i just might have fallen in love with spain all over again.

Since our weekend trip is four days long, I think it deserves two separate blogposts. We're spending it in Andalucia--it's towards the south of Spain and it has a lot of Muslim influence.

WEDNESDAY:

Our first stop was at the molinas de Don Quijote (the windmills of Don Quixote). There's a part in Don Quijote where our dear old caballero (gentleman) sees a bunch of windmills and tells Sancho that they are actually giants. Well, we saw those very same windmills. 

Tell me, do you see giants?

I think you'd have to be crazy. Or an artist. 

Honestly, I think I want a little bit of Don Quijote in me. Claro que no quiero ser completemente loco. BUT, I would like to be able to see something as exciting as a giant in something as boring as a windmill. Sometimes you've just got to look for adventure for it to be able to find you.

I think if I squint, I can kind of see a giant.
I'm getting there. :)

After we'd taken our heart's fill of pictures, we all got together in a group in front of one of the windmills and one of the guys read the section in Don Quijote [the original, Spanish version] where he fights the windmills. Seriously legit. Too bad Don Quijote is an imaginary character, or he would be the stuff legends are made of.

We left the molinas, only to visit the inn where Don Quijote was supposedly knighted by the innkeeper. Also, the same place where he refused to let animals drink at the watering trough because he's guarding his armor in the trough.  

Oh, Quijote, you're so silly sometimes.

Then we headed off for Cordoba. Cordoba is famous for la Catedral de Cordoba. Most of us know it though as the Mezquita of Cordoba. Seriously, it is one heck of an amazing building. Definitely ranking up there as one of my favorites. It was so peaceful, even with tons of tourists wandering around.

Imagine this times a hundred. It's HUGE.
It's called la sala de oracion (room of prayer) and the muslims constructed
it with lots of columns to provide some sense of intimacy.

We had a tour guide throughout Cordoba. He was extremely knowledgeable, but to be completely honest...I don't remember a lot of what he said. It takes a lot of hard concentration to understand Spanish guides, and it was extremely hot and extremely humid...and I was kind of tired...and I'll stop making excuses now. I was just being a lil lazy.

After the tour, we had a bit of free time. Cordoba was having some kind of festival, so we went to the fair. We rode the ferris wheel--probably one of the best ferris wheel rides of my life. Definitely worth two euros. The view was great, and the ride was actually going really fast. Like, I could feel my stomach drop when we were going down. 

on the ferris wheel! SO much fun.
these girls are fantastic. i love our study-abroad group!

I also got my picture taken with some girls in flamenco dresses. YES.

Too bad you can't see all the ruffles on the bottom of their dresses.

After all this epic-ness, we left Cordoba for Sevilla. We got there around 8:00. We were starving...and our directors took us all out to eat at an incredible restaurant. It was gourmet food, but typical of the region. SO delish. 

Everything was spectacular, but the bread definitely deserves special recognition.
Hands-down the best bread I've had in Europe. And that's saying
a lot...oh, especially when it was hot right out of the oven...
dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar...to DIE for.

We left the restaurant around midnight. Laura and I chilled out on the internet for a while in the hotel. And then we decided it would be a good idea to go to sleep.

THURSDAY:

We spent today in Sevilla. We had breakfast at ten--more bread, a muffin, hot chocolate, and orange juice. Our guide came at 10:30. Claro que we had a tour. The two biggest things we saw was the Real Alcazar de Sevilla and then the Cathedral of Sevilla. 

The Real Alcazar de Sevilla was a royal palace. You can REALLY see the Muslim influence in the architecture. Fascinating. It was built in the 14th century. 

I mean, what IS this? Disneyland? It's magical, fo sho.

The cathedral was INCREDIBLE. I've seen lots of cathedrals since I've been in Europe...but holy dang, this cathedral made my mouth drop. It was massive. So much gold and ornate carvings...truly amazing. 

The outside of the cathedral.

EVERYTHING in this cathedral is amazing. However,
it's especially famous for its stained glass. It's unmatched
in the world. Or so says my SPAN345 teacher.

However, do you know what the coolest thing in this cathedral was? Look below.

