A day in Ronda

This past Friday, ISA took us to Ronda for a day trip. It's actually quite a historical city, but you can look up all the details about that because I don't want to bore you all with more information, I just want to excite you with my adventures!

So Ronda is home to the oldest bullring in all of Spain, and that's where we went first. Our program directors Tamara and Carmen told us all about its history and what bullfighting actually consists of. We then got to actually go out onto the sand of the ring where thousands of fights have been held. Being the fun people that we are, we decided to mock bullfight and got some good pictures out of it. The bullring has a whole museum dedicated to the history of the bullfight and what matadors do. There is also an equestrian school within the building and we got to see some of the students practice.

After the bullring we headed to the new bridge which was built in the 17th century. It was pretty cool because it was over this massive gorge called Tahoe. It was so deep that we couldn't even see the bottom! After about 2 hours of tourist activity, we went out to explore the city. We found these really awesome shoe shops. Of course, us girls gave in and I got some beautiful shoes that I know Meredith is going to be jealous of. We also stopped for some gelatto, and it was the best icecream that I've ever had...even better than Bubbling Brook's! We didn't stay very long in the city, and were back in Sevilla by 5:30.

Unlike the rest of my weekends here, it was pretty low-key. We went out walking Saturday to try and explore Sevilla a little bit more, but instead ended up at some riverside cafe's for sangria and girl chat. This weekend was very relaxing and definitely helped to prep for this upcoming week because I leave for Morocco Friday morning at 5 am and Semana Santa is going to be absolutely crazy here in Sevilla.

I'll try to make sure that I post about Morocco as soon as I get back next Wednesday so that way all of you have more adventures to read about and don't have to wait like last time. I miss you all and hope to hear from you soon!

You are funny girls

Barcelona, even though I was there almost two weeks ago now, was by far one of the best trips that I have taken. Caroline, Sam and myself flew out right after classes on Thursday and arrived in the Catalan city around 8 at night. Since we couldn't check into Mambo Tango, our hostel for the weekend, until later that night we decided that we would take a leisurely walk around the main part of the city. Thankfully we had a really good map, because we managed to find our way from the airport to the center of the city in under an hour and got to see Placa Catalunya all lit up at night. We then made our way down Las Ramblas, which is the most famous avenue in Barcelona and eventually found the hostel around 10:30.

Mambo Tango is definitely a very interesting place when you first walk in. It has a very hippie feel to it, but the people who work there were a lot of fun and helpful with anything that the girls and I needed. Toti, one of the owners gave us a full tour of the building and introduced us to some of the other travelers staying there. After we had settled into our room and locked our things away, we headed downstairs in search of some food. We were absolutely starving and hadn't really eaten anything since lunch. Good thing everything in Spain stays open really late so we were able to find a really good place to eat. Toti sent us to one of his friends restaurant where we were able to get some real authentic Catalan food. We got some hummus, some potato pancake type thing, lots of break, and these salted potatoes with a honey sauce. We also each had a glass of Cava, which is the Spanish champagne from that region. We pretty much stuffed ourselves as much as we could and then headed back to the hostel to get some rest before a busy day exploring what Barcelona has to offer us.

PRIMERO DIA
We woke up bright and early for us, around 7:30, to beat everyone else to the showers and to get down to breakfast. Coffee, cereal, toast, and fresh fruit was the perfect thing to get us energized for a long day of walking and touring on our own. There were quite a few other travelers that had the same idea of getting up early and we met a few, but most were leaving that day to head back home or continue onto other cities. Toti and Marina, his girlfriend, gave us a few good ideas of what to go and see, but we had done a little bit of research before we left Sevilla and Sam also had her handy tour book that gave us a lot of information that wouldn't have been able to get on our own.

We headed back towards Las Ramblas and made our way to the information booth to buy our Barcelona Cards. They really are a great way to get to see what the city has to offer, plus it covers public transportation and has lots of discounts to different museums and cultural activities. Plus it really motivated us to get out and see everything that way we got our moneys worth, you know how college students are.=]

The first stop that we hit was the Sagrada Familia Cathedral. There was a lot of construction, which you can see from the cranes in my pictures here, so we didn't go inside. But it was absolutely amazing to see all of the detail that Gaudí put into his design. The construction of this building has been going on since 1882 and isn't schedule to be finished until 2026! It was pretty cool to see it though and we were glad that we could see what the architect tried to envision for his clients.

