1 month down, 3 or so to go!

This past week marked the official 'one month' marker of my time in Spain!!  Part of me feels like it's been longer than a month and I can't believe it's only been such a small amount of time and another part of me feels like it's only been a week, and how can that much time be gone already.  As I read status updates of friends beginning to study for the oh-so-dreaded midterms weeks I am incredibly grateful that I am here and not there :-) and I wish all of you the best of luck!!

My classes are progressing steadily!  I now have homework in some of them, just reading in others.  I feel that these classes are all going to be a very light workload until the week before midterms, and then it's just going to be ridiculous.  But, such is life, and as long as I get to enjoy my weeks before midterms with little homework and lots of relaxation I will be a happy camper :-)

Compared to last week, this week is chopped liver.  I didn't really go anywhere crazy, had no ridiculously fun adventures...in fact, this week was kind of one huge failure of a week...which I still managed to enjoy! I had originally intended to go on a 7 hour hiking trip in the northern area of Andalucia, but then I was told it was full.  We changed our plans then to going to a winery or a bodega, meaning they only bottle the wine there, it's not actually a vineyard.  My friends Elise, Emily, Jenny and I all dragged ourselves out of beds this morning to catch our 10:45 bus.  I realize to all of you that having to be somewhere by 10:45 would be a leisurely morning, but remember, I'm on Sevilla time...and it's the weekend...  Anyways, we get slightly confused as to where the bus station is, wander around and end up finding it with 10 minutes to spare, meaning we got there at 10:35 am, only to be told that the bus had left at 10:30.  So, our reservations for our 2:00 pm winery tour were cancelled and we were left to spend the day in Sevilla.  Not all bad because we decided to go and look around the market they have in Triana which is where you can buy good food, hand made items, books, random things.  We walk to Triana, which is a neighborhood within Sevilla, only to fail at finding the market.  So, hike-less, winery-less, market-less weekend in Sevilla.  But, this weekend we went dancing two times, and everybody knows how much I like to shake my groove thang, so I'm still a very happy camper!!

Also, this weekend, my host family is staying at their other house.  Apparently, they have an apartment in the city, and an actual house outside of the city.  They said that this time they were going to clean and organize the house, but one of the next times they will bring me with them.  So Britt was kind enough to spend the night with me and help fend off the monsters living under my bed, such a sweet gal!

This week did have it's positive aspects as well!  I booked my trip to Dublin, Ireland! So on this coming Thursday night I will take a bus to Madrid, and from there I will fly to Dublin.  My classes on Monday are cancelled as it is 'Dia de Andalucia' so I will be there almost all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and will return to good ol' Spain on Monday :-)  I can't put into words how excited I am...although, had the trip been a little less expensive I may have been a little more excited...$315 for a flight, ouch.  Not to mention, this is the first time in, oh I don't know 6 YEARS, where I haven't had an income, so my anal, accounting self is starting to freak out.  But as my incredibly wise big brother told me, spend the money because you never know if you'll ever be able to do it again!  So, to Ireland I go!!

I have also now booked trips to Lagos, Portugal and Barcelona, Spain.  This doesn't include the already planned trips to Cordoba (a city in Spain) and Morocco.  Needless to say, I now have France, U.K. and Italy left on my need-to-visit list!!  I'm really hoping to add Prague to the destination itinerary, as well as Malta, as I've recently heard that is a must-visit.  If anyone has thoughts as to why Germany should be included, let me know, because I'm a little unsure as to whether to spend the money to go there or not!

The biggest, most EXCITING news from this week is that my friend Tracy will be visiting myself and our other friend Leah in Spain over her spring break!!! Leah is currently working as a model in Barcelona, so she'll be flying in there.  Ironically, she arrives the same weekend that I had planned to be in Barcelona before I even found out she was coming so I'm pretty sure it was fate helping us out there :-) Unbelievably, beyond excited to see her, and just to have a visitor in general!!!!

Last, but definitely not least, I wanted to say a huge happy birthday to my amazing older brother, Ken!  We found out for sure this week that Ken will be leaving for his next 4 month training with the Army in April, so I won't be seeing him until August, unless he can get leave before then!  I would be angry about it if I wasn't so incredibly proud of what he's doing!!  We will celebrate extra hard in August Ken, I'll bake a cake and everything :-)

Hope you all had an amazing Valentine's day and an even more amazing week!  Dad, if you haven't taken Mom out to dinner yet, get on that!!!  I sure have missed a lot of big events in Wisconsin, our state has been crazy this past month :-)  It's bitter-sweet for me to realize that I will be returning to it in 3 months and one week!

Hasta luego!

Ruins of Italica and a trip to Cadiz

It's been an adventurous week here in Spain!

First week of classes, trip to Italica and trip to Cadiz.

First of all, classes.  Fairly boring so far, just the simple first week information: syllabi, grading requirements, absence policies...yeah...

