Cordóba and Cadiz
Ok I have finally found out how to access my blog again!!! Yeah I know all of you are excited now! Ok mom is going to rewrite my other e-mails I believe because I don´t have any of those so this is going to be about this past weekend October 6-7. This one I wrote when I couldn´t sleep on Sunday morning.
Ok can´t sleep so I´m writing you guys!
We are going to start with Thursday night. Ashton and I decided to go out and on our walk back to the house I saw a flea market in one of the bigger plazas near our house so we went through it and I bought my first Spain skirt it´s cute. While there Ashton flirted with the vendor and got his number yep another intercambio possibility. (which means we meet with someone who speaks spanish so we can work on our spanish skills). Then back at home we ate with our host parents Reyes and Alfonso, just to give you a time frame we eat dinner every night at 9pm).
So we were walking away from our house and we meet up with the people who made it to the intercambios on time and we sat down with them and watched them drink wine, and various other alcoholic drinks. One that I have to mention is Sangria. This drink is really good it is a red wine that is mixed with juice and a variety of fruits. If I am out and buy a drink it is that. The group intercambio ends at about 10:30 and we then as a pretty big group wonder to a bar we have heard about from our directors and other Sevillans we have met. It is called Alphalpha and it is just a street where a lot of college students hang out and drink. Let me explain bars in Sevilla first the bar themselves are extremely small and they offer no seating. They sell the alcohol at the bar and then the glasses are taken out in front of the bar itself and consumed on the sidewalk and street in front of the bar. The glasses are just returned to the bar after the person is done with it. Alphalpha street has about 3 bars next to eachother and then a pizza joint across the street.
We meet some students from the University of Sevilla here that try to speak english to us and we speak spanish back to them. It was fun but the setting was loud and very hard to understand eachother. We got their number as they invited us to a party on Wednesday, since nobody has school on Thursday as it is a big celebration of the Virgen de Pilar. Anyways we enjoyed talking to them and will later decided if they will be good for more intercambios. Now I did not set the scene for this street as a lot of my family is very worried about me already but I feel it adds to the story if you know more about the setting. We are a group of Americans that try not to seperate as there are LOT of people on this street and a few of the guys have been offered marijuana and there are a couple drunk guys hitting on only American girls so we are keeping a pretty close eye on eachother and the surroundings. I did hear one person slur guiri at us which is a derrogatory term for foreigners, we learned that in one of our classes that day.
Now it is getting around midnight and the bars are closing down because the discotecas are opening for the night so we go in search of a discoteca called casino in which we have just recieved VIP passes from some guy that was handing them out at Alphalpha so we begin our search. Which ends up with the front people getting lost, and then more Americans that are studying at the University show up looking for the same place so now about 40 of us Americans are loudly walking through the streets looking for this discoteca. Needless to say 4 of us decided this was not a good idea so as soon as this kid came up to the group offering tickets for free entrance, and a free drink at a discoteca near Alphalpha we left and headed back.
I am in heels at this time while that is normal for most spaniard women it is not for me so my feet are aching. So we stop on the steps of the cathedral for a rest before trecking on to the discoteca Catedral. The bouncers let us in easily and once inside it was a whole new scene. this place was really nice with a white leather couch that has a rope blocking it for a reservation I suppose. Then the bar with a nice marble counter nicely dressed bartenders then to some stairs that lead to a big room covered in mirrors a couple couches neatly placed with occupants two DJs in the back right corner two pillars in the middle and close to the stairs a back room that leads to the bathrooms. It is pretty dark and lit up by hazy lights. So we go in and watch people a little and notice that everyone is drinking so we get our free drinks which was ok because the bartender made the drinks in front of us like they are supposed to so we got vodka with fanta. Then danced a little on the dance floor near one of the pillars and watched around us. We didn´t stay long as we began to tire of the lack of people and little interaction between groups within the club.
Ashton and I then went home and it was so nice to sit down and take my heels off. Needless to say we slept well that night.
So now how about Friday. We went on a excursion to Cordóba and the ride wasn´t too bad actually. However, when we arove of course the first stop was the bathrooms for the girls and as usual there was only one bathroom and only one toilet, yep I was definately pulling the dance for a bit, sometimes it sucks being a girl. We then toured the gardens of Alcazár. Which was breathtakingly beautiful. Let me explain about Alcazár it is a palace that was built by the Moors so there is a lot of ponds and waterfalls. Then it was overtaken by Isabel and Ferdinand and they occupied it for 8 years during the inquisition. In the inner garden there is a large, tall, stone wall that surrounds it and during the inquisition they made this a jail for the muslims and jews.
We walked through tree lined walkways by ponds with little fountains and flowers blooming every step of the way. Hidden in between the trees were statues of past kings and at the end a huge statue of Christopher Columbus approaching Isabel and Ferdinand. An amazing site I hope to gather some pictures for you guys from my camera of it.
