Ever since getting back from Barcelona my week has been a little off schedule. I've finally recovered from my lack of sleep over the weekend, and thankfully today we didn't have classes due to a national strike. As most of you probably know, Spain's economy is doing very poorly, and today there was a nationwide strike that left every city in Spain with public demonstrations, no university classes, and only 30% of the usual public transportation. I steered clear of any demonstrations and just enjoyed my day off.

Maggie's parents have been here all week, and I have really enjoyed having a taste of the US here in Spain. I've gotten to spend a lot of time with them, and I like seeing the fresh perspective they have on Sevilla. It reminds me of how we all felt the first week we were here. They came over to our house to meet the family and have dinner on Tuesday night, and it was quite the event at our household. Pilar pulled out a white tablecloth and we ate at the dining room table instead of sitting with the kids in the kitchen as usual. Pilar prepared a feast for us, and she fixed different kinds of typical Spanish food, so that Maggie's parents could get a sampling of the kinds of things we eat. The food was delicious, but the best part was getting to hear Pilar and Luis (our host dad) speak in English. I think I can speak for everyone when I say we had a great time, and it made me so excited for my own mom to come and see our house and meet our parents. The children were also on their very best behavior, which is always a welcome surprise.

Tomorrow I have to start packing for our week long spring break trip. We leave on Saturday for Dublin, and from there go to Amsterdam and Heidelberg, Germany. I am very excited, but also interested to see how I am possibly going to fit a weeks worth of clothes in one backpack.

I'm hoping that Dublin will be full of my distant relatives who just can't wait to share a pint with me. I'm sure whatever I find this week will be nothing short of amazing, and prepare yourselves for an extra long blog post when I return.

Barcelona

I have heard all of my life that Barcelona is a crazy city...but living it was a whole new experience. Up until about a month ago, I didn't have any plans to go to Barcelona and was really hoping that somehow I would end up there; because how could I live in Spain and not visit (arguably) it's most popular city.

Luckily fate was on my side with this one. My roommate Maggie had plans to meet her parents in Barcelona this past weekend. As luck would have it, my best friend from home was also going to be in Barcelona the same weekend as part of a 10 day spring break trip she was taking. My only problem was that I didn't want to impose on Maggie and her parents, and Alyssa didn't know which hostel she was staying at. And this is where luck was once again on my side. I asked my friend Kasey, who is studying in Madrid, if she would possibly want to come to Barcelona as well so that I would have someone to stay with. Needless to say, I ended up in Barcelona with two of my best friends from home and my roommate and her awesome parents...and what a weekend I was in for.

We left Sevilla on Thursday night after taking our first literature exam, and Maggie and I were both pumped. Obviously Maggie was very excited to see her parents, but we were also excited to visit the city that we had heard so much about from everyone on our program. We arrived in Barcelona and headed to meet Maggie's parents at the main plaza in the city. We went and dropped our stuff off at the apartment her parents were staying at, and we headed to dinner. After dinner we walked around the main street in Barcelona, which is called La Rambla. This street was one of my favorite parts of the city. Maggie's parents' apartment was right on La Rambla, and the hostel that I stayed at the rest of the weekend was as well. This street is ALWAYS bustling with people and stretches all the way from the main plaza of the city to the pier, where you will find people laying out by the water or sailing on their boats. The middle of the road is set up for people to walk on, and there are all kinds of street vendors and performers lining this sidewalk as you walk through. Anything you could ever need is on this road, and it has such a sense of community to it. After walking around for a long time and getting to know Maggie's parents, we went back to their apartment and called it a night.

Kasey got into Barcelona at 7:30 AM the next morning, and although I was tired from the late night we had before, I was up and ready to go when she called me. After getting a little (a lot) lost on the way to our hostel, I finally found her. We had barely hugged and dropped our bags before we were out the door on our mission to find Alyssa. Since Alyssa is studying in Italy, her cell phone wouldn't work in Spain, and we had to just hope that knowing her hostel address in Barcelona would be enough to find her. As luck would have it, we hadn't even walked 5 minutes from our hostel's front door before hearing "COLLEEN! KASEY!" and turning around to find her.

