So far...

Hey guys

I've been here for 3 1/2 weeks so far, this Wednesday it will be a complete month! Wowza

This morning I booked a flight to Florence, Italy. I will be going in April, the most part of Semana Santa here in Seville (a huge celebration during the week leading up to Easter). It gave me an adrenaline rush to book a flight and finally decide where I am going elsewhere in Europe. I still might go to Brussels or Berlin, but I'm good with only seeing northern Italy. Don't get me wrong, there's no disappointment on my part. I plan on eating lots and lots of gelato. Yum.

I am missing America: Wal-Mart suprisingly and Chick-fil-A. And also cooking/baking whenever I get the urge.


OK, well here are some pictures that I've taken. Mostly of La Plaza de Espana.

love,
clh

Grafiti

Hola amigos!

My understanding is that grafiti en Sevilla es legal. En Madrid y Barcelona, no es legal. But in Seville, it is only legal in certain places, and I can't translate good enough to ask why in some places and not in others. Living in Lubbock and Odessa really didn't expose me too much to murals like this. I mean, there is some very profane graffiti around the city, but that's because ignorant little hooligans who also like to steal stuff from cars are busy messing everything up. But I'm just going to post pictures of some very cool art that I've seen.

peace,

corey

Giralda Catedral y Alcazar

So yesterday me and one of my roommates missed the bus to Cordoba. Oh well, I might go by myself one weekend to look around. But today our group took a tour of the Seville Cathedral and climbed the Giralda Bell Tower. It was amazing inside that place. Huge, huge, huge. We also went to the royal castle that has been here for many many centuries. It is called the Alcazar, and the royal family of Spain actually stay there when they visit town. I don't know all the facts about these places, so if you want to know more, I suggest googling them-that goes for the rest of the places I mention. Anyways, here are some pictures, trying to capture the details, and not really succeeding.Oh yeah, Christopher Colombus's remains(at least part of them) are in the Catedral-wowza, this is the guy who is responsible for America. What's left of him are the pictures that have the 4 large statues holding up a casket thing. And we climbed the tower, which was a long ways up and provided beautiful views of the city.

Adios,
clh

If There are White Stripes, Walk.

Did I not mention that my host family doesn't speak English? If you didn't know that, well now ya do. And Mariano (he's the old guy in a picture that's in a previous post)knows that I like candy, and he will give us some after lunch sometimes. And he LOVES Sevilla futbol. Lola likes to needlepoint, and she is currently working on a shawl that she I guess is going to wear during the Fair(a week long celebration in April). It is really beautiful and intricate.


I absolutely love walking around the streets here, and seeing as it's my main form of transportation, I guess that's a good thing. Being a pedestrian is sweet because there are green walking signals at all the crosswalks at the main intersections, and as soon as you are told to walk, the signals emit this bird chirping noise...but at the streets where there is no signal but white pedestrian marks on the road, peds get the right of way and all cars have to wait for you. Not like in America where you run the risk of being flattened when you walk across a street.


There are also loads and loads of orange trees throughout the city lining the streets. Right now, they are all full of naranjas, but none are edible! What a waste, but I'm told that they are good for jams/marmalade (Paddington Bear anyone?). Orange, lemon, and palm trees are the only ones that grow here naturally I think. Every other species has been brought in and is not native.


And one more random topic on life here, everybody double parks. There will often be double parallel parking. And you know what? It's OK because if you are on the outside, and are blocking people, you just leave your car in neutral and the blocked person can push it out of the way. I've actually seen this happen a couple times now. It's normal.


Love to all,
corey

I call BS

OK, this article from msnbc.com: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28719834 is stupid anyways, who cares what Tom Cruise says, he is wack, anything that comes out of his mouth is for publicity or because he is a major moron. But when I read that "Stauffenberg's legacy helped ease the burden of guilt about World War II and the Holocaust Germans still endure", I really could not help but get annoyed.

The German sense of collective guilt over their following Nazi leaders was not affected by an assasination plan that DIDNOT work. It also affected Westerns and Easterns differently. West Germans had thoughts that leaned more towards calling themselves guilty than the Easterns. The East German government dealt immediatley with war criminals and did their best to move on by establishing a "better" system than fascism and looked at themselves as victims along with those persecuted by Hitler and his henchmen. That is why West Germany was still dealing with Israel decades after the war, because they did not see themselves as victims of the Nazis, but guilty of not standing up to the fascist government.

Tom Cruise es muy tonto y loco.

I hope you are all having awesome times wherever you may be. Sorry this post was not about Spain, I just had to correct the media though. Idiotas.

Adios,
corey

Italica

Buenos noches.

Saturday our whole group took a field trip to some Roman ruins north of Sevilla. They are only a 10 or 15 minute bus ride away. My history profesor (and also the director of the TTU Center in Seville) told us about the ruins beforehand, so when he explained to everybody again, I was bored and ignored him. I'm just being truthful...

