4/11/2013 Semana Santa and Morocco

For Easter week here in Spain it is called Semana Santa. We got the week off of school, so I took the opportunity to do some much-desired traveling. The first city I traveled to was Malaga. While there I stayed in a hostel called Picasso's Corner in an 11-bed room. I was nervous about it at first but it turned out to be a great experience. Since I was traveling by myself, it gave me the opportunity to meet some new people. My first night there I went out with three other people from my hostel. Two guys were study abroad students in England and one of them was from Canada and the other was from Australia. The other girl that went out with us was from Australia and was studying in Germany. The four of us went out for dinner and drinks and it was a lot of fun. The next morning the other girl and I went to the Picasso Museum which was a lot fun and really interesting. After that I walked along the garden to the beach. It was great for a while and then I got stuck in the rain without and umbrella. I headed back to my hostel and ate dinner at the hostel and played board games with some of the other people there. The next day I took two different trains to get to Puerta de Santa Maria. The first day I got to my hostel late so I went out for dinner and then settled in for the night in my single room. The next day I got up and took the boat to Cadiz. In Cadiz I went to the lighthouse and walked on the beach. I also go to see the castle and watched the sunset there. After sunset I headed back to the boat to go back to Puerta the de Santa Maria. Along the way I got stuck in a plaza because there were so many people there the watch the passes of Semana Santa. I got to watch one of them but there were so many people that is was pretty much impossible  to take photos. Once I got back to Puerta de Santa Maria I got some dinner and went to bed. The next day I just stay in the town and I went to the market which was very cool to see. the next day I headed back to Seville. It was a great trip for me.

This past weekend the school took a trip to Morocco  It was awesome. The first day we took a tour on bus through Tanger, the city that our hotel was in. We also did a short walking tour and went to a Moroccan Pharmacy where I bought stuff for myself and some gifts. We then went to lunch and got to see a belly dance show while there. After lunch we went to the hotel, which was beautiful. We got both dinner and breakfast at the hotel. The next day we got to go to a small town. We got a tour by a local guide and got to see a blanket shop then we ate lunch as a group again. After lunch we had free time to shop. For shopping you had to barter for everything. I bought a ton of stuff while shopping. On our third day in Morocco we got to start the day by riding camels, which was awesome. We also got a tour of another small town and got free time for lunch. Then we got to head back to Seville. But I must say that my first trip to Africa was great!!!

Now I'm excited for next week when I am off school and I am going to Conil de la Frontera and will be learning to SURF!!!! So beaches here I come again!!!!

3/21/2013 Sorry I'm Slacking

Sorry to everyone that it has been a month since I last wrote. Well here is some information about the trips that I have been on since then!! I went on a trip with the school to Ronda with is a beautiful city and very old!! We got to go on a long tour of the city and the Plaza de Torros (bull ring). It was really cool to hear about everything but the tour kind of sucked at the same time because it was pouring rain for the whole 2 hour tour lol. After the tour we got some free time. I started my free time with some shopping of course lol. Then I found my friends at a small cafe call Chocolat and they and the best hot chocolate. They also had a huge selection of tea. So while there my friends and I shared a brownie and all get hot chocolates and I bought a bag of green tea. The brownie was awesome. It was a brownie with caramel and pecans and smaller pieces of brownie on top (and of course a big dollop of whipped cream lol). Also, if you didn't know hot chocolate here is different than in the United States. It is melted chocolate mixed with hot milk, and it is very thick (and SOOO delicious). If you want what you're used to you need to order Cola Cao, which is like Spanish NesQuik (though they have that too). So, at the end of the day it was back to Seville. My friends and I also took a trip to Aracena, which is a small town in Spain. It was fun!! We went to Gruta de las Maravillas. They were these amazing caves, unfortunately I couldn't take any pictures there. We also saw the castle and the cathedral there which are up on a huge hill from which you can see the whole city. It was a gorgeous view. And lastly before getting on the bus to go back to Seville we went to El Museo de Jamon. For those of you that don't know spanish, that is The Museum of Ham (I know, awesome right? lol). After those two trips I jsut spent some time around Seville. Then came the trip to Portugal. We went to three cities: Lisbon, where our hotel was; Sintra, a small beautiful town; and Cascais, an amazing little town on the ocean. In Sintra, I got some great pictures and mainly wandered around the main part of town. I got a pastry there called a bulls-eye cake. It was a cake with a thin layer of egg custard on top and the covered in chocolate (it was definitely low calorie!!). I also tried Ginja, which is a cherry liquor, and for 1 euro you can get a small chocolate cup of Ginja. I was very good and decided to buy a bottle to share!! In Cascais most of our time was spent at the ocean-side. My friends and I actually found our way out to a helicopter pad that was really close to the rock barrier between the coast and the ocean. I took a ton of pictures. In Lisbon, we on a bus tour and got to try these little pasties called: pasties de belem. They were like warm little egg custard tarts and they gave you cinnamon and powdered sugar to sprinkle on top. I loved them!!! My friends and I went up to the castle as well. Unfortunately  the only time we had adequate time to visit was at night so it was a little creepy but still very pretty. Now it's is the end of the week and the start of my "spring break" as I call it. We don't have school next week due to Semana Santa (holy week) here in Spain. So, I am taking this opportunity to travel of course. Also, since the weather here is now between 60's and 70's almost everyday I am going to the beaches!!! I will be leaving Seville for 6 days. I will be in Malaga for 2 night and Cadiz for 3 nights!!! I am very excited for this awesome weather. So, beaches HERE I COME!!! Hope to write again soon. I promise you won't have to wait a month this time!! lol

