Seville (and leaving Cadiz)
Sorry it's been so long!!! I am now in Seville. It's nice here. It's a big city like Malaga, but it has a lot more character than Malaga. Cadiz is still my favorite place.
Lets go back to last Friday night where I left off.
Friday night, Thomas, Jana, Marcos and I all went out to have drinks and go dancing. Marcos is the boy in the middle of the picture in my last blog ("new friends") from the bar where we practice spanish. He lives in Cadiz. Thomas and Jana are from Germany who were studying at the same school as me (in Cadiz). We met in the new part of Cadiz (the part that is outside the walls of the old historical Cadiz). We started at about 11pm. Maybe three or four people were in the bar. By the time 1 am came around, it still wasn't packed, but Marcos said it would be and sure enough by the time we left it was. Note: Do not order a Mijito in Spain, it just has sugar dumped in it and tastes like sugarry liquor.. bleck!
After our drinks we headed out dancing. No one was really there yet at the early morning of 2 am. In the states thats when they close, but here, thats like 9pm for them. We stayed there til almost 6am dancing and having a good time. By the time we left, it was pretty much packed, but so smoky!! In Spain, you can smoke anywhere and it was burning my throat so bad... I had to get out of there. I also had to pee and there was no form of toilet paper anywhere in that building.. i even looked for napkins.. crazy! I would see girls coming and going and I was baffled, and slightly grossed out.
Marcos walked/took us home. It was nice. It was morning, it was getting bright again, and dear Marcos who lived on the other side of the city came all the way to our side to tuck us in ;) He's my new best friend in Cadiz. Next week in Madrid, we are going to a concert together with his equally adorable twin brother, (or maybe I'm going as I was just informed it's sold out! boooo!) Here is a picture of the two of them (Marcos on right, twin on left), as well as pictures of the night:
Lets go back to last Friday night where I left off.
Friday night, Thomas, Jana, Marcos and I all went out to have drinks and go dancing. Marcos is the boy in the middle of the picture in my last blog ("new friends") from the bar where we practice spanish. He lives in Cadiz. Thomas and Jana are from Germany who were studying at the same school as me (in Cadiz). We met in the new part of Cadiz (the part that is outside the walls of the old historical Cadiz). We started at about 11pm. Maybe three or four people were in the bar. By the time 1 am came around, it still wasn't packed, but Marcos said it would be and sure enough by the time we left it was. Note: Do not order a Mijito in Spain, it just has sugar dumped in it and tastes like sugarry liquor.. bleck!
After our drinks we headed out dancing. No one was really there yet at the early morning of 2 am. In the states thats when they close, but here, thats like 9pm for them. We stayed there til almost 6am dancing and having a good time. By the time we left, it was pretty much packed, but so smoky!! In Spain, you can smoke anywhere and it was burning my throat so bad... I had to get out of there. I also had to pee and there was no form of toilet paper anywhere in that building.. i even looked for napkins.. crazy! I would see girls coming and going and I was baffled, and slightly grossed out.
Marcos walked/took us home. It was nice. It was morning, it was getting bright again, and dear Marcos who lived on the other side of the city came all the way to our side to tuck us in ;) He's my new best friend in Cadiz. Next week in Madrid, we are going to a concert together with his equally adorable twin brother, (or maybe I'm going as I was just informed it's sold out! boooo!) Here is a picture of the two of them (Marcos on right, twin on left), as well as pictures of the night:
So after sleeping all of three hours or less, I said goodbye to Cadiz (a 20 minute walk to the train station), and arrived in Seville about two hours later. First thing to piss me off was the cab driver trying to charge me 8 euro for a 3 minute or less cab drive. If I would have known my homestay was this close I would have walked. The meter had said 3.80 and all of the sudden he made it 8!?!? I don't think so butt hole. I gave him 5. Despite that, Seville has been awesome. My homestay mother is awesome. I just love her. Her name is Theresa, but she wants me to call her Terry.. how can I not love he with a name like that! (Miss you Terry!) She is another Encarni (Malaga mom). She wants to take care of me, and I like that. She cooks me nice meals at night too and my bedroom is nice and clean. I even have my own bathroom and no smoking in the house!! YEAH.. i can breathe! She lives alone, has two daughters who have grown and moved out, and has a little bird that I talk to all the time. :) It sits beside me while I eat and I have full on conversations with it (unless of course Terry eats with me!)
