Spain as of late

So much has happened since I posted last!

We had our first week of classes. Woah. EVERYTHING is in Spanish. I'm able to understand casi todo (almost everything), and if there is something I don't understand, the professors explain it! My first class of the day is Literatura Hispanoamericana (Spanish-American Literature). We've been learning all about modernism by reading poetry from Rubén Darío, el padre del modernismo (the father of modernism), and from the book Pédro Paramo by Juan Rulfo. I love this class. The content is really interesting and the professor, Salva, is great. I have a short descanso (break) and then I have three classes in a row. The first class is Arte Español (Spanish Art), where we have been learning about Islamic art (i.e. architectural features of a mezquita (mosque)). The geometric precision in Islamic art is pretty cool. My next class is Gramática Avanzada (Advanced Grammar). This is SO helpful as a review of everything I forgot in the past year when I didn't take a single Spanish class. Finally, at the end of the day when everyone is starving for lunch, I have Tres Culturas (Three Cultures). In this class we are learning about the origins of Islam and their basic beliefs. Since I've never really studied this in-depth before, I really like it. Also, I think its kinda awesome that we are learning about all of this stuff completely in Spanish - and understanding it!


El alminar


On Friday, we took a trip to a city called Córdoba. Córdoba is the site of the first mezquita in Spain and it was a great place to study Islamic architecture in person. Here is some of what we saw there. It was a really great day exploring the mezquita and Córdoba. It is a beautiful, quaint city.


La fachada del mihrab















(L-R) Elizabeth, me, Emma, and Salem on top of the Setas

In the mean time, I've been hanging out with friends and exploring the city. Last week, I went with a group of friends to a bar to watch the Real Madrid vs Barcelona FC football game. I don't really know much about football, but it was a fun atmosphere, because all of the spaniards are really into football. Also, the bar was very authentically spanish, which was cool. Last week, we also went up to the top of the Setas (Mushrooms), which is a giant mushroom shaped observation deck from which you can see the entire city of Sevilla for a school organized tarde de chicas (girl's afternoon). I've also been shopping a few times and got some more great rebajas (discounts). Otherwise, I've been studying, planning trips, and haning out with friends. I booked a trip to England for Semana Santa (Holy Week i.e. week before Easter) to visit the fam and I'm looking into some trips to Valencia and Mallorca during Fería de Abril (April Fair) when we don't have school.




(L-R) Me, Christine, Maddie, Brooke watching the game

Things are going great! I'm probably going to go to the first flamenco class today to see if I would like to take lessons for the semester. I'm going with a friend, Emma, to the hair salon tomorrow. She wants to get her hair cut and I haven't decided if I'm going to cut mine yet, but it will be interesting to see how well we can communicate what we want in Spanish! Maybe I'll come back with a stylin' European hairstyle ;)


Hasta luego, amigos :)