oops...now you really hate me....

I forgot to mention one other thing about Morocco...don't worry it will be quick. This is purely for my own memory conservation and for others if you care to be interested. :)

While we stayed in the desert oasis, we had seen the sunset from the top of the dune but the next morning we ALSO woke up super early to see the sunRISE! It was probably the most beautiful sight I have ever seen and I forgot to mention it before! Anyways, we woke up around 5:30 to see the sunrise. It was very cold, especially walking in sandals up the dune. I only went about halfway up this time but it was as good as ever. It was so incredibly beautiful to see the sun peak out over all the dunes below us. This time I sat by myself and did a lot of reflecting about myself and how this whole experience abroad has been for me. While looking at something so beautiful like that its hard not to think about your life and where it goes from here. I have been feeling so many mixed thoughts about what I want to do next with my life. I know right....you are STILL in Spain, and you are finishing up a whole semester there, why need to start planning for something else...just chill out right? Right! I am so ready to be home and see my family, friends, teammates, and the Twin Cities which I miss so much too. However after being here for so long, I can't imagine just settling right back into my old routine again so easily (hence the escence of re-entry culture shock, but still). I feel the need for more adventure! But maybe my next adventure IS figuring what to do with my life. Lord knows that no one, especially at my age, is supposed to know where their life is going or what they will end up doing and there is adventure in that. You know, I don't feel rushed to be thinking of these things and my future (long term) quite yet, but I do know I need to be aware of myself and what I need to do to find my way through this life. OKay...just word vomit there, sorry! :) I will add some pics here from Morocco for people without facebook to see the highlights of the trip!

Muévelo en Marruecos

Sal´am (Hello in Arabic)

Wow! Very late on my bloggin again...Sorry! Had 3 6-page papers due the Monday after getting back from Morocco so any writing done was for that. SO here is Morocco! ohhhh....Morocco! It was really amazing! Prepare yourselves for a long blog....Here it goes...

We spent TONS of time in the bus, but without being able to fly, or train it, its the only option. We left last Friday morning at 5am from Sevilla after my school had a fiesta to say goodbye to another group of students so lets just say I only got 1.5 hours of sleep that night! We took off at 5am via bus and before even leaving the city the suspension broke. We were sent a new bus and, although late, we started our drive to the southernmost point of Spain - Tarifa - which is also the port to depart via ferry to Africa. We took a ferry over the Strait of Gibraltar to Tangiers, which is the main entry port into Morocco. Finally I got my passport stamped with something! When we arrived in Tangiers we met Amina who would be our Moroccan tour guide the whole time we were there. She could tell us more about the culture, customs, and history than the other guides.

We drive from Tangiers the entire morning and stop to get our first meal in Rabat for lunch. The restaurante was on the beach so it had an amazing view and we got to play in the Atlantic which was pretty cold! The food was AMAZING! The food the entire trip was amazing! This first meal was Moroccan salad which was red and green peppers and various spices with olives, then the main coures was chicken pastilla - one of the best things I have ever had! It is spiced chicken (wish I remember the spice) that was very tender and put inside a thin pastry and toasted so it was like a little package of chicken and topped off with cinnamon and sugar on top. Who would have thought that all those different spices would go well together?! After lunch we got a tour of the Kaspah - yes, and we rocked it too ;) - which is similar to a Medina but purely residential. A medina is a comercial area that is only made up of small alleyways that have no names or organized manner of finding your way around. So the Kaspah was similar with all the walls and doors painted a beautiful contrast of white and bright blue! They painted it that way because they believe it keeps away the mosquitoes! :) It was very cute and we ended the tour at a beautiful lookout of the beaches. While we were up on the lookout, we heard the Muslim call to prayer from various mosques in the city! It was so cool and the first time I really felt like I had entered into a very different culture and world. Next, we got a tour of the mausoleum which holds the tombs of the previous three kings of Morocco which is a grandfather, father, and son. After these tours we left Rabat and continued on to Fez where we just got a dinner there and spent the night.

We woke up the next morning and drove ALL DAY LONG towards the desert. We made various stops which included seeing and taking pictures of monkeys in the mountains! very cute! Though the drive was long, the views from the bus were great! It was interesting watch the terrain change as we got closer to the desert. It started at green fields with wildflower, farms, and countryside with many trees, then changed as we drove through the Middle Atlas mountains with a lot of fog and trees and green! Eventually it changed to the desert and became very rocky with amazing mountains, canyons with a blue river running through it and lush green palm trees growing there in the middle of the rocky desert! crazy!