In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.

In 1506, Columbus died.

In 2011, Emily stood next to his tomb.

Pretty cool, huh.

Afterwards, we had free time, so we went shopping. Ate some mickey-d's. Went back to the hotel. Relaxed.

I'm about to get ready to go watch a flamenco performance. I am SO pumped.

---------------------------------------------------------------

I just got back from the flamenco performance. It. was. incredible. I don't even have the words to describe it right now. It was powerful, stirring, life-changing. So real it almost hurt. I'll write about it soon. Not now though.  I'm so in love with my life in Spain right now.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Córdoba y Sevilla

Estamos pasando este fin de semana en Andalucia (Al-Andalus). Es un área en el sur de España y hay mucha influencia de los árabes aquí. A mí me gusta mucho porque es diferente de mucho de lo que hemos visto antes.

Estamos saliendo de Sevilla ahora—tengo mi computadora en el autobús conmigo. Espero que no sentir mal por escribir en el autobús. Estamos yendo a un palacio adonde filmaron una escena de Star Wars. Qué chévere, ¿no?

Salimos de Alcalá de Henares el miércoles, hace dos días. Fuimos a ver las molinas de Don Quijote. Sacamos muchas fotos y también leemos el parte en el libre donde Don Quijote luchó con las molinas. Después fuimos a ver la posada donde Don Quijote vigiló sus armas en el bebedero. Fue muy divertido a ver estos lugares porque hemos leído un poquito de Don Quijote. Don Quijote parece más como una persona real.

Fuimos a Córdoba. Teníamos una gira. Estaba muy cansada y hacía mucho calor y por eso no escuché muy bien. Sé que estoy gastando una oportunidad cuando hago esto y que es una lástima grande. Voy a mejorar. Mi parte preferida en Córdoba era la mezquita (es una catedral ahora). Era grandísimo…y hermosa en una manera completamente diferente de los catedrales. No hacía tanto calor en dentro de la mezquita y aunque había muchas turistas, había mucha paz también. Tengo mucha admiración por los musulmanes. De verdad, han hecho mucho por España.

Después de Córdoba, fuimos a Sevilla. Llegamos a las ocho y todos teníamos tanta hambre. Nuestros directores nos llevamos a un restaurante muy fino con comida muy típica de la región.  Estaba buenísimo…tan tan rico. Por los aperitivos, teníamos pate (hígado) y una ensalada de pescado. Probé los dos. La ensalada me gustó mucho. Estoy muy orgullosa de mi mismo porque comí un poco pate. De verdad, no era muy mal…pero no me gustó tanto. Oh, y también comimos lo mejor pan del mundo…en serio. Wow. Pan caliente con aceite de oliva y vinagre de balsámico…estoy en los cielos. Teníamos wi-fi en el hotel y Laura y yo aprovechamos este  lujo bastante, creo. Dormimos muy tarde.

No teníamos desayuna hasta los diez, pero a las 10:30, teníamos otra gira. Las cosas más chéveres eran el palacio de Alcatríz y la catedral de Sevilla. Había mucha influencia musulmán en el palacio. Me gustó el edificio mucho, pero cuando vi los jardines…estaba boquiabierta. Tan hermosa. La catedral es grandísima, aun por una catedral. La vidriera era especialmente increíble. La cantidad de oro siempre me sorprenda, y esta catedral no era una excepción. Lo más chévere aquí era el sepulcro de Cristóbal Colón. He aprendido sobre él toda mi vida…estar tan cerco era una experiencia muy chévere.

Después tuvimos tiempo libre…fuimos de compras. Compré aretes muy bonitos, una bufanda, y algunas tarjetas postales. Nos descansamos en el hotel por un rato.

A las nueve, fuimos a una realización de flamenco. Tal vez esto fue la experiencia más poderosa, más cultural de todo mi tiempo aquí. Fue increíble. Estábamos en un restaurante muy pequeño…estaba sentado muy cerca de la escena. Flamenco es interesante porque la música no es bonita en la manera en lo que usualmente pensamos cuando pensamos de la palabra bonita. Flamenco es más poderosa. Suena como la música está viniendo de las almas de los cantadores. El baile parece  dificilísimo. Es muy preciso y la cantidad de control es irreal. La música de guitarra es hermosa—no hay otra palabra. Todos están sintiendo el ritmo de la música—son unidos. Era un ambiente tan íntimo. Junto—con los cantadores, las guitarristas, los bailarines—el  flamenco es una expresión de la vida—de amor, pasión, dificultades, momentos cómicos, amistad…todo.

