Italy: The Food

The week leading up to our Italy trip, all we could talk about was the food that we were likely to consume. We have had serious pizza and pasta cravings while in Spain, and I am glad to say that Italy definitely did not let us down. I was expecting little authentic restaurants with fresh made pizzas and people in chef hats with twirly mustaches. I am happy to let you know that about 99% of what I expected was spot on.

Our first meal in Italy was technically in Milan, but it was definitely a bust compared to the amazing food we had on the rest of the trip. This is yet another reason why Milan didn't do much for me. The rest of our trip may as well have been planned around food. The first question we asked Jonathan upon arriving was where we should eat, and we took every food suggestion that he offered. I am happy to say that Florence did not let us down.

Panini with proscuitto, tomato, sauce, and melted brie

Florence began with the best panini that I have ever (and probably will ever) eat. This was Jonathan's suggestion when we asked him for a quick place that was open and he could not have made us happier. Maybe it was a full day of travelling and being really hungry, or maybe it was just the idea of eating cheese, but this sandwich was amazing. (Side note: my host mom doesn't care for cheese so I hadn't eaten it in almost 2 months before this sandwich. Therefore you can understand my obsession with some good old melted brie). The shop was a tiny hole in the wall bar that also happens to feature a panini press. The owners didn't speak a word of English and we had a fun time figuring out how to order. We knew from the moment we saw the sandwiches that it would be a repeat, and we were back within days.

The next day for lunch we were in town and stopped into a random restaurant. After realizing that we wanted to try a little of everything, we ordered a special sampler and some side pastas and split it among us. Our sampler started with an appetizer of bruschetta, and then moved on pizza, pasta, and dessert.

Bruschetta 

Gnocchi

Pizza with proscuitto and arugula

Profiteroles

The second night for dinner we met up with Abby and Miranda and went to an authentic restaurant suggested by Jonathan (you can tell why we love him by this point). The food was amazing and we knew it was pretty legitimate because we were the only Americans there. Jess and I ordered a salad and pasta and split it between the two of us so we could try both. 

Ravioli with meat sauce

The next day we stopped by a little sandwich shop for lunch and got caprese sandwiches. The caprese salads in Florence are supposed to be some of the best around, and the sandwich did not disappoint.

Caprese sandwich

We met up for dinner with Jess' friend who has lived in Florence for the past year, and she led us to a restaurant called Il Gatto. They are supposed to offer a sampler where each person pays a set amount and gets different types of pasta, but they require that the entire table does the sampler. So since not everyone wanted to, some of us just created our own sampler. We got an appetizer of bruschetta and then 3 different kinds of pasta. They were all delicious, and of course were paired with wine (which is cheaper than ordering water at dinner in Italy). We didn't take pictures of the food because the waiter gave us a couple nasty glares the second we pulled out our cameras, but rest assured that it was delicious. 

Our table

Dinner the next night was the best food I have ever had in my life. Molly's brother studied abroad in Florence and recommended this restaurant to us. He said that it was a little pricey, but that it was worth every penny. I could not agree with him more (plus what would I rather spend money on than food?). Part of the appeal of the restaurant is the experience you have when you go there. They only take reservations for 7:30 and 9:30 and don't open the restaurant doors until the second the clock hits 7:30. We got there pretty early, knowing that there would be a line, and we were lucky enough to be the first ones in the restaurant when it opened. Molly's brother had told us that they don't give you menus, and that we shouldn't ask for them. Instead of a menu, the waiter is your resource for the whole meal. He suggests what he thinks we should eat for each course, and brings them out as you're ready. Our waiter was a lot of fun and understood that we needed to pace ourselves if we were going to finish this food race. The meal starts off with a huge bottle of house wine and appetizers, which for us was a meat tray. Another appetizer came that was bread with some meat on it. It was delicious, and I'm glad we ate it before we asked what it was...because I'm not sure I would have eaten it as readily had I known that it was chicken liver. 

Meat appetizer and chicken liver

After the appetizer, he told us that they suggest a pasta course. He suggested that we get three servings instead of four and that if we wanted more we could ask for more. The pasta was delicious and was followed by the meat platter. Seeing as we were already pretty full at this point, we told him to maybe give us two servings of the meat. He came back with enough meat to feed an entire family at Christmas and told us that the chef gave him enough for four anyway. Naturally, we ate it. Who are we to turn away a steaming hot plate of Italian meat? The meat plate was followed by two different kinds of cake, which were then followed by a dessert wine and biscotti. Just as we thought we were done, he comes back with limoncello. After dinner we sat in a food coma and all agreed that it was the best meal we had ever had. The tiny Italian boss man came around and wrote us our bill and the waiter told us that boss man had given us a big discount, which is always appreciated. 

Ravioli

Gnocchi in rabbit sauce (my favorite)

Penne in meat sauce

Plate of meat including roast beef, chicken, lamb, and veal

Our messy tablecloth afterwards (I thought you'd like this Mom)

Dessert wine and biscotti

The next day was our last day in Florence, and we ventured on to Milan. Sadly, our last meal in Italy consisted of McDonald's. But hey, Italian McDonald's does have a reputation for being a little classier than American McDonald's.

I hope you enjoyed eating your way through Italy, because I certainly did. 

