Up and Down Day

Up: It was really chilly in the morning. While normally the cold makes me not want to venture outside, here in Sevilla, it simply means that it's not hot. The high was only 60 degrees, and if I just survived the morning, I was in for a perfect afternoon of weather. I liked the crispness of the morning--it really woke me up. And then I got to school and had a nice warm tostada con mantequilla. Mmm...

Down: 6 hours of classes in a row. I almost fell asleep in two out of three of them, even though I had 8 hours of sleep the night before. I still can't figure out what we're supposed to be learning in my writing class (well I guess orthography--spelling and accents), but I fail to see the point of it. I just hope I get SPAN301 credit for it. My novels class isn't bad, but its status as my second class of the day, and the fact that it was really warm in the classroom, both made it really hard to keep my eyes open. Grammar was ok, except I had a comfy spot, which didn't help my attention span.

Up: Filli bocadillo. It meant I could eat right after class instead of starving on the walk home. Turkey, lettuce, tomato, cheese. Yummy.

Down: I had to eat alone because Sara didn't show up for our normal lunch hour. Apparently I never responded to her "Yeah, I can meet at that time." email, so she thought I wasn't going to show. Lame.

Up: It meant I had time to go home, drop off my books, and look up where I was supposed to meet Ana---because 17-year-old Spaniards don't know how to give directions.

Down: I got lost on the way there. Cities are HARD.

Up: Taxis.

Down: Minimum fares.

Up: Intercambios. I made it right on time to where I was supposed to meet Ana. We looked around El Corte Inglés for a movie she wanted to see, couldn't find it. So we just chatted while she browsed the CDs and movies before getting ice cream. The McFlurry machine was broken, so we got Fusions at Burger King. My Spanish wasn't bad--I was pretty comfortable with it today. (My Spanish is always better Mondays and Wednesdays because of all the class.) Afterwards, she left to go study for her exam and I went to CEA.

Down: I didn't have dinner plans. I had told Filli I wasn't coming home for dinner because of the CEA Halloween night, and nowhere serves food between 5:30 and 8:30 except KFC and Burger King, and I didn't want KFC or Burger King.

Up: Blake had a tortilla española sandwich that he didn't want. It was delicious.

Down: I dropped my camera, and now it won't turn on. Boo. (I'm getting it replaced.)

Up: The rest of the night. Around 7:30, Juan, Aranoa, and the rest of the CEA staff and student committee started showing up so we could set up the building for our Halloween activity. Katie and Blake helped out too. We put out newspaper on all the tables for the calabazas (pumpkins), and set up the chairs and projectors for the movie. We had a good number of the CEA group show up--I'd say about 80% of the group was there for at least the pumpkin carving. We all split into groups of 3 or 4 to carve our pumpkins. Our pumpkin had glasses and buck teeth, and we also shaved off the skin off the top to creat a bowl cut of hair. It was pretty sweet--we even took paper clips and little bits of pumpkin to create pupils. Other notables: the bald eagle in front of an American flag (from a stencil), a bull and Ole!, a pumpkin throwing up. Steven brought his wife and daughters, and they were cute and fun--they would hand him the pumpkin and say "Daddy clean it." I honestly can't remember if they said it in English or Spanish. I think English...but they know Spanish better than English apparently.

After everyone was done, we put all the pumpkins in the lobby and lit them up. We were all proud of our accomplishment. It was a really good night. Then we put on Sleepy Hollow. It wasn't exactly scary, per se, but it was creepy and dark and I think a perfect Halloween-ish movie. Most people liked it I think.

A bunch of went to the hookah bar in Triana for some tea and hookah. Birthday boy (Matt) eventually showed up. It was a fun time--we all mostly talked about movies (a lot of "What movie is this quote from?") and travels and how we're liking Sevilla. We made it home around 1 or so...after which I spent two hours online. Haha. But since I don't class until 1 today, that doesn't really matter.

Long story short--I need to take care of my camera, but otherwise it was a good night.

Doñana and Matalascañas: Horseback Riding on the Beach

So after a quiet night in Sevilla, we met once again in el Centro at 9 (but DST ended so we got an extra hour of sleep!), this time to head to the southwestern coast of Spain for a relaxing day of horseback riding and chilling by the beach. This time, the movie didn't squeal. It was Juno, which I hadn't seen--it was weird but kept my interest, and in the end I decided I liked it but couldn't pinpoint why.

We arrived without finishing the movie and made our way to the stables. Discoversevilla had split us up into two groups, with all the CEA kids in the first group (minus James because his girlfriend was in the second group and because he doesn't really hang out with CEA anyway). Rachel from discoversevilla asked us who had been on a horse, which most of us had. She gave a quick 2-minute tutorial on how to steer horses for those who hadn't, and then we got on. Soo much less procedure than in the United States, which I liked. It was pretty much, "Here we are, let's ride."

