stolen wifi...

so i was uploading pictures onto my computer when the ever pesky "there's wifi available" thinger came up. i accidentally clicked on it (i had looked at it before and all the networks have security enabled, but...), and found a network in range with good connectivity and no security. woo!

today is el dia de san fernando. san fernando was the founder of the city, and today is the one day a year when they open up his casket at the cathedral so you can see his relics. it's a huge celebration. we came in on the tail end of a parade when we went to the centro (downtown) to see it. it's located in la giralda (la here-AL-dah), the biggest cathedral in the world. it was started in 1248 by the moors and finished later by the catholics, which accounts for the changes in style. this is it at night, when we went to el barrio de santa cruz with stewart post-flamenco show--sorry about the guy's head... (click on any photo to enlarge):


one of its doors:


and here are some other pictures of note. typical tiling in sevilla in the houses/places of business. this one is at my hostel from the 1st night:


flamenco show! amazing. these are just 2 of about 15 dancers, and the musicians are in the back (not during this song--it was prerecorded. but most of them had 3 live guitars and 2 live singers):


el barrio de santa cruz (that's stewart in the lower left!), where we went after the flamenco show. this is where don juan supposedly "caught" all of his women:


and finally, 2 of my favorite sights on my everyday walk to school. the city is /full/ of stuff like this, and it's absolutely gorgeous. no wonder everyone walks everywhere. if you were to drive, you would miss it! (that and the roads are absolutely tiny and drivers are crazy...) haha, but really, these are super typical views:

i guess there's not really that much else to tell at this point. other than what some people (like my mother--*rolls eyes*--have been asking. carmen is in her i would guess late 50s/early 60s, but she's one of those kind of ageless women. she is divorced, and has 3 daughters who are all grown up and moved out. oh! here's a picture of the apartment. the living room:


and the bedroom i share with danielle is about the size of a dorm room. all the floors are tile, and it really is built to be cool. right now that's not so much fun, given that the highs have been in the low 70s and lows at night in the 50s, meaning that it's cooler than that (cooler than 70s, that is--more like low 60s) in the house and i go to bed and shiver all night, but when it turns into being in the 90s all the time, it's going to be a real advantage.

also. showers. yes. spain is in a severe water crisis (though danielle and i decided it's because they wash their streets and sidewalks every single night--seriously), and we do have to take fast showers (though it's not 4 minutes--anything under 10 will suffice, which i do anyways, so it's not a big deal). another funny thing--you have to turn on the gas to heat the water if you want it anything more than frigid. i guess utilities are super expensive here, too, and carmen doesn't have the gas turned on at all unless someone is showering so she can save money. makes sense to frugal little me... and yes, the food is still wonderful.

some more information about the program: there are 5 students total (myself and danielle included). the others are tiara mcgill from st. louis, mo, and goes to university of mo, st. louis; katie o'brien, who is from milwuakee and goes to uw-eau claire; and samantha howard (who i actually went to high school with--small world), who is from west st. paul, mn and goes to uw-eau claire. so far we're getting along really well, and since there are only 5 of us, we do pretty much everything together, including walk to class, explore, and plan (and eventually go on) weekend trips. yay!

i have my composition and conversation class with sam, tiara and danielle (taught by a cute little spanish woman named loly), and my history class with sam and tiara (taught by a jolly spanish man named pepe). instead of history, danielle and katie are taking a monuments class, and i'm so jealous! they get to wander around the city and learn about everything and see all sorts of stuff you otherwise wouldn't get to (sorry--couldn't work my way around ending that sentence with a preposition...). but they do take lots of pictures and promise to play tour guide for those of us not in the class, so it's all good.

tonight is another part of the festival for san fernando, and i think we're gonna try to go (problem: we're not sure exactly where it is, and this city has teensy windy streets that are not linear blocks and it can be uber confusing if you don't know where you're going...). tomorrow we're going shopping and out for tapas with some of the institute staff, and then sunday we're still working on planning a day trip. prolly not cadiz, because it's supposed to be rainy and cold (boo!!), and not granada, as it is too far to go for one day. idk. we'll figure it out.

well, we're about to leave for el centro (downtown--we live about a 30 minute walk from the school, which is about the closest part of downtown, but i'm not gonna complain about the walk. it's good exercise and it's gorgeous). all for now.
-kl

ñ

ha! guess what key i found on the spanish keyboard? that´s right, the ñ! excelente! so from the previous post espana should be españa and senora should be señora. yep.

so classes started yesterday. i´m taking 2: advanced composition and conversation and 20th century spanish history. both are taught only in spanish, but i´m not having any trouble so far... my professors and all of the institute staff are incredibly nice, too. they don´t even judge you when you clearly butcher something in spanish (or maybe they do, but they´re just really good at hiding it...).

last night was our first night in sevilla as a group, and we went to a flamenco show and dinner. for those of you that don´t know, spain runs on a way different schedule than the states, with breakfast at 7:30 (after we get up), lunch around 2:30 and the biggest meal of the day, and dinner around 9-10. so the flamenco show started at 7:30 and dinner was after. the show was incredible. i can´t even fathom moving my feet that fast! and with all the stomping i would have shin splints for a decade of sundays. crazy.

