Hola mis amigos!
Hope everyone is doing well! I´ve been doing well, enjoying life here in Sevilla for the last week. It’s a great lifestyle here, slow and easy…I think people here enjoy life a lot!
Let me tell you about some things:
School – School is going really great. I´m working a lot more than I thought I would be, but I sure am learning a lot. They speak Spanish pretty much the whole time in class. A lot of the European kids already know some Spanish since they´re close to Spain, and their languages are more similar, but its going well. We have about 4 hours of regular class, with 2 - 20min breaks in between. Every morning during the first break a number of us go down to the café next door and have a ´café con leche´and a ´tostada con marmalada´. One of my favourite parts of the day! I´m getting much better at my español, starting to feel more comfortable talking to the locals.
Tapas and bars – Almost every day at lunch, and usually when we go out for a snack, we go to a tapas bar. I need to take a picture of the food, but the typical place is a bar with some high tables and stools and standing room tables, and we get tapas and a beer or wine for lunch, or even for dinner if we plan on snacking later. Its great to try all their different kind of foods. I love the tapa culture!
A had a perfect Sevillano day this past Sunday, where finally the weather was good and sunny. We saw the sights, though nothing was open. One can never tell when thing are open, because here in Sevilla people take ¨siestas¨at any time, and businesses never post hours because they break at any time. Anyways, we saw the sights from the outside (Cathedral, and the Plaza de Espana), and then around 4 we started our tapeo. We went to 3 different cafes and bars, having a snack and a drink each time, and just hanging out for an hour, enjoying the air, the culture, and talking about nothing!
Cadiz – The Carnival of Cadiz occurs once each year, over a weekend, and someone told me it was the 3rd or 4th largest party in the world. When I got there, I understood why! There were people everywhere! Filling each plaza, street, sidewalk, we were jam packed! There were decorations similar to Mardi Gras, and alcohol and food everywhere. We partied in the streets a while, then ate, then partied some more, then went into a giant tent party with a huge stage and live Spanish music (with some American covers) and danced all night. We left Sevilla around 8pm, was in Cadiz until 6am, and then finally got home around 10am. Craziness! If only we could communicate well with the people there…
Not everything is perfect. My roommate, Benita, is starting to annoy me. A lot. I´ve learned that some Germans are a bit different. They are more stoic, show less emotion, and are very direct (read: blunt). Not everyone, cuz some of the German girls are cool, but my roommate is all of those things. This, combined with the fact that she is always stressing out and can´t relax, makes her hard to be around!
Anyways, I can´t complain. I´ve met some good compañeros, and I´m in a beautiful city with a neat school, great food, fun culture, etc etc. I sure wish I could have Nicole here with me to see this romantic city!
Hope you´re getting a good feel of Sevilla!
Hasta luego,
Alan
PS – Ben, I bought the postcards for Jen!
Monday, February 27, 2006
Even more pictures on a nice sunny day
Me in front of the Cathedral
Peter (England) and Travis (Australia) along the river at night. The river is 2 blocks from my place.
During our tapeo, having some drinks with Geoff (England) and Martin (Holland).
Plaza de Espana during the day.
More pictures...
The Cathedral. The figure is an alternate of the figure on top of the Cathedral. It was made in order to take the original down to clean it. The Catheral is the 3rd largest in the world (Rome has the first 2).
Me with some chicas de España! They were dressed as doctors...
A huge plaza just filled with people during the Carnival.
A nice day in Sevilla!
The same plaza filled with people, now filled with trash.
Streets of Cadiz...
Me, Peter, and Benita on the balcony at school.
Looking down at a street from the balcony of our classroom.
Ana and Benita (Germany). Benita is the devil!
Me and Disa (Denmark).
Thursday, February 23, 2006
I live on the road Pavia. The street signs are always on buildings, not free standing.
La catedral de la Sevilla
Many of the streets are lined with orange trees. These and palm trees are all over!
Many of the streets look like this.
People from my school, all there to learn Spanish. Who´s the only overly enthusiastic American?
An archeological museum
My school is the pink building. There are a bunch of cool little cafes right next door.
Monday, February 20, 2006
Hola´ from España
Well I just arrived in Spain yesterday. The trip started off interesting, as the lady next to me on the 8 hour flight from Atlanta to Madrid got food poisoning and started throwing up every 10 minutes. Felt pretty bad for her, but I sure hoped I didnt get sick either. Then I took a connecting flightto Sevilla, where I am now.
The city of Sevilla is absolutely beautiful! It is so rich in culture. All of classically designed buildings and small alleys, plazas, cathedrals, and riverside cafes just envelop you in this really cool cultural experience. Home to flamenco dancing, tapas, tapas crawls from pub to pub, life here is meant to be lived!
I took a taxi to my apartment, which is located in the most beautiful part of town and the best location, right in the middle of Sevilla, walking distance to everything including the school. Its next to the Teatro Sevilla and the Bullfighting ring, and near a huge cathedral. One of my roomates, Karen, greeted me at the door. Shes a super sweet girl, from England, and here with her boyfriend Duncan. Theyre both studying Spanish at a nearby school. They took me out to a bar to watch their favorite soccer (futbol) team, the Tottenham Spurs, and then around the city a little bit. Then I unpacked, and then we had dinner at a nice Spanish restuarant. Ensalada mixta, pollo con something, flan, pan fresca, y coca cola. Muy delicioso! Then to a cafe, which are very common. Great coffee, and not nearly as expensive as Starbucks! When we got home I met my other roomate, Benita, from Germany. She´s in my same class and also very nice. I probably hang out the most with her since we are roomates and in the same class.
