Well, even though I've sucked recently at blogging and I still have my past 3 weeks to blog about...I decided to write one last post while I am in Sevilla. It is Wednesday night, and although I am not leaving until Friday, I have to turn in my modem tomorrow...so it is the last night I can write this blog from Sevilla!!! Wow, I really cannot believe how time has flown, yet at the same time it feels like such a long time since I've been home. Time here has and still is a very strange concept.
Although these past two weeks have been jam packed with last nights out, last minute errands and more importantly, FINALS and final papers, I have managed to still have a great last two weeks here in Sevilla. I have somehow remained pretty calm throughout it all- it is hard to be stressed when I know I will be home with my family, friends and Aaron in such a short time. And I am also trying to enjoy Sevilla as much as I can in my last few days. I have not walked past the Cathedral this week without stopping to take a good look at it, and maybe even a picture or two on my disposable camera (I lost my camera on my birthday...oops...21??). Speaking of which, I have not forgotten about my Paris, Feria, and birthday blogs. I promise to put them up when I get home next week!
Mostly though, I can't wait to get home and share my experiences with everyone in person. I have so many pictures and stories from Sevilla and from my travels that I can't wait to share with all of you. While I am starting to get really sad about leaving Sevilla and the amazing friends I have made here this semester, I am also very excited to get back to everyone at home. I really didn't even think I would have such a hard time leaving Sevilla- but looking back on how amazing this semester was, it is much harder to comprehend leaving than I thought! But like I said, I am very excited to be home in exactly 48 hours from now!!!!! Wow.
Before I go, let me tell you all my travel plans...because I am really not looking forward to them! Haha. So I leave at 6 am to catch a cab to the Sevilla train station, where I will be taking a 6:45 am train to Madrid. From there, I will take a cab to the airport, where I have a flight at 12:35 pm to Philly (luckily I know a bunch of people on the flight- slightly less painful 8.5 hours). I land at 3 pm Philly time, then I have a 3 hour layover which would be awful EXCEPT for the fact that EMILY has the same layover as me!!! So we will get to hang out for a few hours one last time before we both go home. My flight leaves at 5:55 pm ET and gets into Chicago at 7:18 pm CT, where my parents (and Joey??) will be waiting to pick me up!!!! Overall, it will be a pretty long 20 hours of travelling...but it will definitely be worth it!
Millones de besos a todos mis amigos por la última vez de Sevilla, y que nos veamos muy pronto :)
SEE YOU ALL SOOONNNNN!!!!!!!!! Adios España, ¡te quiero!
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Monday, May 4, 2009
The Time I Went to Africa for the Weekend
After Lagos, it was pretty rough going back to school after an 11 day vacation. But I only had one week until I went to Morocco!! This trip was organized through my interest group, which I think I mentioned before. My program has a bunch of different interest groups, and I decided to join with with Jillian called 4 Cultures: Jews, Christians, Muslims and Gypsies. Our trip consisted of about 25 students, a professor from our school, and a 23 year old Spanish student...both of whom were very cool!! The best part about this trip was that we only had to pay 50 euros since it was through our program. I really don't think I'll ever have the opportunity again to go to Africa for 50 euro!!
We left early Friday morning and spent a lot of the day traveling. We had to take a bus, a ferry, and another bus to get to our first destination and hotel where we stayed both nights in Tetuan. Luckily Morocco is 2 hours behind, so we picked up some time in order for more sightseeing. We checked into our hotel which was also unbelievably nice (I was roommates with Jillian and this other random girl who I can't even remember her name) and then headed out. Our tour guide this day was hilarious, his name was...something Arabic, but he told us to call him Michael Douglas because he "looked" like him (wrong, he did not, but it was still funny). Our first stop was an art workshop/academy...for kids who do not want to go to traditional school, they can go to art school basically and learn that instead. Unfortunately the students weren't there when we went because it was the time of day on Friday where Muslims go to the mosques and pray, but we saw tons of cool crafts; woodwork, ridiculously intricate painting, plaster, leather, etc. It was cool.