Estábamos esperando afuera del restaurante Algunos de los bailadores sacaron una foto con nosotras después. Cuándo estaba caminando a nuestro hotel, había muchos hombres muy coquetos—era chistoso. La noche fue tan bonito…estaba pensando en el flamenco y todas de mis experiencias y reconocía que soy muy, pero muy, bendecida. 

we ate at mcdonalds. there, i admitted it.

sometimes, there's nothing like a little mcdonalds 

to hit the spot.

even in spain.

dos hamburguesas con queso, patatas pequenas, 

y yogur griega con fruta, por favor.

i liked it.

bet you my wallet liked it even more.

yummmmm.

too cool for school in spain.

i'm supposed to have two classes twice a week--tuesdays and thursdays. guess what, i'm sitting in a hotel in sevilla right now. that means...i don't have class tomorrow. i also didn't have class last week thursday...because i was in avila. i won't have class next thursday because i'll be in barcelona. and i won't have class the thursday after that because i'll be in pais basco. and then the program is done.

that means, i now only have class once a week until our program is done. WOOT WOOT.

plus, i don't even get that much homework. 

not bad. not bad at all.

my SPAN441 class is pretty darn easy right now. we read spanish literature, answer questions for homework, and discuss it during class. i'm actually enjoying that class quite a bit. i like literature. my SPAN345 class is a little more difficult. it's easy in the sense that we don't ever have really hard homework...but there is SO much information. history, architecture, art...man. so much. it's good stuff though.

both classes are hard in the sense though that just about our entire grade is based on the final. i have NO idea what either final will look like...uh oh.

i'll worry more about that later though. right now, i'm relishing putting my feet up, looking up at the stars in a spanish sky from my hotel window (we're on the seventh floor), and happily using my free wi-fi (again! miracle!).

good night, ya'll.

Oh, and when Laura and I aren't going to class...we like to go to this

 bakery in Madrid. And buy nepolitanas de chocolate.

Have I ever told you that I LOVE European pastries?

Salamanca, Avila, and a little extra.

Honestly, I don't even know where to begin. This past weekend of traveling has been absolutely amazing. I don't want my blogposts to be pages upon pages long...on the other hand, I don't want to forget anything. Thus...long it is. Very, very long.

Also, thank goodness for picnik. And the fact that it allows me to make collages of photos. I think I'm going to let the pictures (and there's lots of them) do most of the talking...and I'll make little caption notes. :)

Sorry that the pictures are so small...if you can't see them very well, you can click on them, and they'll get bigger.

Welcome first of all to Avila. 

I thought this place was amazing. I mean, LOOK at how pretty it is!

Avila is famous for its 11th century walls that surround the city. They are seriously legit.
At the end of our visit, we got to climb them.
The girl with me in the second picture is Laura--my roommate. 

La Catedral del Salvador. It started out as a Roman cathedral, but was finished as a Gothic cathedral--
it is actually the first Gothic cathedral built in Spain.
I think the mixture of styles is really fascinating.

La Basilica de San Vicente. It's beautiful. Parts of it are quite simple--others so very ornate.
I also spent some time in a confessional...
just taking a picture, of course.

And this is why I love Espana.

Random parades, music, and men on stilts.

Yay.

Then we had to leave. :(
But don't worry, Salamanca is equally preciosa.
I loved it con todo mi corazon.

Our hotel room had a balcony. A balcony. I feel like this was a pretty significant
moment. Only, if I was truly European, I would be leaning over the street.
And I would be smoking a cigarette.
Good thing I'm not really European.

