Barcelona

just some deliciousness first..

After a week of 4 midterms, I was so ready to go on the first trip that Emily and I actually planned ourselves instead of an ISA trip. We packed our bags beforehand and took them to class with us. At any other school it would probably be weird taking a suitcase into class, but here its completely normal! We got out at 6 pm, and began our weekend of public transportation by walking over to the tram in Plaza Nueva, which took us to the bus stop near Plaza Espana, and then took the bus to the airport. We made it to our flight in time, but found out our flight had been delayed 2 hours, so we didn't end up leaving Sevilla until 10 pm, and got to Barcelona around midnight. We took a bus to our hostel, which took 30 minutes.  We checked in and went to our room, which we shared with 10 other people. People were sleeping in there so we could only turn on a small light to find unempty beds, lock up our luggage, and get ready to go out.

We were so happy that our friends from OSU, Madi and Chelsea, had called our hostel to tell us which club they were at because otherwise we had no way to call each other, since they don't have Spain phones.  We got ready, went upstairs to the lounge while the hostel called us a cab.  We got to the discoteca Shoko at 1:30-2 ish, not knowing if they would be there or not, but we walked in and we found them almost instantly! It was so crazy getting to see people we knew from back home, I almost forgot I was in Spain for a little bit! We had so much fun and got home around 4:30.

The next day we woke up at 8:30 to go to breakfast that the hostel served, and met 2 guys from Ireland that were traveling and were planning on running on a marathon on Sunday. After breakfast then went on a walking tour of Barrio Gotico at 10. It was nice getting to know the city and we met other people that were traveling/studying in Europe. We got to see churches, a cathedral, monuments, art, where Picasso studied, etc.  After that, Emily and I went to the hotel where Madi and Chelsea were staying at, which was about 10000 times nicer than our humble hostel, and they generously let us shower there and get ready! We went to eat at a place that was recommended to us during our tour in the morning, and it was pretty delicious! We walked around the ports, las ramblas, and explored a little bit. After that, we hung out in their hotel and rested.  We went to dinner with them and some other people from their program from OSU. It was their last night in Barcelona, so they all met up on the terrace after and hung out, talking about their trip.  It was weird hearing them all talk about how it was over and how they would be going back home the next day when I still have a long time here! I was so glad that we got to meet up, even for the short amount of time.  After the terrace, we went to a bar that had crazy trick shots! They lit them on fire, roasted marshmallows on them, one had pringles and hot sauce, some had whipped cream and chocolate, etc-there were hundreds to choose from! They had flights in the morning so we didn't stay out too late, and when we were leaving we met some other Americans that were in Spain teaching English, but we decided to call it a night and headed back to our hostel.

The next day we got up for breakfast and talked to the Irish guys again, and also met other people from Chile and Argentina, and we made plans to meet up with them later to hang out that night.  After breakfast, we went to a place that Madi had recommended, Tibidabo, which required a lot of public transportation, but luckily they gave us a card for the next 2 days that we could use pretty much anything free. We took the metro to a bus and then cable-carred up to the top of a mountain, which had a Cathedral at the top as well as restaurants and an amusement park. We took lots of pictures and enjoyed the view of Barcelona! After that we took the metro to Sagrada Familia, which is a building designed by the architect Gaudi that had been under construction for 100 years and still wasn't finished. We had lunch/dinner at a pizza place right next to it called Pizza Emporio, and it was crazzzzzzzzy good! Today some new people were moving into our room, and we met people from Holland.  It was crazy at one point in our room people were speaking English, Spanish, Dutch, and maybe Portuguese....so strange. Later we ended up finding our new friend from breakfast and hung out at the street really close to our hostel. Beatriz was from Chile and she wanted to practice her English, so she spoke to me in English while I was talking in Spanish.  She taught me some phrases that were really popular in Chile. Cuatico = amazing, cachai = you know, and bakan = buenismo!! Ok now I need to share some Spanish expressions: Vale = Ok. Killo= a name for a friend (in sevilla only). que te cagas!!! = its the shiz!!! Que fuerte! = wow! and you can say it for a lot of things.
We got back to our hostel around the same time other people were getting home, so I didn't feel as bad being loud and waking people up.