After that, we walked through the medina (city center) of Tetuan, which was definitely a highlight of my whole experience in Morocco. It was such a shock seeing some of the things beind sold in the markets. Upon first walking up we saw a huge cardboard circle filled with baby chicks. After walking a little more we saw a large variety of bread, fruits, eggs, and vegetables, and then your less typical things such as oh you know, entire dead fish of all shapes and sizes, dead headless chickens hanging from stands, large parts of cow meat just dangling everywhere. The usual! It was crazy. It also smelled HORRIFIC and there was literally blood on the sidewalks in some places from the freshly dead products. It was ridiculous, but very very cool to see.
A man carrying bread in the market
After that pleasant experience we walked through some very small and windy streets and then made it to lunch, thank god because we were all starving, even after the dead animals. We had a good first taste of Moroccan food: vegetable soup, little chicken shish kebabs, delicious couscous, and then for dessert orange slices with cinnamon on them. After lunch we had Arabic tea, which is definitely something everyone should try at some point...it is basically REALLY sweet, minty tea. It's pretty good actually.
After lunch we did more touring around the medina. Walking around the markets here was really one of my favorite parts of the trip...it was just so cool seeing all the different things they were selling (meat, grains, produce, beans, nuts, dyes, fabrics, shoes, clothing, soaps, herbs, etc.). We also saw the Royal Palace, went to a leather tannery (AWFUL smelling- they gave us each a sprig of spearmint to sniff while we walked though), and we even went to this tiny little hole in the wall synagogue! Later, we went back to the restaurant we had eaten at previously and listened to a Morrocan university student (who spoke English) talk to us about Islam in Morocco over some tea. It was very interesting! After the talk we went back to our hotel, waited a little, had dinner in the hotel dining room, hung out a little after, and called it a night really early because we were EXHAUSTED.
On Saturday, we had to wake up very early, grab some breakfast in the hotel (Moroccan breakfast was pretty interesting!), and hop on the bus to go to our first stop of the day, a town called Assilah. We had a few hours to explore Assilah, which was a small but very pretty coast town. We walked along the coast, saw beautiful murals painted on the white walls of the town, and stopped at a lookout point for a beautiful view. Then we explored the tiny streets some more, and did some shopping in the markets. Shopping in Morocco is unlike anything I've ever experienced. More on that later though, as I didn't really buy anything in this town...I was still warming up.
Beautiful view in Assilah
Our next stop was Tangier, and we got there just in time for lunch. For lunch we had salad, and then a typical Moroccan dish called pastela. Basically it was seasoned chicken and almonds inside a sphere shaped pastry, with cinnamon and sugar on it. Needless to say, it was very interesting. For dessert we had tea (obviously) and some Arabic treats (most have almonds or some type of nut involved, very good though). After lunch, we headed to the Caves of Hercules, which was a very cool cave where supposedly Hercules rested after his 12 labors (don't really know what that means....never saw that Disney movie). The coolest part was that there was a hole in the rocks looking out to the ocean that looked like it was the shape of Africa. It was very pretty- check it out in my pics!
We left the caves, got back on the bus, and took a short ride to our next activity: riding CAMELS! This was one of the coolest parts of the trip. Even though we each only rode for about a minute, it was such a fun and unique experience. Camels have such awkwardly tall legs that when they stand up or sit back down, it feels like you are going to fall off for sure!! Also, obviously my camel had some sort of wetness on the blanket covering its back...which I can ONLY assume was camel pee. Lovely, my calves were wet after getting off. My friend Becky took some good pictures of me camel-riding though, so check them out! After the camels, we had about 20 minutes to walk on a beautiful beach for a while, until it was time to get back on the bus and head to the city of Tangier.
Me as the camel is standing up!
