interesting information

Well at least I think its interesting and since my class got out early I can write them out! Ask me questions because I would love to describe these so that they are clearly understood by those with interest. -Lauren

Differences between the United States and Andalucía, besides the obvious stuff.

There are some curricular activities like for students but this is normally in the big cities with basketball and soccer teams but the majority of schools don´t have these teams.

Houses do not have garbage disposals in the sink (but they know about them because of american movies) or dryers for clothes in Andalucía ( I am told now that they do have them in the north- probably because it is impossible to put clothes on a clothesline when there is snow and rain all the time)

Milk is in liter cartons, jugs with any type of beverage does not exist here. All liquids are in glass bottles or cartons except pop which is in a plastic liter bottle. The design of a plastic jug with a handle on the side- nope.

In Sevilla there are no driveways. Cars are parked in open spots on the street (double parking and any open area on the small sidewalks in Centro and Macarena) there are private parking areas and some garages that are always a surprise to me when I am walking down the street and a door opens from a block of houses and a car leaves- you wouldn´t believe these houses are as big as they actually are- looks are definatley decieving.

The country flag is not taller then the other flags. Here I have found the Andalucía flag is above the rest. This is in 10/10 of Andalucía where the local government is Nationalist.

Schools do not have mascots, traditional colors etc. Actually Mario doesn´t know what the colors for the university are. I went into the ¨school store¨ and was told that the colors are really light blue, yellow, and red but practically any color you want the school to have it has. So I think this is just an american custom the toursit shops have adapted to sell school paraphanelia to extanjeros.

Little boys can be seen on the streets dressed in sweaters with a color shirt underneath and a pair of shorts with a pair of tights on under. Really little boys wear those suspender jumpers (yeah I laughed at this pretty hard when I heard that both Pedro and Mario were dressed in these as children- you wonder why being gay in Sevilla right now is cool ?)

In the US there are dances in high school and boys ask girls to these dances. Here they do not have dances. They do have one and it is called the end of the year dance for those that are about to graduate from their escuela secundaria (that is when they are around 16). This dance is similiar to our dances but no one has dates and instead they go to eat and drink before they hit the discotecas for the night. Oh another thing guys dance here! Wether they are good or not they don´t have to be pried out of their seats to dance. Oh and it is accepted that guys dance in a group with eachother (I am going to hate going back to the US and having to get used the guys not dancing again- echo de menos Pedro y mis amigos españoles y sus bailes raros)

Greetings. Guys can greet another guy friend with a hug and if they are really close a kiss on each cheek is perfectly acceptable. Also a guy can go up to a guy friend and throw his arm around his shoulder to talk. It is perfectly normal- this is not a sign of being gay like a lot of guys in the US like to believe.

School hours run from 9am to 3:30pm. Small snacks are offered for younger kids to buy during snack time (like recess but they don´t have jungle gyms, they play soccer in the plazas). After school at 3:30 they return home to eat lunch with their family. So they don´t have a lunch time.

They don´t roast marshmellows over the fire but know about it because of American movies. Oh the same with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches they know about them but the majority of spaniards have never tried this.

They have a great deal of junk food snacks but not Reeses.

Circumcision is not done in europe unless it is neccessary for health reasons. Enough said on that.

Last but definately not least bathrooms. Bathrooms tend to not have toilet paper or a toilet seat. In discotecas and bars there is always a line for girls. It is just expected.

The US does not have cañas and other such little breaded pastries that are so sweet and I love!

Bars in Sevilla are open at all times of the day but close around 3am when the discotecas start getting crowded, these and don´t calm down until 4am and, depending on the discoteca, it won´t be until 6am when the discoteca starts to calm down and then they close at the latest 8am.

