Cordoba!

Alright, so I am very behind, and will soon write about London. But first, I will write a little about Cordoba, a city Lyndsey and I visited a couple of weeks ago in a trip put together by the Centro de Lenguas Modernas, the organization inside the University of Granada in which we take our classes. Cordoba is about 2 hours away from Granada, and is in fact where my senora was born, and where her parents still live. For 32 Euros, we had transportation and entrance to two old sites, both originating from the Muslim occupation of Spain from the 700s to the 1400s, and a tour guide to reveal to us the meaning and significance of each place.

The first site we visited was an old town/fortress built by a Muslim czar for his favorite wife. It was very old, and mostly was ruins. It was a cool place, except that it was raining profusely at this time, so it was not the most pleasant visit. It somewhat reminded me of Pompeii near Naples, with tons of ruins and a big temple in the middle. However, there weren't any bodies covered in plaster, so this place loses some cool points.

The second place we visited was the Great Mosque of Cordoba, which was truly the reason we wanted to go to Cordoba in the first place. Back in the day when the Muslim Empire controlled the Mediterranean, Cordoba was one of the most important cities in all of Europe, and served as the capital of the Muslim Empire in Spain until it was retaken in the Christian Reconquista of Southern Spain. This was in the 12th century. However, some land was still controlled by the Muslim Empire after the conquets of Cordoba, as the entirety of Spain was not reconquered until the surrenduring of Granada in 1492, which makes Granada a city with many Arabic traces left to it. The Mosque of Cordoba was once the biggest mosque in the world. Now, it is not so. But, it at least wins the "biggest ancient mosque" award. There are many interesting things about this particular mosque. One of the things that stands out is that, well, it still stands. The majority of the mosques during this time period were leveled to the ground, and Catholic churches were built in their place. In the Mosque of Cordoba, instead of leveling the entire Mosque, there was instead built a Cathedral right in the middle of the mosque. It was very odd to be in the mosque, and then look to the middle and see an open cathedral. The center wall of the front of the mosque, called the Quibla, which contains the Mihrab, a holy room in the center of the Qibla, was very beautiful. And, this mosque is absolutely huge. It really dominates a large section of the center of Cordoba.

Cordoba was a fun trip. I also was able to try in a restaurant one of my favorite foods of Cordoba that Carmen makes often: salmorejo. Its basically a mix of tomatoes and olive oil, to make a really good dipping sauce for bread. This would be an amazing thing to learn how to cook. So thats it. I've included a picture, first, of the arches inside the mosque, which Lyndsey accurately described as candy-canes. The second picture does a pretty good job of showing how there is a mosque, and then a cathedral at the end of the photo (off of Google photos). The third picture is of the cathedral built inside the mosque. And thats it!

Monday in Rome

Alright, on to the last day of Rome! This ended up being a very busy day at the Vatican. We woke up very early, and got to the Vatican Museum right when it opened. There are so many cool things in the Vatican Museum. Miles and miles of things. I may have seen about half of the entire museum. And, at the end of the museum, I think my eyes, and definitely my brain hurt after looking and concentrating on so many different pieces of art and history. My favorite part of the Vatican Museum was the sections with the paintings. I was able to see some very famous stuff, and some cool paintings about different scenes in Rome which I had heard about before the tour, like a painting of the miracle of the Church of the Snow. The Sistine Chapel was awesome to see at the end. It was great also to have Ashley with us, as she explained a lot of the different paintings and their significances. The Vatican Museum was excellent; my only complaint was that it was too big, and that can't really be a complaint.

After the Vatican Museum, we exited straight into St. Peter's Basilica. We completed a nice walk around the side of the Basilica, and then got in line to climb up to the top of the Basilica, to the dome. It was awesome! First, to get there, we had to climb so many stairs. A lot of the stairs were winding; if I was claustrophobic, I would have been having some problems. I will include a picture of me in one of the hallways. I am standing up straight, to show how sideways the walls were. Its not the lightest picture of me ever, but it gets the point across I think. The view at the top of the Dome was awesome as well, certainly the best view of Rome that I had seen. I will also include a picture from the top of the dome, with Rome in the background.