A stop sign...in Arabic
We got there, toured around the medina a little (unfortunately our guide from Friday got sick, so we had a weird guide on Saturday who basically just smoked cigarettes the whole time), and then had some free time to walk around ourselves and do some shopping. Here is when we really started to get into the Moroccan shopping. Basically, if you've ever experienced people trying to sell you crap in Mexico on the streets, imagine that times about...500. These Moroccan street vendors/store owners are INSANE. They start at such a high price and you have to barter them...and in order to do so you have to REALLY barter, they don't give in easily!! Making it especially difficult was the fact that we had to barter in dirham (the Moroccan currency)- as if converting euros to dollars all the time didn't already confuse me enough! It was intense but also pretty funny. My favorite part was that all the people spoke so many languages and did so much code switching in order or to cater to their buyers. You would hear a vendor talking to his friend in Arabic one minute, then speaking to someone in French, then two seconds later trying to sell his stuff to me in Spanish, and if I didn't answer quick enough, he'd start speaking English. It was pretty cool actually. Needless to say, I did some good shopping in Tangier, and then we headed back to our hotel in Tetuan where we ate dinner, watched a little of the and once again went to bed very early!
On Sunday we had to get up super early so we could eat breakfast, check out, and get on the bus by 7 am, where we then headed to our last city, Chefchaouen. This city was SO cool- all the walls were blue!!! We had a guided tour for a while (in the rain) with another weirdo guide, and although I had a hard time paying attention to what he was saying, it was so cool walking around the town and seeing the blue walls- I felt like I was in a Dr. Seuss book. We also saw some beautiful mountains, hills, and streams. After the tour, we had some more free time to wander around and shop...this was when I did my serious shopping. All in all, I exchanged 50 euro into dirham- and came back with a TON of stuff!! Morocco treated me well. After shopping we had lunch, and then got back on the bus to start our long journey back to Sevilla.
The beautiful blue city of Chefchaouen
Overall, Morocco was a VERY cool trip. I had a great time, and had great people in my interest group to experience it with!! I feel like I've skimmed over a lot of details about this trip...there's just so much to tell! Luckily I will be home in 9 DAYS (!!!!) and can fill you all in on more details then!!! Here are my pictures from Morocco:
Morocco Pt 1- Tetuan
Morocco Pt 2- Assilah, Tangier, and Chefchaouen
We left early Friday morning and spent a lot of the day traveling. We had to take a bus, a ferry, and another bus to get to our first destination and hotel where we stayed both nights in Tetuan. Luckily Morocco is 2 hours behind, so we picked up some time in order for more sightseeing. We checked into our hotel which was also unbelievably nice (I was roommates with Jillian and this other random girl who I can't even remember her name) and then headed out. Our tour guide this day was hilarious, his name was...something Arabic, but he told us to call him Michael Douglas because he "looked" like him (wrong, he did not, but it was still funny). Our first stop was an art workshop/academy...for kids who do not want to go to traditional school, they can go to art school basically and learn that instead. Unfortunately the students weren't there when we went because it was the time of day on Friday where Muslims go to the mosques and pray, but we saw tons of cool crafts; woodwork, ridiculously intricate painting, plaster, leather, etc. It was cool.
After that, we walked through the medina (city center) of Tetuan, which was definitely a highlight of my whole experience in Morocco. It was such a shock seeing some of the things beind sold in the markets. Upon first walking up we saw a huge cardboard circle filled with baby chicks. After walking a little more we saw a large variety of bread, fruits, eggs, and vegetables, and then your less typical things such as oh you know, entire dead fish of all shapes and sizes, dead headless chickens hanging from stands, large parts of cow meat just dangling everywhere. The usual! It was crazy. It also smelled HORRIFIC and there was literally blood on the sidewalks in some places from the freshly dead products. It was ridiculous, but very very cool to see.
A man carrying bread in the marketAfter that pleasant experience we walked through some very small and windy streets and then made it to lunch, thank god because we were all starving, even after the dead animals. We had a good first taste of Moroccan food: vegetable soup, little chicken shish kebabs, delicious couscous, and then for dessert orange slices with cinnamon on them. After lunch we had Arabic tea, which is definitely something everyone should try at some point...it is basically REALLY sweet, minty tea. It's pretty good actually.
