The Brits are HERE!

Another week has gone by in Sevilla. Last weekend was the 46th anniversary of our spanish family. Christine went to portugal with her parents, so I was alone. They had people over, and I got to hang out with some of the aunts and uncles and the little grandkids. It was a little hard at first being an outsider, but by the end of the night we were watching the Sevilla -Real Madrid soccer match on TV and joking together. I actually ended up enjoying myself! They were a fun bunch and I'm glad I got to join in with the family.

Also last week, Christine's parents took us to this really cool Italian restaurant called San Marco in Santa Cruz barrio/neighborhood. It was really pretty because it used to be arab baths that they converted, so the arches were pretty and it was a nice atmosphere overall. Another night we went to flamenco at the Carboneria which was fun to see for my third time!! Never gets old...

Last week was a blur overall. There was a night out sponsored by one of the companies here in Sevilla with free specials and the theme was country music! I LOVEDD it and felt like i was back at IU or at least in the states. Another night, a friend of ours was a DJ at one of the discotecas so we made it out to see/hear him play.

Finally, to the good stuff. This weekend we did day trips with our program. The first one was Gibraltar. This is British Territory on the southern edge of Spain, and everything is in english and they use pounds there! (or euros for a higher price). Gibraltar is a very skinny strip of land that is famous for its monkeys. The main street is all shops, but you can either take a cable car or a tour to the top of the "roca" or mountain in town. Once you are at the top, it is gorgeousss. You can see Africa, the Mediterranean Sea, Straight of Gibraltar, the Atlatic Ocean, and then Spain and all of Gibraltar. You can pack a lot into one little visit. Not to mention the monkeys. Once at the top of the rock there are little monkeys roaming around freely. If you get a guided tour to help you, you can hold one. Otherwise- they say to be careful or else they can bite or scratch you which results in a hospital visit. EEEeek! However, the monkeys were very calm and let you get pretty close to take pictures. It was a gorgeous day and everyone got a little sun in too. I'm hoping to take my parents back there when they come (in one week!). Hence, this is the reason for my post title...the Brits are kinda here ; )

The next day was another trip sponsored by our program. We went to Aracena which is a town in Huelva, Spain. It is west of Sevilla and we got to see some other national parks along the way. The first one we saw was the mines in Riotinta. It was a small mine, but at the end you see the river, and all of the water is RED! Our guide told us the minerals in the rock make the water red, and not even the animals will drink from it. Next we made it to Aracena, grabbed some food and then made it to the caves there. They are famous for being millions of years old. The humidity in the caves can reach 98%, and we could definitely feel a little bit of the humidity that weekend. The caves were special though because the minerals made the rocks look like ice at certain spots. We weren't allowed to touch or take pictures, but it was still cool to see. My favorite parts were the pools of water in the caves. Apparently, the water levels never rise, but are constant year round. The water was so blue and clear. I just wanted to jump in and swim! It looked like something out of the movies.

This week we have midterms, and Katelyn and Olivia get here tonight (Amanda gets here Wednesday and is staying with me! It's Katelyn's 21st on Wed, aka St. Patty's day so I'm excited to see them. Also, my parents come on Friday!! It's gonna be a great week and I can't wait to see everyone. Sooo exciting!!

Work and Play

I finally began my internship! I just finished my first two weeks. Through our program and IU, we are required to work 100 hours (appx 10 hours each week). I have classes monday and wednesday, so I work about 5 hours each day Tues and Thurs. It's not a bad schedule, but I feel like I am constantly moving. A lot of other kids don't have to do an internship, and I think I would have a lot more free time if this was true. However, I am working in the tourism office through the city of Sevilla, so I get to spend a lot of time using Spanish. Mostly I am in the front office helping people with their questions of Sevilla and guiding them via map of where to go. Although I am using a lot of spanish and talking with my coworkers in Spanish, I still speak english when the Brits come in! Or occasionally I'll get an American. Or a french/german etc that only knows english. Overall, its not hard and I enjoy the people I work with. It's a good 35-40 minute walk to work each day and I'm starving by the time I get home (close to 4 for my lunch) but I think it has already started to improve my Spanish.