Jana and Thomas came to Cadiz the same day I got here and we hung out for a couple of hours touring the city... I took a lot of pictures both Saturday and Sunday... Again, I took so many I couldn't decide what to put up, so here they are in an album. I put information under each picture of where you were at, etc...
http://picasaweb.google.com/nichollechandler/WebSeville?feat=directlink
I went to the largest church in the world (christian church). It was pretty gigantor! (is that a word?!) The ceilings are said to have their own climate zone as they are so tall. Christopher Columbus's tomb is in the church and you are allowed to go up the bell tower to look at the view. They have the largest alter in the word, and man is it "busy". Over 1,000 biblical figures and 45 scenes. It was pretty amazing for sure. As you all know, I love Ken Follette books.. if you want a good looooong story about the times when cathedrals were built (and a good romantic, adventurous, drama too) then read Pillars of the Earth, or World Without End. I might want to add though to the ladies, there are some details scenes in the books that made me want to vomit (what a certain man would do to a woman)... so just skip those parts!
As for school, I have 7 other students in my class. This is the biggest spanish class i have ever had to date. Today was pretty easy. I just wish I would be more diligent about studying my vocab. It cracks me up because the teacher will ask us if we understand a word, and about 95% of the time, I totally knew that word already, its everything else they say that I don't understand. Or another example is they will be talking about something and they will saying .. "this building is very very important because..." and then I get lost in their explanation of why it's important... Oh man!!! I'm missing the most important part of the sentence. I also am going to say they still talk weird here. They just do. I will hear a word and I have no idea what it is, and then they write it and I'm like.. but thats not what you said!!! hahah.. someday Cole, Someday YOU WILL CONQUER THE SPANISH LANGUAGE... MUAHHHAHAHAHHA!
As of right now, I'm sitting here on the street, more stuffed up than a Thanksgiving Turkey (which ps... mom will you freeze me a pie so we can have one at xmas time! pretty please!!). After school today I came home and slept for three hours, and my cold is getting somewhat better... my head was just too heavy to look at massive size buildings and all of Seville's awesomeness...
Tomorrow I hope to go to Real Alcazar. It's a complex that has a series of palatial rooms and spaces in various styles and from various ages... where important or just rich people lived. I will write more about it later.
I miss you so all so much!! Rosie, how was grad school shopping? Mom, who is coming over for Thanksgiving!!? It's good to hear that Matt and Rachel are safe and sound and having an amazing time in Thailand.
xoxo family and friends,
Cole
ps.. I am sure there are typos here, but I'm sitting on the sidewalk and my bum hurts, and I'm too lazy to go back and fix things... I'm stealing someone's wifi.. I'm such an international outlaw!
Jana and Thomas came to Cadiz the same day I got here and we hung out for a couple of hours touring the city... I took a lot of pictures both Saturday and Sunday... Again, I took so many I couldn't decide what to put up, so here they are in an album. I put information under each picture of where you were at, etc...
http://picasaweb.google.com/nichollechandler/WebSeville?feat=directlink
I went to the largest church in the world (christian church). It was pretty gigantor! (is that a word?!) The ceilings are said to have their own climate zone as they are so tall. Christopher Columbus's tomb is in the church and you are allowed to go up the bell tower to look at the view. They have the largest alter in the word, and man is it "busy". Over 1,000 biblical figures and 45 scenes. It was pretty amazing for sure. As you all know, I love Ken Follette books.. if you want a good looooong story about the times when cathedrals were built (and a good romantic, adventurous, drama too) then read Pillars of the Earth, or World Without End. I might want to add though to the ladies, there are some details scenes in the books that made me want to vomit (what a certain man would do to a woman)... so just skip those parts!
As for school, I have 7 other students in my class. This is the biggest spanish class i have ever had to date. Today was pretty easy. I just wish I would be more diligent about studying my vocab. It cracks me up because the teacher will ask us if we understand a word, and about 95% of the time, I totally knew that word already, its everything else they say that I don't understand. Or another example is they will be talking about something and they will saying .. "this building is very very important because..." and then I get lost in their explanation of why it's important... Oh man!!! I'm missing the most important part of the sentence. I also am going to say they still talk weird here. They just do. I will hear a word and I have no idea what it is, and then they write it and I'm like.. but thats not what you said!!! hahah.. someday Cole, Someday YOU WILL CONQUER THE SPANISH LANGUAGE... MUAHHHAHAHAHHA!
As of right now, I'm sitting here on the street, more stuffed up than a Thanksgiving Turkey (which ps... mom will you freeze me a pie so we can have one at xmas time! pretty please!!). After school today I came home and slept for three hours, and my cold is getting somewhat better... my head was just too heavy to look at massive size buildings and all of Seville's awesomeness...
Tomorrow I hope to go to Real Alcazar. It's a complex that has a series of palatial rooms and spaces in various styles and from various ages... where important or just rich people lived. I will write more about it later.
I miss you so all so much!! Rosie, how was grad school shopping? Mom, who is coming over for Thanksgiving!!? It's good to hear that Matt and Rachel are safe and sound and having an amazing time in Thailand.
xoxo family and friends,
Cole
ps.. I am sure there are typos here, but I'm sitting on the sidewalk and my bum hurts, and I'm too lazy to go back and fix things... I'm stealing someone's wifi.. I'm such an international outlaw!
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