Day 5: Santiponce

So Tuesday was the 20th, our second day at school. Classes are going well. Pretty basic and mainly all review but review is what I need. I've already learned all the verb tenses so now I just need to practice, talk a lot, and expand my vocabulary.

After class I came home for lunch and a siesta before our activity. She made me Spanish meatballs and french fries along with an egg, onion and pepper salad. So yummy!

Meatballs and Fries :)

After I ate I napped till around 330 when I had to leave to head to the school. We were meeting at 4 for our excursion and had to take a bus. Our activity was to go to Santiponce and see the Roman Ruins of the city Itálica.  It was a Roman city constructed here in Seville for Roman soldiers diring the Punic Wars. One of the Roman emperors was actually born here. The ruins were about a twenty minute bus ride from Sevilla.

We split into two groups and had our same tour guides from our walk around Santa Cruz. I took lots of photos. Over time the city buildings have been destroyed by time, weather, and the shifts in the Guadalquivir.

This was the entrance to the city.
There used to be two guard towers here. 

The city had two main roads, one N to S and one E to W.

These are the remaining foundations of shops along the
main road leading to and from the entrance. 

Standing on what used to be part of the columns
along the storefront on the main road.

It's crazy to think these used to be houses.
Those standings columns are around a bath pool that
used to be in the center of one of the houses.

I got a little artsy with these next two photos. One is up close on one of the old brick columns that supported a building. The other is a close up on a tree that is there with the ruins in the background.

Love how intricate the detail is. 

These are still standing original columns.

The view across the city from the left side where we were.

This was a communal bath house.

After we viewed the city we walked over to the amphitheater that was there. It was constructed for the gladiator fights and held nearly 25,000 spectators.

This was our first view of it when we walked up.

This hall intersected with the entrance pathway. 

Along with this room, and several others.

Me standing in front of what used to
be filled with water. The gladiators were said to have
fought here on boats. 

These next three photos were taken from the middle of one of the amphitheater's sides to show what it looked like from left to right.

Left

Middle

Right

Here is the view of the arena from one of the small
windows that face it.

Off the arena there are several door ways that
open to the halls around the arena.

My "I was totally here" photo. 

And of course some nature-scapes outside of the ruins. 

After we got back from itálica some girls and I went out walking and shopping and then snagged some dinner before heading home.

I love this poster I bought for the house :)

And we stopped for gellato. I got
strawberry cheesecake :)

The street we had dinner on was adorable. 

Along with the restaurant. 

We had yummy tapas for dinner and I only remembered to take pictures of two of them. :/

Prawns with eggs 

And goat cheese with honey

Plus the super important tinto de verano.

All in all, another win. No one in the group has run into a bad restaurant yet! I know Rob will love all the amazing food here; also there is lots of seafood!

day 4: first day of school

Monday was our first day of school at the Giralda Center. We had to be in at 830am to take a test to determine our levels and what class we would be in.

This is a view of our school from across
the street. It's very nice. 

I was super nervous about this test though because the last Spanish classes I had were last summer in the Dominican Republic.  Sadly, I was right to be nervous. It was super hard, had 65 questions, and we weren't given much time. I didn't even finish about twenty questions at least. Luckily I wasn't the only one with issues - everyone I spoke with said it was impossible. I wish it had an oral or listening section. BUT I know I'm still taking 4395 and 4195 despite the test. I think the test is more for the school here to measure how students improve during the program. They use the test as a starting point for each student.

But, after that was all done and graded we switched into our classes and started talking about Sevilla and its history. Classes ended around 1pm and we were able to go home for lunch. My mom here is a great cook!

She made spaghetti, tuna salad (with onions, peppers, cucumbers)
and potatoes with peas and calamari. 

Living here with a host family I'll try whatever she makes because A it's usually amazing and B I don't want her to get offended. The food was all very delicious! I'm a texture person and I wasn't a huge fan of the calamari because I prefer it when it's fried. I mean what isn't delicious when fried, let's be honest.

After lunch we had siesta time, which is usually my lay in bed and work on my journal for school here or on the blog.

Around five we all met back up at the school for our first excursion.  We had a guided walking tour around a neighborhood here called Santa Cruz. It started in the flower gardens across from our school and took us past several cute shops, pretty plazas and buildings.

I really like this one! I took it when we started our
tour in the gardens by our school. The two below as well.

After the park we continued on to see several other plazas and buildings.  Man was I snapping photos.

So close together! I love walking
around here.

This next building below was on la avenida de construcción. I love its intricate design on both the front and sides. Well, all over really.

Love the tile work.

And I love the rooftop terrace on this building. Such a cute spiral staircase too.

These next ones are from our walk past the cathedral.  We are visiting it by itself another day.