So that was Rome. It really was an amazing trip, I had a great time and really enjoyed everything about it. My only HUGE complaint was that I couldn't be there with Lyndsey. However, it was still really fun.

The END (Of the ongoing Rome story)

Rome III

Continuing with my Rome blog...

On Sunday morning, we woke up early, and three of us went to Mass at St. Peter's Basilica. This was the first time I had been in the Basilica since being in Italy long ago. It was my first ever Mass; I figured that having Mass at the center of the Catholic world would be a pretty cool experience. We got there very early, and were able to grab seats in the pews, about 7 rows back from the front. Of course the entire service was in a different language, so I didn't exactly get a lot out of the service. But, I had a lot of time to admire the architecture in the front of the Basilica, and enjoyed watching Mass happen. After that, we left the Basilica and entered St. Peter's Square, to watch the Pope give his weekly address, in tons of different languages, to the waiting crowd. I would judge him as one of the more powerful and influential people in the world, and so it was cool to see him in person, and listen to a short address, mostly about the Pope's commitment to the strengthening of the Catholic church in Africa. He stands the house he lives in, in front of a window looking down on the entire square. There were tons of people there!

So, after this, we continued on what I would call "old church day." Besides the Basilica, we visited 4 other churches: the Pantheon, really cool because of its architecture (a circle inside a square), a second church which, because, the neighborhood didn't want a big dome blocking the horizon, has a dome painted on part of the ceiling to simulate a dome, another church which wasn't extremely remarkable, but big and a basilica, and a church in Trastevere which was very nice, but small for Rome standards. Those four churches, and the Spanish steps were our main activities for Sunday during the day. And it was a good day, a lot less walking and a bit more relaxing than our first day in Rome. For dinner, we had pizza at a sit-down restaurant, which was good but not remarkable. Also, I believe the restaurant was not too much of a tourist hit, as it seemed that the Italian people already in the restaurant were staring at us for a good portion of the meal. After this, we ate gelato, and went to a nearby square, where we hung out and eventually ended up on a new lookout of the city, with even better views of the city, and especially St. Peter's Basilica. It seemed a bit like a couple's area; there were 2 couples watching the city when we got there, one guy and girl, and one guy and guy.

Alright this is Sunday: not quite as full as the first day, but still really fun and interesting. Later I will talk about the Vatican Museum/Sistine Chapel, and walking up in the dome of St. Peter's (which was all our activity for Monday)

Rome II

Continuing on with Rome! After trying to visit the Pantheon (which I called the Parthenon for much of the trip), we visited Piazza Navona, which was filled with musicians looking for money, and people selling lots of random stuff, though mostly drawings and paintings of the sites in Rome. There was also a really nice fountain in the middle, which represented the Four Rivers (by Bernini, who by the look of things in Rome was a pretty busy man). After this, we finally took a short break, to rest a bit and get warmer clothes for the night.

For the night, we went to Trastevere, which was a smaller, less big-city feeling area of Rome. This was where Ashley had spent her summer last year, so she knew the area well. We went to our nicest (and most expensive) dinner here in Trastevere. It was excellent. We had an appetizer (which turned out to be listed as a per-person price on the menu rather than a flat total rate) of grilled vegetables (including grilled zucchini, which I had really been missing), and a plate of meats. However, we steered clear of the plate of cubed uncooked ham in olive oil. It wasn't the most appetizing thing I have ever seen. For the main dish, I had a really good white-sauce pasta with little pieces of ham and amazing mushrooms. It was excellent. After dinner, we walked up to the top of Trastevere, with a really nice fountain (which I've heard was an embassy). It was nice to just sit down and look at the city from high up. It seemed that every night, we ended up at a viewing point of the entire city. And, it seemed that each night we found a better viewing spot. So, this was an awesome first view, but was eventually trumped by some other ones.