El Ayntamiento and Portugal and Ubeda

March 23-25

Friday now I call this weekend with Mario political weekend. Today is one of the main reasons why. We made an early trip to the Ayuntamiento of Sevilla where I was allowed a personal tour of the building with Mario and his brother Danny. Danny works for the political party Partido Andalucista and their main office is located on the bottom floor of the ayuntamiento.
Ok some background information before I get too far into this Andalucia is an autonomy which is pretty much like a state in the US. This autonomy is broken up into provinces. Sevilla is one of these provinces, kind of like counties. Next but deffinately not least we have the cities, and Sevilla is a city as well. So you can imagine that I live in Spain, Andalucia, Sevilla, Sevilla. Now Sevilla (the city) is the capital of andalucia, so the president of Andalucia lives and works in Sevilla. Now the Ayntamiento is like city hall the mayor and the political parties of the city work in this building. The government is set up as a ,.parliamentary system (people vote for the party more then the candidate). Now in Andalucia there are 4 political parties first is PP (partido politico) and PSOE (Partido Socialista Organizacion Economico). These two parties are like democrats and republicans in the US. They are the huge parties that the whole country has. Now the two smaller parties are Mario’s Partido Andalucista, which as he tells me is a pretty progressive party and The other is Izquierda Unida (IU) communist. Partido Andalucista is only a political party in Andalucia but it is pretty strong in andalucia.
Now the President of Andalucia works in the Lope de Vega building which is located across the street from my university and is under construction right now so he is currently not working now. The mayor of Andalucia works in the Ayuntamiento and lives in Triana (yeah Mario showed me his window he lives in a huge apartment complex) and is from the PSOE political party, the same as Zapatero the current president of Spain if you recall, however the president of Sevilla does not advertise that and does not help Zapatero- not a lot of people like Zapatero. Elections for the mayor of Sevilla are coming up in the end of April I believe so the political candidates are out hitting the streets and talking to the voters. I met the candidate for Mayor for the Partido Andalucista on Dia de Andalucia when I went to the discoteca with Mario and again during our trip to the ayuntamiento but have not sat down and talked to him. Mario tells me he is a nice guy- all politicians can have this appearance. Pedro believes he is nice but worries that he will put more time in changing Sevilla then just fixing the problems that arise.
Anyway the tour itself went through the part of the building that has been redone that is really nice but the old section is still intact and has imaculate detail. The bricks, the ceiling, the walls etc. They still use these two chambers for meetings today. All the chairs are like royalty with the red fabric surrounded by a gold frame. There is a huge room upstairs for banquets, weddings and big press conferences. Decoration in this new part of the building are portraits hung up by a bar placed between the ceiling and the wall that has gold bars that resemble cords running down the walls from the bar on top to hold up the portraits. The portraits are interesting because the pictures are mostly of past kings, and cardinals. Which I found of interest, there is not a seperation of church and state here. There is also a very strict security in the Ayuntamiento so we were stopped multiple times by the guards to check on us. So we returned to Danny´s office and I met a couple people in the political party ( Danny was very good at making sure everybody met me and knew I was from Wyoming) It was funny because one older man missunderstood him and said friend of Wyoming- who is Wyoming? this is because in Spanish the word from and of are the same word- thus it took a bit to describe that Wyoming is a state in the US- who actually knows about our small, untouristy state? Another time he told another man that I was from Camas a pueblo nearby but that joke lasted until I opened my mouth. We then went to a bar nearby for a fanta and then me off to a BBQ with my program.

The BBQ was a blast and I definately ate way too much and got a lot of sun, but I loved it. We had to drive out of town for 10 minutes to go to an area with trees and open grassy areas. All the directors were there and they cooked on huge grills pimientos, shishkababs, hamburgers, and potatoes. Then their kind of marshmellows that are strawberry flavored- they had never had roasted marshmellows and we fixed this immediately- they loved them. Then melon and watermelon for dessert. They also had huge coolers with pop and beer. The beer ran out about half way through- you know what happens when you get some americans around free beer. I drank a lot of pop though- I love this orange fanta.

We got back into town and I slept then ate dinner at 8- alone because Reyes was in the hospital for a tumor in her stomach to be removed, so Alfonso was with her. So I went out for sundaes with Pedro and a beer at pub before we met up with Cari Anne, another Cari friend, and another girl from the program I can never remember her name (Pedro is telling me right now here name is oh wait he forgot too- and remember he never forgets anything well except my cell) . We went to Buddha (it is nice having a spaniard who can talk to the bouncers) and had a great time dancing together on the top floor. Then around 1 am we moved to the second floor for a change of music and there Cari Anne saw a cute guy and next thing I knew they were talking and his friends (which I had thought were really cute) were lining up to meet us. They were from Asturias so Pedro had a long conversation with them. One of them was studying in Morocco and was in town just to drive to Ronda with his friends on their motos. They offered to take us with them tomorrow morning for the ride but we turned them down because they wanted us to go home with them. Oh well it was a blast dancing with them - especially one who was a professional dancer, and it showed.

