventures. I'm completely immersed in things that I'm passionate about. I don't know why God has blessed me so much with this opportunity but I'm beyond grateful. I know He has me here for a very specific reason because the doors opened so clearly . I have found a lot of time to read, pray, walk and relax. The very least I can say is that God is good. He spoils me. I find myself on a daily basis, walking down the streets of Santiago, listening to Shakira's "Loca" (don't judge me), smiling from ear to ear.

Palma de Mallorca and Feria de Abril

Hey guys!
Sorry I've been a little late on this blog but this last week has been really crazy. I officially have about two weeks left in beautiful Seville before I get on my flight back to the states. As of right now I am in a really good place in terms of my feelings of leaving. I win both ways. One way, I have two weeks left to enjoy the city; the other, I have two weeks before I come home and see all the friends and family that I miss so much. This last week was my "spring break", I guess you could say. Have I mentioned enough times in this blog that school here is an absolute joke? I really am learning a lot in my classes but at the same time, we have had two separate weeks off from school in April: one for Semana Santa and the other for Feria de Abril (I'll explain what that is a little later).

For the first weekend of our break Steph, Kels and I flew to Palma de Mallorca, which is a island off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean. . It's kind of the Florida of Spain. It's very low key with a lot of older people. All the tourists are either German or British and nothing else. It's known for it's beautiful, clear, quiet , white sand beaches. Jack, our British friend who also met us in Paris, also came to meet us in Palma. A lot of our other trips have been to big cities and have been pretty tourist-y so we decided to come to Palma to do only one thing: relax. We were able to find really cheap plane tickets and a really cheap hotel on the coast that overlooked the ocean so our plan was to just lay out all day. The city itself was pretty quiet because it wasn't their busy season. A couple of the days it was rainy and cloudy, so we were forced to stay in our hotel room and rent movies on I-tunes, but when the weather was nice, it was absolutely beautiful. One morning when Jack had already left, Kels, Steph and I went down to the breakfast buffet that our resort had. We were waiting in line to get omelets when the Spanish woman making them asked "Did you guys win yesterday?" We were really confused. Then she said "Your basketball team is good, isn't it?" After talking to her for a little while and being pretty confused on what she was talking about, we realized that she thought that WE were on a basketball team and we had come to Palma to play. I'm 6 feet tall, Steph is like 5 foot 9 and Kels is like 5 foot 6 so I guess you could say we're collectively tall. Instead of correcting her, we just went along with it. She continued to ask us about it the rest of breakfast and the other times that we saw her that week. We just smiled, nodded and said "sí, sí".

We got back to Seville on Tuesday with the rest of the week free to enjoy the Feria de Abril (April Fair). Now, Feria is really hard to explain to someone that doesn't know anything about it and, truthfully, I didn't really know what to expect until I got there. So hang in there while I try to explain it. First of all, it is a HUGE fair. It was started about 100 years ago in order to protest the foreign influence that was coming from the west. As you can imagine, it is about as traditionally Spanish as you can get. During this week, the ENTIRE city shuts down. Stores are closed, the streets in the center of town are almost completely vacant because the fair is located on the outside of town. It is conveniently located 2 blocks from my house. The fair grounds are huge. Half of the fairground is taken over by carnival rides. The other half is taken over by literally hundreds of "casetas" all in rows. This area actually has streets with names with the casetas lining them. Each caseta is a tent much like one that you would have a wedding reception in but smaller. Each one has a dance floor, tables, a bar and restaurant in the back. Almost all of these casetas are private. They are owned by a family and the whole family will invite their whole extended family and all of their friends. They are very hard to get and if you have one, it has probably belonged to your family for many, many years. If you are a native Sevilliano, you usually go to the Feria grounds with many different casetas you can go to because you know a lot of people. These casetas are by invite only and each caseta has a security card that is required in order to enter it. There are even guards at each door. If you are a foreigner who's just coming to the fair, you're probably out of luck. Out of many 500 casetas, there is only 1 large public one that is open to everyone. Inside the tents, there is music, dancing, eating and spending time with your whole family and all of your friends. Imagine 500 small wedding receptions going on side by side in a giant fairground and that's basically how the Feria is.