We leave our bus at a hotel and meet our desert tour guides - the Berbers! Now this is where the best part of the entire trip starts....They were a wonderful, fun group of guys! We all hop into a bunch of jeeps and drive from that hotel to our desert hotel in Merzouga. We have to drive over a river that flooded over the road, then we hit the open expanse of the desert and its a race! all the jeeps scatter and zoom across this open plane going over big mounds, careening left and right, racing each other! It was so much fun as we sat in these jeeps with African music playing and hitting our heads on the roof of the car! :) A great welcome to the culture of the desert! We arrive at tour beautiful hotel in Merzouga, eat a huge buffet dinner with all the cous cous, meats, salads, and grilled vegetables you could eat! mmmmm....loved the food! After dinner the Berbers threw a little fiesta where they played us their music with drums (the African kind that you hold between your knees) and games. The group of tour guides are actually a musical group as well so they were pretty good. We did some dancing and hanging out on cushions on the ground. It was a great time. The fiesta kinda died out as people went to bed, but a couple of the Berbers took us into the dunes to watch the stars from the sand! :) We all walked out there in the pitch dark and talked about wishes when we saw shooting stars. The stars were so beautiful and we could see the Milky Way perfectly! My roomate Caryn, my other friend Carolyn, and I ended up making friends with two of them named Ali and Cous-Cous....its a nickname he told us to call him. I am very amazed by all of the Berbers that we met. They all speak about 6-10 different languages but never went to school to learn them. They learn them all from the tourists that come to their villages and are the base of their income. Ali told me he spoke: Arabic, Berber, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Dutch, English, and a little Japanese! I felt so foolish when I said I "only" spoke two languages. Anyways, we talked for a long time. Ali suddenly asked us if we wanted to see a secret lake "para escuchar a la musica de los pajaros"...."to listen to the music of the birds". I was a little nervous at first to accept his offer but realized that when I am going to be able to see a secret desert lake in Africa with Berbers again in my life?? Right, NEVER. So off we all went, the five of us in Ali's Jeep! We zoomed through the night desert with the African music blaring from the car and the wind coming in through the windows. It was so much fun! We bounced around and dancing in the back seat! Ali even pulled out a "ghost riding" attempt by himself haha. It was hilarious! We get to the lake and although we cannot see the lake very well we could hear the birds perfectly. It was so beautiful and the stars were even more beautiful being far away from the hotel lights. After a good hour we get back in the car and have an even more fun ride back to the hotel which included more music, dancing, screaming, and laughing! Below is a video of the ride back I captured! :) Enjoy!


Anyways, to keep this blog rolling. We get back to the hotel and hang out with a some more of the Berbers that were just hanging out and get to try on and pick turbans for the camel ride the next day. We get up, eat a big buffet breakfast (so amazing once again!) and go on a tour of the Berber community of Merzouga where we were. We saw how they farm, how they get water, the community bread oven, and the rug shop of handmade Berber rugs. I got suckered into bartering with a man about a small rug and somehow he suddenly said, "okay" to a price and I never even realized that I for sure wanted the rug! ha well, the good thing is, is that the starting price was 150 euro and I got it down to 30 euro! yeah! It felt like a great deal even though I don't think I need it, ha. There were many children that followed us around trying to sell us little necklaces or stone soap dishes. They make you feel so guilty since they rely on tourists for a lot of their income! Luckily I didn't give in but did make a friend out of it. I thought he just liked talking to me but ended up showing me his little goodies in his backpack 4 different times to see if I would buy any of it. Shoot, he really wasn't interested in being my friend afterall...although we did exchange email addresses ;)

