This week already

Monday we had a soccer tournament against another english study abroad program here, and both our boys and girls teams won! I got to play in both the girls´ game and the boys´ game. Actually the other program didn´t have any girls show up so we won the cup by default. So that first hour we scrimmaged then during the boys´ game one girl always played, because the directors felt bad that we didn´t have a girls team to play against. We got champion cups and everything! I´ll get the pics to show you.

Tuesday, last night I went on my first volunteer activity here. I was pretty excited (and worried) I arrived at the lady´s house early (I was worried I would have problems finding it as it took about an hour to just walk there) and she was very nice. I escorted her to the post office (which took an hour) and then we returned to her house and she insisted on feeding me some chocolate milk and cookies before I left. I got back to my house and had a half hour to just sit (my feet hurt I had only sat 10 minutes at her house, so I had been on my feet for around 3.5 hours) on my bed and do homework.

that has been my week so far!

Thanksgiving weekend

This Weekend where to begin....

Thursday... Thanksgiving!!!!

Went to classes (boring I know, it gets a little more interesting now) then when I returned to the house for lunch there were two visitors there... Tanya and her brother Kirk. When I was filling out paperwork to come to Sevilla I met with Jessica to ask questions and get recommendations about housing, people to meet, places to go, etc. Jessica came to Spain with her friend, Tanya, and Tanya had e-mailed me info about her host family so I could request them (yeah the host family I am with now is the same family as Tanya had). So Kirk, her bro is studying in Valencia and Tanya was visiting him, then both came to Sevilla to see people and explore Sevilla some more. Kirk stayed with us from Thursday to Saturday afternoon and Tanya stayed from Thursday to Monday. Both attend the University of Wyoming and have lived in Worland their whole lives, yep I never met either of them, the irony.

I didn´t get a nap because we talked for a while, so I returned to school to check my e-mails (I am getting addicted to it). Then when I got back to the house I couldn´t find my keys!!! It was horrible I was so upset! So I went back to the school to look- no luck. I went back to the house (had to intercom Reyes to let me in, before a guy opened the door and let me in). I was so upset at myself for having lost my keys- I just wanted to cry. I searched everywhere, my room, my backpack, all my pockets then just sat down and prayed. After I prayed I turned to look in my closet in jacket that I had worn earlier (yep searched it again) and then the pocket of my backpack where I usually keep them (for the 5th time) and Walah there they were a miracle! I was so happy I prayed again!

Thanksgiving dinner. Our program set up a formal dinner for all of us at Hotel Becquer. When Ashton and I (we arrived together but didn´t speak the whole time, we´re were in a bad fight) every person we encountered commented on how good we looked (always nice). We both had on black short dresses and black heels (not planned believe me). And everyone else was in dresses and heels, and the guys, slacks and collared shirts (some jackets and most had ties). It was really nice to see everyone dressed up and happy.

I sat with Vincent, Molly, and Lauren at a table laiden with the normal formal dinner accessories. The waiters served us our plates with vegetables, turkey, and mashed potatoes. Now should mention that they don´t celebrate thanksgiving in Spain so for them to make this meal it was difficult (Tanya said that when she attended it 2 years ago the meal was horrible!) So I was prepared for the worst but actually it was pretty good, they´re learning. It was only the pumpkin pie that wasn´t good (yeah my favorite part of Thanksgiving- oh well next year). I will always remember this thanksgiving dinner because all of us were a little homesick but we were together. Besides the fact that the waitors gave every table 2 bottles of red wine and all of them were consumed.

I left and met up with a group of my friends (yeah they went to calle betis and I didn´t realize they had left, I was talking to Jorge and Damian -two of our spaniard friends) at calle betis and we went to Madigans, Big Bens, and Funducion. It was a pretty calm night and we called it early. Brian walked me home and we got stopped by a woman begging us for money for gas. Neither of us were sure what to do Brian had only a 10 and some credit cards. When he tried to show her that he only had cards she tried to get him to go to the gas station with her to buy the gas. That really was wierd to us so we finally just said no and walked away. I felt bad because i had a euro but it was in my pocket with a 20 and I was worried she would see my twenty if I went for it and I wasn´t sure I wanted to give this random woman on the street twenty euros.

