It's sunny in Seville! Catedral and Cadiz Carnaval

Hey guys!

Here I am again for my weekly update. I still cannot believe that I am so blessed to be here. I know that I didn't do anything to deserve this but I walk around this city and constantly think "HOW am I think blessed? How am I THIS lucky?" I've been here a little more than a month and I can tell you that I have not been homesick at all, which is really good because I really thought I would be before I left. It's not that I don't miss Colorado or people at home (because I do), but I am delighting in everything here. I am doing my best to soak up this place and this culture and I am loving every single minute of it. I know that I haven't talked about this in a while, but things with my host family are really looking up. In one of my first posts, I said that I was disappointed because they don't make an effort to get to know me, no matter how much I try to get to know them. I never ever see my hermanos or my senora and when they are home, they stay in their rooms. Things haven't changed, but I'm beginning to really like my living situation. First of all, I LOVE the alone time that I have here. After living in the dorms, living in a sorority house and living with friends, it is so nice to come home to my own room and do whatever I want. I have so much time to read, which is something I NEVER had in the states. Also, because I don't get to practice my Spanish at home, I'm encouraged to find places to practice elsewhere. Not only do I find people to practice with every single time I go out at night, I have two people that I have been meeting with a couple times a week to just sit and practice with. One of them is my friend Daniel (pronounced like the American "Danielle"). About two weeks ago, he walked right up to my on the street and asked if I was American. I said yes and he told me that he wanted to meet up practice his English. I told him that would be fine, as long as we could practice Spanish also. Since then, we meet up every couple days and walk all over the city just talking to each other, eating tapas and learning things about each other's cultures. He's 24, just graduated from the university and is studying for an exam that will get him a job with the Andalusian government. I've also been meeting with a guy named Alejandro. Alejandro was actually assigned to me by my program. He's 26, just graduated and is working on learning English. His English is not nearly as good as Daniel's, but he helps me out just as much with my Spanish. While my Spanish has a lot of room to grow, I really think that my Spanish is getting better every single day. Also, because my classes are all in Spanish, my listening it getting better too. I'm a lot more comfortable to speak to people I don't know and yesterday I was in a cafe watching the news and I could understand absolutely everything they were saying!

On Saturday afternoon, I met up with Steph and went to La Catedral. I honestly have no idea how I've been in Seville for almost a month and haven't gone inside this place. It is probably the #1 thing to visit while you are Seville. I said in another blog that I walk by it every single day on the way to class. It's the largest Gothic cathedral in the world and it the 4th biggest catedral in the world (I think when I wrote about it before, I was incorrect about the information). It was built in 1402. Attached to the Cathedral, is a huge bell tower that towers stories over the city. You can see absolutely all of Seville from this tower because nothing else in the city is remotely as tall. Here's a link for more pictures that I took from the top. These pictures start on the 2nd page of the album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2357567&id=10235591&l=332f4

Saturday night, I went to one of the most famous events in all of Spain. I went to the Cadiz Carnaval: the Mardi Gras of Europe. Cadiz is on the southern coast of Spain and it holds probably the biggest party in the whole country every year before Lent. On this night, hoards of people from all over to Spain take planes, trains and buses to this city to meet up, dress up, parade, drink, dance and sing. It's a lot like Halloween in the fact that you have to dress up. I decided to dress up like a Mexican because the costume store had the costume set and I thought it would be funny. It was pretty hilarious because I kept trying to explain that I wanted the Mexican costume and the lady kept telling me there wasn't a female mexican costume. I told her I wanted the MALE Mexican costume and she did not understand at all. I finally got it thought. Not only did I have a poncho and a sombrero, I also bought a huge, hairy, ugly bigote (mustache). I didn't really think my costume was THAT funny, but people seemed to think that it was a HIT. For example, on my bus ride down to Cadiz (it's about 2 hours away) they had a costume contest and I won. I won a free trip to a pretty popular beach town in Spain. Also, when I was walking arounf, people kept wanting to take pictures with me because of my costume. My bigote fell off after a while, so I had to draw another one on with an eyeliner pencil. Anyway, Cadiz was just as you could imagine. SO many people, all of them drunk. It was crowded and there were people as far as the eye could see. It was difficult to move around or see what was going on simply because there were SO many people, all of them drunk or on drugs when I was completely sober. Overall, I'm glad that I made the trip down there to see it, but it was a little bit too much for me. By the end of the night, me and Steph sat down in a grassy area and ate churros and just watched all the crazy people walk by. I did get some awesome pictures. The costumes that people had were insane and clever. There were too many drag queens to count, Waldos from "Where's Waldo", soccer players, ninjas and hundreds of others. My bus left to return at 6 am in the morning and I didn't "go to bed" until 9 am in the morning. As you can probably guess, I spent all of yesterday sleeping.

