Sangria in Sevilla

Alyssa finally showed up in Murcia this week!!  As if it hadn't taken long enough for her to get here (I've only been waiting since September) all of the flights got screwed up too so she ended up getting into Murcia 7 hours later than initially excepted.  Not cool Madrid airport, not cool.  Anyhow, she's here!!  Last week I had, and still have, a lot of work to do so it afforded lots of time to get over her jet lag.  Another great tool?!...goblets of sangria! As it turns out, whilst I was drinking that lovely goblet, there was an earthquake in Lorca.  Everybody in the city of Murcia is fine, but unfortunately there is not a single building in Lorca that did not suffer some damage with 63% almost completely uninhabitable.  It is certainly a sad story and all the students from Lorca in my classes have only been attending sporadically for the past week.  But as I said, luckily no one I know has been hurt, and Alyssa and I are perfectly fine, although I'm not sure the same can be said for our livers.

On Friday we left for Sevilla and due to the severe heat in the city (btw it's only May...July supposed gets up to 120 degrees F) we immediately cooled off with a caña.  Unfortunately the lunch itself was really rather disgusting dry chicken, but at the time we were too hungry to notice.  We then walked around the area where we were staying, near the Plaza de Encarnación (which contains the Plaza Mayor...each street in Sevilla has about 6 names because they couldn't make up their minds which stories were the best ones).  After a few hours of getting our bearings we met up with the tour group that was doing a free, three-hour walking tour of the city.  The tour was fairly interesting (the one in Paris was better) but it did help to get us oriented really well.  Our guide showed us where the cathedral was (not that it's really all that hard to find...it's the tallest building in the city), the Alcázar, a little bit around the Barrio Santa Cruz (the old Jewish quarter), and a major park where the statue commemorating Isabel and Ferdinand sending off Columbus is.

We had a really nice time and then decided to walk over to the Cervecería la Internacional because we could...unforunately there were no seats and our feetsies were tired from walking for 3 hours straight so we decided to try to figure out how to get back to the hostel area and then we would grab some dinner.  We got quite a bit lost, but managed to make it back and ended up having dinner at an amazing restaurant.  Alyssa had an avocado salad, which she said was good and I took her work on, and I had an orange glazed duck breast (perhaps one of the best things I have EVER eaten...I made sure to repeat that quite a few time).  Dinner definitely made up for lunch, and then some.

Saturday we woke up early to get to the Cathedral before it got too hot.  We ended up standing in line for a bit, since it doesn't open until 11 but we managed to make it inside.  We then promptly walked through the cathedral to the Giralda tower entrance which we climbed.  Luckily it wasn't that hard since the iman used to climb up it every day, five times a day, on the back of a donkey (thus there were ramps) for the call to prayer, because like any good Catholic building in Spain it was once Muslim.  The climb was made up of 35 ramps and 17 steps.  The views from the top were spectacular though!

From there we got straight into the line at the Alcázar Real (royal palace...in fact, the royal family still stays there when they come to visit Sevilla)

From there we felt that it would be very wrong of us not to get something to drink, so that is what we did.  We walked into the Barrio Santa Cruz and somehow managed to find a square we had seen the day before which a cute restaurant so we sat down and had some drinks and a light lunch of the most amazing gazpacho with watermelon puree in it.  

Lys had sangria and I had a gin & tonic with saffron (mostly because it sounded weird)

best gazpacho ever!

From there we wandered around the Barrio Santa Cruz for awhile and then over to the Plaza de Toros.

According to what the tour guide said, the Plaza de Toros in Sevilla is the oldest plaza that is still running today and they have bull fights almost every weekend starting the week before Semana Santa.  The next fight was the next day so we missed it.  From there we wandered back over towards our hostel and because it was so freaking hot we decided that now would be an appropriate time to have some more sangria...it disappeared rather rapidly though.

