Corte Ingles (The English Cut?)

Ok, so this is just a little blog that I wanted to post to talk about something huge that is in Spain that blows my mind everytime I step into. There is a HUGE chain of a store in Spain called Corte Ingles, that literally translates into the English Cut (which confuses me because it was established in Madrid). It's the ONLY department chain in Spain, is the biggest chain in Europe, and the 4th biggest chain world wide.
So what exactly makes Corte Ingles so popular, you ask? Well, it is a 7 floor up scale CLOTHING store for men, women children (like more expensive then Macy's), that sells expensive designer items such as Louis Vitton, a GROCERY store, a BOOK store, a MUSIC store, ELECTRONIC store, a SPORTING GOODS store, a place to REAL ESTATE agency, HOME GOODS store, including couches, beds, etc, a TRAVEL AGENCY, a GARDENING section, it has its own CELL PHONE service, offers INSURANCE  and so much more that I know I'm forgetting.


For those of you who have not "experienced" corte ingles, you can doubt me. I would doubt me too if I hadn't had the Corte Ingles experience. Sure they have all that stuff, but so does Walmart right? Well yes, but Walmart is more of a cheap clothing and grocery store that dabbles in other areas like books, cds, dvds, electronics, and even cell phones now, but nothing can compare to the great Corte Ingles. Maybe one day I'll be a total creep and take pictures for you to post here. For now just trust my judgement that Corte Ingles is unlike anything you've ever seen. It's a Nordstrom, Kroger, Dicks, McCabes, Furniture Fair, Verizon Wireless, Best Buy, Remax realty, Geico insurance, AAA, and so much more all fit into 1 huge building. Its just awesome :) (where I got my American peanut butter too!)

Donde esta the lightbulb?!

Hello again! I can't believe I have successfuly completed my 5th week in spain! its so crazy! My second week of classes went just fine and nothing too exciting occured, so i'm going to start with the end and tell you about my weekend :)

Frustration Friday:

Friday can literally be split into 2 days for me. The first "day" I went to Carmona, which is this pueblo 30 minutes from Sevilla that is famous for its Roman Necropolis (aka Roman burial and tomb site). It was really neat because the trip was very interactive. We got to climb down a rickety ladder into an old tomb and also climb down into some of the public graves. There were no coffins or skeletons left (those could be found in the museum) but it was still really neat to see gravesites from the 1st century. Here are a few pictures

A view of the city

inside one of the Roman tombs

My friend Brittany climbing down to see the tombs :)

The second half of Friday could be considered only a so so day. I feel like everyone in our program is getting to the point on the "culture shock" curve that they don't want to be in. According to all of our professors and CIEE staff, everyone will experience culture shock, which comes in lots of different forms and is kind of like a rollercoaster ride. During the first month that you get here you're on the top of the hill and loving the ride. However, once classes start, we're told that most of us will have some kind of hatred toward the culture, want to go home, etc (which is considered the downhill fall). Then, in a couple of weeks, we get out of the hole and come to love it again. Well, I haven't really experienced any of the hating Spain and wanting to go home, but last Sunday and this Saturday I have felt like I'm getting no where in the language gap and kind of feel like I'm failing myself and my goals I set for myself. I think this happens because I don't have a set schedule like I do during the weekend. Saturday I got home from Carmona at 4 and didn't leave to go out til 11pm, so that is a long time to just sit there. Anyways, it didn't help when my host sister and her friend came in my room to talk to me and kept laughing and telling me that they couldn't understand what I was saying (which I'm pretty sure they could because I was just askign them how playing outside was). I know that they are just kids and kids can be mean and Laura probably gets tired of always having to talk slow for us, but it still is a real big downer on your mindset of how your Spanish is. So then for the rest of the night I was jsut in a downer mood because even when watching tv, its impossible to understand everything. Sometiems I think I'm doing so good but then I realize that when our teachers and my family speak in Spanish to me, they speak clearly and slower. So while I might say I can understand Spanish, I can't actaully understand real Spanish conversation. Luckily, I went out with Attie and Brittany, my two great friends here and told them what was up. It was a relief to hear that they had each been feeling the same way the past week. Attie told me that she's heard that in a new language setting, its always hard, but one day a Lightbulb will just pop up and you'll be able to understand everything so much better without people having to talk slow to you. (Lightbulb, I'm ready for you anyday now!) After everyone realized that we might jus need some time away from the Spanish world, we decided to have an all American Saturday! 