The sun was too hot to go on the camels so we had to wait about 3 hours until it cooled down a bit before we took off into the dunes to stay at the oasis! While we waited some of us girls got some henna done on our arms to pass the time. We finally were able to get on the camels and start our trek through the dunes!! The camels were HUGE and...yes....though it didn't spit I did get sneezed on by my roommate's camel behind me...it was not pleasant! haha We had a 2 hour camel ride to the camp which really got your bum to be aching by the end of it. The dunes were so beautiful as we rode through them; the color of gold with bright blue clear sky! We all stayed in tents that were set up in a circle at the base of a huge dune. We immediately all started climbing up the dune to see the sunset from the top. It was tons of work and you barely moved as the sand gave way to your weight with every step. But it was completely worth it which one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. We could see Algeria in the distance as we were only 5 km away from it. I would have taken pictures but with all the sand and lots of wind at the top, it would have ruined my camera for sure. Although someone did take a picture of me and my friend that I will attach below. Hopefully you will get the idea of what it looked like :) We passed the time that night listening to more Berber music, the sound of the camels moaning, and ate a great dinner inside a large tent. :) I fell asleep not believing that it was real that I was in the African Sahara Desert.

The next morning we woke up and hopped right back on the camels to go back to the desert hotel from the night before. Trust me, the bum had not recovered from the ride the day before and it was pretty brutal to sit on a camel for another two hours straight! Getting back we showered and ate breakfast, packed our things up, hopped back in the Jeeps, and back to the hotel where we left our bus. We spent the afternoon by the pool and bar of this hotel! They really know what you crave after being the desert sand overnight...nice refreshing pool and drinks! :) I didn't think it was really needed but it sure was nice to relax and swim around after being so dirty and sandy. We ate the best lunch I had the entire trip at that hotel which was again a large buffet with an equal size dessert table! :) yay! We drive the rest of the day back to Fez and spend the night in the hotel we were at before.

Our second to last day we woke up and went to the Medina in Fez (remember how I described it before?)....it is an area in Fez that is enclosed with 14 doors of entry. It is made up of 9,500 tiny alleyways and streets. They are so small that cars cannot fit so they use donkeys as taxis to carry carts through the street! They shout something and everyone has to quickly flatten themselves against the walls to not get their toes trodden on! :) Oh Morocco! We spent the whole day in the Medina and I did WAY too much shopping and got carried away with the opportunity to barter the prices! We saw the largest tannery in Morocco for tanning leather, a rug store with some beautiful rugs, a Berber pharmacy with spices and herb remedies, a bronze and metal store, and so much more! Fez is known for its artisans so it was very tempting to buy many things that are handmade. I have some regrets on some things I bought but it is done now so I will enjoy them...plus I bought them in Morocco so how much could I regret them! ha We'll see when I have trouble finding a place for them in my house.

We left the Medina and spent the night relaxing in the hotel, which was one of the first times we didn't have something to do from our schedule or was on a bus. Phew! I slept a solid 9 hours that night..it was amazing! The next day was our last day and we droke all morning long until we arrived in Assilah, a beach town close to Tangiers. It was nice because we basically had free time for a good 3 hours to eat, explore the medina there, and relax on the beach. The medina in Assilah was a lot cleaner and brighter with wine and blue painted buildings and wider streets with less people. Much more pleasant than the dirty, crowded, and sometimes smelly medina in Fez. We finally finished our last stop there in Assilah and drove the rest of the way to Tangiers where we would catch the ferry to go back to Spain. Some interesting things that we were warned about was that if anyone asks us where we are going in our bus (says Sevilla, Spain on it) we are supposed to say we are going into the desert and not back to Spain. This is because people try to climb underneath the bus and hold on the whole way to catch a free,illegal ride into Spain. This didn't happen but they checked under the bus before we got off to make sure there was no one there! While we were driving in Tangiers though, we were warned of children jumping on the back of the bus and riding it! if we were somewhat stopped or going slowly, boys would run into traffic and ride on the back of the bus and look inside at us. It was hilarious! When we stopped they were crawl underneath the bus which made me heart jump when we started to move and they were still under there! Ha but we eventually got to the ferry and made it back to Sevilla around 1:30 in the morning as the streets were filled with people in beautiful flamenco dresses and suits from being at Feria which was going on all week long. :)


If you have actually read this entire blog KUDOS! I apologize it is so long but we packed so much into 6 days and it was all so fun that it is hard to cut things out. To finally wrap up this trip to Morocco, I had a great time and loved the food but the food definitely did not love me back. For the next few days after the trip, the drastic change in type of food from the healthy Moroccan to oily and fried Spanish food did not sit well. Bummer! I will save a blog about Feria for another day since this one is already too long.


Thanks for your interest in my travels and I hope you have enjoyed reading about it! :) I have not finished all my classes and am starting my last weekend in Sevilla soon.