Italy: The Trip

I will preface this post by saying that it will most likely be extremely long. I'd like to suggest that you all get a drink or some crackers or something to make sure that you have the stamina to power through. Since I have so many pictures and stories to tell (and so much great food to talk about), I'm going to actually make it into two blog posts; one about the trip and one about the food. Food is very important in my life in general, but I think Italians take the experience of eating even further than I do. Therefore, it renders its own blog post.

In order to start at the true beginning of the trip, we must go to the night before we left when Maggie and I went to school to print off everything we would need (boarding passes, train tickets, hostel information). After going through all of the steps and checking each item off of our list, I realized that we hadn't printed out a boarding pass for the return trip. After some serious struggle time on the RyanAir website, I realized that Jess (one of the girls who went with us) had accidentally booked our return flight for March 27th instead of February 28th. Now, you all already know the ending to this story where I'm sitting in my bed in Sevilla after a long week of travelling, but try to imagine if you had heard this story the minute it happened. We had a minor freak out when we realized that we were about to take an international flight in less than 12 hours and didn't have a way home. Needless to say, staying behind wasn't even an option and we got on looking at return flights ASAP. We all agreed that we would call RyanAir in the morning and talk to someone at the airport to see if they could sort things out before buying new tickets. 

The next morning, bright and early, we walked to the bus station to catch the airport bus. Even though Maggie and I seriously over budgeted for time and got there 30 minutes early, we STILL managed to miss the bus. Although I'd like to claim that it wasn't our fault and was due to a grouchy bus driver, we were technically standing on the wrong side of the road. We ran after the bus middle-school style, but this only caused the driver to accelerate, and we had to wander around and find a cab so that we wouldn't miss our flight. This was strike 2 in our travel experience and we hadn't even left Sevilla yet. 

Luckily we made it to the airport with plenty of time and got through security pretty swiftly. The RyanAir plane was not nearly as ghetto as I had expected, and the flight went smoothly. One of the downfalls of RyanAir is that they fly into really small airports that neighbor large cities. For example, our flight into "Milan" really flew into Bergamo, which is an hour outside of Milan. We landed in Bergamo and then had to take a bus ride for about an hour to actually get into Milan. We hadn't known what to expect about Milan at all, and we honestly only picked to fly into it because it was the cheapest option. With that being said, I certainly don't think I'll be returning. We only had about 5 hours there the first day, and I have a feeling that the station we were dropped off at was not in the best part of town. We may or may not have seen day time prostitutes. Let's just say we were happy to get on our train out of there. 

Our train

The train ride was really fun, although also very long. I had never ridden a train before, and it was just as I had expected with little carriages and a man pushing a snack cart around. An Italian man and his daughter sat facing Maggie and I and they were very friendly and talkative. They both knew some English (which we soon came to find was very common in Italy) and they taught us some Italian along the way. After learning that arrivederci is the Italian word for goodbye, I understood much better why people gave me strange looks when I used it on the plane to welcome everyone to Milan. We were really anxious to arrive in Florence, and looked like typical Americans when they announced the Florence station and we stood up 20 minutes before everyone else with our backpacks ready. When we got off the train we were greeted by my friends from home (Abby and Alyssa) and had a long group hug before jetting off to our hostel and agreeing to meet up with them as soon as we dropped our stuff off. 

Captain Morgan, our hostel dog

This trip was my first time staying in a hostel, and I don't know that any experience after this will live up to the hostel in Florence. We were definitely spoiled. We were greeted by two men named Jonathan and Clifford and the hostel dog, Captain Morgan. Jonathan welcomed us in at 10:30 (even though check in is supposed to end at 9) with wine and snacks. I knew from that moment on that Florence was my type of city. We asked him for a quick and easy dinner suggestion, and he pointed us to a panini shop down the road (more about this in the food post). After devouring some paninis, we set out on our journey to find Alyssa's apartment. We ended up lost on a Florence back road and had Alyssa give us Google Map directions over the phone. They met us on the corner of the street and we headed to a place called Fish Pub that is a bar that Alyssa and her friends go to a lot. The owners were from the Dominican Republic and were very excited to see that we spoke Spanish. We ended up going back to this bar every night we were in Florence because the owners were so nice to us, and I will probably return if (when) I go back to Florence some day.

Jonathan, our hostel owner

The next day we woke up to free breakfast (another perk of our awesome hostel) and sat down with Jonathan while he gave us a map and a description of everywhere in Florence we should go. I wish I had a picture of the map, because he literally circled or starred every single location on it. He probably spent an entire hour detailing every location for us. It ended up being extremely helpful, and I'm very glad that he knows so much about the city. He was such a great resource and gave us suggestions for gelato and dinner that never once let us down. 

We set out, map in hand, to take Florence by storm, and I loved every minute of it. I probably can't count how many times I said "I love Florence" or "everyone here is so nice!" We were also blessed with amazing weather, which was apparently even more lucky because the weeks leading up to our trip were freezing all over Italy. It was also a huge advantage that Italians put so much emphasis on knowing English. I didn't expect it to be so difficult to go somewhere and not know the language, but we were so lucky that any Italian you ran into knew a good bit of English. This is very different than Sevilla where very few people speak English. Every Italian person that we met was so nice to us and went out of their way to be friendly and helpful. This definitely helped us feel right at home.

