morocco-the rollercoster of emotions

Morocco, the roller coaster of emotions

· Last week was like Catholic Church for my emotions. Up, down, up, down. It was crazy how much change in feelings i could have in 5 days. Nick and I went out on Thursday nite even tho I had to leave at 545 the next morning, but it was worth it cuz dancing at Buddha is always a good time. I arrived to my house at 5, got my pre packed stuff together and headed to avenida del cid. We then drove to the ferry pick up and set forth. We then boarded another bus to take us thru the last part of spain to the Moroccan border. There is where our problems began. While the moraccan soldiers checked our passports there came to be a problem with one girls documents. Godeliever has a passport from the Congo where she was born and no student visa because she didnt have to get one to study in spain. Even tho it was a passport from the same continent that she was trying to enter they told her that she hended to file for a moraccan passport before entering. So we waited, 2 hours while she applied and got approved. I looked out my window several times and it was sobering to see the many vans going through customs completely packed full of furniture. These people’s entire lives were strapped to their cars. It was at this first stop that I began to experience what it is to pee in morocco. We went to the bathrooms and discovered a little hole in the ground surrounded by porcelain complete with foot grips to aid in the non slippage of your squat. It was not a pretty picture. Another couple hours and we arrived in chefchaouen. This was a smaller village and it was absolutely spectacular. Mainly because most of the city walls were painted a periwinkle blue so dense that it jumped off the walls and straight through you. Since we got there late, we weren’t allotted our free time which sucks because the market and little shops there seemed to have many great things. After our first moraccan meal of beef, carrots, zuchinni all in this sauce with fruit for desert, we headed back to the bus to get to fes.
· Fes- we arrived in this massive city that you would think was uber metropolitan but then we entered into the medina area and everything changed. Narrow streets lined with shops that were tiny squares in the walls filled to the brim with wares ranging from perfume, to spices. Burros pulling carts rumbled by us as we followed in a straight line through the extreme difference that was fes. One thing that caught my eye was a small man sitting on the ground with a line of live chickens sitting patiently in front of him. Obviously their legs had been tied together, but they weren’t even fluttering or making any noise. The smell was both pungent with stench and spice mixed together to make a combination that one could only find in morocco. The various spices and fresh baking bread combined with the things left behind by both animal and human was intoxicating both in a good and bad way. As we continued we entered our first stop… the rug store. We walked into this 3 story building that was like a palace from Aladdin. Rugs hung from the each balcony of arches that surrounded the area where we sat. Again we were served Moroccan tea in the beautiful glasses by the henchmen of the rug store. Then all of a sudden the main event began. A short round man burst onto the scene wearing a leather jacket, khaki pants and a thin layer of sweat that would continue to grow through out the 2 hours we spent there. He began his spiel concerning the different types of rugs, the different colors and patterns and how they were all hand made by women and that it took them up to 2 years to complete. The henchmen returned and began unrolling rugs in front of us to display what the boss was talking about. His fervor and craving for sales was extremely apparent as he informed us that they take credit cards, cash from the us euros or duram and also that we could pay in installments, have it delivered to the us or have it packaged into the size of a carry on for the flight home. This man had his bases covered. he paced back and forth spewing flecks of spit as he became more and more excited that ¨filthy rich americans¨had come to buy his rugs. Sadly we are students and the rugs though beautiful at 380 euro a pop were not in my budget.
· As we continued through the dingy streets we stopped and walked through a dark tunnel just to quickly look at the sheep shearing and skinning factory. Skins were drapped everywhere and there were other parts of the animal as well. It was quite a sight, and smell. We continued, getting followed the whole way by men wanting to sell us trinkets and we arrived at a staircase with a man holding mint to greet us. The mint was for us to smell in the more odorous areas. We walked up all the way to the top floor where we discovered a room full of leather goods. Purses, wallets, slippers, shoes, you name it, they had it. And they really wanted to sell it to us! They were so pushy. Then I looked out over the edge of the building that overlooked the back of the city to see these giant tubs of dye and all these Moroccan men dipping leather into each brilliant color of ochre, crimson, royal blue and camel brown. After we left that tourist trap we went on to the third one that actually kind of had good deals. It was a store that sold scarves, jalabas, and other things made of woven fabric. There were three large stand up looms each under control of a Moroccan man and another ¨leader¨of discussion. I found out later that he had actually been to Minnesota… random. I bought a beautifully woven scarf for only 5 euro or 50 duram and the guy taught us all how to tie them into head wraps. I felt slightly like a terrorist, but then I thought better of myself and felt like Aladdin again. Hehe I love Disney! Finally we went back to the bus and continued on our way to the first hotel.
· We checked into the hotel and at this point drama ensued. I was going to room with a girl named Krista but once tru and Dario, who are dating, got wind that they wouldn’t be able to share a room they asked me to switch with tru and room with Andrew for the nite. I felt comfortable doing that since there were two beds and Andrew and I were friends. And so it went. In the morning we got up and got on the bus, we started off climbing large hills. After a while, we realized that the poor bus had been careening through the mountains all the day before and sounded like it was going to die… and then it did. 35 min outside of fes smoke started pouring from the back of the bus and it shuddered… and turned off. We all unloaded and sat in the field directly to our right and waited to hear what to do. Muhamed our guide told us that it would only be 45 moraccan min later till we got a new bus. After 5 hours of sitting outside, peeing in the bush and getting more and more dehydrated we realizad that 45 moraccan min must mean 5 hours. Finally a smaller bus came to pick us up and take us to the next town over to get some food. