Granada

I LOVE GRANADA!!!! <3


But, today, no luck finding an apartment. Feelin a lil stressed about it...... Send me good vibes!!!!!!

I miss you all...

Well, I knew this was coming.  The point when it would stop being a blur, and start being real.  Honestly, I am still enjoying myself and making sure I am getting out and doing things, but I am missing people pretty badly right now.  I can't tell you how much I just want to have a hug that means something, or just be silent and hold someone's hand and not have to say anything because that person knows that I love them and that they love me. I mean, there are people here that I have met that I can consider my friends now and such, but it is not the same.  I want to hold someone's hand so badly and just have the energy we have built together be there and I will feel calm again.  This isn't exactly homesickness, but I really want some sort of familiarity.  I knew that I was going to be alone, so I have prepared myself for this, but it is still all I can think about for the last day or two.  I have my crystals here with me and am spending time focusing my energy in to good thoughts and good thoughts for others, because I know I am so lucky.  Yes, I worked hard for this, but I am also very lucky that things worked out and I am here instead of there.  It is not that I want to come back, because I don't (at least not right now), but feeling lonely sucks! Maybe I am feeling this way because I am not feeling like I belong here in Sevilla.  I mean, there are moments where I have the rush of endorphins and can take a solid breath and be like, "Yes, this is awesome, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now."  But, those aren't as prevalent as I would like.  I hope that I can feel the warm embrace of the city when I move to Granada on Saturday.  That would really be comforting since I know that I will not actually be reaching my hug capacity any time soon. 

Yesterday I went to get some absolutely amazing ice cream after school and was looking above the ice cream shop and saw this adorable little girl in the picture above with a broken arm.  I just love kids, and she was so cute and enjoying playing hide and seek behind the windows with me and some other people down below, but it made me really miss my kids! I miss my kids at the church, and at Ellen's, and my kiddies that I nannied for.  It makes me happy that in about a week and a half I will have a new set of kids to teach and be around.  

Anyhow, I miss everyone so much and am sending my good energy your way. I love and miss all of you.  

<3

Cádizfornia!!!!!!

