So where do I live?

So I just realized that I have not truly described the town where I live in! I live in Cadiz, Spain, in the provence of Andalucia, in the very southern part of Spain - it's a peninsula off the coast of Spain, kinda like Spain's "Florida." It's a typical Spanish town, nothing too exciting like Sevilla or Madrid - but it's a small town, with so much life and culture in it. It's almost kinda hippy - very chill, it seems like no one works here. The University of Cadiz takes up a lot of the city land, kinda like how UGA is pretty much Athens. But the University isn't the prime locale of the city, its the people, culture, food, cathedral, and of course, THE BEACH! :) The beach has to be the best part of it all, it completely surrounds the city and brings the city's income: tourism from cruises. It's not a major cruise port, but you'll see cruise groups touring the city EVERYDAY. And it's mostly cute old people :) In addition to that, this city is sparkling with all sorts of life. Probably about every 1 in 4 person you see here is under the age of 10, or the age of 50+. It seems like the norm here is to be born, go to school, live with your parents, get married, and have kids. It seems like every 1 in 6 women here are pregnant, and every 1 in 2 women have a baby or a child under 10. Literally, kids take up most of this city - I don't I have ever seen so many kids concentrated in one area my whole life except for Disney World. Oh, and if you're not a baby or a kid, you're a dog. I think every 1 in 2 persons here own a dog - they're literally everywhere too. And most of them are mutts - I've seen some of the weirdest combinations here...

But Cadiz is a picturesque city with the class narrow streets, apartment housing, mopeds running around, and people enjoying themselves. Every hour you can hear church bells ringing, kids playing in a plaza, and people loving. This town is so unbelievably relaxed, and the people are so friendly. I'm enjoying every minute here, and I actually think, for the first time in my life, I am relaxed while being a school (an oxymoron right?) Well, I think it may be time for dinner and some more homework, but PARIS in 8 DAYS! :)

Sevilla...again!

So weeks have been busy trying to handle school, a fun city, and the beach! Trying to learn linguistics is hard enough, but trying to learn linguistics of a foreign language IN that foreign language is even harder! As a result, we decided to go back to Sevilla and stay a night there. It was gorgeous as usual, but I also got to have my first hostel experience! We stayed at Ole Backpackers...and it was interesting to say the least! But all we needed was a shower and a bed, and we definitely got it! Oh, and it was a shower with a shower-head attached to the wall :) Anywho, we ate an EXTREMELY nice dinner in Sevilla and some great Tinto de Verano, my new favorite drink! Afterwards, we went to the party strip of Sevilla and went to a couple bars. I didn't meet any locals, but surprisingly, I met some FIU law students, and a couple of Florida graduates...GO DAWGS! But it was a fun night to say the least, and a great way to start my hostel experience.

Great news though, I FINALLY booked my flight to Paris! Paris countdown: 11 DAYS!! :)

So today we went to Sevilla! After a LONNGGG night last night (do the people never sleep here?!), Marla and I decided to go to Sevilla ourselves at a later time and meet up with the group later. We BARELY made our train since navigating to the train station here is not as easy as people say it is. We finally made it to Sevilla after an hour long train ride and we were SUPER tired and hungry. So in via to the center of town, we passed by this AMAZING hotel...the most civilization we have seen in the past couple of days. It was so chic, we decided to stay and eat lunch there. Marla got a hamburger (yay for American food!) and I got a ham sandwich with the peek-a-boo egg on top of it. And apparently a wedding was being held there...and the idea of crashing it was too tempting :) Anywho, we made a quick walk to the center of town and were immediately taken away by the beauty and tranquility of the town. Sevilla is seriously by far the most beautiful town in Spain, and quite possibly the most beautiful I have seen. We started out by touring the Cathedral and the Giralda Bell Tower...still takes my breath away! After that we met up with some other people in our program and had some Sangria and olives - so good as always! Oh and we saw a bachelor party in the streets where the bachelor had dressed up as a bull and his party dressed in the typical outfit for the running of the bulls - it was soo funny! It made me love Sevilla even more. Oh, and apparently Sevilla is the place to get married because there were like 500 weddings going on...and they were so beautiful! I can't wait to get married! :)

Anywho, we continued our day in Sevilla by quickly touring some of the Real Alcazar palace and then buying some handmade plates at the popular plate store near the outer parts of Sevilla. We then ate some paella at a bar and dashed for our train!

I definitely enjoyed going back to Sevilla again and having a COMPLETELY different experience. I got to see a lot of things I have never seen before, such as the house part of the Real Alacazar. And there was a ton of the city that I explored that I didn't see before. Sevilla remains to be beyond beautiful, and a true testimony to the wonders of God. And of course, who doesn't love weddings :)

Mmmm....Paella (homemade, of course).

So the past couple of days have been quite...lovely :) Everyday we go to school at 9, have a break between classes where we usually go to the gym and get some coffee, class again at 12:30, then go to the beach until dinner. Sounds like the life to me :) And the weather has been SO nice, talk about great beach weather. But class has been good - my SPAN 3010 class has only 4 people, but the small class size allows for more interaction with the teacher and a better opportunity to truly learn the material. My SPAN 3050 (Spanish linguistics) is really interesting too - the teacher is so nice and she loves to hear about America. Anyways, class is one and a half hours, which isn't so horrible, I'm just always hungry in them haha. But I love this city - it doesn't get any better than this. :) Back to homework, more detailed updates later when I have time!