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast. After eating and feeling like everything was going to get back on track we were informed that the bus we had would not be able to take us to erfoud, our next destination 7 hrs away because it didn’t have the proper insurance. We waited… for 4 hours. Finally our options were to go back to fes for the nite and miss out ojn the super cool hotel or drive thru the nite in mini buses to get there. Obviously we chose the mini bus. We all unloaded and loaded back up in the mini busses and waited… and waited. Finally a ripple of whispers passed seat to SEAT saying that our bus couldnt go and the others could because our driver didnt have a licesnse and needed to apply for it right then. So we waited. Finaaanlly we started off for erfoud and drove thru the nite. I slept some, but my back was killing me. Upon arrival in erfoud they told us that we could still eat dinner. I was hungry so I was like ok. The hotel was marvillous. Called hotel chergui in erfoud. The food looked amazing as well and I ate tons even tho I wasn’t starving. I then went to my room I was sharing with Andrew again and found it to be just as lovely. Bright orange and red bedspreads looked like sunsests and there were arches with columns in our own room. The bathroom was great as well, tile floors and a huge shower, not to mention a real toleit. I slept well that nite. The next day we got up round 8 and headed to breakfast, also delicious. We then left our suitcases in a locked room and got into Land rovers, 6 in each car. I was with Michael, Alison, beth, tru and Dario. It was the craziest ride ive ever experienced in my entire life. Careening through the sahara desert up and over huge dunes turning sharply here and there and almost getting stuck. I felt like I was in a car commercial because I looked out and saw 7 other land rovers doing the same thing in different directions. We stopped at this one spot to take pictures of a beautiful background of sahara sand. It was absolutely breathtaking and unbelievable to me that I was standing in the middle of some place so foreign and doing stuff I never imagined Id be able to do in my life. We stopped in a small village and were hearded into a even smaller building. We all sat on pillows on the floor, were served Moroccan tea and then we got to experience a wonderful concert of 5 african men dressed in long white robes with red trim. They danced and sang and played these great instruments. The little boy was adorable but you could tell he sooo didn’t want to be there. We finished up and went to our place for lunch. It was this beautiful hotel with the walls made out of mud and straw and were served another amazing morrocan meal that I could barely enjoy since my stomach was starting to grumble angrily. The famous one legged travel guy hoped by and then we got back in the land rovers.
· After crazier driving we reached the camels. We all go out regained our selves and chose a camel. I was in a 2sy with Emily me in front her in back. I named my camel Harold and hers became kumar. It was quite an interesting feeling riding a camel, especially as they stood up you got thrown forward then backward and the whole ride was a shift of front and back. Not too comfortable but worth it. Our guide, a burbone lead us around the sahara and up to a magnificent dune. We all got off, climbed the dune to watch the sun set. It was a hard climb, I work out every day and I had a difficult time reacing the top with out loosing my breath. But the view from the top definitly took away all the resto f the breath i had. It was brilliant. The glowing sun setting over giant golden red dunes so perfectly shaped from the wind, untouched by humans. We finally got back on the camels and got to our camp right as the stars began to come out in the sky.
·
· The camp that we stayed in was a tent city but much more beutiful then i had imagined it would be. Each tent door was a huge blanket of ochre or royal blue and the inside was held up with a stick with beds with many blankets
· We all gathered around the fire and enjoyed more moraccan tea, green mint tea with sugar. Delicious! The musical trouppe from befote had come with and began to performe again for us. It was great. Then we went into the idnner tent and ate, it was gross and I was also feeling kinda sick so I was sticking to bread. And some veggies. After dinner we gathered again round the fire and enjoyed more music… and then the dancing began! It was so much fun to dance African like moves around the fire with the burbones and others in the camp we all bonded so much on this trip it was crazy! that is most of us… there was a certain group of people that decided to seclude themselves in the back of the camp but in my opinion they missed out on the fun, and we didn’t. I had a blast. Finally retiring to my tent that I was sharing with Michael at around midnite. I passed out automatically because i was so tired! However i woke up at 2 in the morning and new something was wrong… I felt even more sick. I made my way to the bathroom… which had real toilets but that didn’t work so well, and well… I was rite I was sick. Thus began the Moroccan plague that over the next few days around 30 of the 50 people on the trip caught. I felt ill. So sick and so dehydrated. I woke up again at 5 to go watch the sun rise in the desert and boarded my camel again. The stars were so beautiful. Millions of them. After climbing a dune and watching the sun come up I climbed back down, was sick again, and then ate some bread for breakfast. We then got on camels, and went to the land rovers. The clique had taken my land rover spot so i had to find a new place to go, so I went with Kristina, teresa and Katie. It was fun! Our driver was crazy, playing lots of akon and he kept getting stuck. We helped him out from time to time pushing the car out of the sand jumping back in and continuing on our way. after stopping agian at the place we ate befote we continued on to the beautiful hotel chergui to get our bags, eat and hang out. I sat by the African shaped pool and got Burned in 15 min with 30 spf on. It was wonderful. On the bus again driving away from the sahara we stopped in a town to see some things. Another rug factory. It was horrible it was like, we saw one weve seen them all! At that point i had taken many trips to the bathroom. Only could manage to eat bread and had grown so dehydrated I felt faint. Michael the chaperone sat me down and made me get some water. We checked into our hotel in meknes later that nite and it was probably the grossest one I had yet been in. I was sick, tired, pmsing and wasnt really in favor of sleeping in the same room as a guy based on the fact that I was sick and would have to use the bathroom, and that he had basically ditched me for the bitchy girls and wasn’t talking to me. I started to cry while trying to change my room and got overwhelmed. Then at dinner, all the food had milk in it, or strawberries and the program was supposed to take care of that for me. and didn’t. so I went to bed hungry and sick. Jessica the sweetheart pulled me aside and asked me if i was ok, and i said i would be, she was so nice to care and ask. I got sick again twice and we boarded the bus back to fes to finally visit a market. The place was cool. So different then anything id seen. It was like a giant salvation army of lesser quality spread out on the ground in all areas. We went to the more tourist side an d started shopping around. I went to this shoe store with Jessica and Katie and the man said he had my size in the back room. It was just around the corner so I wnet back to try them on. I said id come back later to get them and he came toward me, grabbed my ass and my chin and came towards me I squirmed elbowed my way past him glared and got out as fast as I could. It really shook me up i had never had anything like that happen to me so I was upset. I shook it off tho and continued to look for some jewelry. I ended upgetting a beautiful old necklace that is so my style for 15 euro. A little expensive but we were leaving as i was bartering so i had to take what i got down to. We got on the bus, I slept and read and we got back to the ferry, got on the ferry and came back to sevilla.

