A catch-up is in order...

Oh wow. So I totally suck. It's been a month since my last post-yikes! Well, a lot has happened since then. I guess I'll provide some highlights!

Barcelona: Last weekend, Kendra, Natalie, and I spent 3 nights and 2 full days in Barca. It was AWESOME! The first day was spent seeing all (okay not all, that would've taken 3 full days) of Gaudí's works in Barca. Casa Mila, La Sagrada Familia, and Parc Guell. My favorite was the Sagrada Familia. Gaudí was so ahead of his time! One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was our lunch on Friday. We went to this Italian restaurant and had some AMAZING food. The best calzone I've ever eaten, fresh tomatoes and mozzarella, and this dish of mushrooms wrapped in bacon. Seriously, it was some of the best food I've ever eaten. We also shared a pitcher of sangria, and it was all we needed to get a little silly :) After lunch we grabbed some gelato-- also mouthwatering!
Once we got back to our hostel room after the long day, we were greeted by two very good looking guys from California. Miles is studying in Italy, Josh outside of Paris, and they were also enjoying a weekend in Barca. They were really fun to talk to, and they definitely helped my first hostel experience become a great one :) That night we met up with Natalie's friend Becca who's studying in Barcelona and went to a bar and drank too much sangria. end of story. ;)
The next day we met up with our friend Angelina from our program, and her friend who lives in Barcelona. We went to Las Ramblas, a main street with a lot going on. My favorite part was definitely the market we visited. It had amaaazing chocolate stands and tons and tons of fresh fruit (I bought mango, strawberries, pineapple, raspberries, and kiwi). Then we went to the beach with our picnic! We lucked our hardcore with the weather, for sure! 70s and sunny the whole weekend! The beach was gorgeous and it was nice to get some sun.
Saturday night was... interesting... to say the least. First we went to 500 Chupitos (500 shots) where they literally have a wall full of 500 intriguing names of shots to choose from. We started off with a Boy Scout: the bartender lights the bar on fire, gives us marshmallows on sticks, we roast the marshmallows by setting fire to them and set out the fire by dunking them in the shot, take the shot, and then eat the marshmallow. Yum. Next was a Finding Nemo: A shot topped with a rather large dollop of whipped cream, in which an m&m is hidden inside somewhere. The goal is to find the m&m in the whipped cream and then take the shot before everyone else. Then there was the Pop Rocks shot: stick a handful of poprocks in your mouth, take a shot, swish around the poprocks, plug your ears and let the madness commence! Then I was the only one interested in the wasabi shot: lick a dollop of wasabi off your hand before taking a shot. I'm not kidding, it was delish. Kendra and I asked the bartender for a recommendation of another shot that involved fire so then came the Duende Verde (Green Goblin): you take the shot of green alcohol with a straw while it's still on fire! And last but most certainly not least came the Harry Potter shot: shotglasses topped with a slice of orange topped with a pile of sugar, all set on fire to make pretty colors, then you take the shot and eat the orange slice. absolutely delicious!
After 500 Chupitos we were going to go to Opium, a disco on the beach, but we heard it wasn't supposed to be "big" that night so we changed our destination to Elephant. mistake. BIG MISTAKE. Elephant turned out to be the Barca-Mom's idea of a crazy saturday night while still keeping it in the suburbs. It was definitely a cool idea for a club--lots of Buddha designs and an outside hookah bar with comfy booths underneath canopies--but the clientele was about 30 years too old. Still, we rocked it.

The Dirty South... of France

Two weeks later and I'm finally updating this thang about my Aix-en-Provence, France trip. Here are some revelations I had while I was there: 

• French is the most beautiful language I've ever heard. I'm taking it next semester so I can attempt to sound that sexy for at least a minute of my life. 
• French people are super nice, intelligent, and fun. (Obviously there are Frenchies that are not, but everyone I met gave me this impression.)
• It is my goal to meet and marry a Frenchman, have French babies, and raise my French babies in France so they can grow up well-educated and cultured and worldly. 
• French people know how to eat. and party. 
• I love France. Especially the dirty south of France. 

So I left super super early Thursday morning and got to the Marseille airport at 915 am where I was pleasantly surprised by the one and only Arnaud Allibert and his friend Sebastian. What a great welcoming party :) Thursday was a very cultural and fun day... I went to the open-air market with Arnaud and his grandmother (who is one of the cutest people I've ever met, by the way). The market was awesome-- all these spices and fruits and veggies and breads and cheeses and different kinds of soaps... and then there was an antique area with some really cool relics from WWII; Arnaud's grandmother showed us a ration book with stamps used for bread and other kinds of rations during WWII. 

And then Arnaud bought me a stick to chew on. Not kidding. It was a licorice stick so it was pretty tasty, don't worry (except for the occasional bark bits that lodged themselves in between my teeth).