Very sad.  We then went back to the hostel to pack up a little bit (sober up a little bit) and get ready to go the flamenco show.  Because we weren't leaving for the show until 9 and we were ready at 7:30 we decided what better thing to do than go to the Cervecería la Internacional and hope that there were seats open this time...there were!

These are all the different types of beer they had...quite impressive if I do say so myself.

After that little adventure we made our way back to the hostel where we met up with the group going to the flamenco show.  

The show started with just the guitarist and the singer doing a piece and then the male dancer came out.  He did three pieces.  Then there was a fifteen minute break and then the same thing but with the female dancer.  They were both absolutely amazing.  There were bits where there feet were moving so fast I couldn't even see them.  It was a lot of fun though because not only were they amazing dancers, but I was also able to distinguish different movements and the different sounds your foot makes depending upon the way you hit the ground.  It was exciting to know that I've actually learned something in the past 5 months of flamenco class!  

Sunday we got up early to check out and eat some chocolate con churros for breakfast and then back to Murcia.  We spent most of the time in the airport chatting with an older gentleman from upstate New York, who now lives in Rome.  We then got on the plane, which somehow managed to land early, and got on the bus, also early, and were back in time for me to do some homework, talk to Mom on skype and spend a good 20 minutes trying to teach Alyssa's parents how to use skype!

Altogether a very fun weekend!!

¡Hasta la semana que viene!

xo

Sarah

And so it begins...

This week not only signals the beginning of a lot of studying, but also of friends visiting.  The week itself was really boring since all I've been doing is going to class and then studying in the afternoon, but on Saturday my friends Jeanette and Jessica, who I was visiting in London last weekend, came to stay.  It began with a bit of an unfortunate miscommunication because I had written down that they were coming to visit from the 6th-8th which actually was perfect since it gave me a day to study and detox before my beloved Alyssa comes to stay (!!!), but sadly it is cheapest to fly on Saturdays and Tuesdays so they actually are going to be here the 7th-10th.  I was not informed of this change until after I had already been sitting at the bus station waiting for them for an hour, on the 6th.  Oh well, cest la vie.  Anyhow, they got into Murcia OK on Saturday evening and then yesterday we spent the day at the beach.  I was soaking in the sun, but much more concerned with studying.  Jeanette and Jessica were just excited to be near the ocean, both of them are from Southern California but study in London (not so much like home).  We had a really nice time and then went out for dinner at Dad's favorite, Lizarran.  Today they went to Cartagena, they should be back in a few hours, and I am supposed to be studying/really I am just enjoying having lots of space to spread out to study while not actually reading a thing. 

This is us on the beach...aka I've been too busy to remember to take pictures this week

Also, my newest blog post came out on Pinkpangea: Sleeping on London's streets for the Royal Wedding
And that's all for this week folks!


¡Hasta la semana que viene!
xoxo
Sarah

Gotta get to the church on time!

So for those of you who did not stalk my facebook already, I was not around to write my blog post last week because I was in the UK celebrating the Royal Wedding/visiting friends.  (But mostly the wedding).  I first went to St. Andrews, Scotland.  I arrived in Edinburgh on Easter Sunday so catching the bus to St. Andrews was a little tricky since not only were all the students coming back to school, but the buses ran less frequently.  I did manage to get on a bus, however I immediately regretted it since a distinct memory of the last time I had been on Scottish roads came back to me....it was the first time I realized that I had inherited my father's car sickness...buses are worse in case you were wondering.  Eventually, though, I made it there and met up with my friend who I had met in Morocco but is studying at St. Andrews.  That night we hung out with one of his friends who is studying abroad there for the semester and then the next day started my tour of the town.  It all began with a walk on the Chariots of Fire beach, you know, the scene where they all go running.  

Stefan had class so I walked around on my own for an hour and then met one of his friends who walked to Northpoint, where we met Stefan, for lox and bagels for lunch.

 This was just the beginning of the Kate and Wills spottings.  They had met a University in St. Andrews so they were literally everywhere! 