Continuing with our Gaudí theme for the day, we headed even farther out of the city center to Parc Güell, another landmark by the famous artist. The climb up the hill was absolutely crazy from the metro station, but since we got a little bit lost, we actually found an escalator that is cut into the side of the gigantic hill, so it ended up not being too bad of a climb up to the park. Unfortunately when we got there, the skies were really hazy for some reason that day even though the sun was out and the weather was beautiful, so when we got to the top view point of the city we couldn't really see much but the haze. We were a little bit disappointed, but still had fun exploring the park and trying to find some cool places for fun pictures. I'm not sure if any of you actually know this, but one of the cycles of America's Next Top Model had a fashion show in the park, so we went in search of the tunnel, found it, and did our own model walks and poses. We had a lot of fun just getting lost and seeing all of the crazy art that was in the park. It was also really awesome to see so many little kids out in the park exploring and learning about their city's famous artist.

This city has so many important artists in history that are showcased throughout it, so we made our way to the Picasso Museum. It was really cool because it was a personal collection that Picasso's secretary kept and created a museum for the world to come and look at. It had paintings from when he was 12 all the way up to some of his last works. It was awesome to see the transformation from very realistic portraits and lifescapes to his abstract paintings that he is most known for. We even got to see his interpretation of Velazquez's "Las Meninas" which was really impressive.

Next stop was the Museu de la Xocolata (Chocolate Museum), Sam's favorite place in Barcelona. She had been talking about going there since her guidebook said that it was one of the hidden treasures of the city, plus we got a discount with our Barcelona Card. Not only did we learn about how chocolate is made and how Europeans came to love it so much, but there were all of these awesome scenes and sculptures created out of chocolate! Like this one here, it's a bullfighting scene. There was even a portrait of Salavador Dalí, one of my favorite artists of all time! To finish of our tour of the museum we went right up to the counter where they had fresh chocolate concoctions of all different kinds. The woman at the counter was really nice and kept feeding us chocolates and didn't make us pay for them. We ended up buying quite a bit of different kinds of truffles and bit sized chocolates and ate them all right away. My new favorite kind of chocolates are dark with tea. I wish that I could have gotten more because they were AMAZING and I could eat them all the time. They were absolutely delicious!

After the Chocolate Museum we tried to make our way to a few others but they were all closed or closing. So we headed back towards the hostel. On our way we stumbled upon this market. It was really cool because there was fresh EVERYTHING! Fruit, meat, vegetables, candy, fish, there were even bars inside of this place and it was massive. People shouting in Catalan and trying to barter. It was pretty cool. We stocked up on some coconut and tried these delicious shakes. Mine was mango, coconut and strawberry. I suggest trying it, and I'm going to try and make some when I come home. We also stopped for dinner at this really cool looking restaurant that was close to our hostel called El Consulado. We didn't get quite Catalan food this time, but I had the most delicious crepe. It had chicken, apples, walnust, raisins, and some sort of cheese in it. It was soooooo good. When I go back to Barcelona, I'm definitely going back to that restaurant just for that crepe.

The Barcelona futbol team was playing Valencia that night, so we meet up with a bunch of other people staying at Mambo Tango, made some friends, and watched the game on the big screen. I think that Americans are bad when we watch our football, but Europeans are crazy, even when it's not they're team that's playing! I was pretty sure someone was going to through a shoe at the tv before the game was even half over!This picture is the group of all our new friends from all over the world. We had a blast and we're all going to stay in touch and maybe visit each other over the next few years...lol.

We called it a relatively early night for us that first night because we had a lot more exploring to do the next day...

SEGUNDA DIA
Up early again for breakfast on Saturday we planned out our day around the Barcelona Card again. We started off our day with Gaudí's Pedrera. It was an apartment building that he designed for the Mila family in the early 1900s. It is a pretty impressive building, and once again full of fun details for those who get to go and see it. We were trying to go and find another museum but got sidetracked when we saw another fun building which lead us down to the Marina. We made our way down to the Column of Columbus, which we wanted to go up into, but it was closed, along with a lot of the other free museums we wanted to go into. But that's alright because we did a lot more fun exploring that we probably wouldn't have been able to do. We ended up back near the Picasso museum and had lunch at this cute little hidden cafe where I had a delicious sandwich and great coffee. And we had some gelatto for dessert which was delicious as well. Afterwards we went to the Museum of Natural Science, because Sam is a huge science geek, but we love her anyways. Caroline got really freaked out because all the stuffed animals looked real and a few "tried to attack her" which was kind of amusing, until I saw the polar bear! We also got to see the gorgeous park that surround the Museum.

