Semana Santa!

I am currently trying to pack 10 days worth of clothing into a duffel bag! Tomorrow morning, my roommate Kelly and I leave for a whirlwind adventure to Copenhagen, Denmark, Budapest, Hungary and the Amalfi Coast in Italy! Ahhhhh!!! I will return late next Thursday night and will have some amazing blog updates. Until then muchos bestitos a todas! xo

Barça Baby!

I think I might still be recovering from Barcelona! I had the most fun ever in Barca. I loved everything about that city. When choosing a place to study abroad, I was stuck between Barcelona and Sevilla. Clearly I chose Sevilla but I think I would have loved it just as much as I love Sevilla if I had chosen to go there instead. I left for Barcelona with my friend Meaghan right after class. We were lucky enough to experience a thrilling two hour delay for our 90 minute flight but in the end it all worked out. We got picked up at the bus stop by my friend Lily from UMass and she was nice enough to let us crash at her place for the weekend. It was so nice having our own little personal tour guide around the city. Thursday night we were both exhausted from staying out late the night before so we took it easy and rested up for the busy weekend we had ahead of us. One of my roommates from Amherst, Bettina, planned a spontaneous trip to Barca that weekend so I it was nice to see another familiar face after all this time.

Friday morning came and Lily had a service project with her program so I had the task of retrieving Bettina at the airport bus stop. All went according to plan and we were ready to tour the city. First stop was Montjuïc, essentially a hill in Barcelona but it had a castle on the top to frolic around and provided some breathtaking views of the city and the busy port below. After we wandered to Arc de Triompf. I loved this little area with the long green promenades lined with lanterns and palm trees. We grabbed lunch at a cute little outdoor cafe and just soaked up the beauty of Barca. We next made our way to Parc Güel.Everything about this place reminded me of Candyland the board game or a real life gingerbread house. Gaudi, the designer of the park had a very whimsical design to everything . It was all so fun and youthful and all was covered in amazing tile mosaics. To end the night, we went to this amazing, out of control, totally unbelievable night club that was on the beach called Opium. Turns out Lily happens tobe bestfriends with one of the biggest club promoters in all of Barcelona so we got in for free and were in the VIP section. This is how its done! We stayed there until they kicked us out at a mere 7am. We tried to stay up and watch the sun rise on the beach but never made it. We immediately crashed when we got back to Lily's and essentially took a nap and prepared for Saturday. 

Saturday brought amazing weather and extreme exhaustion. We figured the perfect cure for this would be the beach! I lathered on my spf 85 and walked down to the beach. This was easily the most beautiful beach I have ever been to. It was crazy having the city in the background and the sparkling blue Mediterranean in front of me. The water was cold but nothing like Wellfleet in the height of summer.  That night we went to this amazing fountain show that took place in front of a castle. It was essentially a light show and they set the fountain to music. So cool! After we walked around the new mall they opened. Bullfighting was banned in Catalunya (the region Barcelona is in) two years ago so they converted the old bull ring into a mall. It was gorgeous and so modern and such a good way to still incorporate part of their history in their future. Saturday night brought a fashion show at a club and more free drink! I don't think Lily's amazing lifestyle there will ever get old!

Sunday was our last day in Barcelona and that brought us to the Sagrada Familia. The line to get in was unreal, about an hour and a half so we passed on that and just walked around the little neighborhood instead. We grabbed paella for lunch then it was back to the apartment to grab our bags and head to the airport! I had a spectacular time in Barcelona and could honestly see myself living there in the future.

