MITZI: Rain in Spain

The main thing that is on my mind right now is rain, rain, rain, rain, and rain.  I mean, I like the rain and everything, when I am dressed appropriately and am not cold.  I lost my umbrella this last weekend and learned my lesson about not having one in the rain yesterday...

View of a Sevillian rainbow from my window, one plus from the rain.

I was really bummed that it was raining almost the whole time Peri was here this weekend, but we still had a great time, and we even braved the almost monsoon-like rain on Saturday to go tour the cathedral.  I loved having her here and showing her all my favorite eclectic spots.

Peri and I in front of the cathedral.

Peri and I and the girls getting tapas for Pear's 21st birthday!! :)

 Last night on the town.  Two Idaho girls in Sevilla. :) Good times.

Thanksgiving was really good!! ISA put on a really really nice dinner for us.  We had a great time, the food wasn’t the same as home, but the company was great.  And everyone dressed up really nice cocktail style.

Thanksgiving dinner. Yum.

Another thing I would like to comment about Spain in general is their lack of central heating.  I’m an Idaho girl not used to humidity for one, and I just get chilled and can’t get warm again.  And two, our apartment doesn’t have heat, so that’s fun.  It’s a newer complex so it’s insulated better than some of my friend’s apartments, but still when it’s 46 degrees outside, it’s pretty cold.  I’m not really complaining, just commenting.  I actually like being cold more than being hot.  I like to bundle up and cuddle in my bed.  It just  isn’t as much fun when I am battling a cold.  Oh well, it’s all an experience and I am still loving it.

Two weekends ago ISA took us on an excursion to Córdoba and Granada.  I was really looking forward to this excursion because I have learned a lot about the art history in both of these cities, and I had a feeling that I was going to love them.  I was right, I especially loved Granada.  We saw the famous mosque of Córdoba, and had a really funny tour guide who kept calling us his ‘family,’  it was cute.

Mosque of Córdoba

Inside the mosque is incredible, with all the matching arches and history behind the mosque.  I also had the best Spanish tortilla I have had yet.  It’s this like potato cake thing that Spain is known for.

Granada really is my favorite city in Spain now after Sevilla.  It’s farther north so the leaves were changing and it was simply breathtakingly.  We spent a majority of the day at the Alhambra, the palace of Granada.  It was incredible.

Courtesy of Google search again.  The Alhambra.

View from the Alhambra.

It was a Muslim palace on a hill looking over the city.  The views were to die for.  And the intricacy of designs in the walls and decorations of the palace were awesome. 

Katie and I and the Alhambra in the background at night.

It’s hard to really convey what I saw and felt during my excursion.  I simply loved it.  I have been so blessed to have been able to see what I have seen and done what I have done here.  I have learned so much about my self and about our world.  My time here in Sevilla is quickly coming to an end, and reminiscing on my time here is starting to feel just like a dream.  I just want to enjoy every second I have left.

PERI: Girona and one month to go!!

    Well, I can't believe it, as of yesterday I only have one month left in Spain!  It is crazy how fast the time has gone!  I must confess I am very excited to go home, I know there is a lot waiting for me.  Thanksgiving and my birthday without my family will not be the same, but I am thankful that I am going to Sevilla to visit Mitzi for both of these holidays! :)  As for the rest of my time here, I am still trying to improve my language skills every day, finish up my school work, and make the most of the rest of my time.

     This past weekend we had our last ISA excursion to the historical town of Girona and the Salvador Dali Museum in Figueres.  Girona is a beautiful city located on a picturesque river just north of Barcelona.  We took a walking tour around the city and visited the ruins of the Roman city walls, the Jewish quarter, and other notable places in the city.  Unfortunately it was a drizzly, cold day so after the tour was over, a group of us decided to warm up indoors with a lovely Menu del Dia.  In Spain, lunch is typically the big meal of the day, so almost every restaurant offers a multi-course meal in the middle of the day at a really reasonable price.  I love sitting down and having a nice long meal with good conversation.  After the bread and olive oil, lasagna, roasted chicken, potatoes, and chocolate cake, needless to say... I was stuffed!!

Classic Girona river scene

We then got on the bus for a short drive to Figueres where the Salvador Dali Theater Museum is.  Don't let the name fool you... it is not a theater museum.  It is an art museum, designed by Salvador Dali himself (in a theater-like setting), that houses most of Dali's greatest works.  Dali is the father of the genre of art called surrealism.  Let me tell you, it does not get much more surreal than this place!! Every inch of the museum was decorated with some strange, off-the-wall piece of art or sculpture or some other installation... it was a sensory overload for sure!! I do really enjoy Dali's art, but it is a lot to take in at once. **One side note... when we got to the museum, there were a lot of people waiting outside, and after a while, one of our directors told us that we were not allowed to go in yet---- because someone had just died inside!!!  We had to wait for the coroners to come and remove the body before we were allowed to enter!  It was sad and very odd.