So next weekend, I'll be going on that free trip to the beach, which I'm really excited about because the weather is getting better everyday. My birthday is in a little less than two weeks and I'm working on planning a trip to Portugal on that weekend. Steph, Kels and I also bought plane tickets to Paris, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca. In the mean time, thanks for continuing to read this!

Until next time!

Pictures of Cadiz: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2365562&id=10235591&l=8cb62

I'm known to be long winded...GERMANY

Hey guys!
So I just got back from Munich, Germany today and I am so happy that I went. I was a little apprehensive about going to Munich, because the only reason we bought tickets was because they were cheap. Neither Stephanie, Kelsey nor I came to Spain with intentions of going to Germany, but because it looked convenient, we ended up buying them and going. It was also a little bit of a stretch because we knew that we would be leaving sunny, 70 degree, Southern Spain to go to snowy, 30 degree Munich. We also were arriving with absolutely no idea what to DO in Munich, because we were so unfamiliar with the city. But I figured it would be a nice adventure to try out. We flew out of Seville right after school on Thursday (we don’t have schools on Friday), got in at about 10pm that night and checked in to our hostile. Nothing was really open by the time we got there so we decided to have a seat at the bar in the hostel and chat with the guys that ran the place. Pretty carelessly, I asked the bartender “What stuff should be we do tomorrow?” I thought maybe he would rattle of a few suggestions, but then he got out a pen and paper and made an ITINERARY by the hour for us, complete with a circled underground (like the subway) map and city map. So we woke up bright and early the next morning and began to do everything on his list.

We had breakfast at Café Beethoven and then took the underground to Marienplatz, the main square in Munich where the Town Hall is located. After wandering around a little bit and sight seeing, we hopped on the free walking tour of Munich. The guy who led it was absolutely hilarious and I think that Steph, Kelsey and I were a little sleep deprived because we kept saying the most random things to him. On the tour, we got to learn a lot about German history and saw some pretty cool things. One of the main things that we saw was the Glockenspiel, which is the town hall which has a giant bell tower. Every day at 11 and noon, the bell tower goes off to reveal dancing mannequins and a bird that sings. Even the tour guide said that it was the most overrated thing in all of Munich. But the 3 of us were still excited to see the biggest cuckoo clock we’d ever seen. We also saw the Peterskirche, which Munich’s oldest church, and The Rauhaus, which is the old town hall which now is a toy museum.

After the walking tour, we took the underground and another bus to visit the Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site. This memorial was built of the former site of the National Socialist’s first concentration camp. This concentration camp is unique in history because not only was it a concentration camp, but if was the place where Nazis were trained on how to run other concentration camps. The model for prisoner treatment was invented here. We knew that this would be a very depressing trip, but at the same time, we knew that we had to go witness what was there. Our tour guide was incredibly helpful; he is actually writing a book right now about the Holocaust so it was interesting to have long conversations with him about its history. It was a little ironic that it was so cold when we visited it, because it looked like a cold, snowy, waste land. While a lot of it was destroyed during the liberation, there were still original parts, like the work quarters and the gas chamber. The 3 of us left that place with changed hearts and a better understanding of the extent of human ability.

Fortunately, our emotions got a little better as the night went on. After the concentration camp we went to the Hofbräuhaus, which is a huge, historic beer house in downtown Munich. It was here that Hitler and the Nazi party held functions and declared policies. Despite its negative past, today, it is very lively with world-famous beer, German music, German food and traditional dress. The food was AMAZING. This was probably my favorite place to go. Sadly, our time got short when 3 older German men would not leave us alone until we moved tables to hang out with them. They also spoke hardly any English so we couldn’t tell them that we didn’t want to go with them (How do you say “leave us alone” in German?). They kept harassing us and hovering around our table, so we left. After some dessert and some wine at another cafe, we took the underground to an area called Kultfabrik, which is a street that has 14 bars and night clubs. You pay 5 euros and you can go into every single one and yes, we did go to every single one. Of course we did not drink at every single one (I actually didn’t even drink at the clubs) but we danced to a song and took a picture in every single one. We back to our hostel at around 3 am, just enough time to rest up before our trip to Salzburg.