MoCo kid on a horse

The ride was so much fun. The horses were pretty trail broken, but still listened to what you wanted them to do. I liked slowing down for a bit, and then catching up by having him trot a little faster. We all named our horses: Kevin named his Juan Ignacio de La Fuente, Shelby's was Pepe, and mine was Manuel Rodriguez Alonso. Blake and Josh's horses were a little independent...they liked being in the front a lot. Our guide took us through the national park, which was full of trees and bushes. The ground was sand, which was interesting (and also comfortable). Our horses liked to brush up against the bushes...we did not.

I like how you can see my horse's ears at the bottom

After a while, we were beginning to wonder where the water was, and then there it was over a hill. On the beach was a naked man that we had spotted from the top of the hill, but he (thankfully) covered up as we approached. We went down this path that must have been cut into the cliffs and were on the beach.

hitting the beach

At this point, our guide let us ride freely, so long as we didn't get too far ahead. It was a really good time--my horse did pretty much everything I asked it to do. It felt good. Blake, of course, had a horse that liked to go in the water. He eventually fixed the steering problem by shortening his stirrups, but it was funny because his horse went in pretty deep. Then we went back up through a different cut in the cliff and made our way back to the stables.

a mild steering problem

Then we went to the beach. We ate at a little restaurant off the boardwalk and had a lot of free time. Josh and I didn't feel like the beach (I don't like just laying out and the water was cold.), so we just walked up and down the boardwalk checking out the shops. Josh is one of those guys who has a lot on his mind, so I just let him talk the whole time. It was a relaxing time--we got ice cream (and I also had two sodas...eek). Then we all got on the bus and went back. We finished the movie and watched some more of The Office.

Even though it was only 6:15, the sun was already setting and it was dark by the time we ate dinner. I don't really like when DST ends and the days are so short. I called up Ana and emailed Sara and set up our meetings for the week. Wednesday is going to be a long day. 6 hours of class and then lunch with Sara, and then about a half hour break before I walk to meet Ana. Then I have to be at CEA by 7:30 to help set up our movie and pumpkin carving night. And then after that we're going out to celebrate Mateo's 21st birthday!

Gibraltar: Shipwrecks, Caves, and Monkeys

We met promptly at the bus at 9:00 the morning to leave for our first British colony: Gibraltar. It was a three-hour bus ride, and it was not pleasant. Brazil didn't want me to forget her, so she was screwing with my stomach. I couldn't sleep at all. Also, they played a movie, but the DVD player kept squealing, which was bad considering I was right under a speaker. The movie ended (didn't really watch it, but it was Dan in Real Life), and then they put on The Office, so I gave up and just watched it until we got there.

We got off the bus and crossed the border on foot. The border guards barely looked at our passports--they didn't even take them; we pretty much just needed to flash the passport and keep walking. We could see the Rock of Gibraltar in the distance, but what caught our eyes more was the fact that even in Gibraltar, they had those famous red telephone booths that they have in England.

The Rock

Our guide was a native of Gibraltar, meaning he had one of the most interesting accents I've ever heard. Three-fourths of the time it sounded British, and the rest of the time it sounded Spanish. The official language of Gibraltar is obviously English (due to the fact that it's a British colony), but a lot of people speak a well-developed version of Spanglish. He drove us towards the rock--it was interesting because part of the road cut right through the middle of the local runway. Like a train crossing I guess haha. Also, in Gibraltar, they drive on the right side of the road, a change that went into effect in 1929. I guess they figured that switching every time you cross the border was too much of a hassle.

Driving through a runway

We stopped between a lighthouse and a mosque (that cost £7 million). Two weeks ago there was a massive storm in Gibraltar (winds at 120 kph and gale force 11 on the seas). This large oil tanker broke anchor because of the strong winds and drifted against the cliff by the lighthouse, where it was battered by the waves for over 10 hours, causing it to split in two. Staring over the edge of the cliff, it was amazing to see evidence of the sea's power. Luckily, there wasn't anyone on board (you'd have to be an idiot to be on it during the storm), and it wasn't carrying much fuel. From that spot, we could also see Morocco directly across the strait, the Atlantic Ocean to our left, and the Mediterranean to our right. It was quite a sight. The skies had already started to clear up by that point too.

Morocco in the background

The back half of the tanker

Our next stop was St. Michael's Cave, which is a cavern that is located inside the Rock. Before we got in, Kevin was asked, "Do you value your face?" to which he responded "Yeah." Then the guy said, "Then take off your sunglasses--caves and sunglasses don't mix." Inside was a great sight, but I remember being more impressed with Luray Caverns in Virginia. One cool thing was that they built a mini concert hall in the cave where their orchestra performs now and then. I definitely think that'll be one of those expensive things I do when I grow up haha. They also had this cool colored lighting in the cave.
Now, before we got to the cave, we had to pause because monkeys had jumped onto our bus. However, this is a common occurrence near St. Michael's Cave. Our guide had a stash of peanuts ready and was feeding the monkeys at his window, making them give him high fives. He told us--but I don't know if he was joking or not--that the 6 packs of monkeys are all named after members of the British royal family. We kept driving with one of the monkeys on the windshield. One jumped from a trash can and was pulling itself onto the roof, and so when Brenna turned left, she was staring right at a monkey. That was funny.


