the first month recapped

Ok, so I haven’t written in forever and I apologize. I just feel so overwhelmed (in the best way) being in this city. I try my hardest to take full advantage of everything around me and all the opportunities that present themselves that I haven’t had a quick minute to sit down and write a thoughtful blog entry.

Here’s a recap of the last month:

-Classes: I have 5 of them: History of Spain; U.S.-European Relations since WW2; The European Union; Advanced Spanish and Women and Literature. They are all relatively easy. In Spain, so much of class grading is centered around participation and attitude. Public education is almost entirely paid for for Spanish citizens, so it’s definitely less competitive and much more focused on the education as opposed to the studying.

-Day trips: We spent a day in Italica, which is an ancient city just outside of Sevilla. It is one of the first Roman colonies in the Iberian peninsula. The foundations of the houses they had are still standing, as are the mosaics and artwork that were in their homes. There is a huge ampitheatre that was once covered in marble, but, like the Roman coliseum, as the years went on, people starting using the marble to make their homes. The coolest thing I saw in Italica was footprints etched into marble. The fact that humans lived there over 2,000 years ago, and there is clear cut evidence they were there, just amazes me. We also spent a day in Ronda , which is one of my favorite places I’ve seen. Ronda is built into cliffs and surrounded by the Sierras on all sides. It is a very old town and has the largest bullfighting ring in all of Spain. We went to Carnaval, which is like a mix of Halloween and Mardi Gras, down in Cadiz, a coastal town an hour and a half south of Sevilla. It was craziness, close to a million people packed the streets of a town that only has a population of 30,000. It was insanity but definitely a cool thing to experience.

-Sights: Not everyone can say they’ve lived in a city with hundreds and thousands of years of history. Every day when I walk past the 500+ year old Cathedral, I am amazed that I get to not only visit it, but also enjoy its beauty every day. The Cathedral of Sevilla is the third largest in the world. It is remarkably huge in size, but even larger in beauty. When you walk in, the ceilings seem endlessly high, there is stained glass on the walls, and hundreds of years of history to be enjoyed. Christopher Columbus’s tomb is there! Directly adjacent to the Cathedral is the Giralda. The Giralda is a huge tower that is 34 flights (but not stairs, they are ramps) high. You can see it, and the top of the Cathedral, from all over the city. We walked all the way to the top of the Giralda, and the view is unreal. You can see the entire city from the top. The reason why there are ramps and not stairs is because the servants of the kings would ride up on horseback and ring the bells (which are still rung today) to signal that mass was starting. There are other amazing sights, but I’ll explain those later.

-Weather & customs: Weather is very similar to Southern California, which is very nice. It rained every day for the first two weeks or so, but it has cleared up and has been unbelievably beautiful. When it’s nice out, the locals crowd the streets and spend their entire days outside by the river, in the park, walking, or just sitting at an outdoor restaurant or bar. They really take advantage of being outdoors, and that is evident in the fact that their homes are humble in size and not so important--as they are really just a place to sleep and eat meals. Smoking is ridiculously commonplace, as most restaurants and all bars and discos allow it. Every night we come home with our clothes reeking of smoke, but it’s just another part of the life here. All shops and markets are closed on Sundays for religious reasons, and mostly everywhere closes for the middle of the day for siesta and then reopens.

Discotecas/Bars: Let’s preface this by saying that there are more bars on each street than there probably are total in most towns. There are at least 10 cervecerias (small bars) on every street, as the people fill the tiny space for their Cruzcampos or Mahous (the local brews). People overflow and bring their drinks outside to enjoy the evening air and the company of their friends. My favorite places to enjoy an evening start at one of the following districts:
Alameda de Hercules: the Bohemian scene, a strip lined with trees that is full of dive bars and hippies. I haven’t seen one other group of Americans there when I have gone.
Arenal: Arenal is another hippie type scene, but it’s a much more relaxed area. It has several small bars and smaller discotecas that are crowded as the people dance to funky music and oldies. My favorite bar is in Arenal, it’s called Elefunk. It’s small but has a dance floor in the center, and fishbowls hang above the bar.
Betis: Betis is the street right on the river, and just a block down from our apartment. It’s the American scene, as its 1 Euro shots at a bar called Big Ben attract the foreigners. Betis is charming but it gets kind of old, we normally just go to Big Ben for an hour and then head out to another district.
Plaza Alfalfa: MY FAVORITE DISTRICT. The streets are FLOODED with people, and the bars are tiny and packed with people. Rebotica has 5 euro mojitos that are bigger than like a supersize coke. Bar Nostrum has pitchers of all different “aguas” including Agua de Sevilla, which looks and tastes like chocolate milk, but it’s alcoholic. I love it here because it’s so alive and there are so many people.

After hanging out around one of these districts--which might I add people don’t even normally go to their first bar until 12:30 at the earliest--we head over to a discoteca. Some discotecas are three or four floors, each floor playing different music genres. Others are one story but have huge dance floors and side areas with couches. Discotecas do not even nearly get crazy until around 2:30 or 3.

What's on tap for March:
Lisbon, Portugal March 13-15
Amsterdam, Netherlands March 20-23
Cordoba & Granada, Spain March 27-29

That's all for now!
-LP