This ends my saturday in Rome. And, I can't really start writing about a new day. I've included a couple pictures. One is of the Four Rivers Fountain in Piazza Navona. The other is in front of a random water fountain, which was actually an old bath. Definitely not a popular tourist landmark, but still seemed very authentic Roman.

Roma!!!!

Rome was awesome! I really enjoyed all my activities in Rome. And, now that a friend has posted a couple pictures of me in Rome, I can now write about the experience.

Traveling was uneventful. We left Granada Friday morning, and arrived in Rome Friday night. On Friday night, we began our trip by visiting the Trevi Fountain. I will include a picture of me (with friends) at the Trevi Fountain. It was absolutely beautiful! And it helped to make me feel like I really was in Rome, and not just in another random place in Spain. As will be a common theme in this blog, the food in Rome wasn't spectactular. I was thinking back to what I ate in Naples long ago, and it did not compare, especially the pizza. After visiting the Trevi Fountain, we ate our first gelato at, according to Ashley(UT), is the most famous gelato place in Rome. It was very very good, as all the gelato was in Rome. In the pictures, you will see the same people: in the picture above, from left to right, is Shaz(also from UT), Jackie(Boise St.), me(Clemson Go Tigers!), and Ryan(Univ. of Massachusetts), my roommate. I will identify Ashley in a picture she is in. This, minus Ryan most of the time, was the group I traveled around Rome with. Also on the first night, we walked by the wedding cake, which is a memorial to the unknown soldiers and Vittorio, a famous person in Rome's history; we saw the place where Mussolini would come out and give his speeches to the masses; we saw some cool ruins, including a tower thing with an intricate continuous scroll telling a story on the outside; and last, we saw the ruins where Caesar Augustus was killed.

The next day, we began with a group bus tour of the city, where we were told a bit of the history of Rome. We also stopped near the Coliseum, where we walked around there and the Forum. It was fun to see; however, I remembered this area from my younger years, and did not feel the need to see it again in detail, so that was pretty much all of the Coliseum I saw. We then got back on the bus, and ended the tour at St. Peter's Basilica. At this point, I started the day which wins the "most walking in a day" prize. First, we booked it away from St. Peter's Basilica, and made it to Campo de Fiori, just in time to shop at the outdoor market. Besides touristy items, they had lots of fruits, vegetables, spices, and other cool street shops. Next, we booked it to a church farther away than the Coliseum, named Saint Mary of the Snow. The reason it was named this: a rich man had a lot of extra money, and prayed to God (in September in Rome) that he would build a church at the spot where it snowed. And, apparently it never snows in Rome, especially not in the fall. And, it snowed on one of the seven hills. So, he built a church there. It is a beautiful church. My favorite part of the church was a colorful, striking stained glass window at the back of the church. It may have been a bit newer, because there was even hot pink featured in the window. Another cool part was the outside; you could see old murals behind the newer facade that were really well preserved for being outside. After this, we tried to visit the Pantheon, which was closed at the time to visitors because Mass was going on.

Alright, this is getting long, so I will end it here and continue with the Rome post later. Hope this is interesting! Oh, and in this picture, to the most right is Ashley. She had been in Rome studying abroad last summer for a month, so she really helped us get around the city. You can see in this picture how intently I am concentrating on enjoying my wonderful ice cream.