Right across from the park was the Arc d' Triomf. There we met up with our new friends from Venezuela, Laide and Alexis. I swear that every Spanish city we go to we run into people either from our program or new friends that we probably wouldn't have seen again after that day. But these two have been in England for the past two years nannying and learning English. They are the cutest married couple! And they were so excited to finally be going home after being abroad for so long.

After our meeting with Laide and Alexis, we tried to walk over to the fun looking building that we saw in the distance. Unfortunately, we didn't realize it was a lot farther away than it looked. But that's alright because we found these fun parks and more fun artwork. After a long afternoon of exploring we headed back towards Mambo Tango and hit up the market again for some more fresh fruit and then back to the hostel for a little bit of a rest and to drop off our souvenirs. There we met up with Chris and John. What started out with "do you fancy a coffee" turned into a lot of coffee, then beers, and then the decision to go out and explore the Barcelona nightlife. Sam's friend Barrett even joined us at the bar we started out at and then showed us around, taking us to some really cool local spots that we never would have found on our own. Unfortunately the boys all had flights home the next morning, but we exchanged emails and hopefully will be meeting up again during our travels over the next few months. We all headed to bed pretty late, but the girls and I knew that we had to get up the next morning and prepare to leave Mambo Tango.

TERCERA DIA
The next morning was a little bit harder to wake up because we had stayed out so late the night before, but we packed up all of our things and made our way down to breakfast. There we met Alex from El Salvador and decided to explore the city with him and his Brazilian friend. We decided that since it was such a beautiful day that we would go down to the Marina and rent some bikes. Since we had already seen all of the super touristy things that the city had to offer, we just rode around and found more parks and fun buildings. After an hour, we were pretty hungry and headed to this awesome sushi bar for lunch. This place was ridiculous! There were these conveyor belts that kept going around in circles with all sorts of sushi and Japanese food. It was so much food, and we only paid 8 Euros! We ate so much food, I wish that we could have stacked up all the plates to see how much we actually ate! All you sushi lovers would definitely be jealous and want to check this place out if you ever make it to Barcelona. It was right on the Marina and in the perfect spot to bring in a lot of happy and hungry customers.

After lunch we made our way back up Las Ramblas and watched some crazy street performers doing crazy stunts and saw some of the most beautiful street art. We also decided that since it was starting to get late we needed to head towards Plaza Espana for the light, water and music show. It was great how they made the water and lights play to the wide variety of music that was playing. Barrett met up with us again there that night and we decided that we were going to go out just for a few beers and some food because we had an early flight the next morning. BUT... Barrett convinced us to stay an extra day that way we could go with him to his beach house in Premia d' Mar just north of the city. We grabbed our stuff from Mambo Tango, said goodbye to Toti and Marina, and took our bags to his friend Alexis' apartment. Toti was so cute when he said goodbye too. He gave us the best compliment I have ever heard, "You are funny girls." He told us how he enjoyed when we would talk to him and that we weren't like the rest of the American girls that come through their hostel with their noses stuck in the air and not willing to try new things or learn about the Catalan culture. He is the best and we'll probably stay at that hostel again when we go back. After we left, we went out to this fun salsa bar and danced the night away, skipping our flight to stay and have even more fun than we were already having in Barcelona. We thought that it would be pretty simple to just get a bus or train back home to Sevilla, but that definitely was not the case.

Saturday we spent a majority of the day just bumming around in the beach town. Barrett showed us around, took us out for lunch, made us dinner, and we exchanged a lot of stories. He basically became a brother that weekend with all the jokes and sarcasm that was flying around. Sunday morning we all got up early so that we could make it to the bus and train station to grab one home, but little did we know that nothing was available for us. Needless to say after a lot of stress (more for Caroline and Sam than me) we made our way home on a night train back to Sevilla, but it was totally worth it to stay in Barcelona and make good friends with Barrett. He's actually thinking of coming with us to Italy in the next few weeks!

Barcelona was an absolute blast and anyone who ever goes there will probably have the same reaction that Caroline, Sam and I had and decide that they want to stay longer than just 3 days. Therefore, I suggest that you plan on that, and not just skip your flight like we did. But needless to say, we had a blast and it definitely set the bar high for the rest of the trips that I have planned for the rest of the semester.

