Tuesday, June 10, 2008

algo más

pictures!

córdoba: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll263/luckingk/cordoba/
sevilla week 2: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll263/luckingk/sevilla%20week%202/
ronda: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll263/luckingk/ronda/
granada: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll263/luckingk/granada/

ask me for explanations if you're curious.

also: high on fri, 06.06.08: 41C (aka 108F). that's freakin hot, kids.
-kl

Monday, June 9, 2008

granada

oi vey. what a weekend. well, we never made it up into the mountains with the gypsies, because we came across a small case of wrong place wrong time, except that we happened to be in a very bad place at a very bad time. so we booked it out of there as fast as our legs could carry us and spent the rest of the day jumping at shadows from the comfort of our hostel rooms.

sunday was much better. we went up to the alhambra, which is one of the 7 wonders of the world. for the record, if you ever decide to go to the alhambra from the downtown area, take the bus. otherwise you will get to do what we did--hoof it for at least a mile up hill. woo! lemme tell ya, today i am stiff from it. lovely. and this place is not built for tourists, so we had to do a lot of guess work as to what was where (like the ticket office) and the bus would have dropped us off right there. oh well. now we know.

once we finally got in the place it was gorgeous. seriously, how they did all that detail work so long ago with primitive tools halfway up a mountain is beyond me. there are 7 palaces and the generalife (hen-er-a-LEEF-ay), which contains all the gardens. thier use of water is quite impressive--not just because water was rare, but because they utilized a hydraulic system that was sooo far ahead of its time. here are some pictures of granada. this is the palacio de los leones, which is the most famous palace. unfortunately like i said, a lot was under restauration, including the 12 famous lions and the fountain that they support. this part was still very pretty though:


one of the views from one of the palaces overlooking granada:

one of the views from la generalife of la alhambra:

and from ronda. this is the bridge:


and this is la real maestranza bull ring in sevilla:

this is one side of la giralda:

this is the roof of la giralda from about half way up the 35 ramps of the tower:




and finally, the gardens of the alcázar:


¡que bonita! that´s all the time i´ve got now... until next time!

-kl

Saturday, June 7, 2008

ronda

guess what this post is going to be about? wow, you are a genius. ronda! but first i´m going to talk about other antics since last post. thursday instead of having history with pepe we got a tour of la giralda (cathedral) and the alcázar (royal house). as you probably remember, la giralda is the largest baroque cathedral in the world, and it is beautiful. first we looked around inside, and then we went up into the bell tower, where you can see for miles and miles (cue ¨the who¨) and sights such as la real maestranza and parque de maría louisa. we had to climb 35 ramps, yes ramps, to get to the top, which was particularly hard on the knee (especially on the way back down), but it was so worth it. then we went to the alcázar. the best part about this by far was the gardens. pictures to follow soon, but i am not on my computer at the moment, so you´ll just have to take my word for it ;o)

thursday night, then, we went to parque de maría louisa with sean and one of sean´s friends, juan carlos. we went to the plaza de españa, pictured above, which you might recognize because it was in the 2nd star wars movie where anakin is walking padme home on naboo. yep. cool. a lot of it was under reconstruction, though, so we couldn´t see all of it. it was originally built for the iberian peninsula fair in 1929 (kind of like a state fair, but for a whole area of land), and each province of spain was represented by a different tiled area depicting something traditional about the area. unfortunately, sevilla´s was under construction, and there was a wall up with a life-sized photo of it so you could see what it looks like. but for some that just wasn´t good enough, so first sean and juan carlos boosted themselves up to take pictures for us, but it didn´t work, so then they boosted sam the gymnast up. haha, hilarious. and we did get our pictures and some amused expressions from the security guards who did not try to stop us.

then yesterday we were off to ronda! it was about an hour and a half bus ride, and we left at 7am, meaning getting up at 5 to leave at 6 to walk there. oi. that is what sleeping on the bus is for ;o) it is an old roman city, and it is quite gorgeous. it gets the name ronda from being surrounded by mountains, and surrounded by mountains it is. beautiful. again, pictures to follow soon.

we headed back to sevilla at 5, and then got ready to go out for dinner with sean and 3 of his friends. we met sean, josé, paco, and isabél for drinks, then tapas/dinner, then a discoteque. wow. what a good time. these spaniards sure know how to have a good time. much dancing and comaradarie was shared, and no, i do not know how to spell that word without my firefox telling me if i am correct or not. we didn´t get back home til around 4am, and i had to shower, so it was bed at 4:30, to get up at 7am to leave by 8am to catch the bus at 9am to granada!