Anyways, Italica was a city founded by the Romans after they conquered the area. It was established in 206 B.C.and it was the first Roman city in the Iberian Peninsula. Really old and amazing stuff.

I tried to do the place justice with my photographs, but it's more something that you have to look at yourself.

-clh

La Comida

La comida = food
Lola= cocinera muy bueno

The food that Lola cooks is pretty much always good. There have been two things so far that I didn’t enjoy, one was pasta that had tuna and squid in it. The squid was fine, but I’m not a fan of tuna, and it overpowered the entire dish. The other thing was a fish filet that was really soft, and whatever it had been cooked in made it yellow. Hmmm.

8:30 am: For breakfast, there is fruta (fruit), café (coffee), and either tostada (toast) or cereal. It is the lightest meal of the day.

2:30 pm: Lunch is the biggest meal, and we are always served three courses. The first course is usually some type of soup, stew, or gumbo. After that, we eat a meat dish. I am surprised, but TTU actually took my no-red-meat-diet into consideration. My roommate Jennifer is Muslim and so cannot eat pork. They housed us together on purpose, and Lola sabe que no conemos la carne roja (Lola knows we don’t eat carne). I am 100% sure that she cooks with pig fat though, because in the kitchen is a huge smoked pig leg that is slowly growing smaller and smaller as she cuts on it. I will take a picture eventually of one of the shops that sells them. And everything is always covered in olive oil. Everything.

Lola has fried calamari a couple times, and it is tha bomb. Hah

And postre (dessert) is fruta, usually we choose from either un plátano (banana), una pera (pear), o una naranja (orange). Lately, Mariano has been giving us sweets left over from Christmas after lunch. I really like him.

9:00 pm: Supper is smaller than dinner, and with the meat is usually fried potatoes. Dad, you would like Lola’s papas fritas. Es muy bueno. Last night she attempted tacos because we were saying how much we loved comida Mexicano. They were pretty good; I’m wondering if she has made them before for other kids that she’s hosted.

Okay, well that’s enough on food. Probably more than you cared to know.

Adios amigos,
Corey

Good Times

-clh

Coffee School Apartment

At a bar drinking cafe con leche. Yum. Lola thinks that I am crazy for wanting black coffee in the morning.

This is the school. The building is very unassuming. Prevents unwanted visitors.

OK, the circled window is my window! And the yellow rectangle is our apartment.

Mi Casa en Espana

So far, I have not seen any houses in Sevilla. It is a large city-I think 750000 ppl-and has no room for houses. I think that only one host family in the TTU program lives in an actual house. We live on the 5th floor (actually 6th) of an apartment building and the way that it is set up is that there is only one stair case for the seven or so apartments that are stacked on top of each other. There are neighbors next to us, but they have to enter a different door and stairs. Also, we are at the end of the building, so my room is not against a neighbor’s wall but air.

The floors are all marble-ish tile and there are no throw rugs anywhere, it is always cold. To keep warm, families in Sevilla gather around a table in the living area that has a heater under it. There is a thick cloth that covers the table, and you pull it up over your knees when you sit down at the couch. The cold really brings the families together here! In the afternoons when I take a siesta, I can open my shades and the sun shines perfectly on my bed so I warm up. Me gusta siesta! Sleeping at night is fine; my covers keep me plenty warm.

The view from my window isn’t too pretty because I mostly see a lot of antennas from the apartments next to me. But in the background I can see the Catedral tower.

Living in a city is making me miss clean air and stars. And Sevillans let their dogs crap on the sidewalk. So you have to watch your step, even when you want to look up at the architecture. Our neighborhood is nice, I don’t believe that it is upscale or poor, and it is definitely not touristy. There is a cute looking café that is on the corner that I want to check out. And it is only about a 10 minute walk to school. Not bad.

Hasta luego! -corey

I got shat upon

My host family are really cute and very nice. Lola, my house mom and Mariano, my house dad try their best to communicate with my roommates and I. So far, I have had the hardest time out of the three of us speaking Spanish. Sucks...

I luckily got a room by myself while the other two girls have to share one. The thing that I expected the least is how cold it is inside! They never turn their heaters on, so basically if you go outside, it is much warmer.

Yesterday, the three of us(Jennifer, Amanda, and I) decided to go shopping. We were waiting on a street corner for another girl to meet us, and a bird pooped on me and Jennifer. Ha-ha! Isn't that good luck??? I wonder if I can save it up because I didn't want to use it yesterday.

Ciudad de Sevilla

Just going to post some more pics.
love ya,
corey

Giralda Catedral

Hotel Fernando III

donde no se????

Dr. Inglis leading a tour through Sevilla(Centro), and yeah, that is an actual street. they are amazingly tiny.