We were all really happy that our day in Munich went so smoothly and that we had so much fun. We hoped that our day in Salzburg, Austria would be just as successful but sadly, it was a little unlucky for us. We had planned to go on the sound of music tour when we arrived, but we literally got to the hotel minutes after the only tour of the day had left. I cannot even explain how disappointed we were. We didn’t really have anything planned besides the tour, so we got some Austrian food (amazing) and walked around the town. We did take a cable car up to the top of a mountain and got to visit the church where the Sound of Music wedding was filmed, which were incredibly beautiful. It was snowing and SO cold, so even walking around was literally impossible. Plus, for some reason, all the shops, museums and landmarks closed at 6am. It seemed like the entire town shut down at 6. The hotel website told us that they show “The Sound of Music” nightly, but they said it was broken. We literally went out and BOUGHT the Sound of Music. The hotel was nice enough to let us use one of their conference rooms to watch it because there weren’t DVD players in the rooms. So we bought some chocolate, got in our PJs and watched “The Sound of Music” in our hotel.

The next day, we took the 2 hour train back to Munich, got on a plane and came back to Seville. Going to Germany was one of the most random things I have done in my whole life. We went on a complete whim, but looking back, it was one of the most fun weekends in my whole life. This was my first weekend trip to another European country this semester and I don’t know if any of my future weekends will top this one. I’m excited to find out though. Now I back in Seville, attending classes. Next weekend, I am taking a trip to Cadiz to go to the world famous Carnaval. This is the Mardi Gras of Europe. I’m a little nervous to see how crazy it is because I’ve heard it’s insane, but I am planning on being a respectful, intelligent person while I am there. But you all will hear about it in my next blog! Thanks for reading! Sorry this is so long again!

Love,
Michelle

here are pictures: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2363886&id=10235591&l=0e27b

Wait...I'm gonna have to STUDY while I'm here?

Hey guys!
So it's been a week since my last post and I'm here once again to give an update. This will be a little hard because there isn't really one huge event to talk about because I haven't traveled anywhere in the last week and I didn't go on any excusions. The only things that are coming to mind to update you on is a variety of small things that have happened to me this last week, so I'll try my best to make this as interesting as possible.

So last week, I finished my "intensive spanish course" which was a 3 hour a day class that was supposed to be solely Spanish grammar.. To tell the truth, I didn't really like the class. It was a little discouraging because I really needed a intense review on my grammer and I feel like we spent the majority of the time in class discussion talking about estereotypes, spanish customs and spanish/american relations. But the class did require me to visit some museums and cultural sites around the city and write papers on them, which was interesting. But overall, I feel like the class didn't really strengthen my ability to speak Spanish. Yesterday, I started my regular session classes. I am in love with them and I think that they will be A LOT better than my intensive session class. I am taking 4 classes total. Two of them are at my study abroad center and two of them are AT the University of Seville. This building used to be a tabacco factory like 200 years ago. This building is older than the United States! It's beautiful though. I'm so excited that every single one of my classes, no matter the subject, is taught in Spanish. Even my economics class. Right now, I'm having a little trouble understanding EVERYTHING that they're saying, but I usually get the jist of it. My teachers are awesome and I am really excited about what I'm going to learn this semester. This semester, I am taking an economics class, a religious history in spain class, a spanish film class and a contrastive grammer class. All of my teachers are teachers from the univerisity and I love them. The really funny thing about Spain is that EVERYONE smokes. Today in my religion class, the teacher was smoking a cigarette while he was lecturing and I heard that that is very common.

So as for fun, I didn't travel anywhere this last weekend, I just spent the weekend in Seville. On Friday night, I went out with Steph, Kels, Steph's hermana, Maria (the girl she lives with), and Maria's boyfriend. It was so nice to go out with Spaniards, because it can get really easy to hang out with Americans constantly. The two natives took us to some Flamenco bars. Now, let me tell you one thing: Flamenco is HUGE in Spain. Before coming to Spain, I assumed it was more of a tourist thing and Flamenco was only something that foreigners would pay to see in a show. While you can pay to see it in a show, Spaniards go to Flamenco bars and dance Flamenco, much like Americans go to a swing club to dance swing. But while only a few Americans can swing dance, ALL Spaniards can dance Flamenco. I'm pretty sure I'm going to try to find a class here. Even though the places that we went to were a lot of fun, I didn't know how to do a thing so I felt like the tall American who was just staring at other people. I stuck out like a sore thumb because I think we were the only Americans in the bar. But at the same time, I LOVED the atmosphere of the live music and all the Spanish people dancing.

