Sevilla

Last week was largely uneventful as far as exciting Spanish things go. I had some class, ate some good food, and mostly talked to the boy a lot. Not excited for this deployment, but I know we'll make it through it. We always do. He is so amazing, I just wish he were here so much.

This weekend 6 of my friends and I went to Sevilla. It is about a 3.5 hour bus ride from Caceres. We left Saturday at 11:30 and returned Monday at 10:45. We had class Monday morning at 11, and were definitely late by about 30 minutes, but that's okay. Saturday we got there, ate our pre-packed lunches, and found our hostel. Our first hostel was pretty nice. We had 2 rooms of 4 for the 7 of us. One room was for just girls, and the other room was co-ed. I was in the co-ed room with the 2 boys. One of whom has sleep apnea and therefore snores loudly. It was pretty hard to sleep. That day we wanted to go to a bullfighting ring, but it closed at 7, and we were not going to make it in time. Instead we largely walked around. We hung out by the river for awhile, which was beautiful. We also found this amazing park called Maria Louisa. It was so pretty. One of my friend's "garden senses" started "tingling" and we found beautiful gardens, ponds, statues, and fountains. It was all amazing. The park led to the Plaza de Espana. There is a huge beautiful building there. From the Plaza we decided to take a horse-drawn carriage ride. It was so pretty. I am really glad we decided to do it. We rode around the plaza, the park, and a little all around the city. It was awesome. Then we started walking to a Flamenco show. We had all watched some Flamenco Friday night in Caceres and loved it, so we wanted to see another. On our way to the show (we had time to kill) we passed a park. It was one of those parks where you look at it and go "playground, or art?" because it is not like swing, slide, etc. It had these slanted poles that you stood on and your body weight made them spin around super fast. It was amazing fun. There was also a zip-line that was really long. We all did that. It started raining as we were taking turns on the zip line, so the part to stand on was really slippery. When it was my turn I jumped on to the swing and totally fell. I ended up sliding down the chain and sitting on the zipline, so it was still super fun, but my hands hurt terribly. We continued to play in the rain for awhile, then decided to start walking again. That was so much fun. I had been having a hard time earlier because I wanted the boy there so much, but that part made me just enjoy the moment and feel happy again.

Eventually, after a stop for some Doner Kebab for dinner, we made it to the bar the flamenco show was at. The bar was so crowded, and I don't know if there was a Spaniard there. There definitely wasn't a person from Sevilla there for sure. It was super crowded, and we ended up leaving after only about 20 minutes because the crowds were too much. We got back to our hostel, and our less than restful sleep. Sunday morning we woke up early, checked out of the hostel, and went for churros with chocolate: the world's greatest breakfast treat. From there we went to the Real Alcazar. It is a giant palace with these amazing tile mosaics everywhere. The whole place seemed to be a giant mosaic. I can't imagine how much time it took to do all that art. And for as beautiful as the inside was, the gardens were the best part. They were huge and beautiful. There were small, walled-in gardens near the castle, and expansive gardens further away. There were places where there used to be hedge mazes, and I saw where the first tennis court in Spain was, which was pretty cool. There were also tons of orange and lemon trees everywhere. It was amazing. We spent about 2 hours at the Alcazar and still did not see everything.

After the Alcazar we were all tired of carrying our backpacks, so we went to our second hostel to put stuff away. This hostel was a little...sketchy. While all the other doors looked perfectly fine, our room had no doorknob nor a lock. We had lockers, but only 4 of the 8 worked. They were large, though, so we could share. Also, there was a gross smell. I was, however, very happy that we had a hostel. We played the Positive Game, where we said one good thing about the hostel. It helped even though it sounds really cheesey. After a lunch of clementines, nutella sandwiches, and cookies, we headed out again. We went to the Cathedral first. This was the largest Gothic Cathedral in the world, and it was beautiful. It was huge, of course, and there was so much gold work. I think if I understood Christianity more it would have been cooler, but it was interesting. I am also not the hugest fan of Gothic architecture, but it was cool to see the largest one. Inside the cathedral was Christopher Columbus's tomb, so that was nifty. Also, inside the cathedral is a tower called the Giralda which you can climb up (no stairs, just a giant winding ramp: interesting) and see an amazing view of Sevilla. It was so pretty. After the Cathedral we went to the bullfighting ring. Here we took a tour and learned a lot about bullfighting. It was really interesting. I hope I get to see a fight while I am in Spain. It might be a little gross, but it is so much a part of the culture that I want to experience it.

After the bull ring we went to the Torre de Oro, which is where Columbus set sail to discover the Americas. It was pretty cool. We did not go in, but we saw the outside and hung out by the river a little more. After that, we went back to our hostel and started our homework, which was not super fun, but was definitely necessary. That night the boys and I went out to dinner while the rest of girls ate more nutella sandwiches. I could not do nutella for 2 meals in one day. I need one real meal. That night I was determined to fall asleep before the guy with sleep apnea. I understand it is not his fault he snores, but I had to sleep, so I fell asleep quickly. The others could not say the same, and they did not sleep well at all. Monday morning we woke up at 5:30 to catch our bus at 7. We returned to Caceres around 10:45, and made it to class around 11:30. Our professor knew we would be late so it was okay.

Monday evening, despite how tired I was, I met a woman my host dad set me up with to do an Intercambio. She helps me with my Spanish and I help her with her English. It was actually really interesting. I learned a lot about the history of Caceres, which was very cool.

Now I am off to buy envelopes, stamps, and spend my day wandering the city! Hopefully I'll fully catch up on sleep tonight.