Advertisement
Published: February 28th 2012
Wow, I’ve been too busy to notice, but I’m already past my third week of classes. Sorry about the long absence of blogs, but I really am losing track of time. I am enjoying my classes, but I really do hate my schedule. Tuesday was a bit hellish: I woke up at 7:30, had class at 8:30 and 10:00, then I had an hour and a half to finish up my homework before my next class at 1:00. When that got over, we had a meeting with Veronica at 2:30 for about an hour at the second CCA office, about a 5 minute walk from the Centro. Maria made me a bocadillos for lunch so I ate that while Veronica talked. I had a half hour to do some more homework before my Tutorías class at 4:00. At 5:00, I rushed out of there, speed walking all the way to my house (about a mile) to change for my first bellydancing class, which I got to just in time at 5:30. The class goes until 7:00, but since I have Phonetics at 7, and it takes 30 minutes to walk there, I had to leave early. I got to class sweating
and out of breath. We had Phonetics for an hour, then Granada seminar for an hour. It was then 9:00, I was done with my classes, and we could go home for dinner. And this is every Tuesday.
Now I need to backtrack to explain some things. On the 18
th our whole group had a day trip to Sevilla. It was to be a short trip: Our bus left at 8:30 in the morning and it was a three hour ride there. We arrived at 11:30, did our tour, and had to leave at 5:30. Only six hours in Sevilla is not enough time to see everything. You couldn’t even do Granada in six hours, and it’s much smaller than Sevilla, so I was a little disappointed with this trip. But we did see a few pretty sweet things. But before we left, one student was late, so we had to turn the bus around and wait for him. When he got on the bus, Veronica made him sit down with her and chewed him out! He started trying to make an excuse but she actually told him to shut up. Just remind me never to piss Veronica off.
She’s like one of those moms who is really cool and easygoing, but when you do something really wrong, she will get in your face. It’s really intimidating.
But back to Sevilla. We got off the bus at the back of the Plaza de España. Now I’ve seen plenty of plazas in Spain. There’s one about every three blocks here. But this plaza blows every other one out of the water. It’s just huge, and absolutely beautiful. The building curves around half of the plaza and the other side faces a park. Horse drawn carriages drive around the fountain then throughout the city. If you know the newer Star Wars movies, you’ll recognize the plaza in the planet Naboo in
Attack of the Clones. After the plaza, we walked through the city to our meeting spot by the cathedral. Veronica gave us two hours to explore in small groups before we met up again at 2:30. I was with Lyanne and Cat, and we were going to go into the cathedral. But first we needed to find a bathroom, which can be difficult in Spain. We found a Burger King but had to buy something to use the
bathroom, so I got some ice cream. When we came out of Burger King, there was a march happening on the main road. People were blowing whistles and horns and carrying signs. I couldn’t understand what they were for or against specifically, but a lot of people have been protesting government actions lately, so it was probably that. I think it had something to do with jobs and rights though.
We finally passed the protesters and made it to the cathedral. This has to be one of the most incredible architectural structures I’ve seen. The detail is incredible, and it’s just huge. We went inside to the sanctuary (thank you international student deals for giving us discounts) and again I was blown away. I’m just going to embrace my nerdiness by saying it sort of reminded me of
The Lord of the Rings in the mines of Moria when the Fellowship comes to the great hall with those giant pillars. There is a tower of the cathedral with ramps all the way to the top to have a view of the city, so we went up there. Thank goodness they weren’t stairs. All the way up, there were windows
so you could look out and see different aspects of the cathedral and the buildings surrounding it.
We had taken all our time in the cathedral, so we had to head back to the meeting point so as not to be late and face the wrath of Veronica. We stopped to buy some postcards and a shop and I bought University of Sevilla sweatpants. This seems random, and I had to explain to several people that I hadn’t brought any to Spain, and it is freezing at night. We entered the Gardens of Murillo and the Real Alcazar. This is where the royal family stays when they visit Sevilla, so parts of the palace are off limits. It was all very interesting and pretty, but my feet were killing me by now and I just wanted to sit down. I’m getting tired just thinking about it, so you can just look at the pictures.
This day was a marathon: six hours of walking around the city and trying to see the three most important places. I hope I can come back to Sevilla and spend just a little more time exploring the city.
Sunday, we went to
Seeing Star Wars
If you know the movies, they used this plaza in the first movie (new) for Naboo.a futbol game between Granada and a team from Pais Vasco. If I cared more about sports, I could probably tell you the actual name of the team, but I don’t know it. And I don’t want to have to clarify everything, so I’m just going to call it futbol, which is the Spanish word for soccer; and not football so you aren’t thinking our football. It’s just too confusing. And not soccer because no one calls it soccer but the United States.
It was a perfect day for a game. The sun was shining, and it wasn’t too hot. Everyone was extremely excited since futbol is basically the life of Spain. The fans were crazy! I couldn’t believe how loud and rowdy they were. Throughout the game, the two sides of the stadium did challenge cheers back and forth, waving flags, and each side had their own drum line. Again, I don’t know a lot about sports, and I couldn’t regale you with every pass, every foul, or every goal, but I do know Granada won.
After the game a few of us went to a Chinese restaurant. I keep seeing them around the city, and it
makes me miss Chinese food. I got to use chopsticks again, and it felt so right. But the food wasn’t as good. I miss dumplings and all the food at Grandma’s Kitchen in Hangzhou. After lunch, I relaxed a bit at home before I met Lyanne and Cat to go to a belly dancing show. One of the girls in the program’s host mom teaches belly dancing classes, and they put on a performance once a month. Now I’ve watched a lot of different styles of dancing, but not much belly dancing. It was incredible. It’s amazing how they can move their bodies, and each part is isolated from the others. I was looking for a class to take in Granada, and I’ve found it! I’ll be taking two classes a week of belly dancing from now on. I've taken two classes already, and it is hard! And it's a good workout which is a plus. Maybe if I learn fast enough, I could be in one of the exhibitions!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.089s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0294s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Dad
non-member comment
bellydancing?????
Not sure how i feel about the belly dancing daughter :) No exhibitions. Love you