Also, in true Sevilliano style, there are more traditional aspects as well. Women wear flamenco dresses and men wear suits and ties. Some of the men go all out and wear the short horse riding jackets. EVERY sevilliana woman wears a Flamenco dress. My señora, Pillar, has 3 and Piluca, her daughter, has 4. Women of all ages wear them, from the babies to the grandmas. Take a look at the pictures I took, but the dress also includes wearing a shawl and a flower in your hair. These dresses cost anywhere from 150 to 5000 euros (That's like 200 to 7,000 dollars). I talked to Steph's Spanish dad and he told me that he bought a dress for each of his daughters and the two dresses cost him "only" 2,000 euros. How they afford these things, I have no idea, but it does tell you just how serious the Sevillianos are about the fair. Needless to say, I did not buy a dress. Steph found one for 150 euros which, she was told by many Spaniards, is really cheap. I decided to do what Spaniards do when they've worn their dress 3 days in a row. I put on a regular dress, bought a shawl and put a flower in my hair. Thankfully, I didn't feel too out of place. Also, instead of popular music, only Flamenco music is played and only Sevillianas is danced. Sevillianas is a type of Flamenco that is particular to the Feria. Each sevillianas has for different sets of partner dances within it. Thankfully, Steph, Kels and I took a class in Sevilla that taught us all four dances so we were ready when we got there. Ever sevilliano knows this dance by heart. I personally think it's pretty complicated but the natives make it look so easy. They never get bored of dancing it for hours and hours.

So Wednesday, Thursday, Friday AND Saturday night, Kels, Steph and I were at the fairgrounds. The earliest we went home was 4 in the morning, the latest was 7 in the morning. Lucky for us, we did have a few casetas to go to. Steph's family owns a caseta. Maria (the 19 year old girl who Steph lives with) let us go to a few casetas that her friends owned and we also have some other Spanish friends who let us come into theirs. So basically, I spent 4 nights in a row, eating Spanish food, dancing to Spanish music, wearing Spanish clothes and having fun until the sun rose. I went on rides and I made new friends. I will go as far to say that the Feria was the most fun that I've had this whole semester. One particular night, we couldn't get a hold of any of our Spanish friends to go into a caseta so we just walked around. Within 5 minutes, we had 3 Spanish guys again our age following us begging us to come into their caseta. We thought they were really creepy but they would not leave us alone. We told them that we were going to get some dessert so we couldn't come. They followed and then BOUGHT our dessert for us, while continuing to tell us we had to come back to their caseta. We figured we would stop by, grab a free drink and leave. Turns out that going to that caseta was one of the best decisions we made all weekend. We walked into their caseta and there was a HUGE group of Spanish people our age who welcomed us with open arms. The guys were all super nice and super funny. The girls even danced with us and were patient when we forgot a dance step. We spent probably 4 hours in that caseta before we called it a night. I don't think I will ever forget how much fun it was. I don't think I'll ever forget how amazing that whole week was. It was a dream. I've never had so much fun in my whole life. I also got the amazing chance to really experience a true, traditional Spanish custom. It also cemented the fact that I am fluent in Spanish. I was able to have conversations with my Spanish friends and with strangers with almost no problems. I had been hearing about and looking forward to the Feria this entire semester and I will have to say that I cannot think of a better way to end my time here in Sevilla.

Now it's Monday and it's time to go back to the real world (By real world, I mean back to Seville, which is a dream in itself). I was walking to school today and things are still closed with signs that was "cerrado: descanso de la Feria" which means "Closed: resting from Feria". As you can see, people are still recuperating from the week long party. I officially have 10 days left in Sevilla before we go to Madrid for the LAST weekend and then fly back to the states. That means that I have 10 days left to pack up my stuff, write 2 papers, study for my exams and try to soak up as much of the city as I can. This will be my last blog before I get home so that I can make sure that my time is devoted to all the things I have to do. Please keep watch out for a last and final entry once I get back to the states on the 19th of May.

Also, check out my pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2391197&id=10235591&l=6371c0d933

It's springtime in Sevilla...¡Qué chica tan grande!

So I officially have 4 weeks left overseas and I cannot believe it. Before coming to Spain, our study abroad office at CU gave us a workshop of the "Cultural Appreciation Curve" (or something like that) and they talked about how you will have ups and downs when you are living outside your home country for 4 months. They said that there will be times like when you arrive and you are constantly excited and happy and then there will be other times when you will be sick of foreign food, the different culture and a different language and you will just want to go home. I was also told that about a month before you leave, you will develop a deep, heart-left appreciation for the place where you are living. I think that I have come to that point. Right after Italy, I went through a few days where I was incredibly homesick and just wanted to see my family. But that phase disappeared (not to say that I don't want to see my parents or any of my friends at home because I still miss people) and I feel like I am walking on a cloud. The weather has been between 70-80 degrees without a cloud in the sky for the last 4 days straight. I have fallen in love with this city. I could not ask for a better place to call my home (except Colorado, of course). Leaving here in 4 weeks is the EPITOME of bittersweet.