 Apparently, they met for coffee here (which is what the sign says)

Then we walked around the town and hung out some more with Stefan's friends.  I saw where his house is for next year and all the major landmarks in the town such as:

 

 The old cathedral and cementary

 The tree that Mary Queen of Scots planted in St. Mary's College

 The PH stands for Patrick Hamilton who was considered the 1st Scottish martyr.  Legend has it that if you step on the PH you will fail your degree and the only way to counteract this is to jump in the North Sea on May Day (May Dip)

The castle

 The barber shop that gives you free whisky with every haircut

The sign that I should have seen 3 years ago...although really we were attacked regardless of whether or not we had food

Aside from that I went to an International Relations lecture on British foreign policy, which was actually really interesting, but I'm a nerd, and to a stag/hen party for Will and Kate.

This was all Sunday - Wednesday morning.  Wednesday afternoon I took a flight to London (lasted approximately an hour) and then had a panic attack.  See, the thing is, I didn't have the correct phone number for the friend I was trying to meet up with AND my blackberry decided that I had used up all my data roaming alloted so I couldn't check facebook or send her an email AND it was 7 pm so all the internet cafes had closed.  Basically I was stranded in a London train station for a couple hours trying not to hyperventilate and die.  Eventually I called Alyssa (thank you for saving my life!!) who was able to get on my facebook and send Jessica a message that I was alive but I couldn't call her so could she call me.  When I still hadn't heard from her a half hour later I really started to freak out thinking that the train station would close and I had nowhere to go and all the hotels were booked because of the 1 million people in London for the wedding, so I called my mom.  Luckily, in the middle of that conversation Jessica called me and we got it all sorted out.  I finally met up with her and as soon as we got into her dorm room we had a tall glass of rum & coke and went to karaoke with her friends.

The next day another one of her friends, Anna, came into London so the three of us got lunch and walked around a little bit.  We then met up with Jeanette and one of her friends and Jeanette, her friend, and I went to dinner at a Chinese restaurant while Jessica, Anna, and Jessica's parents (who were visiting) went to the opera.  After Chinese food we went back to Jeanette's room to change into our bajillion layers and go to the Mall to stake out a place to spend the night.  Jessica and Anna joined us after the opera.  

Yes, I did sleep on the street intentionally, but it was for a good cause...to be in the front line to see the procession for the Royal Wedding.  After 15 freezing hours, mission accomplished!!

 The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (aka Will and Kate)

 Prince Harry and some of the bridesmaids and paige boys

 Pippa Middleton and some more bridesmaids and paigeboys

 The Queen and Prince Philip

It was an absolutely amazing experience and although I was miserable for part of it, it was certainly something I will never forget!  Later that day we had a lunner (late lunch early dinner) of Indian food and I had a Will & Kate cupcake for dessert at a nearby shop.  

¡Hasta la semana que viene!

xoxo

Your ever tired correspondent...Sarah

Roman Holiday!

Yes I am well aware that it is Tuesday, however, in my defense, yesterday was the first night of Passover and I hosted my first Passover Seder all by myself.  That translates into shopping and cooking all day which I couldn't do over the weekend because I was in Rome with my Cousin Kent and his girlfriend Judy!  
I left for Rome on Friday morning and I got there at about 8:30 pm (there was a layover and delayed flight involved).  I met up with my friend Danny at the metro stop near his house.  Danny studied in Murcia last semester, which is how I met him, and is from Manchester.  I stayed at his apartment for the weekend, although I didn't actually get to spend very much time with him.  
Saturday morning Danny and I walked over to the Testaccio Market, we got lost on the way, where we were meeting Kent and Judy! We walked around the market, got our picture taken by a journalist who wanted to show that tourists do come to that market, and had a little breakfast.

Judy, Kent, and Me

After that Danny went to class, he had class on a Saturday, not very fun, and we went to another market....Victor Emmanuelle.  Highlights include: some very odd veggies and crabs trying to escape.

From there we went to a pizza restaurant near the Vatican City called Pizzarium.  It was delicious!  