After the market I went to lunch with Arnaud and his grandmother and then his other set of grandparents. We ate at this cute little Italian place and I ordered the 4-cheese pizza (oh and I ordered in French) -- one plate of pure cheesy goodness, I tell you. It had bleu, goat, mozzarella, and some other cheese and it was AWESOME. Arnaud ordered beef tartare and I tried it-- SO GOOD. For those of you who don't know what beef tartare is, it's raw beef and you put some different sauces and spices on it and it is absolutely delightful. 
After lunch Arnaud took me to Les Deux Garcons, which is a cafe that was around in the 1790s and was where the French revolutionaries would hang out and write and discuss all their revolutionary thoughts. It really is the place to be. What you do is just sit outside and sip your espresso (I tried it without any milk or sugar and actually enjoyed it!) and smoke your cigarette (if you're French) and just watch the world go by. It was so fun just people watching with Arnaud-- he's so funny! We'd be watching a group of French fashionistas walk by and he would take on a hoity-toity french accent and say things like "Oh it's just so haaard being this beautiful." One time while we were sitting and sipping our espresso a crazy drunk woman came by and danced for us. too funny. 
After experiencing Les Deux Garcons, Arnaud showed me around Aix. He took me to the city hall, the museum, the cathedral, and a TON of fountains. He was the perfect tour guide! Seriously though, what an intelligent and fun Frenchman. 

Thursday night I met Arnaud's parents-- Dominique and Patrick were wonderful hosts! We had dinner with them and Arnaud's grandmother (who was also staying for the weekend). After dinner Arnaud and I just hung out and Arnaud's friend Sebastian came over and we had fun watching some Summer Heights High episodes, which is one of the funniest shows I've ever seen-- I highly recommend it! 
Friday was chill-- Arnaud and I spent more time at Les Deux Garcons and then he took me to a lookout above the little town of Venelle where the view is gorgeous! 

Friday night was SO MUCH FUN. We went to the club, DiViNO (some of you may have heard the Justice song titled DVNO-- Justice first performed at this fun little club). I met a lot of Arnaud's friends who were all SO nice and welcoming and really fun to dance with. 

Saturday: a very chill day. Really enjoyed just hanging out with Arnaud, catching him up on Jersey Shore (I was definitely corrupting his classy french ass!) and he showed me the hilarity of Summer Heights High (seriously one of the funniest shows I've ever seen). 
Sunday morning was bright and early because we drove Arnaud's grandmother back to her little town in the French Alps, Grenoble. Arnaud and I really were hoping to ski but unfortunately the weather did not permit us to do so, but instead we ate and slept. Not kidding. Arnaud's grandmother made amazing French food for us and we literally ate and slept all day. Well, we went into town for a little bit after lunch to see the cathedral and the museums, which were cool, but otherwise the entire day we ate and slept. Fine by me! 

Arnaud's Grandmother's cute cozy house

Monday we enjoyed a little more time with Arnaud's grandmother, and of course another delicious meal, and then Arnaud and I drove back to Aix. We took the longer, more scenic way back to Aix, and it was gorgeous! Lots of snow-covered trees and mountains! 

The rest of Sunday we just hung out more and made delicious crepes... 
and then Monday I went back home to Sevilla (wait, so weird to say that...). Such a great long weekend, thanks Arnaud! :) 

The ABC's of Granada: Alhambra, Baclava, and Caves

Oh wow it really has been too long. But in reality I really have been too busy! So much has happened in the past 2 weeks (I seriously can't believe it has already been 2 weeks and now it's already MARCH!). One of the highlights: our program had a group excursion to Granada, a city in the south of Spain known for La Alhambra, a Moorish palace that has some of the most amazing architecture I've ever seen.
So I know this is somewhat lazy, but I think I'll just list out my favorite parts about Granada because I have so much catching up to do in my life right now.

• After dropping off our luggage at our hotel in Granada (which was super legit, by the way), my friends Natalie, Leann, Catherine, and I set off on foot to explore the city.  Leann, Natalie, and I were really lucky to have Catherine with us because she lived in Granada a few summers ago and knows the city pretty well (not to mention Catherine pretty damn cool and fun, anyways). So first we walked along the main street and stopped to share a bottle of wine at a cafe with a view of La Alhambra. After some great people watching and conversation, we set off once again to find Catherine's old school. 

Leann and I with La Alhambra in the background

• We stumbled upon this garden-y place and took some goofy pictures. Definitely our most tourist-y moment of the day :)

• After finding Catherine's old school and apartment, we decided to scale the mountain in search of caves and the cave-dwellers. Well, we found them! And we also found a lesbian rock band jammin out on the mountain. that was cool. and when we got to the top. oh my god. the view. So goigeous. Snow-capped mountains, green meadows, old ruins, horses grazing, Spaniards picnicking. Absolute perfection. 

• One of my favorite parts of the trip was when we found the "arab street" with all these arabic restaurants and pastry shops and tea/hookah joints. Baclava in Granada can really give any baclava I've tried in Turkiye a run for its money (except Babanne's of course :). I even bought extra to bring back to Señora Ana, my host mom. 

• So going out in Granada was rrrrullll fun. We pre-gamed in the hotel, then bar-hopped a little, then ended up at Camboria, which is a discoteca in a cave. Literally, a cave discoteca. It was pretty fun, the only downside was that it was basically ALL americanos and american music. They played some unexpected stuff, both good and AWFUL-- (i'm still a little emotionally scarred from the nickelback song they played, during which I was forced to stop dancing and sit in protest).

Natalie, Leann, Catherine, and I being all cozy before we head out for the night! 

ME! in a cave discoteca!