The last week or so has been a little uneventful in terms of the adventures that I have been having for the last 2 months of non stop traveling, so I'm just going to give you guys some random updates on what I have been up to.

So first of all, the day I after I got back from Italy, the festivities of Holy Week began in Seville. I mentioned this briefly in my last entry, but Semana Santa is a HUGE deal in Seville. It is one of the most important traditional events of the city. It is celebrated in the week leading up to Easter, one to two weeks before the city's other great celebration, the Feria, and is amongst the largest religious events within Spain, internationally renowned for its drama. The week features the procession of pasos, floats of lifelike wooden sculptures of individual scenes of the events of the Passion, or images of the Virgin Mary showing grief for the torture and killing of her son. Some of the sculptures are of great antiquity and are considered artistic masterpieces. I'm in a interest group concentrated on Spanish Art and we went on a field trip to a taller (workshop) where we met a man whose entire career was devoted to making floats for Semana Santa. He works all year long to built ONE float to go through the city only once. During Holy Week, the city is crowded with residents and visitors, drawn by the spectacle and atmosphere.The processions are organised by hermandades and cofradías, religious brotherhoods. During the processions, members precede the pasos (of which there are up to three in each procession) dressed in penitential robes, and, with few exceptions, hoods. They may also be accompanied by brass bands. The processions work along the shortest route from the home churches and chapels to the Cathedral, usually via a central viewing area and back. The processions from the suburban barrios may take 14 hours to return to their home churches. A total of 59 processions are scheduled for the week, from Palm Sunday through to Easter Sunday morning. The climax of the week is the night of Maundy Thursday, when the most popular processions set out to arrive at the Cathedral on the dawn of Good Friday, known as the madrugá. Stephanie's host family has a balcony that overlooks one of the busiest and most important streets in Seville so we got a chance to see some pasos from a balcony looking down, most importantly, we got to see the Virgen del Madrugá. The pasos are carried on the backs of up to 50 men and they travel at all hours, even though the middle of the night. When I was walking at home at 3am in the morning from Steph's host family, it might as well have been the 3pm. There were families everywhere, babies, toddlers, grandparents included. It was like the Thanksgiving Day parade. Because there are so many pasos, up to 5 can be going around the city at the same time, so I saw two more just walking home. It was definitely an amazing experience.

This past weekend, I went with my interest group to Madrid. My program has interest groups, each of them focused on a different subject. I choose Arte Español Moderno y Contemporáneo (Spanish Modern and Contemporary Art). Through out the semester, we have been taking feild trips all over the city to art museums to see and discuss the pieces. The semester ends with a trip that is paid for by the program. Our trip was to Madrid which I didn't know until now is a city with one of the greatest collections of art museums in the world. While we were there, I visited the Museo Nacional del Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza. I got to see some of the most famous paintings in the world by some of the most famous artists in the world. I got to see works by El Greco, Goya, Velazquéz, Murillo, Raphael, Picasso, Dalí, Miró and many others. I got to the Picasso's famous Guernica mural. It was absolutely huge and completely breathtaking. Besides the incredible art I got to see, I also got a cool opportunity to the the AVE train from Sevilla to Madrid. This train goes up to 300 mph is one of the fastest trains in the world. It is usually about a 6 or 7 hour bus ride or hour plane ride from Sevilla to Madrid, but we got there in 2 hours by train. Madrid is truely a magnificant city. While people joke about the fact that the only thing to do there is drink and go to museums, it really is a city that you have to experience simply by walking through its streets. I loved the feel and the atmosphere of a busy Spanish city. I really fell in love with Spain as a whole even more by my trip to Madrid. I walked through the downtown streets and the plazas, hearing the spanish music and the Spanish language and all I could think was "I want to stay here forever, please don't make me go home".