All-American Saturday:
What does an All-American Saturday consist of you ask? Well it consists of a much needed secret rebellion against the Spanish norms. For example, I wore a tshirt out in public for the first time since i've been here. Also, we ate McDonalds, which was the best thing of my life (Amy, they're caramel sundaes are way better!) and we also saw a movie in English with Spanish subtitles. We saw The Kings Speech, which I've been wanting to see since before I left because (a) I'm going to school for Speech (b) I want to know a King, aka marry a king and (c) I just heard it was awesome! Well the movie was great and if you haven't seen it, I suggest you do. Also, it really made me realize that this experience is already making me a better professional in my major. I feel like now I can relate to people with speech disorders a little bit better because I can understand the frustration of not being able to communicate how you'd like to. Whether its not being able to speak fast enough as what your mind wants to say (my case when speaking Spanish, and the King's case in the movie) or not being understood/not understanding what is being said (my case with Spanish too). I had never thought that this travel abroad experience would benefit me in this way as well. I love the fact that now I can relate to my future patients just a fraction of what they feel everyday. I'm so blessed that I can at least speak one language. I don't know what I would do if I struggled at my first language too.

Senderismo Sunday:
Sunday I got up bright and early and joined our group to go hiking in a province 1 1/2 from Sevilla called Huelva. Our hiking trip was from 9-4 and we hiked 7 miles through the hills/baby mountains (i don't know if you could even call them that although they were called sierras, which means mountain range) It was so nice to be out in the trees and see green all around you! In sevilla, there is very few patches of green. The kids soccer fields are on dirt fields. Anyways, the hiking trip was so much fun. The guides knew so much. Like the leader would just be walking and plucking branches and bushes and then pass it back saying what it was. We got to smell oregano, lavender, speariment, peppermint, and so many other things that i didn't know the translation for lol. We also got to see wild horses, bulls, sheep and so much more! it was really cool. I'll post some pictures and a video of the sheep, which i just thought was the funniest thing of my life!

I ruined my favorite gold nikes because we had to cross this river of mud and couldn't  go around because there was barbwire outlining it!

Great view 

We got to drink out of the mini waterfall!

These berries are great for dying clothes and were used back in the day to  dye their clothes black after their husbands died. But the cool thing about them is that its not permanent, so the dye only stayed in their clothes for a couple of weeks

All the trees were hollowed out like this. The trees were brought here from the north and are still very much alive. They die from the inside out and have been dying for the past like 8 centuries, but are still alive.

1st Week of classes and Cordoba

 Well I have successfully completed my first week of real classes in Spanish in Sevilla! This week has been a really fun and exciting, but exhausting week with going to my new classes and having to learn everything in Spanish! To top off such a great week, our Liberal Arts program took us to Cordoba which is a city a little bit north of here. Now its Sunday and I'm for sure using it as a day of rest. I really don't know if I'll get out of bed! Ok, so even though I said my classes are tiring, I didn't say that I don't have a pretty awesome schedule. I'm only signed up for 4 classes and take 2 on mon/wed and 2 on tues/thurs.

Monday/Wednesday Classes
Las Escritores Mujeres del siglo XX: On Monday, my first class begins at 11 and goes til 1245. This is my favorite class by far. It is a women writer class, but more like a feminist class. I don't like this class because its all about "girl power", but I love the teacher and the topics we talk about are so interesting. Like this week we've talked about Saudi Arabia and how they still don't let girls play sports, about Spain and how all the men are still machistos (which is why they think its ok to look and stare and hoot and holler), and also about how women are still stoned to death in some countries. It's such a great class and i'm obsessed with the teacher. For that class we have to read two books. I'm already starting to read one and its really good. It's about a girl who comes to barcelona to study abroad and live with her family (i think she's an orphan, not too sure though, reading in spanish is a lot harder!).
Cine: right after my class on women writers, I leave the palacio (CIEE building) and head straight to the University of Sevilla. It is the most beautiful university I have ever seen! Everything is marble and there are statues everywhere. It really reminds me of Hogwarts lol. Anyways, I'm taking a cinema class at the university and have the cutest professor of my life. He looks just like Meredith Grey's dad in Grey's Anatomy and is so nice! We're going to be watching movies that highlight the different time periods of Spain's history, like from Franco period, the civil war, etc. Right now we're watching a movie from like 2002 that highlights spain's musicals. Its called Otro lado de la cama (other side of the bed) and is so hilarious. Its about this girl who's sleeping with her best friends boyfriend and just all these funny things keep happening. I really like it. And their songs are really funny. "Las chicas son guerrrreeerrasss!" (the girls are warriors!)

