Tiempo vuele

Seriously.  Time flies.  I already find myself being depressed about how fast time is passing by.  I feel like I am going to blink and be back in the U.S. but I don't want to leave! I realize that is ridiculous, but the first fourth of this semester went by WAY too fast! I can't believe I have already been in Sevilla for a month and that it has almost been 5 weeks since I left Colorado, crazy!

Anywho, I figured it's about time that I include some pictures on this thing right?? Sooo here is a picture of the beautiful Plaza Nueva, a common meeting place for things because it is in the center of the city (about a 40 minute walk away from our apartment).  And that's me, hugging a palm tree because I LOVE palm trees!!

Last week we had our first real "excursion" to Ronda, a small town nestled in the "mountains" of Spain. Ronda encompasses the image of a small town with white painted houses.  First we saw the bull fighting ring:

  

And then we proceeded to eat lunch overlooking some of the cliffs and mountains of Ronda:

Then the real fun started when we decided to go hiking.  Now, please scroll up and take another look at those cliffs...and now imagine climbing down the side of one, because that's what we did! There were little handle bar-esque things on the side of the cliff and we (those of us who were brave enough) carefully climbed down the side (I only went half-way down before I couldn't take anymore and climbed back up, which was just as scary as the climb down).  Basically if you sneezed or a bee stung you and startled you or something you would probably fall about 800 meters to your death.  No big deal.

Don't let the smiles fool you, I was scared to death!

But it was worth it, because we survived and in the meantime we saw views like this:

Meanwhile, when I'm not looking death in the face, there are plenty of things to keep me busy with in Sevilla.  This week was crazy busy!  I finally met my intercambio (a Spanish student from my school that I got paired up with so we can hang out and I practice Spanish with her and she practices English with me) and she is so cool!! I love her already!  Also, I started volunteering at a local school here (el colegio, but don't be fooled, this doesn't mean college!) I was working with 4 year olds and they were ADORABLE!! They were sooo out of control, but so cute!! I think the only time they were all sitting and quiet was when their teacher told them I would sing them a song in English, who knew the itsy-bitsy spider could be so entertaining! From now on I will be working with 5 year olds on Mondays and 4 year olds on Wednesdays. It feels so good to be working with kids!  And it should help my spanish a lot while I'm at it! 

Welp, that's a very small glimpse at what's going on with me in Spain!  I will try not to wait 2 more weeks before I update again, but I make no promises!

Un fin a la playa (:

This weekend we decided we wanted to take a spontaneous trip!  It was even more spontaneous than we realized when we switched our location about 12 hours before we were leaving, but after checking out some bus times and reserving 4 beds at a hostel, we were on our way to Cádiz!  Cádiz is about an hour and a half away from Seville and is a gorgeous little city!!  We were greeted with beautiful views of the Atlantic Ocean and endless palm trees.  There was only one major downside to the weekend (nothing can be perfect!) and that was the wind!  There is a major cold front moving through Europe right now and Cádiz was no exception.  The wind was howling and gave us a nice slap in the face as we stepped off the bus.  But don’t you worry, we found plenty of places that were in the sun and out of the wind where it was absolutely perfect!

In Cádiz we stayed at The Melting Pot Hostel.  I don’t have anything to compare it to because I have never stayed in a hostel before, but I have to say that it was NICE!  We basically had the whole room to ourselves and there were nice lockers for us to keep our stuff in, the staff was so great, and breakfast was included which I didn’t even know before I booked!  And all for 16 euros a night!  What a deal! (:  

After we dropped our stuff off at the hostel, we decided to explore the city.  None of us had done any research on Cádiz so we didn’t know the first thing about it.  It turns out Cádiz is really small, who knew!  It was really nice because we were able to walk everywhere so we didn’t have to pay for a taxi, and we never got lost because it is so small!  If you just keep walking you will eventually run into the Cathedral or a beach and you will know where you are at!  We walked straight for the ocean and spent the next couple of hours climbing on rocks and such while admiring God’s beauty in the ocean.  Then we sat down up against some rocks (to avoid the wind) and chowed down on the bocadillos our señoras had made for us.  

With our bellies full we were looking for some adventure!  The old ruins of a castle seemed like a good place to look for adventure, so we went in and walked around this old castle finding some great views, until a man came and told us we weren’t supposed to be there.  I was a little confused because I didn’t remember seeing a sign that said we weren’t supposed to be there, but he was really nice and just made us leave, and sure enough, on the way out of the castle gates there was a fairly huge sign saying “prohibido.”  I’m not quite sure how we missed it!  But it was worth it!

We had walked around about 3/4 of the perimeter of Cádiz before Kelsey and I realized we needed food!  So we found some bread (2 loafs of french bread for 1 euro!) and all split it to tide us over.  When we got back to the hostel, they were serving Paella and Sangria for 5 euros so we figured that would be cheaper than anything else we could find so we ate!  And it was quite an experience!! It was my first time eating Paella with seafood in it....and let me just tell you, Spaniards don’t only leave the tails on their shrimp, they also leave the legs and faces!!  So, after Kelsey and I tried to pawn all of our shrimp off on Derrick because we couldn’t stand the sight of it he finally made us face our fear and rip the heads and legs off and peel the skin off our shrimp and eat it!  It actually tasted really good, but the process was just too gross!!

After dinner we headed to what we thought was a Flamenco show on the other side of town, but the show was cancelled because there was a group practicing for Carnaval (sort of like Spain’s version of Mardi Gras that happens in Cádiz every year) so instead we watched about 15 men in their 20s, 30s, and 40s singing songs and gesturing like crazy!  They were so into it, it was hilarious!!  It made me wish guys in the United States would be brave enough to sing together like that!

Sleeping was a bit of a struggle.  The bed was fine, but it was so cold!! However, while sleeping, I had a monumental moment in my Spanish life!  As I am sure a lot of you already know, I talk in my sleep.  I just can’t help it!! Well, Miss Kelsey Maxum said she heard me speaking Spanish! In my sleep!  haha I figure if I can’t stop talking in my sleep, I might as well be practicing Spanish, right? :)

After spending a few more hours at the beach, and freezing our feet in the Atlantic Ocean (crazy how I had to go half way around the world to finally step in the Atlantic Ocean...) and after the generous Mr. Derrick bought us all lunch, we finally got back on a bus to come back to Sevilla.  The ride flew by, filled with great conversation about life, and before we knew if we were back home!  It was a weird feeling to be coming to Seville and feel like we were coming home...I guess this place was bound to really become my home sooner or later :)