The university of Salamanca is the oldest university in Spain (fourth in Europe).
This facade in the university is famous.
They say if you can find la ranita (little frog), you''ll have lots of luck.
I found it.
:)

La Catedral de Salamanca. It received some restoration work pretty recently, and
the sculptors put an astronaut in the stonework. Pretty funny, huh.

We all ate at Telepizza (barbacoa pizza...HUGE fan aqui) for dinner. We also went shopping...
ate ice cream in the Plaza Mayor (they say the Plaza Mayor in Salamanca might be
 the most beautiful in Spain), and danced for little bit. We also accidentally walked
 through a political protest...whoops.

End Friday. 
Commence Saturday.

We ate breakfast in la plaza mayor--I had a delicious pastry with orange juice. After breakfast, some of us decided we wanted to try going to mass. So we went to the cathedral...I ended up not actually going to mass. But after it was done, we followed the priest and ended up talking with him. It was one of the coolest experiences of this trip. He told us so many stories, about the cathedral, about his life, about catholicism, about everything. He also showed us the chair that Pope John Paul II had sat in on his visit to Salamanca and allowed us to sit in it. I have a very blurry picture. But here's the proof.

I'm sitting in the Pope's chair! 

After that, we had to leave the dear town of Salamanca.
But then we visited the small towns of Toro and Torseilles.

First off, here's Toro. Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?!

I love the countryside here. We saw yet another cathedral. And lots and lots of roses.

Tordesillas is tiny. Plus, we went during siesta time, which meant that everything was closed, and there wasn't a lot of people out...but here, welcome to Tordesillas. okay. so I didn't take very much pictures...and the ones that I did take...aren't that great...okay, so they're awful.

For lunch, I had a bocadillo de tortilla espanola in a little bar. I also ate ice cream later (of course). And we visited this convent. We were forbidden to take pictures, so this sign is all I have. There are nine nuns who still live here and they make sweets to sell. However, they can't be seen, so they have the equivalent of a mini, wooden revolving door to take the money and give us the sweets. The sweets were delish.

As far as that weekend goes...el fin.

And the rest of the post is in Spanish...it's long. Basically, it's what I just said above in English. Only...in Spanish. Like I explained earlier, it's an assignment for my Spanish convo class.

La fin de semana pasada, fuimos a Ávila, Salamanca, Toro, y Tordesillas.  Estas ciudades son tan hermosas—probablemente unas de mis ciudades favoritas. Salimos de Alcalá a las 8:30 el viernes. Primero, fuimos a Ávila. Ávila es una ciudad rodeada por murallas grandes—casi como las murallas de los castillos. Es muy bonito. Primero, fuimos al catedral, a dónde pudimos explorar. Vimos muchos tesoros, las tumbas de Ferdinand e Isabel, y una mezcla de arquitectura romana y gótica. Después, fuimos a un basílica romana. Me gusta la arquitectura romana mucho—es más simple, pero todavía muy noble. Y finalmente, fuimos al convento y aprendimos sobre Santa Teresa. Ella era una mujer muy interesante. Era una monja quien tenía muchas experiencias con Dios y querría hacer muchas reformas en la iglesia católica. Sus escritos son muy famosos. Leí algunas versiones modernizadas y son muy fuertes. Finalmente, subimos las murallas, las cuales fueron construidas en siglo 11. Saqué muchas fotos…fue una vista increíble. Hacía un día tan bonito, con cielos azules, flores brillantes, montañas en el fondo…tanto para ver.

Salimos para Salamanca. Teníamos una gira de la plaza, la catedral, la universidad—encontré la ranita en la fachada de la universidad. Dicen que eso va a traerme suerte—espero que este dicho sea verdadera jaja. La gira duró por dos horas. Fuimos de compras después—compré una sudadera de la universidad, una bufanda, una ventilador, un llavero,  y algunas dulces. Nos reunimos en el hotel para ir a comer telepizza. Me encanta telepizza—la barbacoa es lo mejor...mhmm. Caminamos por la noche, explorando un poco más. Fuimos a plaza otra vez cuando estaba oscuro—había muchas luces y era hermosa. Compramos helado y nos sentamos en el medio de la plaza para disfrutar todo. Decidimos que quisimos bailar y fuimos para buscar un lugar. Bailamos por como 15 minutes en un lugar pero hacía muchísimo calor y el lugar era muy pequeño…por eso, salimos. Íbamos a ir a otro lugar, pero caminábamos por algunas protestas políticas y decidimos que sería mejor a regresar al hotel.