FRIDAY

I started out the morning early with a walk to the ONCE building- where I finalized all the paperwork to be a volunteer. Then walked down La feria to talk to topcity about an apartment for my family in December (they said they didn´t have any) then finished with buying some new jeans at a small shop, I have 3 jeans now!! All in all I got a lot of things done and felt good about accomplishing all of them. Then I got a call from Mario and he and I went on a walk in centro looking at buildings, me asking questions him trying to explain things to me as best he could and then a short stop at this bar called El patio (I believe). This bar was good because it was near my house, had a lot of spaniards, good prices and the food was good too. I think I am going to take my family here for tapas in December. One of my favorite parts was in the back they have some steps where we sat with our drinks and tapa sized sandwiches and chips to talk. Mario had a bunch of guide books that he gave me along with a pack of postcards with sites in Sevilla from the olden days, a picture book of sites in sevilla (with color), and a poem book. There was a lot of books- a lot to read.

I returned back to the house for lunch, siesta, and then out with Tanya and her brother to see Mario (again) and his sister. We had drinks at a bar in Plaza de Armas and talked. Mario gave Tanya and her brother the same guide books he gave me and poem book (so I think these are a gift but they look new and expensive so i will try to give them back when i am done with them).


Then I returned back to the house for dinner and decided to not go out because it was raining.

SATURDAY

It rained all day!!! Kind of depressing. I spent the morning reading my spanish books, talking to Alfonso. Then bored and needing some exercise I walked around Sevilla by myself. I randomly walked some new streets just exploring. I was at los jardines de murillo when the downpour started (I was wearing my jacket but a umbrella would have been better) and by the time I got back to the house my hips down were soaked.

After lunch I watched a movie with Reyes (well I watched, she slept) and it had a lady that was in love with a guy and he was in love with her but she kept running away from him. Then in the end he finds that she is sick so he goes to see her and finds that she has always loved him and was waiting for him to come to her and right when he is talking about the future they could have together she dies in his arms.. classic. I hate these shows because they make you sad.

Then I went to walk around Sevilla for a bit and ended up going to the art museum near the house. It was good but I was just so tired ( I hadn´t had nap time) so I returned to the house had an hour to fall asleep, couldn´t sleep. So at 9 had dinner and sat on the couch watching the movie ¨Joseph¨ with my host father until Ashton came into the room and told me Jorge had called and invited us to go to a house party for his friend that is leaving Sevilla to live in Madrid sometime soon. I had to get out of the house so I agreed.

We met up with Jorge then walked to Rafe´s ( the three friends in this group that we hang out with are Jorge, Rafe, and Damian. Yes I finally learned their names) and Rafe drove us to pick up Marissa in Triana then go to his friend´s house. Damian was sick so he wasn´t going to come, but he showed up just to see Ashton, he´s got a crush on her. This party was a lot of fun because we got to meet a lot, I mean a LOT of Spaniards. This is one time when alcohol was great, it really helped us to talk better spanish and we talked to everyone at the party (about 30 people) by the end let´s just say a good amount of people were tipsy (thank gosh I wasn´t).

We decided to go to antique and dance so Ash went with Rafe and Jorge in Rafe´s car and Marissa and I went with Damian in his car to go change my shoes (I had on tennis and they don´t let you go in Antique without nice shoes on). So I changed then we went to Antique.

For the first 20 minutes we looked, called and texted the other group trying to figure out where they were. Then as usual Ashton and Marissa got lost in the crowd of guys (ditching the guys not me as I chose to go with the guys. I was getting tired of being hit on by nasty guys that always try to feel me up, it had already happened once that night while we were searching for the other group.) So I danced the night away with Rafe and he ended up leaving early because I started dancing with Jorge (I felt bad about that, I could only dance with so many people). Ashton and Marissa sat at a table upstairs talking to one of the guys that works at Antique, that Marissa and I knew from Funducion.

We left the club at 7am walked to a friend´s car and he drove us to Rafe´s house. It was here that we met up with Rafe who had walked home (poor guy, I am not really sure what happened there) and he opened his bar and made us breakfast of bocadillos with their famous jamon and olive oil (the girls were tired and grumpy so this meal consisted of the girls wining about being sleepy the whole time. I however loved the fact that Rafe made us a special breakfast from his bar). We then got a ride home, and slept.

THE REST OF SUNDAY

I got up at 12 and went on a walk to my favorite place in Sevilla on Sunday, the art show in the plaza near my house. I have found one artist that I really love his work and go to see it now every Sunday. I was really tired so I went back to the house and laid down for a half hour. Our last meal with Tanya was paella, her favorite meal, and then she and I met with Mario and went on a search for a candy store for her to buy her husband some of these candies he loves from Sevilla (none of the stores were open, it´s sunday nothing is open on Sunday).