Mine had mozzarella and basil, Judy's had bologna, and Kent had one with cheese and potatoes that was AMAZING! From there we went to the Vatican where we met our tour guide, Katie.  We were in the museum for 2 and 1/2 hours, 2 hours longer than last time I was there... She told us some really interesting history and anecdotes about the paintings as well as answering all of our questions about, literally, anything.  

We went from there to the Palatine hill and the Roman Forums.  Katie told us all about the different emperors who had lived on the hills, their building styles, the innovations they made to architecture, etc. 

This is what remains of the dining room of the house on the Palantine hill.  This was the first dining room EVER to be a semi-circle with a domed roof.  This palace was also the first to having heating in the actual rooms as opposed to just the bath houses.  There are spaces between the walls and floors that lets the hot air out into the room which then rises, as heat tends to, effectively heating the palace.

These are the Roman Forums center of all things Roman; political, social, etc.  When they first began excavating, in the 16th century, the arch was covered with dirt all the way to the top of the tallest space.

 Judy, Kent, and Me overlooking the Collosseum

Unfortunately for us, the Collosseum stopped letting people in at 2 that day because they were practicing for the Station of the Cross which happens on Good Friday.  Instead we went to the Pantheon, which was also closed, for mass, so we settled by having a gelato snack.

I was the only one who partook in this snack, they missed out.  I got rose gelato with a hazlenut semifreddo mousse on top.  It was delicious!  We then went back to Kent and Judy's hotel to rest for a minute and clean up for dinner.  Their hotel with near the Piazza Navaro so we walked around there for awhile before heading in and found a cute bar for aperitivos and drinks.  I did get my bellini, finally!!  We then went back to their hotel for about five minutes or so and then we started out towards the restaurant.  Katie, along with being a tour guide, is also a food blogger and so we went to one of the restaurants she had recommended on her blog.  I had a delicious meal of mixed grilled veggies for an appetizer and risotto con fior di zucci (risotto with zucchini blossoms).

We then followed Katie's instructions to an absolutely AMAZING gelato place, waaay better than the one I had for a snack, and the location was more fun, you had to work to find it.

Kent and Judy got the same kind of gelato...it was kind of a mixture of a bunch of flavors...chocolate, coffee, nuts, coconut.  It was really good though.  I, being my father's daughter, got the two oddest flavors that they had.  I got thyme, lemon and raspberry and fennel and almond.  They were both delicious (the fennel one was better), they were not, however, delicious together.  Kent and Judy then walked me to the metro stop at the Piazza del Spagna (the Spanish steps) and I took the metro back to Danny's apartment.  The next morning I woke up at 3:15 am for the longest travel day of my life...I still haven't recovered.  

Yesterday, I spent all day shopping and cooking for Passover.  Not only was it the first time that I have hosted my own Passover dinner, I feel so grown up, but I was doing it in a Catholic country.  This was a process that involved 3 butchers (1 for ground meat, 1 for brisket, and 1 for the lamb shank bone), 2 grocery stores (the normal one and the expensive one for the horseradish sauce and other random ingredients) and 1 fruteria.  I made matzo ball soup, sweet and spicy meatballs, brisket, charoset, and a flourless chocolate cake.  Sinem, my roommate from Turkey, made babaganousch, mixed veggies, and a salad.  All together there were eight of us; myself, Sinem, Annalisa, Camila, Paige, Tammy, Brennan, and Cecy.  We did not eat all of the food, but we got pretty close.  We definitely consumed a good amount of wine...despite my warning that four glasses of wine does not actually need to mean four glasses of wine, that's what ended up happening...we demolished 4 bottles.  Cecy found the afikomen so her reward was the largest slice of cake.  All in all it was a great seder and very multi-cultural as it was accompanied by the sounds of the first Semana Santa parade!

!חג שמח

¡Hasta dos semanas! (Next week I'll be traveling in the UK)

xoxo

Sarah

It sure feels like summer!