The 24th

We went to Portugal. Now this was a blast! We started out by going for a picnic on the ruins of an old castle that has an amazing view of the sea down the cliffs below. That is what makes this part of southern Portugal beautiful the green hills, that turn into cliffs and then the blue blue Transatlantic below. We sat here enjoying the site for a while then went to an area that had big caverns, well they were holes that were big and with me scaring Pedro to death (he is a worry wort like my dad). I could look down and see the clear green water below. They were pretty dangerous though, but amazingly beautiful.

Next we went to the end of the world, Cabo San Vicente- well at least it was thought to be the end of the world. It is the farthest south western point of Europe and has a lot of cliffs, beautiful views, looks out on a huge ocean and a lighthouse. Kind of touristy and the wind picked up so we didn´t spend a ton of time here- but I did get two ¨end of the world¨ rocks.

Last stop was a beach that had fun sand and I was like a little kid running in the sand and then standing on black rocks that had high tides barely running over them. Problem with this is these rocks are slippery and when the waves came up I fell down and my camera got the brunt of the fall, and water soaked. We tried to dry the camera but it is definately broken thankfully I have now been able to add pictures of this place.

We went to a little portuguese village and had a nice pot of arroz con mariscos, which is a bunch of clams, crawdads, oysters, and other seafood cooked (shell and all) in rice. It was good but I really am not a fan of seafood so it wasn´t amazing to me. For dessert was a piece of almond cake. When I say almond I mean almond all almond. It is a traditional dessert for Portugal. We were pretty full and it was late so back to Sevilla we went.

25th

We got back into Sevilla at 4 am (now when I say 4 I mean 5 because the time change took place which really sucked for me on this day in particular as I got very little sleep) . Pedro got tired and had to keep stopping to get a little nap before continuing so that is why we got back so late. I was walking into my apartment and there was Mario waiting for me to catch the bus to go to Úbeda. I packed a bag in 15 minutes and was out the door to start my next big traveling day.

The bus ride to Úbeda was around 4.5 hours (pretty long) I made attempts at sleep but could not get comfortable. Danny on the other hand, was out for the whole trip- even the 20 minute stop at a roadside cafeteria he didn´t budge when the bus was reparked and left by the driver. Danny was locked inside but he never knew.

Well I should explain that we were in Úbeda for a political party funtion. It was a huge fiesta for all the people in Mario´s political party with talks by people, and concerts for andalucían pride in the central square. However, Juanito- Mario´s other brother, gave us 10 euros and we were away from that in 10 minutes. We explored the town looking at churches, to a wall that was placed on the cliff the town was built on to see the countryside below, into old streets to see the millions of churches and convents, we walked around the muralla (the big defensive wall that surrounds the city) and into plazas with religious statues. We ate bocadillos traditional to Úbeda called Ochío, which had a lot of flavor and the spices make the bread orange leaving marks on your face from the bread- pretty much I loved it. We listened to the concerts and looked at all the old buildings around the square and then after looking at the ayuntamiento we had to leave. Which we ended up being late by 10 minutes to meet the bus because of Danny calling us to say ¨where am I¨ to Mario a couple times which made us laugh. We tried to find out where he was by saying do you have the saint being burned by flames in the plaza with you, how about the big convent with the main doors split by a column in the middle (which I called mediopuerta but the technical name was parteluz) and even can you hear the music from the concerts. All of this was really funny. He was only a few minutes after us and we were on our way back to Sevilla.

Now some things I learned about the spanish culture while in Úbeda were first the ayuntamiento is usually placed in the middle of the old part of every town in Andalucía. Second each town has 4 flags, town, providence (which was not on display), autonomy, country, and nation-Europe. The neat thing was the flag for Andalucía was higher then all the other flags- which I found interesting. And it launched a huge talk about people having more pride for their autonomy then the nation itself. Through my talk with several Andalucíans I have begun to realize that Spain pulls together in times of war but its autonomies are very different and not very united like the US, in my opinion- Pedro contests this a lot. I could say more but its not important.

