Summer in Seville

"Wow... I can't believe we never missed a bus or a plane..."

2007-08-06T08:46:00.000+02:00

Those fateful words were spoken while we were on the train from Madrid to Seville, followed by Kubic saying "Better knock on wood".

We didn't knock on wood, but we should have.

Turns out Kubic's flight tomorrow night at 9:15pm is actually TODAY at 9:15pm. We realized this luckily when we were awoken to the beautiful sounds of jackhammers and construction workers. Kubic ended up going downstairs to check his email and his parents were confirming with him that he left today. We were planning on going to the beach all day, well, not "were planning", we still have every intention of going, but we'll just have to return earlier.

SO, I knocked on every wooden door I could find in the hostel on the way down to the lobby (might have woken up some people in the process...) but know I'm shooting not to miss my flight that is still tomorrow at 5:45pm.

To the beach and Kubic says high to the folks and that he'll be back in America soon... oh how he missses you (America... well, and his family too, but really America).

Back home... well, Sevilla at least

2007-08-03T18:17:00.000+02:00

Wow, we´ve a lot to talk about. Lets start with the rest of Paris and go from there... hopefully you´ll stick with us...

SO, our last day in 2 days in paris were awesome. I (Lundborg) ended up sleeping outside on the terrace of our hostel because the 40 year old sweed that was in my room would give dad´s snoring a run for his money. Seriously, I thought there was a train that was going through my room. We got up and had your typical french breakfast, or so we assume, of bread and orange juice. Then we went on our way sightseeing.

Obviously, the first stop had to be the Louvre. yes, we know he Orsay or whatever it is is actually better, but who can go to paris without seeing the mona lisa?! That being said, we took a bunch of pictures outside of the giant glass pyramids and entered into the worlds largest and best known museum. We just went to one wing, I think it was the Dennon wing, which houses the Mona Lisa the the Kings crown (Louis the XV I think). It was fantastic, but there were tons of people taking pictures of the paintings, which destroys them... what a shame.

Then, we moved on to notre Dame. This was especially cool for me (Lundborg) because it was a gothic cathedral and we learned a ton about all of the gothic structures in my classes, so it was fun to go see it. We went inside and snuck into a free tour halfway through it and then left when the guide was losing control of the group.

After that, we ate lunch in the park, just behind the nortre dame. It was very chill and a lot of fun. Good weather by the way in Paris.

From there, we went up to the top of the eifell Tower. It was so high, much higher than either of us had imagined before seeing it. In fact, being cheap like we are, we said no to the elevator, meaning we take stairs all the way until the last bit which you have to do by elevator. We had to take a breather and watch some movie about the construction to catch our breath. On top, it was breathtaking (haha, did you see that literary prowness?? [by the way, that was actually kubics phrase... I don´t even know what that means...]).

After many pictures up top, we went back to the Arc De Triomphe. Its a memorial for the WWI veterans with a flame for rememberance. It is surrounded by a giant road with no lanes that circles the monument. Apparently, you can get to the monument underground without having to risk your live runing accross 50 yards of traffic, but we didnt´realise that until we´d already done that.

For dinner, we were lucky enough to be treated to an amazing meal of supple Lamb with french fries with good french wine, all with a business associate and friend of the Kubic family. He not only spoke perfect english which was great for us, he was also HILARIOUS. We didn´t stop laughing the whole time and now we might even have a little blackmail... sorry Mike!

After a tasty dinner, we went back to the hostel and fell asleep to the sounds of rain. I thought of you mom becaues I know you like the rain so much while you are sleeping.

The next day, we woke up early to go to Versailles. We took the train out there, and unfortunately had to wait in line for a while, but the wait was well worth it. Once inside, we were given an audio guide which gave a detailed description of almost every room in the palace. We saw more famous paintings by famous painters then we ever thought imaginable. It should also be noted that Matt Lundborg refused to take an english audio guide, but rather got one in spanish. Halfway through the palace, we went out to the gardens to eat lunch and see some of the amazing scencery.

We finished the rest of the tour of the palace by 3 and headed back to the city. Once back in Paris, we saw the Jardin de Luxembourg (AKA the garden) and watched little kids sail sailboats around a small lake. After that, we headed over to the pantheon, not to be confused with the pantheon in Rome. It was a large church completed at the end of the French Revolution to replace the ruined abbey of St. Genevive.

With Dan´s great recomendations we decided to finish the day by walking throught the adorssment of Marais which was really nice. We finished that with a nice dinner of duck and garlic potatoes in the Moulan Rouge area.

Today we woke up at 4 and began our journey to madrid. Airport security was horrid, and we were almost certain the plane would never get to take off, but we managed to leave only 20 minutes late. Then we arrived in Madrid 25 minutes early, which means our pilot must have been doing some serious speeding. Once in madrid, we took Ave to Seville which was the high speed train. The train ride was only about 2 hours which wasnt bad.

Now we are getting ready to go out and see some of the city. We will talk to yall later. Adios

According to my clock, we only have a minute 30 seconds left on the computer...

2007-08-01T01:19:00.000+02:00

Last we wrote, we had done the tour of the ancient city. The next day, we woke up bright and early at 9:30 and walked up to the top of St. Peter's Basicilca... it was something like 200 steps and the view was incredible. Afterwards, we went and bought a little bit of food and chilled in St. Peter's square until we had our next tour.

The tour was amazing. We skipped a line that was about 4 hours long and walked right into the Vatican Museum. We saw tons of sculptures and heard a LOT about Michalangelo (and yes I know that's mispelt, but thats how the ancient romans would have spelt it...). We saw so much and heard so much that we'll just have to show you pictures, writing wouldn't do the trick.

The best part of the tour was learning about the Sistine Chapell. We learned about who painted what, when, for how long, and averything else in between. You have to go if you haven't yet, unbelievable.

Our last day in rome was really chill. We went to Borghouse park, which is a 198 acre, 300 year old park. We took a few pictures, and read our books for a while. It was nice to chill and relax for a while.

We just got into Paris and are staying in the Moulon Roughe area (again, this is how Napoleon would have spelt this...). I think we told you that the Germans were a bit permiscuous. We still stand by that. But now, we realize that the Parisians are crazy sex freaks. No lie. We walked all the way from our metro stop to our hostel (20 minutes) and saw nothing but adult stores/museums/bars/yougettheidea (yes, I did say museums. they do have erotica museums. and no, we didn't go in.... yet... just kidding... want to make sure you're still paying attention...).