The next night (Saturday) was the Real Betis vs. Sevilla soccer game. Seville has two soccer teams and this was the night that they play each other. It's interesting because the rivalry between the two teams is VERY intense. You are either for Betis, or for Sevilla; there is no middle, you must choose. From what I've heard, this choice can tear families apart and ruin friendships. Think of it as the CU and CSU of Spain. So I went out with Steph, Kels, Maria and about 5 of Maria's guy friends (all Spanish). I cannot even tell you how much I loved hanging out with Spaniards and being able to practice Spanish. We went to a bar in the centro of Sevilla and ate tapas and watched the game. Betis won that night so I told them all that I'm for Betis. It's amazing to see how excited the people are about soccer here. Not only do they cheer, but they sing and dance. Each team has its own song (much like a fight song) that they sing when they score. After the game, mobs of people were in the streets waving their team's banner. I really really hope that I can make it to a soccer game while I'm here because they look like a state college football game on speed.

One of the biggest lessons that I've learn from being here is the importance of relaxing in life. The lifestyle here is so different than in the United States. Here, there isn't a rush to do anything. They walk slower (honestly), eat slower and do things based on what they feel and not "what is correct". For example, a LOT of people live with their parents until they're 30, even if they have a good job and a girlfriend of 4 years. When you ask them why they don't get married and move out, they say "what's the rush?" Also, it's hard to find anywhere where you can get a coffee to go. It's normal to sit and enjoy your coffee, not grab a coffee on the way to work. There really isn't a rush to "find the right job" or the "right person" or the "right lifestyle". They can go through life very carefree. While I think that there are pros and cons to this lifestyle, I really am learning the importance of enjoying where I am, no matter where that might be.

Because I've been meeting and hanging out with more Spaniards each week, my Spanish is continuing to improve. I'm so excited to see how it is when I leave because I feel like I've learned so much while I've been here. I'm beginning to feel more comfortable asking questions and using my spanish. I also joined "tuente" which is Spain's facebook and I actually have a few spanish friends on it! This weekend I'm going to Munich with Steph and Kels! It'll be our first great adventure while we're here! I'm sure you'll here about it in my next post...

Thanks for reading, guys!

Granada and other adventures of this week!

Hey guys! So this time, I will try my best to be comprehensible in this blog (if you didn't read the blog before this about my horrible grammer, please do :-) ). I'm sitting yet again in an internet cafe frantically returning emails, checking schedules, looking up trips and updating my blog. Today, it is really foggy. I had to walk across a bridge over the Guadalquivir River in order to get to this cafe and while I was walking, it was so foggy I couldn't even see the end of the bridge. Even though I'm close to the mediterranean, it's still winter here, which doesn't mean snow, but it is usually cloudy, cold and rainy. If the city is this beautiful when it is constantly rainy and cloudy, I can't imagine how beautiful it will be when it gets to be spring. A guy in a cafe a couple days ago told me "Espera dos semanas, no podrá creerlo" (just wait two weeks, you won't believe it). It's even more interesting for me because I'm from Colorado where the sun is constantly shining and there is never rain. I actually had to buy an unbrella and rainboots!


I had a little bit of a hard time getting started and settled in here, but I am getting happier and seeing more of the beauty in things every single day. Everyday, I walk to school and I get to walk through the center of town where El Catedral is located. This Gothic cathedral is the third largest church in the world after The Vatican and Notre Dame in Paris. IT IS HUGE! I haven't gone inside yet, but I get to see the beautifully decorated exterior every day on my way to class; I literally walk right in front of it. Last week was my first week of class and I really enjoyed it. I'm in an intensive course of Spanish grammar, so it's 3 hours straight of grammar, but I really do love it. I like anything that will immerse me in the language. I have one more week of this intensive session before the regular session begins. The funny thing is my school, along with EVERYTHING else in Seville, does not have central heating and only has stone walls and tile floors. I don't think I have ever taken my coat off while I've been in class. One thing that I'm getting used to is constant cold. The inside of the buildings and houses here are JUST as cold as the outside. Again, I cannot wait until Spring comes but I really am finding the joy in the beautiful rainy days here and I don't mind my coat.