Also something I like. The train for a dress is cola here which means tail. In the United State this is a joke when a guy calls the train of a dress a girl´s tail so I found this really funny. KJ and Adar are going to hear about this more on their wedding days when they have ¨tails¨.

I was tired as you can guess so when I got back I ate dinner while listening to Anne talk about her weekend in Barcelona and then said goodnight and passed out.

That´s the weekend.

Mérida

Mérida 10th and 11th of March (Saturday and Sunday)

It is kind of hard to explain how amazing this trip actually was so I am going to just start writing and hopefully the pictures and my words help bring this trip alive for you too!

Well Mérida is one of those places that people say yeah you should go there but never really say why and when you ask they just say there are ruins there, the reason is a lot of people don´t seem to find time in their busy schedules, or guide books don´t recommend going etc. If I would have gone to Mérida sooner I would have taken my family there in a heartbeat. Anyone going to spain try to make a trip to Mérida- a well kept secret place filled, I mean FILLED with roman and Moor ruins. And they put everything on display wonderfully and the price is just about perfect. Also those of you who know Gladiator this is the town that he always tells people he is from- we believe that his family lived outside the town in the campo.

We made a quick stop on the way down in a small pueblo for churros that morning (this is like stopping in Pinedale for ice cream- every spaniard goes to the same place and gets churros when they are driving through). So we kept up the tradition and got what I like to describe a bouquet of churros for the road. (they cut the churros and wrap them up like they would flowers- forgot to take a pic of this but I will get one later).

Anyways we got to Mérida and after buying the arqueological pass (5 euros for a student 9 for everyone else) we started with the biggest ruin the Ampifeatro and teatro. Today they still hold plays at the teatro in the summer- something that would be really fun. The pictures explain this themselves.
I should explain the difference between the ampiteatro and amfiteatro is that the amfiteatro is the place gladiator would have fought eachother and ferocious animals. also sometimes they brought in animals just to prey on other animals- any way you look at it there was a lot of death.

This picture is perfect to show you that there used to be 3 levels for people to sit now only the first level is really intact and the big bolders on top are some of the remains from the second level (yeah this structure was a lot bigger!) Anyways the big cross shaped hole is also called the fossa and this would have been covered. The gladiator would have fought on the platform over this hole and animals could be caged in this area and released at times that would surely surprise the gladiator and the audience- what a thrill! This is one of the walkways into the structure, and it reminds me of an events center today and really it is not that much different. This area is the VIP section in a manner of speaking. The aristocracy- meaning the governor and officials sat. These seats allowed the occupants to really feel the blood and soul of the fight.

This is where the Romans would have been to watch plays. Interesting stuff in these plays actors wore certain colors to depict their status a man in a white rob was old, a man in a certain color socks was rich another poor, and this was the same with the women depicting if they were rich and also most importantly if they were prostitutes (this was signified by a short tunic). Also they still have plays here in the summer. that is why the benches look so nice. there is a plastic cover over every seat that gives the appearance that it is rock and protects the almost nonexistant real rock underneath. This is a great shot of the whole structure. The ruin in the far left is the ampifeatro. The ruin on the right is the ampiteatro and the columns you see in the bottom show remains of the rectangular structure that was located behind the stage of the ampiteatro. This was the place the rich would have came for baths (in saunas called temas) and gossip.

We then went across the street to check out the ruins of an old mansion they label as the ¨Casa del Anfiteatro¨. Now some believe it was two mansions but either way it was property of the rich and in the back there was this private tomb with 7 coffins carved out of the rock. Next was lunch where we had Menú del día. My first dish was Migas. This is what they serve in los campos usually (in the pueblos because it is easy) and it just peppers fried up, pieces of bacon, and a ton of bread broken into pieces and fried after the bacon and peppers giving it a great flavor and a really good dish. My second dish was cerdo (it is like steak but from a pig.. I can´t call it ham because it is really different) with french fries (patatas fritas). Dessert was the house special crema. It was pudding with whipped cream and really good!