Sunday morning we had to check out, so we got ready and left our luggage in a locked room in the hostel, and set out for the day with Josh, who was staying in our room and had been traveling through Europe since last fall. We walked around the city, saw a marathon, and went back over to Sagrada Familia to try to see if we could go inside, but the line to get in was way too long so we just decided to hang out outside and then went to lunch a couple blocks away.  We had to take the metro to get to Sagrada Familia, and something very bad almost happened! We had been warned multiple times about pickpocketing in Barcelona, so I all weekend I had been very conscious to protect my purse and even had a dream one night that someone had stolen my purse. When we were getting on the metro, usually people get off, but for some reason at this stop nearly everybody stayed on and it was incredibly full.  We didn't know if we could fit in at our door so we ran over to another one and cram our way in really fast because the doors were about to close. My purse had swung behind me and immediately I could feel someone grabbing for my purse. I turn around as soon as I could and the lady behind me already had my purse unzipped and my wallet in her hands, but I caught her just in time and grabbed it back and thankfully everything was still in there. I was so happy to get out of the metro and glad that she didn't actually take my wallet.

We had lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant a few streets away from Sagrada Familia, and then it was time to go back to our hostel and get our luggage to go home. We took the train to the airport and then a bus up to the terminal, and made it with plenty of time to spare. We rewarded ourselves with a McFlurry because it took tremendous exercise walking to the terminal!!!! Or so we thought.  We landed in Sevilla at 7 and took a bus back to Plaza Espana and walked back to our house, and by that time it was time to turn around and go to church.  Then we got back home and rested. Finally. We had dinner around 10, and had Paella with conejos...rabbit! And mama Rita shared with us some good news for next week (Semana Santa, spring break #1). Emily and I are going to Ibiza from Friday - Tuesday, and then our family is going to take us to their lake house with them from Wednesday - Sunday with the whole family! We will finally get to meet our host sister Marta! We were so excited and decided that since we are going to the beach we need to start a diet to lose 5 pounds in a week, but that pretty much was an epic fail when we got the chocolate out a minute later and chowed down. Oh well. Later I found out that my real family wants to take a trip to Boston when I am done in May yay!! Our lunch should be ready in an hourish so I'm gonna take a nap or read the Hunger Games that Madi lent to me! Hasta luego!

marzo en sevilla

Soo…I’ve been a little bit behind on my blogging! I guess I’ll just start writing where I left off, which was about 2 weekends ago!

I stayed in Sevilla for the weekend while Emily traveled to Bilbao and San Sebastian. I spent a lot of quality time with Kyla and Laura, which was really great! We went out at night, and during the days we went to Plaza Espana to run and enjoy the view and such, and went to Plaza Nervion which has a nice mall J Nervion is a far walk so we had to take the subway to get there  (my first subway experience in Sevilla!) which wasn’t too bad! We also found a sit down Domino’s pizza place which we couldn’t resist.

Lately the weather has been getting a lot warmer, which means we get to spend a lot more time outside and much more time at the river!  In between classes, we like to go lay out at the river and do homework or nap, it’s pretty nice and relaxing! Since I have a break from 11am-6pm on Monday/Wednesday, I think it’s a pretty productive way to spend my time! Last Monday Mamá Rita packed me a bocadillo (queso y aceite) for me to take and I had a little picnic on the river with some friends. 

The view from laying on the river, my house is right across, near that pointy thing

We’ve also been taking advantage of this very nice weather to enjoy some tapas! We’ve tried to go to a tapas bar that ISA recommended a couple times now, but every time we try to go it’s been too early, so we’ve gone to one on the bridge where you can sit up on the roof, and its right on the river. It had such a nice view!! Emily and the sisters and I split 3 tapas and had tinto de verano, and of course pan and picos.

Tapas on the roof at the river!

