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Published: June 29th 2009
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Beautiful sunrise during breakfast on the boatHola, from Spain!! I’m very tired, to say the least, so I will try to make this brief (try). There’s so much to write!!!!!
Just about the entire ship woke up early Wednesday morning to eat breakfast and watch the sunrise out on the 6th deck while we docked into Cadiz. The process is quite fascinating. Someone from the pier who is more familiar with the port boards our ship when we get closer to shore and navigates the ship to the dock. Everyone was so excited to finally see land after 8 days. We were taking so many pictures! You would have thought we had never seen land before. Our “tourist” hats were on before we even got off the boat.
Getting off the ship is another big process. Imagine getting 750 crazy-excited students out of one gangway at a time, especially it being the first port. They call us out by floor to make the process a bit smoother. Then all 850 of us invaded the city... I feel bad for Cadiz! They also were hosting a British cruise line(the biggest ship I’ve ever seen... I heard it holds 3,000), which rolled in the same time we did....
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Erika and I on the first land we'd seen in a week on the ship before Spain poor Cadiz.
My first trip was an FDP (field development program) with my Geology class called “Coastal Landforms and Processes” (so intriguing I know). We all met outside the port gates and waited for our tour guide Giorgio. Walking on land for the first time in over a week was... interesting. Having to put your sea legs on 24/7 threw off my center of balance. Spain was rockin! Anyway, my Geology professor, Prof. Horns, was giving us a little prep talk on what to expect while on this tour. For the last week, I have been itching to figure out who he reminds me of and I did it! My Geology professor is Borat. Same voice, same hair, same tan, same stache... it’s awesome. Giorgio, our Geology-pro tour guide, took us through the streets of Cadiz to the other side of the peninsula where the beaches were. He definitely knew what he was talking about, however, I didn’t retain much of what he was saying... I think maybe I was a bit distracted with BEAUTIFUL Cadiz and the fact the this was my first time setting foot over seas... His accent may have had something to do with it
too 😊 We learned a lot about the coasts and beaches and rocks and stuff (quiz today... uh oh).
After the tour, a couple of my friends set off to explore the city more. Devon, the outgoing girl from Jersey who is the funniest person alive and has no idea; Rachel, the Jewish one who is really good at speaking Spanish; and Michelle, the guy from Saudi Arabia who is a horribly picky eater. After putting our feet in the water, we went on a hunt to find a bank that would exchange American money for Euros because my bank card is denied in Spain..... they said it would be easy.... NOT. The four of us went into probably 8 banks, all in which no one spoke a lick of English or would exchange it for me. Luckily, Rachel (the one who’s really good at Spanish) was with us and we were asking random people on the streets comfortably in no time. Unfortunately, I never got to exchange my money. Rachel came to my rescue the next day and took out money for me with her card which put me at ease. I felt really lost not having their
currency.... However, I did have 10 euro thanks to my dear friend Katie Cuda who gave me her left over from her 4 months abroad in Rome. That 10 euro got me really far on Wednesday 😊 Thanks girl! The currency situation thing makes things frustrating, but is quite educational. In the last four days, I have learned so much about conversion and pricing and things like that. For every dollar in America, it was .7215 Euro in Spain. The rates change daily and are very different in all the countries we are going to. We have 5 forms of currency on this voyage...
Anyway, after exploring the city some more, we sat down for lunch outside in one of the many plazas in Cadiz. In Spain, sangria is really popular. It is different everywhere you go, but this was the best I tasted the whole trip. The Spanish lifestyle... they do it right. This whole thing called ‘siesta’ is not just a fabricated element of their culture, it’s an actual event! From 2:00 to 4:00 the entire town shuts down. This is their time to take a break and enjoy life by eating lunch, having a couple drinks,
and what not. They actually do things a lot differently than we do in the states. Lunch is late, they don’t eat dinner until 11 pm, and their night life, like clubs, don’t even open until 3am. Needless to say, we were all a little thrown off by the whole thing! Lucky for us though, they have tapas, the Spanish trademark appetizer, in between meals. Tapas are delicious (right, John? Wait until you get to Spain!). They come in all shapes and sizes and are usually only about 2 euro each. I noticed that the contents of their main meals are a lot different than ours as well. Their HUGE on seafood, and random sea food. My friend Becca and I ordered eel and shrimp skewer.... delicious! Another friend had fried shark. I also tried plain anchovies. Without salt they’re really good! And here, when you order chicken, you get just chicken. When you order fish, you get just fish. It’s not like in America where we can assume our burger is going to come with fries. They keep it simple... They aren’t that big on vegetables either. I only had one salad while I was there (which happened to
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Kira, Becca and I waiting for some Andalusian bull fighting! be the best salad I’ve ever eaten... ever). Oh and their Helado (ice cream) was AMAZING! I hear Italy’s is even better... can’t wait. So after 4 days of Spanish cuisine, I’m back to stinkin ship food! I miss Spain!
