This past weekend I went on a school trip with all the other ISU students to the cities of Granada and Cordoba in Spain. I was really looking forward to it, because it was the first trip that we got to take all together as a large group. Usually we just travel in small groups.
We left at 6:30am Friday morning. We went on a charter bus to Granada first. The trip was long, and I couldn't sleep for any of it. When we arrived at 2:30 in the afternoon, we went straight to the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a palace and fortress built in the 14th centurty by the Moors. It reminded me a lot of Alcazar in Sevilla. It was really pretty and had amazing sculpted ceillings and big rooms. But for those of us who went to Sevilla, it wasn't as impressive or big as Alcazar, so we weren't as blown away by it as the others. Still cool though.
After that, we went to the hotel. It was so nice to stay in an actual hotel for once, instead of the cheap hostals we usually get when we travel on our own. Dinner was at 9:30pm. We walked to a restaurant that had a huge buffet. I was really happy, because there were lots of options to eat besides meat (yay for Fridays...) We ate sooo much. I hope they were prepared for a group of 30 Americans coming to a place that said "Take as many plates as you want."
The next day we went to the Capilla Real, or the Royal Chapel. I got to see the remains of King Ferdinand, Queen Isabella, their daughter Queen Juana and her husband Philip (Felipe). That was really cool. I also saw King Ferdinand's crown and robes.The church was really neat too. The structure behind the alter was amazing, but it had a lot of gruesome statues of different saints being killed... Kind of gross.
Next we went to the Cathedral. Ok, so I've been in a lot of cathedrals, in Mexico, Ecuador, Italy, Spain. But this cathedral is the most BEAUTIFUL cathedral I have ever seen in my life. It's huge, and built almost circular. It's a combination of different styles of architecture, so it's white and marble with stained glass windows, not dark and musty like cathedrals usually are. I absolutely loved it.
We had free time after that, so we went and got lunch at an outdoor restaurant. Then we walked around the city. Granada is full of foreigners, but not the touristy type. There are a lot of Brazilians and Africans, and people from Eastern Europe. It was fun to see lots of different people. Oh and in this city, they don't have stray dogs, only stray cats. I'm not kidding. There were tons of cats walking around all the streets, it was so strange!
We got on the bus around 4 to go to Cordoba. It was supposed to be a 2 and 1/2 hour bus ride, but that turned into almost 3 and 1/2 because our Spanish chaperones had no clue where the hotel was, and had to keep getting on and off the bus to ask random people on the streets. We all kind of learned to get used to the chaperones not really knowing what was going on most of the time...
This night we stayed in a hostal, but a nice hostal. It was built like a maze, we had to go through 3 hallways and 2 staircases to get to our room. I shared the room with Steph, and our room was actually smaller than our room in Caceres, which I didn't think was possible. Plus the toliet was literally underneath the sink in our bathroom, which was interesting, and our shower water was so scalding hot I expected it to boil. Oh well.
That night we went out to dinner at 9:30. In the restaurant, we all sat at one long table. We were served about 8 courses of tapas. Tapas are very popular here in Spain. You can buy any drink and get free food with it, like appetizers. So we were given pitchers of water and wine, and lots of courses of appetizers set on the table for us to just divide up and share. We had salad, fried egg plant, croquetes, and other kinds of food that I can't describe because honestly I don't know what they were. We were there for over 2 hours, I didn't think they would ever stop coming out with more food. I was soo full.
Sunday morning we went to Al Madinah al-Zahra , which was an Arab Muslim medieval town. We got to climb through the ruins, which would have been more appreciated if it wasn't raining the whole time.
After that we got more free time, so we went and ate lunch at a nice restaurant. Then we had ice cream at Burger King (yes, we really did) and met the group again at the Mezquita, or the Great Mosque of Cordoba (I looked it up in English). It was originally a mosque, but it was turned into a cathedral. So basically, you walk into a huge mosque with lots of open space and pillars, but there is a big alter and pews directly in the middle of it, and Catholic statues and paintings in the connecting rooms. It was so neat.
We left soon after that. Most everyone slept on the bus on the way home (except for me. again). We got home around 11pm, and we were dead tired. I still had homework to do, and class Monday morning. But it was soo much fun.