2/21/2013 Cordoba

Wow!! We had sooo much fun in Cordoba. I am so happy that my friends and I decided to extend our trip rather than just being there for the day. With the school, we went to the cathedral in Cordoba, which if any of you have seen my pictures on facebook then you know how beautiful it was. The tour with the school also took us around in the older parts of town for a little while too. After our tour the rest of the students got about two hours of free time. But since my friends and I were staying we just had to wait til the bus was unlocked to get our things. During that time, Gabe and I went up in Puenta de Pueta, which is inside and on top of the archway leading into the old city of Cordoba. We also went to the other side of the river and and looked at the old tower and down by the river. It was a lot of fun. When four o'clock came we got all our things from the bus and thank the school staff for the trip and headed on our own way. We weren't completely by ourselves though. For the rest of the weekend, Gabe's cousin, Alex, hung out with us and showed us around the city.  Friday night for dinner we met with Gabe's other cousin and Alex's sister, Christina, and her boyfriend, Jaime. The seven of us went to dinner together. When we got to the restaurant and ordered, I couldn't believe the size of the plates. They ordered three plates that in Seville would have fed  four of us maybe for lunch. But at this restaurant the three plates fed all seven of us completely and there was still food left over. On Saturday it was a lot easier to get around the city because Alex had a car. So our Saturday took us to a park, and a zoo, along with lunch and Gabe's family's house. The lunch was delicious and Gabe's family welcomed us with opened arms. His aunt and uncle even set up our bus tickets home for us and met us at the station with sandwiches and water for dinner. It was great. The two days in Cordoba was definitely a success. I have found that the more cities I travel to here the more I love it. On Sunday, my freinds and I headed to Colonials yet again for another filling and absolutely delicious lunch. It was an awesome weekend overall.
The weeks have calmed down a bit for me here but I still have Flamenco class twice a week, which I always love!!! On Tuesday, it was nice because I got to have a conversation with a really close guy-friend from high school and even sent me a video message, which just reminded me so much of home. I was so appreciative to receive it from him because though we hardly talk anymore, we are the type of best friends who can pick up right where we left off. I also get to talk to my mom everyday and though while at home we have our many rough moments together, I know she will always be one of my closest friends. And though it's hard, my boyfriend and I have managed more than well with me being this far away. We only get to talk through email, but I can't complain because at least I have that. It has been hard not to get to see him during my weeks but we are managing well and our relationship has just become that much stronger by the distance. I miss all back home and hope that all of my friends are having a great semester at school. I can't believe I have been here for over a month already, but I will see you all in a little over two months!!!!

2/14/2013 Happy Valentine's Day

I can hardly believe that I have spent almost a whole month here in Spain. Now that life is a little more settled here I don't have as much going on to write about. I've been spending a lot of time with my friends mostly. On Tuesday we went ice skating with the school which was a lot of fun. The two classes of kids I help are great. The kids are a lot of fun to talk to and love to find things that we have in common. The hour time periods that I have with them seem to just fly by. Today is one of the days that I really wish I could be spending with my family or in Platteville but hey I'm in Spain so I'm going to make the most of it. I have just two and a half months left. Hopefully there will be a more interesting update soon seeing as I am traveling this weekend. Thank you so much for reading my blog!!! I love getting to share all of these great experiences that I am having with everyone back home.