The other day we went to a tapas bar closer to school in centro in a really nice little area of the city, and enjoyed café con leche, and continued on to another one closer to Plaza Alfalfa for more tapas. By this time it was almost dinner time so our group of friends split up to go home. While Emily and I were journeying back to our humble abode in Triana, we decided to go for one more round of tapas, since it was only 8:00 and dinner isn’t usually until 10. Being a little unfamiliar with the different meats on the menu, we went for the cheapest one and to our surprise, we had accidentally ordered liver. But, all in all, going for tapas is one of my favorite things about Sevilla!! It’s amazing how much Sevillanos really live outside on the streets-during tapas time, EVERYONE is out and about, people flood the streets and all the little restaurants and café bars that line the streets all have seating outside, filled with people.  I’ve noticed it more and more as it gets warmer, and when we walk back across the bridge from el centro to triana, I’ve noticed tons of young people botellóning at the river at night! Which basically means, they all hang out and share a bottle or drinks out by the river. We also saw the aftermath of this botellón the other day around 4:30 pm in Plaza Salvador, where we think people had just left to go watch the fútbol game.

the river at night 

The cute little area we had cafe con leche

Eveningtime...the start of the botellon at the river

This past weekend, we got to experience the river in pedalboats! We met our friends on Sunday at 11:00 am at the river and all rented a pedalboat for an hour to tomar el sol and exercise our little legs. The river was so busy- there were tons of people kayaking, some people windsurfing, a few other pedalboats, some ferries, etc. We tried talking to a couple of the kayakers but they gave us some weird looks, we think they didn’t want to associate with mere pedalboaters. Afterward, we went to get tapas and refreshments at the little restaurant on the river, and they had the best frozen lemonade ever!!!  

pedal boats

Some kayakers playing bball on the river

this is the life!!

After our wonderful rio experience, Emily and I traveled to another little area of Sevilla.  She is starting to do volunteer work at a school in another district, I went along with her and we ventured out to see if we could conquer the buses.  And with many questions, confusion, bus rides, and hours later, we had! Turns out the directions she got weren’t completely clear, and we may have witnessed a biker getting a concussion on the sidewalk, but we definitely figured it out.  It made me appreciate where I am living in Sevilla so much more, because that was definitely the poorer side of town, and I missed all the beauty that Sevilla has.  We got back to Sevilla at 7:00, in Ponce de Leon, and stopped for ice cream (since it was Sunday!).  Since there are tons of churches everywhere, we found one very close to where we were getting ice cream at and went there at 8.  We felt a little out of place with my nike shorts and t shirts while everyone else was dressed up in pants and jackets. 



Unfortunately, I was a had a little fiebre over the weekend and had to spend a couple days durmiendo all day long, but Mamá Rita took good care of me! I think I scared Marcos when I was sleeping on the couch in the living room, but I couldn't stay in my bed anymore because its not super cushy and I had been in there for a good 12 hours...Anyway, yesterday I was only allowed to eat an apple, ONLY if I tuve MUCHO HAMBRE, and an egg. And I was not allowed to drink water, only Aquarius, which basically is Gatorade. Mama rita called the school to tell them I was sick, and from the other room I could hear her cracking up while she told them how much I normally at all the time (come MUCHO MUCHO) and how now I was on a strict diet..yikes!  So with much sleep, Aquarius, and love from Rita, I am now healed!!  


I signed up for an intercambio, which is a Spanish student that I am paired with that we get to meet up with and practice learning Spanish while they learn English, so I am waiting for an email about that!! Fingers crossed I get one soon!! 


That is about it for now! Oh yeah, school is good too :) 


And, now I am only 6 hour difference from the US because of the time change! 

5 day weekend

These last few days have been pretty eventful!
I've traveled a lot over the past weekend. Thankfully Mama Rita packed Emily and I a bocadilla bag and a bunch of fruit because we were on the bus for a long time. We got on the bus at 9 am Friday morning and drove for a few hours and made our first stop in Gibraltar, which is at the south of Spain, but is really British.  It was weird hearing other people speaking English for once!! They even used pounds, so now I have English currency! While we were in Gibraltar we got to see the Mediterranean Sea and took lots of pictures there, the water was so beautiful but it was so windy!! Later, we stopped at a cave to explore and then got to hang out with some monkeys! It was really fun because they came up really close and even jumped on people! 