Lisboa and the rain...

I’m sorry that it’s taken me so long to write an update on my life over here in Europe. I talked to mom and she told me how a few of you were worried. I’ve been on the go quite a bit lately between Lisbon and Barcelona plus studying for midterms (yes I am still studying even though I’m such a globe trotter). But Here is a little description on my time in Lisbon two weeks ago.

Friday February 22nd, we left bright and early for a 6 and a half hour bus ride to the beautiful Portugal capitol of Lisbon. The bus ride wasn't too bad because I slept most of the way, and therefore missed the border crossing, but that's alright because borders in Europe now are like traveling through the US, so I didn't miss very much.

We got to the hotel Fenix around 2 in the afternoon allowing us some free time to roam the city and grab some lunch. It’s absolutely beautiful and we got a chance to see some of the architecture before the rain set in. That Friday we didn’t really have much time with the group and right after dinner, I went straight to bed because I was exhausted from the traveling of the previous weekend and classes. Everyone else went out though and scooped out the nightlife for me for that Saturday =].

The next morning we woke up bright and early and had a delicious breakfast ( I had the best cup of coffee I've ever had there). And then we set out into the dreary day to do some sightseeing of all the historical aspects of Lisboa. Our first stop was the long walk up to the most beautiful viewpoint of the city. The bridge in the distance looks just like the Golden Gate and there's also a gigantic statue of Jesus looking over the bridge to protect all those who travel in and out of Lisbon. We got a great view of the port and all of the other places that we would be going to visit later that day.

Our next stop was the Jerónimos Monastery and Cloisters. This building was absolutely beautiful! The architecture and decoration was amazing. If you check out my picture webpage here http://picasaweb.google.com/caitlin5487 After monastery and the cloisters we headed out into the blustery weather outside to go to the tower of Belém . It's this really cool tower that was built both as a gateway to Lisbon and as part of a defense system of the entrance of the Tagus river and the Jerónimos Monastery.

After we experienced the city, a few of us decided that we were going to head to the little city of Sintra on the coast. It's this beautiful little scenic town that's about an hour outside of the city. We took a bus tour of the village, and the bus driver was INSANE! He was probably going about 50 to 60 miles per hour on these tiny little windy streets and hills. We all thought that we were either going to die or have the ride of our lives. Fortunately I'm still here, so it was definitely a great ride.

Even though the weather was still horrendous and by this time, we decided to take the 30 minute bus ride to Cabo de Roca which is the farthest point West of Europe. It was pitch black the whole ride there but we got to the edge of the world just as the sun was setting and came from underneath the clouds. It was gorgeous!

Later that night a bunch of us tried out the traditional Portuguese cuisine. It was quite an experience trying to figure out what we were eating when none of us really spoke any Portuguese. We all ended up with something completely different than what we thought, and it was delicious! And after dinner a bunch of us headed down to the docks for some dancing.

The next morning we headed back to Sevilla on another long bus ride. But Lisbon was a lot of fun. Not my favorite city, but it definitely made me want to head back there some day. Even though the weather was pretty ugly for a majority of the time that we were there, Portugal is a beautiful country, and I'm glad that I went.

A Weekend with Jo!

Joanne is absolutely amazing! I love her to death and she was the best hostess. She made England so much fun and I can't wait to go back and visit her in Southampton!

So Caroline and I got our flight from Sevilla to London Thursday night and arrived in England around midnight. Joanne was waiting for us as we came out of baggage claim and we started on our first European adventure. She is the best because she rented a car for the weekend and drove 2 hours to pick us up from the airport and then another 2 back to Southampton, and she still had to work the next day. I don't know how she did it, but I was very impressed. We talked the whole way back in the car about life in England and Spain and how much we love it, and when we arrived back at her flat, she gave up her bed (which is the most comfortable thing in the world!) and we all passed out for the night.

The next day, Caroline and I woke up after Jo had already left for work, and we had a leisurely breakfast with her French press, which I 'm definitely getting one of when I get back to the states, after which we took to the streets of Southampton to explore life in England. We walked around the Marina and down to Mayflower Park. It was a lot colder than we expected, but the sun was out by 2 o'clock so it was perfect! (That's me in front of the Marina, fyi) Jo gave us her extra cell and called us so that we could go to the National Oceanography Center and she would give us a tour. The place that she works at is really cool and we learned a lot about how the center does a lot of work for other countries and private corporations to make sure that our oceans stay clean and even monitoring state borders.