We don't know what we are going to do yet tomorrow and the next day (ahem... meghan/dan: this all rests on your shoulders!). But, we do want to let you know that some drunk people from the hostel have been having the most ridiculous argument with the receptionist because they won't shutup and he told them to go to bed. As I type, kubic is looking for a sharp object to... quiet them with.

Spiekense Deutch?.... When in rome....

2007-07-30T11:21:00.000+02:00

Ok. So we had free access to the internet in Germany, and took that for granted... its about €6.00\hr here so we do not really take part in that. So back to Germany. We got up before the sun came up in Dublin and jumped on a plane for Frankfurt. Turns out, this time RyanAir was not so great. The airport in Frankfurt was not actually IN Frankfurt... about 1.5 hours outside of frankfurt. Thankfully, the bus dropped us off only about 2 blocks from our hotel, making it EASY to get there. And yes, I did say hotel, and not hostel.

Do you ever think about how great it is to have your own room sometimes? We realized that and LOVED it. We spent the first day mostly sleeping, watching german tv and eating sausage. We went through the cultural district (right next to the red light district) and ate a bunch of german food. Check list 1 complete. There must be somehting about those germans becuase... how do I put this nicely... there were prostitutes and adult stores EVERYWHERE. Very different from the states and everywhere else we have been so far.

The next day we walked down to the river and made it to the historic downtown. It was impressive and exactly what we pictured old german houses to be. It was a little deceiving though, because every building we saw (except for the churches) were completely destroyed during WWII. We saw some pictures and litteraly, the only things standing were the churches. We were told on a tour that the allied bombers used to use the churches as points of reference when going on bombing runs, which explains why they are still standing. Also, we figure that would have been bad karma.

Basically, Germany was fun, but we did not understand german, so us speaking anything in german gave us responses that we did not understand... thankfully just about everyone spoke english.

We got up at 1:40am the following day to go to rome. After a 2:30 shuttle, and going through airport security, we were on our way to Rome. We got there at about 9 and dropped our things off at the hostel/campground/intersate exit in the outskirts of rome. We jumped on the metro and went to St. Peter's Basillica in the Vatican. The line wasn't too bad and we were actually able to go inside and attend the noon mass. We were like the first in line and so we had great seats, sitting in the second row.

Dad: take note. I know we are'nt catholic, but hey, we all have similar roots, right? The mass, with at least 500 people, took only 35 minutes, WITH a choir, WITH a sermon and readings, AND with communion. Not bad... just an idea.

Afterwards we met up with Kiron, our tour guide for St. Peter's Basillica and Ancient Rome. It was fantastic. We were with her in the basillica for about an hour or so and then went out to eat. By the way, the food here is just as amazing as you might think. After eating, we went to the ancient city... including Piazza Venezia (A monument that symbolizes the unification of Italy, built by Moussolini), Foro Romano (Dating back to 7th century b.c., was the political and economic center of the roman republic, Monte Palantino (said to be the birthplace of the rome the city when Romulos killed his brother with a shovel and founded rome on top of the hill where they were found as babies floating down the flooded Tevere river), Vistel Virgins (where the 6 chosen virgin girls ages 6-10 lived for the next 30 years, all to be untouched, but were holy and attended events that no women could, except the emperess... sometimes they were a bit permiscuous, which led to the dude getting stoned or wipped to death and her being buried alive, with a glass of water, milk, a piece of bread and a book by which she could read by candlelight...), the Coluseum (I refuse to explain this one to you... you should know better. However, we did figure out that there was a chance that over a half a million people and a million animals died in this area, which is the size of a football field. That is more dead people/animals per square foot than ANYWHERE on earth), the jail that housed St. Peter and Paul immediately before their execution, many temples' remains, and many other original roads that were used back in the times of the emperors, 2,000 years ago. Oh, and we saw where the city provided free games and races (other than at the coluseum) that was on a track that is 2,000 feet long, seating nearly 380,000 people.

Finally, and most importantly, we saw the worlds oldest sewer. They like it so much and are so proud, they made a god for it... the God of the Sewer system (or as we call it, the "God of Shit"). The most incredible aspect of this sewer system is that they still use it today in conjunction with whatever other sewer system they have.

That night we got lost for about 2 hours and ended up taking a taxi after finding out the metro stops at 9pm. Verdict? Rome metro sucks.

Going on a tour of the Vatican Museum and Sistine chappel today. Ciou!

Guess who went back to jail...

2007-07-26T17:31:00.000+02:00

First of all, Avenue Q is the funniest musical I've ever seen. Kubic wanted to see it because the review said it was the musical for people who hate musicals... I do have to say that it was very foul mouthed, but hey, thats probably why we laughed so hard anyways. Seriously, go see it. It was like the muppets and sesame street mixed up with south park.

We got to Dublin just fine 2 nights ago. We are staying at a hostel that houses about 330 people, so there is never a dull moment, although we're never there. We've seen st. patricks cathedral, Chist Church cathedral, Trinity College, the Dublin Castle, Malahide caste, and the National museum of archeology in the last 2 days. The Dublin castle was really cool because it is kind of like the white house, but smaller and no guards... but it is still used as the official government building. We learned alot oabout the history of ireland there. Did you know that they've been independent for only 80 years or so?? We didn't.

Everything else rocked. Very green grass here, big nice buildings, but the whole city smells like the hops being used to make Guinness at the Guinness factory in town. We went on a tour and see how they make the beer, which was very informative and they gave us a free pint on top of the factory, the highest point in town. We also went to the Old Jameson Distillery to see how irish whiskey is made. They had a bottle there older than we are.

We really miss the tubes of london, because the bus system here is awful. Yesterday, we had to have walked 8 miles, all over town being lost. But hey, we are getting in shape for Rome, right?

Ok, so about the jail thing... sorry mom and dad, we didn't realize that it was against the law to.... aww, who am I kidding, we just went on a tour of a jail. No worries, we are being good. The jail is where they executed the 16 fathers of the revolution in 1916 that lead to the independece of Ireland in the early 20's. We know a ton about their national history now. Really neat place.

