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

Carreras, Viajes, y Torros

How to survive if your senora doesn’t give you enough food:

You reel it up in a zip lock bag from the generous boys downstairs who are lucky enough to have a senora that gives them bountiful amounts of food. Thanks guys for not letting us starve!

(Don’t worry mom, we’ve since talked to her and now she gives us so much food we feel like porky the pig every day after lunch.)

Well if blogging was a race, I’d surely be at the rear, because I have not been very good about keeping ya’ll updated! So here is a little recap of my last couple of weeks here:

First of all speaking of races… I just ran a 10.5 k friday night (6.5 miles), and if you know me, then you probably just hit the floor in shock. It was definitely something I did on a whim and decided the morning of that I was going to do it (I really just wanted the free t-shirt…just kidding, kind of). About 20 of us from my program ran in the Carrera Noctura, which is a night race here in Sevilla that happens once a year. Over twenty thousand people were running through the streets of Sevilla starting at 10 pm. I have never seen so many sweaty hairy Spaniards in my entire life! I was convinced it was going to take me at least 3 hours to complete, but empowered by the adrenaline of running amidst the hoards of cheering Spaniards, I finished in under an hour and 15 minutes. Again, if you know me then that’s quite an accomplishment! I was feeling fine during the race and feeling on top of the world once I finished, but as we began our 6 mile walk home, it started taking a turn for the worse. Let’s just say that after running 6.5 miles already, and not drinking hardly any water that day was a bad mix. I think I have learned my lesson of the importance of hydration. I am thankful for good friends here who were so gracious during my miserable walk home. I also appreciated the piggy-back ride up five flights of stairs to my apartment. I might have not made it up those mountainous stairs otherwise. Though my 10k experience ended badly due to the lack of sufficient water in my body, I am thankful for the opportunity to have taken part in the race last night. I felt like such a true Sevillano as we ran through the streets with people lining the sidewalks to cheer on all 20,000 of us. It was such a good experience and an accomplished feeling to do something I had once not thought was possible, though I do see now why it would have been helpful that the last time I worked out to not have been over a month ago… but yes I got my free t-shirt, which of course made it all worth it!

Last weekend I went to Lagos, Portugal, a.k.a. the most beautiful place I have ever been. The views were breathtaking, the ocean water was crystal clear and the prettiest blue I have ever seen, and best of all, our hotel was located on a cliff that overlooked all of it. It was so relaxing to just lie on the beach under the warm Portuguese sun. We also went on a cruise in the middle of the Atlantic and got to hop off our boat onto these little speedboats that took us deep into little grottos nestled against rock formations in the middle of the ocean. Our last night in Portugal we went to the very place which had once been considered the “end of the world” because you drive down this long road of Portuguese countryside and end up at this lighthouse that is ¾ surrounded by water. It’s absolutely beautiful and you can see why they would have once thought this was the very edge of the world. All you see is ocean for miles, and the sunsets there are apparently astounding, unfortunately we went on a day where the sun was covered by clouds, but this was even more beautiful to me because I absolutely love the ocean on a gray cloudy day.

Two weekends ago, (see I told you I’ve been bad about keeping up with my blogging!) we went to a bull fight. One word: YIKES. I had no idea that this whole bull fight thing consisted in killing six bulls. Seriously, where is PETA when you need them?! It was difficult for me to watch the first bull get slaughtered and even harder to watch the sixth bull die because he died a slow and painful death. I suppose I should say I’m glad I went for the experience of attending a bull fight in Spain, but it hurt my heart to watch these innocent animals die for no reason other than to provide Sunday afternoon entertainment for a bunch of heartless Spaniards. Okay maybe that is a little cold of me to say, but really people, those poor bulls! I do have to say though that it’s entertainment in itself to watch the quick, graceful movements of the matadors and see their crazily colored sparkly outfits. I was given a fright when one of the bulls reared his head and there was a matador caught between the two bull horns, holding on for dear life! Well maybe buddy you should have chosen a different profession, preferably one where your job isn’t to kill innocent animals! At least the experience was educational… I found out that bulls are male cows, and the black and white cows you milk are only females… who knew?

I named him Pablo. This was before I realized Pablo was going to be killed.

The same weekend of the bull fight, my program went to Cordoba, Spain for one day, and it was a very educational experience as well. First we visited the Madinat Al-Zahra, which are archeological remains that are left from a mosque of the past, nestled into the countryside above the hills of Córdoba. We then went to a beautiful mosque that is now a Christian church. It was called The Mezquita when the Muslims constructed it in 785 but the Christians took over in 1236 and it’s now called the Cathedral of Córdoba, the oldest cathedral in Spain. It was considered the most important sanctuary of Western Islam in a time when Córdoba was the capital of Al-Andalus (now called Andalucia, which is the part of Spain where Sevilla is located.) Just a little history lesson for you!