So when we exited the cave, we were confronted with a lot of monkeys. We were told not to feed them (the guides do because the monkeys know them). It was CRAZY. Monkeys were jumping on our heads; our guides were putting them on our shoulders. So much fun. To get a picture with a monkey, this girl had one on her shoulder, and then the guide put a peanut on my shoulder to get the monkey to jump on me. Alisa had a monkey jump from the bus onto her shoulders, and Shelby had one jump from her to the bus, only to have another creep up behind her and jump on her too. We also saw two monkeys, um, what's the professional word for it--mating. Yeah.

Then we went down to play with some more. There were even some baby monkeys. A couple monkeys got in a fight (it's the time of the year where one asserts himself as the dominant of the group). At another point, one monkey fell of the wall that separates the mountainside from the road. It was okay, but sooo funny because all the monkeys went to the wall too see if it was ok, and they actually had what looked like faces of concern.


Again, monkeys were jumping from person to person with no abandon, we remarked that it was like being in a zoo, but WE were the exhibits to be petted and played with. I've posted some of the monkey pictures here, but you should definitely check out the full albums.

Getting the monkey off my back

Then we hopped on the bus and went into town, where I had some AMAZING fish and chips and chocolate cheesecake. Brenna and Alisa had the same, except they had ice cream. Then we walked around town for a bit. The Spanglish was interesting--our waiter at the first restaurant told us "No hay ice cream." There was a "Bureau de Change." Then we hopped on the bus to go home. I was able to sleep VERY well on the way back. When we got home, I didn't do much because I had to wake up the next day to go to Doñana!

XV Feria de Naciones

I just got back from Gibraltar, but first I want to tell you about this really cool thing that I went to last night: La Feria de Naciones. It had started a month ago, but last night was the first night I made it out to Prado de San Sebastion to actually go see it (good thing, because it ends in a week). I went with Josh, Brenna, Christina, and Alisa. What the feria consists of is a ton of stands from a variety of different countries--sellling food, crafts, and of course, drinks.

When we arrived, there was a concert going on. It looked like a local band, well known judging by the screaming and signs. The guys were all probably around 16 or so, and what was interesting to me was that they sung in English. Josh and I grabbed crepes and a beer from the French stand. I had a strawberry crepe. It was great. Then he got a sausage and wine from the Argentina booth, and we also had caparinhas from Brazil. Around this time, a group of dancers came on stage, dancing to "salsa-ton." i.e. crazy Latin line-dancing. It was hysterical. They had this one dance called "Azucar"...which involved energetic thrusting to "Aaaaaa-ZUCAR!" (lean down during "aaaaa," thrust during "zucar."

Aaaaa-ZUCAR!

Then there were other local dance groups that were really good. They were all teenagers, and they all had various styles of dance that were pretty cool.

Ready to Rock Out

We had originally planned to make it an early night, but changed our minds. We had a couple more drinks and toured the shops for a while before heading to Plaza de Alfalfa, which is just a long street of bars near the centro.It was a good time, we ran into a lot of other CEA people. It was really crowded though--people were spilling into the street from the bars. Then we walked home in time to pass out before Gibraltar in the morning!

Intercambios, or Argentina's not the only place for huelgas...

In Spain, every university or program that caters to foreigners have what they call "intercambios." Literally translated it means "exchange," but in Spain it's another word for "friend" or "acquaintance." They like to use it instead of "amigo," reserving the term we're more familiar with for "real friends." Spaniards perceive Americans as wanting to be real friends too quickly, so they figure this term is a little more casual. Then again, our campus director, who studied abroad in Seville many years ago, is currently living in Spain and married to his former intercambio. ::shrug::

I signed up for the list and took down a few emails. I figured if I emailed 4 people, one would get back to me. Two ended up responding, and one guy got my email from the list and emailed me. I set up times to meet with a couple of them this week. I would send them emails in Spanish, and they would respond in English.

Monday, I met up with Sara for lunch after my classes. Like most of the Spanish intercambios at the Universidad de Sevilla, she's a freshman in the Department of Philology, studying English and other languages and literature. She's crazy--she's taking 6 classes at the university and then another class in a language center. Then again, many of you all at UMD (coughStephcoughAimee) do the same. But yeah, it was a little awkward trying to find stuff to talk about like that. Tomorrow we're going to meet again and speak in English.

Tuesday I met up with another intercambio se llama Ana. She's real young, only 17. At first it was just her, her friend, and me, but then other people came. They were a funny bunch--it's easy to see that they're a bit younger than me. They also speak really fast. Josh came later because Ana's friend is his intercambio. They were going to go to a movie, but I had class.

Today was a rare cloudy day in Spain. Class was intersesting. In my Redacción y Composición class, we read about the various ways Spaniards shorten words in text messages--think our old AIM-speak on steroids. k a cs = ¿que haces? por example. My novels class was interesting, but I'll tell you about that in a bit. In my contrastive grammar class, we start every class with examples of Spanish that we think are interesting or that we don't understand. Someone heard "¡Que leche!" which is an exclamation of surprise, and so we started to talk about other words that lose their meaning when used as an exclamation of surprise, including "coño" and "cojones." Hehe. We then moved onto palabrotas in general.