One of the many patios in la universidad

The front of the university. It actually used to be a tobacco factory. There is a movie called Carmen that takes place in the University (we're going to be watching it in my cine class!)

Tuesday/Thursday Classes:
Las Tres Culturas: Musulmanes, Judios, y Cristianos: (3 cultures of Muslims, Jews and Christains). This class is going to be a little bit harder for me. The teacher is working on his doctorate and has studied at UNC in the US and really knows his stuff. Although its going to be a tough class I think it'll be interesting. Basically every night we have assigned pages to read, then the next day we talk about them. The first night of reading was awful. It was like 20 pages in Spanish about like the Roman gods and how their religion led to/differentiated with the 3 religions we're learning about. Oh! It was so hard and took me so long to read. But i got through it and the next day when we talked about it, I felt a lot better because he was able to explain a lot of what we didn't understand.
Fonetica y Fonologia: (Phonetics and Phonology): All of my classes that I'm taking this semester fulfill my Spanish double major. I do have to take a phonetics and phonology class to fulfill my major, but I also wanted to take it because that's all Speech Pathology right there. I've already taken the same class, except in English, and also a linguistics class which has similar ties. Although this class will be really difficult trying to pick out the different phonemes in the spanish speech, I think it's going to be so interesting. I must say i'm also so thankful that I've already taken the class in English because I think I'd be lost with out it.

Laura's Birthday Party
Thursday was Laura's birthday but Friday was her birthday party. It's weird because she didn't get any gifts or anything until Friday. And when I would wish her happy birthday, her and her family would say, well it's not really anything special because her birthday party isn't until Friday. Kinda different huh? I mean in America, I like to celebrate my birthday for a week! lol. Anyways, instead of ChuckECheese as the cool place to go for bdays, Burger King is where its at. Thats where her friends have had theirs and thats where Laura had her birthday party. It's pretty cool because BK gives the bday girl a gift (a dvd!) and along with every person getting their own happy meal, they bring out cake and ice cream too! After that we were going to go watch a movie (tangled in english/enredados en espanol) but the only time that was left was a time that was in 3D. This didn't work out because Laura gets sick in 3d movies. I was kinda bummed because I wanted to see it so bad, but then Celia y Juan Louis paid for me and David (their 17 year old son) to go see it. It was SO good! O my goodness I'm obsessed! The whole movie was in spanish and I was so proud because I could understand everything that was going on. Seriously it was so fun and such a good movie! If you haven't seen it yet, I highly suggest it! here are a few pictures from the bday party

Celia y yo!

CORDOBA!
Saturday morning I got up early (730am is early for Sevilla ok?!) and joined my group to take the bus to Cordoba. Cordoba is a smaller town, but has lots of historic value and looks very similar to Sevilla. I really enjoyed it and loved the city! I think it'll be better to post some pictures and then explain what everything I got to see was!

This is the bridge that leads into Cordoba. Its the oldest Roman bridge in Spain and also crosses the same river that Sevilla is situated on.

A fort on the river. There were little forts all along the river like this to keep out the intruders who tried to attack Cordoba.

Skinny streets just like Sevilla. Also, note the potted plants hanging up on the walls. These were everywhere! 

I guess Cordoba is in the running for cultural center of Europe in 2016. Thats why they have all the potted plants!

In the king and queens palace for when they came to Cordoba (Just like the alcazar in Sevilla). 1/4 of this place is actual building, 3/4 is garden. So pretty.

One of the many fountains there.

After the alcazar of Cordoba we had free time so we went to eat our bocadillas (picnic lunches) and then found a local tapas restaurant. This place was so awesome! On the patio there were people playing guitars and inside was a bull themed restaurant which had 2 HUGE bull heads just chillen on the wall. To top it off, you could order Bull Tail for 15 dollars. Yuck! After that we went to the Mezquita/Catedral of Cordoba. I've heard it called both things so i'm still not sure what it's called. I'm not sure because that building has been 3 things in its life time. At first, it was a place that the Romans lived in (we were able to look down these stairs at the old Roman tiles that consist of the basement). Next, the Muslims came in and built the most beautiful building on top of the Romans' building. It's probably as long as a football field, and its width is also as wide as the length of a football field. There are no closed off rooms, just all open areas. I feel like photos couldn't do it justice, so i tried to take a video of it. Lets see if this can do any better!