Fountain light show

benches at Parc guell

top of montjuic with Bettina

arc de triompf

view of barcelona from parc guell

girls at opium

port vell

beach with the w in the background

attempting to spell love at the fountain show

la sagrada familia

A Whole New Meaning to Bottoms Up -Extremadura, Spain

So sorry that these blog updates are becoming less and less frequent. I have just been so busy with midterms just wrapping up, traveling on the weekends and trying to get ahead on my work load here. I am in the middle of what will perhaps be the busy week of the semester for me. I just got back from a weekend trip to the west of Spain and am currently trying to prepare for a weekend trip to Barcelona this weekend. On top of all of this traveling, I of course have school work to do. This week I am lucky enough to have to to a 10 minute presentation about the importance of honey in Spanish cuisine and in my Arab class I have a presentation on how tourism has been affected by the recent Arab uprising. It is extremely interesting to me since I am a tourism major, however planning adventures around Europe is much more thrilling then a 10 page paper due on the day I get back from Barcelona. So being the good student that I am, I am trying to do this all before I leave as well as doing last minute preparations for my semana santa trip next week to Copenhagen, Budapest and Capri! I find myself resorting back to my favorite activity, list making, and updating my blog is one thing I can now check off!

Ok so I had such an unreal weekend. This was our last API excursion as a group so it was bittersweet. When we first got a list of all the places we would be going, I had absolutely no idea what Extremadura was. Later finding out that it entailed a 10 mile hike in the mountain, made me all sorts of hesitant. I am so glad I decided to tough it out and go. It was truly a once in a life time experience. We boarded our little bus as 815 and headed off for a three hour ride to the first town called Merida. This was a gorgeous little town with incredible Roman ruins scattered throughout the city. We would be walking down the street and then just stumble upon an amphitheater or Roman columns. After two hours frolicking in the ruins, we headed off to our final destination for the night, a town called Trujillo. We found out we would be staying in a 15th century palace which was beyond thrilling to me. Being a hospitality major, I get all sorts of excited seeing how different hotels operate. After we checked into our palace, we explored the city and stumbled upon an ancient castle. We climbed to the top and had some of the most beautiful landscapes you would have ever seen. It was like a mix of being in Ireland with all the rolling greens and Italy with the small villages tucked into the hills near castles. It was truly spectacular. For dinner, we happened to be in town during the annual medieval festival. So kebabs, sangria and delicious pastry for dinner it was! After dinner, we went to this great discopub we heard great reviews for. The only down side was we literally opened the bar since we had gotten there so early. But the bartenders were awesome and the deck had great views of the castle we had just recently climbed. We called it a night early since we had a 10 miles hike ahead of us the next day!

We awoke early the next morning, grabbed our sneakers and sunblock and hoped for the best. I was slightly hesitant for a 10 miles hike but there was no turning back now. We arrived to the hike site and all of API joined in on some group stretching before we embarked. The first two hours were so far so good. Nothing too treacherous but we knew some kids who had gone the week before and they said it got intense real fast. Yeah they were lying. Kepa, our leader tempted us with lunch, but didnt warn us we would literally be scaling a mountain for 45 minutes, balancing on sheer rubble. When we reached the pinnacle, we were treated so some of the most beautiful landscapes ever. Mountains converging, rivers with valleys in them and cities off far in the distance. Pictures can honestly not do it justice. Walking down the mountain after lunch was almost worse than climbing up it. But I somehow managed to survive without rolling down the mountain so that was a success in itself. I can now say I have literally walked from one city to the next! After our hike we arrived at an 11th century monastery which would serve as our hotel for the night. I do not think I have been surrounded by so much history in a hotel in my life. It was mind blowing to think what had gone on in this building over the past 1000 years! We decided to celebrate our victory in the hike that night with a little karaoke at the local bar, however apparently they didnt do it on Saturday night so we learned a little salsa dancing instead. All in all it was an amazing weekend and am so glad I didnt ditch to stay in Sevilla!

But I have so much to look forward to. This weekend is Barcelona! I am staying with my friend Lily from UMass and just recently found out that Bettina, one of my roommates from Amherst, is making a spontaneous trip to Espana this weekend! I cannot wait! But I need to run off and stop procrastinating about my homework! Muchisimos besitios!