CHECK THIS! We continued our exploration of Merida with a trip to a necropolis (área funenaria de los Columbarios) and nearby a huge mansion called Casa del Mitreo, that is really well preserved. Interesting fact is that the necropolis is usually found on the other side of the main road of a huge mansion in roman and tartessos ruins. Back to the mansion it was really well protected with a huge roof that is also provides shades to tourist who can walk around the whole structure on suspended walkways without destroying anything- a neat idea.
This pic is neat because it has the water storage tank and over the top would have been a cover and this is where the resients are thought to have laid in the lounge chairs and ate a ton of food, then threw up, and continued eating.

This is just to show you how big this house really was.

The museum which was an old church and that is the reason it has a crypt (cripta) underneath it! It also has an old road that as Pedro puts it ¨is roman because it is built correctly¨ I gave him a hard time about ridiculing the moors for their building techniques this was one.
We spent a long time exploring the museum and its statues. Neat thing about the museum it is free on Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings. Below the museum there used to be a tunnel to the ampitheatre and the theatre but it stopped right in front of the two so you couldn´t sneak into them without paying just get from the church to these places faster- making me think it was mainly for the rich. Oh and it also had the old walls that ran from the aqueduct bring running water to this facility. It also continued to the ampitheatre and theatre.

The museum had a lot of statues, and relics. One was the face of Cesar Agustas but I didn´t realize that it was him until Pedro jumped when he saw it and began telling me how much he hated this man. Now this surprised me and this past week I have researching on this information and he is right (that is what I get for doubting Pedro- his words not mine) there was a huge war called the Astur-Cantabrium wars in 29-19 B.C.

THE NEXT DAY- SUNDAY
The next day we hit the alcazaba and the alcazar first. These two structures were built right next to the river (as normal as the moors continually had running water) and was for defense and homes for military and/civilians (they aren´t sure). Anyway it has a a moralla (which is a huge stone wall that surrounds the city and has a walkway for guards to keep watch) and within the moralla there was a structure that went down to a water storage container- and on the roof of this a great view of all sides of the alcazaba. There was ruins of the houses inside as well and this is where the architectural techniques of moors really come out. The moors used rocks of all different shapes and sizes and cement to make their walls, while the romans made walls with big rocks cut in cubes and these needed less cement. What was interesting was the moors had taken some stones from the roman ruins and used them in making the muralla and some of the houses (this was obvious with the shapes of the rocks, and some of the capillas and columns were displayed in the structures). What I liked also was we had a great view of the river and a roman bridge from the alcazaba and the bridge was still used today and is exactly the same as it would have been during the roman times- why you may ask? Well because people don´t take the rocks of a bridge- they use the bridge continually and who would destroy something that is that important. Also I think there is more sentimental value with a theatre then there is with a bridge.

Next stop was to see some more ruins that probably would have been the townspeople called the área arqueológica de Morería. This was neat because it showed one block (manzana) of the roman city plan. Perfectly square seperated from the other houses with roads on all sides parallel to the other and perpendicular. It was well set up with nice roads. Other neat thing- there would be one structure with houses set up in squares with a patio in the middle for all the residents- the same as is stilled used today in spain. This structure has gone through changes because it was later inhabitated by the moors and so the roads were changed from perfectly straight to varying angles to help with more space in the houses, and shade. This one really shows the patio and the rooms surround this inner patio. This is still done in Spain today.

We then made a trip to see the convent with visigoth relics (not a big collection- but free and no one else was there) then to the Arco de Trajano and then to view the temple of Diana, and nearby the forum. The forum was where the council met and many went there to just hang out. Then we sat in the grass under a portion of the roman aqueduct called Milagros-which means miracles in english, and ate lunch under a part of the roman aqueduct,. Then we made our stop to the roman circo (that is always cool). For those that don´t know what the Circo is, well it is where the romans would have had chariot races and this one in particular was well used and attended, it was better then the one in Rome.

Then we went to Basilica de Santa Eulalia and we had 5 minutes to see the cripta (that was really neat!) we even found a humerus stuck in the cement below one of the huge pillars. The church is still used today above the crypt and they have structured the building nicely so visitors can see the sarcophaguses without really destroying anything. I wish we´d had more time for this place because it was really neat!

The trip wasn´t over yet- we then drove 30 minutes to a town near Madrid called Trujillo that was still important in the middle ages. The central square had a statue of Pizarro, a big cathedral, and a fountain in the middle. It was surrounded by the arches (typical in northern spain to help with snow) and used to be used as the bull ring. We walked up the hill to the old part of town where we were surrounded by houses, walls, churches, and streets built of stone. This is hard to describe how neat it was. We made our way up to the castle that was HUGE. We explored around it then made our way back down to eat dinner at a hotel and then return to Sevilla.

