PICTURE UPDATE: Trip to Carmona

Man, today is the best day! So good, in fact, that I'm going to take a break from its excellence to blog about it.

Reasons I am happy:
- It was supposed to rain today (as it has been for the past week) but instead it is sunny and beautiful. For once my socks will remain dry all day, the way God intended.

- I went to my favorite supermarket yesterday and spent like 20 euro on all KINDS of meat!!! Salami, ham, hamburger meat, sausage, the works. After living off of potatoes and bread for a month, I am going to feast like a king this weekend.

- All plans for a trip to Morocco next week have been finalized! I'll be staying in Tangiers for three days and two nights. Very, very excited. Here's hoping I don't get aggressive sales-pitched into buying a rug or camel or something.

- One of my main goals for the trip was to make a joke/pun entirely in Spanish. This week my friend Emme had a day where she had eaten a bocadillo (pronounced bo-cah-DEE-yo, means "sandwich") for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I said, "Wow, a day of sandwiches. I guess you could say you're having a BOCA-DIA!"

Mission accomplished. (Hey, I didn't say it had to be a good joke.)

- We just got back from a day trip to Carmona, a town about 30 minutes away from Sevilla. As you can see in the following pictures, it is AGGRESSIVELY CHARMING:














Your typical house in southern Spain. Still can't believe that people actually live in these adorable things. How do they stay so white?















Cute little produce shop, complete with cranky Spanish woman! She will not hesitate to use that cane on you, I promise.















We also went up into the wall that surrounds Carmona, where I took this aerial shot. If I didn't know better, I'd say they forgot to build roads when they were planning the city.




















Wow, what's this building? I love the pattern on the walls and the flags on the front. It's so ornate. Must be an important government building or something similar.

WHAT? IT'S THEIR PUBLIC LIBRARY!?!?!















Don't lie-- you recoiled in your chair with disgust when you saw this picture. This flat, boring affront to architecture is the public library near my house in Austin. (If you couldn't tell by the bold all-caps "library" on the front. Whenever I drive past it I imagine it screaming "THIS IS A LIBRARY!!!") It's so unattractive that it has sucked the color out of the sky.

That's it, I'm never coming back to the States.















More adorable flamenco dresses I'll never be able to afford. It's all good though, I'm pretty sure I've got a little too much junk in the trunk to fit into one.















We also went to the Necropolis (ancient Roman cemetery) in Carmona. The graves there are about 2000 years old. Very cool, and less creepy than I expected since the remains have all been removed.















Our whole group (ten points if you can figure out which is me). In retrospect, it is a bit weird to be hanging out in some Roman dude's grave, but whatever.

Well, that's about it! I'd like to dedicate my first (and probably last) timely blog update to the following awesome ladies: Aunt Jeannie, Patsy Martin, and Amy Salazar. Now I'm off to go shopping all afternoon, followed by a tapas crawl.

God, my life is tough.

What time is it? PICTURE TIME!

Ok, time for another update! Sorry for the delay, but I run on Spanish time now, where "tomorrow" means "in a week" and "soon" means "in a few hours". (Tip: never trust your senora when she says dinner will be soon.) Much has happened since my last post, including:

Classes started! I have two classes with the program I'm on and two at the Universidad de Sevilla, all conducted entirely in Spanish. So far I like them a lot, my professors are pretty cool, and it's very convenient to have class only Monday-Thursday.















The University opened in 1505. Before that, this building housed a tobacco factory. (Know the opera Carmen? Well, this is where she worked. Mind blown?)

I successfully obtained a library card for the public library near my apartment. Since my reading comprehension in Spanish is on par with a seven-year-old, I've been scouring the children's section. Right now I'm about 200 pages into "Harry Potter y la Orden del Fenix", which is helping me learn all sorts of vocabulary that I'll never need to use again (magic wand, goblin, etc).

This place rules. I hang out here a lot, using their free wi-fi and looking through the DVD section.

I discovered that flamenco dresses are absurdly, ridiculously expensive. I was flabbergasted that someone would spend 100 Euro on one, but my Spanish friend told me that hers cost over 700. I will do the calculation for you: that translates to $960.26. For that price, the dress had better clean my apartment and cook for me.















Hanging out in the sea of ruffles. The dresses are so preposterous and over the top that you can't help but love them.

Yesterday I decided to take a different route home from the study center ("I totally know my way around by now, this is a great idea!") and returned home an hour later, exhausted and wondering how on earth I made it so far north. Sevilla, you are a godforsaken labyrinth of a city.




















Street signs don't exist-- the name of the street will be posted on a building. Charming as it may be, it's very inconvenient because you can only see it from one angle. Also, the streets change names about every block.

Visited even more museums, including the Flamenco Museum and the Bullfighting Museum.




















The "Plaza de Toros" (bullfighting arena) in Seville, built in 1730. If it's not prohibitively expensive, I am definitely going to go to a bullfight here.

And here are some assorted pictures:



















Streets in Sevilla are so dang charming I can't even deal with it. Look at all the little balconies!
















With a friend outside the Plaza de Espana, a massive tribute to Spanish unity built in 1929. It's way more impressive in person.















The river Guadalquivir, which runs through Sevilla, and the Torre del Oro.

Want more pictures of Spain? There are more posted on my Facebook page. Plus I have about 200 more that aren't up yet--- I think I'll put them all in one massive Photobucket account or something.

Uhh... achievements?

Ok, real talk: the door of my apartment in Spain has one useless knob smack-dab in the middle of it (hobbit-style… what up, where my Frodos at). I usually have a lot of trouble with its newfangled design, because where I'm from knobs were meant to be turned. However, after three weeks of living here, I can finally open the door on the first try! Ultimate success!

Now that I think about it, this week has actually been a week of great successes---

- Due to my class on Spanish history, I can now name every single Spanish monarch IN ORDER after the mid-1450s. Including the boring ones (most) and the racist ones (all). Hint: if you guess Felipe or Carlos for any king, you are probably right.

- Last night, I stayed up later than my host mother for the first time since I’ve been here. No, I was not out partying in the streets, I was in my bed watching Conan O’Brien clips on YouTube until 2:00 a.m. IT COUNTS SHUT UP

- I went to the supermarket by myself and successfully purchased all kinds of unhealthy snacks (chocolate, chips, nuts, etc). I’ll be damned if studying abroad in Europe is going to make me lose my hard-earned U.S. weight!

- Finally got around to trying those ham-flavored potato chips. I was all “haha look at those CA-RAZY Spanish chips they are going to be super gross” but I am eating them as I’m typing this and oh my god this will be the #1 thing I miss. God bless you, ham chips!

Also pictures coming tomorrow...