Samantha and I at Camboria! 

• The next morning was a little rough-- we had to meet in the lobby at 945 to leave for our visit to the Alhambra. The only good part of waking up that early was the breakfast at the hotel. HOLY SHIZA. Lox, tomatoes, croissants, eggs-- anything and everything you could want, all super fresh and delicious. 

• Best for last: La Alhambra. Anyone who can appreciate architecture should visit La Alhambra once in his or her lifetime. Wow. It was seriously my most favorite architectural visit thus far. I prefer to show pictures rather than attempt a description that does not do it justice. 

As you can see, it was a beautiful and fun trip to Granada! 

Jungle Fevah in España

Hola Todos!
Look at this! I'm getting better-- only 2 days since my last post! Well it's sunday morning (okay, afternoon) and I just woke up because last night Leann, Natalie, and I stayed out dancing until 6 am. We went to one of the discos in our 'hood, Abril. Abril is super fun, with really good music (Snoop mash-ups, and random Eminem thrown in between great house music-- love it!). Last night was just a night of pure fun dancing. There is nothing I love more than dancing the night away in a disco. And last night just turned out to be that. One other thing I love: tall-ass basketball players dancing and towering over all the other little european men in the club. Yup. Last night there was an international basketball team at Abril and everyone in the club knew about it-- because everyone in the club, regardless of where you were, could see these guys just breakin it down. Too funny. I asked one of the guys where they were from and I thought it sounded like he said Warsaw but Griffin said he said Paris. So we're not entirely sure, but either way, it was fun watching them (and later dancing with them) all night. One of them really caught me eye (i had a bout of jungle fever last night) and we ended up dancing together and he definitely had some moves in that  7ft body of his. But to be honest, bball player was fun and all, but mostly it was such a damn good time dancing with my girls + Griffin. I love those guys!

Before the club was a good time, too! Carole and I met up for some tapas and then I took her to La Carbonería for some flamencooo. There was a show with a guitar player, a singer, and a dancer-- and wow, were they good. The house was packed, too, from people all over the world. Man, do I love that place because it will always be my first memory from Sevilla.

Well I'm going to try and be a productive member of society now. For my creative writing class I have to go on a walk and take notes about what I see so we can write about it later... so hasta luego, amigos!

"Did You See That Giddy?"

Wow... so much for keeping up with the blog. But it's been a busy week, what can I say? Last week we finished our orientation at the center and took our grammar exam AND we've been procrastinating/working on our final essays about Spanish culture. AND we started classes at the University of Sevilla this week! I will *hopefully* be taking 5 of these classes: History of Film, History of International Relations, the Anthropology of Social Marginalization, and the Anthropology of Environment and Territory... and my potential class at the law school, the International Protection of Human Rights starts monday so we'll see about that one. We also have to take a class at the center and I chose creative writing and I think I'm really going to like it! If all goes as planned, I'll be done with classes by 4 everyday and not have class on Fridays. That way I can hopefully get a job teaching kids english and travel without feeling guilty about missing Friday classes.

But anyways the classes seem like they're going to be más o menos hard and fun. Hard because everything's in Spanish and fun because I'll have a chance to meet some more Sevillanos.... even though it will pose more of a challenge than I expected because there are so many foreigners in my classes! I mean I was expecting a handful of study abroad kids in every class but, damn, not half the class! My history of film class seems to be the best with probably 6 or 7 study abroad-ers and then 20-ish native Sevillanos. I am looking forward to my law class because I think there's supposed to be fewer foreigners in the law school.

Speaking of foreigners we met some Sevillanos last weekend! (I realize that that doesn't make much sense.) They were super nice and they taught us some spanish slang. For instance, the title of this post was inspired by what they taught us. A giddy is a foreigner, usually an american, and right after we were taught the word we ended up being called giddies on our way to the club. so i wonder how often we were being called that before and just never noticed because we thought people were talking about how happy we were. The other word they taught us was "lote," which directly translates to rum and coke, but more generally means getting drunk with liquor and then going to party (at least that's what I got from it). The guys we met invited us to lote and then go to Buddha (a disco here) with them this weekend.

One more thing about last weekend: We watched the Super Bowl in Spain! We found a bar called Flarrehty's that was having a super bowl fiesta where you could pay a $12 cover and watch the game while having a full buffet of chips & guacamole, wings, hot dogs, and french fries, and then 2 drink tickets (I drank lots of heineken). AMURICA. So basically the whole game my friends and I sat on the bar (all the other seats in the house were taken, but we ended up getting the best seats in the house) and explained the game of American football to our cute Irish bartender, Peter. He cheered on the Packers with Kendra and I, mainly because he decided Aaron Rodgers looked like more of a legit quarterback than Ben Roethlisberger, which is totally true. Kendra, Leann, and I ended up staying until the end of the game, which was about 430 our time, when we had to get up at 830 for class the next day. But it was all worth it when towards the end of the game some crazy beautiful dutchmen came up to us and needed some explanations of this weird american game. oh yeah, and the Packers won. great night.