I had that monster exam on Thursday, which I think I did OK in...there were 5 questions.  The first 4 were part of the theory section so we weren't allowed to have any materials on our desk, this included my dictionary (little bit of a disadvantage I think...) and the last one was a practical question which was open book, open notes, etc.  I think everything was answered correctly, what I'm not sure about was whether or not I answered with enough background information.  Well, all I have to do is pass...
What better reward for not dying in the taking of a monster exam as a weekend at the beach, especially since it was about 90 degrees average this weekend.  Prior to that, I went out to dinner with Annalisa on Friday night.  First, there was a random parade to take the Jesus statue out of the church for the Semana Santa parades next week.

And yes, I did get desperate enough to get ribs at Tony Roma's for dinner...I feel that in a small way, I have failed as a Coloradan.

On Saturday I went sailing with my Spanish family in Santiago de la Ribera, on Mar Menor, and we had lunch on the boat.

Me with Javi

Me with Piti enjoying lunch and Coronas....clearly I have a very difficult life...

Then on Sunday...I went to their family house in Campoamor, on the Mediterranean.  With us, the family of five and myself, there was also Javi's parents, one of his brothers, his brother's two daughters, and one of the daughter's friends (11 in total).  We mostly enjoyed the house and pool, it was a little too cold to swim in the ocean.  We had an amazing lunch at the nautical club a few blocks from their house.  

We had a fantastic lunch with seafood and paella and for dessert coffee and a three chocolate cake.  Delicious!  Aside from now being quite tan (and maybe a little sunburnt), I also I am planning on going skiing with their cousin, Carmen, who said she would call me to go with her to the Sierra Nevadas when she goes over break and her dad, Pedro, has a house in the mountains and said he would take me up there to hang out next time he has work and I can hike and play with the dogs and such things.  A little bit of Colorado in Murcia!

In other news...I've been hired for a summer internship at Youth Direction in Aurora. It's a non-profit organization which helps at-risk teens find their passion and learn how to pursue it.  I will be helping to create a guidebook on their unique program and doing some event planning.  

Also, my next article on Pink Pangea has been published: http://dev.pinkpangea.com/quick-homesickness-fix-my-familys-visit-to-spain

¡Hasta la semana que viene!

xoxo

Sarah

The best study break is Mexican food and Wii

As sad as I was about the twins leaving me last week, I didn't have a whole lot of time to dwell on the matter.  For one thing I have a ginormous exam coming up for which I have no clue how to study, I haven't taken a literature exam since high school and I have never taken one where I have to memorize date and names of fables and authors of insignificant works.  Not so fun.  Secondly, my friend Nicole (who I stayed with in London in December) came to Murcia for a couple days!  I unfortunately had class, but we had a lot of fun anyhow.  We went out for some really good tapas dinner and I took her to Badulake (since it's really the only thing that there is to do in Murcia anyhow).  She left Thursday morning and I spent the rest of the day/weekend studying and creating notecards for this very scary exam.  The bright spot in all this studying grossness was on Friday when I went over to my Spanish family's house to cook dinner.  I taught them all how to make Mexican food.  We had guac, cheese sauce, pico de gallo, mexican rice, a taco bar with meat and chicken, black beans, and sopapillas for dessert.  It was a lot of food, but there were 8 of us eating (myself, the family of 5, Piti's grandmother, and Elena's friend) so the food pretty much disappeared.  

Elena's friend, Elena, Me, and Carla

Carla making the pico de gallo

After all that food we were then required, actually Piti and Javi decided that it was obligatory, to play Wii Justdance to work off all those calories.

And then the girls went off to bed while I went home to study some more.  Later that night, or should I say early the next morning, Alyssa and I took advantage of the new airline scheduling, the discount airlines put the new prices up the month before, to plan for when she comes to visit me in 36 days!!!! Then back to the grindstone.  Hopefully all this studying will pay off.  I still have three more countries and their story traditions to memorize before 4 pm on Thursday. Fingers crossed!

¡Hasta la semana que viene!

xoxo

Sarah