On Saturday, I went to Cádiz with my school for the day.  It took about an hour and a half bus ride to get there. Once we arrived, we went to the CLIC campus there to have some breakfast.  I guess since this trip was sponsored by my school (CLIC), they wanted to show off the new campus in Cádiz.  The breakfast was all pastries, and I thought I was getting something that was just a croissant with maybe some sugar on top, but it actually had about a cup of cream/butter on the inside... I couldn't eat it. Anyway, after being at CLIC for a little bit, we went to the center of town for our tour.  The tour was only in Spanish, but they spoke a little slower than they would if we were native speakers and since we were all students of Spanish.  Much to my surprise, I understood most of what the guide was saying mas o menos, which made me very happy! (However, whenever I got back to Sevilla, I can't understand for the life of me what my familia is saying... arrrrrgggg!!!) Anyway, to summarize the tour, Cádiz is one of the oldest cities in Europe and has a lot of old buildings and such.  We saw a big pretty church, some pretty plazas (and one that had a ton of flower stands in it... Mom you would have LOVED it!), and then we ended up at the Torre de Oro (The Gold Tower) where we saw a camara ocsura.  A camara oscura (which translates to dark camera) is something that I had never seen before, but there are many around the world (even one in the U.S. in San Francisco).  Essentially, it is a big white ceramic inverted dome that is maybe a little more than an arm spans length circumference that is on the ground at the top of the tower in a dark room.  There is some sort of telescope like structure on the very top of the building that projects the images from around the city in to the dome.  You can lift and drop the dome to put it in to focus.  It was really cool! We could see all around the city and zoom in and out at all of the main landmarks and areas of the city! I really enjoyed this.  After the tower tour, we went to the BEACH!  The beach was so wonderful! It was great weather and the water felt amazing! It was so fun to go swimming, although I must admit, I couldn't stop thinking about Shark Week that I had watched just before leaving America... I was doing everything the show told me not to do! I was swimming in murky water alone which was what they told you NOT to do, but needless to say, I did not get eaten by a shark.  Chances were in my favor though because I hear that you are more likely to have a vending machine fall on you then to have a shark attack you... Anyway, we hung out on the beach, ate some ice cream, chatted it up with some other people that attend CLIC that were from various places like Switzerland, Holland, and Sweden.  It was so fun!  And, as in the title of this entry, the Spaniards call  Cádiz Cádizfornia because it is the Spanish equivalent of California.  My friend Alex that was with me is from California and said being on this beach made him homesick.  It was pretty much the same weather.  Warm, but with the wind, and the free spirit of the city.  After a few hours on the beach, we had to head back to Sevilla.  After returning and showering and eating with our respective familias, I went out with Laura, Alex, Matt, & Wade to meet up with this girl that Laura had met on the bus on the way back from El Centro to her piso after Cádiz.  We went to the neighborhood Los Remerious, which I had not been to before, and ended up at this restaurant called Tijuana! Laura thought that it was going to be a salsa bar, but it was actually a Tex-Mex restaurant, which I found amusing to find in Spain.  It was really awkward at first with the girls large group of friends (that I think were Mexican, and not Spanish) especially because it was one of their's birthday! I felt like I was intruding, but we decided to stay for maybe just one beer.  After one beer, and some attempted conversation in Spanish, things were not going too smoothly.  But, then all of the sudden, the shot glasses came out and tequila was splashing everywhere.  Seriously, within 10 minutes, it seemed that the group had transformed in to a drunk mess! The Mexicans/Spaniards were finally socializing with us, and smiling, and dancing, and yelling for more tequila! Thankfully, I have had my fair share of peer pressure in college, so I was not tempted to have as many shots as they did, but to my surprise, the whole group (of maybe 9 or 10) took down 5 BOTTLES OF TEQUILA!!! These people were muy loco! It was such a crazy mess to watch, but very entertaining! After I left to go home, Wade had stayed and called me later to say that 4 of the group had been carted off in ambulances due to alcohol poisoning... Geez! What a crazy night!  I am so glad I know how to say no! Anway, Sunday I wandered around town with Alex and Alex and went to La Plaza de España which is really cool because it is a giant semicircle and has little booths for each major city in Spain.  We also passed by this Fiesta de los Naciones which I am going to go back to soon, but it is a festival that has representation from a lot of countries with little booths of things to buy from that country and then food and drink from that country.  I found the US food booth funny because I wasn't sure what exactly American food was.  Well, it is chicken nuggets, BBQ, corndogs, and Budweiser.  HAHAHAHA! Anyway, good weekend all together. I need to go to school in a bit.  This is my last week in Sevilla so I am gonna try and make the most of it! 

SEVILLA VS. PARIS PARTIDO DE FUTBOL!!!

So, on Thursday after school, I went with a group of people to the partido de futbol (the soccer game) of Sevilla vs Paris.  First we went to this sandwich cafe to get some beer and mini sandwiches before the game.  It was really fun.  I met a few people in my program that I did not know and enjoyed a few beers.  When we got to the game, I was SHOCKED to find out that you can't buy alcohol at the game! I mean, it is Europe here people! You can drink at any time of day almost anywhere and it is legal, but not at the game?! How crazy!  I guess they are afraid people will get out of hand maybe? Not sure, but es posible! Anyway, we had tickets for up really high, but it was still fun.  It was different than games in America because they are not trying to sell stuff as much or play ads, or playbacks, or anything like that on the screen.  The screen only shows the score.  There was a net behind one of the goals and a person that I was with informed me that it was there because the most hard core Sevilla fans sit behind there and it was to keep them from throwing stuff on the field.  And it was true, that was the rowdiest part of the stadium.  They were waving their flags, standing, and singing the whole time.  Sevilla ended up losing 0-1, but it was still a really fun experience.  I wish I could go to every game, but it is just too expensive.  Afterwards, we went out as a group to a bar for a little food and drink, and then progressed to go to another bar, where it was very crowded and there were a lot of Americans, but I met a few people that I attempted to speak Spanish with.  It was kind of strange that some of the places where there were bars, it would be absolutely deserted on the streets on the way there, and then you would turn a corner and hundreds of people would be crowded on one street at one or two bars!  It was crazy.  Anyway, didn't get back until about 3 in the morning... I had so much fun!

