El Chisme

That first blog was long enough - I wanted to break it down a bit.

Thursday night we got into Sevilla and my family picked me up. My host-mom looks pretty young, is very trendy, somewhat stuffy in a Spanish sense but very nice. My host-brother is real sexy and his room IS right next to mine and I find myself just staring at him for no reason. BAH! My host-sister is a student but also works as a Flamenco instructor. She went to Granada for the weekend so I really don't know that much about her yet. She seemed very sweet though which was a pleasant surprise. 

OH MY WORD, they all speak so fast! I literally can not believe the pace. I was eating dinner and my mouth nearly hit the floor-- they sounded like some commercials, where the announcer is speaking super fast and low about the hidden details and stipulations, but only in like... Chinese and to the nth degree. They said I spoke really well and that I was keeping up just fine but I think they're lying. For some reason I get really nervous to talk to them -- maybe it's because I don't have much to say or can't put on the front like I know what's going on, but I've been hanging out in my room a lot... door open, so don't hate. 

Last night I went out to the bar with some friends and I got home around 2:30ish... I went to the bathroom only to discover that the toilet wasn't flushing. Great. I did what I could to fix it and then finished washing up... when I went to open the door it was stuck. I kept trying to turn the knob, but it wouldn't budge. Finally it started turning little by little but it was so loud I thought for sure that I was going to wake everyone up. I stood there for almost 10 minutes, panicking at the thought that I was going to have to spend the night locked in the bathroom. Finally, I just pulled as hard as I could and then ran to my room. There are a lot of little things like that that I really need to ask about...

The weather here in Sevilla is great - think late summer, early fall in Michigan. Really comfortable and brisk. Gas is .87 euro cents per liter for those of you who might be wondering. The milk is still unpasteurized and  there's still ham and eggs everywhere. Ha!

That's it for now! 

The Sun is Shining

Well, I made it. 

It's been nearly a week since I left home and I'm still exhausted. Here's a quick recap of the logistics:

Flight was fine... from Philly to Madrid was quite empty, so I had an entire row to myself. Once in Madrid, one of our instructors (Kepa) picked us all up at the airport and took us to the hotel in Madrid. I had two roommates for a few days, Haley and Kate, from California and Massachusetts, respectively. We all went into a sleep coma and kept real low key on the profile for the first night. 

Our first full day in Madrid was comprised of visitations to the Palacio Real and the Museo del Prado. The Palace was HUGE - we had a walking tour and saw a reasonable amount of the supposed 2,000 rooms that make up the palace. We also got to tour the royal armory and the royal pharmacy. The Museum was pretty intense... we had a guide who was very animated and loved talking; although she did a good job pointing some interesting information out, I kind of wish we would have just had free time to explore because we really only got to see about 6 or 7 pieces. 

The next day we took a bus trip to El Escorial - a super historic residence of the King of Spain (Phillip II) that still functions today as a monastery, a school and a library that is second in the world to only the Vatican's collection. We got to walk through the palace and see all the rooms, but what I thought was the best part of the trip was the Pantheon of the Kings. I guess like every important monarch of Spain for the past 500 years has been laid to rest at El Escorial. We walked all the way down this long stairway to the crypt where the kings and queens are held in tombs. Huge sarcophagi are stacked on shelves about five high and four across in a circular rooms, and the spouses are lined up with one another from across the room. Our guide Victor told us that somewhere near the Pantheon there is a type of rotting-room where all the monarchs are put to rot and dry out for about 20-25 years before they are sealed in the tombs. Currently, the parents and grandfather of Juan Carlos, the current king, are hanging out to dry. 

The next morning we packed up and left Madrid, stopped in Toledo on the way to Sevilla. We took a huge walking tour and it was nothing too exciting. My favorite parts of the trip were El Greco's piece at the Church of San Tome and The Cathedral - which I hear is the best in Spain. Our guide told us it took over 500 years to completely build and decorate the Cathedral, and I believe it. I always forget how amazed I am at the sight of such things -- that people would work so hard and long to create such beautiful things in the name of and for God. It was really a privilege to see it. 

I feel like I just wrote a travel brochure, but I had some catching up to do. We'll see if I can get on a routine here....

blergin flergin

testing, testing... 1,2,3?