La Sagrada Familia

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city and hitting some of the main tourist attractions. First on our list was La Sagrada Familia, which is probably one of the most famous Catholic churches in the world. The main designer of this church is Antoni Gaudi, whose name you will be hearing A LOT, as he designed just about everything famous in Barcelona. Even though construction of La Sagrada Familia began in 1882, it is still not completed, and is not projected to be completed until 2030! Gaudi died in 1926 when only a quarter of his masterpiece had been finished. I don't even know how to describe this church other than saying that it is unlike anything you have ever seen. Part of the church reminds me of a drippy castle that you made on the beach when you were a little kid, but then you look up and see gigantic hanging fruits that are perched on the different levels of the church. We didn't go inside because the line was ridiculously long, but I've heard that the inside of the church is just as odd and psychedelic looking as the outside was.

The only bad part about La Sagrada Familia for me was pulling out my camera to realize that it was dead. Luckily for me, Kasey hates taking pictures and was more than happy to lend me her camera for the weekend so that she didn't have to take the pictures herself. I can't imagine what I would have done without being able to capture any of Barcelona on film!

The cable cars!

After La Sagrada Familia, we took a tip from one of my friends and caught a bus up to Mount Juic. Mount Juic is basically a giant hill in Barcelona, and the bus was a great (cheap) way to see the city without having to walk all the way up this enormous hill. When we got about halfway up, we got off and did one of my favorite things of the weekend, which was ride the cable cars. They reminded me of sealed in ski lifts, and they rode all the way up to the very top of Mount Juic. The view from the cable car was incredible, and it was so fun to ride in it. When we got to the top we hopped off and toured an army fort that is located on top of Mount Juic. We decided that we could handle walking back down the hill, and stopped at the Olympic Stadium on our way down. Barcelona hosted the 1992 Olympics, and it is free to walk around the stadium.

Alyssa, Kasey and I at the pier

Our next stop after making it back to La Rambla was my favorite part of the entire city: La Boqueria. La Boqueria is a huge, open air market, with tons of vendors who have fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, fresh fish, meat, etc. I was like a kid in a candy shop, and I just got more and more amazed by this market as I went through it. I have never seen such fresh produce for so cheap. The people who live in Barcelona just don't know how great they have it! We grabbed some fruit juice and fruit platters in La Boqueria and headed out to the pier to hang out by the water. The pier is a long stretch that is full of people, and it was really relaxing to hang out by the water and get to catch up with my friends from home.

We headed back to our hostels to get cleaned up and take a little siesta before dinner. The landlord who rented Maggie's parents their apartment had given them a great restaurant suggestion before I met up with my friends, and we were all excited to try it. One of my favorite things to do in Europe has been to ask local people where the best restaurants are, because we always end up in a hole in the wall place that has amazing and authentic food. This restaurant was about the size of a walk in closet, but it was the best food I have had in a long time. We were told to order the "Frijoles" plate, which came with black beans, rice, a fried egg, and a fried banana. Although that may sound like a random combination, it was delicious. The waiters were all little old Spanish men and they were so nice and helpful to us.

The entrance to La Boqueria

Full and happy, we started back down La Rambla towards our hostels to figure out what we wanted to do that night. Once again, fate was on our side. Our original plan had been to go to some bars and clubs that Alyssa's tour group had suggested, but they all seemed very far from each other and very touristy (which equates to very crowded and expensive). This plan did a complete 180 about five minutes after leaving the restaurant when we ran into an Irish guy trying to get people to join a pub crawl. He told us that the pub crawl would take us to 4 different pubs right around there and end in a club right near our hostel. We all agreed that this would definitely be the best option because we wouldn't have to use a map (which for us means get lost) or walk too far from our hostel. He had us sold, and we went into the first pub to hang out before starting the pub crawl.

