Ha pasado un mes

It's hard to believe that I've been here for a month already, because sometimes it feels like I'm still just getting started. I've been in class for three weeks now and I am absolutely madly in love with Phonetics & Phonology. The other three classes are survivable, especially since there are no Friday classes in my program. The university itself is a gorgeous building called La Real Fábrica de Tobacos (The Royal Tobacco Factory). It was originally used as the first tobacco factory in Europe, built at the start of the 16th century after the Spanish discovered America and brought over tobacco from the New World. It's had a couple of other uses since then, and it became la Universidad de Sevilla in 1948.

Enough about school. Since I last blogged, the group has taken weekend trips to Madrid, Toledo, and Ronda.

In Madrid we stayed in probably the nicest hotel I've ever seen the inside of. The powerful double showerhead and heated towel rack in the bathroom were certainly a welcome change from the Sevilla apartment, where the water pressure is equivalent to a drizzle. The first day in Madrid, we toured the city on foot with our awesome guide, Paco. We walked through Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol, neither of which had any shortage of street performers. Plaza Mayor is the main square of the city. Bullfights were held there back in the day, but there was one little problem- it's a square. The bulls could very easily corner the matadores and do some serious damage. Thus, they switched to the circular bull rings we see today. We also saw the royal palace, where royalty does not actually live. According to Paco, the royal family "doesn't really do anything anyway."

Plaza Mayor

El Palacio Real

While in Madrid, we also visited la Reina Sofia and Museo del Prado, two very famous art museums. I went to both of these last time I was in Spain, and I'm happy to report that they were slightly more enjoyable this time around. (Maybe because it wasn't 100 degrees out and I hadn't stayed up packing the entire night before this time.) Lily and I scanned the Reina Sofia pretty quickly. I made a point to see Picasso's "La Guernica" because I had learned so much about it in past Spanish classes. Aside from that, we took silly pictures with all those oh-so-impressive contemporary types of paintings- you know, the ones that appear to have been painted by lazy preschoolers. A squiggly black line on a blank white canvas with a yellow splotch in the corner. I suppose I'm not worldly and philosophical enough to understand true art. We saw works in the Prado that had much more history- paintings by El Greco, Velazquez, and Goya. Paco made it interesting by sharing his wealth of knowledge and fun facts on the paintings and their painters.

In Toledo we did lots of stair-climbing, bridge-crossing, and stopping to take pictures. The city is very old-fasioned looking, and it's basically built on a hill. There are sections of stairs that are more like a series of small platforms. They were designed this way so horses could climb and descend with greater ease. We also saw El Greco's "El Entierro del Conde de Orgaz." I've learned a lot about this painting in past Spanish classes as well, but I will spare you all the long history lesson and just say that it's an important, historical, impressive, huge mural in a church of Toledo, and I enjoyed seeing it in person. During our free time in Toledo, I tried marzapan and it is definitely on my list of top ten favorite things in the world now! Oh, and the final adventure of the Toledo trip is that we all thought our train left twenty minutes later than it actually did. We realized this just in time to run to the train station. As if we didn't already stand out just by being American, our group of twenty or so people literally sprinted like maniacs through the streets, down the stairs, and across the bridges. It was dumbfounding to the Spaniards, but hilarious to us.

Toledo

View from bridge in previous picture

Ronda is a place I had never heard of before this semester, but it is hands down my favorite place in Spain so far. We had beautiful weather with perfect views of the most amazing, picturesque scenery you could imagine. A giant mountain gorge runs through the town, and there are tons of cafes, houses, and terraces built on the edge of the cliffs. We also saw the ancient Arab baths and the oldest bull ring in Spain that is still in use. All of this was shown to us by our tour guide, Jesus, who was also guide to Michelle Obama when she visited Ronda.

Here in Sevilla, not too much is new. I'm still completely in love with it here. One of my roommates, Franziska, who had been here since September, left a few weeks ago to go back to Germany. A new student (also from Germany) moved in last week, but she's only here for three weeks. Her name is Katrin, which is pronounced by Spanish speakers exactly the same as my name. We had a four day weekend because today is El Dia de Andalucia, and she and I went to the the beach in Cádiz yesterday. It's been a really relaxing weekend with amazing weather, but it's supposed to start getting colder again. And by colder I mean it's still going to be warm.

Fun fact- peanut butter is a rarity over here. If you can find it in the grocery stores at all, you can bet it's expensive. And you certianly can't find Reese's.

Leave a comment or email me or write me or facebook me and let me know how you guys are doing over in the US!

Hasta luego.

P.S. Mullet sightings since arrival: 9