I had another trip through Semester at Sea that I signed up for on the first night called “Andalucian Flamenco.” What an amazing experience. They bussed 4 bus loads of us to the outskirts of Cadiz to a small bull ring in the middle of nowhere. Right off the bus we sampled some Spanish drinks (Sherry wine, yuck! Tastes like a box of raisins) and were welcomed with a Spanish horse doing some tricks and pictures with a couple Flamenco dancers. I need to do some more research on the details of the Flamenco/Horse/Bull Fight show because there were some really cool elements that I’m sure there’s some sort of tradition behind. The Flamenco dancers wore extravagant, theatrical costumes and danced complicated dances both alone and with the horse. I think I have video of it. It was so awesome. Then there was an amateur bull fight where they didn’t kill the bull, which was probably a good thing
... I’ve had a weak stomach as of late. The rest of the night we spent in a banquet hall watching a Flamenco show over drinks and tapas.... Man, they can dance! Flamenco is very tap based with lots of technical foot work. It typically include a Flamenco singer, acoustic guitarist, and dancers. The show we saw had 3 female and 1 male dancer. They’re passion is contagious and it hit me even harder sitting in the front. They sweat through their clothing, that’s how hard they were dancing. And they didn’t stop for an hour. The musicians were unbelievable! And we danced with them at the end... Oh my gosh, I want to go back.
After Flamenco, we headed out to see what the night life was all about... of course, we were way early since no one really starts their nights until after midnight after dinner. Semester at Sea students were EVERYWHERE, which was kind of frustrating because I wanted to run into the locals more. Sure enough, we hunted long enough to find this nice bar in the middle of the city. We tasted some delicious Spanish beer and chatted it up with the locals. My
friend Becca and I stayed and talked to a couple of guys for a while, while our friends went salsa dancing. It felt awesome being able to hold some sort of conversation (if you want to call it that) in Spanish! Between the both of us, we could pretty much make everything clear. Apparently we were really funny, or “tienes arte” as they would say, because they were cracking up at our Spanglish....those Americans. I mean I’m definitely not fluent, but I know a lot more than I thought I did! And being in Spain for 4 days improved what I remember from High School so much! I guess I owe some sort of thank you to Ribskis, Kowlorat, and Eiserman, my Spanish teachers ha ha. They were right when they said you’ll never learn it well enough until you are forced to speak it. I think I even picked up an accent 😉 If I could do it all over again, I would definitely be a Spanish major and would study in Spain (nice choice, J!).
The second and third day, 7 of us hit up Seville. That will be posted soon (when I have time within studying
for tests and writing papers!). But we came back to Cadiz the night of the third day and into the last day. It was my roommate Erika’s 21st birthday on that Friday night so we went out to dinner to celebrate in Cadiz. The restaurant was called Nino’s and it was the best meal I had in Spain! My friend Becca (who is my home girl on the ship, I met her in the nurses office the third day of sailing because we were so sea sick, it was true friendship from then on. She has the best Minnesota accent, is tall, reminds me of Lauren Knaack, and is my partner in shopping crime. Everyone says we were “meant for eachother” because all we want to do is shop and eat seafood), and I ordered a goat cheese, eel, shrimp, and pizza… DELICIOUS. They came out and sang to Erika and the candle was an ACTUAL candle… like not a birthday candle… a big fat purple candle ha ha ha. Birthday candles must be an American tradition. We made it an early night because we were all so exhausted from Sevilla, so we hit up the Helado place again before
we headed back to the ship.
The last day at port, I spent shopping with a few of my friends and getting lost in the city with Becca. We wanted to shop more (I know it sounds like I’m spending a lot of money, but I only bought one thing I promise… okay maybe two) and so we planned to meet up our friends at the beach later. However, we went to the wrong beach at the opposite side of the peninsula! It’s okay, the cabs are cheap and they don’t take a tip J Four Fifty (4.50) Euro later, we made it to the right beach and hung out for a while before heading back to the ship. I had a Skype date with Kyle, so I couldn’t miss it. We grabbed our computers and ventured off to hunt down an internet cafe. They have wireless everywhere on the peninsula, mostly in the plazas. I got my internet time in, talked to Lauren and Kyle, then it was time to go back L
At each port, the ship is docked and we have full access to it. It’s essentially our home where we can come back for
meals and sleep if we so choose. There isn’t a curfew either. Every time we get on the ship from port we have to go through security, get our bags checked, empty any liquid we have opened, and swipe in. The gangway (bridge from the pier to the ship) is either 5 flights of stairs or a ramp depending on how high the tide is. When the ship is scheduled to leave after every port, we have a port time which is 2 hours before the ship leaves. Everyone has to be swiped in and back on the ship before the deadline or we get what is called “dock time” which is a certain amount of time you have to wait before you can get off the ship at the next port. They make it a big deal because if you are ten minutes late, you get a warning. If you are an hour late, you get 12 hours of dock time, and everything in between. It’s fun to go up on the deck and watch the late people running in for port time yelling “don’t leave!”. If you never make it to the ship they just leave you and you have to find your way back to America.... pretty intense, I know. Don’t worry, Mom. My “Kate is late” are closely monitored....
Well that’s enough for now....... WOW what a novel. I apologize!.... I’ll try my best to condense it down for Sevilla....
Adios, mis amigos!
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Wes McKinney
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I just now checked my ilstu account and saw these blogs! It seems like you're having a great time, hope the sea sickness doesnt get to ya too much! Have a great time in Italy, can't remember if you're getting off there or not...but remember...Lions Fountain. Kathleen loved it when she was there haha. Everyone is 21 back in the states so you will just have to catch up when you get home! Can't wait to hear from you!