Miss you all but will see you soon! Home on May 18th!

Love,
Betsy

Being Gushy

I have been procrastinating my homework since today is such a beautiful day! 73 degrees and sunny! perfect! I have two 8 page papers due at the end of the week and it has been so difficult to focus on any of it. So I guess you are wondering, well why are you writing a blog then? I guess I have more on my mind than the Muslim conquest of Spain...hmm.

With only 3 more weeks left of my time here, I cannot help but think about what I have done here, what I still have yet to see, how I have grown, and what I have learned (or what I will learn about myself when I come back). My friends and I can't help but reflect and reminisce about good times we have had and become a little sad thinking about it all being over so soon. This semester has just flown by, and thinking about how soon it is going to end really makes me sad. It is so bitter sweet. When I think about leaving, I get sad and wish I could live here forever; but then I talk to my family and friends at home and think about the coming summer and I can't wait to get home and see everyone. It is such a strange feeling. un sentido extrano. I feel like I am getting pulled in two different directions with my feelings and I can't figure out which one will eventually be stronger.

I have been taking mental snapshots instead of just ones with my camera, to be able to "practice" remembering the smells, sights, tastes, and sounds of this beautiful city. I am so glad that there are at least two people that I can show Sevilla to and I know to them it doesn't seem like much, probably just another vacation city on a trip. But to me, it has been home and I keep thinking that I will come back after summer vacation for fall semester, just like any other university in the US. But I am not. The city, culture, and language feels so comfortable to me now. I feel a part of it and it a part of me that I cannot change or will ever forget. I know that sounds so cheesy but I know I will really miss this place, miss the people, the gestures, the language, the food, the feeling of walking at a snails pace through the streets just to soak it up because you can and should. Why must we always be in a hurry? Already I can feel myself tear up when I think about leaving and saying good bye to this life and friends that has become so much a part of me. There is always a chance that I could come back on vacation, but this experience of studying here and creating a personal connection with the people will never leave me. I am not sure if I feel so strongly about Sevilla because I have lived here and it was the first time I have come to know a culture really well, or if I truly feel a special bond with it. I am sure its both and I don't think there is much of a difference between the two. They are both connected.

I am scared to go back to the US a little bit too. I am so excited to see my family and friends again but I am scared to get there and wish I was still here. I know it will be very hard and the re-entry of culture shock is supposed to be so much worse than the first entry into the country. I will definitely need help, not sure how or in which form, but I will need help and support. I dealt with re-entry culture shock when I went to the Texas/Mexico border and nearly flipped my life around due to the strength of it. It will just be surreal to think that I was in Spain when I wrote this blog, that I am in Spain right now. It feels so much like home that thinking about looking at it from the US will be surreal, as if I never left and this whole semester was just a dream. :)

Okay....Back to reality...I know I will be fine when I get back because it will be soooooooooo amazing to see everyone I have missed!!! Its just good to think about this kind of stuff and reflect about what I have done here.

Love you all, better get going on these two huge papers...argh!

Please send me notes and comments if you want! I miss getting them! can't wait to see most of you in MN and OH this summer! :)

Love, besos,

betsy

The Best Week Ever....Spring Break with Andy!

I have a sense that people are getting restless for a new blog update! sorry! It has been a busy last few weeks and not to mention I came back from spring break to find the internet broken! I don´t have too much time now but I will do my best to give as much information as I can.

Andy arrived in Sevilla on Thursday April 2nd. I met him at the train station in Sevilla and was very worried because he came on the train 3 hours later than I thought he would be arriving. It was so great to see eachother face to face (versus through skype) and start a great vacation together. Once we checked into our hostel, we went to my house to get my bags and he got to meet my host parents and my friend Joaquin that works at the kiosk across the street from my house! Joaquin thought he was really tall, strong, and good looking! haha It was weird to have to start translating everything for Andy because I am used to being around other people who also understand Spanish. I didn´t mind whatsoever but I always forgot that Andy wasn´t able to understand them. That night we went out for tapas for dinner....a necesity when arriving in Spain and afterwards I took him to a flamenco show at my favorite place called La Carboneria. He had real Spanish sangria for the first time there! The next morning we saw the Cathedral and climbed the Giralda tower to see all of Sevilla. I had a surprise for him that was originally planned for the day before but had to be moved since he arrived later than I thought to Sevilla. It was an appointment at the Arab Baths that included a 15 minute massage! It was so relaxing and the perfect way to start a vacation together! they had baths of different temperatures with salts in them and the whole place had aromatherapy and only source of light was candles scattered throughout the edges of the baths. How romantic no? We then bought ingredients to make bocadillos, ham flavored chips, and Kas soda and had a nice picnic in Maria Luisa Park! We went for a run and met up with my roommate and her visitors at a rooftop bar then had dinner at Cien Montaditos for cheap! phew!

