Real Alcazar, Toros, and Cádiz o my.

Such busy weeks! It's no wonder I'm starting to get a little enferma.  I need some vitamin C.

This weekend was another successful one! Friday night was certainly interesting.  After my exam I headed to Reales Alcazares, a palace in the centro de Sevilla.  The palace itself was beautiful of course.  It's one of the biggest castles in Spain behind the Alhambra in Granada and Palacio Real in Madrid. The president, when he comes to Spain, still lives in the castle whenever they come to town.  This castle was also constructed by the same people who constructed the famous Alhambra.  It's much smaller than the Alhambra, but just as beautiful with Moorish, and Christian influences. 

It's hard to tell by this picture, but there are several carvings of lions, castles, and shields-- common motifs of this castle as well as Spain. Also, all the carvings were once brightly painted but because of the sun over the years the colors have faded to nonexistence. 

In the middle of this photo is the face of a baby/cherub/doll.  Creepy right? The room it is in is called el salón de las muñecas, room of the dolls.  It's referred to this because within the intricate carvings is a handful of these doll faces.  I couldn't help but ask if that was because of the catholic influences in the architecture. 

My camera didn't take very good pictures inside, but I think you can get the feel for its intricacy. 

Those gorgeous gardens I was talking about..

Chris, Maggie and I.

More photos of the incredible gardens.

Unfortunately Chris and I had to leave the tour of the gardens early because we had a corrido de toros to go to.  Bullfight. The epitome of spanish traditional entertainment. We were extremely excited to finally get to see it.  We got there and the atmosphere was buzzing with the excitement of the corrido; people were selling beer, candy, cushions, and water outside while everyone hurried to find their seat.  Once we found our seats we were pretty amazed by the view and the massive amount of people attending.  

And then the games began.

And I couldn't keep my eyes open. 

I had no idea the amount of torture involved before actually killing the bull.  I couldn't stand it at all.  They stab the bull about 8 times before they actually kill it, and that is only if you have a talented matador. One matador stabbed the bull at least 12 times in the neck before actually killing it.  The amount of blood and cruelty in it made me sick to my stomach.  Huge disappointment, but I'm glad I got to see it, and at least now I can form my own opinion.  Bull fights here are extremely controversial, especially with the younger generations.  The younger generations are pointing out the cruelty to those who have grown up with bullfighting forever and see it as a staple to Spanish culture.  It is a HUGE tradition, but just today it was outlawed in Barcelona.  

Regardless, I got some pretty epic photos from the experience. 

I can't help but think the bulls are beautiful.

The horse was rammed by the bull because the man riding it stabbed the bull to make it angry enough to fight.  Notice there are several different bullfighters in the arena at once.  The ones with the pink and yellow capotes, capes, are actually called the torreros, the men who weaken the bull for the matador who has a red capote.  The men on horses are called picadores.  The two picadores are the first round of bullfights, the stab from above with the lance.  

The sticks on the bulls back are actually blades about four to six inches long that the torreros use to weaken it before going one on one with it.  They look like decorations but they keep a consistent stream of blood flowing from the bull while it fights for its life.  Usually three or four torreros stab the bull in the spine before the final matador finishes it.  The second round is the three torreros who use the banderillas (sharp barbed sticks) to stab the bull at least six times, and the third round is the matador with the red capote.  

Pretty brutal right? Not my cup of tea.  Anyway! The next day I went to Cádiz, a beautiful beach city on the Atlantic.  The city's symbol is a smile because the people in Cádiz are said to be the nicest people in all of Spain. I would love to share some photos but I'm currently exhausted! I'll post them eventually, but it's time for me to go to bed.  Class in the morning! 

Hasta la proxima vez! 

This weekend was beyond words.  Pretty sure I dreamt it up, but there's pictures.

Saturday we headed to Jerez to meet up with our Spanish friends that we met two weeks ago at the Plaza de San Fernando.  Silva was waiting at the train station with his tiny Ford Focus to take us to Sanlúcar, where Pablo was born and raised.  Sanlúcar is absolute paradise.  It's famous for it's wild horses, wine, and strangely enough it has more scooters per habitant than any other european city.  The strange things our spanish friends teach us.  It's a very strange city at the same time because one second you are in the centro where expensive and ornate architecture surrounds you, and the next second your in a wide open beautiful area spattered with strange villas, and horse grazing grounds.  

We were all looking forward to going to Pablo's house because his father was a bullfighter back in his prime.  He was once very famous but had to end his career early because a bull stabbed him in the balls. Yes. The testes. Pablo, miracle baby, was actually born after, so, no worries, everything is working fine down there.  We met the famous bull fighter and also saw the massive heads of three of the biggest bulls he's matado. 

New career? Probs.

Pablo showing us his father's matador jacket.

Afterward we headed to Pablo's favorite place to eat, a place where he's gone since he was a niño but sadly it was closed.  It was a place right on the beach-- oh yeah.  Sanlúcar has a beach too.  I told you it was paradise. Instead we went to another incredible place on the beach with the most amazing view. We ate for what seemed like hours, Pablo ordering us new things to try like calamari and the miniature whole squid baby things. I couldn't handle those because I accidentally took a bite and then looked inside  the dead fried baby squid thing. Bad idea.  Sends shivers down my spine now just thinking about it. 

Anyway, we had the most amazing lunch, the whole time I just kept muttering to myself that I was in paradise.  The locals were adorable as well, I caught a few pictures.  Yes, I'm a creep. I've been getting crap all the time for taking pictures without people knowing-- but I can't help it! I love taking pictures of the locals so I'm going to creep away. 