One of Dali's classics

Hair= big curtain, eyes= large inkblot paintings, nose- fireplace, mouth= couch

MITZI: Fundación Gota de Leche

Starting in late September, every Wednesday morning I have been volunteering with an organization called Fundación Gota de Leche.  They have many different programs that are aimed at helping the needs of women and children.  They have a health focus and run a small clinic near the ISA office.  The program that I have been working with is ‘desayunos’ or breakfast.  What I do is travel to an elementary school in the city and help serve breakfast to kids who need it.  The object is to try to explain to these kids some concept of health, or a healthy breakfast.  I work with a lady, Ana, who works with these kids everyday, and it is awesome to hear stories of how far these kids have from, and to watch the relationship between her and these kids.  The kids all come from pretty rough backgrounds, many are gypsy kids.  They can be intimidated by people who are different from them, such as me, a tall white girl who doesn’t speak perfect Spanish, so I never know how they are going to react to me.  Sometimes they are open to talk, and sometimes they aren’t.  I really do love doing it though.  I feel like it has given me a little more meaning here in Sevilla, and the smile on a kid’s face when I give them a high five is totally worth it.  Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures and put them up in the next couple weeks.  ¡Besitos!

PERI: Andrew and the Pope visit BCN

Well it has been a very eventful week (? two weeks?... sorry!) since I last wrote.  On the 27th my fiance Andrew flew in for a week long visit!  Needless to say, it was fantastic to see him.  His first few experiences in BCN were not very pleasant ones.  Being blonde, I usually get a lot of unwanted attention from the local men, and I was really hoping that this would subside having Drew with me.  Unfortunately this was not the case.  Right off the bat we had people saying very nasty things to us, always ending in "Americanos".  Not only did we get negative attention because we are American, we also got negative attention from the older people because we are an interracial couple.  It really bothered Drew at first, but we learned to make a game with it, and it seemed like the staring and talking lightened up.  That aside, we had a wonderful time!  We did a lot of things: some things that I had never done before, and others that are my favorite things to do around here.  My favorite thing was going to the Labyrinth Park, I had never been before and it was so beautiful and romantic!

Eating gelato in the big market :)

Labyrinth

I am so thankful that he was able to come out here, he has a much better perspective of what my life is like over here now.  My words and stories are just not enough to convey my experiences.  It was really bittersweet saying goodbye; he reminded me of how much I miss home.  BUT, I only have 7 weeks left here, I can't believe it!  The upcoming weekend is the only weekend I have free until I go home... where has the time gone!?!

Fountain in Parque de la Cuidatella 

After Drew left, I spent the weekend catching up on homework and crossing things off my to-do list.  The one thing that I did plan to do this past weekend was head down to La Sagrada Familia Cathedral on Sunday (yesterday) because the Pope was paying Barcelona a visit!  La Sagrada Familia is the famous cathedral designed by Gaudi.  The church has been under construction for almost 100 years and is still not finished!  However, the Pope was coming to consecrate it so that mass can be held there every Sunday.  This is the first time in 20 years that the Pope has been in BCN, so there has been a lot of buzz about it for a long time.  Some people were very excited that he would be in town; others were outraged.  I found out that the cause for anger is not directed at the Catholic church, or at the Pope himself, but at the government.  It cost Spain 7 million Euro (about 9.75 million dollars) to bring the Pope here, and with the state that the country is in financially..... people get a little upset.  We had heard about several riots/protests that were supposed to take place and so we were a little leery of going out, but we decided that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Turns out, it was not the riots we needed to watch out for...  Myself, my roommate Elizabeth, and another girl from our program Jessica, went out about 10:45am in order to catch the Pope's exit from the cathedral at 12:45.  About 500,000 people were expected to be in this area today so many makeshift squares were set up to accommodate all the people.  Before it started to get really packed, Jessica made a comment about how there were a lot of paramedics and hospital stations around because of the large number of elderly people in attendance (and as it turns out... not just the elderly need them).  Of course, the day's events were running on "Spain time" and at 1:30, the Pope had still not made his exit, and was showing no signs of getting ready to.  By this time, we are pretty packed into this space, us 3 girls were about 4 rows of people back from the barrier on the street.  Long story short, I started to feel a little weak, so I told myself to take deep breaths, don't lock my knees, etc.  I turned to Elizabeth and said "I feel like I am going to pass out" (which I didn't mean literally at the time!), I took a deep breath and closed my eyes and the next thing I know, I am on the ground and I feel like I just woke up from a nap!   Cops and paramedics came out of the crowd to help me up and half-carry me to the ambulance that was close by.  I was in the ambulance for about 20 minutes, one of the paramedics spoke no English, and the other just a little, but they checked my blood sugar, heart rate, respirations, and took my blood pressure about 7 or 8 times.  I believe the reason I passed out was because of low blood pressure: I was hydrated, I had slept and eaten breakfast, and it was not hot in the crowd of people.  I don't remember any of this but apparently after I said I thought I was going to pass out I started to sway so Jessica grabbed me by the jacket and helped me fall gracefully to the ground.  It was a very strange experience!  I am glad that the paramedics were so responsive and were close by and that I had good friends to help me out.  The rest of the day I hydrated and rested, and today I am feeling much better.  Alas, I did not end up seeing the Pope :(.  I hear his exit was very disappointing though: he flew through the crowd in his PopeMobile, without slowing for the cliche parade waves or anything!  Well, that is all for now, sorry for the novel!!!

