Cádiz y más...

This weekend was amazing! I went to Cádiz which was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been! Think a mix between Greece and Spain. It had the culture and city-ness as Spain but had the beaches, ocean, and white buildings like Greece, great combo if you ask me! It is only about an hour and a half from Seville so I DEFINIETLY plan on returning when it gets super warm. I loved it because it was a city, but it felt more like a very large town. There were families everywhere and just happy people enjoying the day and city. It only rained for about 15 minutes during the day and the rest of the day was perfect! We had a tour on the bus for a little then a 2-hour walking tour with guides from Cádiz. We were able to see some important monuments and plazas and then the cathedral, which was amazing! We didn’t go inside the cathedral but we got to walk up one of the towers. The views were breathtaking and I don’t understand why everyone isn't in this city, it’s amazing! We got back to Seville around 6 at night where we were greeted with some sort of parade. Only in Seville will there be a parade with people dancing in full costume on a Saturday afternoon.  I think it was a little preview of Feria which is in April and supposed to be so much fun.

                           Here are some pictures from Cádiz....

Friday night we went to calle Betis which is along the river and has lots of small bars and maybe a couple clubs. Everyone bought bottles of wine and met at plaza nueva which has the bank of Spain and another really old, really famous government building in it and we, about 15 Americans, were standing in front drinking bottles of wine….slightly inappropriate but no one said anything so I think were good. We went to a bar called BigBen and it was great. I was able to practice my Spanish with some Spaniards in the bar and I actually spoke Spanish while they spoke English to me haha. Last night I ended up just going to a couple small bars with a couple people. We were exhausted from the trip and night before but wanted to go out so it was fun, just hanging out by the river and trying out different places. There is still so much I need to see in one city!

I sleptt until 1 in the afternoon on Sunday-my bad!-but it was amazinggg. I hadn’t really had more than maybe 7 hours of sleep since I’ve been here so it was so nice to just sleep. I had to do work the rest of the day because today (Monday) I had an exam and a presentation (yuck) but they weren’t too bad. I keep hearing a violin playing when I’m in my room doing homework so I finally asked my senora about it because I kept thinking it was a street performer but I could never find him. Turns out a music professor lives directly beneath my room and he is the one who is practicing all the time! He is absolutely amazing at the violin so I don’t mind my free concerts every night.

My Spanish is definitely improving but I have had a few lost in translation moments. The biggest one happened last week …I had asked my senora what time we were eating dinner because I wanted to take a shower. I didn’t know if I should take one before or after dinner. She told me it was up to me so I showered first and when I went back into the kitchen, I walked in and said “I’m clean!” ..well that was what I tried to say. I meant it as a nice, light-hearted joke I guess...I think I was just trying to make conversation so she doesn’t feel like she’s talking to a wall all the time...but I said “Estoy limpiada” which I thought meant I’m clean since limpiar is the word for to clean. Well I got one of those tilted head, questioned looks and my senora just had nooo idea what I meant. I said it again and then said “Estoy lavada”, lavar is another word for clean. She still looked at me like I had 3 heads...so I started just saying random words in Spanish that are related to cleaning and she all of a sudden starts yelling, in Spanish might I add, “What happened!? Are you okay? Are you hurt? What happened when you got out of the shower!?? What happened while you were showering!??” and I had NO idea where she got that idea but I tried to say ‘be right back’ because I wanted to get my dictionary but she followed me to my room (probably to make sure her bathroom was still standing) so I went to Google translation and typed in “I meant to say I’m clean!” and pointed to the Spanish translation…she then started cracking up because apparently the word is LIMPIA not limpiada…I’m pretty sure those words are extremely similar since I only left out two letters but oh well! We laughed about it though and now she probably thinks I have zero sense of humor since my one attempt at saying something other than the basics completely backfired!

Some cool things I did last week that I forgot to mention was...

1. I had to go to the movies for my class and see the movie Tambien la lluvia (Even the rain). It was so good! It’s much more serious than my usual fluffy/funny/predictable movies but it was really interesting! Its about a filmmaker who is making a movie about Columbus, but he’s focusing on his selfishness and how he used the indigenous people. He is filming in Bolivia in 20o0, which is when the water war started there because they were privatizing water and the character who they hired for their movie is also one of the leaders of the protests in Bolivia so it makes things complicated. I recommend it to all, although I suggest seeing it in English instead of Spanish because I think I missed some important parts of the movie haha.
2. Also for my class, we had to go to a market called “El Jueves” (because it happens every Thursday). There are lots of vendors and they are all selling used things. They have a HUGE variation of things from clothes and shoes to old pocket watches and keys. Lots of antiques, it was pretty cool. We had a partner and had to buy something for only 2 euro and then make up a story about it for class. My partner and I bought an old key, a point from an old quill thing, and about 8 old Spanish stamps. We made up a story about a Russian spy who sent letters about Spain’s government…very exaggerated obviously haha. Hopefully we do some more activities like this because they are so interesting!

I just went to la Plaza de España which is beautiful! I went when I came to Seville my senior year of high school and had been dying to go back. It is just one of the most gorgeous spots in Seville, according to me, and I think everyone should visit it once! It’s so close to the university so I definitely plan on spending some time there between classes…maybe do some homework? We’ll see….

Some pictures from Plaza de España...

My personal violin concert just began again…only in Sevilla!