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!!!