dinner was in el barrio de santa cruz, a neighborhood about a 35-40 minute walk from our apartment. we did, however, have a local guide. stewart, one of the institute staff, grew up there, and showed us around, treated us to dinner (ham, spanish tortilla which is more of an omelette, paella, sangria, and various desserts). after dinner we went to his church sponsored bar (odd, no?) and then back home to bed. we didn´t get home til after midnight and went to bed around 1, only to get up at 7, but hey, we´re only gonna be here a short time, and we want to milk everything out of it that we can. you can always sleep when you´re dead.

tonight we have a tour of our barrio (neighborhood), and tomorrow is a local holiday, so everything is closed. we´re thinking that we might to a sunday day trip to cadiz or granada this weekend, but plans remain uncertain. gotta head back to class now... :o)
-kl

26/20

whew! i´ve arrived! (safely, yay! nothing more interesting than some /very/ turbulant flights).

i started this journey in msp, flying to newark, nj, to barcelona, to sevilla. all the flights were turbulant. and the first two were in the 2 smallest planes i have ever flown in in my entire life. talk about disconcerting. the first one had, as far as i could tell, 57 seats, no first class. it was 19 rows of seat a, aisle, seats b-c, and my head brushed the ceiling. aack! then my hopper across the ocean was 3 and 3, but it was super small. the biggest plane by far was the one from barcelona to sevilla, and that was the shortest (and most turbulant) flight. the poor girl in front of me had never flown before and was freaking out the entire time, trying to find something to hold on to. it was like a bad roller coaster--you just want to get off, but you can´t til the ride is over.

my first real encounter with spanish was at the barcelona airport, which is pretty much super confusing. i had to ask directions, and i got perfect directions back in spanish and i understood all of them! yay!!! then i ate lunch and a nice man from peru sat next to me, and we then had a good hour conversation, just in spanish. i´m already finding myself thinking in spanish, and i´m having to translate things back into english in order to write this (like i just wanted to say "solamente en espanol", and i had to think about it in order to write "just in spanish").

last night i stayed at a hostel, and i got a cab from the airport there. it was a bmw. whoa! so i stayed at the hostel for the night, and, not wanting to traverse a strange city alone at night, i went to a supermarcado (supermarket, but really more of a gas station), got myself a bag of doritos, doughnuts (for breakfast) and a fanta naranja (different from us fanta--and better--/just/ as good as i remembered them. OH! and i already found a few zumo machines and can´t wait to test them out!) and called it a night. not very healthy, but at that point i had been traveling for 26 hrs by the clock, 20 by my body, and was ready to hit the hay. the shower in the hostel was /the/ most confusing shower i´ve ever used, but eventually i got myself mostly clean. then i hit bed.

today i woke up, got checked out, hailed a cab, went to the institute, went through a brief orientation, and took my cab to the apartment. or so i thought. the map that the institute gave me was wrong on the placement of the apartment, and everyone i asked had no idea where it was, so i spent about an hour lugging around all of my stuff and trying to find it. lemme tell ya, i was on the verge of tears. finally i found it, and got myself there. yay!!! never was there so much celebrating.

my senora´s name is carmen, and she´s awesome. a great cook!! if all of her food tastes like the meals today, we will be in good shape. i´m sharing a room with danielle olson, the other stout student, and our apartment is just the cutest thing i´ve ever seen--so authentically spanish! pictures to follow soon. basically, i love it here--and i´ve only been in the city for a day! it´s gorgeous, with all of the meandering mideival streets that are so charming (and at times frustrating). but so far, so good. and best is i´m not having any trouble understanding natives at all! woohoo! they do drop the s at the end of a lot of words, though (so seis is sei, and adios is adio). but if you know that, you´re in good shape.

classes start tomorrow at the lovely hour of 8:30, and it´s a 20 minute walk. but i´m ready. i think that´s all i´ve got for now. updates to follow soon. hope you´re doing well!
-kl

13

aahhh!!! today's the day. the long awaited day when i LEAVE FOR SPAIN!!!!! this will mark my 13th hop across the puddle we call the atlantic ocean, but i am still nervous like always. i officially get to sevilla tomorrow (the 26th), but the program i'm there for doesn't start until the 27th, so i have one night in the city... alone... surrounded by a dialect i'm not used to... alone... being jet lagged... alone... where the schedule the locals follow is completely different than here... oh, and did i mention alone?? this prospect became much less daunting when i found a hostel with single non-smoking rooms, but it's still a bit frightening. i have both traveled overseas before and traveled alone before, but never overseas alone before. kinda feels like a big step.

just a few last minute things to pack (like my computer, haha), and then i'm outta here! enjoy your may/june state side!
-kl

welcome!

hello everyone! as you probably know, since you're reading this, I am headed to sevilla, spain this summer! i'm so excited!!! (yes, i realize my first 3 sentences all started with exclamation points, and yes, i think that's excessive, too, but i'm over it). my minor is spanish, and my options to finish it were either in spain or wisconsin. guess which won? so i will be finishing my minor and having a blast while i'm at it. i will be there may 25-june 28. i will try to update this blog with happenings (and hopefully pictures) every few days.

right now it's 7 days to show time. honestly, it really hasn't hit me yet--all my other trips to europe i've had at least a year of warning/prep time, and this one has been less than 10 weeks from finding out about the opportunity to embarking. crazy! and due to school just ending and jury duty, i've kinda been putting off getting ready til i'm less busy (ha! when will that ever happen?). i've just started a pile in the corner of my room. so far it consists of sunscreen and a phone card. do you think i'm in good shape for a month abroad? me too.

until next time (when i will hopefully have more packed and a shorter target list).
-kl