which is where i am right now. we´ll head back to sevilla tomorrow night, but now it is 2:15 and time for lunch, followed by a trek into the mountains to see the gypsies in their caves (yes, mother, i will be careful ;o) ).

and btw, i have /some/ of my pictures uploaded. the first 150 are at http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll263/luckingk/sevilla%20week%201/ and some of the next 500 or so are in another album, but i have not had sufficient internet connection long enough to sustain a successful upload. i´ll try to do it soon! if you have any questions as to what pictures are, just let me know. happy weekend!
-kl

Thursday, June 5, 2008

week 2

so i haven´t updated in a few days, but that´s really because we haven´t been up to all that much. monday after classes/siesta, sam and i met with sean, one of the institute staff, and we took a walk around sevilla. well, a walk turned into drinks, drinks turned into tapas, and tapas turned into dinner. it was really nice to have a native of sevilla take you around, though, because we got off the beaten path and found some tucked away little places that had excellent food and ambiance. sean is hilarious, has a great sense of humor (blunt sarcasm--my favorite), and has an interesting perspective on the world, which made conversations interesting. see, his mother is british, his father is from california, and he and his siblings were all born and raised in sevilla.

the next night (tuesday), we went to la real maestranza, the bull ring of sevilla. it´s one of the oldest, and it is still active. the tour guide, however, had clearly given this 25 min tour so many times in both english and spanish that she was incredibly bored by it. and there was this couple who listened attentively during the spanish portion, but then talked loudly during the english part, right in front of whatever it was. the tour guide was so bored that she didn´t even try to stop them. sean, however, had enough, and he (who is incredibly fluent in spanish, english, and french) confronted them about it.

then last night, we again went out with sean, for a tour of el barrio de santa cruz, the old jewish quarters. they´re quite pretty, and sean knows his way around the most ridiculously confusing and windy streets in the city because he grew up there.

tonight we are going to el parque de maría louisa, which has plaza españa inside of it (see title picture above). this is also where anakin and padme walk over a bridge on a plaza to her home on naboo in the 2nd star wars movie. sweet.

weekend plans: ronda on friday, granada saturday and sunday. i´m also working on getting all my photos uploaded online, but so far i´ve been unable to do so, due to lack of internet connection, so don´t hold your breath... more adventures to follow soon :o)
-kl

Sunday, June 1, 2008

córdoba

so, as you prolly guessed from the title of this post, we decided to go to córdoba this weekend. more on that in a minute. since last post, danielle and i met with our "intercambio" (literally interchange). she is a sevillano from triana (the barrio, neighborhood, across the river from sevilla) named rocío who is going to the university of sevilla to become an english teacher. she is very nice, but it was a bit awkward meeting with a complete stranger and being expected to talk to her (in spanish) about life in general. but whatever. oh well. we also saw a few processions for san fernando around the city. such as this one (click on any picture to enlarge):

the next day (saturday) we spent the day shopping in sevilla, and then did dinner as tapas. this is where you get basically a little appetizer and a drink and it only costs about 2-4 euros. then you go to a different restaurant and order another tapa. it's really fun to get the house specialty, and a great way to try new foods. here is a picture of us at one of the restaurants. yes, that tiling is all over, and yes, it is gorgeous (l-r: tiara, katie, sam, me, danielle):


on this same dinner expedition we trekked across the river and saw the torre de oro lit up at night (la giralda is in the background):


then sunday we (danielle, katie, sam, and i) went to córdoba, which is just north and east of sevilla. we took the train, and it took us about an hour and a half to get there. right outside of the train station is this amazingly large stretch of roman ruins that we got to hike all over. this is a picture of my favorite part. you can still see (obviously) and use the archways and windows. crazy!


after this we found ourselves in a park, and there was a playground! yes, we did play on it. hey, i never said we were mature...

after this little detour, we went to see the old roman baths, which were super interesting. then we headed to the mezquita, or mosque. it is absolutely amazing. it is an islamic mosque, but there is a cathedral smack in the middle of it. crazy. i will let the pictures speak for themselves. gorgeous. this is right outside the walls into the orange tree courtyard that goes into the mosque:


and these are the arches. the first one is the double arches that are either painted to look like brick and mortar or actually are. they're all about optical illusions here, and it is a mix of both methods. the second is the more ornate arches:


this one is my favorite (one of the ceilings):


and if that weren't enough, this is the cathedral /inside/ the mosque:


another site on our day trip was the puente romano (roman bridge). that is the city in the background, and yes, the water really is that color. why? no idea...:



unfortunately, because we went on a sunday, everything else was closed. so we did not get a chance to see the palace or any of the museums. sad. but it was still a great day. hope your weekend was as great as mine :o)
-kl

Friday, May 30, 2008

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

Thursday, May 29, 2008

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