Mi hogar Sevilla :)

Wow, have I gotten behind on my blogs…I really apologize for that! The weeks have been sadly flying by and I have been keeping very busy. I realized that you guys have been hearing about all of the highlights of my time here in Sevilla, but do not have an idea of how I spend an average week. Well here we go:

Monday: 

I wake up and go for a run by the river with my friend Sarah to make us feel that we are somewhat still in shape and healthy…haha. I then walk to my Don Quijote class with my friend, Casey, which is about a 30 minute walk. After class I will sometimes walk around a little or write in my journal in a plaza or park before riding the Sevici back to my house for lunch. Sevici’s are the bikes that can be found stationed all around the city that you can ride from one station to the other for a not too bad of an annual price! It definitely saves me a lot of time and is quite fun as well :) After a large and delicious lunch, I have to catch the bus to head across town to volunteer at the school for 3-5 year olds. That is always an adventure! The kids have really taken a liking to me and even drew pictures for me the other day! After that I usually head back to my house and work on homework or plan trips while chilling with my host family watching telenovelas and futbol.

Tuesday: 

I have to get up early to bike to my 9 am class with my friend, Evan. Tuesdays I have a full day of classes until 5 pm. During my break between classes I usually head to a cafe to get a coffee and do some homework or plan trips. During a 30 min break between my last two classes I eat my bocadillo (a type of sub sandwich with meat and cheese) that my host family packed me for lunch. After my last class my friend Sarah and I usually head to a cafe and work on homework together for a little bit before heading home for dinner and chilling with my host family. 

Bocadillo: Yes it is almost a loaf of bread long and yes there is a load of ham and cheese with no veggies!

Wednesday: 

Wednesdays are very much like Mondays during the day. I get up and run and then head to class. I then have the afternoon free for catching up on homework or trip planning, or exploring more of Sevilla (with a lengthy and delicious lunch with my host family fit in there too!) I then meet with my intercambio every Wednesday evening. My intercambio is a college-aged student who is learning to speak English. We spend a couple of hours every week walking around Sevilla, him speaking English and me speaking Spanish. It a very fun and helpful way to improve my language skills! He's great, because he shows me places around Sevilla that are more local and off the beaten track. I then go to my interest group meeting after, where we have done many fun, cultural activities like cooking classes, flamenco shows, and boat rides on the river. After a fun night I head back home starving to go eat some dinner at 11 pm and then go to bed pretty much right after...I don't think I will ever like the dinner schedule here!

Thursday: 

I have the same busy class schedule as Tuesdays, so up until 5 pm everything is the same as Tuesday. After class I sometimes will be productive with Sarah and work on homework again or I will just go relax at a bar/cafe/the river to celebrate the week being over (these demanding 4 day weeks I have are just brutal :p). Thursday nights are my nights for hanging with friends either trying a new restaurant (there are so many good ones! But don't try the authentic American one...ewwww), going to a movie (we recently went and saw a hilarious, romantic comedy Spanish film called, Ocho Apellidos Vascos), or going out for the night. 

Friday:

Fridays are usually my relaxing days, except the few times I started my travels on this day. I sleep in and then have cooking lessons with my host dad. After a nice, relaxing lunch I spend the afternoon catching up on work and spending time with my friends either relaxing by the river or going shopping.

Saturday and Sundays:

Most weekends I have been traveling around Spain on these days. If I am in Sevilla on Sundays though everything is closed all day, so it is just another day of relaxing or catching up on work. 

Writing this it sounds like I have so much time on my hands! And I guess compared to my life in the US I do, but somehow the days just manage to fly by. I think a lot of the time during the day also gets put into mealtime, because it is always an event to be gone through slowly. Lunch is around 2:30-3 pm everyday and dinner is around 9:30-10:30 pm everyday. My body has finally become accustomed to this weird schedule, but my brain still thinks it is kinda stupid. What is the point of eating dinner right before you go to bed? You don't need energy to sleep! Oh well, at least the food is delicious! As I mentioned before I have been learning to cook many meals with my host dad, who is a very good cook! 

Spanish Dishes I have Learned:

If I had to sum up the Spanish diet in three foods I would say: bread, olive oil, and ham. They have about 50 different types of ham (probably an exaggeration, but still!) and every single type of food is made with lots of olive oil. Bread is served with every meal and it's no wonder bread...it is a freakin fresh loaf per person! Thankfully, the Mediterranean diet is full of lots of veggies, yum!! :) Everything is very flavorful and delicious, but nothing here is spicy..they hate spicy! They also eat dessert after every meal...but dessert means a piece of fruit or yogurt! If I get a snack during the day it is either a postre (pastry) or some fruit.

(I got the photos off the internet, because I would feel rude bringing my camera to the dinner table! I found photos that look the same though, don't worry!)

Estofado de ternera y patatas

This is one of my favorite dishes! It is beef and potato stew with a variety of vegetables in it.  I think I may like this one so much, because it tastes a lot like something I would have at home. The meat is always soooo tender!

