Two Thousand Eight Hundred Eighty Moroccan Minutes

            Last weekend, I had the fantastic opportunity to go to Gibraltar and Morocco with We Love Spain and WSA-Europe! I very much enjoyed my time there and am glad to have gone. Here’s a breakdown of our schedule and what we did:

Day I-Friday

• 9am departure from Sevilla to Cadiz and then to Gibraltar.
• Gibraltar-A lovely guide named Alex showed us around the island. We stopped at a very windy point and looked out over the Straits to Morocco on one side and Spain on the other side (since Gibraltar is a British Overseas Territory on the Iberian Peninsula). We continued on and explored the Caves of Saint Michael. They installed neat colored lights inside and seemed to be setting up for a concert/presentation of sorts. It would have been incredible to see them, minus the modern technology. After seeing the caves, we had a few minutes to watch the famous monkeys which reside in Gibraltar. It was sad to see how the animals were treated. Kids and adults alike crowded around the animals to take pictures with them, like they were an attraction they had a right to. They had no respect for the animals. The monkeys lack food due to human inhabitation of the island and thus steal food from careless tourists and pick up litter. It was very sad to see a monkey eating the plastic wrapper from one of the girl’s snacks. While it was “cool” to see something different, I think the tourism procedures regarding the monkeys of Gibraltar need to be changed drastically and soon. It’s incredibly unhealthy for the animals and environment, and very sad to see such disrespect.
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• After leaving Gibraltar, we went to Algeciras to pass through security and board a ferry to take us to Ceuta, a Spanish semi-exclave on the continent of Africa. Upon passing through customs, we boarded the bus again to head to our hotel in M’Diq. By then, night had fallen so there wasn’t much to be seen.

It was reeeeeeeally windy. A good photo was impossible.

Day II-Saturday

• Saturday was a cloudy though lovely day, as we ate breakfast and looked out over the ocean, such as our hotel was situated on the beach.

• Tangier- We hit the road early so as to get to Tangier with plenty of time for a mini bus tour of the city, a stop at Cape Espartel, and a camel ride on the beach! It was just as windy if not more at the overlook we paused at for views of the ocean. I lost a lot of hair later in the day when I finally was able to brush it out, but the views were worth it. The camel rides were fun, and something different.

I had fun playing with my photo editing program... 

The camels were kinda neat!

The beach was absolutely gorgeous! 

Photo credit for the photos of me on the camel go to my awesome friend Bailey!

Wind + Hair = Knots from hell... but it looks cool!

• Chefchouen-Visiting the blue city in the mountains was by far my favorite part of the trip. Most of the buildings of this mountain town are painted in various shades of vibrant blue. It was pretty chilly and rained while we were here, but that didn’t put a damper on our walk around the town. We had a bit of free time after the tour to walk about, try our hand at haggling for goods, and enjoy a few down minutes.  I bought a cozy little robe and a few blankets (thanks, Mom (she’s visiting this weekend) for bringing them back for me!). We went on a crazy run through the city when my friend decided to buy a blanket, but didn’t have the cash on her. The shop owner agreed to have his nephew bring us to an ATM in the town center for her to withdraw cash and pay for it. Boy, was he booking it on the slippery slopes. We were higher up in the town, and had to run after him, and my friend was able to buy her blanket!

Henna for fun! Why not?

Chefchouen is situation in beautiful, rugged mountains

We popped in and saw what people were up to at the public oven!

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•  Tetuan-After taking the bus back, we had a yummy dinner, and there was a neat musical performance!

Day III-Sunday

• Tetuan- On our last day in Morocco, we toured Tetuan. We went to a market and had some free time to haggle for goods, including beautiful leather products.  The spice market was neat to go to, and I stocked up on yummy Moroccan mint tea and curry for when my friends and I can cook together next year! After the spice market tour, we headed back to the bus to go home. We passed through Ceuta, took a ferry to Algeciras, and from there we said our goodbyes and hopped on the buses which would take us back to our respective home cities.