So now you've seen the Muslim area of the mezquita which is so awesome. During the 10th century, the Christians came in, took over, and decided to build their catedral right in the same place as the mosque is. So literally you're in the muslim influenced area and can take one step in the other direction and see entirely different architecture from the christians. Here are some pictures of the catedral.

As you can see, the bottom half is from Muslim influence and the top is definitely Christian influence! So awesome!

Churches, Bars, and Futbolistas!

So according to my guide during the first week here in Sevilla, "at every corner in Sevilla you can find beautiful churches, bars, and futbolistas!" (futbolistas are futbol fanatics) I think I can finally agree with her because I have experienced all 3 of those things this weekend!

BARS

Friday night wasn't my first experience at the bars in Sevilla, but it was my first experience at bars in Sevilla with Spanish speaking friends! Friday night it was my intercambio's birthday and we all went out. When we met up with my intercambio Javier, me and my two american friends quickly realized how underdressed we were! Everyone had on suits with ties and then the girls had on pretty sparkly dresses. And we were jsut going to a bar! ugh! but it was still a lot of fun and we got to meet lots of really nice spanish people and speak lots and lots of spanish!(Ps my senora told me that it is really weird how dressed up they were, even if it was for a birthday, so I don't exactly know what was going on with that!) Here is a picture of me and my intercambio. His friends gave him some apron that he had to wear all night. 

ignore my squinty eyes pls

I also met some other awesome Spanish friends when I went out Saturday night! I think this was my fave night yet because it was so spontaneous. I had gotten on the metro to go down to river which is where everyone "botellons"...Botellon is like pregaming before you go to the bars, except here you can get a bottle of wine for 3.00.  Anyways, while on the metro these two girls and guy asked me if i wanted to dance in the metro with them..well why not right?! As they say: when in Spain... So they put on some Justin Beiber (their favorite ever) and i got up, did a little twirl then sat down real quick (i'm not that spontaneous:) ). Well after they finished dancing they automatically were my best friends and even tried to speak english to me... So basically i was speaking broken spanish to them while they were speaking broken english to me..It was great! When we got off the metro they asked if I wanted to hang out with them and I said sure! So we grabbed my 2 girlfriends that were waiting outside the metro for me and we went and botelloned with them. It was definitely the best/most spontaneous night I have had in a long time!

So in this picture I have red lipstick on because Mariela (on the right) insisted that everyone in Sevilla wears red lipstick :)

CHURCH

Today was my first time actually attending mass in Sevilla. There is a church right across the street from our house so I went to that at 13:00. I just can't get over how pretty all of the churches are in Spain. They're all so beautiful! This church that I went to isn't even a famous church, but it still had gorgeous gold statues and breathtaking designs behind the alter. Maybe I'll slip in there a take a picture one day. Well anyways, I'm not really sure how I felt about attending church today. At home I love going, especially to St. Tom's up at school. Sometimes I even go during the week. However, this mass was different. It was really weird not understanding a single thing that was going on during the mass. Like I like to take a message away from the homily, but if you can't understand it, then it's kind of hard. I'm usually really good at understanding Spanish, even in my classes, but they priest wore a microphone and when everyone gave responses, it just sounded like blah blah blah! Although I couldn't understand anyone in church, I still enjoyed going because it gave me a chance to pray quietly. Maybe next week I'll just go not during mass and just say my prayers. We'll see how I feel. Other than that, it was neat getting to take in all of the differences that went on during the mass. For the most part, all of the procedures were the same, but quicker. Like I seriously think the priest began his homily 15 minutes after mass started. There was no piano or singing, so mass was super quick. Luckily I had a nice lady sitting by me that I could kind of follow her lead. She called me bonita, so I knew I could kind of just shadow her. I'm glad that I did because during communion, half the people just kind of raced up to communion (in no order at all) and then the rest of the people stayed seated until it wasn't so crowded. The nice old lady sat down and waited until there was basically no one in line then went. So I followed. But, good thing I was paying attention because everyone that I saw received their communion in their mouths, not their hands! This was the first time I have ever received communion in my mouth. All in all, going to mass in a gorgeous church was a great experience. I don't know if I'll go every week like I'd like to, but I'll definitely sneak in their a few times for some quiet prayer :)