And the carriages outside:

After the walking tour, one of the other girls, named Tristin, and I broke off and did some more exploring and shopping. I bought wine bottle stoppers and a spoon rest. 

We walked around and ended up doing dinner on calle San Fernando. We ate at Cristina & Co. and the food was amazing. We sat and talked and shared tapas and beers till about ten then each walked home. All in all: another win. I mean 13€ each for delicious tapas and like 4 beers each? I'll take it :) 

day 3: my birthday :)

Okay so as of now I'm a day behind on my posts (aka it's Monday and I'm posting about Sunday) but I think that's better so I can post during my afternoon siesta time.

So yesterday was Sunday, the 18th (my birthday). We woke up in Madrid and took a bus to the train station.

This is me on the bus to the train station.

We took the train to Sevilla and got in around 230 in the afternoon. Our host families met us all at the train station. My host is Amada. So far I flipping love this lady!

She had her car at the train station so we loaded up my luggage and headed to her apartment. I was so happy that despite her accent I could understand her and we had a great little time getting to know each other. She didn't live far from the station so it was a short ride.

This is the entry to her apartment building.

I'm blessed being able to stay with Amada. My room is very nice and my bed is comfortable. Luckily her building has an elevator so we didn't have to carry my luggage up to her floor.

This is the elevator. The picture on the left is of the
design on its ceiling.

Once we got upstairs I unpacked and got settled in while Amada fixed me a fruit plate for lunch since I wasn't that hungry.

This is my room (view from the door)

And from the opposite side.

Here is my closet.

Lots of space to stay organized!

All around I love it. Here are the views from my window:

This is to the right.

And this is to the left.

There are two other American students living here with me from NC. We share this bathroom. Amada's apartment is a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom place so she has her own.

After I ate my fruit plate I gave Amada my gift for her. She loved it!

I got her German chocolates, cookies, and two handmade wooden signs.
She's never been to Germany and was so happy! 

After I headed out to meet up with some other kids from the group and get dinner. Plus I had to start some sight seeing. First I walked through the Plaza de Cuba and across the puente de San Telmo.

This was the view from the bridge to my right.

I then walked through the plaza de puente de jerez. There are two bigger streets here that I went up and down: calle San Fernando and avenida de la constitución. This building is near the corner of the two streets.

I then met up with some other students in the gardens in Santa Cruz off San Fernando.

Pretty flowers from the park. 

And a ginormous tree!

Next we ran into some more students and our group grew to 8. By this time we were all hungry and stopped at a Mexican restaurant for dinner around 830/9pm.  It was called Iguana Ranas. I mean I had to at least do something fun for my birthday and what better than tequila and mexican?!!

The restaurant menu. 

Tragos de tequila y mi cerveza

My delicious chicken nachos!!

After dinner we all went our separate ways and headed home.  It was a great way to spend my birthday! Go Sevilla! As of today, I'm in love.

day 2: exploring madrid

On this morning, aka Saturday, most of the group arrived at the hotel around 1030am. I switched rooms and, after they got settled and changed we were able to explore. A lot of kids, and the program director, got delayed due to flight/weather issues so it was kind of a free for all day.

Me and five other girls (Ayana, Sarah, Janeen, Chelsey, and Tristin) all decided to head to the city center to explore. We caught a bus and then two metro lines.  Super cheap and really easy. Good to get the hang of everything so when I come again it'll be a breeze. I definitely wanna come again with Rob. It's just not possible to see Madrid in two days (one after the flight in and one before our flights out).

But from what we did see it is beautiful!!

This was our view right off our metro stop
at Gran Via.

We walked around to plaza de independencia and puerta del sol. We explored lots of shops and took lots of pictures! We didn't even get to see half of it though-so tragic.

This was a fountain we walked past on one of our wrong way detours.

Love the buildings.  Kept up old world with a modern touch. 

One girl was looking for a phone charger and we ran into
this cow in front of a store called Ale-hop.

We read one of the maps in the wrong direction and found this in the
middle of a roundabout.

Around 130 we stopped for lunch at a little café near the last picture.

The menu of where we ate

Here I had my first glass of spanish sangria

For food I had a mini baguette sandwich with bacon and cheese, and I totally forgot to take a picture of that for ya.

After lunch we kept walking some more and then headed back around 5. Riding the metro back was easy but we messed up on our bus route. Tristin told him the stop name when we got on the bus but apparently your supposed to press "stop" when its coming up. We didn't do that and he didn't stop. Then his next stop wasn't for like 15km and into another little town. Luckily we were able to stay with him and he did the return route also. That was our main excitement of the day.

Once we were back we all showered and relaxed. Since not much was near our hotel we just stuck around here and did dinner and drinks at the hotel. Now it's the next morning and we're about to leave for our train ride to Sevilla. :)