Study abroad money well, spent, huh?

Anyway, back to interesting cultural/political stuff, in case Aimee actually reads this blog or if other people care haha. Mike got a call from his intercambio last night saying that there would be a "huelva" (strike) today. about 2/3 of the way through my contemporary novels class, we suddenly heard a lot of yelling and cars honking outside, and through the window we could see a long line of students walking through the rain (by the it's pouring outside right now).

Ever since I started at the University of Sevilla, I had seen signs and graffiti que dice "¡No a Bolonia!" Apparently, in 1999, the ministries of education in the European Union met in Bolonia, Italy to create an organization to make the education systems in the EU more similar to make exchanges easier. In Spain, at least, it means a fundamental change to the degree granting process.

Here, if you're a Philology major, you study philology for four years, and that's it. As I understand it, you pick a concentration during your last two years of high school--bachillerato--and then you sit for the university entrance exam or go to a technical school. So if you want to be a doctor, you study bio or chem in 11th and 12th grade, and the study medicine for four years at a University. This is why a lot of European doctors have to go to med school again if they want to practice in the US. The change would be that you would have four years of university for "orientación generalista" and then 2 years of postgrad in your specializacion. Wow, I definitely meant to type specialization. Haha.

To Spaniards, "Bolonia" represents an Americanization of the education system. It means it will take them more time to get their degree or license in their field. Also, another major change is that they want to privatize higher education here because they think the competition will make the universities better and more affordable. But the immediate effect would that education would cost more, so Spaniards don't like that at all. Sara says she heard that there is going to be a bigger strike in November.

Well, I'm off to have some tapas with some people to celebrate their new apartment. Basically, their casa in el Centro sucked--they got bad food and recently ran out of hot water, so CEA gave them the opportunity to switch. Now they live in Los Remedios, so I'm going to go... hope I avoid the rain.

This weekend I'm going to Gibraltar to see some monkeys and take another look at Africa. Then I'm going to Doñana to ride some horses and hang out on the beach.

Strolling Around

Allison I met up at Torre de Oro in the morning to check out a couple more of the museums. We walked through El Parque de Maria Luisa and stopped in at the Museo Arqueológico de Sevilla. It housed collections of artifacts from both Seville (mostly Phoenician artifacts) and Italica (Roman artifacts). We moved chronologically through the museum. The Roman art was particularly interesting--I didn't know they had put so much in Italica. There were life-sized statues of Diana, Mercury, and Fortuna, as well a numerous busts and larger than life sculptures. It was great.

Mercury

Fortuna

After that we visited the Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares. Like the other museum, it was once a mansion that now houses a museum. Also like the Archaeological museum, we got in free with our student IDs (yay). It was basically a museum that house collections of this very rich family. We got to see how a typical rich Spaniard's house was adorned. In the basement was a bodega (wine cellar) and a mock guitar maker's shop, a blacksmith's shop, a clacker (for flamenco/Sevillana) maker and cases of rifles, pistols, and swords, for defense, hunting, and self-defense. The coolest part for me was the wooden model of La Giralda located in the center of the museums spiral staircase.

After that we spent some time in Plaza de America watching the families playing. Allison wanted to to the thing where you get a bunch of birdseed and watch them come to you, but there were so many people that it wouldn't have worked well. There were all these parents giving birdseed to their little children, telling them "¡Corre, corre!" to get them to chase the birds.

The birds at Plaza de Americas are special white pigeons that can't be found anywhere else in Spain. They were a gift from the Philippines for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. But anyway, it was a fun sight to see all the little kids out--because I've lived in College Park for the past couple of years, I haven't really seen toddlers out. Sometimes I forget how ridiculously cute they can be.

We walked on to Plaza de España, which was also built for the 1929 fair. It's been converted to government offices and museums. It was also used in Lawrence of Arabia and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. It was beautiful.

Postcard shot

On the way home, Allison showed me a park in Los Remedios that she usually runs through. It kind of reminded me of Brookside gardens in Wheaton because it had a viney covered walking path and a constructed lake. There was also this pretty cool playground (again full of kids). Here I witnessed one reason that Spaniards are in better shape than Americans. Near the see-saws, swings, and merry-go-rounds was this.

In the first pictures, you can clearly see what looks like a stationary bike. In the second picture, look to the left through the wheel and you can see a toy eliptical machine. Behind that, a kid is sitting in a chair and pulling on a bar that pulls him up. All of this is brightly colored like any other playground, but don't be fooled...these kids are excercising. I have seen similar setups in other locations in the city. Americans need to get on this.

Today (Monday), I met with an intercambio (language exchange partner) for lunch. The purpose of intercambios is to practice the language, so today we spoke in Spanish and on Wednesday we'll talk in English. It was funny because she thought my first name was Salvador (because it's more common here). She's studying philology (language and literature) like me at the University of Seville. She's crazy--like all my UMD friends--taking classes in English, Spanish, and German, as well as another class at a language institute (7 classes total) as a freshman.