Sevilla

So I have definitely forgotten to write in the blog for a while, which means I need to write a little about Sevilla. Sevilla was a really cool city. It was certainly bigger than Granada. However, it had a lot more parks and green space, and a really big river running through it. Whoever planned Granada seemed to think that parks were not a priority, so all the open space in Sevilla was a nice change. Grass has also yet to make a meaningful appearance in Granada. We visited the Sevilla Cathedral while there, which was very beautiful, and huge! Its actually the 3rd biggest cathedral in the world, behind the Vatican and St. Paul's Cathedral in London, which Lyndsey and I will be visiting soon! There are lots of other features that make this Cathedral really cool. They are one of I believe five places claiming to have all of part of Christopher Columbus' remains. It seemed to me that they had a legitimate claim to the title. But, the Dominican Republic must have a decent claim also, as I do remember seeing a huge monument to Columbus in the Dominican Republic on my senior missions trip there. They also had a massive organ, a jewel room with some pretty amazing stuff, and my favoirte part, a huge carving of different Bible scenes telling the story of the life of Jesus. I thought it was really neat, so I have a picture (off of Google, my penalty for not having a camera) We also visited a Palace in Sevilla, which was very impressive. My favorite part was the gardens: they had different sections of the garden which represented different influences, for example one part was Muslim-influenced. It was also my favorite part because I was able to understand the majority of what the tour guide told us. This was probably my first all-Spanish tour which I really understood a lot of. Perhaps my favorite/perhaps most dangerous Sevilla activity was our bike ride through the city. I'm not exactly a master on a bicycle (I can ride them, to clarify), so it was interesting riding through lots of people, and busy traffic circles, and other hazards. I fell once. Only once was a feat and a miracle. But, the ride made me want to use a bike again, which hadn't happened in about 6 years before the Sevilla trip I believe. We also visited a pretty cool rocky place...it looked kind of like tons of huge stacks of pancakes, if you picture the pancakes as gray rocks. I will put a picture on here of me and some others there. The some others are my roommate, another friend from the program, and our two guides. I also have a picture of the palace to put up here. Incidentally, these are the only two pictures taken of me during the Sevilla trip...apparently minus Lyndsey I don't make it into too many pictures.

Besides the Sevilla trip I haven't really been up to much. Lyndsey and I took advantage of good weather last week to explore some shops. Last week, I had popcorn for the first time in Spain, which I kind of think tasted like the best popcorn I've ever had. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I guess. I'm still enjoying Granada, though I'm also looking forward to seeing other places. Rome with our program, and then London during our spring break, really stick out. However, there are lots of smaller cities I would enjoy visiting near here, plus Barcelona if I get the chance. I've heard that Barcelona is a very cool city to see, so perhaps that will happen. I think this is a good place to end, thanks for reading!

Spanish

So as I write this blog I am very excited about my prospects of learning Spanish. I do not think I will be exactly fluent by the time I leave Spain. But, I hope to have a lot better knowledge than I do now. I especially hope to improve my listening skills. It seems every time I talk to my senora, there are things she tries to say which I don't really get. In the end she uses some kind of easy word to identify what she's talking about, and I at least understand what she's talking about. Then I have to try to get what she's saying. I wear a lot of blank stares and confused looks during my interactions with Spanish speakers. I am improving at least my knowledge, so I am waiting for the day that everything suddenly clicks and I can understand more conversation.

Well, towards this goal, I have joined the Library of Andalucia (the province Granada is in) so that I can rent books and movies from it. Yesterday I rented Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring! Or, "Senor de los Anillos" in Spanish. I only got through the first hour and 15 minutes of the movie, but it was very good all the same. I figured I'd be much better off with a movie I'd seen before, and one in which there is a lot of action, so I wouldn't just be staring at people talking the whole time. It was really fun to watch a movie in Spanish, and I'm looking forward to watching more movies in Spanish. Another great thing is having Spanish subtitles. It is so easy to get so lost when listening just to words. But when I have the words in front of me, and can listen at the same time, I can try to hear how different words sound in the fastness of the sentances. It was really fun, and I'm looking forward to watching a ton of movies in Spanish.

I will end the blog now, and will have a lot more to say next time, as we are going to Seville this weekend as our first other-city excursion!

Another Granada weekend!!!!

