De España a Inglaterra

I know, I know, I’m fired from the blog writing business. Life in Spain is just a lot busier than I had anticipated! Fear not, my lack of attentiveness to my blog has nothing to do with a lack of love or care for those at home. I know, you’re thinking, “hello you have 3 hours a day called siesta time and you can’t even take 30 minutes a week and update us??” But I assure you I have been using my siesta time wisely. No more of this 3 hour nap stuff. I’ve been using my time to get my homework done and explore what is at my fingertips, this great country of Spain. Alas, due to the fact that it’s been decades since I’ve last blogged, I do have quite a bit to fill you in on. I’ll start from where we last left off.

Our program went on a trip to Huelva to see the exact replicas of the ships Christopher Columbus sailed on, and to visit the monastery he stayed at while waiting to receive the funds for his explorations.

Two weeks after Huelva our program went to Toledo (my favorite city so far in Spain), which is where the story Don Quijote de la Mancha takes place and we got to see the famous windmills there. Toledo is not only famous for it’s windmills, but it’s also the place where the “Lord of the Rings” rings were made. We got to visit the cathedral in Toledo and a monastery there. The cathedral was beautiful and it just so happened that the day we were there they opened one of the special rooms to the public for the first time in 100 years! I especially enjoyed going in there because I got to see statues of people we learned about in my history class. It’s such a priviledge to be taking these classes pertaining to the history and literature of Spain and then to be able to go out and physcially see what we’re learning. It makes everything so much more exciting and real when you get to have a real-life visual for all this knowledge we’re gaining in the classroom. In reality this whole country is my classroom, and that is the best part about being here.

Since Toledo is so close to Madrid, a group of friends and I decided to take a train to Madrid for the weekend. Although I absolutely fell in love with the old-world Spain look and feel of Toledo, I equally fell in love with Madrid. It’s such a vibrant, bustling city with so much to do and so many different people. The spanish there was a ton easier to understand than here in Sevilla, because in Sevilla they chop off the endings of their words and speak with a slur. Being in Madrid felt like hearing the Spanish of Mexico, which was like music to my ears. Now it’d sure be nice to have some refried beans and authentic tortillas. I’m officially tired of spanish food. I probably crave American food about five times a day if not more. In Madrid we met some Spaniards and went out with them the first night we were there, and then we spent the next day exploring the city. We went to two different museums, The Prado and the Reina Sofia. The latter is a museum of modern art, which was very interesting, and the Prado has a lot of historical art by Spanish artists such as Goya, Velasquez, and El Greco. My favorite was a breathtaking painting by El Greco titled “La Trinidad.” Rumor had it that there was a Taco Bell somewhere in Madrid (the only one in all of Spain) and we were convinced that we would find it and feel like we were in America for 5 minutes. Needless to say, when we found out that it was not actually in the city but was in a town north of Madrid, my heart sank. The spice of Taco Bell would have been glorious to my very deprived taste buds (Spanish food can be quite bland.) Instead, we ended up eating at this underground Chinese take out place which turned out to be some of the best Chinese food I’ve ever had.

The weekend after the Toledo/Madrid excursion, brought us to Granada, a very beautiful city about a three hour train ride away from Sevilla. Granada has a very hippie-vibe to it, but this might have been because our hostel was very hippie-ish. I don’t even think that’s a word. Apparently Spain has caused me to lose some of my English skills. Anyways, in Granada we visited the Alhambra, which is the palace where the last Muslim rulers of Spain lived, since Granada was the last city to be conquered in Spain. The Alhambra was beautiful and the view of the city was magnificent, especially at night. Granada showed us a very memorable sunset, a very fun téteria (tea house) and a lot of laughs with good friends.

