Day 60

Day 60?! Where has the time gone? I'm over halfway done with my semester abroad!

Today was a make-up day for classes as we have Monday, the 2nd, off for All Saints Day. However, Carlos (my Ethics prof) didn't seem to know or care about this, so we didn't have Ethics class. (But we knew about this. Don't worry--I didn't get up at 7 for nothing!)

I slept in until 8, which was glorious. Katie and I went down to get breakfast at 9, and then made our way to the art museum to meet for our LAC class. The walk was supposed to take about an hour, but really only took about 45 minutes, and it was very nice. It was a bit chilly, but walking kept us at a good temperature.

The area right around the art museum was really weird to walk through because it felt JUST like Rome! It's kind of hard to describe, but everything just looked and seemed like we were back on the streets of Rome. Maybe that area was first constructed by the Romans.

Not a whole lot of people showed up to class, but there were more than I expected. The museum was really beautiful. It used to be a convent, and now houses some really spectacular religious art as well as other pieces of importance. My favorite part of it was the exhibit hall that used to be the convent's church; it was exquisite.

Painting by El Greco of his son

I thought this sheep was hilarious.

 



The former church

They're holding the Giralda!

Young Jesus just can't even deal with the teachers

This picture turned out TERRIBLE, but it is SUCH a beautiful painting, I PROMISE.

 

After the museum trip, Katie and I went to the Cathedral area to get some lunch. We went to the tapas bar that Raul took us to, but they didn't seem to have the plates we wanted that day, so we went to another one across the street. We ordered tap water, goat cheese, and patatas bravas, and we received some other kind of cheese and patatas bravas. The other cheese was excellent, so we couldn't really complain there; however, I could've used some water. The potatoes were spicy! Our waiter was all over the place, so I didn't even try to ask again. (But clearly, I survived). They had the weirdest music videos playing in there, too, including some performance in Barcelona in 1992 featuring Freddie Mercury and some opera singer as well as Bonnie Tyler singing Total Eclipse of the Heart at some gala. We were thoroughly entertained.

 

I spent the rest of the afternoon back at the hostel kind of just chillin' and whatnot. Later, Shavonne invited us to go have dinner with her and some of the other people in our program, so we all went to Iguanas (the Mexican place we go to on Sundays). It was Katie, Tiffany, Shavonne, Shaq, Williametta, Kaitlin, Lauren and me. The food was delicious, of course, but the service was a little slow. Also, they somehow managed to run out of rice, so we all got boiled potatoes instead. Regardless, though, we had a really great time, and a hilarious walk back.

 

So now my break really begins! On Saturday, we go to Albufeira, Portugal; Sunday, to Lisbon, Portugal; Tuesday, to Madrid; and then finally back to Seville on Friday. I highly doubt I'll be updating the blog during this time, but I'll make sure to take pictures and notes about everything I do so that I can write a whole bunch of posts when I get back! Or maybe I'll just do one big consolidated fall break post. We'll see.

 

Adios, amigos! Until next time.

Day 59

I was sooooo tired waking up on Thursday morning. It was rough, but I knew I could go to bed early that night at least.

In Ethics, we kind of just had a class discussion over some topics and things and such.

In LAC, we covered architectural styles, like Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque.

That's pretty much all I have to say about class.

Afterward, we went to Puerta de Jerez to meet up for a tour of the Plaza de Toros, the bull ring. It was pretty neat! I wish it was summer so we could actually see a bull fight, but oh well. There was lots of beautiful artwork, costumes, and bull heads to admire, and the ring itself (though under construction) was really quite amazing. (Everyone seemed so taken with the stuffed bull heads. To me, it felt like being in any old steak house in Texas, but whatever).

The chapel the bull fighters go to pray in before their fights

After we all did a bit of shopping in the area, Katie and I decided to head back to the hostel to rest for a second, and then we went and got some sandwiches for lunch. I then had a pretty relaxing afternoon/evening.

Dinner was overall not that great, but I did have some tortellini with tomato sauce that I actually enjoyed. I spent the next hour or so showering and doing whatever before I successfully registered for classes at 10 and then went to bed. Yay! In bed before 10:30! It was a miracle.

Day 58

I was really tired Wednesday morning, but went to class anyway. We discussed Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky and that sort of thing.

We had a class trip to the Archives of India ( which is actually the New World) and the Cathedral for LAC, both of which were super cool to see.

The archives didn't have a whole lot on display, but it was a very beautiful building, and what they did have out was pretty cool. Here I decided to feature a painting of Columbus, a bust of Cortes, and a super old map of the Mississippi River in Louisiana.

The Cathedral, of course, offered sooooooooo much more to see. We didn't really get to look at anything when we went there for mass on our first Sunday here, so this was a really cool experience. Everything is so huge and ornate--so Gothic! I love it.

The treasures--so incredible!

Christopher Columbus is in there!

We also got to climb to the top of the Giralda (what was formerly the minaret of the old mosque and is now the bell tower). It was amazing! You don't climb steps up--it's all ramps, because the Muslims used to get up to the top on horseback. So neat!

I thought the views from atop the Giralda were MUCH better than those from the mushrooms (not that those were bad or anything, though). I could see the mushrooms, the bull ring, and many little plazas that I've been to plenty of times already. Take a look! It was beautiful.