Tomorrow night I leave for PARIS! I am sooo excited! I'm going with Steph and another girl. Our bus leaves at 3:30pm to Madrid, then our plane to Paris is at 9. We'll be there until Sunday, so I'll have lots of stories to tell. Also, I finally booked my flight to the Canary Islands for spring break. So all is well. :) I will hopefully get pictures up soon, but I have to steal them from other students because my camera died Friday afternoon of the trip... oops.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Friday, February 12, 2010
Observations
Having lived in Spain for 3 weeks now, I have a few random observations to share with you about life and culture here.
1) Everyone here thinks that I'm Spanish. Everyone. People come up to me on the streets and ask me for directions. Store and restaurant owners don't look twice at me. If I'm with a group of ISU students, people will approach me and ask if I'm their teacher or something.
2) The traffic lights to indicate "walk" or "don't walk" are lighted green stick figures that flash a skirt every second (like the signs for restrooms). So I guess men and women are both allowed to cross the street here.
3) Enrique Iglesias is not famous here. People only know him at all as the famous singer Julio Iglesias' less talented son.
4) I fail at any electronic appliance here. Hair dryer, straightner, space heater, cell phone. My host moms actually think it's really funny.
5) People on the streets don't believe in keeping to the right of the sidewalk, walking in single file, or moving at all when passing another person walking. You actually have to morph into the wall of the nearest building or throw yourself into moving traffic to get past them on the narrow coblestone sidewalks.
6) No one is subtle here. They will come up to the other ISU students here and be like, "You're tall." or "I think you're pretty." or "Are you from Dublin?" (except no one says stuff like that to me, because of #1 on this list)
7) Every single person on the street has a dog. And they apparently have no Picking Up Poop Policy, so you have to be very careful when walking on the sidewalks, and whatever you do, DON'T cut through the grass.
8) Churros and hot chocolate is the best thing in the world. Hands down.
9) Public restrooms are usually 1 for 5 with toliet paper, toliet seat, soap, working hand dryer, or a functional lock.
10) I have small feet in the U.S., but here, it's impossible. The girl working at the shoe store actually laughed at me when I asked for my size. She thought I was joking. She said, "Ummm no, cariña (sweetie)." Awesome. So not only am I apparenty Spanish, I'm like a little Spanish child.
1) Everyone here thinks that I'm Spanish. Everyone. People come up to me on the streets and ask me for directions. Store and restaurant owners don't look twice at me. If I'm with a group of ISU students, people will approach me and ask if I'm their teacher or something.
2) The traffic lights to indicate "walk" or "don't walk" are lighted green stick figures that flash a skirt every second (like the signs for restrooms). So I guess men and women are both allowed to cross the street here.
3) Enrique Iglesias is not famous here. People only know him at all as the famous singer Julio Iglesias' less talented son.
4) I fail at any electronic appliance here. Hair dryer, straightner, space heater, cell phone. My host moms actually think it's really funny.
5) People on the streets don't believe in keeping to the right of the sidewalk, walking in single file, or moving at all when passing another person walking. You actually have to morph into the wall of the nearest building or throw yourself into moving traffic to get past them on the narrow coblestone sidewalks.
6) No one is subtle here. They will come up to the other ISU students here and be like, "You're tall." or "I think you're pretty." or "Are you from Dublin?" (except no one says stuff like that to me, because of #1 on this list)
7) Every single person on the street has a dog. And they apparently have no Picking Up Poop Policy, so you have to be very careful when walking on the sidewalks, and whatever you do, DON'T cut through the grass.
8) Churros and hot chocolate is the best thing in the world. Hands down.
9) Public restrooms are usually 1 for 5 with toliet paper, toliet seat, soap, working hand dryer, or a functional lock.
10) I have small feet in the U.S., but here, it's impossible. The girl working at the shoe store actually laughed at me when I asked for my size. She thought I was joking. She said, "Ummm no, cariña (sweetie)." Awesome. So not only am I apparenty Spanish, I'm like a little Spanish child.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Pictures of Sevilla
My roomie and I at the beautiful Plaza de Espana.
On the bus.
Eating at the restaurant.
Steph and I at Alcazar.
Alcazar Palace
Garden at Alcazar
More Alcazar
The girls in our tiny hostal room.
The cafe where we ate lunch. We ate outside, it was so nice.
We climbed the tower of the Cathedral and could walk around the bell tower. Great view. 
Christopher Columbus' burial site.
The Cathedral from the outside. It took up a whole block.
The group at the Plaza de Espana.
More Plaza de Espana.