We walked around the river waiting for Juan and finally he showed up with two guys, I don´t remember their names, and a girl I had met on Wednesday night when Tanya, her brother, and I had gone out with this group to Calle Betis. They had spent the night together too and had gone to bed around 9 that morning so they were excited about relaxing near the river.

As a group we sat together in a circle on the grass near the river and talked. It is common on warm days like for families or groups of friends to sit by the river and enjoy the sun and sound of the river. One of the guys had brought his guitar and he was playing it softly and singing to us. Tanya and I couldn´t spend too much time with them because she had to meet with another group of friends and say goodbye, and I wanted to go get some more sleep so we left after a half hour. Tanya and I talked for a while about her year in Sevilla, and some of our experiences and it was a comforting, nice conversation.

I got back to the apartment tried to study, couldn´t concetrate, so I was laying in bed trying to decided what to do when my phone rang and Cari Ann, one of the girls that is in ISA and attends the university, called asking if I wanted to go rock climbing under the Triana bridge.

Climbing was really fun! My upper body has never been very strong (I am truly a soccer player) and I felt weak most of the time and like a true beginner. The spaniard guys that climb there every night, were extremely helpful in showing me some places to climb and spotting me. My arms hurt a bunch Monday and a little bit on Tuesday. I have decided if I go there multiple nights I will get a stronger upper body (well that is the idea).

That´s it!

Granada

Last Friday

How do I explain my past weekend in Granada.. hmm lets just say it didn´t start out well. The bus ride was only 3 hours but honestly it was excruciating. After an hour and a half of travel 10 individuals on the bus discovered they had to stop for a bathroom break, BAD. However, no matter how much they pleaded to our director to have the driver stop the bus they just kept going. It was an uprising on the bus for about 20 minutes. It only ended when the bus finally stopped at the prearranged stop and those 10 students went racing for the bathroom.

Later, when we arrived at Granada Jessop, another student, and I were experiencing motion sickness. That was a surprise as we had been on the bus to Portugal and Morocco but something about this trip was just horrible. So needless to say it did not start out well.

We arove at the hotel around 2 and the rooms (as usual) weren´t ready. So we put our bags in the back conference room and I set out, with my bocadillo in hand, (bocadillo= sandwich) with Robert, Andrea, and Sarah to explore the town of Granada. Now we were on a main search to find Andrea a place to eat but we also found that the town is pretty small but built about the same as Lisbon, Portugal with streets with huge name brand stores and small mom and pop restaurants and tapas bars interspersed in the smaller side streets.

After Andrea ate some paella and we had lively conversations about random things we made a trip to Haagen Daz for some ice cream. I was persuaded into fossil fuel and it was really good. Then I returned to the room for nap time, Ashton had beat me to it.

Later that evening I got a call from Madia and Robert and through a couple mixups Robert and I ended up eating at a restaurant by ourselves (a whole courtesy problem) and it was fun. Our dinner took a little long but it was worth it. We had the plate called Country and it was good! (No it wasn´t american I haven´t fallen on that escape yet.)

We ended up running to the meeting place for our group trip to flamenco dancing (and it was chilly, and of course neither of us had jackets) when we caught up with the group Madia wrapped her scarf around me to help with warmth poor Robert just had to freeze because he let me have the scarf.

Let me set the scene we walked into a setting that reminded one of a home. We were taken to a back part that opened up into a room with chairs set around tables. The decoration along the walls were pots and pans, with other paraphanalia resembling a house. At the back of the room there was an arch over a stage that had two little windows and a curtain covering a larger window in the middle. Now the view from all of these windows was rock, this building was carved into the mountain so in other words we were in a nice cave. The perfect setting for flamenco.

I should really explain the history of Spain to explain why I say this is the perfect setting. In 1492 the spanish monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabel, started the inquisition throughout Spain. The spanish inqusition was horrible and millions of people were slain for their beliefs. Those that did not convert to cristianity (or pretend to convert) in Granada went into hidding in the caves of Granada. These people included the jews, muslims (moors), and the people who are always running from the law; the gypsies and criminals. These various groups of people are believed to have played a part in the creation of flamenco, and the place that flamenco was first performed- in caves, the homes of these people in hiding.