FUTBOL

Before I tell you about the game today I want to tell you about something shocking. So Friday, after playing soccer with my sister in shorts and a tshirt (yes be jealous), I came back in and my senora was telling me how happy she is that a girl from america plays soccer. Well i was a little confused and thought i didn't understand her right because i mean tons of girls from USA play soccer. She then went on to tell me that futbol is only a boys sport. (what?!) Laura, who has better foot skills then me and is 11 years old, is the only girl on her all boys futbol team! That is so weird to me! In a county with such futbol fanatics I cannot believe that girls who play soccer is kind of advised against. So sad right?!


So today I went to my first European futbol game and had a great time! It's just so crazy how intense these people get! For example, when I was walking to the stadium to meet my friend, I was stopped by a policeman because the Malaga (the team we were playing against) fan bus was pulling in. Their fans were pounding the bus windows and chanting their cheers. There were probably like 10 policemen holding back the crowd so we wouldn't attack them. This was the most cops I had seen all 3 weeks that I've been here. They even had like swat vans and everything!

Once we finally got tickets (a madhouse) and bought myself a really cool jersey for half price (another mad house) we went up to the 2nd highest row in the stadium where our seats were. For all of my McLaughlin family members reading this: half of you probably wouldn't have liked sitting there! It was so high and seemed like you were looking straight down. I however thought that they were still great seats and loved the atmosphere. The fans made noise the entire time and the fan group right behind the goal seriously NEVER stopped chanting the entire game. I also wanted to make a funny observation. So for those of you who have been to Spain for long periods of time, you already know that there is no peanut butter over here :(. Well, after today, I realized that there are not peanuts either! Instead of peanut shells on the ground there were a bajillion sunflower shells! Here are a few pictures! 

these scarfs that everyone wears, but when the Sevilla fight song comes on they hold them up!

Me and my friend Paul who went with 

One last really funny thing. So my sister just came into the room and was looking at my jersey that i just bought. Well see i got it half off and was super proud of it...she looks at the name on the back and says : he is not a futbol player for sevilla! hahaha...so she gets on the internet to show me that he plays for Sevilla B team and that Sevilla B team has the same jerseys! OOOO gooosshhhhh! I still have so much to learn! Wish me luck!

Hasta Luego!

Lauren

Prague and London and Paris o my! Berlin and Bruges and Venice, o my!

Hello world! My third week in Sevilla has been a very productive one! Ok, I know my title is cheesy but I couldn't think of one, so then I made it up and now have to have a cheesy explanation. Here goes:: Just like in the Wizard of Oz, her and her friends are going on a big adventure. Except unlike her friends, I'm not making up that little song because i'm scared (of lions and tigers and bears, o my!) but because I'm so excited! I have successfully booked a flight to London during the week of Feria, where we'll be able to see the royal wedding and also take a few days to travel to Bruges, Belgium. My friend and I also booked a cheap flight to Paris for a long weekend where we have Monday off (we never have class on Fridays, so i guess they're all long weekends!) And for Semana Santa, we have booked a trip to Prague, during which we'll take a train to Berlin. Why Prague you ask? Actually I have no idea. If anyone would have asked me where I wanted to go in Europe, I wouldn't have said the Czech Republic or even Germany. But this is why I love it in Europe because you can be spontaneous and make such great memories! For those of you worrying that I may have thrown away my money going to Prague, every time I tell someone that has been to Prague that I'm going there, they always say it's one of their favorite cities! Ok, so I've left out one city and that is because it's the most excited one...because my little sister Alaina is coming in may after my classes are finished and we are going to go to Venice together! Wohoo!

Ok, on to some more productive things that have happened in Sevilla this week. I feel like this week and this weekend were very beneficial for me in getting to know the city better and becoming more confident in what I'm doing. For example, Monday I probably learned the best lesson, how to use the metro! I live like 45 min walking distance from where everything is, and during the day i don't mind at all because the weather in Sevilla is always gorgeous. However, I don't like having to walk home in the dark by myself at night. On Monday, we had a group meeting (I'm in this group that gets to go to Portugal!) at 9pm, after wards, they all bought us drinks at a local bar. Once everyone started heading out, I was thinking, oo great i have to either walk back by myself and be scared the whole time, or pay 10 euro for a 5 min taxi drive. Well, one of the Spanish guys who is also in the group asked me where I lived, I said Nervion and he did too! So he and I walked to the metro station (which is only a year old!) and took the metro back home, which the metro station in Nervion is literally 3 minutes from my house! I now feel more comfortable knowing when i have to go to the Centro at night because i can take the metro which is a lot safer, cheaper, and quicker!