View of the Duomo

We climbed to the top of the Duomo, and very conveniently ran into Abby and her travel buddy Miranda on the stairs. We had agreed the night before that we wanted to meet up for dinner, and running into them made it so much easier to coordinate plans. We agreed on a meeting point and they were down to try Jonathan's dinner suggestion. After the Duomo, we found a little restaurant to eat lunch at and had our first authentic Italian meal. I was very glad that we had 3 and a half days in Florence, because it gave us time to really relax and wander around without feeling rushed at all. We knew that we had plenty of time to see everything, and we had time to sit and take it all in without having to move on to the next thing too quickly. We wandered around the leather market after lunch, which ended up being one of our favorite things. The leather products were great, and although I didn't buy anything, I definitely enjoyed wandering through the different stands. The leather market led us down to the river, where there are beautiful bridges. It also conveniently led us straight to Jonathan's favorite gelato place in town. After trying the gelato in Italy, I don't think that I ever need ice cream again in America. It was so amazing. We wandered around the river and made our way to the most famous bridge, called the Ponte Vecchio. This bridge is full of history and was absolutely beautiful. There are shops built into the bridge and it looks unlike any other bridge I've ever seen. Interestingly enough, it was the only bridge in Florence not destroyed by the Allies in World War II and story has it that they believed it was too beautiful and shouldn't be destroyed. I'm not sure how valid that is, but I definitely see why the story exists. 

Ponte Vecchio

For dinner we met up with Abby and Miranda and went to a really authentic restaurant away from the city center. The food was amazing (more in the food blog post) and I was so glad to get to see Abby, since I hadn't seen her since she left for Europe. The next day, Abby and Miranda left for Rome, but we had a great time going out after dinner and I was so glad that the stars aligned and had us randomly visit Florence the same weekend.

At breakfast the next morning we had a really great time sitting and talking with the other people who were staying in our hostel. Like I said before, this was my first hostel experience, but I really enjoyed the community aspect of it all. We were sharing an 8 person room with people from all over the world, and sitting together at the breakfast table felt like they were all part of my extended family or something. We embarked on a mission to find David (Michelangelo's famous sculpture) after breakfast, and then headed to the Piazza de Michelangelo which is a beautiful overlook of the city. Although it was quite the workout getting up to it, it was well worth it and may have been one of my favorite spots we visited. Since we were already across the river, we decided we might as well get gelato again, and it turned out to be a great decision. But when is gelato not a great decision?

David replica

That night we went to dinner with Jess' friend who is getting her masters in Italy. She and a few of her friends took us to a restaurant called Il Gatto that was also delicious. She also took us to find the lucky boar, which we had such a hard time finding during the day. Apparently if you rub the boar's nose it means that you will return to Florence. After dinner we figured out our return flight home and we luckily got a pretty good deal on return tickets for booking them so late. 

The next day we wandered around again and made a return trip to the leather market. Molly and I were able to find the house that MTV's Jersey Shore cast lived in when they filmed in Florence, and we were both really excited. Our dinner this night (which was our last night in Florence) was hands down the best meal we had and it could be the best meal I have ever eaten. This will obviously be the highlight of the food blog so just hold tight. I obviously took pictures of every course. 

Piazza de Michelangelo

After dinner we met up with Alyssa, who had been on a group excursion in Rome since the first night we got to Florence. We went back to Fish Pub and then I stayed the night in Alyssa's apartment. We had a great time catching up and just hanging out, which was really nice since I also haven't seen her since before I left to come here. The next morning Alyssa and I woke up and spent the day together before I had to go meet my travel buddies to board our train. We actually ran into a girl who I was close to in elementary school but had not seen since 4th grade. She is studying abroad in Florence too and it was so weird that I would see her in a foreign country after not seeing her for 12 years. We wandered around the leather market once again and got kebabs for lunch before I headed back to my hostel. We were all so sad to leave our great hostel, but we packed up our bags and headed to the train station. 

Piazza de Michelangelo overlook

While we all assumed that our bad travel luck had run out, I guess we disregarded that there is always the possibility for strike 3. And here it comes. We spent about 2 hours at the McDonald's across from the train station just killing time waiting to board our train. When it was close to boarding time, we wandered back over to the train station and realized that our train number wasn't on the departure board. We didn't think much of it and walked over to ask the help desk what was going on. A man informed us very nonchalantly that Florence has two train stations and we were at the wrong one. We frantically asked him how long it would take to walk or take a cab there, and he told us it would be impossible to get there in time to board our train. Luckily, before we had the chance to freak out, an angel of  a woman called us over and explained that a train was leaving our station for the other station in 2 minutes and pointed us towards the platform. Without thinking, we ran towards the train at full speed and hopped on board as it took off. Although we didn't have tickets, we weren't going far and the Italian trains seem to not pay too much attention to tickets at all. We got off at the next stop, which was the other train station, and had exactly 4 minutes to find our platform before our train to Milan left. Another godsend in the form of an Italian woman speaking English found us, and she explained how to get where we needed to be. We sprinted off and made it to our train right on time. I tend to have pretty good luck, but this story takes the cake. 