Another fun weekend in Granada has passed! The past Thursday's dinner with me, Lyndsey, and my Spanish senora was awesome! It was probably the most we have been able to talk to my senora at one time, as Lyndsey knows so much more Spanish than me and Ryan. Lyndsey was very impressed with my senora's apartment, especially the terrace. The dinner was a lot of fun, and very good food as always. And Carmen, my senora, told Lyndsey she could come over whenever; it will be very fun to bring Lyndsey over to have more Spanish conversations with my senora. Next time I need to borrow Lyndsey' camera, and take pictures of my apartment to post here.
On Friday, me and Lyndsey had our Valentine's Day date. First, before our date, Lyndsey gave me a FC Barcelona soccer ball, a really nice ball and very Spanish. And, she surpised me with the idea of going to an FC Barcelona soccer game! In Barcelona. Which would be very fun if we are able to pull it off. So, the date. We decided to try one of the many restaurants off Paseo de los Tristes, which is basically in the shadow of the Alhambra, which I wrote about last time. The food was very good. I got swordfish, which I had never had before. It was a good experience, and a very fun Valentine's Day date. Afterwards, we visited Cafe Futbol, which has many desserts and coffees. There we shared Chocolate con Churros, an amazing fried thing (the Churro) that you dip in hot chocolate, except its more like a melted candy bar in thickness.
On Saturday, we went with the Baptist church here to the Sierra Nevada. The Sierra Nevada is a mountain range with lots of snow and ski slopes and hills for sledding. Sledding, and lots of walking and waiting for buses, was our activity in the Sierra Nevada. The sledding was very fun, and it was good to get to know some more of the students attending the church. I have included a picture of Lyndsey and I in front of a beautiful sunset in the Sierra Nevada.
It was a very fun weekend, and hopefully there are many more like it. I have heard that the youth group likes to take trips to the beach every once and a while, which I would definitely attend once it gets warmer. Miss everyone!

Granada Adventures and First Day of Class

Today was my first day of class. Luckily, I only had one class today, which was from 10-11:30. I have four tomorrow, which will be backtobacktobacktoback, from 8:30-2:30, a very long day. It was good to start classes, have to get up early, and feel like I have a purpose today. I am excited to arrive at more normalcy, to have a schedule to follow, and to make more friends who are studying through different programs and in my classes.

So, we have been through some very cool adventures so far in Granada. This past Thursday, we visited the Albaicin and Sacromonte. The Albaicin is the old Arabic corner of town, which really pretty white-washed houses and narrow streets. It is a pretty fun neighborhood in town. And it is filled with small teashops where you sit on rugs and drink tea from tiny tables. Sacromonte is up the mountain beyond the Albaicin. It is kind of known as the Gypsy corner. Gypsies live in caves in the mountain in Sacromonte. These are literal caves in the mountain. They also hold lots of flamenco shows. It was a cool area, especially cool to view the Alhambra from. On Monday, we visited the Alhambra, which is amazing. It is basically a city inside the city of Granada, built by the Moors (Islamic) long ago. And this city is amazing, filled with a palace, a beautiful garden, and many breathtaking views of the entire city. It is kind of hard to do justice to the Alhambra by me describing it, and also hard to do in pictures, because its hard to grasp the enormity of it with just a few pictures. Above is a picture of the Alhambra, taken from google search because: 1) I don't have a camera, and 2) it gives a better idea of the Alhambra than any of my friends' pictures could from inside the Alhambra.

So it has been great so far. I will also include a couple pictures of people we have met here in Spain. And some fun things coming up: Lyndsey has been invited to come over to eat with my senora at her apartment, which I am very excited about. That will be coming Thursday. And on Saturday, as long as the weather is ok, we are going up with the youth group of the Baptist church we are attending, a youth group mixed with Spanish and International students, to the Sierra Nevada to go sledding. It should be a fun and inexpensive trip.

Alright thats all, thanks for reading!

Life In Spain

Here I am, for the third blog! For anyone who happens to read this, here is some of the paticulars of everday life for me in Spain. I will try to include some of the things I was surprised about, or was different than America.

