'Ello!!!

This weekend Laura and I were off to London to visit a bunch of cool people from Ithaca. Our flight was in the afternoon on Friday, and after landing in Gatwick and getting to the apartment, Laura, Seth, Luke, Laura, Mary, and I chilled for a bit before we finally went out for Indian food. 

On Saturday we had the grand tour of London, and hit up just about every site there is to see. We went through Hyde Park and saw a cool Peter Pan statue, then we were off to Buckingham Palace and Westminister Abbey and Parliament and lots and lots more. Eventually we headed over to the Borough Market and got a LOT of free food from stands and bought some good brownies and toasted cheese sandwiches. Then we headed over to the London and Tower Bridges and the Tate Museum. 

After that, Seth and I went to the London Eye and then Spamalot. The show was really really funny, it was basically a huge spoof on King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. After the show we tried to find someplace to eat, but no one wanted to serve us so we eventually just went back to the flat.

Sunday we got up bright and early and headed to Platform 9 3/4 and then some more markets. Our flight was in the early afternoon, so we had to get to the airport relatively early to check in. The line took FOREVER to get through, so we barely got through in enough time to get our flight. But we did, and then we got back to Sevilla by 7:30. It was pretty nice because it was still daylight because this weekend was daylight savings time, and it was even nicer because it was actually warm. 

Semana Santa in La Ciudad

So after my trip from Morocco, I was back in just enough time to catch the end of Semana Santa, or Holy Week. The week is a pretty big deal in Sevilla, and they have a LOT of processions and parades and it’s pretty much one big week of solemn reflection on the death of Jesus. (They actually don’t really do much with the Resurrection, mainly just the death.)

Thursday it rained for most of the morning and afternoon, so a lot of the processions were cancelled. But then before dinner I headed out to a church downtown and caught the procession called La Pasión, which started out with a bunch of people in outfits that look almost identical to the outfits the Ku Klux Klan wears (I’m being serious, I’ll have pictures up eventually so you can see) and then was followed with people carrying these huge float/image things of Jesus and Mary. The whole thing takes FOREVER to go through, literally hours and hours. Some of them last all night and they walk for 12 hours straight. It’s pretty crazy. 

But anyway, after that procession I went and got some dinner before heading to some more professions that started after midnight. EVERYBODY (including my 15-year-old host brother) was out watching them, and we watched two or three before heading back home at 4 am.

On Good Friday, Laura and I walked out to Triana (a district kinda far from where I live) and caught another procession called La Esperanza de Triana (The hope of Triana, who is one of the patron saints of Sevilla). Then we went to this amazing organic restaurant and had tofu. In the afternoon we bought fútbol tickets and headed out to yet some more processions before hanging out downtown for the night.

On Saturday, we had all had enough of processions, plus there weren’t that many more anyway, so Laura, Janette, and I headed out for a VERY long walk to a park out in Triana called el Parque de los Príncipes. We hung out there for a while, then after dinner we went out to the fútbol game against a Madrid team. The Sevillanos are CRAZY about their soccer, it was pretty nuts. People were yelling soooooo loud obscenities and then singing all these different fight songs. It was a good time. But unfortunately, we lost 2-1. But the other team was ranked higher anyway, so I guess they were better.

Easter Sunday my roommate and I headed down to the big cathedral for mass, which was the weirdest mass either of us had ever been too. It just had music and chanting for the first 45 minutes, and then when it finally started it was still kinda different. I was pretty happy because I could understand the lessons and sermon, although I guess it is kinda expected that I’d understand most of it since I already knew ahead of time what to expect out of the readings. But anyway, we left after the sermon because we had been there for an hour and a half already and didn’t know where the service was going.

Then for lunch I finally had dessert!!!!! We have only had dessert one other time at my house, so it was pretty amazing. It was this delicious thing that was like cheesecake, but better.

And unfortunately, that was the end of Semana Santa. The most unfortunate part was probably that I had to head to class after what seemed like the longest break of my life. But I guess I am here to study …

Also, here are some pics from Morocco

Morocco

btw

here's links to more pics:

Portugal

Paris

Salam, labas? (Hello, how are you?)

Well, it’s been quite a while since I’ve updated my blog, and for good reason. I was kinda in Africa for a week, so I think that’s as good an excuse as any. But anyway, the trip was pretty much INCREDIBLE.

It started out not last Friday but the one before, when we met for the bus insanely early to head to the Strait of Gibralter, where we took a ferry across the water to Morocco. After we got to shore, we exchanged money and then headed to the capital city, Rabat. We had lunch and a short tour of the city, where we saw the sister of the Tower of Giralda (which is in Sevilla), a mosque, and some other sites that I zoned out for since I was really tired from getting up early.