I also have become a pro at "rebajas" shopping and this weekend successfully located the mall (which is a 5 min walk from my house) . So rebajas are the huge sales that go on from January through February. And when I say sale, you will not even be able to fathom how great they are! For example, on Thursday, I got 2 pairs of adorable shoes for 6 euro each! Also, I spent 35 euro in a store like Forever 21 and got a jacket, shorts, dress, 2 shirts, 2 belts and a scarf! Its pretty amazing and I'm pretty obsessed! (Don't worry mom! This is necessary because I didn't bring any warm weather clothes and it it HOT here!).

This week has also been productive because I finished my intensive language class Friday and took my final exam! I'm thinking I did ok in the class, so lets hope I got a good grade on my final since Purdue is one of the few schools where credits directly transfer. Other schools just have pass fail, so their students only have to worry about getting a C or better. No fair! However I must say I'm glad to be done with the class. There was this girl in my class that drove me crazy every day! She had short pixie hair and would ask the most obnoxious questions! For example, one day out of the blue she asked the teacher what label (either el or ella) do spanairds give to a person who doesn't have a gender. Well, this was like her 5 obnoxious question of the day and I wanted to throw my hands up in the air as soon as I heard this silly question. I mean are you for real? I don't even think we have a word for that in English! We may call the person an "it" or something, but really, does it matter? Like, sorry girl I don't think you'll be coming across that too often. This conversation between her and the teacher went on for an entire hour because the teacher was so confused at the fact that there are even people in the world who are "gender queer" as our good friend Gena liked to call it. Shew! sorry I had to vent! She sat next to me in class every day and would make my blood boil every day. But thats over now, so on to some more observations about Spain!

Ok, this next observation is the one thing that I think I don't like about Spain. All of my other observances were just that, but these are a little bit more of disliked observance. So the thing that really bothers me is that people stare. So basically what happens is every day on my 40 minute walk to class I get stared at. In America, our moms always told us that it was rude to stare. I can't even describe this type of staring. When people are walking past you they actually turn their heads/stop/turn around to stare at you until you walk by! One time I was waiting at a stop light and the girl next to me turned her body to face me so she could just stare at me. UGH its so annoying because in America we think its so rude to stare. Also, usually if you make eye contact with a person then you kind of smile, well in Spain NO ONE smiles on the street. So as I said, it really bothers me, and it also bothers my American classmates too. One day in class we were having a class discussion on things we didn't like about Spain and nearly everyone said they hated the staring. Our professora, however started laughing because she said thats just what people do and it's not meant to be rude. She said most of the time people don't even realize they're staring (even with that comment, I don't think I'll get used to being stared at over and over again!). Our profe also commented that in Spain people just do not smile on the streets. She said if you smile on the streets at someone then it's kinda like you're laughing at them. Our profe went to San Francisco one time and said she felt so akward every time someone smiled at her because she thought they were laughing at her.

The other thing that I have noticed, that i don't hate but just think is weird is that there is literally zero diversity here. like most of the people are darker skinned with brown hair. There are no blonde haired blue eyed people, no blacks, asians, etc. Our teacher was telling us that there didn't start to be any type of immigration into Sevilla until like 1995, so its only been like 15 years, but its just weird to get used to because in America you're so used to seeing so many different types of people, which i love!

Ok, I think thats it for my 3rd week post. I'm going to be posting another one in a few hours to tell you about the soccer game that I'm about to go to! Other than that, I start my actual classes Monday (yikes!) so i'll be sure to let you know how that goes as well!

Hasta Luego

Lauren

Granada!