The last picture I took before I went down!  Lots of people!

MITZI: Morocco!

Before we left the states ISA offered us a chance to take an optional excursion to Morocco.  It was something I had to pay extra for, but I jumped at the chance to go to Africa because I didn’t know if I will ever get the chance to go again.

It was incredible.

A five day trip through the straight of Gibraltar, to the cities of Fes and Meknes, and the Sahara desert.  It was a very humbling trip, for I have never been to a third-world country before, and I feel like I have an ever bigger world view now. 

We left Sevilla at 4 in the morning on Friday and didn’t get into Fes until late afternoon.  The crossing of the border between Morocco and Spain was an interesting thing to see.  After crossing the straight we were physically on the continent of Africa, but in a city called Ceuta, a Spanish province in Africa, so technically still in Spain.  It was there that we crossed the border.  Our ISA directors told us that the Moroccans have an agreement with Spain to have to ability to cross into Ceuta to buy things that Morocco may not have, such as diapers.  It was something that you really have to see to be able to understand, but we were not allowed to take pictures while we were crossing.

Our first night in Fes was pretty relaxing.  A group of my friends and I decided to get some coffee/tea at a tea house near our hotel before dinner.

One thing that Morocco is known for: mint tea.  Needless to say I feel in love.

Walking around the city I felt very out of place.  All the men just stare, and there are hardly any women out, for in the Muslim culture they are not allowed out unless they are married.  Also, it was more like we were in the Middle East than in Africa.  Morocco is 98% Muslim and obviously close to Egypt, so that in itself wasn’t something I was really expecting.

The next day in Fes we basically spent our whole day in the medina.  The medina is an antique marketplace in the city consisting of over 1900 small narrow pedestrian (and donkey!) streets with small venders lining the streets.

View from above of the Medina.

WATCH OUT! Donkey coming through!

They sold anything and everything.  We went to a “pharmacy,” a kind-of apothecary store where they sold spices, perfumes, and beauty products.  We also went to an authentic Moroccan rug store, a ceramic store, a leather store, and my favorite, a linen store where they sold hand woven scarves and linens.

"Pharmacy"

Leather shoes!

The following day was basically another day of travel.  It took us a good 8 hours to get to the Sahara desert.  We arrived at the outskirts of the desert after dusk and then took 4x4 jeeps into our campsite.  We stayed in “Haimas,” basically star wars style tents made of sticks and blankets.  It was awesome.  The first night my friends and I decided to sleep outside under the stars.  It was freezing cold, but totally worth it.  Beautiful scenery. 

Our campsite.  The "Haimas"

"In realizing our own insignificance in the whole of the universe, we
are dumbstruck by a realization of God's indescribable vastness and also
his most loving intentions.:"

The next day we spent a full day in the desert.  We rode camels to one of the big sand dunes and climbed to the top where we were able to see Algeria.

Turban wearin', camel ridin' girl. :)

We explored one of the little desert towns and were followed around by little Berber kids.  I met a couple of Berbers who spoke over 5 languages!  It was really cool to talk to them, when they weren’t trying to sell me stuff...  Their culture is so so so different than ours, it was a very interesting experience.  Actually one of them added me on facebook as soon as I got home which I thought was interesting because their town doesn’t even have clean water, but they have internet!

The next two days were basically just road-tripping it back to Spain.  It was a beautiful drive.

An African view.

By this time more than half of our group, including myself, was Africa sick, meaning we had some interesting smells and “emergency stops,” where you would see some kid running up a hill to find a rock or tree.... Not very enjoyable, but still totally worth it.

Katie and I on the ferry on the Straight of Gibraltar on the way home.  Beautiful sunset.

My trip to Morocco was definitely a unique experience of a lifetime.  It was humbling to see such a dichotomy of rich and poor, and also to see the vastness of this world.  It made me realize even more my own insignificance and gave me even more of a drive to make a difference in this world.