Now I'm going to finish off my second lunch and take a nap. Oh, yeah, I switched rooms with Jared (we're rotating), so now I'm rooming with Matt for the next 5 weeks, and then Jared moves back downstairs for the last 5 weeks.

Ronda

This past Friday, CEA took us on a day trip to Ronda, which is situated about 100 klicks away from Málaga and close to a two and a half hour drive from Seville. I learned on Wikipedia that Ronda is a sister city of Chefchaouen in Morocco, which I wrote about a couple weeks ago. Our journey took us through a lot of mountains, and unlike in Morocco, we didn't feel sick or like we were going to fall off the side of the road. It was a fun ride: we learned that Aranoa (our student services coordinator) has a nice Jewish boy who lives in New Jersey whom she met when he was studying in Spain, and that Steven (our campus director) likes to take pictures of sleeping CEA staff members.

When we first arrived in Ronda, we were unimpressed. It looked just like a smaller version of Sevilla, except that the roads were hilly instead of flat. Realizing that we weren't eating lunch for at least two and a half hours did not help our moods. We did met up with CEA Granada at the bus stop, which was cool. After about 15 minutes, we met our guides and split into two groups: 1 Spanish-speaking guide, 1 English-speaking guide. I went with the Spanish guide, who took us through the city streets while explaining stuff about Ronda that I can't remember.

After our first stop, the mood of the day completely changed. Our guide took us to El Tajo, which is the gigantic gorge carved by the Rio Guadalevín over thousands of years. It's Ronda's version of the Grand Canyon. It splits the city in two and is the location of Ronda's three famous bridges: Puente Nuevo (only just finished...in 1793), the Puente Viejo (aka Puente Arabe), and the Puente Romano. The Puente Nuevo rises about 120 meters from the canyon floor. It was a stunning sight. Our guide also pointed out the steps that the Arabs built so they could gather water from the river.

Portraits in Front of El Tajo

We paused so we could take a million photos, and then made our way across the Puente Arabe and toward the Arab baths. Our guide likened them to a country club in the US, where people would go to talk before and after doing their religious cleansing of hands, feet, and face. We watched a short animated video, but I don't remember any of it...it was in Spanish and the room was dark, and so I kept nodding off.

Crossing the Arab Bridge

Continuing on through the city, we paused at various locations to learn a little of the history. We stopped at this one church that used to be a mosque, like the cathedral in Seville. He told us that before the main Plaza de Toros was constructed, bullfights used to be held in the plaza we were sitting in, and that people would use the floors of the church as "club box seats."

Our next stop was at the house of Juan Bosco. The walls were beautifully decorated and it was filled with art. Then we went upstairs where there was a bay window. Hemingway and Orson Welles both lived in Ronda, as did a number of Spanish poets. Looking out, it was easy to see why. We went out into the garden to take in a better view. Straight down the cliff face you could see a beautiful countryside with groves, forests, plains and little houses. In the distance were the mountains. To the right was a giant cliff face and the Puente Romano. There was a light wind on our faces and there was just the right amount of sun. We spent some time just staring out in silence. It was great. If I had the desire to be a writer, I would go back and spend a summer in Ronda. I'd probably get a lot better.

View from Juan Bosco's

After that we made our way to the Plaza de Toros, which is the oldest bullfighting ring in Spain. It's still used, though not as frequently as those in Sevilla. He took us through the stages before a bullfight. Apparently, there are always nine bulls brought to every fight. First they are placed in the corral where they are judged...the six bravest looking go on to fight and die. The others are there just in case the bull gets timid all of a sudden before going into the ring. I thought it was interesting to find that the timid ones are spared and the brave ones go to the ring. He showed us the bullpen where the bulls are kept before their turn. It's a fairly dark area, which is why when the bull goes out into the ring into the lights, he always comes out with his head down.

Then we went out into the actual ring, where he told us how it's one of the only bull ring that has completely covered seating. It was interesting to be out there and looking around. He showed us the emergency hiding spots for people in case the bull jumps out of the ring into the area between the ring and the seats (which apparently happens more frequently than one would hope/think).

Minaret/Bell Tower on the Left, Box Seats on the Right

We had our free lunch in a nearby restaurant (chicken, yay...and ice cream for dessert), before heading out into the town. It was a nice, quiet place--less busy than Seville. A few of us had coffee while others shopped. At one point, a ton of schoolchildren started running through the city with things to hold change. Apparently they were having a small contest to see who could collect the most. It was cute when they would try to speak English (and their English wasn't bad). After that we went back to the cliff to hang out by the view before heading home. All in all a great trip.

Benvenuti a Italia!

I’m starting this entry in the Milan-Bergamo airport at 3:15 in the morning Monday, sitting against a wall surrounded by sleeping people. I just woke up from about 90 minute worth of sleep, and I don’t think I’m going to get much more sleep before we check in for our flight. Damn my bony hips…it’s impossible for me to get comfortable, so I’m just going to get what I can on the plane.