Steph, Becky, and I
Parque Maria Luisa
Streets of Sevilla
The girls of the trip. :) Monday, February 8, 2010
Sevilla
This weekend I went on a trip to Sevilla, which is a bigger city in southern Spain. I went with 6 other ISU students. We left Friday morning and took a 4 hour bus ride there. When we got to Sevilla, we all fell in love with it right away. The weather was gorgeous, it was around 65-70 degrees the whole time. The city has a lot of palm trees and orange trees, and there is a big river that runs right through it.
We walked to our hostal. We had some problems, because apparently we needed our passports to check in, and none of us had ours. After some awesome Spanglish sweet talking, we finally convinced the owners to let us stay there illegally on the promise that we wouldn't get arrested and get their hostal in trouble.
Our room was small. The 6 of us girls had a room all to ourselves and the one guy who came with us had to stay in another room. We had 3 sets of bunk beds and a bathroom. It was actually pretty nice for how cheap it was.
That afternoon and night we just walked around the city. We went to the Plaza de Espana, which was absolutely amazing. It was sooo beautiful. We also went to the Parque Maria Luisa, which was really pretty too.
The next morning we had free breakfast at the hostal. It was fun to be in the commons room there, because there were people from different countries staying there. We got to meet other students from Brazil, Germany, Sweden. The breakfast was really good too, plus we went to Starbucks after that. Sevilla is big, so they have Starbucks, McDonald's, Burger King, Baskin Robbins, Domino's Pizza. And they have Pepsi machines everywhere, which is weird to see in another country.
All day Saturday we walked around. We saw the main Cathedral, which was HUGE. It's actally the largest Gothic cathedral and 3rd largest church in the world. Inside is the tomb of Chistopher Columbus, which was cool to see, but someone said it's a myth and he's actually buried somewhere else. But I like to believe I saw the real one, it makes for a better story.
We went to Alcazar after that. Its a royal palace, and one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I was totally blown away by how big it was. There were so many rooms, and levels, and everywhere there were fountains and exotic plants and gardens. Every wall and pillar had amazing paintings on them. The palace was origionally built in the 14th century, and they have kept adding onto it since then. The best part of it was outside there was a maze. Like a real hedge maze that you can get lost in. It was so much fun.
We ate lunch at a restaurant and later took a break for churros and chocolate. It's a really common Spanish treat, and it was delicious. After walking all day, we were so tired and our feet were in a lot of pain. So we went back to the hostal for a nice little siesta.
That night we went to dinner at a sandwich place that was kind of the Spanish version of Jimmy John's. Then we went to a discoteca. I was sooo excited! I hadn't been to a discoteca like this since Ecuador. The place was huge, and packed. There were 3 different levels of dance floors. We danced all night, and didn't get back to the hostal until 4am. It was so much fun.
Sunday morning we had breakfast again, checked out of the hostal, and made one last Starbucks run. We found an outdoor cafe/restaurant by the river and sat there all afternoon. We were so tired from walking the day before, plus we had already checked out and didn't want to drag our bags and everything all over the city. So we relaxed there, and it was so nice because it was like 70 degrees.
We went to the bus station at 4 and got back to Caceres around 8. Steph and I were so exhausted. We ate dinner then rested before the Super Bowl came on. The game started at 12:30am for us, and ended around 4am. We watched it on Steph's computer, who was skyping her boyfriend, who set his computer up to his tv. It was the only way we could see the game, but it worked out well. It made us really homesick though, because all of our friends back home were having parties and watching it together, plus I just miss American football so much. We had our own little Super Bowl party with bread sticks and nutella, and Spanish cake. :)
Steph and I were both really tired today. After the long weekend of traveling, walking around sight seeing, then the 4 hour bus ride back, plus staying up til 4am watching football. We made it through class today, then had a tour and lunch with other students who arrived in Caceres from Germany, Austria, Italy, and the U.S. That was fun, I love meeting people from other countries.
When we got home from that, Steph and I both crashed and took a 5 hour siesta. It was nice to finally be rested from the trip. It was a great weekend though, and hopefully we can travel much more while we're here.
We walked to our hostal. We had some problems, because apparently we needed our passports to check in, and none of us had ours. After some awesome Spanglish sweet talking, we finally convinced the owners to let us stay there illegally on the promise that we wouldn't get arrested and get their hostal in trouble.
Our room was small. The 6 of us girls had a room all to ourselves and the one guy who came with us had to stay in another room. We had 3 sets of bunk beds and a bathroom. It was actually pretty nice for how cheap it was.