I have one more story before I head off which I think is kind of funny. One thing that I love about Sevilla is that people walk absolutely everywhere. The city is set up in the way that a typical European country is set up, in a way where you don't have to use a car or even a bus at times. I walk probably up to 2 hours a day here. So the sidewalks are always full and I pass the most interesting people. Whereas people in the states like to hum or whistle while they walk, some people in Spain like to SING and loudly. Again, this is completely normal. The other thing that's important to know is that people in Spain are much shorter than people in the states. I am feet tall so when I walk into a bar or down the street, I get a lot of stares, stares I have learned to ignore. Not only do I get stares, I also get a lot of commentary over my height. Everywhere from the grocery store to the coffee shop to homestay with people visit, I am constantly getting "¿Eres muy alta, sí? (You're really tall, right?)" I get it all the time! Part of me wants to scream, "YES! I AM VERY TALL! IS THAT A PROPER WAY TO START A CONVERSATION WITH A STRANGER?" (in Spanish, of course). Anyway, a while back I was walking down the street and a man walked by and he was singing at the top of his lungs. I guess he was making up his song because when we came close to me on the sidewalk, he stopped right in front of me, looked me up and down, held out his hands and sang loudly "Qué chica tan grande!". This means "what a big girl" in Spanish. You would think that this would offend me, but it was probably one of the funniest things I've ever experienced. I was chuckling about it for the rest of the day

So that's all for this week, folks. I'm off to Palma de Mallorca! We have this next week off of school because it's Feria, which is a city carnival that shuts the entire city down once again (this Spaniards know how to have a good time, man). I'll be on the beach for the first part of the week and then testing out my Flamenco at Feria (I've been taking classes here) the second half of the week. Thanks for reading!

pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2387943&id=10235591&l=cf5459fa41

Gondolas, Pigeons and sunlight...Venice and Rome again

Hey guys!

So I'm back in Seville. I've been here a few days but it's Semana Santa (Holy Week) so it's been really hard for me to find an internet cafe that's open for me to use the internet. Also, I am COMPLETELY exhausted from traveling. I literally spent the first two days back in Seville doing absolutely nothing and I spent A LOT of time in bed just trying to get my body back on track after too much food, too little rest and too many sights. I have to be honest, it's been really hard to get back in the swing of things here in Seville, I'm still so tired! But I'm sure school will wake me up because I start up again tomorrow.

Anyway, when I left you last, I had just updated you guys on Florence. From Florence, we took a 2 hour train to Venice, which is at the northeast side of the country. The ride between Florence and Venice wasn't nearly as beautiful as the one between Rome and Florence, which has beautiful Italian countrysides, so we all caught up on our sleep. When we got off the train, it was night outside and we literally walked out of the train station and THERE was the Grand Canal. For those of you that don't know, the ONLY transportation in Venice is by boat. There are no cars, trucks or anything. Thankfully, our hostel was very close to the train station. It was only a short walk and we didn't need to take a water taxi. We had gotten to Venice around 10 o clock so we settled into our hostel, got some dinner and walked around. One note about Italy and Venice in particular: Up to this point, I have been to many different places in Europe, and Italy by far has the rudest people. Our waiter this night was incredibly rude and it set the tone for every other restaurant that we visited in Venice.

The next morning, we woke up, got a 36 hour pass to use the water bus (and that's exactly what is was; it was just like a bus but it was on water) and headed over to St. Mark's Square. On the way, the scenery was amazing. We passed under the Rialto Bridge and by the farmer's market on the Grand Canal. When we got to St. Mark's Square, all of us were really excited about the HUGE amount of pigeons there were. Kelsey had been scaring pigeons in every country and city we've been to so far so we knew that she would have a field day. Part of me thought it was funny that were were so many and part of me just thought it was disgusting. Regardless, we did have some fun chasing them. But these ones were tough, it took a little bit more to actually compel them to move. You nearly had to cause them harm, not such scare them. As much as I was tempted, I did not kick any pigeons. That afternoon we visited The Doge Palace (The Duke's Palace) and St. Mark's Basilica. I really enjoyed St. Mark's Basilica just because it was very different that a lot of the churches we had seen so far. Instead of stained glass and large stones, St. Mark's had gold and jewels everywhere with amazing mosaics of events from the bible. The most interesting part, by far, was the fact that St. Mark's, the gospel writer, tomb was there. After I saw it, it really hit me just how historically important this place is! Italy (Rome especially) is where Christianity took off! This is where the early apostles and followers fought for what they believed and I felt really blessed to feel so close to someone like St. Mark.

