January 29th, 2009

This morning I woke up to eat breakfast and meat Megan to hope on the bus for our SAS trip to Seville to see the Cathedral and Alcazar (palace) for our Sacred Sites class.  At breakfast this girl Courtney joined us she actually went to El Toro and played water polo, so we had that in common from the beginning, she was also going on our same day trip and staying in Seville that night like many kids on the trip.  After about a two hour drive/sleep on the bus we were finally in the city of Seville.

 

When we got of the bus we had about a 5 minute walk to the Cathedral.  The city was larger and more beautiful than I had anticipated.  The city streets were lined with orange trees.  The oranges are used to make a type of jam that is famous the city.  One of the girls actually tried one but said it was really bitter and sour.  We walked down the street and then soon turned the corner to be standing right next the Cathedral, the third largest gothic church in the world.  Its beauty and size are not able to really be captured in a picture.  We entered the church with our tour guide and as we walked in I felt as though it got 5 degrees cooler.  Like many places in Spain the church was not heated haha and the stone walls only made it darker and cool, which is nice for the summer months.  When entering the church of this size the first thing I did was look up to see the amazing ceiling.  My eyes then scanned to see paintings and pillars of a grand size.  The high altar was spectacular and made of over 1000 gold figurines all made by one man.  Pictures and words can not describe really what I saw in terms of its size.  The other facts I took away from the Cathedral that I found to be extremely interesting are that Christopher Columbus’ and his second son both have tombs in the church.  Christopher Columbus is said to be buried in three different locations in Spain. 

 

The last thing left to do in the Church is to climb the bell tower to look over the city (35 steep ramps!) Me and Trish headed up first and made it up in about 5 minutes.  To find an amazing view of the city that truly showed its size and culture.  The City is made of so many colors and so many buildings the site was breathtaking.  I ran around in a circle taking pictures of the city from every angle.  The walk back down the bell tower was much quicker and we then made our way to the Alcazar. 

 

The Alcazar had a completely different style than the Cathedral and while yes it was beautiful was hard to stand up against the amazing Cathedral I just seen.  After walking through the palace and seeing its tiles and gardens we headed to a lunch around 2 that was set up my SAS.  At first I was worried we may not have that much food and I would still be hungry.  But as soon as we sat down in the restaurant the wine was poored and the tapas began coming out plate after plate.  If I can remember correctly we had bread and some type of meat first, then a tortilla and egg dish that was amazing, followed by fried calamari, mushrooms, asparagus, two types of meet and potatoes, and then an amazing tart dessert.

 

 I was completely full after lunch and ready to find my hostel and meet up with the girls.  Me and Courtney who also needed to find her hostel walked with the group to the bus so I could grab my backpack.  Luckily when I pulled out my map to look where we were in comparison to my hostel we were already on the right street and only a block and half away.  Courtney on the other hand had a little more difficulties.  She only had the name of her hostel, no address, phone number, or anything.  So she walked with me to my hostel where they were able to give her a street name and I handed her my map to find her way.  ( I saw her the next day where she told me she did make it safely to the hostel).  As I was checking into the room Kelly, Dylan, Abby and the rest of the Thetas ( I may just refer to the group as the “Thetas” from now on to make it shorter) all walked in.  It was really nice to see them cause I wasn’t sure how I was going to meet up with them. 

 

After checkin  in I went up to look at my room to find what?? Oh wait I got the handicap bathroom (reminds me of a time in Amsterdam with my sister).  But this one wasn’t as awkward.  I then put my stuff in the safe and my backpack on my bed met up with the girls and we went to the grocery store to by some wine to drink before the soccer game.  (Sevilla vs. Valencia).  The girls had all bought soccer jerseys earlier that day for the game and Anna was nice enough to let me borrow one of hers she had bought for a friend.  So we all got decked out in our new jerseys and headed up to the rooftop of the hostel that was set up with chairs and table overlooking parts of the city.  We sat up there talking and laughing for a while.  Jeff joined us for a while and gave me my ticket he had picked up for the day before.  Jeff left around 7:15 to go to a bar on his way to the game with his brother since they wouldn’t let him in the hostel because he wasn’t staying there.  So me and the girls sat up drinking and talking for another 15 minutes and then started our walk to the stadium.  We were meeting up with two of their sorority sisters at the game (Michelle and Megan) who are studying abroad in Seville.  Michelle actually lived in the same dorm as me and we knew each other through Georgia.  So it was nice to just one more familiar face in a unfamiliar city. 

 

We finally got into the soccer game where I ran into Kelly who was sitting with Jeff, Steve, and Daniel ( this is where my seat was cause Jeff bought my ticket). So I split off from the girls and Kelly tells me they are sitting in the second row.  I said what do you mean aren’t our seats way up top.  She said ya but they just walked down and nobody questioned them.  When I finally got to the seats I came to find out Jeff Blackwell who I know from the dorms freshman year was sitting with us and he too is studying abroad in Seville.  Ryan S.  from Bucknell also sat with us at the game.  One I was in my seat and able to look around and soak in the experience I was participating in I could do nothing but smile the entire time.  The energy inside the stadium was amazing and it is by far one of the coolest things I have ever done or been too!  Not to mention I was in the second row and Sevilla won the game really close to the end.  I wish I could post the picture of the three old women sitting in front of me.  They were probably about 70 and chain smoking like I have never seen, they yelled at the refs and stood up in their seats more then some of the young men sitting around me.  It was quite the site to see and they cracked me up ( I have a video of them too! I just thought they were great).  As the game ended the entire stadium jumped around signing and hugging one another, I have no other word for it but AMAZING!!! There was even a guy on a microphone singing and chanting the entire game to get the crowd involved and the entire section of people behind me stood the whole game waving flags. We all joined in clapping where we could and singing the parts that we could understand. (“lo lo lo lo lo…. lo lo lo lo lo lo lo”)

 

We then started walking back to the hostel where I was going to meet the girls and head on out for the night.  Jeff, and the rest of the kids split off to head straight for the bars but I wanted to change into something for the clubs instead of the soccer jersey. 

 

The only reason I mention the fact that I wanted to change is the encounter I had in my hostel while changing.  When I got back to the hostel the girls were all ready and waiting I wanted to hurry as fast as I could and when I got to my room someone was in the bathroom and there were two other people in the room hanging out (they both didn’t speak English so I wasn’t too worried).  I decided to just “deck change” in the room.  As I am mid way changing with my bra in my hand a young boy comes out of the bathroom about my age catching with my arms out the bottom of my shirt and bra in head.  I was pretty embarrassed and ran in the bathroom to do the rest in private.  Come to find out from the girls later the boy who caught me changing was on SAS. Haha So I will probably see him around quite a bit  more and after all that I never even found out his name. 

 

Enough of that story so me and the girls then headed to a Tex Mex restaurant (where I ran into Adam also someone I know from freshman year in the droms) for dinner around 11.  Me and Abby split some chicken Nachos that hit the spot. We then headed to a street of bars and eventually made our way to the discothèque Buddha around 1:30 after walking around in circles lost for about an hour.   The club was really cool and fun but the only problem was it was invaded by semester at sea students and didn’t give me that cultural feel I was hoping for.  We finally made it back to the hostel around 4 to call it a night.  The night life in Spain is very hard to get used to.