hmmm what else. well as I'm writing this I am about to go to bed but i had to update my blog first because I think bailey and some other people are about to kill me. So here I am. but anyways. I just got back from a salsa club. Oh boy. I was a fan... Salsa dancing is soooo sexyyyy! and So fun! Natalie and I really had no idea what we were doing so we just twirled each other around and shook our hips a lot and once in a while we would shimmy at each other. I'm sure I looked like a fool but it felt super fun so I was all for it! And we (Catherine, Natalie, Leann, and I) definitely had a "Sex in the City moment" when Catherine told us about her "I wonder if people have sex they way that they dance" theory. It was quite a conversation. Before that we were in the 'hood Alameda at our favorite bar there called 84. Cool people, reasonably priced drinks, feel-good music... overall great time! And I had my friend Carole with me who is visiting for the weekend! (For those of you who haven't met Carole, she is a super cool Parisian girl who stayed at my house a lot last summer while she was doing an internship at Gill Industries.) Anyways, Carole got here earlier today and I showed her around Sevilla a little bit but tomorrow we'll do some more tourist-y stuff so I better get to bed so I can be on top of my game.
Buenas noches, mis amores!

Amurrica=McDonald's

Don't worry, I don't actually think that all the US has to offer is a BigMac and some delicious fried potatoes and maybe a vanilla shake or oreo mcflurry... but if one is abroad, attempting to live like a native, at times it can get a little exhausting pretending to not miss good ol American food. So that is why some of my friends in the Michigan-Cornell-Penn program and I made the pact that if we could last through the month of January without eating American food (which apparently doesn't include Starbucks), then we would have a lunchdate at McDonald's on February 1st. Well February 1st turned out to be a delicious day, mis amigos. One McPollo, some french fries, and an oreo mcflurry later, and I am now ready to face another month of purely spanish food (though I would kill for some hummus and raw veggies right about now... and one of my mom's amazing salads... and maybe some sushi, too). Don't get me wrong-- Señora Ana is a great cook and I like Spanish food-- but sometimes when you're used to having certain yummy things every day (fresh, raw veggies/hummus) it can hurt a little bit to go a long time without it. And it's not like I was used to MickeyD's, either. In fact, before today it had probably been over 6 months since my last trip to the place. But, American food is American food, and when you're in the mood for American food, it turns out that McDonald's will get the job done.

How do you feel about murses?

Ayy, I keep letting the days go by without updating but I'm going to try and be more diligent about it.. anyyywhoo- here goes the last week in a blog post. 

Besides being sick one day (my stomach has not been too thrilled about the decrease in veggies and the increase in meat/sweets/olive oil) and having to miss an excursion, it has been a pretty awesome week. 

Excursions in the mornings, classes in the afternoons, and trying to get everything ready for when classes start next week is leaving me a pretty busy person, but hey, I'm not complaining. Thursday night we got to go to the symphony here in Seville, and it was amazing! There was a viola-cello player who could play the shit out of that ancient instrument... he had some pretty great hair too. Friday we woke up bright and early for an excursion to a nearby town(1.5 hour bus ride) called Cadiz. Cadiz is basically a cute little beach town with a lot of history. We visited a cathedral and also a cámara oscura at the top of a tower overlooking the city. It was awesome! During our free time we ate lunch for Samantha's birthday (really good sangria and paella con mariscos!) and then had some photo shoots down by the seaside. I definitely plan on returning to Cadiz once it gets warmer because it is absolutely beautiful! 

the cathedral in Cadiz

View of the city

Lovin the sun and sea :)

We returned to Seville at around 730 Friday evening and Kendra and I took a much-needed siesta to prepare ourselves for the night out for Samantha's birthday. We decided it was about time to have a night out in our barrio (neighborhood) of Viapol/Nervion, so we planned our night around that idea. We started the night at a couple bars in a shopping center above the supermarket just down the street from our apartments. The crowd was a little older so at around 1am we were ready to leave for another bar just down the street, O'Neill's (yeah, I know--it sounds super Spanish). We thought O'Neill's would have a younger crowd because it is right across the street from the law school of the University of Seville, but we were wrong on that assumption-- though I did meet a couple of students and they were super nice and curious about the program and what we're planning to do during our time in Spain. After O'Neill's we headed to the "chill bar/lounge/club," Siddharta, which was fun while it lasted, but we decided we needed louder music and a crazier club feel, so we headed for our final destination: Abril, one of the main discotecas here in Seville, and probably the biggest one in our neighborhood. 

Abril was perfect: house music (with a little musica americana mixed in) and lots and lots of europeans who know how to dance. I found one who I could've sworn resembled David Beckham in the craziest way but apparently I was a little optimistic on that one. Regardless, in my mind I was giving Posh Spice a run for her money. Later we found our friends from Discover Seville, a company for study abroad students that hooks them up with trips and stuff like that. Remember Luis? Well he's one of those guys, as well as Benny and some other really fun and good looking Spaniards and great dancers. Well, it shouldn't come as a surprise anymore that we didn't leave the club until 6:30 am. Dios mio, I might be getting used to this lifestyle a little too quickly-- I didn't realize how natural it would be for me to dance until the wee hours of the am... but we'll see how easily things come to me when I start taking classes at the Uni next week. 