A common feast of Andalucía.  On the left is a type of shark, and on the right is huevos fritos-- fried eggs and fried potatoes with onions.  So freaking good.  And no. I did not eat that all myself.  My 6'5'' friend Chris and I split it. 

We walked right out to the beach afterword.  Funny thing about Sanlúcar is most españoles say that the beaches aren't very good because the Guadalquivir Río that goes through Sevilla ends in the beaches of Sanlúcar.  At the beach we were at there was a boat far off in the distance that was tipped on its side, completely stuck.  Pablo told us that that boat has been there for over 30 years.  What happens is it gets stuck in shallow areas that have formed because of the river. It was surreal to see this massive boat stuck forever sideways in the ocean. 

Silva always modeling.

After an incredible lunch we went back to Pablo's house for a swim in the pool and a siesta.  His house and pool are perfectly landscaped like a condo on some tropical island.  We then walked to a different beach right by his house.  This one had a little shack playing loud bluesy music and serving drink to barefoot spaniards. It was completely local, and I loved it. We were all lying there in the soft sand, drinking beer and people watching.  Life couldn't get any better than those moments. 

Later we met up with our friend Rafa en el centro to get some helado at an amazing gelato place.  My ice cream tasted exactly like tiramisu and donuts. What more could one want? We sat at the fountain for a while, and then Pablo decided it was time for us to go to his favorite place.  We started following him to the largest hotel around where he took us to the very top where there was a relaxing bar overlooking the entire city of Sanlúcar.  We watched the puesto del sol while the bar played a epic music, the soundtrack to our perfect evening. 

Best day ever. Sunday I went hiking, and I won't bore you with pictures of trees, although I do have a few cliff pictures that are pretty awesome :) The nature here is incredible.

Hasta la proxima vez! 

First Week

A cathedral very close to where I live in Triana

I'm pretty sure I'm just going to move here and become a gypsy.  Sorry mom and dad. Really, I'm sure you were half expecting said news anyway.  I love it here in Seville. The people are gorgeous, the food is delicious, the architecture is mind boggling, and the lifestyle is relaxed, family oriented, and healthy.  What more could you want?
So I've been here a week now.  I've gone through orientation, I've moved into la apartamento de mi familia española and tomorrow begins my intensive session of Spanish Grammar. We're talking three hours of Spanish Grammar a day. It may or may not kick my butt. My spanish family is very agradable, nice, and for the most part they just leave me be.  There is a señora y un señor with there son who is 29 years old.  It's actually very normal for young adults to live with their families until they are in their late twenties, early thirties.  Here big families live together forever and sometimes they keep the same apartment or house for generations to come.  The living space is very small though, my bedroom is extremely tiny with a desk, bed, wardrobe and dresser crammed inside.  Not a problem though because I spend most of my time outside. Below are shots of mi habitación.

Speaking of outside-- bloody hot. Actually, that doesn't even apply to just outside, my home isn't air conditioned so it is also hot inside. I have a fan in my room though, so that helps.  It's also very cool in the evenings so I leave my window open. Spain is extremely conscious of the energy they use.  It's practically a crime to leave the lights on in a room that you aren't using, and they charge .05 euros for a bag at the grocery store.  I think it's good! Saving the environment one grocery bag at a time.

We walk everywhere to get to where we are going.  I love it. I walk probably ten miles a day when I add it all up, and it feels great.  The first few days my body was sore the next day, but I'm finally getting used to it.  The city is so beautiful that I don't even realize how long it takes to get to different places.  It's wonderful.  Everything about this place promotes a healthy lifestyle.  There is a bike system here called sevici where you can buy a card that costs 20 euros for a year, about 26-27 USD, and then you get to rent bikes from all the kiosks in town.  Each bike is free for the first 30 minutes and after that it's extremely cheap to keep biking. What a lot of the spaniards do is they rent a bike for thirty minutes, drop it off at the next kiosk, and then grab another for thirty minutes. It's genius!

People here don't use gyms or things because there lifestyle is just naturally active.  The meal schedule is also very different.  Here you eat something very small for breakfast like a piece of toast and cafe con leche.  Then you don't eat lunch until 2:30 or 3:00 pm.  All of the stores close during lunch, and everyone goes home to eat.  After lunch everyone takes a siesta, possibly one of my favorite cultural differences.  After that you don't eat again until 9:30-10:30 in the evening. Also snacking here is nonexistent.  Apparently snacking is just an american thing! The spaniards will only eat at their allotted eating hours! It's very cool, but man has it left me starving sometimes!
Sometimes between breakfast and lunch people will go out and get a tostado and a cafe or orange juice.  A tostado is like two pieces of hard bread with tomatoes, olive oil, smoked ham and queso.  Depends on what you want! Below is a picture of my friend Chris eating at a bar (they call breakfast places bars) this morning.

And yes. The food here is amazing.  Lots of fresh fruits and veggies.  The fruit here is so much better than in the states.  Peaches are the sizes of melons, and melons are the sizes of american footballs!

Today Chris and I went to Paseo del Arte where a bunch of local artists were selling their art for really great prices.  Chris bought three beautiful paintings from a local artist who gave him 3 for the price of 2 which ended up being 100 euros.  For good art, that's a deal.  The guys who ran the place were very nice and told us to come back next week because they give art classes to niños.  I asked him if he needed volunteers and he said absolutely! I might have found something to do every sunday now :) Mom, you would love the art.

My favorite are the four on the top left.

Vale! I will write again soon :) This is a very spastic blog entry.  Lots has happened this week.  I didn't even cover the flamenco or the sevillano dances! Hasta la proxima vez!