-Teresa

LA PLAYA!

Not gonna lie, this trip would not be as good if we didn't have the beach! The beach is really close by, only a 20 minute walk. And the temperature was perfect - today was just so awesome! Cadiz is just so relaxed and quaint, I'm able to handle this more a little more than Madrid.

Anywho, we had a welcome dinner tonight and it was quite interesting...a lot of seafood, but good seafood! And there was a bar really close t

o the restaurant, and there were people dancing flamenco...and they invited us to come dance with them. So a couple of us went and danced with

the locals and it was so much fun! Then we topped off the night with a glass of wine, how classy :)

Anywho, walking around and laying out in the sun can be SO tiring ;) Classes start tomorrow!

Spainard Fooodddd

Day 3 - Finally in Cadiz...and pictures! :)

So today we had an early start and began our 9 hour journey from Madrid to Cadiz. We went through a lot of the country side and took an hour stop at a nice hotel/bar/restaurant thing in the middle of nowhere - like seriously, in the middle of nowhere. Anywho, ham is the staple here, so I have been living off of that and bread.

Finally we made it to Cadiz, and our families were waiting for us. Mine and Marla's "madre" is Maribol, an older woman who is SO COOL! She made us a pea soup, "tortillas con papas y cebolla", queso, and bread.

The house is smaller, but it has a really cool upstairs study room and AWESOME balcony overlooking the street - not gonna lie, it's just like the movies. When we came in, there were children playing in the street and a BEAUTIFUL wedding at the chapel (estoy emocionada!) It's a lot safer here, and the streets are smaller and cuter. And apparently, the beach is VERY close ;) Our room is probably a third of the size of our regular dorm rooms, but its more home-y. All in all, I love Cadiz! Much more relaxed and simpler than Madrid. Tomorrow we have a scavenger hunt to get to know the city, then we're going

out to eat. Classes start on Monday!

Pictures, finally!

My room!

My new home!

Vino much?

Doesn't get better than this..chocolate y churros!

Picasso...

Mi grupo!

Discoteca much?

Madrid!

Damen?

Frankfurt Airport

Day 1 and 2 - Flying and Madrid

Alright so I'm new at this blog thing, but I figure it's the best way to keep up with my trip! Yesterday was actually Day 1, but it has been a VERY LONG past 2 days. About most of our Cadiz group got together at the airport and left around 6:30 for Frankfurt, Germany. The flight wasn't that bad - I sat next to a very nice Polish woman and her ADORABLE baby boy (they were actually from Dacula!) and I finally got to see the movie Avatar. Even though the flight was super uncomfortable, it went by so fast. The Frankfurt airport was cool, really relaxed and bunnies on the runway haha. Then we had to take a connecting flight to Madrid from Frankfurt, and I knew I was going to pass out on the plane, which I did. When we arrived to Madrid, it was unfortunately RAINY and COLD. Everyone was in their winter clothes! Currently, we are staying in the Hotel Tryp Gran Via, right in the center of the Gran Via part of Madrid - aka, close to GREAT shopping! We all went and bought really dinky cell phones for the trip and really did not have time to rest.

Not going to lie, I had to experience the night life here! A couple of us in the group got together and went out last night to some local bars and discotecas. Despite the cold, it was SO much fun! We started out at a place called...Star Light? (It was a long name) It was cool, just like any bar in Athens, with a lot of young people and some Americans. Then we went to a discoteca, and had lots of fun there dancing and meeting locals. There was also a Marachi band there! The only thing about discotecas is that there is a cover charge usually at the door. I had to pay 5 euros to get into the discoteca. All in all though, it was a great way to start the trip!

Today had an early start! We went to the Reina Sofia museum of contemporary art and saw the works of artist such as Picasso and Dali. The art was really cool, definitely different from the Prado! After the museum, a couple of us did some walking and did some shopping at local vendors. Lunch was at this place called Vitimina, and I guess their thing was healthy food! I had a sandwich called 'Apolo" - turkey, spinach drenched in olive oil, mayo, tomato sauce, and a side of fries. Very interesting, wasn't too bad! Dinner was GREAT though, I had green beans that tasted just like how the Southerners make it! And, as expected, I am living off bread and butter again :) Oh, and I also did some VERY GOOD shopping today - can you say Bershka is the coolest store ever?!

I am enjoying every second here, and it's so much better the second time! I still remember a lot of stuff from when I came 2 years ago, and it's great to see how life is here now that I am a tad bit older :) Anyways, I'm going to try to keep up with this as much as I can - trying to get internet here is very hard. Anywho, going to the Plaza Mayor tonight and hopefully getting me some Sangria and chocolate y churros! :)

Adios!

Teresa

PS - to all my Spain people from '08, I swear I saw Randolph-o at the Madrid airport - I SWEAR. ;)

Pictures aren't working now for some reason (probably because the internet sucks) but I will put some up ASAP! :)