However, on Friday, I went to visit 'Las Ruinas de Italica'  It's a roman civilization ruins that are in the city of Italica, about 15-20 minutes outside of Seville.  They are gorgeous, seeing the streets that Romans walked on that long ago was pretty amazing.  There are remains of aqueducts, homes, the coliseums where they had battles (known in Seville as 'las batallas de sangre' or 'battles of blood').  Also, there were remains of the Roman 'baths' where they used to socialize.  They had hot baths, warm baths, cold baths or saunas.  It was a big part of their culture at the time and there's one that's been restored and is still in use in Seville.  There's a competition that's starting in the CIEE program and the winner gets a trip to the baths in Seville, including a massage.  Needless to say I'm going to be winning that competition :-) The mosaics seen below are what the floors of the homes were made out of, it was a sign as to the amount of money you had.  If you had the tiny stones you seen in the following pictures, called 'teselas,' it was a sign that you were very wealthy.  Here are some photos of the ruins:

Friday night was spent at home, watching a movie called 'Hermanos Osos 2' or Brother Bears 2, with my cute little brothers and sister as I had to be up and in town by 9 am for the bus to Cadiz.

Cadiz is a city on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean.  We just went for one day with our program and it was free, which was a definite plus!  I instantly regretted not staying over one night though because the city was absolutely gorgeous.  And it was also packed with some pretty amazing history too.  They signed Spain's Constitution in Cadiz, because it was the only city that Napoleon was not able to conquer.  Napoleon spent years trying to capture Cadiz and he thought he had it figured out when he was able to block the water supply from the mountains into the cities, but little did he know that each home in Cadiz, or many homes, were built with water stores where any rain water was captured.  The citizens of Cadiz were able to hold out for 2 years and Napoleon finally backed down.

Cadiz is a peninsula and it is pretty much surrounded by the ocean on all sides, meaning lots and lots of beaches and sand.  Pretty much heaven, especially since it was sunny and high 60's, ahhhh so relaxing :-)  We did a tour through the city which lasted longer than it really needed to and was before lunch so everyone was tired and hungry, but then we got to go up into the tower of the Cathedral and it was pretty amazing views!  I'll put some pictures below so you can see it.  The rest of the day was spent eating at a restaurant and walking by the beach.  I was pretty much sweating because it was expected to rain and I thought it might be a little cooler by the ocean, but that was definitely not the case! We got back on the bus at about 4:30 pm and drove back to Seville.  I was planning on going out that night but I actually got kinda sick with a cold and so I just stayed in.

I'll post pictures below and I'll write again soon :-)

Oh and HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY MEGAN HOFFMAN!!!

Packers, Super Bowl Champs, Food Poisoning...oh my...

Welp it was a proud day to be a Wisconsonite in Seville yesterday :-) Once again, I am incredibly sad at the fact that I wasn't in WI to celebrate this victory with my family, but, I did get to see the whole thing happen so I can't complain too much!  The game started here at 12:30pm and we were, luckily, seated next to the Steeler's fan with the most annoying high-pitched scream ever.  She was also oh-so-intelligent and had great comebacks for when Roethlisberger got sacked, such as (and I quote) "Yeah, well your player has a weird last name."  I hope you are sensing the sarcasm, and realize that it took every ounce of restraint to not slap her and/or find a large roll of duct tape.  Either way, in the end, it didn't matter and I'm happy that the Lombardi trophy is back where it belongs!!!

Unfortunately I decided to order a cheeseburger at the bar while watching the game, and I got a lovely bout of food poisoning.  So, my 4 hours of sleep turned into 2 and I have yet to eat anything other than 2 pieces of toast all day today!  I slept the afternoon away though, and am feeling better now.  Plus, my host mom is making me soup :-)

I know it's been a while since I've posted so I'm trying to remember the headlines here for the past few days.  Number 1 is that I finished with the 2-week intensive Spanish course! Woo!  Britt and I went out to celebrate that with some of the guys that we had met earlier here, and all-in-all it was a good weekend.  We figured out the Sevici's which are bicycles that you can rent from stations all over the city and then return them to other stations.  Pictured below, Tourist Lydia with Sevici bicycle:

It was a good day, we went and biked along the river.  It was GORGEOUS out, sunny and 65, just the way I like it.  More pics from the day:

 There's grafiti like this all over one area of Seville, it's really amazing.  More like art than vandalism... 

 The following few pictures are of the Plaza de Espana.  It's one of the most famous Plazas in Europe and we study here...no big deal :-) Right in front of the Plaza de Espana is the Parque Maria Luisa which is absolutely gorgeous.  I'll take some pictures of that soon, it was too dark by the time I tried the other night!

 I assure you I'm not pregnant nor do I have an abnormal abdominal growth, it is my belt!

 So, the rest of this day was spent eating ice cream and napping by the river.  I'm not trying to make you jealous, just trying to keep you updated on my life! Okay, maybe I'm trying to make you a little jealous... :-)

I started my actual classes today and I'm happy to report that they should be fairly interesting.  I really like my Professor for European Economy, he seems really nice.  My Professor for Corporate Financial Decision Making seems nice, however, he repeated himself at least 20 times throughout the hour and a half class today and Britt and I are beginning to wonder if he has a short term memory problem.  Just kidding...sort of.  I'm refraining from judging him based on today as I was running on 3 hours of sleep and still wasn't feeling well so my guess is I was just being cranky.

The rest of today was spent napping and watching White Collar episodes on-line.  Which, by the way, if you haven't seen that show I HIGHLY recommend it.  Not only is the main character, Matt Bomer, ridiculously good looking, the show is really well done as well!!

Well, that is all for now!  I have my other two classes for the first time tomorrow and Britt and I are planning to write out everywhere we want to travel and attempt to start scheduling :-)  Very exciting shtuff!

Hope all is well at home, and you all thoroughly celebrated the Super Bowl!

Toodles!