Saturday was a day of rest for Kendra and I (we didn't wake up until 3pm) and then an evening of shopping for Catherine, Leann, Natalie, and I. We made our first trip to the centro comercial in Nervion to experience the rebajas (the huge sales that take place during the month of January here in Spain). My one regret I have so far is that I did NOT pack enough clothes. I thought I was being a minimalist for the first time in my life-- but let me tell you, there comes a point when you run out and being a minimalist SUCKS.... but I guess this has given me the justification to buy some things for myself, which I have definitely taken the liberty of doing. 

Shopping was fun, and then after dinner we were ready for another night out in Seville. The majority of us were not up to another night of dancing (good guess, I was not one of them), so we hit the bars. First we headed to this hipster-ish area called Alameda, where we found a bar called 84 that was HOPPIN. Leann and I were lovin the music and just people watching. One guy that I was liking the looks of was having a good time watching us watch him and I was getting a kick out of it. He was definitely very european-looking... he was even wearing a man-purse. Later on Leann asked me how I felt about "murses" and I wasn't sure how to respond. After some conversations with other people in the program we came to the consensus that murses are very metro/European and therefore it is just fine to be into a guy wearing a murse. Even before we came to that consensus it didn't stop me from responding to Murse-Man's "ciao" with a look over the shoulder and a wink as Leann and I walked out of the bar. Leann is definitely becoming my tutor as far as learning to be more forward here in España, and I'm taking mental notes as she tells us girls to "mira y aprenda" (watch and learn). We ended Saturday night at Calle Alfalfa, but were quite disappointed to learn that the bars actually close here! We were definitely expecting them to stay open later than 3am but on our ride home our cab driver informed us that if we want to stay out later than 330, we need to be at a disco (fine by me). 

Today was a little more productive for us-- We woke up before 1 and got to Starbucks to put in some hours on our essays for the end of our Culture Pre-Seminar. And now I really need to get to work on finishing my selection of classes for when the University term starts... 

hasta luego, mis amores! 

Rrulll Sweet Figs

Whoa. So much has happened in the past week-- I don't know where to start... I hope this doesn't confuse anyone but I think I'll start from today and work backwards.

So Kendra and I just had dinner and, as usual, it was DELISH. Fish and vegetables and some soup and some cake for dessert. yum. And for dinner's entertainment we had one of Señora Ana's grandsons here, he probably is less than a year old and is just learning how to walk. Oh gosh I love little kids. And when they speak Spanish (even if it's a couple of words at most) I think it makes them all the more cute.

Today has been a long day to say the least... we started out with a tour of the Cathedral here in Spain-- it was muy guay (so cool!) 

Guay huh?

And the view from the top of the tower (which was 32 stories of pure climbing-- and worth the burning ass/calves) is apparently the best view of Seville you can get!

My new home! 

If you noticed the somewhat dark circles under my eyes... there's a reason for that. This weekend was our trip to Madrid, and la vida Madrileña doesn't really allow much beauty sleep. I got a total of 5 hours of shut-eye all weekend... but you know what? It was worth it. We left Seville at 9:45 Friday morning and traveled via the Ave (super fast train) to Madrid, so we got there at 12:15 and had the entire day to explore. And by explore I mean shop. Some of the girls and I didn't know what Madrid had in store for us. Natalie and I spent two hours alone in H&M, not to mention the handful of other stores we visited. Oh, and we definitely walked right into a prostitution ring within our first few hours of being in Spain's biggest city. Yep, Kendra, Natalie, and I were innocently searching for shoes when we turned down a side street off the Gran Via (sort of like Madrid's MagMile or 5th Ave.) and walked into a circle of prostitutes. Complete Immersion. After some intense shopping the three of us girls met up with Griffin (one of the really cool 5 guys in our program) and went for tapas. Griffin led us to a really nice restaurant that was probably a little too nice for us students, but what the hell-- "We're only in Spain for 6 months." And of course we ordered the most expensive things on the menu (it's a learning experience, I know), but it was definitely worth it. Octopus, mussels, calamari, and jamón ibérica and manchego cheese. SO GOOD. Oh, and the wine. The three of us girls split a bottle of scrumptious Rioja vino tinto... and because we hadn't eaten all day it only took us each a glass and a half to really feel it... And once we got back to the hotel we only had a little while to rest our feet before we had to start getting ready to go out.

view from the train!

Friday night. SO... FUN. We found this really cool bar on a side street off one of the big plazas and had a great time meeting friends from all over the world. Leann and I met and spoke a TON of Spanish with 2 guys named Antonio from Venezuela.. we ended up going to a discoteca with them at 3am and danced until 6 am... We would've stayed longer but I got a piece of glass stuck in my foot (don't ask how-- I did NOT take my shoes off once and thought I was moving my feet fast enough to avoid any potential flying glass). I also met this other guy who was super cute/nice.. his name was Christophán (sp?) and he was from St. Tropez and was great to talk to because he had such great accents when he spoke English or Spanish... he was also great to dance with because DAMN he could dance.

Natalie (my roomie for the weekend) and I at one of the bars

Needless to say, Saturday morning was a little rough. After getting back to the hotel around 615 am and waking up at 930 am, it was an interesting morning/afternoon spent at some of the world's best museums. Sure, I could've felt better while looking at the masterpieces of Goya, Velazquez, Dalí, and Picasso, but I had a great night and I was still very captivated by the art... Lunch was AMAZING (typical of me to be that excited about the food). Justin (another one of the guys from the program) and I shared calamari and garlic grilled shrimp that we had to decapitate and peel ourselves. After the museums some of us attempted to do a little more shopping but that was not happening, so Natalie and I returned to the hotel for a short, well-deserved siesta.

