Beautiful Ronda

Another great week! Time is flying by! I can't believe that I've been here for almost a month now. Unfortunately the rain continued for much of the past week and let me tell you, I've never seen more miserable students in my life! At times it was pouring down so hard and the wind was so intense that everyone was running around with their umbrellas going in all directions and searching for cover because no matter what they did they were getting soaked. Thank goodness my dad bought me not only a great umbrella but a good waterproof jacket as well! The rain eventually subsided on thursday but it's been pretty cold which most of you know, I hate more than anything! ha ha. But other than the disappointing weather, things have been good, we are all starting to get to know the city and feel comfortable walking around it. 

Yesterday we had another excursion with ISA to a little town called Ronda just outside of Sevilla. It's a beautiful little mountain town with unbelievable views. We mostly just walked around the town and enjoyed the sites but we also got to go into one of the oldest bull fighting rings in all of Spain. It was really neat to visit and learn about the popular tradition of bull fights and hopefully I will be able to attend one next month when they begin. We weren't given much time in Ronda which was sad but hopefully I will have time to come back durning my stay in Spain. 


                              

After Ronda we visited another little town not far from Ronda called Arcos de la Frontera which was also beautiful with all white buildings and spectacular views. It was a very long day but it was completely worth it! 

Next weekend we have a long weekend, monday the 28th is a Holiday here in Sevilla, so a few girl friends and I are taking advantage and flying to London, England for a few days and then over to Dublin, Ireland. It should be a lot of fun and I am so thankful for all the family and friends that are accommodating us during our travels! 

Well, as I'm writing this it looks like the rain has returned and the cold has definitely set it so it's time for me to get to bed! Buenos noches! 


Map of Ronda, Spain

Week one down

Apologies for not haven written in a while, but its been a busy week! My first week of school went great but that walk sure can take it's toll! Walking one way to school is 1.5 miles and every day I walk to school, home for lunch, back to school around 6pm for my last class and then back home again. So all in all I average about 6 miles a day of walking and thats if I don't side track to a cafe or go out at night with my friends. But I'm not complaining since it's custom to have lots of bread at every meal, a good walk everyday will very beneficial to my waistline!

The school doesn't hold classes on fridays so every weekend I have a three day weekend. On friday ISA held guided tours of what is called Alcazar, a royal palace so to speak, which was absolutely beautiful! It is more of a garden than anything else because there aren't many buildings but the landscape is breathtaking. It's placed right in the heart of Sevilla and you would never know it's there because it is surrounded by high walls. We spent about three hours there and that definitely wasn't enough, I can't wait to go back and spend some time exploring around it. Afterwards a few friends and I soaked up the beautiful 60 degree weather and ate our lunches. 

             Alcazar



















                                  

Saturday was another great sunny day and a group of us decided to go explore the Plaza de Espana. It has to be one of my absolute favorite spots in all of Sevilla! It is an old Plaza that is very intricately designed with multitudes of beautiful old tile and amazing stone work. It is open for the public so a lot of people go there and relax in the sun, go for a horse drawn carriage ride, take a boat ride around the plaza or enjoy the unbelievable park directly across the street. If you ever get the chance to go to Sevilla, this is definite must! 

Plaza de Espana

And now it's sunday and it couldn't be more of a change from the past few days! It has been pouring rain all day and even a visit to the cafe for a warm coffee couldn't warm me up! Hopefully the weather will improve before my mile walk to school in the morning! Wish me luck! 





Till next time!  

Sevilla!

The Cathedral at night... this is also on my  walk to school

My bedroom at my home stay apartment

One of the many beautiful plaza's in Sevilla

Part of my walk to school

Another beautiful plaza

Sevilla is well known for all of their beautiful orange trees, they aren't in full bloom yet but are still so pretty!

My University

View from the rooftop lounge at school

Woke up early thursday morning refreshed and ready to meet my host family in Sevilla! The girls and I (Kandace, Caroline, Sarah, & Bridget) all met for a small breakfast and coffee and then went our separate ways on the buses to Sevilla. The trip by bus took 8 hours but only because in Spain the law says that bus and truck drivers must stop every four hours during their drive, so we took one twenty minute stop and another hour stop for lunch/siesta. I forgot how uncomfortable busses could be and by the time we arrived I was definitely ready to be off of it! All of us were so nervous as we got to the plaza to meet our families but it was really exciting. It was so cute to see all of the host families standing there just as excited as we were to meet. Eventually Maria, my host mom, found Kandace and I and introduced herself and helped us get our luggage into her small car. Maria is an amazing lady, she is very sweet and kind but doesn't speak hardly any english, like literally she only knows 'car' and 'orange' ha ha. But I love it! We are both so excited that we are forced to learn and use our knowledge of spanish all of the time. Maria is also really good about speaking slowly and trying her hardest to help us understand her and learn. Everyday we go over things like 'fork' is 'tenedor' and 'orange' is 'naranja' and simple things like that but we are definitely going to be learning a lot! Get ready to speak to me in Spanish Armendariz family! That evening we got settled into our room and got familiar with the apartment and the area around the building. It's an adorable apartment with a great location next to the metro and only a 25 minute walk to school. Kandace and I share a cute little room and have our own bathroom which is nice since she has a son living with her and the grandmother staying here occasionally as well. Later we met Oscar, her 27 year old son, and then watched tv and got to know one another a little better. I feel very comfortable and am very happy that I got the Munoz Angeles family as my host family.