The lucky boar

  

The train we boarded looked like it was straight out of Harry Potter, and we relaxed into our carriage out of breath but ready for our 4 hour train ride. We arrived back in Milan at around 7:30 PM and had to kill time before our 6 AM flight. We had originally booked a hostel, but in the end canceled our reservation and decided it would be more efficient to just sleep in the airport. We wandered around Milan a bit and ended up grabbing dinner at McDonald's because everywhere else was ridiculously expensive. Once again, I wasn't crazy about Milan and it seemed like a typical big city to me. It was Fashion Week there, but we arrived too late to see any remnants of the fashion shows or anything. After wandering around for as long as we could, we took the bus back to the airport and settled in for possibly the most uncomfortable 5 hours of my life. I don't know what convinced us that we could possibly sleep at the airport, but it was freezing cold and concrete floors. Enough said. We finally boarded our plane and got home to an empty house, which allowed for me to take a hot shower and a long nap. I'm still pretty exhausted and glad to be back to a country where I can speak the language, but it was such an amazing trip. I definitely want to return to Florence one day, so hopefully that boar will get to work granting my return trip. Stay tuned for the food blog, and come hungry for some pizza and pasta!

Passport? Check.

What I plan on looking like while I eat gelato

This weekend we are taking our first international trip since we've been here, and I am so excited! We are headed to Italy, which is one of the European countries that I've always wanted to visit most (after Spain of course). I can't wait to double fist gelato and use my knowledge of the Italian language (which consists of the words spaghetti, lasagna, tortellini...you get the picture). 

An added bonus, or two added bonuses shall I say, are that two of my best friends from home are going to be in Italy this weekend too! My friend Alyssa is studying abroad in Florence, and my friend Abby is studying abroad in Madrid but happened to book a trip to Italy the same weekend as me. I haven't seen either of them since we left to come to Europe, and I am so excited for the three of us to be together in a foreign country.

What I will probably actually look like eating
gelato

We are flying into Milan early Thursday morning and spending the day there before taking a train to Florence. Once we get to Florence Alyssa promised to pick us up from the train station and take us to our hostel where we will dump our stuff before heading off to explore the city. We are in Florence until Monday before we head back to Milan for the night before going home to Sevilla on Tuesday morning.

Even the fact that Ryan Air (the cheapest flight company in Europe) won't let me bring more than an under-stuffed backpack with me can't get my spirits down. In the fine print they never said anything about how many layers you're allowed to wear on your body, and I plan on using this to my full advantage; no matter how ridiculous I look in 3 jackets and every shirt I own.

When Señora's away, the Americans will play

Tortilla de patata

Yesterday was one of the best days we've had since we've been here. About a week ago, Pilar told us that they would be taking a trip to some port on Saturday, and that she would leave out food for us. From that moment on, we were counting down the days until we had the house to ourselves. We woke up Saturday morning after hearing them leave, and we took advantage of our empty house. First things first: we decided to make a breakfast that wasn't corn flakes. There happened to be cooked potatoes sitting out on the counter from the day before (that isn't strange around here, trust me), and this was pretty much the breakfast gods telling me that it was time to try our hand at tortilla de patata. Pilar has made this for us before, but they usually eat it as a dinner food. It's essentially a giant omelet but the only thing inside is potatoes. Most of you know that I won't touch eggs at home, but I have slowly come to enjoy eating them, and I will never turn down a good potato dish. It took us awhile to figure out how Pilar does it, because she makes it a very particular way, and on the second go around I made one that looked pretty legit for being my first time. It wasn't nearly as pretty as hers, but I would say it tasted just as delicious. I might have found my calling as a chef, to put it lightly.

Our yoga room

After our breakfast, we turned the living room into our yoga sanctuary. Sanctuary might be a strong word, considering I was using a child sized towel in place of a yoga mat, but it was still exciting for us. Maggie's mom has an online subscription to yoga classes and we used Maggie's computer to do our class (Thanks Mrs. Barber if you're reading this!). It was a lot of fun and the most relaxing block of time I've ever spent in that living room. This was probably more due to the lack of children and Disney channel than the yoga, but it was something that I wish we could do every day.

Minnie Mouse and Magician

After yoga, we ate the lunch that Pilar set out for us, and we decided to take a nap to rally ourselves for the Carnaval in Cadiz. The nap was a great choice, and it might be the first nap I've had here that wasn't interrupted by a screaming child. After our nap we set out to buy our costumes. Sadly enough, even though we live 5 minutes from the costume shop and have ample free time, we ended up buying our costumes less than an hour and a half before we were meeting to leave. Looks like my reputation for being last minute has not been lost in Spain! We had set out to be butterflies, but after a grueling indecisive process, we changed our minds. In the end, Maggie was a magician and I went as Minnie Mouse. We were seriously lacking time once we got home, and had to race to get ready to meet our friends in time. This meant that the dinner we were supposed to have got switched for salami sandwiches eaten on the way.

