Last few weeks...

Please be warned, this blog post is not for the faint of heart! (AKA I have so much to say about the incredible experiences I’ve had since my last post, so be prepared for extensive rambling…) There’s no way I can really cover all that’s happened in the past three weeks (wow, time is going by WAY too fast) but I’ll see what I can do. I’ll add lots of pictures so feel free to skim through those if my writing is too lengthy J

CLASSES

I’ll start with the academics to get those out of the way. The classes I’m taking are all pretty awesome! Our classes are through the International Center at UPO and so only with other international students, which is unfortunate but still cool to meet so many new people! I am taking one class outside of the International Center (we call them classes with the Spaniards) on Entrepreneurial Initiative and Family Business. Because it’s in English (there’s a lot of vocab I don’t know on the topic, so it is the one class I’m taking in English) it isn’t really a class with Spaniards, but rather a class with mostly Germans, a French guy, and a Polish girl. It has been really interesting studying business with European classmates because we definitely do things differently in the States! They are all extremely knowledgeable and I feel like I don’t have as much to contribute about international business as they do, but I am learning a lot.

I have a class on Spanish literature, which is pretty dense at times as I’m not very well versed in literary analysis but I am enjoying it immensely. The professor explains everything well and the class discussion is always interesting. My class on Spanish civilization and culture is really cool because everything that I’m learning is applicable to daily life here. We’re talking about politics, geography, climate, food, etc. etc. and I love that we get to see hands on the topics that we’re discussing. A class through MundoLengua that I’m unfortunately not receiving credit for is on the history of Sevilla and involves some class lectures but also several classes held in different places around the city (basically, field trips every week!) I’m definitely a hands on learner so readying about historical events and seeing actual traces of them down the road from my apartment and on all the streets I walk is incredible. In a city as old as Sevilla you can’t truly know it unless you understand its origins, which are numerous. I feel as though I’m getting closer to the city through that class.

Finally, I have my class on tapas! It is held only once a week for four hours. We’ve had it twice thus far, and class involves some reading beforehand to learn about history, background, or nutritional content of what we’ll be making and then cooking/eating it for class! Our class is held in a kitchen with several ‘stations’ (each have a stove, oven, sink, etc) so we’re divided into four groups that we’ll cook with for the entirety of the semester. The first class we made bread from scratch! Each group make a different variation of the same recipe so that we can see (and taste) the variety and make our own decisions about our preferences. Everything we make is for the class as a whole, so we prepare our different recipes then put them all out on one table to sample together. Last week, we made ensaladillas (kind of like potato salad…but better!) using mayonnaise from scratch. We also made tortilla española which is very typical and popular here, as well as one of my favorite dishes. It’s a type of potato and egg omelet that is wonderful! We don’t eat dinner on Thursday nights because we’re so full from class! I absolutely love it, which is no surprise J

It wasn't nearly as good as Mercedes', but it was pretty tasty :) 

As a shrimp lover, my group's Ensaladilla de Gambas was too shrimpy by itself, but good with some bread!

INTERCAMBIO/BAILE

Alright, moving on. A really cool experience that I had the week before last was an intercambio (language interchange) and dance workshop! This is an event that is hosted each week on Thursday nights and that MundoLengua treated us to for anyone interested. In a local tapas bar, there is a dance workshop for about an hour featuring a different type of dance every week. Anyone is welcome to come who wants to learn some moves and/or meet new people/practice language skills! The workshop starts with teaching the steps to everyone although I was running late from class when I went and missing the whole teaching part when I went -_- Then everyone is paired up with partners to practice the steps together. The pairs will dance together for a couple minutes, and then the girls all move to the left and meet/dance with a new person. It’s the same idea as speed dating, but with dancing and not meant for dating purposes. After the dance workshop is over, everyone hangs out and talks for the ‘intercambio’ portion. There is a really wide range of people that come and it’s cool to hear everyone’s stories. I had a blast learning to dance Zouk and talking afterwards! Definitely a cool experience.