La próxima mañana, algunos de nosotros decidimos a ir a la misa. Fuimos al catedral, y después de la misa, hablamos con el sacerdote. Él era muy amable y nos dijo tantas historias, nos mostró algunas partes de la catedral, y nos permitió sentarnos en la silla que el Papa Juan Pablo II usó cuando él fue a visitar Salamanca. Hablar con él era una experiencia muy especial e interesante—me cayó muy bien. Salimos de Salamanca para Toro, a dónde visitamos otra catedral y tuvimos una vista tan hermoso del campo. También visitamos Tordesillas, a dóndo comimos almuerzo en un barre y visitamos un convento. Las monjas nos vendieron dulces muy buenas. Usaron una rotunda para que pudieron hacerlo sin contacto de cara a cara. Muy interesante.

Después de todas estas aventuras…regresamos para Alcalá. El fin. 

colgando en tus manos

seriously, laura and i are OBSESSED with this song. 

and we like to sing it. out loud.

laura can sing really well. i can't, but i like to sing anyways. 

so i sing slightly out of key, kind of loud, and with lots of soul.

yes, embarrassing. i'm an embarrassment sometimes.
is it bad that i love it?

honestly, i recommend just listening to the song. 
it's much better than the video.

today has been SO amazing. we visited avila and salamanca. in fact, i'm sitting in a hotel in salamanca this very minute. both cities are absolutely breath-takingly gorgeous. look forward to a post full of raving exclamations of praise on that in a little bit.

also, i just found out that i was supposed to be keeping a diary in spanish on all these activities in spain. whoops. i got permission to just use my blog...part of my posts just have to be in espanol. so don't be surprised if some (or lots) of spanish starts popping up.

for tonight though, all i'll say is "buenas noches"--it's three in the morning. probably time for me to get some sleep.


p.s. thank you, hotel, for giving me free wi-fi. since practically NOTHING in spain is free (not even toilet paper, i kid you not), i especially appreciate this kind gesture.

i'm an english teacher.

I'm not even kidding.

My roommate and I are teaching ENGLISH in Spain.

It's an advanced English class, so we're working on vocabulary, pronunciation, and conversation skills. And it's so much fun it's ridiculous.

We left the class yesterday and we couldn't stop smiling.

Here's how we got the gig. The missionaries used to be teaching it. They asked us to take over. We said "Yes."

Furthermore, the class really likes us. 

In other news, we have less than a month now left in Spain. Honestly, I don't want this Spanish adventure to end. Here's to living every single moment. 

And on an entirely different note, this song is spectacular. 

P.S. Breaking NEWS: I am NOT taking a siesta today. 

Or tomorrow...or the next day...or the next day. As close as siesta time is to my heart, it's fiesta time. :)From now until I leave, pretty much.

Cuenca and Valencia.

i’m sitting on my bed right now—listening to some celine dion and thinking about this past heck of a weekend. we spent it in cuenca and valencia—two totally different, but utterly beautiful cities. here’s how it went down.

warning: very long blogpost ensues. this blog is kind of taking the place of my travel journal, mostly because i’m lazy and too tired to write in my journal at night.

thursday:

the alarm sounded—a clever, annoying mezcla of beatboxing and techno (super irritating to wake up to)—at exactly 6:00. laura and i got out of bed at 6:00. okay, fine. more like 6:17. we blearily packed, gulped down our breakfast of zumo (juice) and a package of sweet bread (about the size of two swiss rolls), and hauled two backpacks and a carry-on to the bus. welcomeee weekend.

airplanes, trains, and busses are all designed to make sleeping as hard as possible, so i just closed my eyes and listened to adele (FABULOUS musician, btw) on my ipod. several hours later, we arrived at a national park where we hiked for about  an hour and a half—lots of rocks—huge, volcanic, interestingly shaped…and lots of green—trees, flowers, wild grass. it was beautiful. wilder. smelled like rain and freedom and springtime.