Justin, Michael, Griffin, and I in front of El Museo Prado

My annihilated shrimp

Saturday night started out with an amaaazing (yet again, I'm gushing about the food) dinner. We had a great group of us with all 5 of the guys from the program (Michael, Justin, Griffin, Jeff, and Josh) and then Catherine (the only one of us from Columbia, she's a super chill girl from NYC), Natalie (my hotel roomie and future backpacking/travel companion), and I. Like I said, a great group. Well, we found this tapas place that turned out to be a great pick. We had vino tinto, tomatos with goat cheese and fresh basil, fried mushrooms, sausages and potatoes with really good sauces, eggplant, and other really delicious food I can't remember right now. After stuffing ourselves silly and some great conversations, we headed out to a bar for some 5-euro mojitos the size of your face. And apparently with every drink you get a free tapas dish but we were too full to eat any more food so we ended up sharing a ton of food with people around us. After the first bar we headed toward the club, Pacha, but some of us decided that we needed a couple more chupitos (shots) before we could start our discoteca-ing, so we stopped by a nearby bar for chupitos of tequila (apparently many of our's chupito of choice). Then... it was time for Pacha. Oh my gosh. I really don't think it's normal to like dancing as much as I do. We danced to some amazing music until 6 am when an (almost) collective decision was made to head back to the hotel. Call me crazy (I know I can be when it comes to Spanish discotecas), but I could've stayed till the club closed, again (which would've been for at least another hour). But it was probably a good thing we headed back by 6 because we had an early morning planned.... and Saturday did feel early. 

Michael, Jeff, Justin, Catherine, Josh, Natalie, Griffin, and I at dinner

Griffin, Natalie, Justin, and I at one of the bars

Griffin and I getting our dance on at Pacha

Less than 3 hours after we crashed into our beds, we were up and at it again to go see the Royal Palace. Well... some of us made it out of bed... I can't say the same for a couple of the guys (cough cough Miguel cough cough Justo cough). Rough morning, but such a cool sightseeing experience. The palace was huuuuuge, with amazingly ornate rooms and painted ceilings and ridiculous chandeliers and just over-the-top everything. The room with all of the armor was super cool as well. After the palace we were very ready for some lunch, so we found a really cheap yet good place and then we made a collective decision to "go back to the hotel and stare at a wall for 2 hours" until we had to leave for the train station to head back to Seville. All in all, a great weekend.

what was left from 60 euro for going out at night in Madrid. and what was left of me after a total of 5 hours of sleep all weekend and staying at the discotecas until 6 am... 

Me in front of the Royal Palace

Oh wait.. I'm not done. Before we left for our Madrid weekend we had a full schedule worth writing about. Wednesday night was one I had been waiting for: the FC Barcelona game versus a local Seville team, Real Betis Balompie. Amazingly, Betis won 3-1. Even though I was looking for a Barcelona win (not because it was almost guaranteed), it was very cool to be surrounded by Betis fans during such a time of celebration. The morning after the game was absolutely perfect, besides having to wake up early. We were treated to a trip to Los Baños Arabes (some of you might know these as a Turkish Bath, or simply a spa). Oh boy were we pampered. There was a salt water pool, a warm pool, a steaming hot pool, a freezing cold pool, a jacuzzi with massaging water chairs, and a steam room filled with the aroma of eucalyptus that worked wonders on my cold. After receiving that royal treatment we had class and then had to rush home to eat dinner so we could make it to our Flamenco show on time. The Flamenco show was great! There was a singer, two dancers, and a guitar player, and they sang, danced, and played with their hearts. You could feel every emotion they wanted you to feel just by watching their faces. After the Flamenco show some of us went to a bar to just hang out before heading home to pack for Madrid. At the bar I fell in love with this really guapo, Brit-punk looking guy named Stephen. He was from Liverpool, he had a great sense of fashion and wore some SICK shoes that anyone could appreciate. It's too bad he has a Sevillana girlfriend... 

Cheering on Barcelona in my Messi jersey!

I didn't get very good pictures of the Flamenco show, but they were amazing!

Well, it's really time for bed after this ridiculously long blog-post. Until next time-- Ciao!

I think I fell in love last night...