Photo cred: MundoLengua

Photo cred: MundoLengua

RANDOM AMAZING EVENING J

…for lack of a better title. One evening after class, Emily (a fellow MundoLengua-er) and I decided to walk around and explore a little bit, with the eventual goal of buying conditioner. We ended up have an incredible adventure of an evening that was completely unplanned but one of the best days I’ve had in Sevilla! We stumbled upon a gorgeous tiny plaza that was very out of the way but so lovely! There were some shops lining it and we found a cool little art gallery with some awesome pieces! I don’t think it gets a lot of foot traffic because of its location, but the featured artists were really talented. One who was in at the time took us upstairs and showed us some of the pieces she was working on and told us about her work and that of the other painters. A really neat and personalized visit and I definitely plan to go back. We also found an awesome shop for local artesania (paintings, carvings, crafts, ceramics, etc etc etc) that was of amazing quality! We were able to wander and find some restaurants and bars that we’d been to before, but weren’t really sure of how to get back to them.

We found a new favorite tapas bar right by the Catedral that a lot of Spaniards were at (always a good sign!) It has a cool variety, with a pastry/ice cream section, coffee, good priced tapas, bar area, deli section and a great atmosphere. We split a pastry and were relaxing and chatting when a man (who we think was the pastry chef/manning the ovens) brought us two slices of pizza. Emily told him no thank you, that we hadn’t ordered it (we were trying to save some money) but he said no, no, here you go and walked away. We were a little confused and trying to figure out if we had gotten free pizza but it turns out we had indeed! Our waiter was confused as well, since he hadn’t served it to us, but our new friend talked to him and we weren’t charged. The pizza was INCREDIBLE J

After eating we decided to actually head towards home and go to the store (this had been a couple hours of meandering). We passed a tapas bar that had this cool sign outside so we stopped for a picture, because it so perfectly verbalized the day we were having:

More accurately, this so perfectly verbalizes the semester I'm having...

We noticed another sign saying that they were hosting a flamenco show there at 8:30 that evening and it was about 8:15 so we decided it was fated for us to go! The bar is a tiny, tiny place so they gave us seats BEHIND the bar and directly in front of where they would be performing. For 7 euro each, we got giant mojitos and an amazing flamenco show! The three performers were young and brought a new twist to the experience, while maintaining the tradition. We could have reached out and touched the guy while he was dancing. For such a passionate performance art, being that close was really intense! They were so talented and because it was such a small, personal venue we were able to talk with them afterwards. Emily and I left and went home on a high from all the cool experiences we never planned to have. I never got my conditioner but had an amazing evening!

Our view of the setup, no zoom

Casually keeping the bartender company during the show... 

Awesome flamenco show and this for 7 euro? I'll take it

chills...

An incredibly talented group. So happy we were able to see them perform!

LAS SETAS

Each Friday, Antonio (MundoLengua’s cultural director) has a different cultural activity/trip to teach us more about the city and its many awesome sights. The weekend before last we went to Las Setas and the archaeological dig underneath. Las Setas means ‘the mushrooms’ and is the local name given to the Metropol Parasol, one of Sevilla’s few modern architectural attractions. It’s a crazy building that certainly looks like giant mushrooms (or the Space Waffle, as some of the group calls it). Sevilla is an old and traditional city with a great deal of ancient architecture so modernization is a controversial topic for its citizens. While Las Setas is really cool looking, with a tapas bar in the middle and walkways on top where you can see awesome views of the city, it cost an astronomical amount to construct and apparently was planned by a politician who wanted to leave his mark before going out of office. There is definitely a difference in opinions on it between the older and younger generations of the city. What makes it even more interesting is that beneath Las Setas is an archaeological dig with ancient ruins of the city in its earlier times. The ruins were only discovered in the last decade or two I believe, when plans were made to build a parking garage underneath Las Setas and in early construction they began finding traces of the ancient city. Something crazy to think about: Las Setas was built in the early 2000s…and the ruins underneath are from over 2000 years ago. WOW. Regardless of feelings towards the construction of Las Setas, it’s hard to argue that the juxtaposition of antiquity and modernity isn’t pretty amazing. Check out the differences!