Then, we left Gibraltar and took a ferry over to Africa, which took about an hour.  Right when we got off the ferry, even though we were technically in Africa, it was still Spanish territory so we didn't have to go through customs yet and it still pretty much looked like Spain. A little farther on we arrived in Morocco around 8sh that evening and they took us to our hotel.  It was so much different than Spain, you could tell right when we got there that it was a totally different lifestyle.

We got to the hotel in Morocco at 9ish, and I stayed with Emily and Becca in a 3 person room.  At 10:30 pm they served us dinner, which was vegetable soup and then fish with potatoes and rice. Pretty tasty! We couldn't drink normal water there so we had to order mineral water. They even had a musician playing a keyboard and singing (very loudly) during dinner.  Afterwards, we were all so tired we went straight to bed because we had to be up at 8 the next morning.

The next morning we were supposed to get a wake up call at 7:45, but that never came; luckily Emily woke up at 8:30 and we rushed to get ready and went down to breakfast.  Then we left to go to some of the markets in another city.  We had to haggle anything that we wanted to buy! It was crazy to see how different their world is, the walls were all painted blue and had small doors because you were supposed to bow as you entered someone's home.  We were taken down through the streets and got to see the food markets too.  People go daily to buy their food, so all the food gets sold each day. Then we went to an oils and spice store, and Emily and I got Moroccan oil for our hair. We walked by the palace where the king lives when he stays there also, and they were currently preparing for his arrival in a few weeks. All of the streets were filled with people selling different types of things-scarves, blankets, jewelry, postcards, bags, etc. Most of the people there knew 3 languages - English, Spanish, and Arabic because many of their customers are tourists, so they have to know how to sell to them.  

After the markets, we had lunch at a nice restaurant and had soup, and then kebabs of beef and another little thing..don't know what it was, but it was really good! They had a little entertainment for us- a guy was dancing around with candles on his head, and when we entered the restaurant, they were playing drums for us as we walked in. The only thing was they didn't have toilet paper in the bathrooms!! So weird. Moroccans drink hot mint tea a lot, so they served us a glass after our meal, and it was really good!

We went to go tour the markets again, and then left to go to our second hotel. That evening, we had out "fantasy dinner." We had a lot more good food, and then lots of entertainment--belly dancing, acrobats, a couple other dancers, etc. and they would pull people from audience to go dance with them! It was a great dinner! Afterward, we all went to a discoteca that was right next to the hotel.

The next morning we got to have a camel ride!! We went to the point where the Mediterranean and Atlantic meet, visited another cave, Cueta, and then finally got on the ferry to head home to Sevilla. By this point, we were ally ready to go back- I think we were all homesick for Sevilla because we hadn't really had a home that weekend. We all missed our host parents too!! Emily and I got back to our house at 7:30 pm, then went straight over to the church by our house at 8.  We got home, had dinner with the family, and went to bed and slept a good amount of the next day too.  We didn't have class Monday or Tuesday for an Andalucian holiday, so on Monday we went to Plaza Espana to do homework (aka people watch).

Tuesday morning, we woke up early to take a day trip to Jerez with some of our friends.  We were going to take the 9:05 train, but we missed it so we left at 9:45.  Once in Jerez, we went to go see a horse show, and then went off to a bodega-Sandeman's, where they made Sherry. We had a wine tasting, and then spent the rest of the day going to get tapas and exploring little cafes.  This was probably one of my best days in Spain so far, we had so much fun! It was pretty different from Sevilla though, there people are always outside, tons of people walking around all the time, but in Jerez there wasn't really anybody else out besides us.  We were ready to leave at 6:45, but all the trains were full until 9:45 so we waited around until then, and then got back to Sevilla about an hour later.  When we got home, our family was watching a movie so we joined them for a little bit, and all had dinner around 11:30 pm.

I just now got out of my last class so its the weekend again here!! This is the first time that Emily and I doing separate things!! She is off to Bilbao for the weekend and I am staying in Sevilla for now :)