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!
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| the cathedral in Cadiz |
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| 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!
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