Tavira, Portugal!

30/05/2010

El domingo 30 de mayo alquilamos un carro y manejamos a PORTUGAL! Ana F. que gracias a su padre y querido honda civic (rest in peace) sabe manejar de cambio y fuimos las dos con tres otras amigas del grupo a Tavira. Fue como dos horas en coche para llegar y cuando llegamos tuvimos que montarnos en un barcesito que nos llevo a La Ilha (la isla). Hubo vistas estupendos y lo pasamos muy bien. Lo mejor de todo... ni una gaviota! Las fotos dicen lo de más...

Segunda Semana en Sevilla!

Hi Everyone!

Our second week in Spain has come to end :( but it was a lot of fun of course. The week went by really really fast!

We had our first full week of classes... our three hour film class is pretty hard, especially to stay awake in!

Esta semana hicimos un paseo en bici (bicicleta). Ana RC aprendió como montar bici!!!! Todos estamos muy orgullosos de ella por que lo hizo tan bien. Solo tuvo que practicar un poco antes y después las dos Anas se quedaron atrás del resto del grupo para que Ana no choque con nadie.




También salimos con los amigos y pasamos mucho tiempo con la familia.

The best part about this week was the greatest discovery we have ever made and its called "RAYAS." It is probably the best ice cream place we have ever been to. We are obsessed!!! We even got it for our Señora's son this week after he got his wisdom teeth taken out (it worked out because we wanted some too ahahah!)

El Sábado fuimos en nuestra segunda excursión a Cordoba. Visitamos a la Mezquita que se convirtió en Catedral durante el reino de Isabel y Fernando que hizo que el catolicismo fuera la única religión. Our tour guide was ... interesting. She liked to wave around her abanico to get the group to follow her. También visitamos el Alcázar que tenía jardines increíbles! Nos tomamos muchas fotos. Al final de la visita tuvimos tiempo libre para explorar y da la causalidad que visitamos a Córdoba a finales de su feria. Por lo tanto, fuimos a ver una feria española autentica. Vimos muchas muchachas vestidas en el flamenco. Habían muchas "casitas" donde podías entrar y comer y beber. Lo pasamos muy chulo y era muy guay (very cool).






Tenemos planes de ir a Portugal el domingo por el día con unas amigas... veremos si lo hacemos :)

Cádiz... Sonría

5/22/10 - 5/23/10

On Saturday we went on our first excursion with the program. After very little sleep the night before we had to wake up at 7 a.m. to catch a bus to Jerez. Es una cuidad conocida por su vinos, especialmente el jerez (cherry). Vimos una demostración ecuestre fabuloso! El caballo supo bailar la sevillana! Vale. Después nos llevaron alrededor de la bodega Williamson and Humbert (o Las Medinas). Nos enseñaron como se fermentan los diferentes tipos de vinos y nos dieron algunos para probar. Se que nuestros padres están muy celosos :)





Nos fuimos de Jerez y el bus nos llevo a Cádiz, una cuidad playera... "Sol y Playa." Subimos una torre de la catedral para ver unas vistas espectaculares. Dicen que una parte de la cuidad luce mucho como La Habana, Cuba, se puede ver en las fotos que tomamos. Era impresionante y maravilloso. Pasmos el resto del día en la playa aunque hubo mucho elevante (viento). El agua estaba super super fría pero todavía nos metimos un poco. La pasamos muy bien y regresamos bien cansadas.






On Sunday we decided to go to mass at THE Cathedral in Sevilla... the third largest in the world! It was pretty awesome even without music. The archbishop gave the mass and according to Sevillanos it ran a little long at 45 minutes. After we went to Ana RC's family friend's for almuerzo. Marita was very nice and went met her whole family and a few friends, there were 14 of us in total! The best part was they showed us how they make paella! The Anas were very nervous about trying the paella marinero (full of different sea creatures... ahhh!) Good news... WE LIKED IT! I think that is the farthest we will be going with sea food in Spain. Later that night our family served caracoles... "bichos que tienes que chupar..." enough said.




Well it was a great week... on to a new week...

Las Anas

Culture Class Assignment

Tuvimos que entrevistar a algunos españoles en las calles de Sevilla sobre los tópicos de España y los problemas sociales. Los vídeos están en youtube!

Beinvenidas a Sevilla!