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying the big snow the midwest got! I can't believe Purdue had its first snow day in idk how many years! (I must say I'm pretty jealous that I can't be there to enjoy it with you all!). So this weekend I went to Granada which is a city in the Analucian region and only about 3.5 hours east of here. I am so impressed with the CIEE program (my study abroad program). Already, in the two short weeks I have been here, I have been able to go to Granada, Italica, and see famous monuments in Sevilla such as the  Cathedral, Giralda, Alcazar, and the Plaza de Espana all for free. Although the price was an arm and a leg to go, I definitely think its worth it! Ok, on to my stories from this past weekend!
So Saturday morning our bus left at 830. 830am in Spain is like 6am in the United States. Like I've said before, no one wakes up until 9 on weekdays and I had to wake up at 7 to make it down to the University meeting spot. It was a tad bit rough because the sun doesn't even come up until 845 here! The bus ride was fairly comfortable and only took about 3.5 hours with gorgeous senery to help pass the time even quicker. Sevilla is a city that is completely flat. I don't think I've seen a single hill here. However, if you drive 30 minutes out of town, you begin to come across stunning hills and breathtaking mountain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Navada mountains and is the exact opposite in geography of Sevilla. They have some gorgeous senery. Here is a picture I took from the bus and also in Granada.
 
The hotel that we stayed in for our trip was situated above the city on the mountain and literally like 2 minutes away from La Alhambra, which is why everyone comes to Granada for. One of my friends told me that La Alhambra is the 2nd most visited site behind the Tajmahal which I thought was pretty cool. Once we got to the hotel, we had lunch then went to La Alhambra which is the walled Muslim city that contains a summer home, palace and garden that has survived wars, seiges, etc since the 14th century. We went to the summer home first which is called the Generalife (Heneraleefay: pronunciation). I'll post some pictures. It was really pretty but our guide told us that during the summer months all of the green we see is flowers! I think that'd be a sight to see for sure!
   after that we headed to the palaces of La Alhambra which we so pretty! I think it would have been so cool to live in that time period. The only thing I don't think I could have handled was the cold in the winter with those tiled floors! Ugh! Here are some pictures from the palaces.
 
The two coolest things that I did this weekend I couldn't take pictures of. The first one was on Saturday and was in La Alhambra. There is a courtyard in La Alhambra with 12 lions in a circle. In the past the 12 lions served as a clock and at every hour, one of the lions would spout water so people would know what time it was. Well i guess that the lions were kinda falling apart so they were cleaned and repieced together in a room and we got to watch a video of how they used to work and we got to see the newly refurbished lions. Here is a picture I got from the internet of the lions

After La Alhambra, we were all starving so went to a muslim tea cafe place that had free desserts with every cup of tea! The tea was soo good too! That night my friends and I went out to a few different bars to see what the night life was like in Granaa. I still can't get over the fact that at 11pm on a saturday women have their young kids in a bar and everyone is partying! Its just such a totally different culture! It was really fun on Saturday because Betis (the other Sevilla futbol club) was playing Granada, so everywhere we went people were dressed in green supporting Betis. Even after Betis lost 3-0, they were still singing their song in the streets and in the bars. it was really fun.
The next day we got up early and went with our guide to the old barrio which was where the people lived during the reign of the Muslim king and queen. Here is a gorgeous picture from La Alhambra of the city below.
 Sunday we walked around the city, but I was not that impressed at all. There were dogs running around everywhere and there was poop literally everywhere that we walked. In sevilla there are dogs without leashes, but they are usually right by their owners. This was not the case in Granada! One of the places we went to was a monestary which is called La Cartuja. The monks that live in the monestary are never allowed to come outside or interact with people! Its such a crazy concept. But one of the really cool things taht we got to do was interact with one of the nuns there. (I guess this happens at many churches in Sevilla too but I'd never heard of it). What we had to do was ring a bell and then a secret door would open up with a spinning table of sweets. If you wanted one, you had to put your euros by the food, then the table would turn and you would get your sweets. It was so neat!
 The last thing that we did we werent allowed to take pictures of either. We got to visit the Cathedral of granada which now houses King Ferdanand and Queen Isabella and some of their family members. We got to see their huge white tombs and even go underground to see their coffins. It was so neat! (once again i'm taking pictures off the internet because I really want you guys to see how cool it was!)

Well I think that about sums up my trip! I really enjoyed the city, but defintely am happy with my decision to study in Sevilla. There were SO many tourists there and as soon as anyone saw you and realized you were american (which for me is pretty obvi) then theyautomatically started speaking English to you. In Sevilla, no one that I have spoken to knows English, so i get to practice a lot. Also, I like that I live in a more typical, traditional spanish city that is not overrun by tourists! Well i'm sure I'll have lots more to right about soon! Enjoy your snow day midwest:)!

Hasta Luego,

Lauren