A picture of our group

I guess I'm used to Chapel Hill where there are such things as themed parties and Halloween, but I have never gotten so many strange looks walking down the street in a costume. I realize that I had whiskers drawn on my face and mouse ears at 7 PM, but I feel like that is strangely acceptable in America. Maybe just in Chapel Hill...who knows. We met up with our friends, who also looked ridiculous, and headed together to meet the buses. After the bus ride to Cadiz, having no idea what to expect, we finally arrived at Carnaval. It is supposed to be the third largest in the world, and while I have never been to New Orleans, I think it may be similar. It reminded me of Franklin Street on Halloween, but on steroids. We met up with pretty much everyone on our program, and I even saw my old Spanish teacher from UNC. She is from Sevilla, but I never in my life expected to run into her in Spain...or when she was dressed as Sporty Spice. Carnaval was quite an experience. Our bus left at 3 AM, and we were all ready to go at that point. Some people on our group went with a different company, and their bus didn't leave until 5:30. I can't even imagine how they did it. As soon as we got on the bus everyone fell asleep, and Maggie and I made it back to our house in record time from the bus stop, because not much is more appealing than a warm bed.

It might be interesting to you guys that our best day was spent making potato omelets and doing makeshift yoga on towels, but I don't think I can even describe how it felt to us. The weather was perfect outside, and all day long we would just look over at each other and smile and say, "Today is the best day ever!" I guess I have learned the importance of having my own space...or maybe I have just reinforced the fact that I do not want children any time soon. Either way, yesterday was, without a doubt, the best day ever.

One of Carmen's "segundo mano" presents

A lot has happened since I posted last, and it's only been two days! As I said before, Luis' birthday was Monday and it was a lot of fun. Maggie and I were so excited to give him the skittles, but we had to wait until after dinner and cake until we were able to. We had his favorite meal for dinner, which was a combination of fried eggs, french fries, fried peppers, and ham. Oh, and of course bread. That should go without saying at this point. His mom had gotten him his favorite kind of cake, and after a round of "Cumpleanos Feliz" we dug in. As I had the present almost in his hands, Carmen belted out that she wanted her present to be first. We had seen her "wrapping" her present earlier, but it was even funnier than I had thought it was going to be. She hands him two big bags with a big, excited grin on her face and tells him to open them. Out of the first bag, he pulls out an old slinky (that already belongs to him) and a movie that he already owned. Out of the next bag, he pulls out his own First Communion book. Carmen was so excited to give him these presents, and Luis was a really great sport about it.

His face after seeing our present

The best part of the night came when he opened our gift (I might be a bit bias). I have never seen someone so excited about a present. You would have thought we put 1,000,000 dollars in the bag. He immediately ran into the kitchen to show his mom, and dumped out all of the bags to count them. Later into the night he came into our room and proclaimed "I love you! I love you!" We were so glad that we got the perfect present, and that an American store happened to open up a week ago!

Yesterday was my first day of volunteering at a local school. Angeles, a woman in charge of our program, sets up a program with a school called Claret where we can go help the teachers in their English classes. After taking forever to figure out how to get to this school, my friend Miller and I finally found it. (Observation: everyone knows where the soccer stadium is. No one knows where random schools are). Although I think it will be a good experience, it has definitely confirmed that I do not want to be a teacher. The class I have is 14 year olds, and they reminded me of what it was like to be 14 and realize you have a substitute. It's a great feeling when you're 14, because you know that you're fairly invincible and won't have to do any work that day; but it's not a great feeling at all to be on the other end. Luckily, since yesterday was Valentine's Day, they learned about how those crazy Americans give each other Valentine's Day cards and how the children make boxes to put them in. Their assignment was to make English cards for their families, and we were just supposed to walk around and help them with Celine Dion playing in the background (the teacher's idea of a true American love song). From now on we are going to be teaching lessons and grading them on their participation. I'm not convinced that I'll be able to teach them very much when there are 16 of them at one time, but we'll see how it goes!

Skittles!

After Claret I rushed home and ate lunch before going back over to school and meeting up with my intercambio, Fernando. I felt like I was in one of those cheesy movies where two people only talk on the internet and then finally meet in person and stand there awkwardly because they don't know who they're looking for. I had no idea what he was going to look like, and we stupidly decided to meet outside of the University. Do you know how many Spanish looking boys walk by the front door of the University? A lot. Which basically left it up to him to find the American girl standing awkwardly by herself. He finally found me and we sat down to begin our intercambio. The rules are that we speak for one hour in English and then one hour in Spanish. While I'm all for getting practice in, two hours is a long time to talk to someone who you have just met. It was particularly difficult for us, because his English was a little short of horrible. That sounds mean...but I'm not sure there is another word to use for it. But even though it is horrible, he really wants to learn, and he wouldn't let me say anything in Spanish to help him out until the first hour was up. Naturally, we didn't get very far in the first hour, because I'm not sure we could have talked about much more than basic vocabulary. The second half was a little bit better, and his Spanish is fairly easy to understand luckily. We are going to meet once a week, and I'm hoping that both of us really improve.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Last night, in honor of Valentine's Day, a group of us dressed up and went out to get desert and wine. We found a nice restaurant in the center of town and got some really good deserts. It was a busy Valentine's Day for me, but also a good one. I could think of no better city to spend Valentine's Day in, especially with all of the street musicians playing as we walked to and from the restaurant.


This weekend we are going to Cadiz, a beach town near Sevilla, for Carnaval. It is supposed to be the third largest Carnaval in the world, and it is Saturday night. Once we find costumes, we'll be ready to go, and I'm pretty excited because I've heard that it's a lot of fun. Hopefully it warms up a little bit before Saturday, or I might be going as an eskimo.