That night she took us out for cocktails and dinner. She took us to her favorite bar, the White Star, right in Southampton and we all got to try out a fun little cocktail and we talked some more about what our lives are like right now. Then dinner was right next door at this cute little restaurant. We got a bottle of wine and talked some more about all sorts of things. Dinner was amazing, especially because I had steak and its been over a month since I've had red meat. We probably could have sat at that restaurant for several more hours just talking about life, but it was pretty late when we realized that it was time to leave. After dinner it probably would have been fun to stay out and explore the nightlife of Southampton, but we were all just so tired that we went back to the flat, changed into our pj's and watched some British television, which is actually pretty funny once you get past the thick accents, and planned out our day for Saturday.

We woke up bright and early, 8:30 am, and all had a nice breakfast and got ready for a blustery day in the English countryside. We took the rental to the city of Salisbury and went to the Cathedral which is celebrating its 750 year. The spire is the tallest in London, but we were told that it is a little wobbly and every now and again it needs to be corrected. After the Cathedral we made our way to the market that was happening on High Street. There were all these people selling all sorts of things, from jewelry to food to batteries. At this point we were pretty hungry and decided to head on up to Shrewton and get some good ole pub food. We stopped at some cutsy little pub and got some burgers and chips and ale to warm us up and stop the stomaches from rumbling too much as we made our way to Stonehenge.

We were freezing when we got to Stonehenge, but it was totally worth it. Joanne told us some interesting stories about the last time that she was here, and I learned a ton about the history of this gigantic stone circle. My favorite part was learning about the myths about how the stones got to be in the middle of a huge field. One of them says that Merlin called on the Devil to get the stones from the yard of an old woman in Ireland. The Devil came to the woman in the form of a man and said that he would pay her whatever she could count while he collected the stones. But he tricked her and as soon as she started counting, he had taking the stones and the money and disappeared from Ireland to where the stones now stand today. After freezing completely, we decided that we would defrost on the car ride to Bath, the home of Jane Austen and where many of her novels are set.

We didn't get there until about 5 pm when everything was starting to close up, but it was totally worth is to be in one of the most architecturally beautiful cities that I have ever been in. We walked around, got some coffee and when everything had closed down and we were starting to get cold again, we made the 2 hour trip back to Southampton to have a girls night in. Joanne made pasta and we had champagne and red wine while watching movies and some more British comedy shows before hitting the hay early that night. London and the trip home would be happening on Sunday.

The next morning we woke up even earlier than Saturday so that way we could make sure that all of our things were packed and that we could get to London with enough time to do a quick tour of the city and still make our flight back to Spain. We took a 2 hour train ride to the city, but we got to see some more beautiful landscapes of Southern England. After arriving at Waterloo we made our way to the London Eye and to look at the scenery of the river and Parliament. We walked along the river, crossed over the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul's and then made our way on one of the infamous red double-decker buses to Buckingham Palace. After our rapid tour of London, we sat down at a pub for lunch, where I got my traditional fish and chips. We talked some more about life and what we'll be doing for the next few months (and hopefully planning for Jo to come and visit us in Spain). After we said our goodbyes, Caroline and I had a real adventure in the airport...

So we made our way on the Tube to Liverpool St. to catch the Stansted express train to the airport. Joanne had warned us before we left that we would only be allowed one carry on, but they let us through in Sevilla, so why not in London? Needless to say, we got through check-in and several security points before anyone said anything to us about our bags. This was at 5pm and our flight was at 6. We had to go all the way back to the check-in area where the told us we had to go to ticketing to pay for our check-ins (which ended up costing us $24 each), go back to check in our backpacks, bring out backpacks to a different area so that they could go onto the plane, get through security and then make it to our gate. Once we got to the gate they told us in check-in (#42) we were all relaxed because the flight attendants said that they would be calling our flight as soon as the people for Dublin were all loaded on. Well, needless to say, our gate was moved and the women didn't tell us and we had to book it to another gate. We made our flight, but were pretty perturbed, as you can tell by Caroline's face in this picture. But we made our flight and we are now safely back in Sevilla, waiting for our next trip to Lisbon, Portugal this weekend.

Even though we had a few bumps in the road, we had a great weekend with Joanne...and I still got my English tea. =]

Granada otra vez...