Actual ruins beneath the city...and just recently discovered!

Las Setas from below...

...and above!

SEVILLA V BARCELONA

Last weekend, a group of us splurged on tickets to see Sevilla play Barça in the city’s stadium! Futbol (soccer) is a huge part of Spanish culture and Spaniards take a lot of pride in their teams. We’ve heard several times that living in Sevilla, we need to make an important decision: Sevilla or Betis. Those are the city’s two teams and the rivalry between their fans is intense. We were so excited to go to a game! Sevilla is a very talented team, but Barcelona is quite simply amazing. We were pulling for Sevilla (it’s our city now, they’re our team!) and trying to sing along with the dozens of songs that fans have for their team. I used to play and while I haven’t in years, I absolutely love watching. The fans are so intense! Everyone is very expressive. Sevilla got the first goal of the game and gave us all hope, Barcelona got the next one and continued with three more. Sevilla played well but they just couldn’t match the grace and ease that Barça played with. I couldn’t even be mad that they won because it was so beautiful to watch! The weather for the game was terrible but it only added to the experience. There was pouring rain and high winds but we bundled up and stuck it out. The field was soaked, we were chilled to the bone, but all SO happy. I really want to try to go to some other games because it was so much fun. Pricy, but well worth the money! 

Estadio Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan

El himno de Sevilla

Obligatory Messi photo...

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLL SEEEEVVVVILLLLLLLLAAAAAA!!!

Final score :(

Looking and feeling slightly like drowned rats...
Photo cred Megan Benton

MundoLengua takes on Sevilla v Barca!
Photo cred Allie Swiger

Baby's first futbol game
Photo cred Allie Swiger

PIERCING!

Ah, and I forgot to mention…after visiting Las Setas, I went with Rory to FINALLY get our cartilages pierced, an adventure that was in the making for about two weeks. He had wanted to get his pierced so I decided to join in because spontaneous piercings are the best (like my nose..) Word on the street was that a hippie in one of the plazas would do it for 6 euro. No, I’m not joking. This particular hippie came highly recommended from Rory’s host sister so one afternoon we went in search of this mysterious man. We found the plaza with the hippies without problem (which is really a plaza with street vendors that set up on the weekends with cool crafts, bags, jewelry, scarves, the like) and questioned one woman about the piercing man. She knew exactly whom we were referring to (his obvious street cred gave me good vibes) but alas, he was not there because it had rained that morning, and he only comes when it doesn’t rain. This new information made him all the more interesting.

We had to try a few more times going to the plaza until we achieved success. Either the hippies weren’t there, or it had rained in the morning and our elusive friend had not come. Finally, on the beautiful sunny day that we visited Las Setas, we marched triumphantly to the plaza, found our mystery man, and got pierced on the street for not 6 but FOUR euro. That’s under $6 for everyone at home. The process was very clean, everything was sanitized and sterilized, and a few weeks later my ear looks great. You win some and you lose some, but this was a definite win. 

My dear mysterious hippie friend who hates the rain but gives a damn good piercing.

SUCCESS

Alright, I'm still pretty behind with blogging and have yet to cover my trip to Granada, Spain (the weekend before last) and Morocco, AFRICA (this past weekend)! However, they really each deserve a post of their own and I just know that my fans are going wild for news on my recent adventures (heh, heh) so I'll put this up and work DILIGENTLY on the others! If you read this far and stayed awake, my hat is off to you. Comments, suggestions, and tidbits of news from your lives are always appreciated! Thank you for reading :)