After the tour, we kept driving to the city of Fez, where we spent the night before heading on to the Sahara Desert the next day. Along the way to the Sahara, we made a quick stop at a forest where we got to see wild monkeys!! They were soooooo cute. Some people were able to get close enough to feed them. I didn’t try, though.

We kept driving until we got to a hotel where we picked up a bunch of jeeps to drive farther into the desert, since the busses couldn’t go any farther. My jeep was pretty fun because our driver decided not to follow the road like the other jeeps, and instead took all these back roads (except ‘roads’ is a bit of a stretch for the word) through the desert.

After nearly an hour of driving, we finally got to our hotel, which was basically paradise. Literally. It was the most amazing hotel I have ever stayed at, and actually, Angelina Jolie stayed there before. I like to think she stayed in my room.

Dinner was pretty amazing too, they had this huge party for Laura and this other girl since it was their birthdays, so they played the drums and had cake and sang and everything.

The next day we got up and took a walk to a nearby town, and then in the afternoon we took camels into the desert where we stayed the night. That was pretty fun, except the camels are a bit painful to ride. Before dinner we climbed this HUGE dune, that took us nearly an hour to ascend, but it was soooo worth it because we had an amazing view of the sunset.

After riding back in the morning, we took the bus back to Fez, and the next day we went into the old section of the city, called the Medina. This is the part that is surrounded by the old walls to protect it, and there are more than 9,400 little streets, so it is very confusing. We walked around for a while, went shopping (where you have to barter for everything), and saw some sites.

The next day we finally headed back to good old Sevilla. It was SUCH a long drive, we broke it up by stopping in a small town called Assilah along the way, but it still seemed like forever and I didn’t get back to my room til past 1 am. And that was Morocco. In a few days, I’ll post some more info about Semana Santa and the awesomeness that is Sevilla. But meanwhile, M’a ssalama! (Goodbye!)

More about Sevilla

so i realized i haven't said anything about sevilla for a while.

so yea, things are pretty good around here. i started working at a guarderia, aka daycare, twice a week, which is pretty fun. the kids are all around 3 or 4 years old and younger, and i basically just play with them, help feed them, make sure they don't kill each other, and teach english lessons. it's pretty crazy because they already have at least two english lessons a day, what i teach them and what this other lady comes in and teaches them. and they're pretty good.

i also started taking salsa dancing lessons this week with my intercambio, a college student i'm paired with that wants to learn english. we normally just meet and talk, so i can learn spanish from her and she can learn english from me, and this week she invited me to the lessons with her, so i went. it was pretty fun. i was a bit confused because all the moves were spanish names that i didn't know, and the instructions were obviously in spanish, and they were all terms i wasn't sure about, but it was still really fun. after semana santa, i'm gonna go back and hopefully get a little better.

so i haven't told you all about the craziness of futbol, aka soccer, here. basically, everyone's obsessed with it. the other week, there was a home game in the stadium near my apartment, and when i was walking back to my apartment before the game, i saw the thousands of people walking to the stadium. it was nuts. then during the game, my senor and his son were yelling and screaming in the house every time there was a goal or anything, so that was pretty amusing. my roommate and i were so intrigued we finally had to go watch for a while with them.

hmmm, what else ... today i went to an exhibit at the art museum about el greco, a famous painter i'm learning about in my art class. so that was pretty interesting since i knew all about his style and stuff. oh, and this week laura and i have been using the city bicicyle system instead of the buses since our bus passes needed renewed and we didn't feel like doing that before we left for morocco, so that has been fun. we just had to pay 5 euros and we get to use the bikes whenever we want, as long as we return them to a station within 30 minutes. it's been soooooooo hot though this week, so it's been quite a workout.

allright, so i guess this is all for now. i'm off to africa for the weekend and the early part of next week, so i hope you all have a good easter and enjoy semana santa!!!

hasta luego.