2/5/2013 Granada, Flamenco, and Teaching

On Friday morning our bus for Granada left at 9am. I was a 3 hour ride ad we stopped about half way for 30 minutes. Once we got to Granada we walked to our hotel. We had about 30 minutes and then we had to be back down in the lobby of the hotel to walk back to the bus. The first thing we did was go to the Alhambra, which was amazing. We had a 3 hour tour through the Alhambra. I could have spent all day taking pictures there because it was so beautiful. I just seemed like every doorway that we went through got better and better. I took over 300 pictures during our tour at the Alhambra. After the Alhambra we walked back into town, down hill the whole way. This walk made me really happy that we took the bus to the Alhambra. We were are a little hunger, so we stopped at a small bar. One of the great things about Granada is that when you order a drink you get a free tapa. So we ordered drinks, the tapa we received was like a bagel with ham and tomato with french fries on the side. So I got a Coke sandwich and fries for 2.20 Euros. We then got to go back to the hotel. We had about two hours to ourselves at the hotel. Gabe and I decided to take the time to play a few games of chess on the chess board I bought that is made of inlaid wood. Let's just say that I has been a REALLY long time since I played chess, but it was still fun! At 8 the chaperons from the school took us down to the bars. Once there we all split up. My friends and I went to a few different bars and had some alcohol and some soda (and of course some tapas).  On Saturday, we walked up to the part of town that the gypsies live in. It was and uphill walked the whole way. While we were up there we got to see a gypsy wedding. Then we walked back downhill part of the way and then took a different way up and we went to a "balcony" area where we to awesome pictures for the town and the Alhambra. After that we were set free. Liz, Hannah, Gabe and I went across the river and hike and climbed for like 2 hours which was a lot of fun. That night we went out again and it was a lot of fun. Then next morning most of us slept in then we left on the bus at about 12. Our trip to Granada was our, just like that, way too soon! On Monday we had Flamenco class. For those who want to know what we are learning you can look it up on YouTube. Just copy this URL: http://youtu.be/0m-6MqOS9cs This is the traditional Sevillanas Flamenco style of dance. So far we have learned the first two dance sections and we danced in partners. It is a very fun class but also very challenging. This morning (Tuesday) I woke up early and left my house at 7:15am. I walked about 35 minutes to a school across the river. That is where I am volunteering to help in an English class. The kids in the class are all about 15 years old. Today, I introduced myself to the class and then the teacher gave me 7 students to take into a smaller room and just talk with them. Normally, I will be doing evaluations in smaller groups, like 5 students, but today we sat down and they just got to ask my questions. I had a lot of fun talking to the kids and helping them with their English and teaching them more about America while also learning more about Spain. I had so much fun that I actually went to Sam, she is one of the employees at the school,  and asked her if I could volunteer a second day every week. So, I get to spend an hour every Tuesday and Thursday morning with the kids and I am very excited!!!!!

1/28/13 Everyday life

I'm starting to settle into every day life here. I do a lot of different things everyday but I still have my routine. On Saturday five of us students (Hannah, Liz, Gabe, Gretchen, and I) met up with my friend Jake who used to go to Platteville. We had hung out a few times during Spanish club and he saw my name on the list of SAIIE students so he decided to message me because he now live in Seville. Saturday we met Jake, his girlfriend, Bea, and one of their roommates, Rocio at 10. We went out for tapas and had some drinks until about 1:30. He recommended a restaurant called Coloniales that night but it was too full to stop their. So on Sunday Gabe, Hannah, Liz, and I stopped early for lunch at 1. The food was delicious  The one thing Jake told us we had to try was the chicken with almond sauce, and we were all glad that he recommended it because it was awesome. After lunch we decided to go hang out at the plaza under "The Mushrooms". While we were there a gypsy came up to us trying to get us to buy the sandwiches she was selling. We said no many times and in the end she cursed us. Yes! LOL. My friends and I got cursed by a gypsy. So, if anything bad happens to me in the near future, I definitely blaming it on the curse! Today was my first test and it was not easy. I just hope I did well. After class, I went home for lunch which was amazing as usual. Then at about quarter til 3 I headed to the gym. I rode a bike for about 30 minutes. Then I took a yoga class which was a lot of fun. Then I had my first day of Flamenco class. I am really excited to go again on Wednesday. So the rest on my day today will probably consist of a nap, homework, dinner, reading and then bed. in that order!

