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!!!!!