All in all im glad that I went to experience something so different from my own culture but at the same time I was disappointed that I had spent so much money on something that went terribly wrong. The sahara was magnificent and made up for lots of it, but the sickness was not somehting i would wish on anyone.

the sky is falling! nope just an orange...

Blog- Feb. 24^th 2008

Its been a long month. I think im nearing stage two of culture shock, being that im beginning to get homesick, sick of things here that are different from home and overall just crabby about my situation. Im sure it has quite a bit to do with whats been going on in my personal life so as soon as I can forget about those things the better. The intensive period for Febuary has commenced, we had our final last Friday and recieved our new schedules for march-may. I cant believe that ive already been here 2 months. It seems ridiculous that I only have 3 months left! My family is coming to visit in 24 days, yes I counted. And im so so excited to show them around sevilla, where I hang out and where I go out to eat, dance etc. itll be interesting to gauge their reaction to the city.

Some funny stories:

As ive written about before, sevilla is filled with orange trees. I learned in my franco history class from Jose that the orange trees were imported here by the Chinese immigrants way back when and have flourished. Im serious, they are everyyyywhere. So the oranges on the trees are beatufiul and very fun looking but the sad thing is you cant eat them. They are toxic tasting, believe me ive tried them, just to say I had. It was foul. Anyway, along with oranges on trees, comes the obvious notion that there will be oranges on the street from when they fall out of the trees. I see them littering the cobblestones and always wondered if they hit people on their journey from branch to ground. Well, they do and one did… to my roommate. A couple weeks ago when paula had first arrived to sevilla we went to the internet café so she could talk to her bf andrew. Obviously after their skype date she was feeling a little low and sad missing him so i decided to buy her ice cream, or sorbet for that matter so we could share. We found a little heladaderia with mango sorbet and got a cone to share. Right after we sat down and were using the tiny spoons to eat our treat, something came shooting out of the sky, with such force I thought someone was throwing stuff at us from the balcony above. I looked up to see no one and looked around to see nothing but paula rubbing her head holding a broken cake cone. She told me that a orange hit her in the head, bounced off her and hit the cone knocking our brand new sorbet onto the ground. I felt like a little kid when they loose their ice cream from licking it too hard. So I went and asked the woman for a new one, telling her the tale of the dangerous oranges she laughed and obliged us with a new cone. While this story is quite entertaining for me, Paula didnt find it so funny, since the orange left an egg on her head for a couple of days.