Next morning we were a little rushed to make our bus to Granada but we made it there and how fun it was! Our hostel was in a central location (thank goodness!) and had a georgous view of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the distance. It wasn´t all that nice and the other people staying there were definitely characters that we had some discomfort dealing with. Since we arrived on Palm Sunday, that night we saw a lot of the Semana Santa processionals which was really cool to see. To explain the tradition: Holy Week is HUGE is Spain, and throughout the whole week each church has a float with sculptures on it that depict a different part of the Passion. The floats are carried by the brotherhood of the church it came from and I heard that each guy carried 250 pounds on his shoulders while carrying it. They carry it very slowly and to the beat of a band with drummers and other musical instruments. It really looks like a parade. There are people EVERYWHERE and its nearly impossible to cross streets when it is going on. There were vendors of baked potatoes on the streets with a whole line of toppings to add on your potato while watching the processionals. Aside from this aspect, we went to the Alhambra that night (it was not as crouded since we didn´t have a reservation). It was beautiful to see at night in comparison to seeing it by day when I went to Granada with my program. We also tried more middle eastern food such as shawarma and other gyro type food from the old Arab neighborhood. It was so good!!! The next day we watched the sunset at the Mirador de San Nicolas (St. Nicolas viewpoint). It was absolutely so gorgeous with a view of the whole Alhambra and the sierra nevada mountains in the background! The mirador had a lot of hippies selling homemade items and music to dance to. It was so fun! We spent a total of 3 days and 2 nights in Granada and caught an overnight but to Lisbon, Portugal. :)

The bus ride was pretty miserable but we both did our best to keep a positive attitude since, after all, we are in Europe, ha. We arrived in Lisbon at 6am with about 45 minutes of sleep total. When we arrived at our hostel, they didn't have a room ready for us until 2pm however they were nice enough to let us leave our luggage in a storage room and sleep on the common room couches for a few hours. After getting some more sleep, we met up with Joao at 9:30 for breakfast. Joao is a former riding student of my mom's from Lisbon who was an exchange student in MN for a year. He is in his second year of college now. It was fantastic to have such a great tour guide such as him! He drove us all over the whole city, telling us as much as he remembered from history classes about the monuments and such. We spent the whole morning with him until our room was ready at the hostel. It was great to have someone who spoke the language and offered his services for free! :) He was such a gentleman too! After getting some lunch and taking a well-deserved nap, the staff at the hostel recommended a tiny little restaurant for dinner. We arrived and were put in tiny little tables, all pushed together so that we were each sitting elbow to elbow with complete strangers. Really makes you realize the American perception of personal space! It took a while to figure out what the menu said and I ended up ordering something that had pig ear in it!! by accident of course! Luckily I just thought it was fat and didn't eat it but found out later from some Spanish women sitting next to us who told me what it was. yikes! fun experience though! Our whole meal was only 16 euro including a bottle of wine. Great deal for sure. The next day we met up with Joao again and he took us on a coastline tour where we saw all the little villages that are on the coast and saw some beautiful beaches! He left us in Cascais and spent the day there on the beach. We loved the beach so much that the next day we spent the entire afternoon there! In the morning of our last day in Lisbon we saw the huge open market and toured the Castle de Sao Jorge. We saw a 360 degree real-time view of all of Lisbon through a periscope that was originally invented by Da Vinci! It was the only one in Portugal at is at the castle in Lisbon. We spent the rest of the day at the beach in Cascais and had our share of icecream stops along the way. :) We spent two nights and three days in Lisbon also and took the night bus to Madrid after that. This bus ride was A LOT better and we were able to sleep pretty well.