This has been a pretty sweet weekend. I had set my alarm on Friday for 4:45 in the morning looking to walk to the bus station, but I didn’t get up until 5:45, so I just took a cab. The bus and plane were pretty smooth. I landed in Italy around 12:00, and was in Milan by around 1:30. I met up with Matt and Blake around 3. We had about two hours before our train to Venice, so we took a trolley into the city center to see the square and the cathedral. It was pretty impressive.

Il Duomo Milano

(I wrote the rest after getting back to Sevilla)

It’s hard to describe Venice because it’s a city that so many people have heard a lot about. Everyone knows about the canals, the gondolas, carnivale. But I have to say that it’s something you really have to see for yourself. Every corner we turned revealed a postcard worthy waterway. We arrived at night, so we didn’t have much time to see it before we went to our hostel. We caught the 10:30 bus out of Venice (not realizing at 9:30 that the bus was just right next to us). When we got to the campground, there was a full on toga party going on at the bar. Our accommodation was nice, 3 beds and a bathroom. We hung out at the bar with the Aussies and Irishman that we met at the bus stop and were joined by a Canadian and a couple Kiwis. It was a fun time.

After sleeping in until 10:30, we caught the last bus from the campground back into Venice to grab lunch. We decided to just get lost in the city and find a place to eat. I had pizza diavolo, which is hot salami pizza. Pretty good, and about the spiciest thing I’ve eaten since I’ve come to Europe (unfortunately it wasn’t that spicy). Matt and I also split this massive mussels and clam appetizer. It was great.


We walked around the city for what seemed like forever, at one point before sunset making it to the complete end of the main island. Like I said before, we were just blown away by the city: the fact that the buses, cabs, ambulances and police are all boats. We went up the tower by St. Mark’s Basilica and then went into the basilica. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures in the basilica, but it was beautiful.

La Basilica San Marco

We had dinner at a place off the main road and went in for the night.



Sunday we did more exploring. When we got to one end of the main island, we sat down at a bus stop (read:dock) and played cards. Eventually, we went to the train station and got some really cheap tickets back to Milan. We had dinner in Milan (pizza again), and caught a bus to the airport, where we met up with all the CEA people who had been traveling through Italy.

Venetian (Murano) Glass

All in all, a very relaxing weekend in Italy.

Classes

I realize now that I haven’t talked about any of my classes yet. They started last Monday (September 29). I originally signed up for five classes, three on Monday/Wednesday, two on Tuesday/Thursday. We were all very excited for real classes to start because we had nothing productive to do during the days when we only had language class at CEA

Monday started with Redacción y Composición de Textos (Writing and Composition). For the first fifteen minutes of class, I could barely understand anything that my teacher said because she had a fairly thick Andalucian accent. I had to really concentrate and watch her mouth move so I could know when she finished words—my head really hurt after only an hour of class because I was concentrating so hard. The class itself doesn’t seem like it will be that difficult (except for the fact that it’s at 9 a.m.); it’s mostly just basic grammar and structure. We’ve already been assigned a project—but it’s very vague and seems easy. My group is giving a 15-20 minutes presentation on “Musica Española” and writing a 2-3 page paper.

My 11 a.m. class is La Novela Española Contemporánea. It’s one of my advanced level classes, and that was evident from the first day. The teacher talks quickly (but clearly), and the class operates pretty much like all my upper-level English literature classes: theory lectures to start and discussion of texts. Should be fun. Then came Gramática Constrastiva: Español y Inglés. This class is very interesting—we’re learning translation skills as well as the problems that arise when English speakers try to speak Spanish and vice versa. The teacher is very enthusiastic and speaks very clearly. Because it’s a contrastive grammar class, we hear a lot of English in class. It will really come in handy when I’m a teacher, especially if and when I volunteer with ESL.
Mondays and Wednesdays are pretty long, and I’m usually starving by the time I get out. I haven’t taken 6 hours of consecutive classes in three years. I usually have trouble concentrating in my second class, but if I get a Coke during the break, I’m usually ok.

I took one day of Novela Realista Española before deciding that I didn’t want to have that much reading this semester. I read very slowly in Spanish because my vocabulary isn’t that big and I need to look up a lot of words. Fonética Correctiva y Conversación seems like it will be helpful—the past couple of days we’ve been reading words and she’s been commenting on our pronunciation, making us repeat things until we get it right. Problem is that it’s terribly boring. I hope she has more interesting activities planned. I also picked up Socioligüística Andaluza (Andalucian Sociolinguistics), which is taught by the same guy as Contrastive Grammar. It should be a really cool – I really want to learn about the Spanish of southern Spain. Right now there are only 6 of us in the class. Again, it’s easy to tell that it’s advanced level because he speaks faster here than in the grammar class.

In short, I like my classes.

Wares, Weaving, and a Wedding...just another day in Morocco

At lunch we were given the option of going back to the medina area to visit a pottery school. Like I said before, the Moroccan government set up these vocational schools to give students who fall out of the traditional education system an opportunity and to preserve the traditional handicrafts. Our guide took us through the school, and we were able to see the various stages of how their crafts are made. We watched a young man (probably aged 22 or so) on a potter's wheel making serving bowls. It was really cool. Then we saw the kilns where they fire the bowls, vases, cups, etc. We also watched a guy painting patterns on the wares...it was incredible how meticulous the art is. Then was the crazy part. Some of the clay fired is used to make mosaics for fountains, tables, etc. What's amazing is that all the tiles are handmade--we watched two guys chiseling away making fairly intricately shaped tiles with a hammer and chisel.