Our fellow pub-crawlers ended up consisting of a random work group of 40 year olds who were in Barcelona for business, and a bachelor party full of British men. I'm not sure that I would have traded either. In Europe, bachelor parties require that the man who is getting married must dress up in a ridiculous costume. The man in this party was wearing a pair of compression shorts, some suspenders, and not much else. The pub crawl and the club we ended up at were so much fun. True to what I've always heard about Barcelona, the night life goes veryyyyy late. I always thought that it was absurd to hear that people stayed out until 6 in the morning, but after visiting Barcelona, I now understand. Before we even knew what had happened it was 6:30 AM and we had been awake for almost 24 hours. Going back to America is sure going to be a transition.

Casa Battlo

We woke up the next day and grabbed some lunch before going to hit the rest of our tourist stops, which consisted of Gaudi's work around the city (told you he'd come up again). Gaudi designed several houses in Barcelona, and they are just about the craziest looking things you will ever see. I think I now know where the term "gaudy"comes from. The first house we went to was called Casa Mila, or La Pedrera, and is almost more of a sculpture than a piece of architecture. The second house we saw was called Casa Battlo, and was also incredible looking. It is even more odd to see these houses because they are stuck in between other normal looking apartment buildings.

After checking out the houses, we  headed to Park Guell, which is one of the most famous attractions in Barcelona. The park was designed by Gaudi as well, and is a garden that houses several different structures built by Gaudi. The park bench, which is the longest continuous bench in the world, is covered in mosaic and overlooks these tiny gingerbread looking houses that Gaudi built. I truly felt like I was in Willy Wonka.

La Pedrera

After Park Guell, we headed back La Boqueria to once again grab some cheap and delicious fruit, and then decided that we were all craving some American food. I had seen a place with cheeseburgers earlier, and we set out again to find it. It was really nice to sit down and enjoy a nice cold Diet Coke, because our feet were killing us after so much walking. We sat at this restaurant for a long time, and before we knew it we saw another group of men walk in with one of them dressed in a ridiculous outfit. Little did we know that we were about to join our second bachelor party of the weekend. This bachelor was dressed as a "woman" which included a skirt, bright blue leggings, makeup, and a wig. We hung out with the bachelor party before they had to go to their "dinner" which included a stripper. We decided that was a good time to call our bachelor partying quits; at least for the weekend. Now that I've been a part of a bachelor party, I want to go to all of my friends' bachelor parties some day. If Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson can take up wedding crashing, then I don't see why I can't become a bachelor party crasher.

Bachelor party number 2 

We were all super tired from the weekend as a whole, but went to hang out at the hostel until my flight left. My flight home was originally supposed to be at 6:05 AM on Sunday. The prospect of such an early morning already seemed horrifying, but then I realized about a week before going to Barcelona that this was also the day when the rest of the world does daylights savings time...

Needless to say, it was must easier to just not go to sleep at all. I caught a bus to the airport at about 2:30 AM and by the time I got through security and boarded the plane, I was seriously dragging. I got home to Sevilla at about 8:30 and headed straight to bed. Barcelona is definitely one of my favorite cities I have ever been to and it was made even better by the people I spent time with while I was there! It has such an international feel and it is cool to walk around and here about 6 different languages being spoken around you. Alyssa, Kasey, and I have already decided that we're keeping the tradition alive and hosting our bachelorette parties in Barcelona, because one weekend just wasn't enough.

Gingerbread looking houses at Park Guell

Some of the awesome food from the market

Rows and rows of seafood

Another Willy Wonka house

Morocco

Friday was one of those days when you wake up excited. For me that day is usually my birthday or the first day of school, but this time it was because I was waking up to leave for the trip that I’ve been most excited about: MOROCCO. From the second we booked our Morocco trip I’ve been dying to go. My excitement was mostly due to the promised camel ride we would take, but the trip ended up being so much better than I was even imagining.