Probably the highlight of Dublin was going to hear true Irish music at this pub. Me and Kubic describe it as being like that scene in Titanic when all the irish people are dancing and partying int he hold of the ship. Sounded a lot like that. (By the way, we've never seen Titantic, we just heard about that scene. WE think the movie is girly.) Back to manly things, we we met some accountants for Deloitte and Touche at that pub and they were really nice to us. We talked about all sorts of Irish things like red hair, brawling, hurling and Irish football. It was a BLAST.

Well, thats about it. We are on our way to go eat Irish Lamb stew now... should be really tasty. Meghan, pretend it isn't lamb, prentend it is beef or something.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Germany at 7am, so we'll be up around 4. Speiken se englisch?

Tube Travelers

2007-07-23T19:33:00.000+02:00

Today was a lot like yesterday, a lot of sightseeing... but before today, thought I'd tell you about last night. After we posted yesterday, we went to Covent Gardens for dinner, and saw the most ridiculous crowd act ever. It was not affiliated with anything, but was just a guy who wanted some money. By the end of the show, he had striped down to his underwear, mounted an Italian man, climbed ontop of his 12ft tall unicycle, rode around while juggling knives, and then for the grand finale, he jumped off his unicycle and juggled a chainsaw (running, that had the chain on it) around his body!!! He must have made 150-200£... but really, he was nuts.

Today we met up with one of my friends from the seville program who happened to be in London still for a couple of days. First we went to the Tower of London, an old castle that used to house the royal family until like 30 years ago (so we heard). The line to tour it was ridiculous, so we didn't go it, BUT we did walk around it. Then we walked across the famous Tower Bridge (usually mistaken for the London Bridge). It was all very impressive. On the other side of the bridge, we watched the filming of some cop TV show here in the UK.

After that, we went to look for some show tickets. I guess the shows/plays here are just as big as they are in New York because there were signs everywhere. Last night, after talking to some guy who worked as a stage hand for the Lion King, he recommended that we see Avenue Q. Apparently, it was wild popular in the US, won Tonys and all that stuff. After finding out we might get student discounts, we headed over to the theatre. Turns out, with our international student ID cards, we got front section tickets that are eye level with the stage for 20£ when they normally cost 47.50£, saving us nearly $60! Show is tonight at 8pm, so we are excited. Figured that the girls and mom would be jealous...

After that, we gorged ourselves at pizza hut, eating the bufet until we were sick. It was everything I thought it could be and then some.

After all the food, we thought we'd check out Herod's, the world's largest department store. It was HUGE, 7 stories and everything from golf carts, to a toy kingdom. Highlights were as follows: a watch that costs 300,000£, a stuffed giraffe that costs 2,700£ and a go cart that looks like an H3 hummer that was 9,000£. To give you an idea of what a waste that is, a basic car costs 8,000£...

Gotta eat and go to the show. We leave tomorrow for Dublin at 4 in the afternoon. See you in Ireland!

London baby...

2007-07-22T19:47:00.000+02:00

So last night I got into london (really this morning) at about 4am. After walking through the sketchiest neighorhood in London, we arived at our fantastic hostel... don't worry parents... safety in numbers, right? Kubic got there safe and sound and got to know the underground subways really well yesterday afteroon.

We got up this morning at 9:30 and went down for our free toast and jucice. Not going to lie, I was hoping for tea and crumpets, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

After grabing our cameras, we set off on our adventures through London. First, we hopped on the underground and headed towards Piccadilly Circus, one of the most famous London landmarks at the junction of 5 busy streets. Most of London's major theatres are within walking distance. Kate: I took a picture of a wicked billboard for you. Mom: thought you'd like to know it is hug day here.

Moving on, we wandered past a bunch of statues of men on horses and some lady ontop of a lion. Very cool. We ended up passing a giant tower that sat at the foot of a big park. To our left was the national gallery, and straight ahead led towards Buckingham's palace. We first went past some guards that weren't supposed to move (they did) and then wound around near the National Gallary. Before going in, we went to Subway for a 3 pound meal (cost 3 pounds...) of chicken terriaki with chips and fountain soda. Spain: get on the subway wagon, it was delicious.

National Gallery. What to say? There were a lot of paintings of Jesus. We walked around for about 45 minutes there and saw just about nothing except religious artwark depicting everything from the battle of David and Goliath to Archangel Michael cutting of the head of Lucifer the snake. We tried to sneak into a free show downstairs but security wouldn't have it. Okay, so by free we mean 10 pounds ($20).

Then we saw the London eye, a giant ferris wheel, with a more giant line. We didn't ride it. We went to Westminster Abbey and came to the conclusion that it isn't as big/cool/interesting as we thought it was. Then we saw a bunch of mimes and walked across the bridge and went to Big Ben.

Big ben is big. Lots of windows and giant clock, like you might guess. We'd show you pictures but we can't download them. After wading through a sea of foreigners, we went to Trafalgar Square. It is the square with Nelson's Colum guarded by four lions and is one of London's most famous attractions. There was some live music and a really cool plaza. We liked it.

Now our legs are tired, and I'm complaining about how we can't find an ATM. After withdrawing the last of our savings, we jumped on a bus and went to Notting hill. I am happy to report that after discussing the hit movie Notting Hill, we were able to locate the Travel Bookstore (Hugh Grant missing in action) and I took a picture of EVERY red door there was in the neighborhood. I think some old lady taking a picture of her house.

Now we are exhausted and got back on the tube to go back to the hostel. There was some baby on the train to keep us awake so we didn't miss our last stop.

Now we are going out to eat and to see covent gardens, which is full of restaraunts, bars and shopping. Should be fun.

until next time...

Week 9: That´s a wrap!

2007-07-21T13:48:00.000+02:00

What was left from session 1

Bullfight

These are all the people that fight the bull, they´ve all got different jobs.

Sevilla´s Plaza de Toro is the largest and best known bull ring in all of Spain

So it is offically done and it was a lot of fun while it lasted. Last presentation given, last paper written and no more school for a month! Feels good to have a break, been doing the school thing for a year straight now.

So obviously you saw that we went to a bullfight. It was this past thursday night and was a lot of fun. It is one of those things that people either really like or really hate... i´m on the like it side. I really like the history of it and they still wear what they have forever, and it is still done the same way they have forever. One of my favorite parts is when the matador is doing a really good job and the band starts to play... I thought of meghan when they were playing. You would have loved it.

We weren´t watching anybody that was really good, but some students that are amateurs right now. It was unbelievable watching 17 year old fighting bulls.