When the bells went off, it was terrifying. That was the only drawback! Well, that and all the obnoxious tourists. But I guess I was being somewhat of an obnoxious tourist, too.

A bunch of us grabbed lunch afterward at this place called The Good Burger (no relation to the film, unfortunately). It was your typical European fast food experience, though: RIDICULOUSLY SLOW. And we had to get back to school for a Cultural Mentorship Program meeting, so I ended up taking my salad to go.

The meeting was cool. It was led by Maria, the same lady who led the architectural walking tour my first week here in Seville. She's a really cool person. We watched some clips and discussed some things, and that was pretty much it.

Immediately after, Katie and I rushed over to the little sports complex place to play soccer. We only got to be there for twenty minutes or so, but it was still fun. My team won again! And I definitely got an assist, so I was happy about that.

I took a shower, which was much-needed and very pleasant. I chilled for a little while until dinner rolled around. The food was okay. Later, though, Jon, one of the semester students, took Katie and me to an international beer bar. We got a little lost on the way there, but found it nonetheless. 

It was really cool! I tried three different beers. They were all from Belgium, but were nothing like each other. We're for sure going back.

I ended up going to bed kind of late again, which was less than desirable, but I know I'll be able to catch up over these next few nights. 

Break is almost here! Wooooooooo! 

Day 57

Attendance at breakfast was probably the lowest it's been so far on the morning of Day 57. However, a somewhat decent amount of people showed up to Ethics. We started to watch The Constant Gardener (starring Voldemort), but the internet is so terrible on that laptop/in that classroom that we had to give up after 30 minutes. (Again, I don't know why we don't just play DVDs...) We had a class discussion about some hypothetical situation of being a driver of a tram car with broken brakes.

In LAC, we spent some time discussing more thoroughly the history and linguistics of Castilian (that's Spanish, if you don't know), but spent more time watching YouTube videos of flamenco performances. I don't know.

We went to the yummy sandwich place down the street for lunch. The multi-lingual guy who works there wasn't there this time, so I had a little bit of difficulty relaying my order (it's not technically on the menu. All the menu items contain meat, or at least eggs). Everything turned out fine, though, and I got a little bit more Spanish practice into my day.

Speaking of Spanish practice: later in the afternoon, after writing some blog posts and whatnot, I made my way to the local school for my service. I swear, those kids were even rowdier today than last time! But they're still so precious. I showed them pictures of my house and car, and also played hangman with them. (They didn't know the word "student." I felt bad). Again, I tried my best to understand their screams and whispers to me (all in Spanish, of course), and I think I did all right. A few of the boys were asking me something that I just could not understand. They then asked me how old I am, and I told them, and then, when they said, "¡O, mujer!" I realized that they had been asking if I was a woman or a girl. I guess being 20 makes me a woman to them. Because of this, I guess, they seemed sort of surprised that I answered in the negative when they asked if I have a boyfriend. So last week, they were all, "She's so pretty!" and hugging me and whatnot, but then this week they were more like, "She's WAY too old to be single!" (Not that I took any of it to heart, of course. I thought it was hilarious).

The little girl who drew the picture of me last week made it pretty clear that she's obsessed with me, and I absolutely love that. She chased me down in the hallway after class let out just to give me a hug. Sooooooooo cute.

My evening was pretty chill, and then dinner at the hostel was less than impressive, as usual. It was okay, though, because it was TUESDAY which meant we were going out to Mercado Provenzal.

This time, Tiffany joined Katie, Gina, and me, and we had soooooo much fun. Later, a bunch of other people from our program came as well to celebrate Ethan's 21st birthday, so that was cool. 

I ended up going to bed kind of late, but at this point, I'm used to it. 

Just counting down the days to break at this point!

Day 56

Despite it being Monday, a decent amount of people showed up to my Ethics class. We continued to discuss gender roles and such, and actually mostly just watched sexist commercials. It was pretty entertaining.

In LAC, though, almost no one showed up (which is kind of ridiculous, because it's at 10:35). We discussed the history of the Spanish language, which is pretty interesting. Katie and I also found out that we totally misunderstood the syllabus (which is really not laid out all that well, but whatever) and actually needed to be turning in two essays that day...when we had only written one. (Later in the afternoon I quickly wrote the second essay and emailed it to Dr. Klohe).

After class, we met with Raul and others at Puerta de Jerez to go to the Real Alcazar palace right by the cathedral. It was so pretty, despite the on-and-off drizzle. The inside was beautifully decorated, and the gardens were very nice as well. There was even a cute group of peafowl! One peacock, three or four peahens, and a little baby! It was exciting. (If you watch Game of Thrones, you might recognize some parts of this palace! Parts of Season 5 were shot here, apparently).

Back at the hostel, we had a brief Monday meeting about the events coming up this week. We signed up for a visit to the bullring on Thursday. I'm not sure if we'll actually get to see a bullfight (I'm kind of thinking not), but I'm excited anyway.

I spent the later part of the afternoon working on the aforementioned essay, this blog, and Skyping with my mom.

Dinner was all right. Better than last week, but still kind of sub par. Oh well, at least it filled me up!

Following dinner, Katie and I completed the bookings for our fall break trip. After Lisbon, we're spending a few days in Madrid, and then coming back to Seville for the weekend. We have a lot due the day after break ends, so we'll probably be happy to have three days to readjust to real life and get our work done.

And with this post, I am finally all caught up with the blog. YAY!!!