I have to go to soccer so I will write more tomorrow!
Lauren
Ok can´t sleep so I´m writing you guys!
We are going to start with Thursday night. Ashton and I decided to go out and on our walk back to the house I saw a flea market in one of the bigger plazas near our house so we went through it and I bought my first Spain skirt it´s cute. While there Ashton flirted with the vendor and got his number yep another intercambio possibility. (which means we meet with someone who speaks spanish so we can work on our spanish skills). Then back at home we ate with our host parents Reyes and Alfonso, just to give you a time frame we eat dinner every night at 9pm).
So we were walking away from our house and we meet up with the people who made it to the intercambios on time and we sat down with them and watched them drink wine, and various other alcoholic drinks. One that I have to mention is Sangria. This drink is really good it is a red wine that is mixed with juice and a variety of fruits. If I am out and buy a drink it is that. The group intercambio ends at about 10:30 and we then as a pretty big group wonder to a bar we have heard about from our directors and other Sevillans we have met. It is called Alphalpha and it is just a street where a lot of college students hang out and drink. Let me explain bars in Sevilla first the bar themselves are extremely small and they offer no seating. They sell the alcohol at the bar and then the glasses are taken out in front of the bar itself and consumed on the sidewalk and street in front of the bar. The glasses are just returned to the bar after the person is done with it. Alphalpha street has about 3 bars next to eachother and then a pizza joint across the street.
We meet some students from the University of Sevilla here that try to speak english to us and we speak spanish back to them. It was fun but the setting was loud and very hard to understand eachother. We got their number as they invited us to a party on Wednesday, since nobody has school on Thursday as it is a big celebration of the Virgen de Pilar. Anyways we enjoyed talking to them and will later decided if they will be good for more intercambios. Now I did not set the scene for this street as a lot of my family is very worried about me already but I feel it adds to the story if you know more about the setting. We are a group of Americans that try not to seperate as there are LOT of people on this street and a few of the guys have been offered marijuana and there are a couple drunk guys hitting on only American girls so we are keeping a pretty close eye on eachother and the surroundings. I did hear one person slur guiri at us which is a derrogatory term for foreigners, we learned that in one of our classes that day.
Now it is getting around midnight and the bars are closing down because the discotecas are opening for the night so we go in search of a discoteca called casino in which we have just recieved VIP passes from some guy that was handing them out at Alphalpha so we begin our search. Which ends up with the front people getting lost, and then more Americans that are studying at the University show up looking for the same place so now about 40 of us Americans are loudly walking through the streets looking for this discoteca. Needless to say 4 of us decided this was not a good idea so as soon as this kid came up to the group offering tickets for free entrance, and a free drink at a discoteca near Alphalpha we left and headed back.
I am in heels at this time while that is normal for most spaniard women it is not for me so my feet are aching. So we stop on the steps of the cathedral for a rest before trecking on to the discoteca Catedral. The bouncers let us in easily and once inside it was a whole new scene. this place was really nice with a white leather couch that has a rope blocking it for a reservation I suppose. Then the bar with a nice marble counter nicely dressed bartenders then to some stairs that lead to a big room covered in mirrors a couple couches neatly placed with occupants two DJs in the back right corner two pillars in the middle and close to the stairs a back room that leads to the bathrooms. It is pretty dark and lit up by hazy lights. So we go in and watch people a little and notice that everyone is drinking so we get our free drinks which was ok because the bartender made the drinks in front of us like they are supposed to so we got vodka with fanta. Then danced a little on the dance floor near one of the pillars and watched around us. We didn´t stay long as we began to tire of the lack of people and little interaction between groups within the club.
Ashton and I then went home and it was so nice to sit down and take my heels off. Needless to say we slept well that night.
So now how about Friday. We went on a excursion to Cordóba and the ride wasn´t too bad actually. However, when we arove of course the first stop was the bathrooms for the girls and as usual there was only one bathroom and only one toilet, yep I was definately pulling the dance for a bit, sometimes it sucks being a girl. We then toured the gardens of Alcazár. Which was breathtakingly beautiful. Let me explain about Alcazár it is a palace that was built by the Moors so there is a lot of ponds and waterfalls. Then it was overtaken by Isabel and Ferdinand and they occupied it for 8 years during the inquisition. In the inner garden there is a large, tall, stone wall that surrounds it and during the inquisition they made this a jail for the muslims and jews.
We walked through tree lined walkways by ponds with little fountains and flowers blooming every step of the way. Hidden in between the trees were statues of past kings and at the end a huge statue of Christopher Columbus approaching Isabel and Ferdinand. An amazing site I hope to gather some pictures for you guys from my camera of it.
I have to go to soccer so I will write more tomorrow!
Lauren
posted by Lauren Westling @ 8:43 AM
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