ISA took us to Granada this weekend, and it was awesome to go back to the beautiful city. We left early Friday morning from Sevilla and took the 3 hour bus ride through the mountains to the Sierra Nevada to the historical city, arriving just in time for lunch and exploring before the sun went down.

The girls and I went to the Royal Chapel and saw where Ferdinand and Isabel, the Reyes Catolicas, are buried and then went on an adventure to find a coffee shop with a view of the mountains. It was a fun couple hours just getting lost in the city and finding some of the most beautiful residential areas and secret/non-touristic areas of the city.

Later that night we traveled up to the top of the hill opposite the Alhambra and got to see it all lit up at night. The buildings are absolutely beautiful. It also got everyone excited to go and see it the next day. We also went to the gypsy caves in the hills to see a flamenco show by one of the gypsy families. Because I'm taking a History of Flamenco class I could actually tell the differences between the different kinds of music, and Kyle, one of the boys on my trip and in my class, was just as excited about noticing the differences as I was.

After the Flamenco show we went back to the hotel and decided that we would go out to a discoteca for some Spanish dancing. We ended up going to this awesome Salsa bar where there were these amazing dancers who taught us how to move. The bartender was great too. My friend Sam got to go behind the bar and show off her skills because she asked for a drink that he had never heard of before. We had a blast, some a little more than others, but it was definitely a lot of fun.

The next morning I got to return to the GORGEOUS Alhambra. Even though it was a completely different time of year from last time and the gardens were not nearly as alive and colorful, the history and architecture are still awe-inspiring. It was also a lot more interesting this time to go on a tour that was in Spanish and learn about everything with the Spanish vocabulary instead of the English translations. I also felt really smart when everyone else didn't know what the tour guide was saying and I got to explain to them the history of the buildings and gardens.

Right after our tour of the Alhambra we headed back to Sevilla. I was asleep for the entire ride home, but it was definitely needed after a late night Friday and the fact that the Sevilla-Barcelona futbol game started at 10pm that night. Sam and I meet up with some of the other ISA students at one of the Irish pubs nearby to watch the game, which unfortunately ended in a tie, but it was still a lot of fun to see all the crazy fans.

So the traveling has officially begun. This Thursday I'm leaving for London to spend the weekend with Joanne, which I'm very excited about!!! We're going to have a blast! I'll post again when I get home from that trip Monday morning! ¡Hasta Luego!

Fiesta loca de Cádiz

Carnaval 2008! By far the most ridiculous experience that I have ever had in my entire life. We all think that New Year's Eve in New York City is packed, but the city of Cádiz, Spain was absolutely full to the brim with people in crazy costumes and partying harder than most Americans do for their 21st birthdays.

The girls and I had bought our train tickets to the beautiful ancient beach city the day before for this festival in order to make sure that we could get to the city that was 2 hours south of Sevilla. I'm glad that we had because even with our tickets we were sitting on the floor of the train unable to get a seat. We got all dressed up in our costumes because Carnaval in Cádiz is a combination of Halloween and Mardi Gras with a little extra oomph! We thought that we might have over done it a little bit, but it turns out that there are people who go all the way with their costumes!

We arrived early for the celebration in order to take in our surroundings before the streets were swarmed by masses of Spaniards and foreigners who wanted to have a good time. We went down to the beach, had some tinto de verano as we watched the sun set, and then grabbed a little something to eat before the craziness ensued. Caroline, Betsy, Alison, Whitney and myself walked straight into the city center right into the plaza in front of the Cathedral. This was where the most craziness happened. People were drinking everything under the sun wearing all sorts of costumes and masks, some were even playing with a jump rope! It was soo much fun!!!

After staying up with the rest of the city until 4:30 in the morning, we decided that it would be a good time to make our way back to the train station and try to make the first train home that we could. 5:10 came rolling around and everyone was fighting to get through the crowd and get on the train. Fortunately we all made it and even got seats this time! After passing out for 2 hours, we returned to Sevilla at 7:15 in the morning and had to wait for a taxi. I ended up getting into my bed around 8 am...and it was totally worth it!

Cádiz was one of those experiences that you have to have, but I definitely will not be going back anytime soon.

Next stop...GRANADA!

Coffee and Orange Trees...