This weekend, I took a trip to Granada which is about a 3 hour bus ride from Sevilla. This moorish city is nessled right up against the Sierra Nevada mountains. While Sevilla is similar, Granada really is the center of Moorish Culture. The term "moorish" applies to its mixture of Christian and Muslim cultural influences. In the 1200s, this area was strictly under Muslim rule and a few centuries later, it was ruled by Catholics. Many of the churches here are actually old mosques. There is still a lot of Muslim influences here in the architecture. If you took at my pictures, you might be able to see what I am talking about. When we arrived there, we were given our rooms and settled in. My friend Steph is in my program so she was there with me, but because Kels isn't in my program, her program will go to Granada another weekend. First, we took a walk through the old barrios that were built high up into the mountain. The houses are hundred of years old and the cloudy day really brought out a beautiful side of the old buildings. From most of the places that we walked, you could look across to another mountain and see the Alhambra, which is an old palace for the Muslim leaders. During our walk, we stopped at the Cathdral of Granada, which holds the tombs of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, the Catholic Royalty who ruled Spain from Granada during the late 1400s and early 1500s. They were the king and queen who funded Christopher Columbus's vovage where he discovered America. After walking through the old barrios we went down to the center of town and took a break at the Teteria, which is an Arabic tea house. We were given all kinds of Arabic hot teas and little pastries. The whole house was covered in colorful fabric and gold embroidery. You could also sit on the ground on huge pillows. I really did feel like I was in Aladdin. After that, we got to walk around to the shops, which were mostly all really Arabic influenced. You could buy carpets, belly dancing outfits, jewelry, hookahs and all kinds of things. That night, I went out to a few bars and had something called a Shwarma which is an Arabic food. It's a cross between a burrito and a gyro. Let me tell you right now, this might be sad, but I think that that was the highlight of my trip. I don't think I have ever tasted something so delicious and rich. Steph and I shared one and we got in a little argument because the other one kept hogging it (okay, maybe I was just hogging it). I honestly was considering skipping the free lunch they gave us the next day just so I could get another one of those things.


The next morning, I got to visit El Alhambrah which is an ancient Moorish palace and fortress for Muslim leaders. This huge palace is built into the side of the Sierra Nevadas and overlooks the entire city of Granada. I was there for about 3 hours (again, this place is HUGE) and took maybe 120 pictures. I really can't explain it here, but it was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Everything from the high towers to the the large courts where kings lived and ruled to the gardens took my breath away. The sad thing is that I took so many pictures, but none of these pictures can even attempt to recreate and the sights that I saw. I put my pictures of facebook and I picked the best ones (because I don't think you guys want to look through 120 pictures, even if they are beautiful). Part of me was a little disappointed that the weather was so cold and rainy while we were at the Alhambra, but at the same time, I think that it eccentuated the scenery. I would look out at the Sierra Nevadas and Granada from the tower and see the clouds and the tints of grey, blue and green everywhere. Again, it was really cold, but I did my best to ignore it and concentrate on the sights around me. I signed up for this trip not knowing a thing about Granada, but after leaving, I am so thankful that I took it.


Now, today is Monday and I am back in Sevilla. This morning, I went to The Museum of Flamenco to do research for a paper I have in class. Flamenco is amazing and it was really cool to see its origens and how significant it is to Spanish culture. I'm going to a Flamenco bar the next chance I get. I have school tonight and later today, Steph, Kels and I are planning on getting together to research weekend and Spring break trips we want to take while we are in Europe. I'm also hoping that I will some time to read the book I'm reading, Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, which I think is PERFECT to read while you are in a foreign country (google it, man), plus I'm addicted to it. I just finished The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. I'm loving the fact that I have a lot of free time to read here. Also, things in my homestay are getting better and better, so thanks for the prayers. I have accepted the fact that my hermanos (my spanish brother and sister) don't really want to get to know me. But my señora (my spanish mother) has been so much warmer and loving to me. No, we don't talk all the time, but she has been nothing but kind and loving to me. She calls me guapa when I talk to her or when we say good bye on the phone. We talk during meals and when I run into her in the kitchen. She's really good at giving me space when I want to relax or do school work in my room and is just as nice when I want to talk to her. I'm going to start going to more activities that help me interact with more Spaniards now that the Sevillian college students are out of exams. There's not a whole bunch going on this next week that I can think about but thanks again for reading my long long blog. See you guys next week!

Love,
Michelle


P.S. There are also legit gypsies here in Sevilla. They're old women on the street who carry little ferns and will read your palm and tell your future. Do you guys thing I should do it?

here are pictures!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2359262&l=9c159&id=10235591