The next day, we bought tickets for an afternoon train back to Rome and then just hung out with Venice until we had to leave. We had a few hours left so we shopped around the Rialto Bridge, bought fresh fruit at an outdoor market, ate some pizza and, of course, took the cliché gondola ride. Get ready for probably the funniest story of my whole semester this far. So Kelsey, Steph and I kept joking about how we wanted a very attractive, young gondolier man to take us around Venice in his gondola. So while we were walking by the Rialto Bridge, it was like God heard our request and bought us just what we wanted. Standing on the bridge were two gondoliers: one HOT, young man and another one that looked like he was maybe 45 and not that attractive. I went up to the two of them and asked for a gondola ride. Right as I did, the younger one was being asked by another family (who literally came up at the EXACT same time as we did) so the older one offered to take us. When we got to the dock, the attractive guy was there with the family. Somehow, I think the two gondoliers decided to switch costumers because we ended up with this INCREDIBLY handsome, young gondolier who took us down the Gran Canal. We found out after taking off from the dock that his name was Marco.

So anyway, Marco is taking us through the smaller canals of Venice and is explaining the history and architecture of the buildings around us and we are just dumb in the presence his beauty. We must of had the stupidest grins on our faces as we just stared at him while he rowed. So we were passing under a bridge and Marco says "This is the famous kissing bridge. Do you want a kiss?" We thought he was kidding and we started giggling like idiots. Then under her breath (but not really under her breath; is was really easy to hear), Steph says "Ab-so-lutely". Next thing we know, Marco has got his face 5 inches from hers. We thought he was just going to give her a little kiss on the cheek. That is not what happened. He kissed her and I mean KISSED her. It was not just a peck on the lips. I think the 3 of us were going to die. I wanted to jump out of the boat I was laughing so hard. We couldn't believe it! Afterwards, he continued rowing and I asked "Do you do that to all your customers? Even the old ladies?" Marco said "No." with a grin. A few minutes later, we went under another bridge and Marco said "This is the other kissing bridge." Then he pointed at me and said "Do YOU want a kiss?" And I said "No, I'm good". As cool as that sounded, he had JUST kissed my best friend and I was not having any of that. Next thing I know, he's kissing Steph AGAIN! Much longer than the first time. By the way, there IS a real bridge called the "Kissing Bridge" but there certainly aren't two. Finally, we were back at the dock. We gave him a huge tip and left as fast as we could so we could BURST into laughter when we were out of Marco's sight. Needless to say, it was the most interesting boat ride I have EVER been on.

That afternoon, we took a 5 hour train ride back to Rome to spend one more full day before we flew back to Seville. It was really nice to have a free day in Rome without any huge pressure to do anything because we got a lot of things done the first time we went to Rome. We woke up on our last day and decided to go back to the Coliseum. We had seen the outside at the beginning of the week, but we wanted to go back to get a full tour of the inside, which we had not seen yet. We found a tour that would take us through the Coliseum and would also take on a tour of the Roman Forum which is located right next to the Coliseum. It was amazing to see just how little of the original buildings are left. They really are just skeletons of what they used to be because over thousands of years, people in Rome would use material from the ruins to build new things. This is why the Trevi fountain is made out of marble taken from the Coliseum. I was also extremely surprised and excited to learn that right next to the Forum is a church (it wasn't originally a church, but it became a church later) that contains the prison where St. Paul and St. Peter were held before they were both martyered. This was by far my favorite sight to visit in Rome and was also the one that I took most seriously. I walked down a flight of stairs and was actually standing in the stone cell were Paul and Peter had been. There was also a column there that they used to tie them to and flog them. Being there was extremely powerful. I had the amazing opportunity to see what they saw and to try (with no success) to imagine myself in their position. I also found out that they baptized other prisoners waiting for execution while there were held down there. I will never forget that small cell for the rest of my life.

The next day we got up at the crack of dawn to come back to Seville! How blessed am I? This trip was such a gift and it was everything I could have asked for and more. Sadly, I forgot to bring my camera so I was depending on Steph, Kels and Sarah to take all the pictures. I stole some pictures from them to place on this blog. If you want to see more, you should check out Kelsey's photo bucket account: website: http://www.photobucket.com/, username: kelseymcwhirter, password: sevilla. Thanks again for reading my novels! See you next week!