The best part of the fight was when some old homeless drunk spaniard ran down into the right with his own cape thing to fight the bull. Luckily the bull didn´t gore him, but you should have seen how many security people bum rushed him to get him out of the ring. He was nuts!

In an hour I´m meeting my friends to go to the movies and then I go to my flight tonight which takes off at 9:10pm. Suprisingly, one of my good friends is on the same flight going to London too, which will be cool.

This is my last entry from my studies in spain, but expect a lot from Kubic and my adventures!

Week 8: Goin to the beach

2007-07-18T18:09:00.000+02:00

Well, last week was relatively calm. I continued in my tradition of class, nap, tv, lunch, read my book, homework, dinner and then whatever I end up doing with my friends. It was a pretty calm week.

That weekend, I went to Cádiz (south of Seville) to go to the beach with a few of my friends. There were 6 of us and we originally were going to go to the beach during the day, go out to eat, go out, and then sleep on the beach because we couldn´t find any hostels that weren´t already booked. We wanted to sleep there so we could hang out on the beach the next day too. Luckily, we didn´t have to be homeless. A couple of the girls got left on the bus and got off later down the road and when they were walking back to catch up with the group, they found an apartment hostel that absolutely rocked. We were supposed to have our passports, but we were able to talk them into letting us stay anyways. It was complete with bedroom, kitchen, living room, and an enclosed patio, all for a mere 25€ a person.

Weekend was great, had to have been 25,000 people there. Everybody left sevilla and went there because it gets so freakin hot here. Good times. All I did was eat burger king all weekend and it was great eating burgers again... american burgers (spanish burgers don´t come with meet or anything, jsut the patty).

Just a week left? Where does the time go? I am looking forward to my backpacking with Kubic though, should be fun, and only a week away!

Funny story to finish things off though: I´m really lucky in my homestay because I have A/C in my room that i can use at night because it is too hot at night to sleep well w/o it. The catch is that I am one in a million of students that has this luxury here. So here is the funny part. I came back one night and could not stop sweating, so I turned the ac on high, and fell asleep. Sadly, i woke up cold later, shivering in fact!!! I know, woe is me. So I reached up and turned what I thought was the knob for high to low and went back to sleep. I woke up in the morning sweating like mad and couldn´t figure out why. Apparently when i reached up in the dark, I turned it onto heat and left it on high, so it was probably 90º in my room! All I can say is that karma can be rough, haha.

Mom- hope you are having fun now that dad´s home
Meghan/Dan- how does it feel to be back, hopefully not too jet lagged
Kate- did you really get your ear pierced?? can´t believe it
G/G- thanks for being very faithful readers of my blog, always good for a comment
kubes- see you in a week
quinn/butler- have fun in italy with the jazz band, probably having a blast
Everyone else...- see you in a month!

Week 7: Extramedura and whats going on...

2007-07-11T21:20:00.000+02:00

A view from the top of the castle in Trujillo.

No... we didn´t plan this picture...

They know how to make the Macarena look good (any Lundborgs remember having to do the times tables to that song in Mrs. Ehlerts class???)

Roman ruins of an old Coloseum in Medina

So, we’ve finished our first week of class (and a couple days, a little slow on the post) and I’ve got to say that I’m slightly disappointed in this class. It is a cool class; it is just that the teacher is so terribly boring. Enough of her though, talking about her just frustrates me, the stories we are reading are pretty good (its a literature class) and I’ve got some friends in there so it isn’t so bad after all.

Not a whole lot went on last week, just a bunch of school and random hanging out. I do have bad news... the guy from the festival of nations still hasn’t called me, so looks like that isn’t gonna pan out, haha. Oh well, we can still go down there and have a good time without me having to work, right?

This past weekend we went to the autonomous community (state w/in Spain) that is home to 2 provinces (counties) Medida and Trijullo. It was a really fun trip, mainly because of who went. There wasn’t 1 person who went that I disliked, all of the staff was 35 or younger and very cool, and there was a smaller group going (50 or so) so it was easier to stick together.

We ended up seeing some Roman ruins over 1000 years old, some castles and many other cultural things that are very similar to what we’ve been doing most of the summer. The food at the hotel was so-so but CIEE made up for it by taking us to this really amazing restaurant off of the town square in Trijullo. It was 3 courses with a desert. Delicioso

Now that it is close to 45 degrees celcious everyday, I like to go to the movies or do something else in air-conditioning, so today there was only 1 obvious choice. Harry Potter. It isn’t out in English yet, but that didn’t matter because the theatres that have shows in Spanish are much better (I saw it in digital HD THX and a bunch of 2 or three letter acronyms theatre). Happy to report that I understood every word of it and it was pretty much amazing, living up to the hype. Funny thing though, if you have already seen it, a bunch of the plot is relayed through new rules nailed to a wall, or reading headlines from newspapers, but those aren’t translated. Whenever they came up, the kids around me would be asking their parents "dad, what does that mean..." "what is going on..." etc. Makes you wonder what everyone that doesn’t speak English misses out on many of the dubbed over movies, huh?

4th of July in Spain just isn´t the same...

2007-07-04T18:22:00.000+02:00

Being Americans, we tend to think that everyone knows about all of our holidays, when they are and when you think about it (I do at least) don´t even realize that not everyone would celebrate the 4th of July. I was talking to one of my spanish friends and he still didn´t really get what the big deal was and why we were all getting so worked up over it. I guess explaining what happened wasn´t enough. You just have to be an american.

Which brings me to my next point. We are haveing a true american 4th of July party, complete with: Hot dogs, Lays potato chips (the really greasy ones people have at picnics), watermelon, a playlist with almost 30 songs that have either america or american in the name, and if we are lucky sparklers. Notice that none of the food mentioned included jamón (ham: this country has a strange obsession with eating it at every meal). We are taking the festivities down to the river at 10pm to hang out and pretend like we are in the states for a little bit. It isn´t that we don´t like it here, we just want to have a taste of the states after such a long time without.

Festival of nations: right now, ironically going on right next to our american party, is the festival of nations. It is a bunch of tents set up for different countries that have things you can buy like close or cultural items, foods from those countries and drinks from those countries. In between it all is a stage for different concerts. It is a really good time and a really easy way to spend money if you aren´t careful.