Our last morning in M'Diq.

 It was stormy the entire weekend, but never too bad.

The spice market in Tetuan

The square is empty after a rain shower struck.

We arrived just as the rain paused.

The long story, made short is I met some wonderful people on the trip and made friends, saw some incredible places, and had a blast.

This is my new puppy friend from the beach in Morocco!

*I'm having some issues with my photo program, and at this time cannot upload the rest of my  photos from Morocco and Gibraltar. I'm flying out to Italy in the morning sans laptop, so I'll try to fix the program and get them posted when I return in a week! Ciao for now!

A Long Overdue Update about Sevilla

Greetings from SEVILLA, SPAIN!!!!!!!! I know, it’s been a while since I’ve arrived here and the last time I posted here. It’s been almost a month, actually… sorry about that! Things have been more than a little nuts here. I really like it here in Sevilla, and have had no problems with the lovely warm weather here (sorry to those back at home on the east coast…)! I could go on, but I’m going to get started with the tale of what’s been going on in the last month of my life, so, without further ado…

-Madrid: Jan 21^st-25^th: Enjoyed my time in the city. You can read about it here and here!

-Toledo: Jan 26^th-27^th: It was nice to return to the city, but I honestly enjoyed my first visit there far more.  Everyone was exhausted and we had very little time there. It’s a city filled with twisty, windy streets and isn’t the easiest to navigate. We went on a walking tour and saw some cool sites, including a church which contained some of El Greco’s work (I’m a huge fan of his).  We spent one night here before continuing on to…

-Córdoba: Jan 27^th: Coming from Córdoba, we stopped in Córdoba for a few hours on our way to Sevilla. On my last trip to Spain, I went here. I got to return to the Mezquita, which I don’t think I could ever get tired of wandering around. It was originally a mosque, which then was turned into a Christian church, then it went back and forth between the two and is used as a church today. The Christians built the church right in the middle of the mosque, so much of the mosque still stands. It’s a fascinating mix of two religions and cultures. We had lunch at an awesome place on the river called Regadera, before hitting the road again and arriving in…

La Mezquita

The oranges are all queued up!

The courtyard at La Mezquita

La Mezquita

-Sevilla: Jan 27^th: It was late, I was tired, and my roommate and I went to our homestay.

A view of Sevilla from the Giralda

Now that you’re all caught up… I’ll write about things in categories, so that I don’t go off on too many tangents.

The Homestay Situation

This was the source of much of my stress in the first week or so in Sevilla. I won’t go into all the details, but where I was placed was causing many health related problems for me.  I waited out the weekend before contacting API (hoping it would improve) and changing homestays. I now live with an absolutely lovely and sweet woman, her mom, brother, and two other girls studying here with API.  Everyone was very welcoming when I switched to my new homestay, and I am very happy with where I am now, and far healthier (other than the very nasty head cold/asthma combo I had from Feb. 9^th or so until now, which contributed to me missing a trip to Prague). 

Classes

My classes have thus far gone well. All of them are taught in Spanish with other American students. My schedule is as follows:

-Monday/Wednesday

            -Contemporary Hispanic-American Poetry (9-11am)

            -Cultural Gastronomy of Spain (11am-1pm)

            -Spanish Literary Myths (1-3pm)

-Tuesday/Thursday

            -Contemporary Spanish Cinema (9-11am)

            -Spanish Grammar (11am-1pm)

The poetry class I’m taking is definitely the most challenging course, though very interesting. I have two professors, and we cover different material according to who is teaching the class. On Mondays, we have been studying Vincente Huidobro’s poem Altazor, and on Wednesdays we have been studying Girondo’s Veinte poemas para ser leidos en un tranvía (Twenty poems to be read on a cable car). Studying completely different material each day is a bit confusing, but both profs are great and I’m enjoying the subject matter. 