Then once again we were overwhelmed. We walked into a room where they had all the tabletop mosaics on display. It was amazing how big some of them were, and knowing how they were made just heightened the feeling of awe. Then our guide took us to a shop where they sold their pottery. There was just soo much on sale there...the store owner gave us all a 20% discount on everything.


After that, we drove back to the medina and went in to visit a weavery. We went through this almost pitch black, tiny corridor that you had to duck through to get to a little brown door, but once we were inside, we were wowed. The place was huge! It apparently used to be an animal+people motel type establishment--the animals would stay on the ground floor, the people above. Some of the looms there were over 100 years old. It was great.

We went back to the hotel so we could shower and get ready for dinner. Dinner was supposed to be at the hotel, but we all dropped 30€ more to eat at fancy Moroccan restaurant in the medina. We all took seats at the tables as the 4-piece band walked in. They played pretty much all night. Wine and (bottled) water was included with the meal. The first course was bread and this really yummy soup. After that was a salad course, which were 7 or 8 different plates of food that we passed on in a circle. Then shish-kabob and sausage were brought out. Yum. Then pastilla, which is sort of chicken pot pie moroccan style. It's shredded chicken with spices in this pastry-esque crust topped with cinnamon and powdered sugar. It was a pretty interesting mix of flavors, and really good.


Right as we were finishing the pastilla, the lights in the restaurant dimmed and a colored light started to flash. Here was the first part of the main show...and it was pretty underwhelming. The first performer wasn't a very good dancer, nor was she attractive. At one point she walked all the way to me and danced right up to the back of my chair, and I wear she intentionally bounced her breasts on my head. Not cool. Oh and did I mention she was doing this while wearing a headress of candles? After than she swallowed some fire and left.

Next was a magician. He was pretty funny and did some really cool tricks. He called up Caitlin from our group as a volunteer and asked her what kind of animal she would like to appear. She said a "big black dog." So he had her place this handkerchief down her dress and look up at the ceiling. Then he began to slowly pull it out, and all of a sudden Caitlin start to freak out like there was actually something moving in her dress. We were dying of laughter. "I don't like cats! I'm allergic!" she blurted out seemingly for no reason. For a brief moment, we really thought we were going to see an animal, but then the magician lifted out the handkerchief to reveal nothing.

(At this point, the cous cous was brought out. Yellow grain and chicken. YUM.)

Then there was a percussion group, a singer, another couple of dancers and a "wedding." Here they wanted to show off the traditional bridal gowns and a little of the practice. So it looked like Jared was getting married to four women. They put each of the girls (2 from our group, one was Jared's girlfriend) separately in this seat thing that four women picked up and spun around. It was pretty interesting. Then we had dessert, which was fruit and pastries. We left about 3 hours after we arrived. 30 euro well spent.

The wedding party. Becca in the blue, Shelby in the very large headdress, Jared far right.

The next day, we all got wake up calls at 6:45 a.m. because we had to be out by 8 to go about our last day in Morocco. First we traveled to Assilah, which is a beautiful coastal town about 30 kilometers from Tangier. We walked through the small medina, where we learned that every year a international culture fair takes place where they show off the art and history of another country's culture...artists come and paint murals and sell crafts on the street. There were murals from Mexico, Europe, and other places.Assilah in the background.

Standing next to art for sale.

We bought fresh bread for 3 dirham a loaf and ate on the bus. We followed the beach for a while before making it to the countryside of Tangier, where we stopped for a camel ride. It was really fun. You got on the camel while it was sitting, and the guy would pull the rope on the camel and yell "Up! Up!" (in English) and the camel would stand. When we were done, he'd yell "Down, down!" and the camel would sit and you felt like you were going to fall.

CAMEL.
Cliff overlooking the beach by the camel rides.

Then we went to Tangier to do just a little bit of shopping (didn't buy anything) before heading to the port. We were at the port forever waiting to get on the ferry because all the people with cars took almost an hour to get off. It was frustrating. Then we finally got on the ferry and still had to wait to leave the port. This time, the ride was not treating our stomachs well at all, so we all went outside. It was much better to be out in the fresh air.

Last glimmer of the African sun.

We made it back to the bus and had an uneventful 2.5 hour ride back to Seville. We made it home just around midnight. Then I did a little homework before getting to sleep.

Tomorrow I leave for Italy! I'm flying into Bergamo and then I'll take a bus to meet Blake and Matt in Milan before we travel to Venice. Should be fun, and I promise I'll take a lot of pictures. Until then, paz.

Fez: "You are students: champagne tastes, beer incomes."

Sorry this took so long to post. I actually take classes you know.