Flamenco is performed with a guitar, a singer, clapping, and sometimes (always for tourists) a dancer. The idea behind flamenco is to portray the struggles of the person, good flamenco is rough, strong, and different every time because the struggles change for every person.

Enough flamenco lessons, if you have questions let me know. So we watched two flamenco groups in Granada. These groups included three dancers, one person to clap, one singer, and one guitar player. The women wore flamenco dresses (for us, the tourists) and the men wore black pants and brightly colored collared shirts. It was really neat to watch and experience as they were pretty good, but I am not a flamenco expert.

When that ended Sara, Robert, Jessica, Jessica´s dad, Andrea, Brian, and Jimmy went to a hooka bar. That was fun because the owner of the bar was very energetic, there were arabic music videos on the tvs around the bar and of course new food to try. I shared a pita filaffle with Andrea and it was really good. We also as a group got some pakistan and Andaluce tea and with sugar they were really good. It was a lot of fun.

While at the bar we met some american students that are studying in Granada and they told us about some discotecas and bars to go to. But this is where Granada gets interesting (I think they do this in Barcelona too) when you walk near the bars and clubs there are students standing on the streets with little papers for bars and discotecas around the city. We just would walk to one student and follow that person to a bar, if it was too packed, the music was not to our liking, or just didn´t like it we would walk back out into the streets meet another person and go to another bar. We ended up dancing at three bars and one discoteca. The last discoteca was pretty crowded when we showed up but it died down because the big discoteca ¨Granada 10¨ opened (Granada 10 had an entrance fee of 8, and a line of guys standing in a line outside of it waiting to go in) we didn´t feel like going to that.

THE NEXT DAY

This past weekend

13 November 2006

What a weekend I am trying to just think about where to begin and I think I am going to start with Thursday so here you go!

Thursday was a harder day for me because I had a control (a test) in my grammar class (that class is my toughest class so tests in it are always a little scary) but I feel that I did ok. There was a lot of people missing from classes today because they had left for their vacations early this week so the classes we smaller and quicker (always nice). My roommate had left early that morning for London so I had the room to myself in the afternoon. After my siesta and a quick trip to the internet lab at my school for last minute e-mails, I went to dinner with Vincent and Brian at an english pub they had found, it will be nice to go to this for the big soccer games. We shared a plate of quesadillas (yeah it was great), I am trying to not eat a lot because of my morrocan problem but I splurged and got a tinto verano (not a good idea).

Then we rode a bus to the Sevilla stadium in Nervion (a certain part of town). We had tickets that were 4 rows from the field and the first half we got to see all of sevilla´s goals. Also all the hard core sevilla fans were standing on our right side right behind the goal so the seats were perfect! I had so much fun watching the fans as they had flags, a lot of cheers, and a drum. There were few quiet parts in the game. Sevilla dominated the whole game and ended the game 3-2 yeah!

Friday
No classes! One of the great advantages of going to school at Menedez Pelayo. However, I wasn´t allowed to eat any food all day because my director and my host mom tell me that you need to empty your stomach and then eat little meals to build back up to your normal diet. I had activities to fill up that gap and the first was a meeting I at ten with the volunteer supervisor at ONCE. I got there early (I really thought I would get lost but with my map I did fine) and had an hour to sit on a bench placed around a pretty fountain and work on travel plans for my family, when they visit, and classes for next semester. It was really pretty with the sun shining making it warm but not hot, and not a lot of people.

My interview/introduction session at the ONCE office was good. I was lost at first trying to find his office as I didn´t take the elevator to el primera planta instead of permera pisa (I think) and had to ask for directions again in one of the offices which just happened to be (luckily) right across from his so it was good.

This guy loved talking to me (and need I say correcting me) a whole lot. I got hesitant to talk to him as I kept getting corrected but as I look back it was not really that bad, and I did get to meet one of the elderly men that he works with. I am guessing by this moment you are wondering what ONCE is well it is an organization that works with the blind. They have little buildings (that doesn´t really explain them well they are really small like a portapotty but really nice) all over the city to help the blind with anything, and to sell lottery tickets. The lottery in Sevilla is set up to to give a portion to ONCE every time someone buys a ticket. On a more personal note it also is open to tourists and they don´t take taxes out so it is pretty neat.

I got home to eat and play in the internet lab at the school for a long time, then went to lunch time with my family to sleep, couldn´t eat. I got up to walk around a bit then returned for dinner (my host mom felt bad and gave me a little bit of meat and yogurt).

