Mi viaje a Sevilla, España: Rain, rain, go away!

It has been raining like CRAZY here (I'm sure you could have guessed that by this title). In the newspaper it says that this is the most rain they've gotten in Seville in 60 years... ugh! The weather is very bizarre; some days it is constantly raining, and other days it will be sunny with random, one-minute downpours. Sometimes it will rain really hard in the morning, and by the afternoon it is sunny and all the streets are dry. It's very weird. I bought a pair of leather boots (during REBAJAS, so they were cheap!) to use as rain boots.... turns out they do NOT keep water out at all. So I've given up on the rain boot idea and am just hoping that the rain goes away soon.

Earlier this week, my art interest group met to talk about trips we're going to go on throughout the semester. There are about 8 different interest groups that we could've signed up for, including things like Food, Art, Regions of Spain, Sports, etc. I would have been happy in any group because they all sounded really interesting and all go on pretty awesome trips. After our meeting, our group went to a nearby bar and our leader bought us all drinks. It was really fun, but kind of strange because our leader was my teacher for the 2-week intensive history class I took. I'm glad we got him as a leader though because he is an awesome guy. We already went on our first "trip" for the interest group, which was to the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo (a contemporary art museum). The museum is located in an old monestary where Christopher Columbus lived and where he looked at maps/ planned out routes he was going to take before his journey. I hadn't heard of any of the artists whose work was on display, but all the artwork was really interesting and I loved the museum. It was pouring out that day, so we decided to take a taxi back since it was about a 45-minute walk... best 1.20 euro I've ever spent.

This past weekend we went on a group trip to Aracena. We first stopped in Huelva to see an old mine, called "las Minas de Riotinto." The little lake near the mine was red, although I'm not entirely sure why because the tour guide was hard to hear (this seems to be a recurring pattern...); however, he did reassure us that it was water and not blood. Afterwards we got back into the bus and drove to Aracena where we had 2 hours of free time... the town is really small and there isn't much to do, so my group used this time to wander around and search for pastelerias (bakeries). We found the most AMAZING bakery ever... everyone that I was with bought at least 3 desserts and no one spent over 2 euros (in Sevilla, one pastery usually costs over 2 euros). After our free time, we met the group to go on a tour of the caves. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but I secretly snapped a couple anyways because it was SO cool!

I just finished my first 2 weeks of classes. I'm still taking Phonetics, Cinema, and Women Writers, but ended up switching out of Linguistics and into an advanced grammar class at the University (which is actually not "advanced" at all so far...). Phonetics, which is the study of speech sounds, is my least favorite class because there are a lot of symbols to memorize and it's hard to tell the difference between a lot of sounds. I decided to drop linguistics and take grammar instead because hey, I'm in Spain. I might as well learn how to speak better while I'm here instead of doing it when I get back home, (plus the two linguistics classes I went to were very very boring). My teacher is the head of the Grammar Dept. at the University and looks eerily like Mr. Bean. Cinema is an awesome class... this week we watched the movie "Carmen." Carmen actually worked in the tobacco factory in Sevilla (now the University of Sevilla), so we watched the movie inside the same place where she worked... The movie also had some clips from inside the University, so that was neat to see. Women Writers is probably my favorite class. It is taught by a woman named Magdalena who received the "professor of the year" award last year. We haven't really read anything yet, but instead talked about women and their situation in Spain and throughout the world. Women only started getting rights in Spain after the death of Franco in 1975. They weren't even allowed to have money in the bank, own a business, or vote until the 1980s... and there's still many many issues that women continue to deal with in Spain today. Domestic violence is one of the biggest problems. We also talked about women who are mistreated across the world. It is unbelievable how horrible people treat each other solely based on things like gender or race... makes me sad. But anyways, I'm learning a lot and my classes are going to be a lot easier than what I would be taking in Madison so that's always a plus!

So I basically LOVE Sevilla. I'm going to have to be dragged back to the States after these next 3 months are over! I love walking around by myself, taking new routes, getting lost and then figuring out where I am again. I always find some event going on that I didn't know about too... For example, I had to go buy bus tickets the other day and ended up on the route of the marathon that was going on in Sevilla (I stopped and cheered for a while, I just wish I would've had some orange rhynes and my girls with me!!).. another time I was walking to class and there was a huge market going on in the plaza I walk through. I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with the city and know my way around now. I even was asked TWICE if I was Spanish (must be my awesome sense of fashion.. hahaaa NOT). The night life continues to be a good time... botelloning, bars and discothequas... so fun! Last night a couple of friends and I roughed it through the rain to get tapas and watch a flamenco show. Afterwards we went to the bar "Long Island" and then to the discotechqua "Buddah"... always a good time!

I'm off to Brussels/Amsterdam next weekend! Can't wait!!

Besos!
Emily