Updates

So its been a really long time since I've updated this. It should be easier to update now that Amy and I have bought ourselves internet--true addicts, however, since I have the tendency to procrastinate procrastinating, some things just never get done. I guess the last time I updated was before Cadiz, so I'll start there.

Cadiz is an interesting city. It was very small, but there is an old Roman theater and a Cathedral and la camera oscura (I think thats what it was called...I can't entirely remember). The main attraction though, I think, was the beach. We spent almost two full days on the beach, and it was pretty close to perfect. The temperature was probably somewhere near 100 F so we would lie in the sun, get really hot and sweaty, then cool off in the water. It was fantastic. The other main attraction of Cadiz for me was the hostel we stayed it. Its known for being a hippie hostel so I've heard, and it lived up to its reputation. Certainly a unique experience.

So for our evening in Cadiz we decided to "botellon" of sorts, and so we bought 6L of CruzCampo and decided to meet some others out on the beach to drink them. Well, the first obstacle was that we didn't have bottle openers, so the boys opened them on the rocks for us. The second obstacle was that you're not actually allowed to drink on the beach, so the police booted us in their dune buggies. We then were wandering the streets with our Liters trying to decide what to do (apparently you can drink in the street if you're walking, but not if you're standing) and we ultimately decided to return to the hostel to finish off our beer. We went up to the roof, where there was apparently some sort of birthday party/barbecue. We met a lot of interesting people, including a self-described pirate, a lot of stoners, and some English girls on Erasmus.

We then went to a bar recommended by Andrew, which turned out to be a great bar. Amy fell asleep on the couch with Sam, and I, though unaware at the time, contracted the death plague that was to haunt me for the next few weeks.

We tried to go to a discotech after that, and we only by chance managed to stumble upon it, and then we were unclear as to whether it was a gay club and Amy and I had to pay, or if the guys had to pay, but the short of it was that no one wanted to pay, so we went home.

I think that's all for Cadiz, more later on Cordoba, Madrid, Ronda, and other relevant and irrelevant sidenotes.

BK...have it your way

Just a quick note...apparently the place to be on a weekday night around 11pm in Spain is Burger King. The line is miles long, consisting of all the hot young Sevillanos. I found wifi to steal by sitting on the bench outside my apartment building so I am being only mildly sketchy right now. Yesterday we took a pretty lame bus tour of the city, and tomorrow we leave for an overnight in Cadiz, which should be filled with bars and beaches, after a walking tour of the city.

Yesterday we met up for a Bar Crawl with DiscoverSevilla, which is a group that helps to organize student trips around Spain and Europe. We pregamed in the office with Sangria, and then went out for our first time with native Sevillanos, which was a ton of fun until I, true to form, spilled and entire table of drinks onto my friend David. We left the Tex-Mex bar we were in after that, only to find ourselves mildly lost in the middle of Seville. We did manage to find a very pretty garden, which I am sure only appears at 3 am when you have had too much to drink. Alas, I may never find it again.

Playing Catchup

So we moved in with our host families Friday, and I haven't really been able to get internet since then. Our housemother is fantastic. She's really friendly and pretty easy to understand but not at all overbearing. Also, her cooking is fantastic. Nice and simple so I don't have to be a picky eater. She also has a Siamese cat named Eros who is absolutely adorable. I've already done some shopping at the Spanish version of Neiman Marcus and it was great (and also air conditioned). Saturday night we found a great bar called (you'll like this Sarah) La Martina! I have lots of pictures from our adventures that night and the day before in this beautiful park, but alas I failed to realize that my memory card for my camera doesn't have a slot in my Netbook, so now I have to try to track down a cord to connect my Sony camera to a non-Sony computer. Awesome. I don't have a lot of time right now as I am illegally writing in English in our center and class is going to start soon, so I will definitely elaborate later, but we went to the beach yesterday where I proceeded to get extremely sunburned on my back. But I think it was worth it, because the beach was beautiful, the water was warm, and there were lots of topless women....:-P

Locks and keys?

So I'm not doing so well on coming up with witty and interesting blog titles, and this one will be super short anyway, but on our quest to find a non-touristy restaurant in Sevilla tonight, we crossed the river, my first time on the bridge. All along the bridge there are locks locked to the railing and on the locks people have written their names and the names of their amantes, some have dates and some have hearts drawn on them. It was very romantic, or would have been had I been strolling along the river with an amante of my own. I'm left wondering, though, what do they do with the keys? Throw them in the river?

Arrival

This first post is going to be rather uncreative, as the title suggests, and with only one semi-exciting adventure to tell about. All my travelling went well, and I even managed to hook up with other students in the program at the Madrid Airport, which made the last leg of the journey much less steressful as we were able to share cabs to the hotel, although my one attempt at actually using my Spanish was quickly thwarted. I got off the plane and through Passport Control in Madrid to find myself at a loss of where to go next. I was 99% sure my bag was checked all the way through to Seville and that I didn't need to pick it up and take it through customs to recheck it, but I also didn't have a boarding pass for my flight from Madrid to Seville and had no idea where to get it. I tried going through the "connecting flights" security pass, as that seemed the logical solution, and explained to the security guy that I didn't have my boarding pass, and didn't know where I needed to go to get it. He started speaking a lot of gibberish back to me, and finally took my passport and left. He returned within a few minutes with an English-speaking security person and she told me there were several ways to get to Seville. Once I explained to her that I already had a plane ticket, and I only needed a boarding pass, she explained to me I needed to exit the airport and take a bus to another terminal. All in all, it ended well and I got on the bus and the plane at the right time and to the right place, but was slightly embarrassed that my first attempt at speaking Spanish failed.