1/26/13 Update

Well, now that I have started classes I'm not going to be writing as much. My schedule is kinda crazy. On Tuesday I signed up for the gym and for the Flamenco class with the school. I finally bought some pants that I could work out in. On Thursday my class had our first quiz. We don't normally have classes on Fridays but we did today. (And by the way it is like 3 am here right now so it still feels like Friday.) Today in class we found out that our first test is Monday. Today we went out with two of the people that work at the school and they took us to different tapas bars. It was a really fun night. After tapas, I hung with my roommate and some other students. We went to a few clubs and had some drinks. Overall it was an awesome night. I really excited for our trip to Granada next weekend. So hopefully I will write again soon!!! :)

1/21/13 Class

The only thing of true importance of the day was my first day of class. Let me just tell that I will prolly only be doing homework during the weeks!! My class is definitely going to be intense. It a class that does 4 semester of material in one semester. We do one section every like 14 days!!! It's definitely a lot of Spanish. I love my senora though. She told my roommate and I that if we ever needed homework that we could just go downstairs and she would help us! So wish me luck of this class because it is going to take a lot of work and studying!

1/20/13 Recovery Day

Well, it's be quite a week, but I am totally ready to start classes. Sunday was basically used as a recovery day for me. I didn't go out til about one. Then Hannah, Liz and I took the chance to go shopping since Gabe was with his family. We also had some sandwiches for lunch. After that I came home and took a nap. Then we had dinner with our senora. Then it was an early night to bed so that I could wake up and be ready for school!!!

1/20/13 First day of no provided food!!

Well, my friends and I did pretty well on our own. We went to a cafe that was in a plaza pretty close to the school. The three girls had churros con chocolate (with hot chocolate). Gabe got toast with tomato and ham on it. Once we got our food we each gave Gabe half of one of our four churros we got in return for a piece of his order. It was all really good and they all only cost 2 euros and a few cents each! After that we walked around to different shops for a while. I got a pair of knee high leather boots which I really wanted to find because boots are super popular around here. For lunch we found a spot down by the river. The four of us split potatoes alioli and paella. The two dishes and drinks were about 23 euros all together. After lunch we decided to split up to go home for some naps. On our way back to the plaza that we all leave from we ran into a big group of some of the other students that were headed to lunch. I told Luke about our plans to meet for dinner at 7 and he decided that he would join us. So after our naps we met at the school at 7. We decided to get sandwiches for dinner. We ended up at a Spanish chain restaurant kind of like subway. After dinner we started wandering around and some how found our way to two tiny little plazas that were total empty and really quite. We decided to stop into one for dessert and a drink. It was a really nice restaurant and it was really cheap. After that Luke went to go meet he roommate to let him know that he wasn't going out that night and the other four of us decided to walk around for a while. At about 11 we went ahead and all headed home for the night. Then I got to skype with my parents for a while which was really nice!!!!

1/18/13

Plaza de Espana

Some of the hand painted ceramic

The white peacock with its feathers out

All the pigeons

 Wow! Everyday I find myself even more amazed with this city. Mondays through Thurdays, Tessa and I have a pretty set schedule for meals with our senora: breakfast at 9am, lunch at 2:30, and dinner at 9pm. In the morning we had the second part of our orientation. The person who is supposed to be getting us SIM cards for cell phones couldn't come so we couldn't get our cell phone yet. After orientation, the group went on the tour of La Plaza de Espana. It was beautiful. In the first part of the park there is a huge monument building. There is also a museum in the park. It is amazing because all the ceramic in the fountain area is hand painted. It was so beautiful and I want to take so many more pictures so I definitely want to go back. The next area that we walked through was the park area that had all the trees. One thing that has really amazed me is how many palm trees are in Seville. There are palm trees and orange trees every. The next really cool thing that was saw was a short tower that was surrounded by trees. Then we noticed that there were four peacocks on the ledge. Two of the were white and two had the shiny blue heads. While we were standing there we were lucky enough to see two of them spread their feathers. But there was one thing there that I personally thought was the best was the small area where there were tons of pigeons  Many people may think this is weird or even gross but some of us walked into the pigeons and bought food to feed them with and they would fly and land on. They would land anywhere from on your hands to on your heads. It was just so much fun to do and it was a really fun experience. After seeing the plaza we all headed back to our houses for lunch and a nap. Again I will say that I love how the food is so much healthier here than back home. After my nap, I got up and changed for the night. The school put on a welcome party for us at a small bar with free drinks and tapas (kind of like appetizers). This was great because on Friday night our senora does not cook for us so it was nice that the meal was provided for us. While there I have a few glasses of sangria and a beer. Then at about 11 my friends and I decided to go wander around for a while. Then Liz, Hannah, and I decided that we really wanted ice cream so Gabe helped us on our hunt for and open ice cream shop. We found one at about 11:30 and it was delicious! After that we decided that we would meet at about ten in the morning to have breakfast together somewhere and we all headed home. Overall it was another very successful day in Spain!!!!

1/17/13 my first full day!