Sevilla is GORGEOUS this time of the year! All of the streets are lined with orange trees full of fruit that you just want to reach up, grab, and eat fresh off the branch! The city is starting to even smell like oranges because so many have fallen to the ground and broken open. The girls and I have been walking around the historical center and going to these cute little coffee shops to start making our travel plans, which are going to be so much fun and very adventurous.

Caroline, Betsy, Sam and I have something booked for almost every weekend for the next two months and plans are being made for the rest of the semester. I feel like I'm on vacation and just making pit stops at class along the way. But my trips to London, Barcelona and Morocco are all in place and I don't think that I could be anymore excited. We went to this travel agency that was established by study abroad students a number of years ago to plan our trip to Morocco yesterday, and Ruben was showing us all the pictures of former trips. All of us got goosebumps just thinking about this trip that isn't until March 14th!!!

This Saturday, me and the girls are going to Carnaval in Cádiz, which is on the southern coast of Spain. Basically it's a combination of Mardi Gras and Halloween where everyone gets dressed up in crazy costumes and parties for two weeks straight! We can even get the train ride for free if we wear our costumes! We haven't decided what we want for our costumes to be yet, but it's going to be a lot of fun!

My first full week of classes is officially completed! UPO (Universidad Pablo de Olavide) is an interesting campus because it's being completely renovated, but at least it's a campus unlike the rest of the Spanish Universities. Classes are good, three in Spanish and two in English. It's the perfect mix so that I can work on my Spanish conversation and comprehension and still keep my sanity...lol. All of my professor's seem kinda crazy, but lots of fun. I don't have any favorite classes yet, but I'm sure that by the end of the semester I will have decided one was a lot more informative for me than the rest.

Hopefully by the beginning of next week I will have another post up with some pictures and a description of my adventures in Cádiz this weekend. I miss you all!!!! Muchos abrazos y besos!

Spain is AMAZING!!!!

I am having such a blast here in Spain! I know that I' ve only been here for a week and a half, but I feel like I've been gone for forever already and miss you all sooo much.

This is a picture of our little click here in Spain that we made basically right away. From the left it's me, Betsy (my roommate), Sam, and Caroline.
It's kinda crazy how we got so close so quickly but we're having a blast and basically doing everything together.

So far I haven't had any classes, I know that you're all jealous, but they start tomorrow. I'm kinda excited to see what class is going to be like here.

My host family here is pretty low key. Sandra, my host mom works for the Puerto Rican Consulate, but she's always home. It's a little weird though because we have a maid, Loli, who makes all of our meals in the morning and we can eat whenever we want to instead of as a family like we had originally thought that we would be.

Sandra's house is absolutely beautiful! I can't believe how much I lucked out. There are seven bedrooms in this apartment so I get my own room, which is this other picture. It's basically the size of a dorm room but just for one person. There's even a piano in my room, so if I ever get the urge to play again I can. She also has internet in her house, it took me until today to figure out how to log onto it, but it's all set and ready to go now. (I expect to be getting a lot of skype calls in the the future.)

Life in Sevilla has been very relaxed so far. The girls and I have been exploring the local night life this past weekend. We ended up, through my program, being set up with locals to show us what it's like to go out here. Jesus was our guide last Thursday and he gave us his number if we wanted to ask him anymore questions. Saturday night we got in touch with him and he took us out to a flamenco bar in Triana, which is one of the barrios of Sevilla, and it was sooo much fun because we were the only Americans in the place. All of the women there were teaching us how to dance and we had so much fun that we didn't even realize that we stayed out til 5 in the morning! But it was sooo much fun.

So that's really all I have to update you all on right now! I love and miss you all!

So much to do...so little time

I can't believe that I'm going to be leaving next Thursday!!!!! I'm kind of starting to freak out just a little bit because I am definitely not ready to leave yet. I still have to pack up my entire life which is going to be a pain and I really don't want to say goodbye to everyone...it was hard enough to say goodbye to everyone at school and now I have to say goodbye to everyone here at home too!!!

But on a better note, I am very excited to be heading to España and having the time of my life! I just wish that I could bring you all with me and then it would be even better! But I get to see Michelle in Madrid finally...which I can't wait to do. I miss that girl so much. Then it's off to Sevilla for orientations and classes.

I'm going to miss you all soooooooo much, but I'm going to have this blog set up so that all of you can keep updated on my adventures and leave me notes about how much you miss me...lol. I'll see you all in a few months!!!!

Lots of Love,
Caitlin