11th Century monastery in Guadaloupe

Jen, Nora, Kelly and I at the castle in Trujillo

Roman ruins in Merida

View from the top of the castle

Mountains we climbed

courtyard at the monastery

outside the monastery

Looking so good right around mile seven

Mind the Gap- Reunion in London with the Roomies :)

Not even two midterms the day of my flight to Londontown could bring me down. I was sitting in my cine class writing a two page essay about the role of Franquism in Spanish cinema, oh in Spanish of course. I couldn't help but literally just smile the entire way though. Just the thought of being in a new place and seeing my roommates in mere hours made me absolutely ecstatic. After my cultures midterm, I hopped on the bus and went to the airport. The flight was only two hours and twenty minutes but of course that was the longest two hours of my life.
Getting off the airplane I was instantly surrounded by British accents and signs in English which was an amazing change. I took the underground line to the center of London to meet up with Sam and Caroline, my roommates from UMass. Seeing them at the tube stop was so exciting, I nearly jumped on them. It had been about three months since I had seen them. It was so nice to be reunited again. 250 love forever! We grabbed dinner then went off to Sam's flat. People get ready to go out to the bars soooo much earlier than we do in Spain. It was 8pm and we were already drinking hard cider. I don't eat dinner in Spain until 930 or 10. But we ended up going to Sam's favorite Irish pub in Picadilly Circus called O'Neill's. I soon realized why she loved it so much. They had a live band and it was just a really cool atmosphere to be in. Hearing a live band do Chelsea Dagger, the Blackhawks song literally sent me into a frenzy. But I could not get over how expensive the city was. We paid 6 pounds just to get in and 4 pounds for each snakebite we got. 1 pound is $1.60. Ouch!!! Oh and snakebites are half hard cider, half beer and topped off with black current syrup. 4am rolled around and it was time to leave but since the tubes close at midnight, we were treated to a nice ride back to Sam's flat on the infamous red double decker buses. Getting up in four hours for a full day of sightseeing would be rough.
9am was so rough to us but it was a beautiful day. Looks like I brought some Sevilla weather for us. We grabbed bagels for breakfast. Something Spain unfortunately doesn't have :( We were headed to Buckingham Palace and I ran into my friend Nora from Sevilla on the streets. This world is so small sometimes. We wandered to Buckingham Palace. It turns out we had just missed the changing of the guards but oh well. We continued to Trafalger Square and saw the Olympic countdown. After that we went to the half price ticket broadway booth and bought tickets to see Jersey boys that night! From there, we just wandered getting lost in the streets, finding our way to Westminster Abbey (where William and Kate will be getting married in a month) then to Big Ben. It was an absolutely gorgeous day so we walked along the River Thames passing the London Eye. But the line was soooo long and it cost 19 pounds for a half hour ride so we passed on that. We passed so many street performers and even a little concert on the banks of the Thames. We walked all the way down to St. Paul's cathedral and sat down and were just finally taking in that all of us were in London together. It still blows my mind that I can jet off to London or Africa for a weekend and talk about it so casually. But anyways, we ended the day with a the classic fish and chips dinner before going to see Jersey Boys! The show was so amazing and made Jersey sound a little classier when the British actors tried to impersonate Jersey accents. When the show was over we were so pumped and passed out in Sam's apartment to prepare the next day for another full day ahead of us.
The weather on Saturday was nothing like Friday. It was stereotypical London weather. Cold, dreary and a little misty. So we went to see the Tower Bridge, yep the one the Spice Girls jump over in their massive bus in Spice World :) After we went to this little gift shop and Caroline spotted what would be the newest addition to 250 decor. It was a massive union jack flag and in the middle was a heart with Kate and William. Who could resist? We walked down Oxford street passing some protests about taxes and keeping things public...I think. But we went to this amazing store called Primemark. Its literally Forever 21 meets Target decor products...on crack. It was so overwhelming but a shoppers paradise. I ended up getting two pairs of flats and a cheetah print scarf. The cheetah count is getting a little out of control for me at this point...oops. After Primemark, we went to Harrod's! It blew my mind that the designer handbags were next to the sushi bar. They sold everything here and even had puppies and hamsters on sale! We wanted to go see the famous Oxford vs Cambridge regatta that was happening on the River Thames that afternoon but it was cold and raining so we passed. We went back to rest up and of course that included Mean Girls :)
Our last night in London can only be described as not real life. Sam suggested we go to this American sports bar to watch a little bit of NCAA basketball. We were all down for this idea. So we walk right past the bouncers and think nothing of it. We get in there and are instantly floored at everyone in there. It was predominately men, which didnt bother us but oh yes they were all wearing kilts. Yes like Scottish kilts. We had no clue what we had just stumbled upon. Finally after about 10 minutes we asked someone and it turns out we had inadvertently crashed a Scotish rally party for the Scotland vs Brazil soccer game that was happening the next day. At this bar we also ran into someone who lived across the hall from us freshman year who was studying abroad in Grenoble France. Like literally this world is so tiny sometimes. All of my Europe hockey dreams were about to come true. I look at the tv and the Bruins vs Rangers game was playing. It was on NESN to make it better so during breaks they had pictures of Boston playing. It was soooo amazing to see hockey again and seeing Boston on TV made me miss it so much. Having the daylight savings time switch when we were at the bar really messed us up. Yet again we were told to leave the bars at 4am. People in London don't know to party Spanish style. It was an amazing last night.
Sunday was fairly chill considering I had to leave around 2 to get back to Heathrow for my flight back to Sevilla. I am so in love with London partly because it reminds me a lot of Boston and partly because everything sounds better in a British accent. If my job asked me to move to London for work, I would do it in a heartbeat, no questions asked. But my time in London was just lovely and it was so nice to see my roommates again, especially in a place like London :)