We arrived in Madrid and because we were staying in a hotel instead of a hostel, they had a room ready for us! We took a nap and set out to explore the capital of Spain! We went to the Prado Museum first but since it was Good Friday is was closed, instead we opted for the Thyssen Museum which is across the street and though all the Prado traffic went there instead, it was still great to see again for me and Andy loved it. We then got some lunch and tried to go see the Royal Palace, which was also closed because of Good Friday! ha who would have thought! It was cold and rainy all day that day so we just went back to the hotel to rest before meeting up with my friend Cathy from St. Thomas who has been studying in Madrid for 8 months now! We met her cousin and her cousin's friends who none of them speak any English, only Spanish! We watched some Semana Santa processionals and had a beer with them. It was fun for me to finally speak Spanish again! Cathy, Andy, and I left them to have dinner at an AMAZING Mexican restaurant and get gelato at an Italian icecream place. We ended the night sharing a jug of Sangria and chatting for hours! It was such a fun time and great to see another friendly face! The next day we hit up the Prado Museum after standing in line for over an hour, had lunch at a place called El Museo del Jamon (the Museum of Ham) and had amazing bocadillos and fanta for lunch. We went for a run through Retiro Park, which is a HUGE beatiful park in the middle of Madrid with a lake and street performers everywhere. It was how I imagined Central Park in New York to be like. We ended our evening getting a romantic dinner at a restaurant to celebrate the end of our amazing vacation together and also our six year anniversary which is actually tomorrow! :) It was a sad goodbye the next morning at the Madrid airport where we departed but it is only about a month before I am coming home for good!
The trip was everything I thought it would be and fun for Andy and I to have our first real vacation together. We will always remember it and can't wait to for more to come in our futures!

My internet is finally working again which is why I have been able to catch up on this blog. This past week was a shock to be thrown back into school. Next week I have two 8 page papers due but leave for Morrocco on Friday! Can't wait for that! :) This weekend is my first weekend in Sevilla in about a month and a half! It feels good to not be traveling for once and stay put a little bit. Marathon training has been kind of struggling but I hope to be picking it up soon and getting some real long runs in this weekend! wish me luck!

Sorry all this info was just dumped in here so fast! I tried my best to update with everything since it really has been almost a month since I last updated! sorry!

Hope everyone is well and I should be updating more now that my internet is working again.

oh yeah!! My dad is coming for sure to visit me now! : ) He will be coming the last few days of my program and going to Barcelona together! Its so fun to get visitors!

Okay, gonna go do a long run now! Thanks for your patience!

love you all,
besos,

Betsy

Un Paseo por Madrid

This past weekend I went to Madrid with my Art History class to see 3 famous museums there: El Museo del Prado, El Museo de la Reina Sofia, and El Museo Thyssen. The trip was organized for Saturday and Sunday, so a friend and I changed our train ticket to Madrid to arrive on Friday so we could have an extra day of traveling. We had planned on going to Avila and Segovia which are two smaller towns outside of Madrid. After finding our hostel and taking the metro to the bus station, we came into a little bit of a time crunch. I won't go into too many details but in the end we felt forced and pressured to pay 8 times as much as we planned for a ticket (one way) to Salamanca, not Avila or Segovia. Ha! We walked away, not really realizing what had just happened, and found out only shortly after than Salamanca y about two hours further away than Avila. We weren't able to exchange or cancel our tickets soo....off to Salamanca we went! It was an adventure and we definitely made the most of it since we "accidentally" paid way more than we thought for the tickets, it was the only way to keep a positive attitude about it! It ended up being a good trip, we saw some buildings we had been studying in our class and had coffee and churros in a small cafeteria. So! Back to Madrid we go!

Saturday we met up with the rest of the group at a great hotel across the street from both the Prado and the Reina Sofia. We saw those both on Saturday and it was pretty incredible. We saw so many that we had been studying and to see them up close was surreal. El Prado had many works by Velazquez, Goya, El Greco, Juan de Ribera, Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Rubens (The 3 Graces!), Brughel, and thousands more! El Reina Sofia has Guernica by Picasso, which was incredible to see in person since I have studied it before. They also had a large surrealism floor but it was sadly closed to reorganize the gallery :(. I hope to go back in a few weeks to see their huge collection of Dali paintings with Andy. That night I was able to meet up with my friend from St. Thomas, Cathy, who has been studying in Madrid since August. It was great to catch up with her and see another friendly face in such a big city!

