It's been a week!

A week ago today we started our adventure!  We all feel like it has been such a long week, but not in a bad way.  We have toured three cities, arrived in Sevilla and began classes.  The days here seem so long because the sun doesn't start to set until about 9:30.  So we end up doing A LOT with our days, it's great! Classes started on Monday.  I am taking International Marketing and Spanish.  Both of my teachers are awesome and I am already learning so much.

Today was a city holiday in Sevilla, dia del San Fernando.  Classes were cancelled and there was a huge festival at the church.  The Sevillan's are assigned a saint when it is their birthday and when it is your saints "day" it is almost more important than your birthday.  So on this day Sevillan's lined up at the church to view San Fernando's mummified body.  Someone said the line was over an hour wait!  But to them it is very important to visit your saint.  This is my understanding of it.  Pretty cool.  However, we ditched the city for an hour bus ride to the beach, Matalascañas!  The day at the beach was perfect.  It was supposedly so hot in the city (there is hardly any airflow) but at the beach there was a nice comfortable breeze.  We met up with some people from our program there and all just spent the day relaxing.  This was much needed for everyone because we have had a tight schedule ever since we arrived in Spain and we are all still trying to adjust.  It's fun to meet people in our program, they come from all over the United States.  We have been hanging out with a group of girls from Pennsylvania.  They go to OBX during the summer too!

Living in a different city is quite an experience.  There is so much to see all the time!  One of my favorite things is trying the little cafes along the way to class.  Sometimes we will stop and get gelato or coffe or a pastry.  However, a lot of coffee places do not do to go coffees.  So we have to make some time to sit down and finish it.  Today we caved in and got Starbucks because we were running a little late for class and we wanted an iced coffee (also something they don't do much of).

This weekend we are headed to Cadîz for the day Saturday.  There we will be touring a winery and seeing a horse show.  It should be fun.  The following weekend we have a four day weekend so we are taking a long trip to Lagos, Portugal!  I am so excited to spend a full weekend at the beach.  The pictures I've seen are incredible.

La Playa 

Chicas de España (Left to right: Megan, Maggie, me, Jess and Christina)

Back row: Jess, Megan, Christina, me

Front: Mags and Carly

Arriving in Sevilla

We have arrived in Sevilla!  Talk about culture shock.  Our host mom, Lola, speaks zero English.  Neither does her daughter or granddaughters.  I was this close to running out of the door crying.  Here in Spain they speak with a very thick accent (yes, Mamaw if you are reading this I know you are saying "I told you so!") and it is different than the Spanish I learned in high school.  So it is harder for me to pick up on their words.  However, after talking with Lola (and specifically her seven year old granddaughter) for a few hours I have started to build my confidence and am trying to speak to her more and more.  Thank goodness for Christina!  She has been so helpful with translating and asking questions for me.

Sevilla is different than I expected.  Our guides talked the city up quite a bit but we were a bit surprised when we arrived in town.  It is a quaint little city but it seems more modern than Toledo.  The streets are wider here and the buildings are not as old or intricate.  We have not seen much of the city yet though, we came directly to our host house.  Tomorrow we begin classes so we will be able to tour much more of the city then.

Until next time...adios!

Toledo

Hello from Toledo, Spain!  We arrived here this morning after leaving Madrid.  We thought Madrid was awesome....but Toledo is ten times better than Madrid.  And our tour guides are telling us that these cities are just warm up cities for what we are about to see in Sevilla tomorrow!

Once we arrived in Toledo we did a panoramic bus tour.  The city is so old, used to be the capital of Spain.  So there is a lot of history here.  After completing our bus tour we went into town and did a walking tour.  We got to tour a Monastery church which was breath taking.  The gardens were wonderful and the architecture was so impressive.  From there we walked the streets to a Synagog which is no longer in use.  We learned that ten Jewish families make up a Jewish community and they have not been living here in Toledo for many years.  So therefore they turned the Synagog into an art gallery/museum.  After our tours we had some free time to eat lunch and explore the city.  Our guides originally told us that Toledo looks like an amusement park and after spending time in the city today that is exactly how I would describe it.  It does not even seem real I cannot believe people are lucky enough to live in such a beautiful place.  There are lanterns hanging from sheets (which provide shade) to provide light on the streets at night.  The buildings look like they come straight out of a movie.  It is so interesting to look at.  Tonight is our only night in Toledo, we head to Sevilla tomorrow to meet our host mom!

Backtracking to last night - there was a huge futbol final happening in Madrid against Barcelona and Athletica Club.  Barcelona won but it was so fun to see everyone get so into the game!  We thought it might be similar to the Super Bowl here in America.  We ate a nice dinner last night with some other girls from our group and after we went to watch a bit of the game.

Wifi is extremely difficult to come by here.  Must be a culture thing which is extremely weird to me!  Something else I find myself doing a lot is attempting to make eye contact with others I am passing on the sidewalk.  Everyone here walks with their head down and they do not look at you.  It is so unusual.

Heading into the city of Toledo 

Toledo 

Toledo 

Toledo 

Monastery 

Monastery 

Monastery 

Cathedral 

Streets of Toledo 

Streets of Toledo

We feel like we have been here forever already!  We are enjoying our time but are already missing our families :)

Touring Madrid

We did a walking tour through the city today. However, we took the tour with a Spanish speaking tour guide (which we thought was a good idea at the time) so we learned NOTHING. Which was very disappointing. Here are some pictures.

Random garden in the middle of the city

Outdoor cafes are everywhere! 

Lunch was delicious (left: jamon y tomato right: El Pichi - fried calamari sandwich) 

Cathedral outside the art museum today....stunning 

Finally Arrived!

Streets of Madrid 

Sangria at dinner

Dinner first night...tapas 

Beautiful senoritas! 

Our hotel in Madrid 

Agricultural building 

Front of our hotel

Outside our hotel room looking up

Looking down...

Hola family and friends!  We finally arrived in Madrid this afternoon.  It has been a long day and a half of travel and we are exhausted to say the least.  After a flight diversion and a few delays we made it into Madrid at about 11:30.  We then waited at the airport for a few hours for everyone else to arrive and left there around two.  It is 4:38pm here right now.  Tonight we have a meeting at five and a bus tour at six.  After that we will probably get our hands on some Spanish cousine and hit the hay.  I promise to have some pictures uploaded tomorrow...beautiful city!  Adios!