Other than immersing myself in cultural Spanish activities such as bull fights, Sevillan art museums, ancient mosques, and taking advantage of travel opportunities, I am very busy with my classes, salsa dancing lessons, and soon to be volunteering at a convent and helping out with the elderly people who live there. Oh yes, nuns run the convent. I hear they can be a little crabby, so that should be fun! Salsa lessons are twice a week, and probably my favorite time of the day. Our teacher is from Peru and he sure knows his stuff!

I am having an absolutely wonderful in experience in Spain so far, and look forward to what’s awaiting me on the horizon of the next few months! By the way, in case you weren’t already aware of this, I miss you all at home a TON, but I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. I know this is where I am supposed to be right now.

Mucho amor!

Meagan

Week one, check.

                                          A typical Sevillan street

                                                            Torre del Oro

                                              Paddle boating on the river

                                             My roommate and I

Imagine yourself living in Spain, living in an apartment, living directly above two boys that are in the same program with you, what is the most embarrassing thing you can think of? Oh I know, THIS:

Oh yes, that is indeed my laundry hung high for all to see. Talk about humiliating. Who wants their delicates blowing in the wind where new friends of the opposite gender can see them, not to mention any other unsavory characters who may be sticking their head out the window. Don't worry, none of my own undergarments can be seen from the angle the picture was taken above. Those would be my roommates. Sorry Yesi! I just had to vent about this. Not to mention that this has been a day full of mala suerte (for you non-Spanish privileged people out there, that means bad luck). Let’s start from the beginning. I am awoken at 3 am by a rustle outside of my bedroom door. I lay there for a second trying to orient myself and I realize the room is quieter than usual, and I’m more drenched in sweat than usual (have I mentioned it’s been like 150 degrees here?) and I realize the fan is off. The fan that I have so very much come to love, because it is the one appliance that has kept me from going insane in this sweltering heat. And then I realize…our Senora turned it off. “She turned it off and I am going to die of heat exhaustion”, these were the thoughts running through my head at 3 am. Needless to say my night of sleep was not comfortable from that moment forward. Let me explain the fan situation in a bit more detail. Our senora told us to not use the fan at night, and usually I would respect her wishes but I’m sorry I am not keen on losing ten pounds by means of sweating it off due to sleeping sans fan. So every night we have been using the fan and our senora sleeps way on the other side of the apartment so we figure she would never know. I know I know, it’s sneaky and devious, but if you were me and you had to sweat 24 hours out of your day you would do the same. Trust me. And my poor roommate, she’s from Oregon so she is not used to this heat. I guess I owe you one Fresno for preparing me so well for this extreme weather. Okay back to mi dia de mala suerte. So we wake up late after finally falling asleep for possibly the last hour, and head to breakfast. What did we get today? We each got a heel of the loaf of bread. What are our friends getting from their senoras? Whole loaves. Okay great. Thanks. Yeah that kept me full for about ten minutes. So then we go on our merry way and are making our way out of the building when I swing open the door and misjudge the distance between the bottom of the gigantic iron clad gate/door and it very roughly scrapes/smashes my toes, rips off my toe ring and leaves me howling in pain with battle wounds, most definitely a visual remembrance of the bad luck I was faced with today.  So I am hobbling to school and crossing the street when a funny-looking, little, gray, very European car ever so swiftly starts backing up without looking behind him and nearly misses hitting my roommate and I. Spaniards are not striking a good note with me today. As I walked to school today I probably looked more like a Spaniard than I have my entire time here: A disgruntled look plastered to my face and no smile to be seen. I would like to say my luck improved but alas it did not until much later in the day. Next drop of bad luck? Lunch; a meal that most Spaniards take pride in making the largest and most filling meal of the day. Today we had rice, and a small medley of tomatoes and cucumbers. I know people getting five course meals. Mom, can you put a rush on the peanut butter please? Okay, okay maybe I am being a little extreme, (but not really). My host senora is a very nice lady who I very much enjoy conversing in Spanish with. Maybe cooking just isn’t her thing. Yeah, dinner was a chopped-up hot dog (I think) mixed in with tomato sauce and a side of mashed potatoes. Yum? Since when is that an authentic Spanish dish! The good part was the mound of watermelon she placed in front of me for dessert. YUM! Ah but not all was a loss today for I greatly enjoyed my classes, went on a shopping excursion with two of my friends and had our first Encuentro! Encuentro is like a version of Kaleo, which is a nighttime worship/church service at my school. It was very refreshing to set aside time to worship God and to hear a message from one of our ministry directors. It made APU feel not so far away. The message was one that hit home for me, because it was one about purpose and how we are all here in Spain because we are meant to be. We’re here because God has a plan for us while we are here. We were told to be intentional while we are here to seek Him out and use this time as a gift away from our everyday busy lives and seek out who we really are without all of the things around us that usually define us. We can so easily be defined by what we do, who we are with, what programs we volunteer with, what sports we play (or in my case, don’t play).  But we have this opportunity to be away from everything in this new place and we should be intentional about trying to see all that God will try to show us about ourselves, and our purpose while we are here. So here’s to you Spain! Show me, teach me; let me experience and learn and grow.