The weekend after Granada kicked off our week long break, which I had plans to travel a bit around Spain and then fly off to England. I unfortunately caught a little Spanish flu bug and had to delay my travels for a day (don’t worry it wasn’t H1N1, or as they say here in Spain, Gripe A). Saturday came and so did the commencement of my holiday. At 6:15 on Saturday morning my friend Enrique and I left for the bus station to catch the 7am bus out of here to Cáceres. Unfortunately although we were there on time, the bus was in a different spot than our ticket read, so we ended up missing the bus. Not wanting to purchase more tickets, and being denied a refund, we decided to try our luck at boarding the 9:30 bus. As luck would have it (or so we thought at the time), the driver barely glanced at the time on our ticket and let us on the bus. In Spain the bus seats are assigned and we had no idea which seats would be empty so we chanced it and grabbed two seats at the back of the bus. As it turned out, the two seats we sat in were the only two seats on the whole bus that hadn’t been assigned to anyone. We were feeling pretty lucky by this point and settled in for our two and a half hour bus ride. But then, suddenly, the bus stops about an hour outside of Sevilla and two men climb aboard the bus. Where were they headed? You guessed it. For our seats. We were then told by the bus driver to get off the bus. Did I mention where we were? In the middle of absolutely nowhere. We exited the bus and walked to the ticket window only to find that there were no buses to where we wanted to go until the next day and had to settle on a bus to a different town. We ended up going to Mérida which turned out to be a great little town. There we saw some ancient roman ruins and took a night tour of them, which was absolutely beautiful. I saw one of the best sunsets I’ve ever seen in all my twenty years, and had a very delicious Italian dinner with what I am convinced is the best pizza in all of Spain. We returned the next day to Sevilla and I had a day of rest before jetting off to England! I spent my time in Oxford with my very dear friend Kelly, and also got to spend time with two other APU friends and that was a very nice breath of fresh air. Literally. Oxford was freezing compared to Sevilla. It was interesting to see the stark differences between Oxford and Sevilla. Sevilla is a very loud town, the people are loud, the colors are loud, the people are blunt. Oxford is refined and intellectual and proper, and that was so fun to be around. I felt like I just wanted to curl up with a good book or write a novel while I was there. Oxford is very beautiful and quaint, just like I always pictured England to look. I got to eat fish and chips (AMAZING ones at that!) in the pub that C.S. Lewis always used to go to. I got to see the very dining room that was used as the dining hall in Harry Potter, or “ ’Arry Pooter ” as the Spaniards call it. We attended an Anglican Church service, which had an evensong that was absolutely beautiful music to my ears. The best part was that Kelly and her roommates and I attended the Oxford Union Ball, which was so fun and such a memorable night. Oh wait I lied, the very best part of the visit was getting to be with people from home. It was like having a little piece of home back with me and I can’t even describe how much I enjoyed it. It was very refreshing and made me even more excited to come home in 6 weeks! But that’s also a little scary that I only have 6 weeks of this experience left, because it has been the experience of a lifetime. As much as I don’t want the adventures and fun and traveling to end, I’ll be very glad to return to the good ‘ol land of the free, of the red white and blue, of the land where they actually have cold milk and food I enjoy. Another thing I loved about Oxford: Cold milk every morning (a concept my señora and the rest of Spain has yet to grasp), and I had fried eggs for the first time in forever and bacon for BREAKAST. That is unheard of in Spain; in fact it is appalling to them that we could even think of having eggs for breakfast rather than for dinner. I was hanging out with my Spanish friend the other day and telling him all about my trip to England, putting a lot of emphasis on how great my gigantic American-like breakfast was and he was actually physically disgusted by the fact that I had eggs for breakfast. You should have seen the look on his face. On my last day in England, Kelly and I went into London and we toured Kensington Palace, which was the last residence of Princess Diana. It was very beautiful and a very neat place to see. We then literally ran to Buckingham Palace and then I had to hop on my bus to take me back to the airport. Note to future self; do not try to see London in a mere three hours. England is a place I’ll definitely be going back to. On the plane ride home I made two new friends, a French boy and a German girl, both of who are also studying in Sevilla. We sat with each other on the plane and hung out a bit afterwards, and had dinner together at one of their flats just yesterday. I love meeting people from different countries! Well I have about 5 weeks left here and plan to make the most of them and fill my days with as much Spanish life as I can before I make my way back to American soil. It will be a bittersweet day. I’m learning so much here, from my experiences and from the people around me. It will be hard to leave, yet a joyous feeling to be back home with my family. Well until next time!

Amor y Paz

Mérida

Oxford





London