Best of London in one picture

Caroline, Sam and I in front of Big Ben

Love London

Kilts, kilts everywhere

Tower Bridge

250 loves royal weddings

typical London phone booth pic

Westminster Abbey

Someone Please Remove the Word Study from Study Abroad

So midterms week is upon us at the Universidad de Sevilla. This is the first bit of work I've had to do since being here so I can't exactly complain. Knowing that UMass has made all abroad classes pass/fail makes my level of motivation that much weaker. I just need to get higher than a 75 in my class to receive credit which shouldn't be terrible. I have a five page essay in my Arab class due about the Nasserist movement in Egypt during the post world war II era. Thrilling I know. On Thursday, I will have the busiest/best day of being here. I have two midterms, one on Spanish cinema and the other on Spanish culture studies. After that, I need to catch a bus to the airport to jet off to LONDON!!! My roommate Sam is studying their for the semester and my other roommate Caroline, who is in Paris, will also be there for the weekend as well. Yeyy for a little 250A reunion. London won't know what hit it. I am equally as excited to speak English as I am to see familiar faces. I just need to get through these next 48 hours then I am off to the land of British accents! The London Eye and Harrod's await me. Sorry this post was boring but I am positive I will have some epic stories when I return from the UK on Sunday. Until then, muchos besitos xo

Waka Waka Eh Eh, This is Time for Africa! - Marrakech, Morocco

I don’t exactly know what I was expecting of Africa and all I knew about Marrakech was what I saw on the Amazing Race. Half of our group went to Morocco the week before we did, I tried soooo hard not to look at everyone pictures and ruin the surprise of it all for me. Friday morning came and I still could not believe we were really off to Africa. The Sevilla airport is rather small compared to all other airports ive flown out of so we walked onto the runway to board the plane…in the pouring rain might I add. That was a fun touch. We had a quick 90 minute flight and we were in Morocco!!! We landed and were greeted with a nice Moroccan thunderstorm.  We were bombarded with Arabic and French. I forgot that Morocco was at one point a French colony which would explain the French everywhere. After we all cleared customs we made our way to the hotel we would be staying in. In was only a short ten minute drive from the airport but we were all floored by the sheer number of people in the streets and the amount of people Moroccans can fit on mopeds. They legit can fit entire families on there, dogs and all. All of the buildings are made from this reddish clay so everywhere you looked, you saw red.