That was a hard trip to return from because we didn´t get back into Sevilla until 4am and poor Pedro had to drive the whole way. He had to stop a couple times to get some sleep on the way. I was tired the next day but it was worth it!

Current News

Ok I have been doing a really bad job on news so here is the news update for Sevilla and Spain in general- well at least the ones I found interesting enough to write about.

Last Sunday (while I was returning from our amazingly difficult and crazy hike in Granada) the last Sevilla vs. Betis took place at the Betis stadium. Sevilla made a goal 15 minutes after half time, I believe that is when the goal took place (about time Sevilla has this problem of shooting a bunch against Betis but never being able to get one that counts) anyways Sevilla made a goal yeah! 15.3 minutes after half time an angry betis fan (or a couple they aren´t sure how many were involved because somehow they haven´t found them yet) threw a bottle at the Sevilla coach who walked out onto the fiel then passed out. The game was called and the unconcious coach was placed on a stretcher and removed from the field. Outside the stadium reports of angry Betis fans were chanting Kill and then the coach´s name. They were way out of line, but then it gets worse. The area around the stadium filled with people and individuals- who were later interviewed and were Betis fans- started throwing big garbage cans in the streets and fights began to break out- it was complete chaos. The only piece of news I have heard about Sevilla fans doing something unruly (and it is only speculation it is Sevilla fans) is the graffiti that was all around the Betis stadium Monday morning.

Since the game was called 30 minutes early the organization is holding a closed game for Betis and Sevilla to play in Madrid, and nobody is allowed to attend except the royal family. They are trying to decide if they are going to allow some news channels so they can broadcast it but they aren´t sure yet. That will take place soon I believe.

Anyways there have also been protests about this man that was part of ETA, and has killed over 20 people, that is recovering from a bombing in a hospital in Basque country right now. There have been a lot of political parties (including Mario´s) doing demonstrations trying to convince the government that this man needs to die ¨for his sins¨ as many put it. I guess I can´t blame them for having these strong views. This is interesting because it brings out the fact that Spain doesn´t have the death penalty- thus this problem is becoming apparent. In the end this man did spend a long time in prison but people really want more from him. The verdict from the judge on this matter was that he would be released from prison in accordance to his prior sentence.

27-3-07

News now is that Semana Santa starts next Sunday so the construction workers are building huge platforms for people to see it around Plaza nueva. Also signs for no parking in the center of the city have begun to appear too. Its getting exciting!

This is the new big entertainment in the streets of Sevilla. Especially in Plaza Nueva. This is the before shot.It is really hard to explain so here are some pics. As you can imagine the legs of the female are up quite a bit- that is one strong man :) The after shot.This next picture is of a demonstration that took place in Plaza nueva to get freedom for morroco. Honestly I didn't really understand it but it was interesting to watch and the people were very pationate about their cause.

¡Arriba!

Fin de semaña March 3 y 4

Nuestra excursión a Granada y arriba la montaña La Sagra. Una excursión muy loco, dificil, y divertido. La primera día fue dificil porque subimos a través de arboles, nieva, piedras, y nieva (no mucho), y plantas que pincha a la cumbre de esta montaña, 2.381 metros. Con nuestras mochilas llena con comida, ropa, luces, sacos de dormir, y tienda. ¡Todo pasa muy bien!

Para el secundo día fuimos a un otro lugar en la provincia de Granada para ver un lugar muy similiar a Green River. Pedro encanta esta lugar y en realidad lo fue muy bonito y muy interesante para geologos. Aprendí que esta lugar tiene rocas desde 3 epochs.

La parte especialmente interesante para mi era las casas en las montañas. Hay muchas en esta área.

Día de Andalucía

Dia de Andalucía The night of February 27th and the 28th

Dia de Andalucía is a holiday for all Andalucians to celebrate the day they signed the constitution of Andalucia. It is a day when everybody relaxes- especially those that have gone to Carnaval the weekend before.