Espinacas con garbanzos:

                       

This is one of the most popular Spanish dishes that is also probably my favorite. It is spinach and garbanzo beans with usually an over-easy egg on top. The mixture of the few spices they use and olive oil make it very flavorful! And it is so healthy as well! 

Pisto:

                         

Another very healthy, but delicious meal! It is essentially a ton of veggies (my favorite!) covered with a tomato paste sauce that has a sweet flavor and of course with an egg on top for the protein! 

Lentejas y Verduras

Once again a healthy meal haha.This meal is lentils with potatoes and a bunch of vegetables and cooked in tons of olive oil of course! A little bit of Chorrizo, a very popular type of sausage, can be a added as well.

Tortilla de Patatas

                             

This is a SUPER common food in Spain. We have it at least 2 nights a week for dinner. It is simply an egg omelette with fried potatoes inside. As simple as that! You don't eat the whole thing though, you just cut it like a pie. 

Accompanied with lunch is always cheese (the best in the world!) and bread. Many times there is also green olives or a salad, followed by fruit for dessert. All of the dishes above are eaten for lunch (the largest meal of the day) except for the tortilla de patatas. For dinner we will usually have that or some sort of fried fish with some sort of light soup. We have also had pork-chops with a light soup or have had green beans with ham. Dinner is always lighter and more chill.  

Also, my most popular guilty pleasures afuera de mi casa.

Croquetas: Fried goodness! They have potatoes and then your choice of meat inside which is pretty much ground up to a creamy form. Sounds weird, tastes like heaven!

                               

Churros con Chocolate: The churros here are super popular for a snack or even more popular for breakfast! They are different than what we know as churros, because they are hollow and more crispy. They are dipped in hot liquid chocolate.

                                 

There are many pastry shops in Spain and my friends and I have gotten to know them all very well! My favorite ones are the croissants filled with chocolate and covered with glaze.

                           

Fried eggplants with honey: This sounds disgusting, I know...but it is sooo good! They aren't as popular in Sevilla, but when I traveled to Cordoba or Málaga (other cities in Andalucia) I made sure to get some!

                               

Even though I can miss home sometimes, I am dreading the end of my time here! I love the laid-back atmosphere, the beautiful streets full of history, being surrounded by Spanish language (which I can finally understand now!), and of course all of the wonderful friends I have made here. Time needs to slow down!

¡España, el Reino Unido, y Marruecos en un dia!

Sooooo no big deal...but I went to Africa two weeks ago...after a quick visit to the United Kingdom first of course! I had one of my best weekends yet as I took a weekend trip to Gibraltar and Morocco with a travel company here called We Love Spain. Along with my three friends and me, there were probably 50 other study abroad students from around Spain. There were even some Germans in our group studying in Sevilla! 

Gibraltar

Gibraltar is a drive of about 2.5 hours from Sevilla. The bus stopped in a nice little Spanish town and we simply strolled on over the border into the United Kingdom! There was just one little hut with "security" that barely looked at our passports as we walked past. Coming out of the hut literally the first thing I saw:

Really England? Really!? Haha Gibraltar was one of the strangest places I have been. This picture isn't the best, but you can see that the Spanish flag and the English flag are only feet away from each other! On one side the signs are all in Spanish, but the second you pass the border everything is in English. The people there even have real English accents! Our guide said words in English that I have never even heard before...I think it was a word for blinker. I want to know if the people there are also fluent in Spanish. I have to imagine that they would have to leave the city sometimes for shopping or business. Do they have to bring their passport with them to visit the mall? How strange! 

Also, in case you lost your way in Gibraltar and didn't know where Spain was..

So the main event of Gibraltar is the giant rock formation in the middle of the town. How pretty! Being on the coast Gibraltar was a very important city for military reasons throughout history. There were many old forts in the city.

With our guide we took a small bus up the rock formation! Halfway up we stopped for a breathtaking view of the ocean!

A nice view of Africa!

Emily, Me, Nick, and Beth

It was a super windy day!

There was also a beautiful mosque near the viewing point. It was the first time that I had heard a Muslim prayer call! How neat!

At the top of the rock of Gibraltar there is a small cave. It was a little tacky with multicolored lights, but the rock formations were cool!

When we left the cave we got a little surprise...monkeys!! The rock is full of hundreds of Barbary Macaques running around and causing trouble! Most were very friendly and were not shy at all! There was only one who was an angry little fellow and would growl/hiss at us.

There was a little family that were picking bugs off of each other...so precious! They had a little baby that was a curious little guy! He would pull at people's scarves or jewelry. He even pulled Emily's hair! He must have a thing for blonde's. 

The little guy in action!

¡Que bonita!

The monkeys took over the bus behind us! 

