Beautiful sites, beautiful people...week 3

Wow time flies!  It’s already been over a week since I’ve posted on this!  This has been another full week of studying, walking, exploring, and taking pictures J.  I continue to enjoying learning more about the Spanish culture and the people I am with.  I have had some pleasant conversations with Rosario, my host mother, about various topic including herbs, cooking, her birthday, Sevilla/Spain, children and motherhood, and others.  Grace and I both love the little bits of advice she gives us for our life and about life.  We both made her Valentine’s Day cards and she was so happy and surprised.  She kept saying “I didn’t buy you anything!”  We thought this was funny since we didn’t buy her anything either, just made her cards. J Though she told us that in the past when she was younger Valentine’s Day was usually only celebrated by those who were married or dating, but she is seeing that it is changing.  On Wednesday of this week I had lunch at Rosario’s daughter’s (Inma) house because Rosario was there for the day.  Inma has three boys Carlos (7 yrs), Jamie (3 yrs), and Gonsalo (maybe 1?).  It was fun to be around children and playing with them – they warmed up to me pretty quickly which was fun.  Friday night Carlos and Jamie stayed at Rosario’s house and Jamie became my little buddy.  Rosario said that this was very unusual for him to warm up to a person so quickly, but she said it was because I was so caring J  That made me feel good!

Thursday I went a visit with my school to Alcazar or also called Los Reyes de Alcazares (The kings of Alcazar) because it is a place where Spanish royalty has stayed over the years when they have been in Sevilla.  It is a beautiful mosaic of different time periods and styles of building and decorations from over the years.  One of the buildings there is where the plans were made for Christopher Columbus’ voyage when he encountered the Americas.  I hope to return because it is free for me with my international student card and there are some BEAUTIFUL gardens that I didn’t get to spend much time in as I needed to leave right after the tour.

Thursday night there was a fiesta at the school for us to meet our “intercambios” which are our language partners.  We are assigned a Spaniard (usually who is in school themselves and learning English) to meet with in order to practice our Spanish and for them to practice their English.  My intercambio’s name is Isaac and he is getting his master’s degree is computer business (or something like that).  He seems very nice and likes ice cream and to dance so I think we are going to get along well J.  After the fiesta a few of my friends and I went to a place that has free flamenco shows sometimes.  Flamenco is a traditional type of music and dance.  I am learning a traditional Spanish dance in one of my classes that is similar to Flamenco, but particular to Sevilla called Sevillanas.  It is very different then what I’m use to, but also very fun.

On Sunday I went a free day trip through the school to Zahara de la Sierra.  It is a natural park with a small town called a “pueblo blanco” because all the building are painted white on a mountain.  There is the ruins of a castle which provides an UNBELIEVABLE view!  It is one of the most, if not the most, beautiful view I’ve ever seen.  The weather was also BEAUTIFUL which made it just that much better.  It was a pretty strenuous climb up to the town and up to the castle.  We didn’t have to walk up the whole mountain or anything like that, but the portion we did have to walk was pretty steep – it was well worth it though.

This is my last week of the “intensive period” where I’ve been having primarily one class, each day (M-F) for 3 ½ hours and then my two one-credit courses (culture and dance).  We have final exams on Friday from 9-11am and then two of my friends, Lindsey and Chelsia, and I are leaving for Madrid by train on Friday at 12:45pm and returning late on Sunday (as we don’t have class on Monday as it’s a holiday in Sevilla, but also makes it a lot more expensive to return on that day in Sevilla).  We plan to also to Avila for part of the day on Saturday which is only about an 1 ½ from Madrid as Avila is the town of St. Teresa of Avila which whom I was named after.

On March 1^st I will start my two new classes of Spanish Civilization (a history course) and Present Day Conversation Spanish (a language course) along with continue my two other course of culture and dance.  I’m excited for this portion to start J

Below I’m including a few photos – as always it was very hard to narrow down the pictures, but hopefully this will give you a quick glimpse of some of the things that happened this last week.  With much love to you all!!

Alcazar - along with the following few pictures

In the ¨public patio¨where guests would enter before seeing the King or Queen.

With Chelsia in the gardens of Alcazar

Flamenco show

Lindsey and I at Zahara de Sierra

Behind me is the village - you can see why it´s called a "white town"

In the town...and the following pictures are from this trip

Oh the beauty!  I have about 210 pictures from this trip :)

PA and I on the edge of the castle!  Look at the view!

In the castle window

That´s the castle behind us - or what´s left of it