Mario invited me to go to this discoteca that was up stream from my house, to start celebrating El Dia de Andalucia with his political party. Well that was also the night that Anne and I promised to make BLTs for our host family- which went pretty well- except for the fact that Alfonso is one of those picky eaters and took all the lettuce and tomatoes off the sandwich (to all his own). I was in charge of cooking bacon and that was how I got a huge burn across my left forearm. It hurt a lot at the beginning of the night and Mario kept putting his drink against it to keep it cool.

It was a pretty fun night the political party gave out free entrances and free drinks so the whole group was there. By 5am my feet hurt so I left with Mario, Antonito, and Pedro. They all walked me to my door which was kind of awkward I really hate that they end their night when I feel like leaving and not before or after, which means I control when they leave the discotecas- not them.

It was at 11 am that I left with Pedro to go for a picnic to the mountains of Huelva. I am going to write about this day in Spanish so good luck to those of you who are going to attempt to read it! I will translate it later at the end for those of you who attempt to read it in Spanish and for those of you who don’t know Spanish at all just skip to the English section it is nicely labeled for you (if I do say so myself).

En Español

Al final de nuestro viaje Pedro escribió todo de este para mi- gracias a Pedro esta parte es en un buen español. Pues empezamos nuestra viaje a las 11 enfrente de mi casa. Pedro conducia y hablabamos sobre cosas interesantes en nuestras vidas. En una hora fuimos en la reserva natural de ¨Sierra Pelada y Picos de Aroche¨. Hasta las 4 en la tarde fuimos explorando el bosque. Anduvimos en dos tipos de arboles (mira la foto abajo) y seguimos un arroyo (la foto derecha).

A las 4 regresamos a esta vista (arriba de los arboles) para almorzar y mi revista con la universidad de Wyoming para la posicion de RA. (en mi opinión esta revista pasa muy mal). Pero la vista fue muy bonita, la comida para almuerzo fue perfecta, y la companía divertida pues, fue bien.

Fuimos a un otro pico para una buena vista de todo de este parte de Huelva. En estas fotos tú puedes ver el monte Andevalo, donde vive un antiguo dios llamado Endovelico. Es un Dios muy antiguo de origen celta, anterior a los Romanos.

También hemos visto, muy lejos, el pueblo de Calañas, donde vive la familia de Pedro. (no es en esta foto pero es izquierda de monte Andevalo).

Proxima parada fue al castillo medieval de Cortegana. Allí vivió el Señor Sancho IV ¨el bravo¨ que servía al Rey Castellano- Leones Alfonso XIII, quienes lucharon por defender la Sierra de Huelva del invasor Portugués en el siglo XIII o XII.

En Cartegana se celebran las fiestas medievales Agosto (primero o segunda semana). Toda la ciudad vuelve a la Edad Media, y entre la catedral (en la foto es una vista bien de esta) hasta el castillo niguna persona puede usar coches durante este tiempo. En el Castillo todo se prepara para celebrar con banquetes, toreos, fiestas, etc.

En esta parte del Castillo encontramos una familia desde Málaga que creían que Pedro era un extranjero- creo solamente porque él estaba conmigo.

¡Mira esta tunel es muy pequeño! Pasamos un buen tiempo explorando el castillo, y construiendo historias sobre los cuartos.

Dentro de este cuadro nuestra historia fue que el Señor del castillo vive en el dormitorio arriba y ella abajo porque fue una escalera de mano entre los dormitorios.

La ultima parada fue al pueblo de Aracenam nombre que tiene por una antigua Diosa llamada Ataicina. En Aracena está la ¨Gruta de las Maravillas¨donde se puede llegar hasta el corazón de la montaña del castillo de Aracena. La Gurta está en roca caliza ¨limestone¨tiene mas de 1000 mts. de recorido dentro de la montaña. El Castillo de Aracena fue destruido por el invasor francés en el siglo XIX.

En está ciudad anduvimos por mucho de la ciudad y aprendí sobre muchas cosas. La primera fue la razón antígua qu las casas son blancas. Este es porque los personas los pintan con debido a la Cal (CO3Ca hidratado) porque lo es un buen desinfectante para insectos, y bichos... Tambien visitamos un lugar donde personas pueden lavar ropa en el dentro de la ciudad (en mi opinión este fue muy divertido (se puede mira en las fotos). Salimos después tomando cola caos.