Boat ride, Alcazar Garden MAGIC, and the Cathedral

Well, this week I have really been taking advantage of what my school has to offer. This first week of school has been okay, although I wish that I didn't have it from 3-7….. Bahhh! Anyway, on Wednesday, I went on a boat "cruise" on the Guadalquivir River which goes thru Sevilla.  It was all right, although not worth the money, but it was cool seeing the architecture of all the different bridges.  There were a lot of people kayaking on the river and I really wanna do that, but I have never done that before, and the boats kind of just hope you get out of their way… NOT that I saw anyone get hit, but if it was my first time, I think I might want to try on a river with no large boats…  Anyway, Thursday was a MAGICAL day!  I met up with my friend Megan (who is actually from Austin… how awesome!) to go for a little adventure.  We went back to the Alcazar that we had gone to the first full day we were here, but we went to the gardens part.  It is great because it is free because I am a student right now at my school CLIC, so we could do all these things for no money.  The gardens were like the garden of eden.  SO beautiful!  We pranced around with our cute little duck friends by all the ponds, trails, flowers, bushes, trees… There was a little gimpy duck that was our favorite that had a broken wing that was just so precious.  I LOVED these gardens.  We spent a few hours just loving every minute.  I really liked the part that was the maze because I really felt like I was a little fairy giggling and running up and down the isles trying to find myself.  There is something about being around such pretty nature that makes me so happy!  Surges of happy energy was flowing and I was loving every minute.  Despues the gardens, we went up to the cathedral which was very beautiful.  I just loved stained glass!  We walked up the tower, which was quite the experience, because we thought that it was only gonna be maybe 15 floors, but it ended up being 35!!! Needless to say, it was an amazing view when we got to the top.  All the walking around was quite a workout for the day, but we needed to get back to our pisos for lunch before school. After school I went to a FOOTBALL GAME!!!!!!!! (Soccer!) …but I will put that in another post so that I can include a picture...

Corrida de Toros (The bull fight)

