Sevilla, Cadiz, and Ronda!

First and foremost, I AM SO HAPPY THE GIANTS WON! :) :) :) :) This is the clip that keeps running through my head:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki-w4KYpnuw

I returned home from my first trip in one piece! Barely.  I think I may have gained 20 pounds, and I am also running on very very little sleep.  I don't think I have slept more than 7 solid hours since I've been here, but that seems to be the norm in Spain.  I am awful at napping, so I don't take that much advantage of siestas unless I am too tired to walk (has only happened once).

I don't even know what to say about the trip.  I had fun, definitely, but it was also completely exhausting! The first day, we went to Seville.  I absolutely LOVED it, and I wish we had more time there to explore.  The city was much bigger than Granada, and definitely more crowded, but it was also so so beautiful.  I actually think it might be prettier than Granada, which is saying something.  We toured the famous cathedral there, which was cool, but we toured the Cathedral in Granada the day before so I was kind of bored.  They all look the same to me, as ignorant as that sounds.  At least I can say I went, though!  My favorite part of Seville was definitely El Parque de Espana, which is a giant park with fountains, trees, and flowers everywhere.  It was freezing and winter-y the day we went, so I'm sure it would be even prettier in the summertime.  I don't know what I'll fully remember about Seville in the future, but I will definitely remember Lynn trying to open a bottle of wine by covering it with a towel and hitting it against the wall.  We gave up once the person next door starting banging on the wall in an attempt to shut us up.  I haven't laughed that hard in a long time.

The next day we went to Cadiz, which I had heard great things about.  Unfortunately, I felt the city was kind of a letdown.  It was absolutely FREEZING when we went, with a lot of wind and general cold-ness.  A lot of the stores were cold for the Spanish-equivalent of winter, so we could not manage to find a decent restaurant for dinner. We ended up at a Domino's type place, where we got weird looking pizza. I got a salad (yes, Mom, really!) because I couldn't manage to put any more junk into my stomach at that point.  Being in Cadiz felt like being in Cape Cod in the winter.  It was desolate and didn't seem to have much character.  But that's just my opinion. I'm sure other people loved it.  It just wasn't for me.  Also we went to.......another cathedral! I know, I know, I should be grateful that I even get to go to these places.  I am grateful, but I would also be okay with never seeing another cathedral in my life.

I guess here I will talk about the food.  IT WAS AMAZING. The entire group probably gained 10 pounds per person.  My new favorite food is definitely paella, which is rice, with some kind of sauce, and seafood mixed in.  It tasted so good and I could've eaten it all if I wasn't so stuffed (all the restaurants here give massive appetizers in addition to the main meal and dessert!).

Paella! Mmmm

The other amazing meal we had was supposed to be sandwiches. Or so we thought.  To our surprise, though, we were given these giant skewer-type things with a plate on the bottom.  It was a giant kebab of chicken and vegetables hanging above the plate!

What a weird yet delicious meal

We were all so exhausted by Sunday, but still had one more place to go: Ronda! I did not even want to go, to be honest. I just wanted to take the bus to Granada.  But luckily Ronda was amazing.  As we were driving, we went through the gorgeous Spanish countryside.  It looked like Ireland (not that I've ever been there...).  Ronda was perched on top of a hill overlooking the countryside, and the view was unbelievable.

Yay for pretty places!

One of the best parts of the trip was when we found a UConn Huskies themed bar in Ronda! A UConn student studied in Spain many years ago and decided to move to Ronda and he opened up a bar.  To my surprise and happiness, the bar also had Yankees photographs everywhere!! It was great. Unfortunately, though, it made me miss everybody at home! This weekend was difficult because my soccer team had a party Friday, Saturday was Barstool (which mostly all my friends went to) and Sunday was the Superbowl. Even though I have my own amazing pictures from the weekend, seeing pictures of all my friends together made me sad. I'm glad all of you are having fun though! I wish I had watched the Superbowl, too. Unfortunately I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep the night before and accidentally fell asleep. Waaaah :(

So anyways, that concludes my first trip out of Granada.  It was fun. I liked most of it. Yay!

I have a few complaints, though.  Sorry for being all complain-y and blunt, but I feel as though the UConn program definitely has flaws.  For example...
1.  I am afraid I'm not speaking enough Spanish.  Outside of class, we all talk in English, which is our own fault, but it's because we don't feel confident enough to speak Spanish among natives/each other.  I wish there was something to make us speak in Spanish more.
2. Along those lines, every other school here took a language intensive class starting at the beginning of January.  I think we could have DEFINITELY benefitted from that. I know money is an issue, but this is important.  UConn placed all of us in the same classes, even though there are very different levels of Spanish.  We should be split up more based on our knowledge of Spanish.
3. I wish we met more people from other schools. I really love meeting people and I feel slightly confined here. Not that I don't like the UConn group, but meeting different people would be fun too.

There are other things, but I'd rather keep those to myself.  As a whole, I'm glad I went with UConn, but obviously there are always going to be small flaws with any program.

On another note, my Senora had a coughing attack during lunch today and I got really nervous. I thought she was choking. She coughs constantly and it's...gross. I often think she might keel over. She hasn't yet, but today was close.  Also, on an uncomfortable note, I found out that she loves Francisco Franco.  For those of you who don't know, Franco was a (brutal) dictator of Spain until his death in the 1970s, often described as a terrorist and murderer.  He was also tied closely with the Catholic Church, which is why so many Spanish today consider themselves Catholic but do not practice their religion.  My Senora, however, is seemingly in denial about the atrocities committed by Franco.  The other day on the news, there was a story about people who had been tortured by Franco.  Only recently were these people allowed to tell their story.  Instead of watching this report, my Senora yelled at the TV and changed the channel.  She is entitled to her opinions, but her ignorance frustrates me.  Again, she regularly forgets the name of her own president.  That would be like me forgetting Barack Obama's name.  She also claims to know nothing about politics and seemingly doesn't know too much about her country's culture (she never knows the answer when I ask her questions).  Frustrating is the only word I can come up with to describe how I feel about this.

Anywho, on a lighter topic, tomorrow I am meeting with my language partner! His name is Jose, and he is a student in Granada who is interested in learning English.  We are meeting at school to talk and help each other learn each other's languages! I'm excited for this.

I am hopefully playing pick up soccer later, if I can find the place my director told me about. Let's hope!

For now, adios!

Lauren