Well, the food is pretty good. At least, what Maria Carmen (who doesn´t speak much English, that was a typo on the first entry...?) cooks is really good. She has had many study abroad students before, and it seems that she has tailored her cooking to fit what we are used to. We have pasta a lot, rice a lot, some kind of meat mixed in somewhere for every dish, and lots and lots of omelettes. After eating, the one constant is that I am full beyond any description! Our first helping is a heaped platefull, and when we are about halfway finished with the first heaping platefull, on comes another platefull of seconds. I am so glad I brought my tums along for the journey. In restaurants, the food has been ok. I think the food in restaurants is a lot more Spanish and a lot less American-friendly. However, one amazing thing about Granada is...the TAPAS ARE FREE!!!!! Well, free when you buy a drink, which can be a refresco (coke), so tapas bars are a very fun, cheap, and easy way to try out some of the Spanish food.

Classes are also pretty awesome, as in we don´t have class ever on Friday! This is a development that I am extremely happy about. A 3 day weekend every weekend is a great blessing. We have not started real classes yet, only Spanish review courses, to prep the people who need to get to do well on placement tests to be allowed to take all their courses in Spanish. I, on the other hand, am completing a refreshment course on the computer, which is pretty boring and not extremely helpful, as I wish I was in a class with a teacher and other students. However, this will only last a few days and then I have real class!

Yesterday was the first Sunday we were in Granada, and we made good use by going to a well-recommended Baptist church very close to our apartment. I think there were 6 Clemson students representing in the church! And about 10 from my program! It was really cool to see a different people with a different language still worshipping and experiencing the same God! Every time I go overseas and visit a church it just reveals to me how big God is. He is over all the nations, and so often in the U.S. it is so easy for me to think of my church and my area and my country only when thinking about him. I am really excited to see what God is doing in Granada, and how I can get plugged into that significance!

I will end my blog now, and I promise to post a few pictures at some point!

Nick

Madrid and Toledo

So the first few days in Spain included an orientation in Madrid and a day visit to Toledo (as in Holy Toledo, as confirmed by our guide). In Madrid, we visited the Prado Museum, the Royal Palace, a monastery where they keep all the remains of all the kings ever in Spain, and another smaller art museum that contained a lot of Spanish work (and it was free...and they had Guernica, by Picasso, which is surprisingly big for a painting).

In Madrid, perhaps the biggest adjustment we had to make involved going out to eat. Whenever we ordered, we pretty much didn´t know what we´d get. I liked most of the food, but mostly because I was hungry, not because it tasted all that excellent. They do have some really good cheeses, really really good olive oil, which with some bread really could be a meal in and of itself, and good sandwiches. There is also a ton of fried food. One night API, the program I am studying with, hosted a dinner consisting of 10 dishes. The last dish was fried little sea creatures, many of which were whole, complete with tentacles and eyes. This dish I did not dig into, to say the least.

Madrid was very cool. However, I was glad when we left for Granada. The big city was just a little too much. I wanted a bit of normalcy, to figure out where I was gonna be and know my schedule and just know what my life would be like for the next 4 months. So, Madrid was awesome, but I am happy to be in Granada. Toledo was also very beautiful, filled with ancient churches and other old buildings. Its pretty much a city surrounded by a moat. Now there´s a giant escalator as the best way to get into the city on foot, which was pretty cool.

Well, that ends this post, more updates to come..¨:)

GRANADA

So I finally caved in and decided that a blog would be a good idea. So, here it goes!

I am studying in Granada, Spain. It is a city of 300,000 people, but has a compact center, where everything is in walking distance. In Granada, there is a massive cathedral, a market, and many restaurants, bars, and tiendas (shops). While in Granada, I am living with a Spanish Senora, who is very nice. She even walked me and my roommate to where we needed to be the first day! The food has been excellent, I think my host has had many study abroad students before, and so knows what Americans like to eat. She has a very nice apartment on the seventh floor of an apartment building 30 minutes outside the city center. Although it is a long walk to classes, we do have a view of the entire city, which is pretty cool. She knows very little English, and so I have been practicing a bunch with her, and also failing many many times.

Okay, next time will include some pictures. Perhaps I will be more specific next time about whats going on, this is pretty much my testblog anyways. Thanks for reading and I will try to upload some pictures next time I get on.