This past weekend was Día de Andalucia. Andalucia is the province that Sevilla is located in (much like our states in the United States) and this day is meant to be enjoyed and relaxed. Therefore, with a four day weekend, I went to Madrid and Toledo with a few girls. We had heard mixed results about Madrid so I will a little unsure of what to expect, but we ended up loving it. We took the 6 hours bus ride to and from madrid and left Friday morning around 10am. When we arrived, we checked into our hostal, and went to the Prado which is the most famous art museum in Spain. It was a little rushed because it was closing, but we got to say a lot of famous Spanish works. Then that night we met up with one of my friends from school, Beka! It was a quick reunion, but we got to see her apartment and talk to her about madrid. ; )

The next day we got up early to go visit Toledo, a small city about an hour away. El Greco was a famous painter who had lived in Toledo and spent a majority of his life there. After visiting we now know why! It was very tiny old town, but gorgeous. The center was more up in the hills, but it was hilly everywhere. The lookout points were amazing and we got some great photos. It had much more of a community feel to it, and overall it was adorable. We could see the majority of the town in just a few hours and went home a little after lunchtime. When we got back to madrid we did some more exploring. Our hostal was in the downtown area, so we walked around the Plaza del Sol, Plaza Mayor, and found some cute little ships to wander into. We tried some sweets from the best bakery place in town (Mallorquina) and did a little window shopping before heading back to our hostal to get ready for the night.

For dinner, we went to El Tigre which was recommended by my friend elena who had studied abroad in Madrid. Tapas were in different in Madrid because if you ordered a drink you got a huge plate of food for free! We had a lot of fun in the bar. We ordered a couple of rounds of food for dinner before leaving stuffed from the best fried food I may have ever had. The main portion of our meal was fried breaded balls of jam (croquetas which were sooo good), fried potatoes, and then ham on top of a slice of bread. It was packed in El Tigre so we decided to head out once we had felt we had experienced enough. After el Tigre, we eventually made our way over to Joy (Eslava) which was a highly recommended discoteca in one of our guide books. Apparently there were free flamenco shows every half hour so we decided to check it out. It used to be an old theater converted into a discoteca so you could sit up on top and watch people dancing down below or you could go dance! The music was really fun, American and Spanish songs (or combined giving you Christina Aguilera's Come on Over song in Spanish...Ven Conmigo!).

Also, the metro is intense in Madrid, but once you figure it out, it is the easiest thing in the world and gets you all over the city.

The next morning when we got up, we went to the flea market (El rastro) which happened every sunday in madrid near plaza mayor. Some of the stuff was really cute and the scarves were anywhere from 2 euro to 5 euro depending on which stand you went to. I bought a couple of scarves- one which was way more expensive than the rest but it was so darn cute! It was hard to pass up ; )

After el Rastro, we went over to Retiro park which is what I could compare to Central Park in New York on a MUCH smaller scale. It's a little outside downtown Madrid and its all green! It has a little lake/pond thing to rent paddle boats. We got lunch in one of the stands in the middle of the park and used this as a place more to relax. There was a cool Crystal Palace that we explored there too.

Next our original plan was to see the Reino Sofia (another art museum) but it closed before we got there, so we decided to wander around a little more and made our way to the Royal Palace in Madrid. It was really pretty from the outside, but we just didn't have a chance to make it inside either. Overall, this was probably my favorite day during the week because we got to see a lot of madrid and it was more tailored to what I would want to do (being the park and just walking around). That night we just went out and got food and called it a day.

Finally, it was Monday. We had a bus at 2 to get home to Sevilla around 8. Both me and another girl on our trip had spanish friends in Madrid and we really wanted to see them before we left. We still had to see the Reino Sofia, so we got up early- made our way to see some of Picasso (Guernica) and Dali's works and then I finally got to see Marta for lunch at the bus station before we went home! ; ) It was quick, but I was happy!

Overall, we had good weather, saw a lot and LOVED our time in Madrid. The city was much faster paced than Sevilla, and much more like the United States in some ways, but we had a great time. The people were also a lot more used to using English in Madrid...which was both good and bad. This was our weekend! Now back to the real world .... almost hahaha.

Soo here are a few random thoughts and other things to talk about: My roommate and I went and saw the Museo de Bellas Artes which has a Murillo exposition going on. It has continued to rain 70% of the time here. New food: breaded fried egg? Christine's parents came into town and we went to a really cool Italian restaurant that was once Arab bathrooms converted into a cute food place! We also went to the Carboneria for a flamenco show. We are in first place with Gymkhana and got to explore more of the Santa Cruz neighborhood this round. We also found out that there is an exact replica of the ship Christopher Columbus sailed on to get to the new world on the river in Sevilla.