                We got to our hotel and it was such a nice room with our own balcony which looked out over the gated entrance to the hotel and out onto the city of Marrakech. We all wanted to head to the coveted markets we had all heard so much about but we had to change money into Moroccan Dirhams before we could go anywhere. The conversion was for sure in our favor. 1 Euro was more or less  12 dirhams. After converting 50 euros, I felt like such a baller with just about 600 dirhams. With our new Moroccan money, we were off to the market. In true style, the skies opened up and we were yet again treated to African rain. Trying to find the market in Marrakech was nearly impossible. All the street signs were in Arabic and trying to cross the street was like playing in traffic. They had no stop lights or crosswalks and motos, bikes, horse and buggies and vespas ruled the roads. After getting directions in Italian we had finally made it to the market. I have never seen anything like this. All the shop workers would try and get you to come into their store with promises of handcrafted goods at cheap prices. We soon learned you needed to barter for everything and immediately offer half of whatever price they first offer you. I ended up buying these beautiful scarves, one purple, one pink and one teal all for 170 dirham. The original price for one was 150 dirham haha Not bad if you ask me! Once dusk hit we wandered back to the hotel. We wanted no part in being out past dark in Morocco. When we walked back, we heard the calls from the tops of the towers calling all Muslims for prayer. Nightlife in Morocco is very uneventful especially for women since drinking is severely frowned upon plus its not like I want to be out making African friends in a place where I don’t speak the language. Bedtime every night was 11 or 12. Such a huge difference from Sevilla where 11 or 12 is when we usually go out haha

                Saturday may have been one of my favorite days since being abroad. We started off the day with a city tour with a local guide. She spoke French, Arabic, English and Spanish! We were so impressed but she took us first to the royal tombs. When we were trying to walk in and we were haggled by multiple people to buy random knick knacks and jewelry.  We were clearly uninterested but they didn’t get that. Once we finally got inside, we were congregating into a line, then some jerk behind us felt it necessary to yell, “Queue up properly” like take it easy buddy! After that we were off to another arab palace. It reminded me of the alahambra in Granada, but seeing these ornate houses never gets old.  Our final stop was this all natural pharmacy where they had remedies for everything from snoring to allergies. It was so cool to see how they preserved such an old tradition and how it was still such an important part of life to them to this day. During our walk to the main square, we passed though a typical meat market. This was absolutely flooring. They had whole cow carcasses hanging as well as headless chickens in the front of the store but then live chickens flying around in the back. Having the meat unrefrigerated and just in the front was totally unsanitary but oh well. The most shocking thing I saw either was the heads of cows just hanging there along with the other meat or someone carrying a dead peacock away from the market. I was in total shock and awe that I didn’t take pictures but this might be one of those things best left to the imagination. After the scaring market trip we had an hour of free time before our camel rides! We attempted to shop but shocking, it started to rain again so we headed back to the hotel to prepare for the camels. The camel ride was totally worth every penny of the 200 dirham I spent on it. We got picked up at the hotel and taken to this little village 20 minutes away. Side note, Moroccan driving is borderline insanity. Anyways, we got to our camels and mine was one of the first ones to stand up. Not knowing what to expect, I’m sure everyone looked on in sheer horror at my face as it tried to get up. I literally thought I was going to fall off but it was fine once it was on all four feet. We were like five minutes in and people were already making camel toe jokes which kept the mood light. We ventured into this little village and stopped half way though for tea and classic bread. After our two hour ride, I had never felt more sore doing nothing in my entire life. But I can now cross riding a camel in Africa off of my bucket list.         