My friends and I went down there a couple of nights ago and had a really good time. A bunch of the locals were out so we actually ran into a bunch of our host families/children so we did a bunch of introducing and some really funny/awkward conversations. Most of the families don´t speak any English so some of the conversation was histerical, especially when some of the host family boys were attempting to hit on the american girls. Pickup lines included everything from: "You have beautifual eyes..." to "Are you dating anybody?" to my personal favorite, and what my host family brother tried to use "You are more beautiful than a sunrise...". I don´t know if I´ve ever laughed so hard.

To top it all off, I might have gotten a job. I was talking to one of the guys who was the boss of two tents and he told me that my spanish was good, but wanted to know if I knew any English... to which I told him I know a little bit. He told me that he thought I was french (dan, meghan, thoughts please?) but to his suprise, I´m american. He has my mobile number and is going to call me when he needs extra people to work the tent. Right now he doesn´t have anyone that can speek both spanish and english. I´m really hoping he calls, so cross your fingers.

I´m off, so enjoy your 4ths of Julys in whatever continent/state you are in!

Week 6: Where does the time go?

2007-07-02T13:27:00.000+02:00

I don´t know where the time goes. It feels like session 2 just started, and today was the first day of session 3. What happened?

Well, Sunday a week ago, Sevilla won the Copa del Rey, which is the cup for only spanish soccer teams. Out of like 50 or 60 teams Sevilla´s first division team won. That was their 3rd cup that they won this season, and they won 3 out of 3 tournaments that they entered. Needless to say, there was a nother giant party for the winners. It was pretty much exactly the same as last time, but this time around I knew what was going on, and could sing a few of the songs that everyone was screaming.

The rest of the week went by relatively fast. We had our 7 page papers due and then our finals on Friday, so my week consisted of writing and studying and a little saying goodbye. Out of my 5 close friends, 3 have left. And then there were 3. Kind of sucks because we all got along so well. But I guess that is what happens when you don´t stay for a whole semester during the fall/spring.

3 more weeks until the european tour begins. Gettin´pretty excited about that, but I hope all the terrorism stops in Great Brittain so that me and Kubes can actually get there. I guess we´ll all see.

The camera´s back

2007-06-29T12:47:00.000+02:00

For those of you who didn´t know, my camera died in Tarifa, hence no pictures from there or Africa yet... lets just say there isn´t much that a bunch of euros can´t fix, haha.

And now for a photo tour of my weekend in Tarifa and Africa!

This was our amazing hostel.

This is the strangest bar every. We went to it the night before Africa. Not only do they serve beer, it is a shoe store. No lie. I asked which came first the shoe store or the bar and they said whatever you want. She then tried to sell me a pair of sandals...

This was the ferry we took to Africa. Don´t be deceived... the 35 minute journey to there is closer to an hour, haha.

Us leaving, Tarifa in the background.

Big boat make big wave.

Waiting in line to get our passports checked.

The group, the downtown quarter to our backs.

This could be a visa commercial. Yada yada yada, riding a camel in Africa: priceless!

The main park that seperates the new city from the old.

Winding yarn that will be used to make rugs in the room nextdoor.

I´ve come to terms with the fact that nobody other than americans know how to handle raw meat.

About to be given a demonstration in an herb and spices shop.

Begging children in Africa are a special breed. You don´t speek Arabic? Great, cause these 8 year olds speak English, Spanish, French and a little bit of German too!

The main port, right before we went back to spain.

Well, there ya go. Go ahead and just add a couple stamps to your own passport because that was pretty much what happened.

Week 5: I got some more stamps...Tarifa, Spain and Moroco, Africa

2007-06-25T20:17:00.000+02:00

Well.... I did it. I went to Africa this past weekend. As I wrote that I was going to go at the end of my last blog, I was writing under the assumption that I would try but wasn´t sure if I would actually end up going. We really went, and it was unforgetable.

Our trip started out on Friday afternoon, after class, when 20 americans (including myslef) took over a bus going to Tarifa (southern coast of Spain). I´ve heard in the past that Americans are loud, but now I really understand. I almost felt bad for everyone else on the bus because we were so obnoxious, but I guess that is what you get on a Friday, after class, when you think you are going to Africa tomorrow.

When we got there after our 2 1/2 hr bus ride, we checked into our amazing hostel. 4 minutes walking from the center of town, 5 minutes from the beach and 4 minutes to the ferry that took us to Africa. The hostel was pretty small, and we got to know the staff a little bit. They were really nice people, mostly from around the world/spian and just working there for a few months to surf, relax, get away from the world.

We were tired that night so we ended up going out to eat at a pizza place where you cut your food with scissors. Lets just say it was incredible, and words wont do it justice. Pictures to come.

Saturday morning we almost missed the ferry to Moroco, but given that we live in spain, we don´t have to be anywhere on time. We got there at 11:00, same time as departure, but didn´t leave until 11:45am. Go figure.
The ride over was a lot of fun, but really opened up my eyes to what people go through trying to cross the Gibralter strait.

After going through customs, we were inundated with people that wanted to give us guided tours. To our suprise, we found a guide who was actually letgit, (Jamal, and our driver Muhammad). To give you an idea of how amazing this tour was, we did the following: had our own mercedes bus driving us around all day, just the 14 of us from CIEE, we rode camals, saw the summer homes of presidents and dignitaries from around the world, walked through all the shopping districs, walked through a rug factory (where they make rugs by hand with looms), saw a dance show in the streets, saw some of the 100,000 spices and herbs they have in Tanger, and the list goes on. Did I mention I rode a camel?!?!?!?!?!? We went back on the 5pm ferry (7pm spain time) and got back around 8pm Spain time.

All in all, amazing day.

The next day, we hung out on the beach and then went to a Tex-Mex restauraunt. Very needed. I like the food here, but sometimes you just needs some enchaladas, nachos and hot sauce with chips. We ended up having a chill day on Sunday because we were so beat from Moroco the day before. Tarifa was good times. The only thing we were disspointed about was that the festival San Juan was a bust. It was so windy, nobody was on the beach Saturday night. It is supposed to be this big festival with a GIANT bonfire to mark the summer solstice but the extreme winds kept the fire small and the crowd smaller.

Sadly my camera is broken. Don´t know why, but until I get it fixed/get a new one we will all have to wait to see pictures of me on my camel. I feel your pain... but they´ll be up soon, haha

Soy trianero pero vivo en Sevilla

2007-06-19T13:27:00.001+02:00

So after reading Dan/Meghan´s simple blog with pictures and no history lecture I thought I´d give you guys a break and give you some pictures. Kubic/Butler, this should be easier for you without so many words...