The best thing about the trip was the lack of planning that we had to do. We paid for the trip and then didn’t think about it again until Friday morning when we packed our bags and headed out. It was so nice to just have someone tell you to get on the bus at this time and eat this food at this restaurant and not have to worry about a thing (because my life is so full of worries as it is). The company we travelled with is called DiscoverSevilla and they plan different trips for people who are studying abroad. The tour guides are all young, fun guys which is a great marketing scheme once you realize that about 90% of the people who study abroad are girls.

We made our way to the buses on Friday in the pouring rain, and I used my umbrella for the first time since I’ve been here (it NEVER rains in Sevilla). Even the rain couldn’t get my spirits down. After a four hour bus ride full of Toba’s awful jokes and music (Toba was our bus leader), we finally got to Tarifa, Spain where we boarded the ferry. From Tarifa you can literally look across the ocean and see Morocco, and we were very excited to get our passports stamped! We’ve come to learn that when you travel within countries that are members of the European Union you usually don’t get a stamp in your passport, which made four girls very sad when they arrived in Italy. I'm sure the Spanish police man thought I was a little crazy with my giant smile when he stamped my passport, but that's neither here nor there.

Crazy fire man

After we walked through a loading dock and my fear of being kidnapped increased 10 fold, we stepped on to the coolest ferry I've ever seen. Granted, I've only been on a ferry about twice in my life, but this one might as well have been a cruise ship. It had a giant seating area with tables and a cafe and a duty free shop. Needless to say, a giant bag of gummy bears was my first Moroccan purchase. After about an hour, we finally arrived in Morocco. We hopped back on our buses and head to the hotel, which was a sight for sore eyes after all of our travelling. The hotel was beautiful and we were upset that it wasn't a little warmer because it was beach front with a beautiful pool. As soon as we got to the hotel we had our first Moroccan meal, which consisted of chicken couscous and a delicious salad. The dinner had a few surprises, which included a lady modeling a typical Moroccan dress, and a man dancing with lit candles on his head while a crazy band played.

Our tour guide who insisted that I wear
his clothes

After dinner we hung out in the hotel bar for a little bit before calling it an early night. The next morning we woke up early and headed off to a town called Chefchaouen. The town was beautiful and everything was painted blue and white. All of the houses had bright blue doors and the colors of the city were gorgeous. We had a tour before heading to lunch at a restaurant overlooking all of the city. Our tour guide was a really sweet man who spoke English and loved having us pose for group pictures. Right before we walked into the restaurant I asked to take a picture with him and he insisted that I wear his traditional gelabah and hat in the next photo. I could definitely get used to Moroccan restaurants where you sit with tons of cushions in front of open windows with a breeze.

After lunch we headed to the market area to barter for some Moroccan goods. We had to transfer our euros to dirhams, the local currency, and went to work buying things. Along the way we ran into a man named Muhammad who ended up being our new tour guide. He took us from shop to shop to help us find "the best" of everything, and each time we were going somewhere new he would yell "THIS WAY PLEASE number one!!" He thought it was hilarious and kept calling me "number one" and "Fatima" because he told me I was his favorite just like the prophet Muhammad's first born daughter Fatima. He was a crazy, crazy man but he got us some great deals on the stuff we bought, which for me included leather bags, some sandals, and a few gifts. After we had to leave the market and get on the bus, Muhammad came running after us with incense that he had bought each of us as a gift. 

We headed back to the hotel and went out on the beach until dinner time. We saw the sun set over the beach and hung out for a while. I've really been missing water, and it was really nice to go on the beach even if we couldn't swim. After dinner we all hung out at the hotel bar again and on the beach a little bit more before heading off to bed for another early morning.