After lunch we did more touring around the medina. Walking around the markets here was really one of my favorite parts of the trip...it was just so cool seeing all the different things they were selling (meat, grains, produce, beans, nuts, dyes, fabrics, shoes, clothing, soaps, herbs, etc.). We also saw the Royal Palace, went to a leather tannery (AWFUL smelling- they gave us each a sprig of spearmint to sniff while we walked though), and we even went to this tiny little hole in the wall synagogue! Later, we went back to the restaurant we had eaten at previously and listened to a Morrocan university student (who spoke English) talk to us about Islam in Morocco over some tea. It was very interesting! After the talk we went back to our hotel, waited a little, had dinner in the hotel dining room, hung out a little after, and called it a night really early because we were EXHAUSTED.
On Saturday, we had to wake up very early, grab some breakfast in the hotel (Moroccan breakfast was pretty interesting!), and hop on the bus to go to our first stop of the day, a town called Assilah. We had a few hours to explore Assilah, which was a small but very pretty coast town. We walked along the coast, saw beautiful murals painted on the white walls of the town, and stopped at a lookout point for a beautiful view. Then we explored the tiny streets some more, and did some shopping in the markets. Shopping in Morocco is unlike anything I've ever experienced. More on that later though, as I didn't really buy anything in this town...I was still warming up.
Beautiful view in AssilahOur next stop was Tangier, and we got there just in time for lunch. For lunch we had salad, and then a typical Moroccan dish called pastela. Basically it was seasoned chicken and almonds inside a sphere shaped pastry, with cinnamon and sugar on it. Needless to say, it was very interesting. For dessert we had tea (obviously) and some Arabic treats (most have almonds or some type of nut involved, very good though). After lunch, we headed to the Caves of Hercules, which was a very cool cave where supposedly Hercules rested after his 12 labors (don't really know what that means....never saw that Disney movie). The coolest part was that there was a hole in the rocks looking out to the ocean that looked like it was the shape of Africa. It was very pretty- check it out in my pics!
We left the caves, got back on the bus, and took a short ride to our next activity: riding CAMELS! This was one of the coolest parts of the trip. Even though we each only rode for about a minute, it was such a fun and unique experience. Camels have such awkwardly tall legs that when they stand up or sit back down, it feels like you are going to fall off for sure!! Also, obviously my camel had some sort of wetness on the blanket covering its back...which I can ONLY assume was camel pee. Lovely, my calves were wet after getting off. My friend Becky took some good pictures of me camel-riding though, so check them out! After the camels, we had about 20 minutes to walk on a beautiful beach for a while, until it was time to get back on the bus and head to the city of Tangier.
Me as the camel is standing up!
A stop sign...in ArabicWe got there, toured around the medina a little (unfortunately our guide from Friday got sick, so we had a weird guide on Saturday who basically just smoked cigarettes the whole time), and then had some free time to walk around ourselves and do some shopping. Here is when we really started to get into the Moroccan shopping. Basically, if you've ever experienced people trying to sell you crap in Mexico on the streets, imagine that times about...500. These Moroccan street vendors/store owners are INSANE. They start at such a high price and you have to barter them...and in order to do so you have to REALLY barter, they don't give in easily!! Making it especially difficult was the fact that we had to barter in dirham (the Moroccan currency)- as if converting euros to dollars all the time didn't already confuse me enough! It was intense but also pretty funny. My favorite part was that all the people spoke so many languages and did so much code switching in order or to cater to their buyers. You would hear a vendor talking to his friend in Arabic one minute, then speaking to someone in French, then two seconds later trying to sell his stuff to me in Spanish, and if I didn't answer quick enough, he'd start speaking English. It was pretty cool actually. Needless to say, I did some good shopping in Tangier, and then we headed back to our hotel in Tetuan where we ate dinner, watched a little of the and once again went to bed very early!
