Blogs from Andalusia, Spain, Europe - page 282

My art class took a field trip to Córdoba on February 3. I had no idea what to expect, so I was pleasantly surprised with the city. It rained all morning while we traveled by bus, but thankfully the rain left when we arrived in Córdaba at 11:30 a.m. Our class visited La Mezquita, which is the famous mosque. In my art class we have been studying the history and the art techniques of this particular mosque. I need to study a little more to remember all the califas that contributed to the building process, but I finally have the art vocabulary down for La Mezquita! I have never been inside a mosque so it was very cool to understand the importance of the different parts. We tried getting into the Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos ... read more

So, another big difference I've noticed in Spain is the way people interact socially. In college in the US, it's very common to invite friends over. With me and my friends, we drink coffee/chai tea, sit around and talk, sometimes have a movie night. Just anything. We'll also randomly visit friends in their dorm rooms, etc. Definitely not here! You almost never have friends over to your house. The home is a very personal place and unless you're having a formal dinner, or something like that, you don't just have friends over. This is taken to the point, where, if a guy invites a girl up to his apartment, and she says yes, it's considered "consent." Wow! Luckily we learned this early on, so we knew to not invite friends over to the apartment, and to ... read more

Sunday, I visited La Inglesia de Prosperidad. I loved it. The Spanish congregation was so welcoming. I immediately felt at home worshipping with them. Generally, unless you know a Spaniard you don’t smile or make eye contact on the street. Yet, when walking down the street to the church some people smiled at me and I was confused. After seeing the friendly strangers go into the church I realized that Christian Spaniards are welcoming to strangers. What a concept. It was a great experience to break bread with believers in a foreign language. I loved getting to experience how they worship the same true God. It was very refreshing. I’m excited to go back next week! ... read more

I went to Seville with a few nice folks. While I have no pictures of my own (camera battery crisis), rest assured: no event goes unrecorded. Cassie provides a lovely treatment of our activities... read more

Seville is said to be one of the sexiest cities in the world. My friends and I laughed at that comment while aboard El Ave, Spain's bullet train. The journey was fast, can't believe it goes that quick! We stayed at an awesome hostel that I would definitely reccomend to anyone who's travelling in Seville. It was called the Hostal Nueva Suiza. Its right in the middle of the city. So I'm sure you thinking what's so different about Seville. Seville is in Andalusia, the most southern mainland region of Spain, also the last stronghold of the Moors, or the Muslims. The architecture is completely different there. Madrid ,minus the old city, is more of a modern place. Seville has a plethora of cobblestone streets, moorish plazas, beautiful mosks and churches, etc. Also the Alcazar was ... read more