My first full day in Spain was awesome. I realize now that I am a lot better in Spanish than I give myself credit for. My day started at 8am when I got up and ready for the day. My senora made us breakfast at 9am. Then Tessa and I left for the school at about 9:30. We had pre-orientation at the school at 10. After orientation about 15 of us went across the street from our school to the plaza and had coffee or hot chocolate at a cafe there. I had to wait at the school til about 2:15 to see if my luggage would come and it didn't so I had to leave because lunch at my house was suppose to be at 2:30. But I got a little turned around on my way back. I took one wrong street and got TOTALLY lost. I was lost for like 45 minutes and I was worried because I don't have a phone yet so I couldn't tell my senora that I was going to be late. I find that I do miss being home but I also found that there is so much in Spain that I love more than in America and that includes the food! After lunch I took a nap for about two hours. At 6 almost all of the students decied to attend the Flamenco performance. It cost 15 euros to see and it was really fun. Many of the students decided after that that we are going sign up for the flamenco dance class that is offered so that we can dance flamenco at the big festival in April. After the performance. My roommate Tessa and I went home for dinner at 9pm. Then at 10:45 we met up with a some-what large group of students and we went to different bars so that we could see the Spanish night life. It was a lot of fun. I went home around 1230 becuase I was tired and still suffering from jet lag. When I got home I skyped with my dad. It was the first time i had seen my parents or talked to them since I left them at the airport tuesday morning!!! I have found that everything here is so different and so exciting. I can't wait for what lies ahead!!!

1/16/13 SEVILLE!!!!

Well, I had four flights in order to get to Seville. The first was Moline, IL to Chicago, IL. The flight was really  short, only about 30-40 minutes of airtime. Once I got to Chicago I went about finding my next flight gate. I got off at terminal G at the far end and I had to go all the way to the end of terminal K, which is pretty much at the other end of a completely different wing of the airport so it ended up being like a ten minute walk! Once I got there I had to hurry up and wait...for 6 hours!!! For food, I got the cheapest thing I could get at an airport. McDonald's  It was awesome to get to spend part of my layover time in Chicago with Gabe and Hannah, the other two Seville students from Platteville. On the plane the dinner was actually pretty good. We had beef tips with pearl onions and mushrooms with gravy  mashed potatoes, crab salad, vegetables, and tiramisu  For part of the flight I hung out in the empty seat next to Gabe and we had some pretty interesting conversations through-out the flight. During the flight they played the movie Ted: The Lost Explorer.

For kids movie it was actually pretty good. During the movie,Gabe and I decided that there were a few specifics that made the movie so great. First, the bad guy looked like a cross between Arnold Schwarzengger and Dr. Claw from Inspector gadget. Second the main characters got to ride llamas. And third, the parrot in the film looked just like an angry bird. After that we had another really short flight from Madrid to Seville. Once we landed in Seville the real fun began. It turned out they with the weight of all the luggage they could only put about half of it on our plane. Soooo guess who  didn't get their luggage....THIS GIRL!!! Along with Gabe and like 6 other Seville students in my program. So then Gabe and I had to wait in a line for two hours to give there airline the address to send our luggage too. Then we finally left our last airport for the next few weeks or so. I got given an orientation folder at the exit and put into a taxi which drove me to the alley that my house is on. So then I couldn't find my house and ended up stopping at a little coffee shop in the alley where my house was and he pointed me in the right direction. When I got to my house my landlady Churo answered the door. She let me in and started giving my a tour of her house...and it is beautiful!! There are three floors and each one is likes its own little apartment. She lives with her husband on the first floor. One of her there daughters lives on the second floor with her two sons. And my roommate Tessa and I are on the third floor. We both have our own bedrooms we have a bathroom for the two of us, and we have a balcony that is actually very large!! Once I saw my house, Chuco served me lunch and it was so much food that I didn't even finish. The we went on a walking tour around our barrio with the other students living in the area. Once we were shown where the Institute was we were sent off to do what we wanted. Our small grouped stayed a whole and decided to walk through the center of Seville. Finally we ended the night at a small bar celebrated one of the students birthdays with a drink. After that it was home for the night to eat dinner and be off to bed. So until my adventures star again tomorrow!!!

1/7/13 It's Almost Here

Well, the day has almost come. I leave in just over one week. I have my Visa, my international insurance card, and my international identification card. I have most of the stuff that I need to pack. That is what this next week is for...packing and any last minute things. As the day gets closer, I get both more excited and more nervous. I'm nervous to leave my family and friends but I know I will meet new people in Spain. I am also just excited to experience a new culture. So, I have my lists made of what I need to pack and where it needs to be packed. So, all that is left is to put everything together and head to the airport for a day of flying!!! So, my next post should come from Spain!!!!!