Granada

Molly, Maggie and I outside of our hotel room

This weekend we went on everyone's favorite group excursion to Granada. Unfortunately, unlike the students who come in the fall or summer, we had to go when it was absolutely freezing. Whoever thought it was a good idea to advise us against bringing heavy coats is just mean. Even though I spent the majority of the time in Granada drowned in as many layers as I could muster, I still really enjoyed the city. Granada is about 3 to 4 hours from Sevilla and is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. It is a totally different feel from Sevilla because instead of seeing a river and palm trees, we were surrounded by snow capped mountains. The city itself is much smaller than Sevilla and felt to me as though it was the Chapel Hill of Spain. The town is mostly known for its university, and there are over 70,000 college students there. It certainly feels like a college town when you're walking around, and you even get a free tapa with every drink that you buy. This is definitely a custom that Sevilla needs to pick up because we ate some really interesting tapas. The last one we got was bread with goat cheese and honey on it. While this may sound disgusting, it was actually really great.

Miller, Marissa and I exploring the city

Since we were with the program, the hotel and dinner were paid for, and I FINALLY got salmon in Spain. I have been missing salmon since we got here, so when I heard that our options at dinner were chicken or salmon, I could not have been more excited. Even better than that, it was good salmon (not better than yours of course, Mom). The hotel was also nicer than expected and we got a third roommate so it was like a little sleepover! Even though Maggie and I technically have a sleepover every night.

The bus rides there and back were fun, because these are usually the only time when our entire program is together. It's fun to get to spend time with everyone in one place, and it definitely made the bus ride much more enjoyable. We had some free time when we first arrived in Granada to see the city and relax a little bit. We explored and found a cute market and some shops. After a few hours we met our tour guides at the hotel and went on our tour of the cathedral and the Castilla Real. The cathedral was a little unimpressive after the cathedral in Sevilla, but it was still pretty. The Castilla Real was much more interesting, and this is where Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand are buried. We were able to see their tombs and we learned a little bit about 1492 when Granada was conquered by Isabella and Ferdinand (the same year they sent Columbus to find the Americas).

Goat cheese and honey

After the excursion we had a little bit more free time where we walked around for a little bit more. We knew we were in for some miserable weather when the temperature dropped about 20 degrees in a hour. I thought my hands were going to fall off before I even got to savor my long awaited salmon. After dinner we met up with a friend of Jess who is studying abroad in Granada. She is going to be there for a full year, and has already been there since September, so she was a good resource to have. We were all tired and had to get up early, so we didn't stay out as late as we would have liked, but it was still fun to get to experience the nightlife in another city.

View from the top of the tower

Sunday we woke up early and visited the Alhambra. The Alhambra is a palace and fortress that were built by the Arabs and then conquered by the Catholic monarchs when they conquered Granada in 1492. 1492 was a big year for these people, just as it is for us. Even though it is supposed to be a palace, the Alhambra is more like a city. It is perfectly preserved and has all of the Arabic influence that the mosque in Cordoba and the Reales Alcazares in Sevilla have. There were Arabic baths, a court house, living quarters, gardens, etc. The Alhambra was surrounded by the Sierra Nevada mountains and it was beautiful to see, especially under a perfectly blue sky like yesterday.

On the way home most of us had to fight to stay awake. We put in a movie that one student had thought to bring, and it was refreshing to watch something in English for once and not have to think too hard. If you know me, it is probably needless to say that I feel asleep about 10 minutes into the movie, but I certainly enjoyed those first 10 minutes.

The Alhambra

When we got home we helped Maria study for her English test that she had today, and we have come to realize that her English teacher must not know too much English herself, because some of the phrases she teaches them are not even close to grammatically correct. Even so, she is still learning a ton of English and she seems to be doing well on her tests with our help, so I'm glad we can be of service!

Our favorite professor (and tour guide),
Fernando

Today is Luis' birthday and we finally got him the perfect present. Maria told us last week that the family was supposed to take a trip to Malaga this weekend, and she was so excited because they always buy "eh-skittles" when they're in Malaga. It took us about 10 minutes to realize that she was saying skittles, as in the candy, and we suddenly realized that skittles were one candy we hadn't seen here. She told us that Malaga is the only place they can find them, and that her and Luis both love them. On Saturday morning when we were getting ready to leave for Granada, Maria came into the kitchen with a sad face and told us that they weren't going to Malaga anymore, and thus, no eh-skittles. We've been struggling for weeks to figure out what to buy Luis, and this was practically a sign that the kid needed skittles. We began our search in Granada and looked in every candy store we could find for skittles. Nothing. Our friend Jake decided to help us and he said that an American candy store had just opened next to his house in Sevilla. Last night as we were studying with Maria I got a call from him saying that he had seen skittles in the window as he walked by. After class today we walked across the river and found the store, called "American Sweets." My, what a find this was. The store not only has skittles, but they have anything you could miss from America. Peanut butter, pancake mix, syrup, Betty Crocker cake mixes, Reese's cups, Hershey bars, Capri Suns, and even Poptarts. The man looked shocked when we bought 13 bags of skittles (it is his 13th birthday after all) and I'm sure he thinks that they are all for the two of us because he told us that he's getting a shipment in next week with all kinds of new foods. There is a possibility that we could become regulars, and lets just say its a good thing that it is very far from our house.