My first morning at home started off with a bang! The previous night Maria had said that she turns off the hot water to the apartment at midnight every night, so I just figured 'Cool. Whatever, I don't know why I need to know that but sure!' Well much to my surprise when I got up to take a shower the next morning there was no hot water. Duh right? Next thing I know poor Maria is banging on the door "Valeria! Valeria! No esta agua caliente!" But by that point I had already figured that out and about froze to death trying to get the shampoo out of my hair. Needless to say I will not be taking a shower in the morning anymore! Lesson learned. At least I was wide awake the rest of the morning because Kandace and I then ventured off in Sevilla, map in hand, in search of our university. It took about 35 minutes but we eventually found our ISA group and went to our school. International University Menendez Pelayo is located right in the heart of the city. It's in an old building with three floors plus a rooftop deck with chairs and the most beautiful view of Sevilla. That morning we took our placement exams to see which level of spanish we'd fit into and then had a break for siesta and then started our english classes (business classes taught in english) that afternoon. At one point we walked around the town and got extremely lost! It took us 45 minutes of walking down the maze of streets to make it back to the university when we were only actually ten minutes away. After that we decided we better just stay there so that we didn't get lost again and miss our classes. It was the perfect afternoon sitting on the roof with  great people, soaking up the sun, and eating our homemade bocadillos (sandwiches) that our moms had made us. My international marketing class went great, Nano, our professor, has lived in the US but is from Spain and is pretty awesome. I think I'm going to learn a lot from that class. I also got the rest of my school schedule and placed into the Advanced Spanish classes which will be so great. I think it's going to be a great semester! That night ISA held a meeting at local hotel near our home where we enjoyed tapas and afterwards a few of us girls we out to see the city at night. Sevilla is truely a beautiful city!


I have fallen in love with Sevilla and can't wait to start my adventure!


-Val

Estoy en España!

 Hola todos! I knew that this would be an amazing trip and everyone would be curious to know all about it so I figured I would do what my fellow classmates and friends are doing and post a blog along my travels. Thank you to my cousin Hillary for sparking my interest in doing these as well, since she had a blog during her trip across Europe. My writing is nowhere near the level of hers but I hope I can keep you interested in my experiences. Enjoy!

My roommate Kandace

Bridgette, Sarah, Caroline, Kandace, and me 

After being up for nineteen hours straight and traveling for seventeen of those hours I finally arrived in Madrid, Spain with a few fellow ISA students. ISA stands for International Studies Abroad, the company working with my university at home and here in Spain for the semester. At the airport we met with the rest of the ISA students coming in on other flights and from there we took four buses to our hotel nacional. A side note for my dad, you thought I brought a lot of stuff with me, you should see some of these girls and all of the things they brought! Not much to my surprise everyone had at least as much luggage as me (two pieces and a backpack) but many had two extra large suitcases a duffle bag and a carry on bag. It’s been pretty interesting watching them lug all of it around! Anyways, at the hotel I met my roommate for the semester, Kandace, and we got settled into our room then ventured out into Madrid for lunch. This was a true test of my spainsh! Kandace has just begun learning Spanish so we are helping each other but where we decided to have lunch the people didn’t know one bit of English. It was an experience but one of many great meals we enjoyed in Madrid. Later we took a bus tour of the city, visited a museum and once again looked for somewhere to eat. Even though exhausted we soon learned that the lifestyle is a bit different than in America. They do have siesta around 2pm with lunch, dinner isn’t held until around 9pm, and the night can go on till fairly late. That first day was pretty rough on us having not slept in over 24 hours and on the go most of the day, however it was pretty amazing to be in such a great city. Madrid is full of life and museums and things to see.

El Palacio Real

El Museo Prado 

Day two started early with not much sleep but it was well worth getting up for. We started by visiting the Museo del Prado, which holds many of the great Spain paintings such as Los Barrachos, Las Meninas, La cruxificion, and many others by the famous artists el Greco, Velazquez, and Goya. Next we went to the Palacio Real, which holds so much history for housing the royal family of Spain for so many years. It was an incredible building and blows my mind on the intricacies and richness. Today the king and queen live in a palace on the outskirts of the capital Madrid but will dine and stay there on very special occasions. After that visit and few of us girls decided to grab lunch at a local cafeteria and unfortunately got completely ripped off. After much hostility from the servers and many misunderstandings, we were faced with a bill of 91 euros (around $124). Thank goodness the food was good but I definitely learned my lesson and will never put myself in that position again. We had the rest of the day to do what we wished so many of us took that time to catch up on sleep and then we enjoyed a great night out in Madrid. 

Over priced lunch in Madrid - Paella & pasta

Beautiful Toledo

Toledo

Unfortunately we enjoyed our night a little too much and had quite a rough ride into Toledo in the morning. However, the beauty of Toledo was breathtaking. The entire city is very historical and has such an old world feel that you couldn't help but fall in love. There we visited a few museums in the heart of the city and spent time enjoying the city and a great lunch. Tonight most of us are staying at the hotel relaxing and preparing for our eight hour bus trip to Sevilla. Tomorrow is the day we get to Sevilla and finally meet our homestay families. Wish me luck on the bus ride! I will update you once I am settled!


-Val

Cathedral in Toledo 

ps. didn't realize how poorly this was written until I caught up on some sleep and reread it, I do apologize and hopefully future posts will be much easier to read! Sorry!