...No... I don't just think I fell in love last night, I know for sure that I fell in love last night. Now, don't get all excited, it wasn't with un hombre español or some other sexy European man (although there were plenty to admire all over the place, and I did dance and have broken Spanish-English conversations with many of them). Nope, last night I fell in love with Spain. Head over heels. The Spanish lifestyle is definitely one I was born to experience at least once in my life ;) ... Everything is later and lasts longer, and that's totally fine by me. We eat dinner later and take our time, we get ready later, we arrive later, we start the parties later and stay there longer, and we get home A LOT later... and therefore wake up later.
Last night was a birthday celebration for one of the girls on the program here, and we definitely had a memorable night for her 21st birthday.
First, we "pre-gamed" with juice boxes of wine. Yep, I drank wine out of a personal, little cardboard box last night, reminiscent of my elementary school days when I had Welch's juice-boxes in my lunchpail. It was cheap, to say the least, and perfect for students on a budget and a mission. A 30-minute walk sufficed to choke down the wine-boxes, and we arrived at our first destination: Cervecería, where you can get a bocadillo (little sandwich) and a large large mug of beer or sangria for 3 euro. Half of the kids in the program were already there, so we met up with them and had some great conversations and snacked and drank for about an hour before we left for our next destination: Calle Alfalfa. Yes, the name is a little funny but this place is probably my favorite hangout spot in Sevilla so far. It is basically a huge block party at night, with bars lining either side of the street and lots of attractive and fashionable people (mostly natives, yay!) milling about. Oh gosh I just love people watching here more than anywhere else--everyone looks so good all the time... it's pretty refreshing actually.
After meeting some españoles in one of the bars (as well as many Southern USA students with pretty comical Spanish accents), we headed to our final destination (the one I was most excited about): Kudéta, a three-story helluva discoteca, styled around a Buddha theme. On the way there my roomie Kendra and I each took one arm of one of the sexiest men I have ever met. His name was Luis and I couldn't help myself but stare. Like, SHIT. Even though Kendra and I were a few chupitos (shots) and mugs of sangria in, we did a pretty good job of conversing with Luis about sports (He and I bonded over our love of FC Barcelona) and just the beauty of this city and country. And let me tell you, even though I was doing a good job of speaking in Spanish, he would sometimes have to repeat something in English and holy moly his accent was the cutest thing I've ever heard. (Okay, so I might have temporarily fallen in love with Luis.)
Anyways, one 25-minute beautiful walk later and we arrived at Buddha at around 2:45 am. It had already been a great night and it only got better when I could feel the bass of the house music pounding through me. We checked out the first floor of Kudéta and it was pretty cool, with lots of natives and more Spanish kinda salsa-y music. The second floor was pretty empty, and then we got to the third floor. Oh wow. That was my shit. We danced and danced and danced. I literally love nothing more than music and dancing. Everyone let loose and had a great time. Lucky Leann got Luis as her dancing partner (bi-atch;)... but there were plenty of Sexy Spaniards to go around. Plus, I was super impressed with the guys in our program-- damn they can dance! I think they were meant to live the spanish life, too. Anyways, unfortunately around 5:45 am most of the group was tired and wanted to go back to their respective homestays. As for me, I could've gone on for probably 6 more hours of that... or at least until the club closed at 7-8 am.
Oh, what a night.

Una Casa Nueva

Hola Todos!
Today was the day! We found out our roomies and moved in with our families! My roommate is Kendra, and we will be living in la casa de Señora Ana. We already love her! She is so nice, funny, and so far a great cook! Our first meal with her was a lunch of salad with tuna on top, and homemade paella! mmmmm. We talked about our families and just got to know each other a little. Señora Ana is a hardcore traveler and she comes from a pretty big family so we already have some things in common. Actually, she really reminds me of my Turkish grandmother, Babanne, so immediately upon meeting her I knew this is going to be an amazing experience.
Pues, it's almost dinner time and then we're going out for our first Friday night in Sevilla!
ciao!

"NECESSITAMOS MAS BEBIDAS!"

So really quick I just wanted to say something about last night before I actually start my homework, just because last night was super fun and I don't want whatever I absorb about the Franco period in Spain to replace my memories from last night.

Well, we didn't leave the hotel until about 1am-ish, and we wandered the streets of Sevilla for quite a while before we found the bar we had been looking for: Elephunk. The highlights:

• Being able to legally order drinks at a bar, in Spanish, and having the bartenders understand me
• Standing on the footrest so I could be taller than everyone else and yelling to my friends in the program, "NECESSITAMOS MAS BEBIDAS!" ("WE NEED MORE DRINKS!") 
• Salsa-dancing with the girls, and getting taught how to Dougie by Miguel
• Trying to determine which bathroom was men's or women's... and then finally realizing there was no distinction and anyone could go in whatever bathroom they pleased (in which there was no toilet paper)
• Staring at the lights in the bar, which were made of fishbowls and each had a couple fish chillin in 'em
• 2 for 1 cervezas
• Los chupitos de tequila... which only cost 1 euro
• Learning how to shimmy while saying the word "barrio"
• Getting serenaded by Kendra... "Despiertaaaaaaas"

Definitely an éxito (success) of a night! :) 

it's time for me to read... buenas noches, mis amores! 

"Yo soy una ciudad de lucha"

For those of you who don't habla español, the title of this post basically means "I'm a struggle city," which has kind of been the theme of the past 2 days. Don't get me wrong, I am LOVING the experience so far, but there have definitely been a couple moments that have merited "struggle city." For instance, just trying to speak spanish ALL THE TIME is really HARD! There's always a word that escapes you, or you conjugate the word incorrectly, or you start a sentence that you have no idea how to finish... it all adds up to get a tad frustrating once in a while. Nevertheless, I already feel like I'm learning. The accent is the hardest, though. The average Sevillano basically speaks Spanish in the way French is spoken: only using half the letters, and to add on top of that, they speak with a strong lisp, too. I know I'll probably end up coming back and speaking Spanish like a Sevillana, but right now it really is a struggle city for me, as far as trying to determine what the hell the natives are trying to say.