That afternoon and night we just walked around the city. We went to the Plaza de Espana, which was absolutely amazing. It was sooo beautiful. We also went to the Parque Maria Luisa, which was really pretty too.
The next morning we had free breakfast at the hostal. It was fun to be in the commons room there, because there were people from different countries staying there. We got to meet other students from Brazil, Germany, Sweden. The breakfast was really good too, plus we went to Starbucks after that. Sevilla is big, so they have Starbucks, McDonald's, Burger King, Baskin Robbins, Domino's Pizza. And they have Pepsi machines everywhere, which is weird to see in another country.
All day Saturday we walked around. We saw the main Cathedral, which was HUGE. It's actally the largest Gothic cathedral and 3rd largest church in the world. Inside is the tomb of Chistopher Columbus, which was cool to see, but someone said it's a myth and he's actually buried somewhere else. But I like to believe I saw the real one, it makes for a better story.
We went to Alcazar after that. Its a royal palace, and one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I was totally blown away by how big it was. There were so many rooms, and levels, and everywhere there were fountains and exotic plants and gardens. Every wall and pillar had amazing paintings on them. The palace was origionally built in the 14th century, and they have kept adding onto it since then. The best part of it was outside there was a maze. Like a real hedge maze that you can get lost in. It was so much fun.
We ate lunch at a restaurant and later took a break for churros and chocolate. It's a really common Spanish treat, and it was delicious. After walking all day, we were so tired and our feet were in a lot of pain. So we went back to the hostal for a nice little siesta.
That night we went to dinner at a sandwich place that was kind of the Spanish version of Jimmy John's. Then we went to a discoteca. I was sooo excited! I hadn't been to a discoteca like this since Ecuador. The place was huge, and packed. There were 3 different levels of dance floors. We danced all night, and didn't get back to the hostal until 4am. It was so much fun.
Sunday morning we had breakfast again, checked out of the hostal, and made one last Starbucks run. We found an outdoor cafe/restaurant by the river and sat there all afternoon. We were so tired from walking the day before, plus we had already checked out and didn't want to drag our bags and everything all over the city. So we relaxed there, and it was so nice because it was like 70 degrees.
We went to the bus station at 4 and got back to Caceres around 8. Steph and I were so exhausted. We ate dinner then rested before the Super Bowl came on. The game started at 12:30am for us, and ended around 4am. We watched it on Steph's computer, who was skyping her boyfriend, who set his computer up to his tv. It was the only way we could see the game, but it worked out well. It made us really homesick though, because all of our friends back home were having parties and watching it together, plus I just miss American football so much. We had our own little Super Bowl party with bread sticks and nutella, and Spanish cake. :)
Steph and I were both really tired today. After the long weekend of traveling, walking around sight seeing, then the 4 hour bus ride back, plus staying up til 4am watching football. We made it through class today, then had a tour and lunch with other students who arrived in Caceres from Germany, Austria, Italy, and the U.S. That was fun, I love meeting people from other countries.
When we got home from that, Steph and I both crashed and took a 5 hour siesta. It was nice to finally be rested from the trip. It was a great weekend though, and hopefully we can travel much more while we're here.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
First days of school
So I have officially survived my first week of school. I'm still not used to going to class, doing homework. It's been soo long since first semester at ISU.
I go to the university here, but the actual campus is outside the city. I take the bus to class, and either take the bus back or walk. It's a pretty long walk, but I am going to try to walk home at least a couple times a week if it's not raining.
We have all our classes in 2 classrooms in a main building. There are a lot of other Spanish students there too, but I only have class with the other ISU students in my group. Our professors are from the university, and our classes are taught only in Spanish (most of the teachers don't even know English). I am taking classes for literature, conversation, Spain today, Spanish art, and Spain history.
Since our group is only 20ish people, my classes are small. Some classes have almost all the students in it, but one of my classes has only 7 people. So that's hard to get used to, after taking huge lecture classes at Iowa State with 400 students. But it's nice, and it makes me pay attention, which is hard to do. My mind wanders so much during class because it's in a different language, so it makes me tired to have to focus for that long.