I also am really loving my gastronomy class. I love food, food science, learning about food, and eating food. On Wednesday, we are actually cooking, so I’ll report back soon on how that goes! (Edit: It was fantastic! I don't have pictures because we were all too hungry to wait, and there are no phones in class. We made pisto (a mixture of peppers, onions, pumpkin, and other yummy things), spinach with garbanzo beans, garlic, break, and fried quail eggs, and torrijas (kinda like the Spanish version of french toast. It was suuuuuuuper yummy!))We’ve talked about the three main cultures of Andalucía, their food, olive oil, Iberian ham, and more.  Again, I have a fantastic prof teaching the class—she’s very lively and makes class interesting! 

I am, for the most part, enjoying my other classrooms.  I’m not someone who watches movies frequently, so this class has certainly contributed to my knowledge of cinematic works/technical terms, as well as more of the culture of Spain.  We are about to watch La lengua de las mariposas (The Language of the Butterflies), which I watched in Hispanic culture and film class during high school, and I’m looking forward to watching it again with a bit more understanding and better Spanish skills. I also appreciate the knowledge I’m gaining through my Lit. Myths class. We are reading/discussing figures such as Celestina, Don Quijote, Lazarillo, Don Juan, and Carmen La Cigarrella (and possibly another figure, but I can’t recall at the moment)—myths which have influenced literary works since their publication.  I am happy with my classes, though I’m sorely missing studying Latin and Greek.

Exploring Sevilla

The first few days in Sevilla are a blur. I was still pretty tired from all the travel, though I had adjusted to the time difference. API took us on tours of the Cathedral, Giralda, and Alcazár in the city. We also went on a kick ass bike tour. It felt so good to get out and bike around the Centro and along the river. I’ve thus gone on to take advantage of the company called Sevici (the words Sevilla and bici, short for bicicleta, meaning bike, mixed together) here. I rent a bike for a week at a time, and I simply go to a Sevici station, sign out a bike, and return it at any other station in the city.  I bike to class in the morning, and pretty much anywhere I go, like to the movie I'm seeing tonight with API!

On the note of going to class, I have to bike through the Maria Luisa Park every morning, past the Plaza de España (you might know this place from one of the Star Wars movies. They filmed some scenes there!). I’ve gone back to bike and walk around the park, and there are so many beautiful little spots tucked away. There’s the Plaza itself, a little tower with a waterfall cascading down one side, and a duck/pigeon pond with bright flowers. There are gorgeous places to sit. One day, I’m going to take my camera to the park and snap away. The park is also home to a few museums, one of which is an archaeological museum. I’ll be heading there soon!

During the tour with API I mentioned above, we went to the Cathedral, Giralda, and Alcazár. The Cathedral is a stunning work of architecture, and the Giralda yields lovely views of the surrounding city, but my favorite place by far was the Alcazár. For those Game of Thrones fans out there, the Alcazár may be better known to you as the Water Gardens of Dorne.  I really can’t describe how grand and absolutely beautiful the palace is, so I’ll leave photos for you to look at. I just do not have the power to describe it properly and do it justice with my words alone…

The Water Gardens of Dorne, or the Alcazár

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The river Guadalquivir and the steps where I like to read and watch the sunset

As I said, I like to bike everywhere I go here, including down to the Guadalquivir, the river which runs through Sevilla. There are some steps by part of the river, which I like to sit on and read while I watch the sun set. I’ve watched some stunning sunsets doing this.  I see many people out on the river rowing and kayaking, and would like to rent a kayak and get out on the river sometime, too.  There are boat tours on the river, a massive ferris wheel situated on the river’s edge, and more which I want to do in the next few weeks.

I know there’s so much more to do in Sevilla, and I can’t wait to do it all! I’ve found some good eats and good sites, and am really enjoying my time here.  Again, I’m sorry about the delay in posting about my time here, and will be better about it in the future. I’m posting some photos here, but you can view even more photos in albums I’ve created on Facebook for my time in Madrid, on excursions with API, and in Sevilla (they’re accessible to the public!). Keep an eye out for future posts, and thank you for reading!

I’ll update with a Spanish translation soon, I just wanted to get this and a few other posts up as soon as I could!