On Sunday we had to get up super early so we could eat breakfast, check out, and get on the bus by 7 am, where we then headed to our last city, Chefchaouen. This city was SO cool- all the walls were blue!!! We had a guided tour for a while (in the rain) with another weirdo guide, and although I had a hard time paying attention to what he was saying, it was so cool walking around the town and seeing the blue walls- I felt like I was in a Dr. Seuss book. We also saw some beautiful mountains, hills, and streams. After the tour, we had some more free time to wander around and shop...this was when I did my serious shopping. All in all, I exchanged 50 euro into dirham- and came back with a TON of stuff!! Morocco treated me well. After shopping we had lunch, and then got back on the bus to start our long journey back to Sevilla.
The beautiful blue city of ChefchaouenOverall, Morocco was a VERY cool trip. I had a great time, and had great people in my interest group to experience it with!! I feel like I've skimmed over a lot of details about this trip...there's just so much to tell! Luckily I will be home in 9 DAYS (!!!!) and can fill you all in on more details then!!! Here are my pictures from Morocco:
Morocco Pt 1- Tetuan
Morocco Pt 2- Assilah, Tangier, and Chefchaouen
LAGOS!
Well, it's official...I have become a bad blogger. Now that I am nearing the end of my semester abroad, I am finding myself with very little time to blog about my experiences because I am really trying to soak everything in before it's all over! I'll try to give a brief synopsis of each of my past 3 trips though, as well as the holiday we just had in Sevilla.
I'll start with my trip to Lagos, Portugal April 10-12th. I had just gone to Italy, had a few days in Sevilla for Semana Santa, and then headed off once again to Lagos, which is a beach town in the Algarve region of Portugal. Chrisy, Franny, Jillian and I, along with a bunch of other friends of ours, went through a travel company called DiscoverSevilla, so it was very nice not having to deal with anything...we did sort of feel like we were on a high school field trip at some points though. Overall, we had an AMAZING weekend in Lagos. Despite some questionable weather, it was an absolutely beautiful place.
We took a bus there early Friday morning, and arrived at our gorgeous hotel in the afternoon. I shared a room with Chrisy and Franny and we were basically in awe the whole weekend of how nice the hotel was, especially compared to our homestays! After settling in, we headed down to a beach called Praia Dona Ana. Although it drizzled for a few minutes, was chilly and windy, and the clouds kept going in and out, the beach was absolutely breathtaking. One of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. We got some lunch and spent a few hours at the beach...basically freezing the whole time haha. At night, we went into the small town area of Lagos and had dinner at a great restaurant called Nah Nah Bah and afterwards headed to a bar where DiscoverSevilla was having a party (high school? we even got fake money to buy drinks with). It ended up being very fun though, mainly because Franny and I danced as though we were at a Bat Mitzvah the whole time.
On Saturday we got up and met in the hotel lobby to go on a "Sangria Cruise"...aka we went out on a big sailboat and they came around with Sangria, which pretty much no one wanted to drink much of since it was 11 am. Although it was pretty cold for most of the sailboat ride, it was still very fun, and so pretty! We sailed for about 40 minutes and then anchored near these beautiful grottos, where 9 people at a time got to go on a little motor boat to explore them. This was my favorite part of the boat ride. The waves were huge and it was so windy, so we were laughing throughout the entire ride. On top of that, the grottos were SO cool. I got some great pictures, check them out in the facebook link I will post at the bottom!
After the boat, we headed back to the same beach, where it was finally nice out by the afternoon!!! Despite putting on sunscreen, I still got fried. Obviously. And we're talking genuine Jessica Seiler burns here, as in bright red with fingerprints and all (don't worry, I peeled like crazy about a week later. My belly button even peeled...oversharing?). Anyways, it was a really fun day at the beach regardless. At night, they took us to this place called Cabo San Vicence, which was believed to be the end of the world back in the day, and I can see why! Although it was the windiest experience of my entire life (my hair literally was standing up straight the whole time), it was an amazing view. We watched the sunset there, and even though it was a pretty cloudy one, it was still beautiful. After that, we went back to the hotel. Chrisy, Franny and I had bought food from a store and so we cooked ourselves a nice little family dinner!! It was a lot of fun. We went out again into the town and met up with some other friends of ours on the trip, where more embarassing dancing took place. It was lots of fun even though I was pretty exhausted!