After dinner I went out to meet with a guy I had met at teatre, the discoteca Ashton and I went dancing at our last free weekend in Sevilla, David (or Davi in castillan). After a lot of messaging on our cell phones and a couple rounds of circling plaza nueva looking for eachother (there is a lot of construction going on in the plaza so we just circled the construction site a couple times and it was obviously like a game of cat and mouse. Finally I saw a guy on the phone and caught up to him!)

He had his car (it was really new, black leather seats, a nice stereo system, and of course it was red and compact) so he drove while I made small talk about his music selection, which was a mixed cd of mainly rap all in English (I never would have guessed how much of their music is the same as the US´s this is kind of a let down to me as I walk to school and a lot of the stores play songs that are what I can hear in the US in english too oh well) which I found kind of funny. He really doesn´t speak any english, I mean besides ¨what is your name¨ ¨where do you come from¨ you know the normal stuff so to hear him listening to this music I had a lot of questions. Which all of them came up with the answer ¨no conozco las palabras solamente el ritmo¨ so I offered to interpret it for him but felt bad as a lot of the songs talked about sex, and used a lot of slang (the he wouldn´t understand as it is a cultural thing) and he would never be able to listen to the song and fully understand it (I think the words really kill most of the songs so maybe I won´t translate it for him)

We (more like he) decided to go to Calle Betis, a street near the river (and my house for that matter) that has a lot of americans normally because it is lined with bars with a really nice discoteca (I have been told as I have been avoiding hanging out with just americans, and lo es un poco caro para mi, 10 euros).

It is a thursday night so the street is pretty packed (no double parking yet but it was definately coming) so when he saw a couple leave a restaurant and go to their car we waited. Then we waited, before I could give him a hard time about it he drove up next to their car and yelled out the window ( a little hard to understand in spanish but it translates to ¨are you going to leave¨) at them. Now these two people one an older man about 58 and the woman who looked a lot younger were liplocked and totally oblivious to their surroundings. After 3 futile attempts he finally got their attention and they left and we parked. (Yeah it seemed a little wierd to me but hey lo es guay).

He bought drinks (a tinto verano for me and an energy drink for him) and we sat in this bar at a tall, small table for about 3 hours. I enjoyed laughing at the music as it had a lot of american songs (probably for the tourists and the sevillans), and making attempts to speak spanish over the music which was really hard at times. All in all it would have been better if he had chosen a place with no music so that I could have actually understood him, and he me.

He dropped me off at the house. And I was glad to be home for about 10 minutes when Media called and she and I walked around Sevilla looking for food, talking about our intercambios that night and finally deciding to eat some churros con chocolate before returning home.The rest of the day I spent in the computer lab at the school, then at home sleeping, and then a little exploration at plaza nueva, dinner(a little ham, water, and yogurt), and then a pill to get rid of my exploding headache and the side effect of sleeping the rest of the night.


Saturday

Not a lot woke up, didn´t feel good, my host mom brought me breakfast in bed (I got up to go to the bathroom then went back to bed. She noticed figured I was feeling horrible so she brought me breakfast in bed (some special toast a little ham on top and for dessert YOGURT). The day was pretty relaxed and I got out to walk a bit but slept a whole bunch, read a lot, and worked on the presentation for Monday in my culture class.

It was 11pm that night that I heard from Mario, the guy that my friend at UW told me to meet. He and his friend Juan met me at the fountain (I brought Media but she ended up leaving immediately because she was cold and tired, I felt a little abandoned but it was better for her) and our trio went to a bodega on Alphalpha to get acquianted. The conversation started our a little uneasy Juan and I talked a lot and Mario was a little quiet. We talked about a wide variety of things and Juan talked a little fast but he was good about repeating things and of course explaining others.

At about 12:30 we went to meet the rest of their friends at Alhambra. Now I was a little lost getting there but the guys knew it even though there was some times when I had to laugh at how lost they acted at times. But we made to the botellon and I met a whole lot of people! A botellon is when a group of people (this is a college age and older activity) bring alcohol, pop, ice cubes, and glasses for a group of friends to drink and talk in the street, or in our case a plaza. There was a lot of students here and we had to send Juan to search for their group of friends and then take us to the circle. I met so many people and I could not even begin to try to name all of them as more just kept showing up and all were nice and welcoming. I got a whole lot of spanish practice! I even talked to a guy that wanted to practice his spanish but only for a little bit.