First things first. This is where I sleep/siesta every day. Don´t know if the bed has ever been flipped/turned/moved so I lay in a big dip right up the middle.

If you couldn´t guess, this is the living room. I´m pretty lucky because we have A/C, a 20" tv and digital cable. Sadly, we don´t use the A/C most of the time because it is so expensive and the cable went out yesterday...

This is the outside of my apartment building. If you look on the top floor, dead center of the picture, with the orange antenna and the plants on the balcony, you can see my apartment from the street/the restaurant Tribuna.

My street, Concha Espina, from the viewpoint of when I walking home from school.

This is the restaurant I mentioned earlier. It is full around 3 in the afternoon and 10-12midnight. I can always here the laughter and talking from my living room.

Avenida República Argentina; This is the main avenue that takes you to the plaza and towards the bridge to cross the river. You can barely see it but there is a Citibank on the left. I really lucked out that it is about 2 minutes from my house and that I don´t have to pay withdrawl fees...

In case you don´t know, I will be working for ALDI foods as an intern this fall and spring. If all goes well, I just may be baging groceries in this store one day. I found it on a run and it is 5 minutes from my house.

Plaza de Cuba; This is one of the large plazas in Sevilla and also the meeting location for all of us who live on my side of the river.

This is the view of the bridge I cross on the way to school, looking towards where I live (opposite direction of school).

Opposite view of the same bridge. On your left, you can see Torre de Oro (Tower of Gold). This is where much of the money and plundered property from the Americas was kept. We are visiting it in my 3 cultures class, so expect a better explanation later.

This is the Puerta de Jerez. It divides the pedestrian only streets from the normal streets. It is the next thing you see after crossing the bridge and walk for 1 minute.

Past Puerta de Jerez is Avenida Constitucion. Very touristy, and leads me to La Catedral on the way to school. If you were to keep going it would take you to El Ayuntamiento (town hall).

After following the Constitucion for a bit, I turn right and walk past Real Alcázar, seen in the back of the photo.

This is the last thing I see before getting into little windy streets. From La Catedral it is only 6 minutes more to school.

Total Travel Time: 25-30 minutes walking

Famous Monuments: 4

I definately have the best walk to school.

Week 4: Cádiz, Córdoba and Granada

2007-06-18T20:51:00.000+02:00

It happened, just as I knew it would, but it was still not welcome... sesion 1 is over and part of the progam is back in the states. Sadly, many of my friends are gone too (Joanne, Meredith, Alison...) but the show must go on. Session 2 is now here, and as you would expect, there seems to be an invisible wall seperating most of session 1 from 2. Anybody that has gone to school for the first time knows what it is like; you get there, don´t know anybody and its easier to stick with everyone thats in the same boat, so naturally its been slow going mixing the group, but I think it is now finally happening. Without further ado, this is what I did last week.

Cádiz:

Cádiz was the day trip for session 2. It is one of the southernmost cities in all of Spain and it is the oldest city in Europe. It was plundered by pirates, besieged by the french and was the site of the Spanish constitution (Washington on the Brazos ring a bell ???). When we got there, we started on our trip through the city. We saw the wall that seperates the new from the old, what used to protect the city (I´ve seen a lot of these walls this summer...). Then our group moved through the city too see all that was to be seen. It was a lot smaller than I thought it would be, but was FULL with people for two reasons: 1. It is the time of the year that spaniards travel, 2. It was the celabration of Corpus Cristi. We were actually really lucky to be there the day we were because I missed the parade in Seville and they were celebrating it later in Cádiz. It is an 800 year old celebration of communion in the Catholic church at is supposed to increase followers faith. While we were touring the cathedral, a marching band (hats of to spaniards... meghan would be proud cause these bands are popular here) was playing through town and went into the Cathedral too.

Not long after our trip through the cathedral it was free time, so we went to the beach. The same beach that they filmed James Bond´s movie "Die Another Day". It wasn´t as nice as Lagos, but we didn´t have to get rental cars to get there so I´m not gonna complain... We went there along with about 3,000 of my closest vacationers from all over Spain. It was packed. All those boats you see are the fishing boats that the locals use, and by the time we left the tide went out so far that they were all resting on sand.

Córdoba:

Córdoba was a trip we took for my 3 cultures class. This is pretty much the best class ever. We are in class talking about the history of Spain for about an hour and a half, and then we walk somewhere in the city and see famous monuments/sites/ruins that are hundreds of years old and we go with someone who knows more about stuff in Sevilla than I do about all things period.

So, when we got off the bus, we saw old Roman aqueducts that remained from over 1000 years ago, then we walked up a hill and saw once again the old wall that protected the city (again over 1000 years old) and then we went into what is now a Catholic church that used to be an Islamic Mezquita. It would take me way too long to describe everything on this trip, and it is hard to know what is relevant because we were hearing facts, stories and legends for about 3 hours, but suffice it to say that it was good times.

After we walked around the city and saw the Mezquita, we had free time. This meant we walked around the city, got hit up for money/food from beggars and ate tapaz. Me and couple friends went to a small hole in the wall restaurant and ate some good food instead of going to Burger King... big mistake! The kids that went saw the American soccer team that was there on a day off between games. They didn´t get any pictures because they didn´t want to be "that guy", but believe me... they were there.

Granada:

Granada was the overnight trip for Session 2... guess they are trying to pack it all in early. We got there Saturday afternoon and checked in to our 4 star hotel at the top of a mountain (I know... roughing it). Next to where we were staying was La Alhambra, the most visited monument in Spain and candidate to be one of the new Wonders of the World.

First on our list of things to do was as you might guess... walk around the city. Granada was under Islamic rule until 1492 (it didn´t stop just because Columbus found the Americas, but that was my guess too) and because of that, the older part of the city is all built with elements of Muslim arquitecture. What does that mean? Building contructed with bruick, plaster, arches and homes that don´t have windows to the outside. This was all done because the materials were cheap and functional. The windowless buildings was supposed to make it so outsiders couldn´t see what happened inside. They muslims were a people that valued family privacy (where they spend most of their time), so they had open patios in the center of the house to get sunlight and fresh air without the Jones´prying eyes next door. Also, the streets were all kinds of messed up. Dad, you thought you needed a compass to get around Brenham at first? You should of seen this. Instead of laying out streets and then building houses like sensible people, they built their houses wherever they wanted to first and THEN built the roads. You really couldn´t go more than 30 feet without having to turn.