Sunday we walked through the city and saw the Palacio Real where all the Kings of Spain lived and Plaza Mayor which had a stamp collecting fair going on :). Sunday afternoon we saw the Thyssen museum which was my favorite of them all. It is a private collection of the Thyssen family who was VERY VERY rich and over two generations collected 800 pieces of art! I saw Dali, Picasso, Monet, Van Gogh, Edgar Degas, Itten, Cevanne, Goya, and thousands more! It was incredible! We only had an hour and a half before we had to catch our train back to Sevilla so I felt rushed but would love to walk through it again sometime and really be able to see the more contemporary stuff!

This week I have two midterm exams before Andy comes on THURSDAY!! I cannot wait! :) It is going to be so great to see him! :) However my mind is NOT set on studying for these mideterms, so hopefully I can get through them okay! We are going to be in Sevilla, then Granada, Lisbon, then Madrid. Sadly my professors are expecting me to read two novels for when I return...not sure how that is going to go!

This semester is just FLYING by and I cannot believe I will be home in two months! :( I miss my family and friends but will miss Spain soo much too. It is going to be hard for sure to come back and readjust to the American culture again.

Well my procrastinating should probably come to an end now....ugh! Time to study!

Besos,
Betsy

Living The Life

So, I apologize again for not writing as often! I have just been getting caught up in life and school and traveling. It gets difficult to sometimes just sit down and think about what is going on. Soooo....school has been good! I have midterms this week and next week which are no fun at all but I am glad to get them over with before Andy visits next week!!! yay!! :) The professors are much more laid back than anything I have experienced, even than high school! They realize why we are here, what kind of lives we are living and what things we want to experience. They know we are traveling on the weekends and really don't have school too much on our minds, so they have that taken into account for the exams. For example, for my history exam we have covered history from around 1500 BC to around 700 AD and its only midterms! Its a ton of information and basically our exam on Thursday is a series of 5 broad essay questions about certain social groups....muy facil!

As for traveling, last weekend I went to Granada and had a great time! It is a smaller city than Sevilla sitting right at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountains...loved it! Sevilla is in a pretty flat area of Spain so being able to see mountains and climb hills for amazing views was just what I was craving! The culture of Granada was so different that Sevilla too. It has had an enormous Arab and Muslim influence from history so while walking through the Albacyn (an old Arab neighborhood with tiny pathways, stores, and cafes) I would walk by tons of little cafes with Morroccan food, hookah, stores selling genie pants, and handmade scarves. By the way, genie pants are IN for the youth in Spain. Not sure if it is the hippie, rebellious kids trying to be different, but girls where them with heels! Pretty crazy! Would be very surprised if they make it to the US. Granada is much more of a hippie town, with a lot of character. Sevilla is more of the fancy, shopping, and richer kids town, even though there is a lot of character either way! I was actually looking at a program in Granada before I came here and decided on Sevilla since it is a bigger city. I am really happy where I am but really think I would have loved a semester in Granada too. Andy and I are going back there during his trip here so I cannot wait to show him around. In Granada there is also a great Arab fortress that was lated conquered by the Christians called the Alhambra that sits on top of a mountain overlooking all of Granada. I have pictures on Facebook to see the amazing views I got from there. Definitely a city with character and personality!

This weekend I am going to Madrid with my Art History class to see a lot of famous artwork and buildings. We are seeing El Museo del Prado, el Museo Reina Sofia, el Museo Thyssen, and the Palacio Real. I am going a day early with a friend to visit the small towns north of Madrid, Segovia and Avila. Should be fun and really fun to see such amazing works of art by Dali, Picasso, and many more! :)

Just like at home, I sometimes get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the things that make up my life. I have to stop myself and really think about how lucky I am to be in such a beautiful place, with the opportunity to better my Spanish speaking skills everyday. I don't always realize where I am because I have learned to call this home. I have become so comfortable in this culture that I forget that I have to leave it eventually and this life is going to be in the past. I must "stop to smell the orange trees" more. I realized this this morning and want to share with you what my morning was like before class...