Whilst sitting on the roof “taking the sun” as they call it here in sevilla, paula and I were accosted by another falling object from the sky. A big black crow flew over us and dropped a chunk of bread onto us. Ungrateful bird! Someone gives you dinner; you’re not supposed to throw it at someone else!

Some “interesting” fashions ive observed:

White furry boots. I have no idea why but the girls my age and a bit younger have taken to wearing white furry boots that look like they skinned their collies to make. Not only do they wear these horrific boots, they wear them after they get dirty from the streets and have turned an even awfuller color of gray.

Leapord and other animal print stretch pants with matching animal print pointy toe boots. This fashion must have a rule that it can only be worn by someone who should not ever being wearing stretch pants… either because of age but mainly weight. The fact they have that sort of confidence is great, but Vpl is not my style.

The fashions at the gym are quite a site. Ranging from one peice blue spandex short suits on women with saggy boobs and a visable thong line, complete with a camel toe and sweat band on her head, to a obviously elderly gentalmen that has been dipped into a vat of spray tanner, had his hair died and highlighted and taken so many steroids that even though he is wearing uber short shorts and spandex we are unable to see anything “special” thank god. Another great fashion ive observed from my daily perch on the elliptical machine is men with very short gym shorts, and one women that decided it would be a great idea to work out in ther swimsuit top. Between reps she of course had to make out with her boyfriend who was wearing the Standard cutoff tee short and baby oil. Which brings me to my next topic… pda.

Pda also known as public displays of affection, is something that occurs in the united states, more so in trailer parks, state fairs and rodeos then on the main street, but nevertheless ive seen it. However, Spaniards bring a whole new meaning to the term pda. Since many young people live with their parents until the age they get married (upwards 27-29 years old now days) it is seemingly difficult for them to find a place to be intimate with each other without their parents in the next room. So what have the chosen to do? Move the action to the streets. Now by no means am I prude who thinks that people shouldn’t touch in public, but the full on making out sitting on top of one another, legs tangled for hours on end can get nauseating especially when its all you see in every park of the city. Oh and trust me, do not go down by the river bed. Ull get an eye full of something that you don’t want to see.

so now you have some great visuals of the lesser then great cultural activities and norms here in spain ill leave you to ruminate over those thoughts.

Till next time, hasta luego

Leah Sevilla

france trip!

Blog five

I havent written a blog in a long while, so it might take me a while to bring this up to speed. The last week of classes for January term went fine, I finished my 6 pg paper about The role of women in the Franco Era, only to discover that it was only 4 pages on the stupid longer sheets of paper that they have here. Luckily Jose, my prof, said it was fine. I got an 96 on it! On the last day of class there was a party here at the center where they give out free alcohol so naturally, we drank some. I took so many great pictures that nite! Too bad all of them are gone now, but ill get to that later. After the party we went out to our regular bar (that im quite sick of) called funducion. The only thing I like is that we get drinks for free a lot cuz carlos the bartender likes Americans. Later on Alex and I went over to Buddha to dance and say good bye to the St Thomas kids. Getting home around 430, I crashed into bed and set my alarm for 700 the next morning. The next morning I left from my house, took a taxi to the airport and boarded a plane to paris france. Gabby and I flew together and then waited for jessicas flight to come in 5 hrs later. We just slept in the airport because it costs 6 euro each way on the bus into paris and back. So that woulda been 18 euro, or roughly 25 bucks. Not doable. After we met Jessica we wandered around attempting to figure out how to get a train ticket to blois where we were staying in a hostel for 4 days. Blois (pronounced Blue-ah) is about an hour or so outside of paris. We boarded a train, and then realized we had to transfer… so we followed a nice Parisian who spoke English to the next train. When we got on that one about ten 18 year old French kids started talking to us. They wanted to know all about us and asked if we knew anything about French politics etc. embarrassingly so, I told them that the only thing I knew about their president was that his relationship with a model was the scandal on everyones mind. They gave us the “stupid American test” which consisted of questions such as: whats one country that starts with a U (dur, Uruguay, Uzbekistan etc) What countries are around north korea- again, dur south korea and china. After that they gave us a break and kept joking around/talking to us. They then insisted that we come out to the mansion in the country that they were staying at for the weekend holiday and drink/party with them. This sounded like lots of fun, unfortunately they didn’t know the address and we had to check into the hostel first. So we got one girls mobile number and said we’d call them later. Her name fittingly was Juliet. When we got to blois we caught a taxi to the hostel and got settled in our room. Its like an apartment complex for kids our age that come to blois to work. It was quite strange, but whatever. After a good night of sleep we got up the next day prepared to discover what blois had to offer…

