On Saturday morning Hayley and I met up with the other 6 API students and our director, Juan, at the train station in Cadiz. It only took two hours to get to Sevilla (or Seville for English speakers) and it was well worth it. Sevilla is incredible. The first thing we did after checking in to our hotel was a three-hour bike tour. Everything about the city was beautiful, the parks, the classic roman style houses, the modern architecture, beautiful botanic gardens filled with horse-drawn carriages, a variety of flowers and hundreds of trees. The word I find that best describes Sevilla is romantic. As one of the oldest cities in Europe, it has a rich history with Roman ruins that date back as far as 207 B.C. It was fascinating to see the Cathedral, which ... read more

Yesterday, I went to Gibraltar with five of my friends. It was our first trip that wasn't through API so it was an adventure. We rode the bus for three hours from Cadiz to La Linea de Concepcion, which is right on the Gibraltar border. We walked two minutes from the bus station to get to customs, which was an absolute joke. The guy behind the counter didn't even make us open our passports, he just had us show them to him. It is funny how one different Gibraltar is from the town that is two minutes away. Gibraltar is a UK territory, so English is their primary language. I loved their accents! Another thing I love about Gibraltar is their free bus system. We took a bus from customs to the cable cars that would ... read more

There are a lot of times where I find myself in what I consider to be a sticky situation in Cadiz. For example, yesterday was September 11, and the U.S. Embassy in Madrid advised us all to stay inside, and not draw any attention to ourselves as Americans. However, yesterday was the annual Airplane Extravaganza in the new part of Cadiz and the whole town was there. The other Americans and I decided to go to the air show and I wore white and blue to show my allegiance to the U.S. and honor those who were affected by September 11th. We spoke English, we didn’t try to blend in, and we craved American food. We simply wanted to be American yesterday. It was a liberating feeling to say the least. I was curious to ... read more

This morning began with an early morning run around 8. Right before my roommate and I left to go running, we decided to do a little pre-running warm up dance that we like to call La Cucaracha. It goes a little something like this: bend over to put on your tennis shoe, throw your shoe across the room, move your legs up and down one at a time as if the floor is made of hot coals and scream "CUCARACHA!". Then, your partner should proceed to stomp one foot over many areas of the floor as if he or she is trying to squish la cucaracha. For those of you know don't know what a cucaracha is, it means cockroach. This is the second time Hayley and I have done that dance since we have been ... read more

Yesterday was a difficult day. I felt a little homesick in the morning, but a day at the beach cured that right away. My roommate and I met the other 6 people in our group at the beach after lunch at 3:30. The water was more beautiful than anything I ever imagined. The water is turquoise and a little green. The beach we live near is called La Coleta. It is one of the smaller beaches in Cadiz, but I have a feeling it will be my favorite. The water is warm, and the temperature was in the low 80s. At 8:30 PM we watched la puesta del sol (the sunset) at the beach and words cannot describe how beautiful it was. There were three brides having their wedding pictures taken on the beach. For dinner, ... read more