I would like to describe a couple things about this botellon that really stuck in my mind first some of the people in our group were smoking extended cigarettes ( I watched them add some substance to their cigarettes but none of the people would tell me what it was and then roll tobacco and the other substance into a new paper and then use the yellow part of the previous cigarette to smoke it). They smoked a lot of these ¨special cigarrettes¨and I honestly got tired of the smoke at times.

The other thing was after about an hour of being there a group of gothic looking teens (there was a lot of wierd people around us so that isn´t very descriptive but just so you get a visual) went running through the groups, which caught everyone´s attention, then a fight broke out near us. Juan and Mario started grabbing me and pushing me closer to a building and then away from the fight, one of the girls in the group yelled at Juan to grab the alcohol and he returned with it in his arms. The fight calmed down a little and one girl asked if we should call the police but it got under control (at least everyone calmed down). I wondered why everyone immediately acted so scared about this fight when it was only a few people fighting and Richard had a great explanation. Sevilla´s youth is known for having fights start and they turn into full outright riots without bystanders throwing bottles at the fighters and others. I guess this doesn´t happen in other parts of Spain just Sevilla ( not a great characteristic but hey not everything can be great).

Mario and I left the group when they left for the discoteca. I was cold and really ready for bed as it was 5 am already. It was good I went with Mario because he lived near me and helped me get home faster (it would have taken me longer my way and it was cold).

Sunday

I got up at 9 then 10 when Media called me to go explore Sevilla´s flea market. I was reminded on my walk to plaza duque why I like sunday mornings in Sevilla. As soon as I walked of the apartment I saw the families enjoying breakfast at the little restaurant right next door. I got to plaza museo and there I walked around looking at all the pieces artists of sevilla put up for sale in the morning. I fell in love with some pieces by an artist that paints little boys practicing to be bull fighters and ranchers moving bulls with colorful sunrises in the background.

I met Media and we made our way to through the animal market. We were surrounded by vendors with puppies, rabbits, fish, birds, chinchillas, and even groundhogs! Also there were a lot of families with excited little kids trying to pet every animal. Everything was so cute!

We then walked by the international university (I need to explore that thing it looks really creative architecturally almost Mayan). Then the space center for the canary islands, and on the other side the theme park that is closed down right now. Then down this street with big ponds in the middle and fountains to big tents perfect for concerts. Then through the bushes and trees to a dirt road which ran along the river and GRASS! Yes trees and grass next the river!

We walked down the road to the market and had a great time there. On the way home from the market my host father and mother met up with us and I walked home to have lunch of white fish and plain rice with them and nap time.

At 5 I walked around town with Mario talking about a lot of different things and stopped once for a hot chocolate (that was nice!). When returning home we encountered a parade with a band and people carrying a statue through the streets, just like the virgen of Pilar celebration. Mario didn´t know about that day being a holiday but evidently it was the day to celebrate Mary Magdalene, pretty neat we ran into it.

I got back for fish and rice again with my host family and Ashton, just back from London. Then I got a 20 minute nap, was woken up by Isaiah (always a voice nice to wake up to) and then Ash and I went out to a flamenco bar with three guys she had met an hour before at the fountain near the cathedral, where she was bored and as she told them ¨reflecting¨ actually she didn´t want to be in the house alone.

The flamenco bar was packed with people by the time we left, 12 ( and that was considered early but we had class in the morning). Now these three guys were extremely nice and really good conversation partners as they spoke slow and corrected us in a nice way. Ash and I both decided that we should go out with them again, and they kept saying that they would take us out to the flamenco bar again on a different night so that we could dance and really take part in the flamenco experience. The club they took us to was interesting because it is only known by the locals, and plays the old, real flamenco that hasn´t been transformed for tourists. However, that night was different from the rest as it had a new band there to celebrate the club´s 10 anniversary so all of us decided to go back another weekend.

That was my weekend!
Lauren

Morocco

Here is the details from my trip to Morocco, or muereccos, this past week I am taking these entries directly from my journal that kept for those days so enjoy!

OCTOBER 30th

I am writing this on our tour bus as we are watching men in green uniforms grab our director, Quique, and escort him into white one room shacks that remind me of rooms in movies that prisioners of war would be taken to be questioned and/or tortured. We have been sitting here for about 2.5 hours and are not allowed to leave the bus for fear of losing someone or causing a bigger scene at the border then needed, right now we are a huge tour bus sitting in the road waiting to cross the border filled with over 100 American students anxious to cross the border, yeah we definately are causing a scene.