                API loves underestimating our little hiking adventures. When they said to bring comfy shoes because we were doing a hike, I brought my sneakers, sid shirt and hoodies and hoped for the best. They should have included a little asterisk advising leaving all coach bags at home.  Little did we know we were in for a four mile hike/rock climbing of the Atlas mountains. It was like being on the stairmaster for hours but we had some of the most amazing views I have ever seen. Seeing cactus, palm trees and snowing mountains all in the same view is very hard to grasp. Also knowing that if you slipped you’d basically be done for was also less than comforting. But all in all the hike was amazing and Kepa, our API leader said it was perfect practice for Extremadura which is our excursion in two weeks. I am slightly worried. Oh well but when we got back to Marrakech we headed to the market for one last go. But this time instead of rain we were treated to a HAIL STORM! Yep that’s right, we were trapped in a hail storm in Africa. Who would have thought? I ended up getting earrings with the hand of Fatima on them which is supposed to ward off all evil. We were absolutely drained for the busy day and I didn’t even stay up for my 21^st birthday. How lame? But I wouldn’t have even been allowed to drink anyways.

                Monday morning bought our last breakfast buffet and a surprise serenade session from the entire wait staff of the restaurant. It was kind of embarrassing but I was glad to see all the fellow APIers join in in song as well. They gave me this candle and lilies as well. It was so sweet of them. I tried to check my email/Facebook before I left and facebook didn’t work because the Moroccan government had blocked it!!! How crazy. But anyways we were off to the airport hoping to get back. I noticed they had spelt my last name wrong on my boarding pass which would mean bad news at home but thank god for lax African security as I breezed right on through to head back to Sevilla!  I had started to get some really bad allergies in Africa from all the pollen so my nose was all stuffy and due to the shitty air pressure in the cheap flight, my ears and sinuses had never felt worse. Landing had to the be one of the worst experiences ever. My ears were popping non-stop and when we finally made it, they wouldn’t unclear and it felt like I was underwater trying to hear things.

                I had never felt more excited to return home to the Sevillan rain. Sevilla is starting to feel like home more and more every day. I know I get home sick about home, but once I am home, I will be getting homesick for certain things about Sevilla! If home is where the heart is, I think I have spread some of my heart all over the world, leaving a little bit in Norfolk, Sevilla and most of it in Amherst! In two months, I will be home. This program is flying by. I feel like I just got here and now its half over! There is still so much I want to do and see. I know that there is no way I will get to do it all. Love and miss you all. See you soon! Besitos! xo

We have a building just like this in Sevilla :)

So much Arabic and French

Just what we hiked up. No big deal.

Village at the base of the hike

Snow at the top

Us near the top

Crossing the street is like playing in traffic

Camel ride in Africa...check

Classic shadow shot

Marrakech airport

Just Packing for Morocco. No Big Deal.

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am such an overpacker. I was overweight with my luggage for Paris and Berlin before we even left. Whoops. So now I am packing for AFRICA which one would think is easy but not so much. I do not want to be that American girl attracting the bad attention for wearing dresses and skirts. I surprised myself with how little I ended up packing for four days in Morocco. It still hasn't hit me that in 24 hours I will be on a totally different continent. I thought that coming to Spain might be a bit of a culture shock, but I honestly have no idea what Africa holds. It will literally be a whole new world. I have tried to teach myself Arabic but thats not going so well since their words are pronounced like one is hitting a keyboard. For example, this is how to say hello...al salaam a' Laykum. So simple right? Not!! I have never been anywhere where I didn't know the language and there I can't even read it if I tried. I will make an epic blog once I return home to Sevilla on Monday.

Monday is more than the day I get back from Morocco, Its my 21st birthday yeyyy! I feel like I hyped up turning 21 so much at home and here it is just another day. But oh well. I will have to celebrate back in Sevilla and even back in Amherst. There is no way I am touching alcohol in Morocco. It just isn't part of their culture and again. I don't want to be that girl.

Another exciting thing that happened this week, I finally booked my spring break plans. Kelly and I are headed to Copenhagen, Denmark, Budapest, Hungary and the Amalfi Coast in Italy!!!!! Probably the three most random places but I am beyond excited. I'm quite certain I sent my bank account into serious shock when I paid for them but never again in my life can I just go off to Denmark for the weekend.

Anyways I need to try and get some sleep but I think I'll be just too excited! Until Monday...besitos xo