P.S. The guy with us in the picture above is Marco, the gondolier

I've never had so much gelato and cappuccino in my LIFE. Florence

Hey guys! I'm on a train once again but this time I'm on a train from Venice back to Rome. I didn't get a chance to write about Florence on the train ride from Florence to Venice so I'm going to write about it now and write about Venice and my last day in Rome when I get a chance. On a side note, I heard that yesterday there was a huge earthquake 60 miles outside of Rome. As you probably already know because you are reading these words, I am completely fine. I was in Venice when it happened which is a good 5 hours by train from Rome. One of the only reasons I knew that there was an earthquake in Italy was because I received some nervous emails asking me if everything is all right. Thanks be to God, but Kels, Steph, Sarah and I didn't feel a thing and were completely unaffected by it.

On Friday night, we arrived in Rome and took a taxi to our hostel. It has been a huge blessing that the majority of people that we have encountered here have spoke English, but this was not the case with the gentleman who was running the taxi. We just pointed to the address and he took us to our hostel. When we got there, I opened the door to get out and he said something to me in Italian. I think he told me to either close or open the door to the car. I obviously didn't understand so he started SCREAMING the same thing over and over again to me. So I just got out of the car. I thought "sure, buddy, just scream louder and then I'll magically understand what you're saying". That night, we met up with Stephanie's dad and sister. They had actually been in Seville a few days earlier to visit Steph and then went to Italy afterwards and we were in Florence on the same day. We also met up with Steph's friend, Alex from her sorority, who is studying in Florence for the semester. It was really nice to talk to someone who knew their way around and had no problem showing us all the right places to go to see, eat and hang out. That night all 7 of us went to dinner and then went to a bar to have a drink.

That next morning, we met up with Steph's dad and sister to have a quick lunch, cappuccino and dessert before the two of them left for Rome. Before coming to Italy, I knew that there were a few things that I needed to eat because they were Italian and cappuccinos were high on my list. Obviously, pizza, pasta and gelato are also on my list and I cannot even explain to you how much I have been eating of all of them. Anyway, this afternoon we went to a cappuccino bar that probably had the best cappuccino I've ever had in my life. For the much of the rest of the day, we just wandered around Florence. It seems like Florence is the Italian version of Seville. While there were differences between the two of them, Florence REALLY reminded me of Seville. For example, it's based next to a river, it's main attraction is a huge cathedral, MANY Americans study there and you can walk absolutely everywhere in the whole city within 40 minutes. The weather wasn't amazing on Saturday, it was a little dreary and rainy, but it fit the city perfectly. It gave the entire city a green, grey and brown shade. We went to a huge outdoor market (very common in Europe)and visited the Duomo (the huge cathedral). My favorite part of the day was hiking up to La Piazza de Michelangelo. From the Piazza, we could see a view of the entire city. The other cool thing about Florence is that it is surrounded by mountains, so it seems like a mixture between Salzburg and Seville. We hiked up a little more to a church that gave us an even better view. For some reason, at the church there were a lot of groups of Italian teenagers who were calling us really bad names (none of them that I will mention here) simply because we were there . We never really knew why, we literally just walked by them and had multiple people cuss at us (maybe it was the flip flops, they're not well-liked in Europe). I didn't let that take away from the breathtaking view on the steps of the church. Not only could you see all of Florence, but you could also see the deep green hillsides that surrounded it. That night, we met up with Alex again, went to a few bars and ended our night at a dance club called Space. It was a little funny because Sarah didn't know that the club was called "Space" so we were at one bar and I said "I really want to go to Space" and then Sarah starts this whole conversation about how she thought that being an astronaut would be terrifying. It was only when we got to the club that she realized I was talking about the club and not outer space.

The next day we woke up and we knew that we had to move kind of fast because we had to catch a train to Venice that afternoon. Florence is the historical and current center of Italian art and it is famous for all of its art museums, mainly the Academy Gallery which has Michelangelo's David. We started our day bright and early and walked over to the Ufizzi Museum which is famous for its works by Raphael, Michelangelo and Botelli. We had heard that the line was about a half and hour long. Turns out that it was about 4 and a half hours. Thankfully, after standing in line for 45 minutes with it barely moving, we bought a pass that lets you come back at a specified time. So we were able to walk around the city for a few hours and then come back. I got to the "The Birth of Venice" and I've decided that Botticelli is my favorite artist (even though I don't think that I had one before). I've never been a huge fan of art, but Botticelli blew me away. I was convinced I could have stayed there for hours staring at one piece where the Angel Gabriel visits the Virgin Mary. Sadly, I had to tear myself away because we needed to get to the David before our train left. While part of it seemed a little silly to stand in an hour line to see a statue, but Michelangelo does not disappoint. I know that this is pretty general, but this statue was a recreation of probably the most perfect, beautiful human I have ever seen in my life. We sat there for a good half hour just staring at the body wondering HOW Michelangelo made his skin and his muscles SO realistic. It's obviously stone, but it really looks like his surface is flesh and bone. It's seriously magic. Plus, it's a LOT bigger than I thought it would be. It was overwhelming. I'm officially a HUGE fan. That afternoon, we got on our train to Venice. I should also mention that in between just about everything we did in Florence, we stopped for gelato (Walk around, stop of gelato, hike to piazza, gelato, museum, gelato, David, gelato, etc.) Europe has gelato everywhere, but Florence tops them all. I'm sure my arteries are clogged, but hey, you're only in Italy once ;).