Day two of blois

we walked 20 min into the center of town and went shopping because there are sales everywhere. We decided to hit up the chateau of blois the next day. So we went and sat down by the bank of the Loire river. It was beautiful. Sitting in the sun, enjoying the view of rushing water. It was calming. We found a little grocery store and bought some stuff for the hostel… cheap wine and fanta knock off. I also found seedless grapes!!! Which made me so excited because in spain they all have seeds. That night we called Juliet but she never called us back. Alas, we got tipsy off of tinto de verano with the wine and “fanta” we bought and had a great time bonding and chatting about politics, boys, religion, family, where we went to school and other things. Gabby somehow got me to walk into town, 20 min away in the cold, to see if blois had a night life. It didn’t. after a disgusting over priced cocktail and walking around aimlessly we stopped at a crepes restaurant. We walked in, there were about 20 people tops in there… it was crazy. So she asked for a plain sugar crepe with fruit and they started talking really fast French. We kinda just sat there, and he turned the entire restaurant and asked in French, “does anyone speak English here?” so a civilian came over and took our order. After gabby ate, we asked for the check and the owner came up to us and said, “ a present, free.” So gabby got a free crepe and we walked back to the hostel.

Day three of blois-

When we got up we walked down to town and went to the chateau. What we hadn’t realized before was that the loire valley area is well known for their chateaus and that there are 9 overall in this area. Blois chateau was gorgeous. It has 4 different wings that are in 4 different types of architecture. Theres one that’s gothic, classicism, etc. it was beautiful. We wandred around looking at all the rooms, the paintings, the tapestrys etc. after our chateau experience we walked back to the hostel to chill out, play cards, use the incredibly slow internet and sleep. I met a man who worked in the Cadbury chocolate factory and a Turkish guy with bad teeth. We decided that the next day we should hop a train to amboise and see another chateau and see Leonardo di vincis last house. Theres a huge exhibit there dedicated to him and his work. So we got up early, caught a 1 euro bus to the train station, bought our tickets to amboise, waited… took the train and wandered around town till we found signs to the chateau. It was a beautiful sunny day, and although it was cold, the sun helped. We went in the chateau and wandered around through the magnificent rooms that were painted dark blues, and reds and then decided to walk around the grounds. There were this great shrubs that were perfectly trimmed into circles sticking out of the ground. There was also a chapel located in the corner that I went in to check out. As I was wandering around I looked down at my feet and realized that I was almost standing right on top of a grave, and not just any grave… Leonardo di vincis grave! He was buried there by his own request because he was good friends with the king. After being in awe of this marvelous discovery, we decided to head to the home of leo called clos luce. It was located down the road a bit. We paid for a ticket and entered walking into his bedroom first. There were fires in all the fire places so a thin smoke filled the entire building. Maybe it was the smoke but instantly I felt a presence in the room that I had never felt. Jessica commented immediately after I thought this, “this place is so haunted” I agreed… it was creepy how it felt like Leonardo was still there. We followed the self lead tour around his house, through his music room and study down to the basement where all of his machines had been rebuilt in smaller models by ibm. I had no idea that he had invented so many crucial things! It was amazing. We then decided to walk the grounds of his house because there were life size models of his machines built and distributed throughout the property. We got to play around on them for a while before we decided to leave. It was around 4 so we stopped to get something to eat, of course since it was Sunday nothing was open, and if places were open, it was only to get something to drink. I had a diet coke(what a surprise) and we went back to the train station and changed our tickets to an earlier leave time. When we got back to blois, it was raining and cold. We walked down to the center because we wanted at least one good meal. I had the most amazing salad ever. It was melted goat cheese on homemade croutons with tomatoe, carrot, onion, and bits of cut up ham. So delicious. Then I got sorbet to top it off, and Jessica got a sundae the size of her head. We went back to the hostel via taxi cuz we were treating ourselves, and went to bed.

Day four blois

We left the hostel around 1030 and got to the train station right in time to catch our train to paris. When we got there, we found a bus that to the metro station and then the metro line that took us to the street our hostel was located on. The street was les gobliens, on metro line 7. the hostel is called oops. We got there, and left our stuff because we couldn’t officially have our room till 4. we went out, got back on the metro and went to the notre dame cathedral. It was beautiful. The gothic structure was striking. I later learned that gothic means to be light. So gothic churches strive to have natural light filter in which is why they used flying buttresses so that all the support was outside of the structure thus creating un obstructed areas for the light to flood in. after taking pictures and wandering around, we went back to opps to check into our room and get situated. As I walked in the door, and around the corner I ran into (literally) my friend Kevin Meyer from St. olaf!! I hadn’t seen him in forever and I was like, what the hell what are you doing here??? Him, angela(another friend) and 3 other oles were finishing up their interim trip. They had been in London and came to paris for a week. I was so excited! Gabby stayed back at the hostel that nite and jessica and I went wandering around in hopes to get to the Eiffel tower. We found it! It was beautiful and bigger then id ever imagined!. All of a sudden it light up, sparkling and flashing. It was beautiful. I made sure to stand directly underneath it. After we walked back to the hostel we went to bed. Our room was a four sleeper and being that we only had 3 people we were placed with another girl our exact same age named liz from purdue college. She was studying in paris that semester and was staying at oops till she found an apartment. Shes super nice!