Earlier this morning we gathered student from all European ISA programs together at the bullring to travel on two tour buses to Angier (about 2 hours from Sevilla) loaded a ferry and sailed to Ceuta (about 1.5 hours) and then drove about 15 minutes and are now sitting at the ¨dirty border¨.

The reason it is taking us so long here at the border is this morning two girls studying in Valencia were leaving their hotel (Becquer) and were jumped by two Spanish men on their way to meet the group at the bullring. They tried to be very vague on the details but what I could get from the rumors these two girls were walking from the hotel and two men followed them and when they were right around the corner from the bull ring one man took one girl´s purse and the other punched the man he dropped the first girl´s purse. He then pulled a knife on this second girl which made her back off and he grabbed her purse and ran. Problem with this is that the girl lost her credit cards, money, keys, and of course her passport! I heard a rumor that Quique had to bribe around 400 euros to the Moroccan guards to let her into the country without a passport.

Ok activities that are occuring around us as we are sitting here on the border, and reasons they call this the dirty border. This area is the spanish territory and is surrounded by a white fence that has metal spikes facing outward. Moroccan men are sitting on the hill next to this fence dropping ropes down between the spikes and below other men are hooking packages to the ropes and then pulling them into morroco over the fence. The guards were turning a blind eye to the activity and at times men were walking up to the guards and shaking their hands a whole bunch (wink wink). Another thing a older car was entering Morocco was stopped and the guards unloaded the trunk. It was filled with liters of orange pop and there was a huge pile of orange pops in the middle of the road and some started rolling away. The car left all of these orange pops and the guards and other random people standing around were packing these in bags and wondering around the border drinking them.

We finally got across the border stopped for a potty break then drove through the mountains to our hotel in Fes. I was a little motion sick by the time we got there (it was 8pm at night). On the way we passed through a town that was exactly like american towns with sidewalks, lawns, and houses that had spaces in between them. It was neat. I guess it is a college town with students from Europe and the US that study in English and French. The woods around it had monkeys in the trees but we didn´t see them.

OCTOBER 31st

Breakfast included freshly squeezed orange juice and sweet biscuits and some kind of potato crepe which we watched the lady make. Interesting thing about hotels in Morocco is that the toilet is in it´s own seperate room ( I couldn´t find it the whole first night because I just assumed that door led to a closet or the next room my roommate had to show me it this morning) and the budwah (that is definately incorrectly spelled sorry) is in the bathroom with the shower and sink.

We started our tour with a trip to the royal palace, I was not really amazed by it but some of our group did. Then a tour of the medina. Now let me explain the medina it is a huge marketplace that is long narrow streets surrounded by with shops on either side, and shady looking side streets. It is very easy to get lost here, or even get kidnapped! Also we constantly got moved to the sides of the streets to make way for donkeys loaded with carpets, or other supplies. When I say moved I mean pushed to the sides of the street and then crammed together to make room for the donkeys as these cobblestone streets are extremely thin let me explain this better I could stand in the middle of all the streets and with my arms outstretched touch the buildings on either side. With directors constantly moving us in a group with one guide in front and another in back we moved to certain shops that had deals with the guides, so of course we stopped in these places.

Our first stop was at a carpet shop which was two stories and really pretty. We were sat down in a big room while a guy described Moroccan rugs to us and his wife and others served us this amazing mint tea. It was fun to watch kids in our group bargain for the carpets, as the men kept grabbing them and escorting them to back rooms that had even more rugs (they were all a lot alike) most of the students got screwed as they weren´t that good at bargaining. We then moved around the streets to a pharmacy.

The pharmacy was a whole lot neater then I actually expected. They had a natural solution for mascara, another for lipstick, a really soft lotion, frankenscense and mhyr fragrances, a massage oil that was used on one of the guys in the group for a massage that looked (and he later described as) amazing, a bag of leaves for the mint tea, opium and tons of other random herbs and mixtures. These two men sold a whole lot of merchandise to us!

We then had lunch in this huge restaurant that served three courses but the best was the second that had a huge bowl of cous cous with vegetables and chicken laid on top like a pyramid.