The pace here is much slower, and takes some getting used to. People love to sit and eat and chill for hours. Sevillanos do a small breakfast if at all, and lunch is their big meal of the day. Drinks and tapas before lunch, then a 3 course meal, followed by more drinks. No wonder a siesta is needed after lunch, where most shops close and people take naps. Dinner here takes place later, always after 8pm and usually even around 10-midnight! Of course, being a student here, we dont get the time to do these huge lunches and late dinners, but we´ll still go for tapas and a drink at lunch!
The city of Sevilla has about 800,000 people. Its easy to get cities and towns of Spain via train, so we plan on visiting some of the coastal cities and maybe Barcelona or Madrid.
I have Nicole´s digital camera (thanks babe) so I´ll be sure to post pictures on here.
Hope everyone is doing well - write some comments to let me know what you want me to bring back home from Spain!
-Alan
The city of Sevilla is absolutely beautiful! It is so rich in culture. All of classically designed buildings and small alleys, plazas, cathedrals, and riverside cafes just envelop you in this really cool cultural experience. Home to flamenco dancing, tapas, tapas crawls from pub to pub, life here is meant to be lived!
I took a taxi to my apartment, which is located in the most beautiful part of town and the best location, right in the middle of Sevilla, walking distance to everything including the school. Its next to the Teatro Sevilla and the Bullfighting ring, and near a huge cathedral. One of my roomates, Karen, greeted me at the door. Shes a super sweet girl, from England, and here with her boyfriend Duncan. Theyre both studying Spanish at a nearby school. They took me out to a bar to watch their favorite soccer (futbol) team, the Tottenham Spurs, and then around the city a little bit. Then I unpacked, and then we had dinner at a nice Spanish restuarant. Ensalada mixta, pollo con something, flan, pan fresca, y coca cola. Muy delicioso! Then to a cafe, which are very common. Great coffee, and not nearly as expensive as Starbucks! When we got home I met my other roomate, Benita, from Germany. She´s in my same class and also very nice. I probably hang out the most with her since we are roomates and in the same class.
The pace here is much slower, and takes some getting used to. People love to sit and eat and chill for hours. Sevillanos do a small breakfast if at all, and lunch is their big meal of the day. Drinks and tapas before lunch, then a 3 course meal, followed by more drinks. No wonder a siesta is needed after lunch, where most shops close and people take naps. Dinner here takes place later, always after 8pm and usually even around 10-midnight! Of course, being a student here, we dont get the time to do these huge lunches and late dinners, but we´ll still go for tapas and a drink at lunch!
The city of Sevilla has about 800,000 people. Its easy to get cities and towns of Spain via train, so we plan on visiting some of the coastal cities and maybe Barcelona or Madrid.
I have Nicole´s digital camera (thanks babe) so I´ll be sure to post pictures on here.
Hope everyone is doing well - write some comments to let me know what you want me to bring back home from Spain!
-Alan
Friday, February 10, 2006
great job...
So I guess I was all excited in sharing my life with everyone...until after my first post. Then in typical Alan fashion, I stopped just as fast. After Jeff, my brother in law, told me that I sucked because he's been checking my blog to see anything new and nothing's been posted, I'm going to renew my enthusiasm for my blog!
I'm here in Tampa for the weekend, for my friend Danielle's wedding. She's a great friend to me, and apparently feels very comfortable with our friendship because she designated me to be the parking lot attendant for her wedding.
- "Who else has a job at your wedding?"
- "Andy does."
- "Oh okay. Well whats he doing?"
- "He's playing the music at the ceremony."
- "Aw shit, thats a privilege, not a job like mine!"
- "You can have all the alcohol you want..."
- "Everyone gets open bar!"
- "You're a good friend..."
Anyways, its a beach wedding on Clearwater beach. I'm excited.
In other exciting news, I've figured out where I'm going to rank for residency!
#1 UNC Chapel Hill
#2 Emory
#3 U of Washington (seattle)
I'm off to Spain in a week, spending 3 weeks in Sevilla for medical spanish, and its my first time doing any sort of study abroad, so I am pretty pumped. Perhaps I can update all of you on how things are going there. Yes, thats what I'll do, it will give me incentive to use this blog more!
Okay, I'm out for now...ice cream calling. I'm really going to try to keep up with this blog.
Later!
I'm here in Tampa for the weekend, for my friend Danielle's wedding. She's a great friend to me, and apparently feels very comfortable with our friendship because she designated me to be the parking lot attendant for her wedding.
- "Who else has a job at your wedding?"
- "Andy does."
- "Oh okay. Well whats he doing?"
- "He's playing the music at the ceremony."
- "Aw shit, thats a privilege, not a job like mine!"
- "You can have all the alcohol you want..."
- "Everyone gets open bar!"
- "You're a good friend..."
Anyways, its a beach wedding on Clearwater beach. I'm excited.
In other exciting news, I've figured out where I'm going to rank for residency!
#1 UNC Chapel Hill
#2 Emory
#3 U of Washington (seattle)
I'm off to Spain in a week, spending 3 weeks in Sevilla for medical spanish, and its my first time doing any sort of study abroad, so I am pretty pumped. Perhaps I can update all of you on how things are going there. Yes, thats what I'll do, it will give me incentive to use this blog more!
Okay, I'm out for now...ice cream calling. I'm really going to try to keep up with this blog.
Later!
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