¡Saludos desde Sevilla! : Roman Ruins of Italica and Exploring Seville

Buenas tardes! I have been busy yet again, taking advantage of everything here! Last Sunday, I took a trip to a suburb on Seville, Italica. This very small pueblo is the home of some ancient Roman ruins.

Italica

Italica was founded in 206 BC and was a pretty wealthy Roman city. It was where the families of Hadrian and Trajan came from! I am such a nerd when it comes to historic sights, so I thought it was really cool! I mean it was nothing like the streets of Pompeii, but it was still neat.

There was also a museum that we visited before the ruins, that had replicas of a street, house, and tavern in Roman times, so we could see what the ruins used to look like. I really enjoyed the museum and our guide who was very informative. I felt smart already knowing many of the facts that they told us, from my time in Italy a couple of years ago. I still am no Adara Parins though, and learned a lot of new things about Roman life!

There was a pretty well preserved amphitheater there that was pretty cool to see! It definitely brought back major nostalgia of being in Rome with my dad!

Jackie, Maya, and Me

There were many well preserved murals that were awesome to look at! Murals were very expensive, so these families must have been very wealthy!The stupid sun made all my pictures shadowy though :(

This past week, there have been many opportunities to explore the city of Seville more in-depth. I am really getting to know my way around the city, and understanding all of the history behind everything….which is fascinating! Some of the activities have included: the Plaza de España, the Torre de Oro, shopping and watching the many street performers here, going to see the Italian movie, "The Gran Belleza" with Spanish subtitles in the theater here, aaaand starting my real classes.

Plaza de España

I took a tour of the Plaza de España and its surrounding area with my program. They didn’t give us much time for pictures, but I plan on returning again, because it was so beautiful! The Plaza and many monuments and buildings in the surrounding area were built in 1928 for the Ibero-American Exposition of 1929. They really went all out for it, let me tell ya! The Plaza is an icon of Seville, and is where part of Star Wars Episode I was filmed!

The Plaza de America is in the area as well, and this is where the famous pigeons of Seville flock to, even though they are all around the city. LITERALLY all around the city. They fly right at your face and aren’t afraid of anything. Oh, and get this! On my way to class the other day I actually got pooped on …right in my hair! No me gustan las palomas!

Torre del Oro

With a couple of my friends, we finally visited the big tower that we pass everyday walking into el centro. The Torre del Oro is a military watchtower built in the beginning of the 13th century to control access of the Guadalquivir river. This river is very important to the history of Seville, because it allowed boats and goods from the New World to enter freely, but restricted the access of pirates. This allowed Seville to keep safe tons of treasure and artifacts brought from the New World by famous explorers such as Christopher Columbus.

Sarah and Me

View of Triana from the Tower

View of the Catedral from the tower

Classes

I am really excited with the start of my new classes. They all seem super fun and very useful. They are all taught in Spanish and only for American students.Half of them are at the University of Seville and half at my program's study center. They are also all 2 hours long...but we don't have class on Friday so that makes up for it!

I start out at 11 am every Monday and Wednesday with a class at the University called Cervantes y el Quijote. This class takes us through the famous novel, Don Quijote, which was written by Miguel Cervantes in 1605 and the second part in 1615. I needed the literature credit for back home, but I think I am going to really enjoy this class! The only problem is that my teacher speaks SUPER fast, SUPER quiet, and has a SUPER Andalusian accent (which means cutting off the ends of your words and having a major lisp). She spends most of the class picking on people and making them embarrassed and confused with what she is saying…you may be thinking that this sounds awful (it kind of is!), but I just look at it as a good opportunity to better my Spanish. I need at least one challenging class!

This class is it for my Mondays and Wednesdays..nice! Then on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have a class at the CIEE study center called, The Image of the United States: 100 years of myths and stereotypes. I am really excited for this class as it is US history through the perception of Spain. It will give me a whole other outlook on US history, while following along with Spanish history too. I have already learned so many interesting facts!

I then have a class again at CIEE called, Spanish for Health Professions. This will obviously be an invaluable class for me to take, as I want to someday provide health care to the Spanish-speaking population.

After that, I have to rush over to the University and take a class about Spanish Vocabulary. This is one of the classes I had to take, but I am excited for it because I just don’t know enough words in Spanish! We will also learn colloquial Spanish, which is something they don’t teach us in school, but is imperative to know to be able to understand Spanish speakers!