I set my alarm for 8:15 in the morning Morocco time. I got the time difference right this trip. However, at promptly 6:10 in the morning, we were woken by a knock at our door. Apparently, KG and Nano forgot about the 2 hour time difference. Wanting to make sure, they had gone to knock on Anji's room, to find her frantically getting ready. So, thinking they were right, they knocked on our door to kindly make sure we were awake. Blake opened the door and they said, "Hey, we just wanted to make sure you were awake." I took a look at my watch, put my head back down on the bed, and said (loudly), "It's SIX FIFTEEN in the morning." We could hear their "time conference" as it became known out in the hall--"He says it's only 6..." "Oh, ok." Then I went back to sleep.

We had our hotel breakfast and then went out in the bus to drive through the European quarter, then walk through "New Fez" and the medina. Our guide's name was Tahmi(sp) Habibi, and he was awesome. First we walked to the gate to the old Jewish quarter. Back in its heyday, there were over 20,000 Jewish people who lived there; today the population is down to about 200, with the rest moving to Israel, the United States, or the European quarter. However, they still go to the old quarter for synagogue. Then we walked to the gates of the Royal Palace (Fez is one of the old capitals of Morocco, and is still known as a culture capital.). Habibi told use that the gigantic square (think football field size) in front of the palace use to be Jewish housing, but like I said, they all moved out of the area. The doors of the palace were huge and bronze coated, and Habibi knew we'd all want a picture, so he proceeded to yell at the tourists who were making big groups to move...first in Arabic, then in English, then French, and finally German. A few people actually moved--it was great. At this point we thought our guide was pretty cool...just we wait. One day in the near future, apparently the new king is going to open up the old palace to tourists so people can see what it's like..."Inshalaah," says Habibi.

Then we walked to "New Fez" which was built in the 14th or 15th century. Here we walked down an interesting street. On the left were food and spice stores, mostly open, and on the right were jewelry stores, all closed. Apparently for the last few hundred years (and still today), the Jewish Moroccans have been in the jewelry business. Habibi loved to point at the coexistence between Jews and Muslims that has existed here in Morocco for a long time--all the stores on the right were Jewish, all the ones on the left were Muslim. On Friday, all the left stores are closed, on Saturday all the right stores are closes, and on Sunday, all the stores in the European quarter are closed--so you really have to time your shopping.

No housing crisis here.

We continued on to the Medina, most of which was built around 808 AD. (Not a typo.) The main gate to the medina is green on one side (for good luck), and blue on the other (because blue seems to be the city color for almost every city in Morocco). Habibi said that in the old days, the gates would close at nightfall because there was absolutely nothing to do in the medina, and they wanted to keep trouble out--now they leave them open in case people want to go to the European quarter.

The market in the medina was quite the scene. Huge cuts of meat hanging on hooks or out on the counters being advertised, cut, and sold in the open air, feral cats roaming around, staring at the meat, and the (a little more than) occasional donkey pulling a cart through the streets. Fez is literally where the streets have no name (and there about 10,000 of them). It is also said to be the largest car-less city in the world. Some of the people (read:girls) on the trip were really freaked out and at times disgusted by what we saw...but honestly I didn't think much of it. It's not like you don't see similar things in parts of Chinatown.

I was struck by the huge array of colors in the market. There were all these pieces of jewelry, rugs, shoes of all different colors. Our first stop was more visual overload--a traditional Moroccan clothing store. Men and women in Morocco wear djellabas: which are pretty much a huge dress. Men's are typically neutral colored, and women wear a variety of colors. For special occasions, women wear kaftans, which are fancier. The people who owned the store let us try on clothes so we could take pictures, and some people ended up buying some clothes there.

Kevin rocking a blue djellaba, Habibi in the middle, Megan on the right.
Store owner far right.

We left the store and stopped in a jewelry store before making our way to the leather tannery. We had been warned several times that the place would smell really really bad. Habibi handed us mint to hold in our noses to stave off the smell. I didn't think it was that bad. Seriously, that day they used manure fertilizer by Lefrak was much worse than what we smelled there. But some people were sniffing their mint like it was an oxygen mask. I thought it was really interesting how they worked the leather--in the store it was the softest leather I'd ever felt. Shame it was priced accordingly.
After a passing through another street of shops, we paused at the University of Al-Karaouine. Founded in 859 A.D., it is the oldest operating university in the world. It is built into a mosque--when we arrived people were just leaving from midday prayer.

We continued on to a carpet store to learn a little about carpets, and more importantly, to have some tea and give our feet a break before our walk back to the bus.
The place was huge. It used to be the house of a very rich man before it was converted to a carpet store. We learned that it can take anywhere from 10 to 30 days to make the carpets, and that they pay women (because women make the carpets) a fixed rate per square foot for Arab style carpets (price determined by the government), and a negotiable rate for Berber style carpets. Around now the store owner switched from education mode to salesman mode. "Remember, the prices for the Berber rugs are not fixed. We know you are students: champagne tastes, beer incomes." A couple people bought rugs for 80-100 Euros...yeah, maybe next time when I own my own house.

Then we took the bus back to the hotel and had lunch...more about the evening later. I promise to have all the Morocco entries up before I leave for Italy Friday morning.