Paris, la ciudad de amor

so this weekend in paris was basically AWESOME. 

our trip started pretty early on friday (5:45 am) when we took the bus to the airport, and then we got in to the orly airport outside of paris around 10-ish or so and then into paris itself by 11. laura and i waited at the bus stop for a bit until josh, her friend studying in paris, and two other friends came to pick us up. we were immediately greeted with chocolate-filled croissants from josh, which were AMAZING!!!

we walked around for a bit, dropped our stuff off at the hotel room, got some crepes, then headed to the pantheon, where we saw a bunch of tombs in the crypt and saw this huge contraption that proves the world rotates on an axis. seth called us and said he had arrived to the city, so we went and met him (along the way picking up some more authentic parisian pastries) and headed to the eiffel tower, which was even more AMAZING than i thought. i think i literally took like, a million pictures of it. 

since josh knows everything there is to know about paris (because he actually wants to be a tour guide) he took us to a bunch of cool sites. for dinner we went to a restaurant called hippopotamus, or something similar, and afterward we walked around and saw the arc de triumph and some other sites before heading back to the hotel.

on saturday morning, we headed to the louvre and conquered it in three hours. it was so huge it was overwhelming at first to decide where to begin, but after we got started things went relatively smoothly. we saw napoleon's apartment (since he lived in the louvre before it was made into a museum), the mona lisa of course, venus de milo, winged victory, and a lotta lotta more. we encountered our first rude french person in the cafe inside the louvre, who told us we had to ask before we took sugar and spoons that were clearly on the counter for people to take.

after the louvre, we met up with callie, who came in from the u.s. to see us!!!, and josh showed us around some more. we headed up to the artist's quarter and the basilica before we had dinner at the cool little fondu place near moulin rouge. the atmosphere was literally amazing because the place was just this little hole in the wall, and the waiters just brought out food and you didn't get to order. it was literally hilarious because this guy brought out appetizers and then cheese and potatoes that we dipped in this cheese fondu. and then he brought out this bowl of meat that looked really really rare, and we asked josh if we were supposed to eat this, and he's like, i guess. so then we did, and after a couple pieces the waiter came back with a bowl of oil or water or something and a lighter to light this burner on the table, and when josh asked the waiter if that was to cook the meat, the guy was like, in french, 'duh stupid, would you eat it otherwise???'

so after dinner we saw moulin rouge and then headed back to our hotel. sunday morning we headed to the orsy museum that had more impressionistic artwork, and then by early afternoon it was time to head back to sevilla. 

más fotos

to see the next round of photos, go to

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2071972&l=3c198&id=13810163

i will be writing more later about my trip to paris this weekend. but this is it for now.

and also a reminder: anyone can make comments on this blog, so feel free to do so. i'd love to hear what people want to say, or to know that people are even reading this!

hasta luego.

Portugal!!!!!!!!!

So this weekend I was off to Portugal on a trip with my school. We left Thursday morning and took a bus to Portugal, which was about a 4-hour or so drive away. The country is actually an hour behind us, though, which was a pain when  we were all starving and had to wait a while to get food. 

After we arrived in Lisboa, the capital, we dropped our stuff off at our hostel and then took a tour of the city. It was interesting because our tour guide, who was Portuguese, had only studied Spanish for two years but was still basically fluent (all trips with the school are done in Spanish, hence why she didn't speak English, although she knew that as well). 

After we got out to walk for a bit, our driver was supposed to meet us at a point later on, but he got really really lost so we ended up having to wait a while for him to find us. But after he took us back to the hostel, we split up and a bunch of us went out for a traditional Portuguese dinner of codfish. 

On Friday we went to a nearby town, Sintra, and explored this humongous castle, and then we went to the farthest west point of Europe and then a beach. I put my feet in the water and walked through the sand barefoot, but it was still a bit cold. Although not too much. We had a lot of free time during the night, so we wondered around a lot through Lisboa and walked through some of the shopping districts and stuff like that. 

Saturday we went to another castle and then had the entire day free, so Laura, me, and some other people went to the aquarium, which was AWESOME!!! It was funny because I felt like such a child there, 1. because I was at an aquarium, and 2. I got lost within 10 minutes of starting the tour and had to go through the entire aquarium to find my group. But anyway, the otters and penguins were ADORABLE, and I was so happy because I found Nemo!!!

For dinner we were mainly concerned with saving money, so we went to an Italian restaurant and I got really good veggie lasagna. It was funny because I'm pretty sure the waiter there gave me his number, but I'm not quite sure because it was very confusing. He was talking to us about his sister that lived in the United States, and then after we paid he gave me two business cards with a number scribbled on both. He rattled off something in some language that I'm not quite sure about, so I don't know what exactly the number was for he gave me. Because it'd be pretty weird to give two business cards with your number to someone. So I'm not quite sure ...

But anyway, then we left on Sunday and went to a Spanish town on the way back that had a cool cave. And I guess that was it for the weekend.

Oh yea, and whoever said Portuguese sounds like Spanish lies. I couldn't understand almost all of what Portuguese people said. I could read it pretty decently, but it definitely sounds more French than anything.