day 7: Thursday

So Thursday: first me and one of the girls on the trip, Sarah, and I had a mini photo-op in class. I love her curls!

During our 20 minute break at 11am I snagged some photos of our classroom and the floor we're on.

The second door on the right
is our classroom.  

Our classroom. 

After class on the way home for lunch I stopped by a bookstore I always walk past. I bought "Alice in Wonderland" in Spanish. I wanna stop back later this week to look some more.

After lunch at home I headed back to school for our excursion to Carmona. A city near sevilla that has old ruins from a necropolis and has the old gate to sevilla.

One the way back to school I had to stop for a pretty flower picture :)

We took a bus to Carmona- so much fun it was a double-decker bus, and I sat on the top :D Not in front, which would have been fun, but on top. 

Our first stop in Carmona was the old Roman Necropolis. Here hundreds of people were buried. Some rich families were buried here alone and other burials were communal burials for multiple families. Each family was buried with items they would need for their next life, especially some money. The money was important so they could pay the "gatekeeper" across the river into their next life. Without money they couldn't pay and would get stuck in purgatory. 

This was the first burial site we saw. Off to the left was a ladder we went down
in groups of 8 to see it. It was for one of the more rich families buried here. Most of the burial
sites we not this extravagant.

All of the bodies buried here were burned and their ashes were buried.
This was a typical crematorium.

This was a two family burial which is separate by that column in the middle.

These are more tombs. They were not accessible for visitors. 

This was called the tomb of the elephant (because of a statue of an elephant
they found in front of it). Here is where their Gods, at the time,
were buried along with their prophets. 

One of the pathways in between burial sites.

This last extravagant burial was for a very wealthy family. The more extravagant
the burial the more prepared the family would be for the afterlife. This was a "home" the
family could take to their next life.

After seeing the Necropolis we went and saw "La Puerta de Sevilla", meaning the gate to Sevilla. This was the door to the city which had been built on to my each different civilization that controlled the city. The gate had several different levels. 

This is the view going up the first staircase.

These three pictures above are from the gate's main open courtyard.

This is the view from the courtyard. Super pretty!

Me with said view :D

Thought this cross on the wall was super neat. I love that
it is made out of tile.

This was the view from the top.

Me up at the tippy top!!

After we got back home from the excursion I stopped by a pub by my house in the Plaza de Cuba. I ate a light dinner there and wrote my journal entries for our GSU professor because they were due Friday morning.  I enjoyed kinda sitting by myself and enjoying the time alone to write my entries.

My yummy ham and cheese sammy.

And my Cruzcampo cerveza.

After I finished by entries I headed back home, showered and hit the hay! I can't believe this week is almost over. Week one is already almost done! SO FAST.