I am full of pasta and pizza...Rome

This was written on April 3rd...

Hey guys!
So I am on the train between Rome and Florence right now as I am writing this. I am looking at the window at green hillsides, country houses and sheep and pastures out the window. I'm thinking that because I will be in Italy for 8 days and every single day will be packed with stuff, I'll write a blog while I'm on the train between cities in order to best document my trip. The reason why we are able to spend a whole week in Italy is because it's holy week and we don't have school. Here's our itinerary for this week. We flew out of Seville on Wednesday night (we skipped school on Thursday and don't have school on Friday) and just spend two days in Rome. Now we’re on a train to Florence where we'll spend two more days. After that we'll take a train to Venice, spend two days there and THEN take a train back to Rome to spend two more days before flying back to Seville in time for Good Friday and Easter. How many times can I say I can't believe how blessed I am?

So we flew into Rome two days ago and have been having the time of our lives. After getting into the Rome airport and checking into our hostel (Kelsey booked us an AMAZING hostel, it was just as good as a hotel), we decided to venture out into the neighborhood to get something to eat. Let me tell you something right now, every single meal that I have had since I have been here has been one of the most amazing meals I have eaten in my entire life. Just about 80 percent of the restaurants I've seen here have had pasta and pizza. I don't know if that's a tourist thing or if it really IS the only thing that Italians eat. We woke up the next morning, got dressed, ate some more amazing food and then went to a hotel to meet our tour guide for a tour of Italy. Nancy, Steph's mom, had heard of this amazing tour from multiple travel guides. During this tour, an English-speaking driver picks you up, takes you to all the important landmarks in Rome and tells you all about the historical significance. She was so excited about it that she offered to pay for it for us as a gift (WHAT a gift, right?). So we are standing outside the hotel and we see this Mercedes Benz parked across in front. When we ask the guy at the front desk, he tells us that this is the right car. We go up to the window and there's this big Italian guy reading a book. We knock and the window and say "Is this the tour of Italy?". He nods. We get in the car and everyone is dead silent; the driver doesn't introduce himself or say hi or anything. Steph asks "So how does this work?". The driver says in a THICK Italian accent "I don't understand". Silence and shifty eyes begin. Then he says "Where do you want to go?" We, knowing nothing about Rome, say "Wherever you want". So basically, as you can see, this is not what we expected. He did try to explain to us information about Rome, but his English was HORRIBLE so we didn't really learn anything. If we asked questions he would say "I don't understand." BUT overall, it was still AMAZING. Even though we didn't get any information, he did take us to the Trevi Fountain, The Coliseum, the Spanish Steps, the Forum, The Pantheon and some other important spots all in 3 hours. Even though Nancy was furious that the tour wasn't what she was told, to say that we were spoiled that day would be an understatement.

While we were on this tour, we turned a corner to drive down this really narrow, one way road in between two buildings. As we did, literally hundreds of tourists in the street had to squish up against the walls in order to get out of our way. People were GLARING at us through the windows. We were also in a Mercedes so people would peek in our windows as we drove by. Just to be funny, I started waving out the windows. Kels and Steph joined. Soon we had even MORE people peering in our windows and I had tourists as far as the eye could see waving BACK. I think from my confident waving, they might have thought we were famous or they should know who we are. It was hilarious.

Later that night, our friend Sarah who goes to CU and is also studying in Sevilla met up with us. We went on a Spanish Steps pub crawl and were taken around Rome to some really good bars where we met some really cool English speaking people (from Britain, New Zealand and Canada) and had a really good time talking about all of our travel adventures. It's pretty normal to find English speaking people in big tourist cities because it's a heck of a lot harder to hang with someone who isn't good at your language. Also I'm not going to lie, I LOVE listening to all the different accents.