Michael Douglas, our tour guide

We woke up for our last day in Morocco and headed to Tetuan, which was pretty close to where we were staying. Our tour of Tetuan was full of surprises, which started with our tour guide, who swore that he looked just like Michael Douglas. He obviously looked absolutely nothing like Michael Douglas, but we weren't going to spoil his fun. He told us a lot of interesting information that coincided with what we've been learning in our Spain and Islam class. For example, he informed us that he has three wives but is looking for an American as his fourth. We knew that polygamy was legal in most Islamic countries, but it was interesting to hear about it from someone we knew. We winded through the very narrow streets of Tetuan and along the way got to see a real snake charmer (imagine Aladdin) and hold the snakes. The roads we were winding through were so narrow and there were stray animals everywhere, which broke my heart. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a very soft spot for animals, and I was ready to take every one of them home with me. The next stop on our tour was a rug shop where they gave us a presentation of some beautiful rugs and blankets that were all hand made. Some of the rugs took up to 7 years to make by two professional workers. They were so beautiful and the silk ones felt amazing, but they were also ridiculous expensive. The last stop on our tour was to a pharmacy, where oddly enough is where you can buy Moroccan spices. A man gave us a presentation about all of the different spices and herbs that they offered, and then came another awkward encounter. I'm not sure if I just have a really friendly face or what, but this guy really took to me. We were in a room full of about 60 people, and he insisted on giving me free root that is supposed to be like the natural version of Viagra. On the way out of the door he told me that he loved me, and was so happy to have met me. I guess if I can't find a husband in America I always have a back up plan. 

The view from inside the cave

We ate lunch at another really cool restaurant before heading off to Tangiers, where our camels awaited us. First we took a little tour of the Caves of Hercules, which look out over the most beautiful beach I've ever seen. After chatting for awhile with some retired mobile home tour group from Switzerland that we randomly met, we headed off to the camels. I was in love the second I stepped off the bus to find a baby camel that was only 1 month old. His hair was the softest thing I've ever felt and let's just say I need to be thankful that he is bigger than a carry on size, because otherwise I couldn't have resisted taking him home.

We were (literally) thrown onto our camels by the guide who kept yelling "YEEHAW" and "OH MY GOD" and insisted that we take a "Christmas card" photo at the end. The camel ride was so fun and mildly terrifying. After we got off we watched the other groups ride and two girls actually fell off of the camel. Luckily they were alright, but I felt so bad for them! Even though we only got to ride for about 4 minutes, I will say that the camel ride was definitely worth it. After the camels we headed off to catch the ferry again, and spent our ferry ride eating dinner and relaxing before catching our bus back to Sevilla. It was an amazing weekend and I would do it over again in a second. I will say that it was nice to come home and brush my teeth without bottled water. I was so sad to leave, but now I'm excited to go to Barcelona on Thursday!     

Group photo

Our "Christmas card" photo

The sweet baby camel and I

On the beach

Maggie and I in Chefchaouen

Chefchaouen

Me with the snake

The snake charmers with a cobra

My noble steed

Not too much has happened this week, and it actually went by very fast. This whole semester is flying by if you ask me! I volunteered at Claret helping the English class, as usual, on Tuesday and got asked the same questions as always. They always say that they want to "practice their English" by speaking it, which I agree is the best method, so I let them ask me questions and we talk back in forth in English. So far the only questions they ever want to ask relate to "were you a cheerleader in high school?" and "does every teenager in America really have a car?"

The rest of the week went smoothly. We had our first test in our Spain and Islam class, and I've actually started to have some homework (shocking, I know).

Julieta not loving me

This Friday we headed off to Doñana National Park in a part of Spain called Huelva, which is about 2 hours from Sevilla by bus. We signed up online for a horseback riding excursion, and I had been excited about it for weeks because I have always loved riding horses. Of course, we should have known the day wouldn't go as planned. It never does with us. First we got on the bus and headed to where we thought was Doñana National Park to find out that we were about 30 km from where we needed to be. Our meeting point for the excursion was nowhere to be found, so we called up the number on our reservation sheet. Luckily, the company was super nice and sent a car for us. Or as the man on the phone put it, "it's your lucky day, a black Audi will be coming to pick you up." We still got charged, but it was definitely cheaper than a taxi would have been. The man in the black Audi drove us to the horse stable, where we finally met up with the excursion group (who looked less than happy with us for being late).