The next shop was a leather shop that took us for a tour to see how they dyed the leather. Umm ok let me just say that was definately an experience. We were escorted up these stairs, and given mint leaves. We later learned that the mint leaves were for us to sniff to cover up the smell. The dye for the leather is made with urine so you can imagine the smell (I can guarantee it was worse then you can imagine). The site was a series of round tubs that had dyes in them and men working on the leather and with the dyes.

The last shop was a cloth shop where we looked at scarves, turbans, and galabellas. I just played with the scarves and admired the galabellas. I also learned how to tie a turban really well!

Halloween night I dressed as a baseball player with the help of another guy from the ISA Barcelona program ( yeah I dressed him up as a girl in my green skirt, black bra, and a green scarf) and went with a group to go dance. Now we weren´t allowed to leave the hotel so we went to the club under the hotel and inside we found a bellydancer a lot of guys sitting at the bar and tables drinking. What interested us was the fact that there was a lot of men and some girls that were dancing by themselves in front of these men. The girls were dressed in jeans and tight fitting shirts (normal party clothes for the US) but I knew something was going on with these girls as they just seemed to be concentrating on the older men they were dancing for. Then a group of men started dancing behind our group of four (2 girls and two guys) and one tried to dance with me and our group decided to leave. Guess where we were! Yep a Brothel!

The club was on the other side of the hotel and that was where all of the other americans were. It was there that our big group of Americans danced until 2am.

NOVEMBER 1st

Well let´s just say we spent 8 hours riding on the bus. We stopped for lunch at this small town where we saw a lot of young boys that tried to sell us reeds they had woven into camels. They were pretty poor but really nice and enthusiastic about seeing us. Our directors were friends with the owners of a hotel here so we ate a really good meal here of cous cous. I sat on the floor and watched one of the 4 year olds run around and play with people in our group.

After lunch we rode in the bus some more. Then we got to a town and it was here that we saw a line of 4 by 4 jeeps waiting to take us into the Sahara desert to our hotel. Let me just say that the ride to the hotel was great! The jeeps were extremely fun driving through the dunes in the dark with all the jeeps taking different routes to the hotel.

At the hotel we were greated by a lot of workers that were dressed in galabellas and were extremely friendly. We walked to the back of the hotel and they had a big tent set up and when you walked past this there was a wall of tents set up out of blankets. I stayed in one tent with andrea, Jessica, and Brian.

We explored finding sellers that sat outside the gates of the hotel with blankets and necklaces and fossils laid out on blankets there. Also there was younger kids (about 13 or 15) that stayed outside the gates but were loaded with goods to sell. We really got attacked when we ventured out of our tent area.

We ate dinner of a buffet of cous cous and various soups and veggies. then a band played berber music and the workers started dancing and grabbing us to dance with them. Let me just say that if you were blonde you really didn´t get to sit and watch and I was grabbed by one berber and he never lost hold of me. They dance really wierd with a lot of dead legs, and circles surrounding other individuals, and even on your knees just swaying to the music. At one point my berber guy had me in the middle of the circle of dancers on my knees and was putting the tail of his tourbon over his and my head and we were swinging back and forth to the music.

NOVEMBER 2nd

What a fun day! I got up early when I heard people walking by my tent on their way to the bathroom. Brian woke up too, so together we went on a walk through the Saharan dunes to see the beautiful sunrise. It was really pretty with the dunes surrounding us, so quiet and peaceful but then there were the berbers that were of course accompanying us. They kept trying to talk to everyone and I can´t be mad about that because they were just wanting to practice their spanish and english. On the way back to camp the two berbers we were with took us ¨berber skiing¨. There were 5 girls with us and on the high dunes they each grabbed a girls feet and pulled her down the dune. By the end there were 3 of us who hadn´t done it so one guy pulled me and another girl together (we both said he didn´t have to but he insisted).

We waited for a while then had breakfast then waited a little longer and then rode camels through the dunes to a small town. I was riding a camel with Ashley and the reason was because we were standing in a group of people looking at the camels and the berber that was going to lead those 5 grabbed me and Ashley (the only two blondes in the group) out of the group and told us we were small and needed to ride that certain camel.

The trip was fun for me but poor Ashley was in front and hurt when we went down dunes. I had to keep moving back on the saddle to give her more room (I make this sound easy but it wasn´t). Vincent and Molly were on another camel across from us and they had a blast laughing at Ashley and I because I guess we moved with the camel and were in sync. They described as us riding a bull and tried to videotape it so we could see what they were talking about but it didn´t work.