Tonight is Luis' birthday party, but I don't think birthdays are quite as big of a deal here. I'm not really sure what will happen, but I'm under the impression that we are doing a family dinner and cake afterwards. I probably don't know more details because the word cake was all I needed to hear. I hope that he enjoys his eh-skittles and we figured this would be a perfect time to take some family pictures!

Tomorrow I am meeting my intercambio, Fernando, to practice our Spanish/English. I am really excited to meet him and I feel like having a partner to talk to each week will really help my Spanish improve. We're all hoping to become good friends with our intercambio partners so we can meet their friends and all go out as a big group. Oh also, Happy almost Valentine's Day everyone!

Being the new kid

Well, we have officially finished our 3rd day of classes, and I have finalized my schedule. After attending two lectures with one professor, I had to call it quits and switch classes for the sake of keeping my sanity. I'm pretty sure I only understood about 1/4 of what he said, and he kept writing words in Latin on the board. That's when I knew it was time to admit defeat. Luckily the class I switched into seems much more straight forward. My two University classes are pretty interesting and it's a new experience to have classes with Spaniards. Our geography teacher loves to call out the foreigners, but this could play to our advantage because she said she also goes easier on us come exam time. I think that I'll definitely have my work cut out for me in these classes, but the grade really depends on the final exam.

My two classes at EUSA with other UNC students seem to be fun as well. We have our favorite professor, Fernando, again, so I know that I will like that class. Our literature class is small, which is fitting for our professor who might be 5 feet tall. She seems a little crazy, but the good kind of crazy where she doesn't mind making a fool of herself.

Our first day of school brought back memories of the first day of college, when you walk into your lecture hall not really knowing what to expect. The only difference was, the University of Sevilla apparently doesn't believe in heated rooms...or hallways...or bathrooms...or really heat at all. I'm sure I will be missing these days once its hot, but its a little awkward to have to wear my coat and gloves during class. I'm happy to say that I was not thrown into any trashcans or lockers, and that our Spanish classmates seem really nice! One boy passed me a note (4th grade style) telling me that he is the class delegate for foreign students and I could email him if I needed anything.

We also got the name of our intercambio partner today. Intercambio is a program run by our director that sets each UNC student up with a Spaniard who is learning English. We're supposed to meet once a week for 2 hours and speak half the time in English and half the time in Spanish. I'm pretty excited to start doing this, because I think it will be a good way to make new Spanish friends! My intercambio partner is named Fernando, and I'll give you more information once I actually meet him.

Two of our siblings have been home sick for the past week, and today they were feeling much better and we spent the majority of the day playing with them. Luis came in our room to ask if we would play "Mon-y-poly" which we soon found out was Monopoly, and we got the pleasure of playing with Euros and Spanish cities; although I did miss the thimble and dog playing pieces, which the Spanish version doesn't have. Afterwards we played ping pong for awhile until we had to go back to class. All of that Monopoly must have gone to my head a little bit, because it took two flights of stairs and walking outside of our building for me to realize that I was still wearing my slippers when we left for class. So much for not looking American...

This weekend seemed to fly by. Our class ended on Friday, and it was weird to take a final exam after only 3 weeks of class. The end of that class also means that as of Tuesday we will have been here for a whole month. I can not believe it at all. Time seems to be flying by, and I know it will just pick up even more once classes start up and we begin our travelling and such.

Our real classes start tomorrow, meaning that I won't be sleeping in until noon every day. I'm excited to go to the university, but keep your fingers crossed that I don't get shoved in a trash can or something. I'll be like that new kid in elementary school who has to eat lunch alone.

Friday night led to Maggie and I realizing for the four hundredth time that we should never underestimate our ability to get lost. We have been here almost exactly a month. In that month I would say there have been more days than not where we got lost at least once. And this isn't the fun kind of lost where you have nothing to do on a sunny day and meander around a city. It always happens when we're already running late to meet people and decide to take a "short cut." You'd think that we would know by now to just take the route we know and bypass the "short cuts" that we come up with that really add 45 minutes to our trip. Friday night was the worst it's been so far. To make matters bad to even begin with, it was freezing outside. Luckily we decided to ride our bikes or this story may have gone much differently. We were meeting people across town at the river, but we decided that we could find this great short cut and get there super fast. Instead we ended up in a part of Sevilla that two white girls on bikes with bells and baskets should probably never go to at night...or in the day. I still have no idea where we were, and I didn't take the time to figure it out because there won't (hopefully) be a return visit. I'm pretty sure at one point we were riding in the bike lane on a highway out of town...but who can really know. When we had almost made it back to civilization, we rounded a corner to find a group of probably 100 people all standing in the street with music blasting from their cars. I was 100% convinced at first that we had found some kind of hidden fight club or gang war, but it turned out to be a bunch of 15 years olds throwing some kind of street party.

The story ends happily. We finally made it to our destination and didn't lose any blood in the process. My map will now be coming with me everywhere I go; nerdy or not.