Sweet horse

I got paired up with my horse, whose name was Julieta, and we rode around in circles for a little bit until the guides were sure that everyone knew what they were doing. After that we took off through the park, which is a protected natural area full of marshes and sand dunes. Unfortunately, we didn't get to actually ride on the beach, but we got to see great views of it and I was just happy to be riding a horse. Julieta was a tad on the fiesty side, and she certainly was not happy just following along in line with the other horses. I would say that we bonded...but once I hopped off of her at the end she seemed happy to be able to do her own thing. I guess I can't blame her.

After the excursion the man in the Audi drove us back to the bus station, and after breaking every single American driving law, we ended up catching our bus on time. We made it back to Sevilla in one piece, although a tad bit exhausted and smelling of horse. After a quick shower we set up the computer to watch the first round of the ACC tournament.

The rest of the weekend we've had the house to ourselves again. We've had the opportunity to cook ourselves meals and do homework and yoga in the family room again, which is a nice treat. Yesterday afternoon I went to read in the park, because the weather was perfect outside, and I came home to an empty house. I was curious where Maggie had gone, because the second round of the ACC tournament was coming on and I knew she wouldn't miss it. Finally, she walks in the door carrying treats for the game. She had bought our favorite kind of chips, wine, and ingredients to make "cookie in a cup," a recipe from Pinterest. They truly couldn't have paired me with a better roommate.

Our treats

After watching the game and devouring our chips, we searched through the fridge for something to make for dinner. We ended up mixing the leftover hamburger with scrambled eggs, and then adding a side of some vegetables and potatoes that were leftover. We finished it off with cookie in a cup, which I would definitely suggest to you guys. It makes one perfect serving of cookie, and you can eat it right out of the microwave safe cup you make it in. After dinner we met up with some friends to watch the Real Madrid vs. Betis soccer game.



Today we have just been enjoying a leisurely Sunday at our empty house. And by that, I mean we've been trying to ignore the marching band that has been playing outside of our window for the past 3 hours. And, as always, GO HEELS.

If you're interested, here is the recipe for cookie in a cup.

Cookie in a cup!

Ronda

The bridge

We finally made it to Ronda this weekend after saying we'd go for about 2 months now. While we had originally planned on going Friday, our plans were stalled for what seems like the  hundredth time because of a "70% chance of rain." Although this scared us out of going, I've come to be convinced that it never rains in this country, because we went outside to find clear blue skies and not a drop of precipitation.

It actually turned out to be a blessing that we went yesterday instead, because the weather was perfect. Ronda is a city about 2 hours (or 1.5 hours if you have our bus driver) outside of Sevilla and it is a city built on cliffs. We had heard from many people on our program that it was a must see, and it turned out to be one of the best days I have had here so far.

Maggie and I

We set out to find the bus station at about 9:15 in the morning after packing our own lunches. This might not seem like a big deal, but it was a breath of fresh air to get to pick our own sandwiches instead of having to throw away the pâté we've been getting lately. Since there wasn't any lunch meat, we made some tomato sandwiches and grabbed some chips and fruit to go with them. We found the bus station and got to Ronda in record time thanks to our speed demon bus driver. Once we got there (after raving over the perfect weather) we set out to find the hiking trails. The city of Ronda is very pretty, but the main attraction is hiking to the bottom of the cliffs to see the city from below. We stopped about halfway down and found a perfect lunch spot and relaxed there for awhile before heading all the way to the bottom.


The view was absolutely incredible and it is so weird to think that this place exists only 2 hours away from Sevilla. I felt like I was in another world. Maggie and I spent our time just relaxing on the rocks and enjoying the sun and breeze. It was very relaxing and we are definitely going to return. Next time I'll just remember to pack my sunblock.























Last night we came home and stayed awake to watch a Carolina victory on Duke's senior night. Just the cherry on a perfect day.