Hello again! Today is the perfect rainy Sunday. We woke up to paella that we will apparently be getting every Sunday, and have just been relaxing all day! The picture to the left here is my roommate, our two little sisters, and me.

Yesterday was our excursion to Córdoba, which is a city about an hour and a half from Sevilla. It was so beautiful! It was much smaller than Sevilla and all of the roads were cobblestone and there were horses and palm trees everywhere. The cobblestones are nearly impossible to walk on, but they are much nicer to look at than asphalt.

We had to meet at 8:30 to leave for the excursion, and rode a bus to Córdoba where we toured the cathedral and had a few hours of free time. The cathedral is huge and although it is now a Catholic cathedral, it was once a mosque.

Córdoba used to be one of the most populous cities in the world during the Roman Empire, although today it has only about 300,000 people. The whole city has a mix of different kinds of architecture. The cathedral was created within the mosque, so the structure still looks very much like an Arabic structure. The original columns and arches are still there, and the altar for the cathedral is just within part of the building. It is probably one of the only places in the world that you could see a crucifix within a mosque, and it was really interesting to see the two religions coexisting. There is a giant patio outside of the cathedral with a fountain that you are supposed to drink out of to find a boyfriend/girlfriend and have a prosperous life so we all drank out of the fountain (although the water looked less than sanitary).

In our free time we walked around the town some and went to a little cafe where we sat until it was time to leave. Maggie and I tried to look for which classes to take when we got home, but it was very confusing and we've decided to put it off until some other students can help us figure it out. Last night we went to a bar called Tex Mex where they played the UNC game for us. Although we lost miserably, it was still fun to watch the game with other UNC students and it made us feel closer to Chapel Hill. After the game we went to a part of town called Los Remedios and went to a few other bars. We met

a ton of Irish people who were in Sevilla for a crew race and they all recognized my name, which is relieving because no one in Spain can pronounce Colleen.

Maggie and I are starting to get much better at navigating the town and almost found our own way back last night without having to ask for directions! We only had to ask for directions once, and at least it was a good practice of our Spanish.

Today our host dad made paella, which is a Valencian dish that has a mixture of rice, meat, vegetables, and seasoning.

It is so delicious and we were so excited to learn that it is a Sunday tradition around here! We have really enjoyed having kids in our homestay because it has given us a much better opportunity to practice our Spanish. Our host mom and dad eat after we do, so we are lucky to have the kids to eat with. It is fun to watch them argue and try to figure

out what is going on because they speak veryyyyy quickly.

Tonight we are going to watch the Barcelona vs. Betis soccer game at Tex Mex. Betis is one of Sevilla's soccer teams and they are most likely going to lose very badly. Tomorrow is our first day of our language and culture class that we have for three weeks before starting our real classes. I am actually kind of excited to start class, even though it is only once a day from 5-8.

The picture on the right here is inside of the cathedral and you can see the Arabic architecture. The bell tower and the patio outside of the cathedral are in the picture to the left.