On Sunday we headed to the beach one last time. It was a pretty nice day, some clouds here and there but overall nice! We had a lot of fun just hanging out, and especially people watching. Highlights included an OBESE woman playing paddle ball while wearing a pink bikini skimpier than mine, and a 10-ish year old child who we could not figure out for the LIFE of us if "it" was a boy or girl (we had decided officially on boy, until we later saw it in line for the girls bathroom!!!). Clearly, it was another great day at the beach. We headed back to Sevilla around 6 and got home around 10. It was an amazing weekend!!! Check out the pictures here (and let me know if these links don't work!):
Lagos Pictures!
I'll start with my trip to Lagos, Portugal April 10-12th. I had just gone to Italy, had a few days in Sevilla for Semana Santa, and then headed off once again to Lagos, which is a beach town in the Algarve region of Portugal. Chrisy, Franny, Jillian and I, along with a bunch of other friends of ours, went through a travel company called DiscoverSevilla, so it was very nice not having to deal with anything...we did sort of feel like we were on a high school field trip at some points though. Overall, we had an AMAZING weekend in Lagos. Despite some questionable weather, it was an absolutely beautiful place.
We took a bus there early Friday morning, and arrived at our gorgeous hotel in the afternoon. I shared a room with Chrisy and Franny and we were basically in awe the whole weekend of how nice the hotel was, especially compared to our homestays! After settling in, we headed down to a beach called Praia Dona Ana. Although it drizzled for a few minutes, was chilly and windy, and the clouds kept going in and out, the beach was absolutely breathtaking. One of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen. We got some lunch and spent a few hours at the beach...basically freezing the whole time haha. At night, we went into the small town area of Lagos and had dinner at a great restaurant called Nah Nah Bah and afterwards headed to a bar where DiscoverSevilla was having a party (high school? we even got fake money to buy drinks with). It ended up being very fun though, mainly because Franny and I danced as though we were at a Bat Mitzvah the whole time.
On Saturday we got up and met in the hotel lobby to go on a "Sangria Cruise"...aka we went out on a big sailboat and they came around with Sangria, which pretty much no one wanted to drink much of since it was 11 am. Although it was pretty cold for most of the sailboat ride, it was still very fun, and so pretty! We sailed for about 40 minutes and then anchored near these beautiful grottos, where 9 people at a time got to go on a little motor boat to explore them. This was my favorite part of the boat ride. The waves were huge and it was so windy, so we were laughing throughout the entire ride. On top of that, the grottos were SO cool. I got some great pictures, check them out in the facebook link I will post at the bottom!
After the boat, we headed back to the same beach, where it was finally nice out by the afternoon!!! Despite putting on sunscreen, I still got fried. Obviously. And we're talking genuine Jessica Seiler burns here, as in bright red with fingerprints and all (don't worry, I peeled like crazy about a week later. My belly button even peeled...oversharing?). Anyways, it was a really fun day at the beach regardless. At night, they took us to this place called Cabo San Vicence, which was believed to be the end of the world back in the day, and I can see why! Although it was the windiest experience of my entire life (my hair literally was standing up straight the whole time), it was an amazing view. We watched the sunset there, and even though it was a pretty cloudy one, it was still beautiful. After that, we went back to the hotel. Chrisy, Franny and I had bought food from a store and so we cooked ourselves a nice little family dinner!! It was a lot of fun. We went out again into the town and met up with some other friends of ours on the trip, where more embarassing dancing took place. It was lots of fun even though I was pretty exhausted!
On Sunday we headed to the beach one last time. It was a pretty nice day, some clouds here and there but overall nice! We had a lot of fun just hanging out, and especially people watching. Highlights included an OBESE woman playing paddle ball while wearing a pink bikini skimpier than mine, and a 10-ish year old child who we could not figure out for the LIFE of us if "it" was a boy or girl (we had decided officially on boy, until we later saw it in line for the girls bathroom!!!). Clearly, it was another great day at the beach. We headed back to Sevilla around 6 and got home around 10. It was an amazing weekend!!! Check out the pictures here (and let me know if these links don't work!):
Lagos Pictures!
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