After our few hours enjoying Gibraltar, we took the ferry over to Africa! The ferry ride was less than an hour and VERY wavy! When we arrived in Africa we were still in Spain. Spain controls two cities in Africa, one called Ceuta, which is the city that we landed in. We then crossed the border (in a bus this time) into Morocco. It was nighttime by then and once we left the border everything become pitch black. Outside of the city there was not one light! It was very strange to realize that we are hardly ever without some sort of light while on the road. We drove to the city Tangier where we spent the night.

The ferry

Tangier 

The next day we got up early, ate tons of pan (bread), and headed to the ocean where we got to see where the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean meet! (It wasn't as cool as it sounds...it was just water haha).

Nick and me with the ocean border in the background!

We then visited some camels for a short camel ride! Tangier is in Northern Morocco, where there are no camels, but they bring some one-humped ones up from the South for tourists to ride. It started to rain, so I felt guilty making the camels give us rides while getting soaked. Pobres chicos!

Baby camels!

My friend the baby camel :)

It was quite the wild ride!

It was bumpy, but a lot of fun

Camel Selfie!

We then visited the Cave of Hercules. The cave was small, but cute and contained the famous "Map of Africa." It is a rock opening to the sea that looks like Africa! It is thought that the Phoenicians created this "map."

Chefchaouen 

After the cave we drove to the cute town Chefchaoun, where everything is painted blue! Our guide was an 80 year-old Moroccan man about 4 feet tall, so I couldn't hear much about the history of the city unfortunately. He was so cute though! At one point he reached under his robes and we were so confused, until he pulled out an ipad...haha not expecting that! I did hear that the Jews who used to live in the city painted it blue though. I will have to research more about it on my own.

I would have gotten more pictures, but it was pouring when we were there AND my umbrella broke. It definitely put a damper on the day :/ The best part was visiting a shop where they hand-made a variety of textiles (which Morocco is known for). They gave us a small presentation and showed us all of the beautiful pieces they made...I wanted to buy everything!!

My guide in the textile store

After the textile shop we got a few hours of free time to shop. The markets were so much fun! They sold many leather products, textiles, and clothes along with many other cool trinkets! It was also fun trying to bargain with the shopkeepers. It was very surprising, because every single one of them knew Arabic and French (the languages of Morocco), English, Spanish, and some even knew German to talk with the German students in our group! I can't even imagine knowing that many languages! Incredible. 

We left Chefchaouen to head to the old city Tetchuan. The bus drives between cities were very entertaining in themselves, due to the unreal landscapes of rolling mountains! I want to live in one of those random houses scattered in the middle of nowhere! It was a little sad to see garbage and rubble everywhere along the road though. It took away from the natural beauty of the area and reminded us of the poverty of the people who lived in those small houses.

Tetuan 

That night we had a huge Moroccan feast inside a Moroccan palace! There were musicians and a belly dancer too! I was super pumped, because we had been in Morocco awhile and still not eaten cous cous...one of my favorite foods! Let me tell you...the food did not disappoint me. We had a five course meal with a huge salad, vegetable soup, meatballs in a spiced red sauce, and a HUGE heaping of cous cous with vegetables and chicken! YUM!! I never knew that I was capable of eating so much. We ended the feast with Moroccan mint tea...que rico :)

I still have no idea what instrument that is...

The next day we walked around the new part of the city in the morning. It was very European and nice! I also loved seeing all of the signs in Arabic..it is such a cool language! It was strange that every single sign also had a translation in English or French..even store names.

I love the Moroccan colors!

We then visited the old part of the city where we got to see more of where people actually live. It was a little sad to see the conditions that people are forced to live in. It really makes you think twice about what we have in the United States. It made me feel uncomfortable sometimes walking around in a huge American (and German) mob gawking at the people and how they live. But I guess we sadly make up a lot of their income as we then visited the markets to shop around. Tourism can really bring on mixed feelings!

Walking around the city, the air was just filled with spices! The smell of Morocco is exactly this: spices and dirt. Very unique!

One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was visiting a Moroccan Pharmacy. That sounds like a pretty strange thing to be my favorite, but let me tell you, it was so much fun! At a Moroccan Pharmacy you can find every kind of oil, cream, perfume, tea, and spice imaginable! We got to see a presentation on the magical uses of all of these products and were able to try them out. There was one lotion that made my hand feel sooooo soft for the rest of the day...it was incredible! The spices and tea were my favorite. There was a meat spice that contained 35 different spices!! Everyone there probably bought at least 5 different products each.

After finishing up with the Pharmacy we got on the ferry to head back to Sevilla. Morocco was such a great experience and allowed me to observe and learn about a totally different place in the world and how the people there live. It is crazy how in such a different place there were still signs for Pizza Hut, Domino's, Burger King, and Coca-Cola everywhere. It is truly impossible to ever get totally away from the US and its influence. My time in Morocco was too short, but I am so thankful that I was able to make the trip!

The windows of the ferry were really dirty, but there is Africa, getting smaller in the distance. Hasta la Próxima África!