Sevilla y Ronda (y mi vida en general)

I returned yesterday from Sevilla and Ronda!


This is the cathedral in Sevilla. It's HUGE (third biggest in the world I think) and it's beautiful.


This is inside the cathedral. The organ on the right still works! And you can walk up 36 ramps to the top of the tower and see a 360 view of Sevilla. It's gorgeous! The ramps were made so that the archbishop could ride his horse up to the top (and not have to walk).


This is half of an orange (symbolically -- it's really a dome in a building in the gardens we visited in Sevilla). The phrase "you're my other half" in English comes from the Spanish phrase "you're my half-orange (mi media naranja)." So cute :)


These are a section of the gardens we visited. There was a labyrinth also, made of hedges, which was awesome. There are also orange trees EVERYWHERE! They're so capturing, with their bright green leaves and bright orange fruit. The fruit is supposedly rather bitter this time of year though (even though they look ripe!) and are exported to England to make orange marmalade. They do eat mandarins and oranges every day here (like 2-5 at lunch), but these I guess are not the same as the oranges on the trees.

This is Ronda. It was far prettier than Sevilla in my opinion, although Sevilla was beautiful. Ronda is in the hills with lots of cliffs to overlook. Everywhere you look there is a breathtaking view and it was very warm there as well. I ate an ice cream cone in a t-shirt there. It was lovely, especially because right now there are 28 inches of snow at Haverford - the record largest blizzard ever to hit the east coast. Thank god I'm in the south of Spain.

Anyway, Friday we went to Sevilla and stayed overnight there. We saw the beautiful gardens seen above and the cathedral and then the whole group went to see flamenco! Unfortunately, I had an interview and had to skip the flamenco, but it's okay. Also, turns out the night life in Sevilla is pretty sub-par because there are no free tapas (Granada is the last Spanish city with free tapas) and tons of tourists, plus all the locals hate tourists, especially Americans... But Saturday we went to Ronda and it is all kinds of beautiful. We saw old Arabic baths from when Granada and Ronda belonged to the Moors. These were the last two cities to be conquered by the Spanish and all of the architecture shows an interesting mix between traditional Arabic structure and strands of Christian influence. The Arabic baths we saw were in these huge stone rooms underground and I seriously can't imagine taking my clothes off in such a cold place, but apparently they had some sort of complicated system for heating one of the rooms similarly to a sauna. Creative civilization... The history here is incredible and everything is stone. It's fabulous.

In other news: I pretty much only eat ham and cheese sandwiches on baguettes now. They are absolutely delicious. There are little bocaderillas (sandwich stores) everywhere and I eat these types of meat/cheese sandwiches for dinner all the time. I am planning on going to Cadiz next weekend for Carnaval. Mini-bananas with nutella is one of the best snacks ever -- rivaling apples and peanut butter. And it seems more and more obvious to me that Granada is better than everywhere else.

Classes (I am studying abroad): I start classes tomorrow (only 3 of my five -- Haverford requires that I take two at the University of Granada and those don't start until Feb 22). I am in an advanced Spanish class (though not the highest one offered) which is great because it will focus on speaking and not so much on grammar, which I have for the most part learned already in school. My Spanish is getting better! I can understand a lot and although I speak haltingly, I usually can formulate sentences. Also, the Spanish use LOTS of hand gestures when they speak so that helps. What does not help is that everyone here in Andalucia (the region that Granada is in) has what they call a "lazy tongue" and drop all of their "s" 's and half of every word. It's a little difficult. I'm also taking Islamic Art and Architecture. This class meets once a week in a classroom and once a week has a field trip (to the Alhambra for example) to see architecture that is local. It should be wonderful, especially here. Additionally I am either taking the Arab World and the West or Mediterranean Ecosystems (which has a field trip component). I will see which one I like. In two weeks when I start class at UGR (University of Granada) I am hoping to take a psychology class and either a political science class or maybe a translation class. I will keep you all posted -- I know you're holding your breath to hear about my exact schedule.

Travel: Like I said earlier, I'm hoping to go to Cadiz for Carnaval this weekend with some friends! In March I want to go to London for a long weekend (I never have Friday class). I have 8 friends studying abroad in London, plus I've never been, so I am very excited!!! I also want to go to Barcelona with my friends. At the end of March I have spring break when I'm planning to visit my former exchange student outside of Venice (possibly visit friends of mine in Rome and Florence) and then fly mid-week to Galway, Ireland where my best friend from school is studying abroad. Then Morocco with my study abroad program for a week in April! I am also hoping to go to Paris sometime in the spring! Hopefully all of these plans will work out.

Ahhh after day-dreaming about traveling, I have to get back to applying for summer internships. Cross your fingers for me! Hopefully, I'll get to stay in Seattle. But we'll see... Sorry for the long post! Wish me luck in class tomorrow!