Ai! Dios mio! On Sunday night I went to the Plaza de Toros de Sevilla to watch a bull fight.  And, yes, I know it is a very controversial subject, but I felt that it was an important part of Spanish (especially Andalucian) culture, and since one of my main goals here is to immerse myself in the culture, I decided that it was something that I had to do.  Also, after going, I decided that I wanted to know more about the history of why the hell there would be a sport for killing bulls.  Pues, here is what I found out.  First of all, it is called "corrida de toros", which translates to mean "race of bulls".  Why bulls you ask? Well bulls were originally worshiped and sacrifices.  There was a lot of symbolisim with man versus bull in the cave painting "El toro de hachos" found in Spain ("the bull of torches").  Bullfighting is done very differently in many different countries, but since I am in Spain, I will only talk about the Spanish bullfighting perspectives.  First off, the crew.  In the whole performance (is that what I would call it?), there are 6 bulls killed total.  There are 3 matadores (which means "murderers") that each have a posse.  There are 2 picadores "lancers" which are men on horseback, 3 banderilleros "flagmen", and one mozo de espada "sword page".  The matadores y the banderilleros are collectively known as toreros "bullfighters", but the whole group is called a cuadrilla "entourage".  Anyway, each bull fight is divided in to thirds, each announced with trumpets.  In the last part of the fight they play a song that sounds like a funeral procession and it is very sad.  All of the people in the entourage wear very flashy glittery outfits that are traditional Andalucian outfits.   The head matador wears gold, whereas the banderilleros wear silver.  Now for the explanation of what was going on. (I wish I knew this before I went, but it was kind of a last minute decision.)  So at first the banderilleros just show off with their capes for a while do check out the behavior of the bull and show off their style.  The ones that were good do this in almost a "sexy" way that was very stylistic and showy.  Well, I was a bit horrified that there were horses out there with the bull, especially because the bull kept attacking the horses that were blindfolded, but they had padding on the sides, so they were not hurt and didn't freak out, which I found a little weird because bulls weigh a little over 1000 lbs.  Anyway, apparently the horsemen are there to get the bull placed in the ring at a better angles, and to show the  matador which side the bull favors.  The horsemen also stab the bull in the back  to wear the bull's neck muscles. Thankfully, there has been a rule instilled since 1930 that makes the horse wear gear because prior to that, there were more horses killed than bulls! What a slaughter!!! Anyway, for the next part, the flaggers try to put two banderillas (two sharp barbed sticks) in to the bulls back, which I heard was some sort of beginning of paralysis, but online it says that it is only to anger the bulls.  This can be done with style, or just trying to get them in, and not all of the flaggers got them in every time.  The final part is where the matador comes out with the red cape and the sword.  Bulls are actually colorblind, but the different hues attract them to strike at the capes.  The cape is red to mask some of the bull's blood and a form of tradition, not because the fact that it is red really makes any difference to the bull.  After a series of passes by the matador, the matador strikes the bull with his sword in the top of his shoulders, hopefully going down to the heart, making it a quick death.  Unfortunately, out of the ones I saw, only 1 bull died that way.  Apparently this was more of an amateur match, although it is considered very lucky to be able to perform in this "arena?", so they had to be in a certain better class to perform there.  The matador uses the cape also to hold close to his body many times in the passes to show dominance and his power over the animal.  So enough about history… now what I thought about it.  I found it a bit disturbing, but honestly, the worst part was seeing not 1, but 2 MATADORES be gored! It was so horrible!!! The first one that was gored was trampled and caught by his arm and flailed about for a while.  It was sooo terrible!  The second one, although it didn't LOOK as bad, was much worse because he was gored very quickly in his femoral artery.  Blood was gushing everywhere.  He is evidently in a coma somewhere now.  :-(    Here is the link to the first goring, although he was lucky that it was mostly his clothing that was gored! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDiHxoDO7Xs) Here is a link to the second goring, but mind you, it is disturbing, but if you wanna see what I saw, this is it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doXX9vt6Ni4).  Anyway, it was definitely an experience I will not forget!

Annie's birthday

Last night we went out for Annie's 22nd birthday.  We were supposed to meet on the bridge over the river, but I went a little early just to be able to have some alone time before.  As I looked out across the river at the strip of bars and restaurants and people strolling along the river with the cathedral and the bull ring dome lit up in the background, I really finally got a chance to appreciate where I am.  I feel so lucky to be here, and ya know what, I deserve it.  I am glad I  can admit that I think I deserve this.  This is where I wanna be and I worked really hard to get here.  As I looked down in the river,  the fishermen were doing some odd sort of fishing (I'm sure there was a technique to it, although I couldn't quite figure out what it was).  They would throw a big chunk of bread in the water and SWARMS, literally SWARMS of GIGIANTIC fish would go towards the bread.  I did not take a picture because it was too dark, but the fish were maybe a little longer than the length of my arm, and really fat around.  Not sure what kind of fish they were.  Anyway, there were hundreds trying to eat the pieces of bread.  There were about 3 or 4 groups after different pieces of bread.  It was fascinating! Anyway, after meeting with the group we went from bar to bar (y a few discos) chatting it up, drinking, and dancing.  It was really fun.  We even saw a drag queen bar, which I very much did not expect to see! I had a good night and I really like Annie.  I am glad that she is going to Granada with me cuz I think we will be good friends.  Didn't get home until 3 a.m., and surprising to me, my host family was still awake... didn't expect that!  It might have been because they had to take their mother to the hospital last night when I was leaving the house, so it was probably a long night for them.