The waffle building

Saturday we decided to have an adventure and explore some new parts of the city. We met up with Molly, bag lunches in hand, and set out to cross some Sevilla must-dos off our bucket list. The first of these is what we call the Waffle Building. I'm not sure what the real name is...or why it even exists, but it looks like a giant waffle. It is a huge wooden structure that was created not too long ago, and you can go on top of it and get a great view of the town. There is also a random meat market inside of the waffle, but we skipped out on that part.

On top of the waffle building

After touring the waffle we wandered around that part of town and found some really cool little shops and cafes. Our teacher told us about a convent where the nuns sell candies, and you have to find them and then say a phrase to get in the door (or so she says). I think she probably just tells us to say the phrase so the nuns can get a good laugh. We've naturally been wanting to check this out since we heard about it, but I guess even nuns take a siesta in this country, because their doors were sealed shut at 2:15 when we got there, and I don't think a secret phrase was going to help. I'm sure we'll be back to the convent another time, because not much can stand in the way of me and homemade candy.

We ended up running into one of the tour guides from Discover Sevilla (a travel company that we're going to Morocco with) and he showed us his favorite restaurant to go get cake at. The cake was really awesome, and he gave us other tips were going to try later on. The rest of the day we just spent walking around and enjoying Sevilla. We had a little picnic in a plaza and stumbled upon a giant block party outside of a church that apparently happens every week. Everyone just stands in the plaza and eats and drinks and mingles. We wanted to mingle, but we looked extra foreign because it was very obvious that we didn't know anyone there. It's our goal to meet some people in our classes who go there and can help us join in.

We finalized our spring break plans and we have a full week planned out that takes us from Dublin to Amsterdam to Heidelberg Germany. I am so excited about all of the travelling that we have planned and I can't wait to get out and explore other cities! Although Heidelberg may seem a little random, it was recommended to us by a student who studied abroad in Germany and a German exchange student who used to go to Rachel's high school. He lives really close to Heidelberg now and has offered to show us around the town and let us hang out with him and his friends. It's going to be so fun to have a personal tour guide.

Hopefully I can find my classes tomorrow and even more importantly, make some friends who will send me their notes at the end of the semester. If that is too lofty of a goal, I can at least shoot for not being shoved in a trashcan for being the new kid.

Not much has been happening since my last post. This is our last week of having our one night class, and we start real classes at the University on Monday! Although I'm excited to finally have a schedule, I'm sure I'll miss these last three weeks when I've slept until 11 every day. Each student in our language class has had to give a presentation on the topic of the day, and today is finally mine. I guess they saved the best for last? My presentation is about the European Union, and I would go into more detail, but it truly isn't interesting.

I've really enjoyed this three week class. The culture part was more of a Spanish history class, and our teacher, Fernando, did a great job of making it interesting. I've never been much of a history person, but the history of Spain is sort of crazy. Less than 40 years ago Spain was a dictatorship with really harsh laws; particularly regarding women. In the 70's women could not withdraw money from their bank account without a signed form from their husband or their father (if they didn't have a husband). To me that is just crazy! It explains a lot about their culture though. The majority of the students in our group have older senoras, who are in their 70s or 80s, and they have very ingrained opinions that women should solely work in the house doing chores and taking care of their husband and children. It is evident that it is a dying mindset, because many girls my age go to college and get jobs afterwards, but it is odd to think that there are still people with the mindset that women are less capable than men.

At the same time, Spanish history seems so contradictory. Less than 40 years ago children had separate schooling where the girls learned to cook and sew and the boys learned math and science, but today Spain has some of the most liberal laws of any country. Abortion, gay marriage, and divorce are all legalized; which is especially surprising when you take into account that 80% of the country is Catholic. What is even more surprising is that sex changes and abortions (in some cases) are even paid for by the government! Health care is free, even for visitors like us, and the University is exponentially cheaper than even public schools in America. I just find it so interesting that a country with such a strong religious base has some very liberal policies. I guess they have really embodied the separation of church and state.

Last night we got a chance to talk to our host mom about why she takes in international students, and we found out a lot about her. We were under the impression that she had always been a stay at home mom, but apparently she used to own a clothing store! She said that when she had Carmen (who is four) she closed the store and became a stay at home mom because their in home nanny left and they couldn't find a new one. Unlike many of the older senoras, Pilar (our mom) doesn't take in international students for money. She said that she does it because she sees it as her job and it gives her a purpose. She also said that she enjoys the company. We by far have the youngest senora, and a lot of our classmates are really interested in the stories we always have about the kids in our house and the parent's friends that come over.

The students with the older senoras do have their share of funny stories though. For example, yesterday in class my friend Jess told us that she recently discovered that her senora has been doing their laundry in the bidet. (If you haven't seen a bidet before, it is a type of sink intended for washing the underside of the body...to put it nicely). I don't think I have ever laughed so hard in my life. We told Pilar that story and she was flabbergasted. I have personally seen our washing machine so I am 100% sure that our clothes are bidet-free.

We were thinking about going to Ronda, the nearby city with the cliffs, on Saturday, but the high is supposed to be in the 40s, so we nixed that plan. Instead we are going to explore Sevilla a little more and cross some things off of our bucket list. We might even ask our senora for a bag lunch and have a little picnic!