Our homework hasn't been that difficult so far. For the conversation class, we have to do a presentation in front of everyone every Monday. My first one was this week. If you know me, you know that I have absolutely no problem standing in front of any crowd talking in any language. I could give a presentation about the chalkboard for 4 minutes if I had to. This one was easy, we had to explain where we are from, where we live, where we have traveled to. I did mine, no problem, and at the end my teacher didn't say much about my speech, but he told me I talked too fast. Um, what? I wanted to tell him, "Ohh you should hear me talk in English, sir." So I guess I have to slow down in my presentations... :-/
Steph and I eat lunch together after class. Our meals have still been really good, and still wayyy too much food. Yesterday one of our moms was home to eat lunch with us. We had a very delicious meal of rice and ketchup, hotdogs, and eggs (it sounds weird all mixed together, but I promise it was awesome). Our mom brought out another plate with veggies and some kind of meat, which she told us was pig. Steph and I both tried it, I actually took a really big piece. It tasted very different, very chewy. We finally asked what it was, and our mom just pointed to her ear. PIG EAR. Super. I'm not going to tell you what I thought about that, but I can say that we weren't so hungry after that...
I've had a really bad cold all week. It's soo annoying. I hope it goes away soon. Steph and I went to Carrefour, which we actually call Wal-Mart, because that's what it is. It has basically everything. So I bought Halls there, and have already gone through most of them. I can't stop coughing. I feel bad during class, I'm practically wheezing. Hopefully it will get better soon. My moms are so worried, I'm not used to being babied when I'm sick.
Tomorrow morning I am going to Sevilla. It's a city in southern Spain. I'm going with 6 other students, we are all really excited. A 3 hour bus ride, staying 2 nights in a hostel. I'll post my stories from that next week. :) Hasta luego!
I go to the university here, but the actual campus is outside the city. I take the bus to class, and either take the bus back or walk. It's a pretty long walk, but I am going to try to walk home at least a couple times a week if it's not raining.
We have all our classes in 2 classrooms in a main building. There are a lot of other Spanish students there too, but I only have class with the other ISU students in my group. Our professors are from the university, and our classes are taught only in Spanish (most of the teachers don't even know English). I am taking classes for literature, conversation, Spain today, Spanish art, and Spain history.
Since our group is only 20ish people, my classes are small. Some classes have almost all the students in it, but one of my classes has only 7 people. So that's hard to get used to, after taking huge lecture classes at Iowa State with 400 students. But it's nice, and it makes me pay attention, which is hard to do. My mind wanders so much during class because it's in a different language, so it makes me tired to have to focus for that long.
Our homework hasn't been that difficult so far. For the conversation class, we have to do a presentation in front of everyone every Monday. My first one was this week. If you know me, you know that I have absolutely no problem standing in front of any crowd talking in any language. I could give a presentation about the chalkboard for 4 minutes if I had to. This one was easy, we had to explain where we are from, where we live, where we have traveled to. I did mine, no problem, and at the end my teacher didn't say much about my speech, but he told me I talked too fast. Um, what? I wanted to tell him, "Ohh you should hear me talk in English, sir." So I guess I have to slow down in my presentations... :-/
Steph and I eat lunch together after class. Our meals have still been really good, and still wayyy too much food. Yesterday one of our moms was home to eat lunch with us. We had a very delicious meal of rice and ketchup, hotdogs, and eggs (it sounds weird all mixed together, but I promise it was awesome). Our mom brought out another plate with veggies and some kind of meat, which she told us was pig. Steph and I both tried it, I actually took a really big piece. It tasted very different, very chewy. We finally asked what it was, and our mom just pointed to her ear. PIG EAR. Super. I'm not going to tell you what I thought about that, but I can say that we weren't so hungry after that...
I've had a really bad cold all week. It's soo annoying. I hope it goes away soon. Steph and I went to Carrefour, which we actually call Wal-Mart, because that's what it is. It has basically everything. So I bought Halls there, and have already gone through most of them. I can't stop coughing. I feel bad during class, I'm practically wheezing. Hopefully it will get better soon. My moms are so worried, I'm not used to being babied when I'm sick.
Tomorrow morning I am going to Sevilla. It's a city in southern Spain. I'm going with 6 other students, we are all really excited. A 3 hour bus ride, staying 2 nights in a hostel. I'll post my stories from that next week. :) Hasta luego!
Monday, February 1, 2010
Pictures of Italy
Simone!
I look happy, either to see Simone, or just to have made it alive from Switzerland to there.
Simone's girlfriend Elizabeth and I on the train.
Simone's city, Asti.
Turin, Italy
The view of Turin from the top of the Mole.
Simone and I at the top of the Mole.
The Po River
The Gran Madre.
Me with all of Simone's friends at the awesome seafood restaurant.
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