This morning, it was drizzling a little. The first cloudy day in about a month so it would seem a little dreary. Everyday I pass my friend who works at the kiosk across the street from my house. Everyday he greets me with a smile and "Hola Guapa!" or "Buenos Dias Guapa!" Not in a creepy or sexual way whatsoever, but in a friendly, familiar way. Even if he is helping someone else he always greets me as I walk by his kiosk and I always leave with smile. What better than to leave your house and to be immediately greeted by a friendly face as you enter the social world! :) Gotta love it! Anyways, that was a side note, so I just got this great book for my literature class called "Beatriz y los cuerpos celestes" by Lucia Etxebarria that I absolutely love even though I have only read a few pages. (Translated to: "Beatriz y the celestial bodies") Its an existentialist theory novel about how the world is a big solar system and we, as individual people, are like stars, planets, and galaxies that have aversions and attractions to each other and interact with each other in different ways. Very interesting! Well, I rode the bus to el Centro and was walking down the main road Avenida de la Constitucion. I was early for class and a little hungry so I stopped in a cafeteria for a capuccino and a bolleria (little breakfast pastry). The place was packed as it was still morning with expresso machines buzzing and people chatting to eachother. I sat there, drinking my coffee, reading my book, and just stopped to look around me. I smiled to myself at how much I love Spain. How much I love the culture, the food, the people, the fact that I can have a conversation with a complete stranger next to me about my opinion of the bolleria. The fact that the group of women next to me ordered straight shots of expresso but took their time to enjoy them and eachother's company. Instead of just throwing it back and rushing to their next appointment. It just felt so perfect to be there, reading this book about relationships and human interaction and realizing how I was interacting everyday with this new culture that I never had appreciated or knew before 2 months ago.

Though it was drizzly, cloudy, and the cobblestoned streets had so many puddles that by the time I made it to school my shoes and socks were soaked through, I arrived at class so happy to be here and to be living a life so full. I don't want you to think that I have completely forgotten about the good ol' USA. HOWEVER, I think the only thing I miss about it is my family and friends. I really have no desire to return to the US except for incredibly missing my family and friends and the things we do together. I miss the moments and memories of my relationships with people I love in my life. I miss the familiar things, the traditions, and good home cooking. I know by the time it comes around for me to go home, it will be so incredibly bitter sweet. I love this place so much but at the same time miss my family and friends. I will definitely need some help because thinking about serving and dealing with stuck up Americans this summer at Via Cafe, kinda makes me rethink my summer job choice.

Well, sorry I wrote an essay! I just needed to get you all up to speed with my thoughts, my travels, and my life here! I hope that since I am telling you a lot through this blog as I go, I won't bore you with stories when I get back. Cross your fingers!

Gotta go prepare a presentation about literature of the realismo era in Spain! :) Wish me luck tomorrow! And for all of you who asked before, yes, we do have Daylight Savings Time...its this Saturday! I am looking forward to Andy's arrival next Thursday more than anything and its the only thing getting me through these next two weeks!! Can't wait!!! :)

With lots of love and kisses,
Con mucho amor y besos,

Betsy

Spanish Children = the cutest things alive!

So I know this is the third time I have blogged today...I guess I am making it up for not doing much the last few weeks. oh well! I just had to write about how excited I am to be tutoring again! I signed up to tutor Spanish children in English and tonight was my first night with the kids I was given. Their names are Reyes (girl) and Gonzalo (boy). Its funny because reyes means kings in English, but she's a girl, haha. Anyways, Reyes is in 3rd grade and absolutely adorable! She told me how she loves English grammar and speaking English and wants to be an English teacher when she grows up. ha She speaks English well just struggles on the pronunciation. She likes to quiz me on how much Spanish I know by asking me how to say the names of different animals! Gonzalo is in 5th grade and such a gentleman! I quizzed him on his notes because he has a test tomorrow which had some things I never learned in English class growing up. I had to read the directions and figure it out myself before I could help him! Crazy how they are using so many different methods now. The two kids were so cute and loved speaking English to me, and to eachother. Their mother doens't know any but I could tell she was so excited for me to be there and loved asking me about where I was from and about myself. Reyes kept giving me hugs as I left and said she thinks I am a good teacher...after just 1/2 hour with her! What a confidence booster! :) I had such a great time and it felt so great to be able to interact with children again. It just reenforces my excitement about teaching! Maybe I can start working in their school.....maybe. On top of all of that, which I am so excited about, I get paid too! 7 euro per hour ...I am loving this!

Really excited to go back on Wednesday night! :)

I'll try to get some pics with them. Maybe next time!
Besos,
Betsy