After walking through the city, we saw the Capilla Real, the resting place of D. Fernando of Aragón y Queen Isabel of Spain, Juana I, Felipe I y of prince Miguel. We got to walk all around the Cathedral and then went down where there was a viewing of the coffins of all those listed above. Some of the things we saw were 500 year old clothes, memoires of somebody listed above and old artifacts of the royal family.

Interesting story. When Christopher Columbus needed funding for his trip to America (India), he came to the Queen. Story has it that she sold her jewelry to fund the trip. We saw that jewelrey box! Picture mom´s wooden box, then imagine the exact opposite (sorry mom...).

That night when we went out, the night was cut short because we wanted to get into this club that apparently had a dress code, and my friends shorts and sandals didn´t fit the bill. But on a lighter note, watching him change into someone else´s pants and try to get in throught the same people as before had to have been the funniest thing of the entire trip. The bouncer told him "Did you think I couldn´t see you behind that car? go home." Priceless...

The following day, we saw that Wonder of the World hopeful. Again, too much to describe, but it was the size of a small city, within Granada. It was were the king lived until the Christians conquored Granada in 1492. The chair I´m sitting in that picture is where the king did all his official business. The room was REALLY dark, and that was to make it hard to see the king when you came in from the very bright adjoining room. To make him seem untouchable or something to that effect.

________

Wow. That was a lot of writing, so congrats to those of you who read to the bottom. Just for that, you can go to sleep easily tonight knowing that I´m going to Africa on Saturday.

PEACE!

Week 3: Lagos, Portugal y Parque Nacional de Doñana

2007-06-09T19:22:00.000+02:00

Lagos, Portugal:

Last weekend, my friends and I rented cars and drove to Portugal for the weekend. Lagos is about 3 hours west by car from Spain. Ever since Spain and Portugal joined the European Union in the mid ´80s, the border checks have been taken down completely. You didn´t need a passport to get accross the border, and to be honest, you couldn´t even tell where the old border checkpoint used to be.

We left Seville at about 2pm and got to Lagos at 5, leaving us plenty of time to hang out on the beach before we ate. The picture of the beach is taken from our hotel parking lot. The hotel we stayed at was on a cliff overlooking one of the most famous beaches in Portugal. The water was pretty cold but felt good because it was really hot and sunny while we were there. While there, we snorkled, climbed big rocks that we shouldn´t have, explored different caves, and basically got toasted in the sun all day. That night we ate at a restaurant that also overlooked the ocean. Very classy. The funny thing is that this was all cheap, a meal was only 6€, or $8.

We went out the first night in Lagos, which was pretty good, but there were also a ton of creeps so we ended up going to Portimao (20 minutes west of Lagos). This town was much more tourist/American friendly and had some really cool bars that were open roof and on the ocean. Good times.

We came back Sunday night and then were supposed to return the cars on Monday morning. The crappy part about the trip is that I got into an accident in Seville about 1km from where I was supposed to drop off the car. I was in the middle of 3 lanes going the same direction, and when didn´t see anyone in the lane to my left I started to change lanes when this guy came flying out of nowhere and cliped the front left bumper. There was no damage done to the car other than to the bumper and the front left headlight, but I still had to pay the deductable because it would cost more than that to get it fixed. All in all, interesting experience... I had to fill out the accident forms and deal with the rental car company, none of whom spoke English...you should have been there, haha.

Parque Nacional de Doñana:

This park is the largest state protected park in Spain (i think)... It covers a lot of the beach, and then back through the dunes and the marshlands. When my class when on the visit, we rode in the giant Mercedez jeep/bus that is in the picture above. It held my whole class and a few others.

To give you an idea of how big this park is, we drove around for 4 hours and only saw a taste of what each of the different terrains are in the park. We started out by driving on the beach, and then made it through the dunes. We got to get out and walk barefoot through some really soft sand and see a lot of wildlife.

The rest of the trip was through the marshlands, which looked almost identical to the everglades in Florida. We almost saw 2 Iberian Lynx cubs, (which are now an endagered species which are only found in Doñana and one other place I don´t know where) but from where I was sitting I couldn´t see them.. But we did get to see the huts of the villiagers who still live on the beach and fish for survival. They don´t have electricity, and only get water from a well next to each hut. All in all, a trip back in time and we saw some pretty amazing wildlife.

Here are some websites if you want to see more about the park, but there aren´t good ones in English, so if you want to see the good one I hope you can read spanish...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DoÃ±ana_National_Park

http://reddeparquesnacionales.mma.es/parques/donana/index.htm

Week 2: Málaga, Real Alcanzár, Rio Tino Mines, Gruta de las Maravillas, Linares de la Sierra

2007-05-31T22:32:00.000+02:00

I know it is a lot, so read what you want to.... (but lets be honest with ourselves, that´s everything).

Málaga: The program took us to Málaga this past weekend. It was pretty much amazing. We pulled up to a 4 star hotel about 5 mintues from downtown. Maybe the nicest hotel I´ve ever been in. After we checked in, we were dropped off downtown to hang out and eat lunch. We walked down to the beach and ate ON the beach. I had a fish that was cooked whole over a fire about 20 from me. I had to cut of the head, pull out the bones, the whole 9 yards, and it was delicous. After that we went to picasso´s museum to see some of his artwork. Some pretty mind blowing stuff. We saw everything from his sketches, to his sculptures, large artwork to the famous pieces we all know. Afterwards, we went out to eat at a very nice Italian restaraunt before a night out on the town. The next day, we went hiking through the mountains. We were actually hiking though an area that used to be completely submeresed. After the technonic shifts of earth´s plates, the mountains were created and what we were hiking on was lifted up and the lake drained away. Very fun. After that it was back to Sevilla.

Real Alcazár: As I´m sure you all knew, Spain has had many different peoples rule over their land. You have the Christians, the Jews, and the Muslims who had the most lasting impression. What we walked through is where the current Royalty sleeps if they are in seville. The building was a mixture of early gothic and muslim arquetecture. There was room after room of intracately hand cut, designed and built artwork and stone flooring. After seeing the house, we went outside to see the most amazing garden ever built. It would take you hours to walk through it all. It is filled with hundreds of trees, plants, and flowers, not to mention all of the fountains and pools scattering the garden. Words can´t begin to describe it, so you should just go to Spain and check it out for yourself.