So im going to quickly write bout what the hostel oops looks like. It is very trendy and “hipster” kind of like something youd see in an urban outfitter catalog. There is a huge rainbow like mural on the walls of the common area with huge paintins of 70’s type geranium flowers. Right when you walk in the door you see this huge wall of light up blocks that spell out Opps with red on white. The other walls are covered in squares that make up the wallpaper tand look like fur, but they aren’t. the spiral staircase to the different levels is wallpapered with a great black flower pattern on off white. It was awesome! Each floor was also painted another color, either lime green, bright pink, or a mustard yellow. I went downstairs and had a wonderful cup of hard cider with the oles and then went upstairs to sleep.

Day 5-paris

At 11 we decided to take the free walking tour that left from Saint Michael’s fountain. It was cold and rainy. But we bucked up and went ne way. After all it was free. Our tour guides name was Luke who was a European history major who had been living in paris for 2 years teaching English to kids and giving tours on the side. He was hilarious and even tho that’s the coldest ive been in a while, it was worth it. It began to rain more and the wind picked up but we learned so much! For example- pont neuf (new bridge) was built by henri the IV. It has all these faces sculptured into it. Luke told us that henri the iv was sort of a jokester. So he invited all his friends over, who were prominent figures in france at that time. He gave them all the free campaign they could drink and when that ran out he gave them all the red wine they could drink thus making them sloppy drunks. He then went to the palace sculptors and asked them to make a sketch of each guests face. He then had those sketches made into busts that were placed on the pont Neuf Bridge. We also learned a great deal more but when we stopped at the café half way thru the tour, we knew we were done. Ever inch of my body was cold. We had met a woman named Suzanne on the tour and started talking. Me and her decided we would like to go to the Opera Garnier which is the opera house where phantom of the opera was based. Gabby and Jessica didn’t want to come with so I told them id find them later. Suzanne and I set out and got to talking more. Shes from California, close to where erin lives and is going through a divorce after 6 yrs of marriage and 15 years of being with this man. She didn’t look it, but said she was 38. I would have guessed like 28. so we went to the opera house and it was the most beautiful thing ive ever seen in my entire life. It was beautiful. Highly adorned and ornamented ceilings full of murals. And every column, every stair and banister was pure marble. We wandered around and stumbled on this gaint dance room with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Everything in that room was gold. And it was amazing. I felt like I was in the castle in beauty and the beast especially when I entered the next room… the library. It was exactly like belles! There were books everywhere floor to ceiling. After marveling over the books, we went downstairs and found that they had old costumes on display. They were so beautiful and intricate… my favorite was the mermaid. After our amazing experience, Suzanne and I walked around more and saw the great shopping center that has the amazing stain glass dome in the center. Then we went and got something to drink to exchange emails so she could send me some pictures of the day. It was great getting to know her! Maybe ill get to see her when I go to California again. I went back to the hostel and gabby and Jessica had gone out to dinner so I sat and talked to the oles. They were going to the modern museum of art the next day and invited me along. I happily obliged. We then sat around in the common room making friends before going upstairs to their room to drink and chat. I met Dylan powers, who was their 6^th person in their room. He was from Canada. Lots of Canadians…after shooting the shit for a good couple hours, I decided to lumber off to bed. It was 4.

Day 6-paris

the next day we got up and gabby and Jessica wanted to see the opera house so I went to the museum with the oles. It was great! I loved it. I saw some amazing installations and other forms of art in the most modern section then upstairs I saw Picasso, matisse and DALI! Whom I love. After about 3 hrs there, I went to Sacre Couer with Kevin and Ted. We climbed the many stairs to the top and went into the sacred heart cathedral. It was drab. Although it has the largest mosaic in the world… I didn’t find this particular church mesmorizing in the least. Kevin and ted left, and I wandered around montmartre district till around 530. I bought a pair of 10 euro boots and they are plastic but sooo cute. I then hoped the metro to station Blanche and got off to take the night free tour of the montmartre distict. I met up with some of the kids I recongnized from the hostel and got to talking with the cute boy josh. They were from Canada and studying in Israel. Scary! But apparently not… anyway. We saw lots of the montremartre discrict… Moulin rouge etc. we also started talking to these other two people that were on the tour named Evan and Tennille. They were there on vacation and had been together about a year. They were also from Canada… so we all went out to dinner after the tour and I got a salad that had salmon, shrimp and other things. It was ok. And expensive. We decided to not go out, instead to get some alcohol at the 24 hr fruit place and drink in the hostel. Evan and Tennille came with and evan ended up buying 2 bottles of vodka, fanta, and ginger ale. So me evan, josh, Tennille, scott, ted, and angela sat in the common room and talked,drank. I got drunk… accidentally! So after evan and Tennille left, there was tons of alcohol left and josh told me to take it because he was leaving in the morning… so I took ½ liter of vodka back to spain with me in a gingerale bottle. Classy. After saying bye to josh, I went upstairs to sleep around 4.