then we continued on our way to cuenca. spain’s mountainous countryside might be one of the most beautiful countrysides in the world…but bless its heart, the twisting narrow roads made about ¾ of our bus motion sick. it was awful. but cuenca was worth it.

i would like to point out the beautiful mountains. i would also like
to point out the hoodie tied around my waist and say that it is
perfectly acceptable for me to do this in europe,. futhermore, i look cool.

laura and i got separated from the group, so we walked around the city for a while...ate a magnum bar (only the BEST ICE CREAM BAR IN THE WORLD), and then found a stony little path that eventually led down to the river. holyyy crap.  we found a little green dock over the river and just sat down, dangled our feet over the edge… and stared at the sky, listened to the water, and soaked it all in for an hour and a half. i can’t even put into words how amazing that hour and a half was.

that's me on the bridge. laura took the picture from the dock.

another picture of the river from the dock.
we spent a good hour and a half here.
however, i could have spent a couple more hours here,
just sitting on the dock. no prob.

then we got a call from our director and we had to high tail it back to the bus. oops.

we arrived in valecia a couple hours later. hellooo palm trees  and warm weather—and suite room in a hotel. laura and i were thrilled about walking around the room barefoot, having space to spread out, and the prospect of long long hot hot showers.

our director took our entire group out to dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant. the food was delicious. the company was even better. our group is so fantastic. we left the restaurant a little after midnight.

my shower that night was everything i’d ever dreamed of. &then i went to sleep.

friday:

i ate my weight in croissants and pastries for breakfast.

then we went to a porcelain factory--Lladro. this porcelain factory is famous world-wide. the work that goes into each piece is incredible—the price is even more incredible. who needs a house if you can sleep with your 125,000 euro porcelain boat? not kidding. see the picture below.

this porcelain baby costs 125,000 euros. that converts into
178,500 american dollars. whoaaa.

in all seriousness, the porcelain is beautiful—so expressive. i thought about buying something. then i realized that even the smallest pieces were at least $100. and i refuse to buy a tiny porcelain chihuahua  (puh-lease, darling, i don’t even like REAL Chihuahuas) for 70 euros.

then we went to the aquarium in valencia—saw lots of fish, watched a dolphin show, and mostly just waited till we could leave for the beach.

finally, FINALLY, we could go to the beach. it was a little later (our director’s wife didn’t want to go earlier because of all the topless women that usually populate European beaches), so not so much sun. but, BUT, i swam in the mediterranean ocean. yes. ohhh yes. i have no pictures of the beach because i forgot my camera. whoops.

later, a group of us went back to downtown valencia for dinner and to chill. we got back to our hotel around midnight. then we had a dance party in one of our rooms in the hotel. we went to sleep pretty late that night.

saturday:

this was our ‘touristy day.’ meaning, we had a guide show us around valencia. however, our entire group was dead…so dead tired. i don’t remember much of what our guide said. we did go see the cathedral in valencia though.

despues, laura and i bought a churro and tried the horchata here (valencia is famous for it). i think the horchata in mexico is better. this stuff is a little more bitter. some people in our group liked the bitterness though.

horchata, chocolate caliente, y churros.
i love my life.

then we went to the equivalent of an indoors farmers market. there needs to be one of these right next to where i live. it was amazing—everything looked so FRESH. laura and i bought a kilo of strawberries, went outside, and ate the entire dang container right then and there. so frikkin delicious.

 then we all went back to the beach to catch some sun (our director’s wife decided it’d be fine). the mediterranean looked temptingly blue, but i didn’t get in the water this time because i didn’t want to be wet and salty for the trip back to alcala. however,  i did listen to bob marley, lay out in the sun, and dig my toes in the sand. it felt almost unreal, but so good. the weather was perfect.

after the beach and after lunch, we all piled back on the bus to alcala. end of adventure. cue sad face.

p.s. last wednesday, we went to the el teatro real (the royal theater) in madrid. it's famous. we watched bodas de sangre and a flamenco dance exhibition. i really really really enjoyed it.

laura and i alll dressed up for el teatro.