a BIG catchup!

HI everyone. So sorry for the delay. I have just been super busy with the spanish life. In the past month I have enjoyed two weekends in sevilla, one in Granada, and one in barcelona! All have been very fun.

Granada:
Granada is a very nice place. It has a ton of Muslim influence. I almost felt like i was walking through Morocco again. Anyhow the Alhambra is situated here. It is a very big palace. Very beautiful and around for many centuries. It has some killer gardens and what not. I went with my program group. I think our favorite part was the buffet at the hotel. That was delicious. We also got to see King Fernando and Queen Isabella's tombs. It was somewhat eerie to see their caskets and think I was 5 feet from 2 of Spain's most influential leaders. A handful of us decided to try out the nightlife of course. In granada is it customary to give a free tapa with a beer or drink. So we drank and dined well until 4am.




Midterms:
The next week was midterms. Probably one of the most stressful weeks of my college career. 2 exams, a couple papers, and a presentation. All in Spanish. The thing about studying here is not that its harder its just it takes longer. and for me, more brain power. I have to mentally ready myself for class so i can translate everything they're saying, and still I miss some important things. And when it comes to writing papers the usual page paper takes double the effort and time. I am doing fairly well. I realized that my reading and writing have increased tremendously. It is the Listening and talking that is still difficult. I know that is it going to take me a lot more practice to be fluent in this language but I am determined.

Sevilla weekend 1:
This was weekend was very relaxing. About 6 of us stayed in town and we just caught up from sleep after the terrible week. We decided to get a wine tasting in! We took a train down to Jerez and went to the famous bodega Tio Pepe. They make Sherry wines. It was really cool. We learned all about the processes and the differences between dry sherry and sweet sherry. And of course we were tried some in the end! It was fun and cheap. A great thing to do!




Barcelona:
Barcelona is one of my top 3 favorite places of my time in Europe. I went with boo and meghan and we just had a lot of fun. It is very very different from sevilla. It is just like a smaller city. It has a huge outdoor market. Rows and rows of fresh fruit or candies. It was crazy. They also had things like a twittering bird market..? My high light of the trip was going to see Gaudi's park and church. Gaudi is just this crazy architect who designed with zero straight lines. His park was like walking through something of Dr Suess. Except Gaudi came long before Suess did. We spent our time exploring the park and then had a nice picnic in it. We then went to see his famous church. this church design drove him mad. He locked himself up in his house for 20 years designing it all the way up to his death. It started constructed 100 years ago and is still not complete. I did not go inside, but I plan to with the parents! Our nightlife was also fun. We met up with a friend from barrington. His spanish was great, so we met his spanish friends and hung around with them. The 2nd night we went to the outskirts of barcelona to a country club castle like party. It was fun!

See Facebook for pictures..

Sevilla Weekend 2:
This weekend was very nice. Thursday was our thanksgiving dinner. It was fantastic. kinda. ha It was a nice dinner held by our program. It started off with an open bar, so we couldn't be upset. It was then time for dinner and we were all expecting some american foods! But of course we should not have because we did not get it. I am not really sure what we ate. Hence the picture below. But it brought a lot of laughs with friends....And then we started a new tradition of Bar hopping after. I guess someone saw my grammar teacher out. So really, it wasn't weird at all. Friday I went and saw New moon. The twilight saga sensation. Loved it. Yes there is a movie here with english movies. It is a nice break for us all. And last night was great! We took a metro out to the edge of sevilla and met with an Intercambio named Jose. He took us to a Sevillan house party. Parties in spain are very different than parties in the US. Mainly because they have snacks and food and tons of different drinks to share. It was a fun atmosphere and we all stayed up talking Spanish with these locals until 6 am. They said our Spanish was really good, and that made me feel confident.

Internet to slow to download pictures so see Facebook album

Now I had a 2 day week and then I leave for my last big trip of the semester! London and Dublin! It is 7 girls going and we are very excited! It will be a nice 6 day break. Then we return to review week and finals! Everything is flying by now, and I am starting to become sad. But I am enjoying everyday to its fullest! =) now it is time for homework!

Happy Holiday Season everyone!

Italy

OKAY sorry for the late post I have been super busy. BUT this past weekend I had a 5 day break so my girl friend Dana and I decided to venture to Italy. We couldn´t chose just one place to go so we chose 4. Pisa, Florence, Rome, and Milan.

Thursday afternoon we boarded our ryanair flight to Pisa. Ryanair is a very inexpensive airline in europe. You can find flights for 10 euro one way or even down to 5. After you´ve checked in its free for all. You board the plan from front of back and hope you get a window seat. The flight went well except for the landing, I´m pretty sure the pilot juust went straight down and hit the tarmack with full force. We were awake after that one! We then found our hostel easily and then went and had some dinner. MY first meal in italy....spaghetti. It was the only thing offered at the resturant! But it was delicious and so was the bottle of wine. After that we ventured to see the leaning tower of Pisa. It was awesome. Just to actually see it was amazing. AT night there were zero tourists and it was all gloomy and lit up. Its the bell tower of this huge cathedral. We just wondered around these buildings for a while then went backt to the hostel and went to bed.

The next morning we woke up in order to catch our bus to florence. We were running a bit late...but luck was on our side. NO one else had signed up for the bus so basically the bus left once we got there. It was a quick 45 minute drive. We got to florence and then bought some sandwich supplies. Checked into our hostel, ate some lunch and then we were off. He hit the duomo first. A very pretty church. We hiked to the top, and yes that was very tiring but worth it. After that we went to the arno and tried to find some pretty gardens. We couldn´t so we just rested in a plaza. Then we headed to Michaelangelos piazza. A beauitful view. I feel like we did something else but I cannot remember. For dinner we had a delicious meal of ravioli and pizza. then went to bed.

We were up bright and early the next morning and off to rome. We caught our train at 645 and arrived at 11. We checked in and were off. we visited the vatican museum first. SO cool. I had no idea how old that place was. The art in there is really something. To see the sistine chapel in person was neat too. Then we booked it to the colosseum but not until after we enjoyed some very delicious paninis. We made it to the coloseeum 1 minute before it closed for the day. IT WAS FANTASTIC. haha I want to watch gladiator now. We then ended our day with the trevi fountain and some gelato. Mmmmm. Later we enjoyed a very delicious italian meal. I had pasta in a white cream sauce with gorgonzola and walnuts. We then went out with our hostel and had a great halloween. It got a bit rowdy.

840 the next morning we took a 6 hour train right to Milan. We had to because thats where we had to fly out of. This is the only place that gave us the most problems. It took us an hour to find the hostel. and then a while to find food. But we ended up eating very GOOD pizza and then I was out by 730pm. We were up again at 3am to cactch our plane. We planend to take the metro to the train station..but it was closed. IT took us 20 minutes to find an ATM. then we taxied it to the train station and just made the shuttle to the airport. We boarded our plane and got back to sevilla at 10 am. I slept until 3pm.

IT was a great trip. I fell in love with italy and almost wished I had studied italian instead. I want to go back very soon! PIctures are up on my facebook for those interested.

This weekend I have Granada!!!!

bye EVERYONE. TAKE CARE.