Day 7-paris

Being that it was our last full day in paris we wanted to get it all in! but it was raining again. Jessica decided to go to the modern art museum and gabby and I were going to go to champs elysian. But instead went to the D’orsey museum. It was a fabulous decision! It was the impressionist museum and I saw all of my favorite artists. I mean all of them. Van gogh, cezanne, picarro, monet, goghain, renuat etc. it was amazing. And there was a exhibition of art novae furniture going on that was amazing as well. We stayed there four and a half hours. Afte we left we went over to the area where the louvre was because it was free after 6 for students. Gabby and I went to angelina’s café because it is supposedly the best hot chocolate you’ll ever have. Since I cant have it, she did and I got two scoops of sorbet, pear and mango. She let me try her cocoa, and honestly it wasn’t the best id ever had. But it was a great little store that was overly expensive. After our angelinas outing we went to the louvre. I hated it. It wasn’t my type of art at all. At least now I can say ive been and that I saw the mona lisa. Back at the hostel I packed up all my stuff and chilled out with everyone watching sex in the city on the big screen tv in the lounge. We went to bed and prepared ourselves for another day of travel.

Day 8-travel

We took the 1255 flight to sevilla and Jessica took a 6 o clock one, so she had to wait a bit. It was a fine ride back.

Thus ends the france trip

Back in Sevilla-

I was so homesick by the end of my trip to france. Not homesick for my real home, though I miss my friends and family madly, but homesick for Sevilla!. The people are nicer, the weather is better, and there is a better over all quality of life there. It was nice to be back. I walked into my room at the castle and saw a girl staring back. My roommate was here! I thought paula wasn’t getting here till tomorrow. We started talking, and decided to meet some girls for a drink. We wandered around and had some tinto de verano at the bar universal by plaza Sebastian. The next day I had to start classes so I wanted to rest up.

First day of classes-

I have a class called present day Spanish usage. Its really fun and interesting because we are learning words, phrases, and situations we will actually use here in sevilla. I haven’t met many of the girls in our program… and frankly they don’t seem very friendly or interested in meeting people. Bring back mo and lily and Melissa and Julie and everyone from January term! L sad day. Oh well what can you do. Now that its almost Friday, February 08, 2008 the end of the first week is upon me. Im glad! Im going out this weekend to a club/discotequa called dos hermanos with my guy friends from here. David david con rayas and fran. They are nice and fun, but can be bitches sometimes. Paula and I have been sunbathing on our roof almost everyday.

One night sara came over and we made tinto de verano, sat on the roof and watched love actually on paulas laptop. It was fabulous. One quality night.

Hasta luego para ahora.

Jan 8th 2008
Yesterday I visited the amazing hillside city of Ronda. A 2 hour bus ride away, Ronda is a small village that has buildings dating 4000 years BEFORE Christ. That’s some old stone! We walked all around the city on the cobblestone and crossed the bridge into old town. To look down on the first bridge of Ronda we were looking in a gorge that was lined with boulders and trees. It was breathtaking. The bridge is where the citizens of Ronda used to collect taxes before people could enter the city. After wards we walked through the town, to the arab baths and the old beautiful parks. We also saw the bull ring, and walked town into the area where they fight. I didn’t like that nearly as much because I always feel so badly for the bulls. Our tour guide kept claiming over and over that the bulls were only existed to fight. That was their sole purpose. I try not to think about it. Other then that it was beautiful. I had tapas at a bar with Lily from S. Carolina, Liz from Massachusetts/Maine and Gabby from Minnesota. I had Frocaccia bread with tuna and roasted red peppers and another with jamon iberico and solmorejo. When I returned home last night after dinner my senora and I were talking about the house and I asked about the other areas and she told me she wanted to show me something. So all of a sudden we are walking toward these beautiful stairs with tiles that are ancient on them. She told me that each square was worth 20 euros. There had to have been over 100 tiles. The stairs spiraled upward to a little metal door that opened up to the roof of the castle. I walked out in utter awe of the view. The cathedral of Seville was spread out before my eyes, illuminated in the night. Its stones glowed gold and cast shadows off of all the ornamentations.
Today in class we began learning about the Franco era and the time leading up to it. The Guerra civil of espana or the civil war of spain that lasted from 1936-1939 was a time of great chaos and trouble. It is interesting to learn Spain’s history because I have never been taught that before. I have to write a 6 page paper in Spanish on a theme from the class, I haven’t decided what yet. Tonite im going to the museum then shopping because the biggest sales of the year are this month in Spain. Adio para ahora