Rio Tinto Mines: These mines had been in service for over 5,000 years until recently when it was deemed to be depleted of the many, many minerals, gold and silver that used to mined. What is especially interesting about these mines is that it has scientific importance. The rover that went on mars found the same chemical makeup that is found in the water of the rio tinto (red river) in the mines. The importance is that in our river is the only place on earth that has been found to have this chemical makeup, the same as that on Mars. For those of you slow on the uptake, that means that there used to be water on mars. Cool stuff

Gruta de las Maravillas: This was an underground cave that was made open to the public in 1914. Originally discovered by a monk in the early 1800´s, it was originally full of water. Over time, much of the water receded, making it possible to enter inside. After going inside and discovering there was much to be mined, they began. Not long after, they realized how georgous the caves were and wanted to preserve them because the mining was destroying everything. Not long after they began preparing it for the public to preserve the caves which are unique, different than any others that have been found in the world. The caves are inside a montain, under the cathedral where the monk that discovered them lived. I wasn´t allowed to take pictures (or touch or sneeze or breathe, you get the idea), but suffice it to say many of the caverns were over 100 meters in height, and more than double that in width and length. It was about 30 minutes of walking, seeing the amazing mineral desposits and pools of 100% pure, drinkable water.

Linares de la Sierra: This was a small small villiage town of about 300 people that really showed us the meaning of old spanish towns. The roads were hand laid with cobblestone. We were told that instead of having doormats, the homeowners would lay intricate stone designs in front of the doorways to be used for wiping feet instead of doormats that would be ruined in the winter weather. All the houses were white-washed to protect the houses from the extreme summer sun. Suprsingly, there was a lot of construction going on, but I was told that much of it was to resotre many of the plazas and fountains to their original quality. One of the fountains that we saw was for the washing of all the towns clothes. The pueblo is very old fashioned, and becuase of this, this fountain is where all the women would go. They did not work, so they all washed the clothes together in order to gossip and hang out with their friends. I was told that the men once got so jealous that they drained the fountain so as to make the women to the laundry in the house... All in all, very quiant, very different from sevilla, haha.

My friends and I are going to Portugal this weekend to the tourist spot of Lagos. Expect stories and pictures soon!

Week 1: Let the games begin

2007-05-24T13:54:00.000+02:00

It´s been a while since my last post. This past sunday, I met my host family and moved in with them. It has been very interesting. I live across the river that runs through the city. Each day it takes me about 30-35 minutes to walk to class, but I don´t mind it as much as you would think. I walk past some of the most spectacular sites on the way. I walk past El Torre de Oro, La Catedral (the largest gothic cathedral in the world), and then a bit through the center of town and the town hall. Pictures will come soon that show you what I get to see on the way.

Class started on monday too. Not what I expected. This class is HARD and a lot of work. It is a politics and economics class on the european union. Most of the students in my class of 6 all are IR or polisci majors so they already know a decent bit about this stuff. Hate to admit it, but this is one thing that Neeley school doesn´t do... but I really like the class. 10-1:30 is when it runs every morning, but we get a break during the beginning when we walk 20 seconds to this little bar where we get café con leche for just 1 euro. Really cool shop that is owned by to brothers that are like 65. They both work/live together and they are hilarious. They are always fighting because one likes the Sevilla soccer team and the other the Betis soccer team (both in Seville) that have a HUGE rivalry. Good times

Yesterday was a blast. I was part of an interchange program where I went to a small very very very very rich private school for guys, the equivalent of a college in the states. I had to talk in front of 60 20 year old guys about where I´m from and what I do and yada yada all in spanish and then do a Q&A afterwards. It was pretty funny, especially the things that they ask

I ahve to go because my señora left me a bocadillo (little sandwhich) back home and I need to get there, eat it and get to la catedral for a tour with the program at 3.

¡Que tengan buen día!

¡Sevilla ganó la copa final!

2007-05-18T14:11:00.000+02:00

Last night I got to be a part of the biggest party I've ever seen! These spaniards know how to get rowdy...

Backdrop: Seville's soccer team just won the european cup, for the second year straight. This hasn't happened since the mid '80's, and by Real Madrid.

The whole town went nuts. We went to the main plaza in town at about 7 because we heard a ton of noise, and everyone was celebrating. Over the next 5 hours, about 15,000 people came to the plaza. They were all singing in unison songs about seville and their team. It was remarkable. Then, at about 12:15 the soccer team came to the plaza and entered the main building in the plaza. They stuck their heads out the 3 main windows and the crowd went nuts. Then they brought out the actual european cup. All in all, it was unforgettable and words can't describe it. Check out my pictures when I get them up and you should see a little of what it was like.

After all that happened, I asked someone if there had ever been a party like this before. He said "Of course, everytime we win man!"

Getting to Seville

2007-05-17T19:56:00.000+02:00

So I just got done eating at my hostel while playing a game of rummy with five 20-somethings from all around Europe. 24 hours ago, the journey began. I left at about 4pm Houston time, and got on my British Airways flight to London. This flight was quick (about 700 mph quick) and we got to London at about 7am their time. Best service I ever had. They offered you something to drink once an hour and fed me a hot chicken meal complete with desert for dinner and then a nice breakfast in the morning. Then I waited a bit and hopped onto a flight to Madrid. I met a couple from the suburb of Kent on the outskirts of London on that flight. They were great. They travel to Spain all the time and so they told me all about it. Sevilla´s soccer team won the European title last night, so he said things should be pretty nuts tonight. I then got on my final flight to Sevilla. This is where the fun began. Nobody speaks Enlgish, so I it was an adventure using the bus system I´d never used to find my way to my Hostel. That is misleading because it sounds like I actually found it right away. Not the case. It took an hour of wandering around the city, talking to a priest, a professor and a construction crew to get me to where I´m typing this now. But I´m here ok, and the city is great!

That´s enough for now, it´s time to explore the city...

Departure

2007-05-16T06:39:00.000+02:00

I leave to go to the airport in less than 12 hours. I have not packed... but who would want to have already packed. It isn't like I'm going to be halfway around the world for 3 months. Oh wait... I am.

Needless to say, I'm pumped, and this may just be the best summer of my life. I hope your hungry because I've got study abroad for 9 weeks and then backpacking with my roommate for 3!

I will now pack. I'll be back... as soon as I get to Seville...