Another struggle city moment for me was when Natalie and I were almost pick-pocketed/robbed! We were being all studious and reading for our culture/history of Spain class while sitting outside at a cafe, and all of a sudden two middle-aged women came up to us, upon which they immediately began insisting we sign the petition they were holding. Natalie and I refused (in Spanish, of course), and they persisted, we refused some more, told them we were not citizens of Spain, and they told us it didn't matter and kept insisting we sign the petition. After a few minutes of this struggle, a waitress who worked at the cafe came out and immediately the two women walked away. The waitress asked us if we signed the petition and we said no, she replied with something along the lines of, "good... well you should check your pockets." Luckily, Natalie had her purse on her lap and they didn't have access to it, while mine was on the seat next to me, so close I had a hand on it. But thank goodness we were smart and didn't sign the paper because I know that as soon as we had our hands occupied our stuff would've been GONE with those women. Well, I guess this is what they call COMPLETE IMMERSION (that was for you, Miguel :) ...

Well, it's about time to get some reading done... ciao!

 

The Spanish Einstein.

Hola! It's been a long, fun day. But first I'll tell you about last night. We started out the night in a huge group, exploring the city for bars and fun... half the group ended up at a little bar and we toasted with sangria (which was super sweet and tasty) and chatted about our home universidades. It's everyone's goal to speak español todo el tiempo but it's pretty difícil to start. The group met back up (the other half ended up at a tex-mex saloon, complete with beer pong--which is where we decided we will watch the Super Bowl) and then we explored the streets of Sevilla some more. Later on, some of the group ended up at this bar that we all thought was a church at first. Once we walked in we realized it was a super auténtico bar Sevillano. It was a hotspot for Spanish flamenco singers and dancers and after getting some Agua de Sevilla (a really strong drink of mixed liquor, whipped cream, and nutmeg which I thought was super tasty) we danced and clapped along with the natives. One of the men who sang literally had the voice of an ángel, at least that's what Leann told him ;)... another guy was an 88 yr old man who looked like a Spanish Einstein and was super cómico when he sang... I knew we had a good group of students when I looked over and two of our girls were Flamenco dancing like it was their job and we were all clapping along like we were natives too. Ahhhh this country/city is too great.
Today we had a meeting about all our program stuff and then we went on a bus tour, which was fun, but after getting back to the hotel at 3 am we were all ready for siestas by noon. Instead of just crashing at the hotel, we went for lunch where I got my first plate of paella in Spain. It was deliciosa! Then we spent probably 12 hours (okay, that's exaggerating, but not by much) in the cell phone store and we all got some real old-school phones for our stay here. THEN we got to have our long-anticipated siestas. Natalie (my hotel roomie) and I slept from about 4 until 8. Dinner was salad, salmon, and ice cream for dessert... more deliciousness! We didn't head out for the night until about midnight, where we stumbled (not literally, don't worry) upon a P. Flarrity's Bar, crawling with Americanos and other Europeans. We made some French and Dutch friends who were pretty guapo and borracho (goodlooking and drunk), but we didn't get too loco because Jesús was there, watching over all of us (literally, a statue of Jesus stood in a window of this bar).
It's really time for bed now, even though that siesta could probably last Natalie and I another 3 hours...
Until next time... ciao bellas!

Complete Immersion.

1 unregistered plane ticket, 1 lost bag, 1-ish hour of sleep, 1 sprint through the Madrid airport, and 1 3-hour jetlagged nap. Complete Immersion. The journey was muy interesante to say the least, and actually shorter than expected, even with all the anticipación. One friend in the group of 6 had to book a completely new ticket because our lovely travel agent Heather didn't fully book her tickets, and another friend did not have her luggage once we arrived in Sevilla. Nevertheless, we all arrived in Sevilla safe and sound (even though we had to sprint through the Madrid airport in order to get to our last flight on time, which was at last call and we made it with mayyybe 5 minutes to spare, spurring all sorts of dirty looks from the flight attendants). Once we got to the hotel we cleaned up and went out on the town to explore! The city is gorgeous, absolutamente bellísima, complete with cobblestone streets, little alleyways of shops, and many cute little tapas cafes. So we found ourselves a cafe and had some lunch and vino tinto (red wine, yum!), and after a little more walking it was time for siesta! I really think I could get used to being guaranteed a nap every day ;) ... well I have to get ready because we have a bus tour in 45 minutes but I will update later about last night and today (one of the best nights of my life, already!)... Ciao!

Hasta La Vista, Amurica!

Oh wow. Seven hours until my journey begins and it has finally hit me: I'M GOING TO BE LIVING IN SPAIN FOR THE NEXT 6 MONTHS! Wait, what?! I've attempted to pack and unpack about 8 times (someone who loves clothes as much as I do should never attempt to fit 6 months of clothes in one large and one small suitcase), I've said many goodbyes, and I've finally taught my mom how to use Skype... oh yeah, and I've been studying Spanish since about 7th grade sooo... I think I'm ready :)

Adios, Amurica! Hasta muy pronto, Sevilla!