Blog three
We went on another viaje today to Gibraltar. I didn’t know what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised. The view from the top of the rock was amazing as was being within a foot of the monkeys. We also visited a cave that was the incredible. The stalagmites were formed from dripping and running water and it was unlike anything I had ever seen. It was beautiful. Another interesting thing about Gibraltar is that it is British territory so the citizens mostly have British accents but many of them speak Spanish as well. the combination of the two is quite interesting. After eating at a café with Jessica, who enjoyed her first ever fish and chips we went shopping along the cobblestone streets of the small town. At a local discount shop where I found the most amazing jacket and dress, we met a woman who had a very different accent then anything I’ve ever heard. She spoke English, and told us that she had grown up in Jamaica, moved to Miami and then to Gibraltar with her husband. Both their parents were originally from India. This combination of background gave her a unique way of speaking. I also wondered to myself if she had been part of an arranged marriage… but didn’t ask, obviously. I finally found a straightener which makes me feel a little better about myself, but doesn’t do much good because of the humidity here. Since sevilla is situatied between two rivers, the humidity level is very high. Later tonite I am meeting with the girls to go to club Buddah for some dancing. Hasta luego!

Today we visited real alcazar. It was amazing. The old palace where the kings of Spain lived is located right next to my house, by the cathedral. The influence of the Muslim Arabs that once ruled Spain are apparent with the geometric tiles and ancient writings. We saw room after room with high ceilings some were colored wood that were carved in to beautiful designs in hexagon shapes. The main room of the palace was where the public would go to see the king. This room was so ornate that every detail was magnificent. The main color was gold to show how much power the king had. The more decorated it was, the more power it showed. The square shape of the room represents the earth and the dome ceiling represents the universe to the Arabs. The catholic kings were all painted around the top of the room. Another thing that was amazing was the baths. The reflection of the arched gothic like style on the still pool was breathtaking. I thought that it couldn’t get any more beautiful… then it did. The gardens of real alcazar are like a fairy tale. I felt like I had traveled back in time to the 16th century and I was a Spanish princess flitting about the trees, the shaped shrubs, countless fountains, and pools with ducks and koi swimming in them. There are orange a lemon trees through out the massive gardens as well as giant trees that go on for miles. In the back of one section of the garden was the maze. Since I’m short, it was as if I was a child running around in there because I couldn’t see over the top of the shrub like most of my classmates. We played tag and got sort of lost, but I felt like Alice in Alice in wonderland. I never wanted to leave. I wanted to sit in the sun on one of the patios next to a fountain and read a book. The most surprising thing of all about these gardens is that they are located smack dab in the middle of the city of Sevilla. Blocked completely out by the huge castle walls its like entering a secret garden, one where no one bad can enter. I realized as I left that it is free for me to enter this wonderland because of my ISIC card, and I plan to return to study and just live in the gardens.

I live in a castle. Literally. It is this old house that is older then the whole of the United States. It is beautiful, but cold. Not only is it cold but my senora likes to keep the windows open for ventilation. I don’t get it. But nevertheless that’s how it is. I feel like I’ve gone back in time, with out access to the internet readily available, I have to walk to the CC-CS building to use it. Plus a the moment I am without a cell phone or “movil” so its hard to make plans with people. Straight out my door is El patio de Banderas. A small area filled with orange trees. I learned today that orange trees were brought to Sevilla by the Arabs and in the spring they blossom and the whole city is perfumed by their scent. I can’t wait for that. Also right outside my door is the most famous part of Sevilla, El Catedral. It is bigger then any church I’ve ever seen, with gothic architecture that is simply amazing. Combined with palm trees, it truly is a beautiful sight, especially at night while it is illuminated. The tan stone glows with an amber shade casting shadows onto the cobblestone sidewalk.
Right now my senora is practicing the piano and again, I feel as if I’m back in time… as the classical music floats eerily through the open castle walls. Even the key to the door is ancient. It weighs about a lb all by itself and looks like it belongs in a museum. The first time I saw it I thought she was joking. She taught me how to open the door, showing me that you have to give it a good hip check to open it. I can just see me now, at 6 am after a night at el club, not being able to get into my house and having to ring the bell. Hmm, maybe I should practice more.
I started class today and to my surprise there were only 2 of us signed up. When the other girl didn’t show up, I was left alone to fend for myself and talk for 2 hours with the professor. It went better then I expected, and we covered many topics from politics in the states compared to Spain, to a restaurant vegetarian that he suggested Sara and I try out. The class I’m taking is on the Franco Era, and the history of El Guerra Civil de Espana. It is still a very touchy subject with many so it will be interesting to learn more on the different aspects.
I live about five min away from the center so it is nice and convenient, however I wish I had a roommate to plan stuff with and walk around with. I think im getting one in February though. I’m trying my best to speak only in Spanish. And its easier then I thought it would be. But at times is difficult to understand the native people like my senora because she slurs her words and others talk very fast. Also there are lots of words that I had never heard before. I learned a new one from Catelan today, churgo… it means bad. My professor used it to describe Zapatera the president here. Like me, he doesn’t much like his president.
Tonight I’m going out with my friends for some ice cream, wine and dancing. Hopefully I wont wake be out too late tonight, I’m kind of tired. Hasta pronto.
leah