The next morning, we woke up and went to the Vatican. I think that out of everything in Rome, the Vatican was the sight that I was the most excited about seeing. While I am not Catholic, one of my best friends from high school is Catholic and I find it SO interesting. Also, I love the history of the Christian church in Rome. We got there and figured that we would spoil ourselves with a guided tour through the city because we were a little sick of going to these awesome sights and having no idea why they were so important. It really was worth the extra money. We learned SO much about Roman and Christian history. I saw the Sistine Chapel and was blown away. My favorite section of the ceiling is "the touch" (even though they're not touching) between Adam and God. It was so cool to see the God was reaching so far to try to reach Adam and Adam is barely lifting a finger in response. It really was breathtaking but I have to say it hurt my neck haha. Then we continued on to St. Peter's Basilica and the Square. After the Sacra Coeur in Paris, this church was one of my favorite churches I've seen in Europe (trust me, I have seen A LOT). It was also HUGE. Sadly, the line to the top of the Culpa was extremely long and we had to catch a train, so I didn't get to go to the top of the dome. But it was interesting because the Pope was in the Vatican City, even though I didn't see him. It was just cool to know that he was there. So After the Vatican City, we got on our train to Florence.

So that's about it for this post, I'll write about Florence on my next train ride to Venice in two days. Hopefully, I can find a place that has wifi so I can post these while I'm here and not just put up 3 blogs at once when I get back. Thanks again for reading!

P.S. The weather in Rome was STUNNING. I had read before we left Spain that it was going to be cloudy and rainy all day the two days we were going to be there, but to our surprise, it was sunny and the sky was so BLUE. Only down side was I left the hostel with my rain boats, sweater, jacket and umbrella. Needless to say, I had a lot of extra things to carry that day.

What a nice little weekend! Barcelona

So I am sitting in the university and I literally have about 10 minutes before I have to leave to go home, eat and get on a plane to Italy, so I figured I would give you guys a check update about Barcelona this last weekend. Barcelona was really awesome. It was nice to go someplace IN Spain and be able to speak the language because I was lost in terms of Germany, Portugal and Paris. This weekend was especially nice because it was really different from our other weekend trips. First of all, when we went to Munich and Paris, we literally had to fit an ENTIRE city in in one day. That meant that we woke up early, ate really fast, ran around non stop all day and then went to bed really late. We of course had great experiences in these places but they were PACKED and very, very busy. We were in Barcelona for just about 3 complete days, had a hostel in the middle of the city and came without a lot of information about what we could even do. I knew that Barcelona is one of the biggest cities in Spain, it hosted the Olympics in the 90s and it's on the coast, but that's about all I knew about it. In terms of sights, I was sure there were things to see, I just didn't know what they were. Thankfully, I have a friend who is studying in Barcelona and she made a complete list of what we should do while we were there. Also, because we had 3 days instead of one, we actually had time to sleep in and not rush through every meal. We were actually able to sit, have a cup of coffee and not feel like we had to rush through it.

I literally have about 5 minutes to finish this blog, so I'll just list the things that we did and maybe you can google them if you don't know what they are?

1. Mont Juic

2. Parc Guell

3. Clubs and bars at Port Olimpic

4. Las Ramblas

5. La Boqueria (HUGE outdoor market)

6. Fountain show at Mont Juic

7. Cristobal Colon Monument

8. Ate AMAZING spanish food

9. SAGRADA FAMILIA (absolutely beautiful, please wikipedia this one, it was probably my favorite thing we did)

Now here's a couple stories. First of all, our "private" hostel was HUGE. We asked for a private room with 4 beds but they gave us something that was closer to an apartment. This place had two huge bedrooms with 6 beds in each one. It also had a dining area, living room with couches, and a washroom. These weren't even public areas for everyone in the hostel, this whole place was part of our "private" room that you could only get to with our key. There were other common areas OUTSIDE our private common areas. It was insane. We could literally choose with out of 12 beds we wanted. Sorry if I'm not doing a good job of explaining what it was like.

Also, Kels and I missed our bus from the center of Barcelona to the airport which was like an hour outside of the city. Because we did, the only way we could get there on time was to take a taxi for an HOUR. It cost 150 euros (about 200 dollars). I cried. But what can you do?

Overall, it was a lovely trip. Perfect relaxation before ITALY!

thanks for keeping up!

Miss you lots!

P.S. I haven't been able to return any emails so please forgive me, we are busy busy busy. I'll write you guys back after Italy!