5/17 - 5/21


It´s Friday! The Anas first week in Sevilla has been amazing and full of activities. We arrived on Sunday evening and met our host family, Familia Pedros-Belanga. Our mom´s name is Maripaz but she likes for us to call her Pacita. Her husband´s name is Jesus Manuel and they have three kids: Chus, Reyes, y Jesus Manuel Jr. They are great!!! Cocinan estupendamente (Pacita loves using that word). We have had dishes like tortilla española, gaspacho, all kinds of verduras, and tonight we are having fish and they want us to eat caracoles... ahhh! We are nervous but we are trying EVERYTHING! They serve bread with every meal... we haven´t eaten so much bread in our whole lives... not so good for digestion =/

We have a really great group of friends and we have done a lot of fun things this week. Here are a few of the things we did...

1. Tour of Sevilla: we went around Sevilla on Monday and saw La Giralda - an ancient arab tower, part of a fort, La Catedral - the third largest one in the world!! It even had 50 individual chapels inside, was the burial place of Cristobal Colon, and you could, technically, fit Notre Dame inside it. We hope to attend a Sunday mass there one of these days. We also saw a very beautiful palace, with the most beautiful gardens... El Alcazar. We will be spending lots of time there studying.






2. First day of school: We had our first classes on Tuesday, starting with cultura española contemporánea in the morning, then we walk back home for almuerzo with our family and possible siesta, then back to school in the afternoon for our Latin American Film class. We walk A LOT! It is especially brutal walking back to school in the afternoon, the hottest time of the day. It's a good thing we both brought so many wipes with us.




3. On Wednesday one of Sevilla's fútbol teams played for the championship against Madrid's Atletico. WE WON! Salimos con unos españoles a ver el partido y después fuimos a la puerta de jerez en el centro de la cuidad para celebrar. Fue una experiencia muy divertida.
(photos and videos to come...)

4. On Thursday we did piragüismo (kayaking) in El Río. Our guide was Santi and he took a bunch of pictures and video of the group. It was a lot of fun. The Anas kayaked in a double and after a little circling and splashing we got really good at it... Here is a link to the pictures and video.

www.facebook.com/#!/album.php?aid=24258&id=112954242051729&ref=mf



5. On Friday we took a dance class and learned how to dance Sevillana. It is really difficult to learn but it was still very fun.

On Saturday we are going to the bodega in Jerez for a wine tasting and then to the beach in Cádiz! So exciting...

-Las Anas (as we are known here)

TOLEDO!!!

5/15/10

Las fotos servirán como la entrada este día...

It's cold in May!?!?!

5/14/10

We have finally started adapting to the time change and made it to breakfast, we haven't however gotten used to, nor are we are we prepared for, the freezing, windy, rainy, unlikely weather that has hit us this weekend. We have managed to wear all of the two sweaters we have brought and had to use Ana F's mom's brilliant Tide in the sink packets to wash them.

Today we headed toward Toledo but stopped at El Escorial, an amazing summer palace built by Felipe II. Ana RC jumped on the bus first and managed to get us the best seats, where Ana RC was able to RICE her broken toe. Before we reached El Escorial we saw el Valle de los Caidos... a monument commemorating the fallen soldiers. Once there, we took a tour lead by Fernando Fernandez (no joke, that was his name). He was a great tour guide and through his humor made everything really interesting. We now know that even though Felipe II was only four and half feet tall he was able to have 4 wives, a real-life Don Juan. Felipe II built this palace as a vacation home and told the architects that he wanted "un palacio para Dios y una choza para mi." For this reason, the basilica that was built was very ornate and amazing and his palace was much more humble. We also got to visit the second most important library for the Catholic church. The tour on a high note in the royal crypt. Awesome. We learned about el cuarto de los podridos... this means exactly what it says, rotting bodies of royalty waiting to buried... gross!

On to Toledo... Olé! We checked in and immediately took a bus to el centro where we explore the historic city on our own for a while and had probably the best dinner yet! We ate family style like how we do back at home (Thanks Norm!) so we got to try a little bit everything. We ate it too fast to take pictures... sorry Mimi! Amazing nonetheless.

Finally time for bed and as the Anas look forward to a good night's rest... ACHOO!! ACHOO... ACHOO.......... ACHOO!! and ACHOO! No not us, these hotel walls are really thin. Vale.

Until next time... Anas