First excursion to Pueblo Carmona

For my first little excursion, we made a trip to a small town called Carmona. It is about 30 kilometers out of Seville, which turns out to be a 45 minute bus ride. 

Finding the bus station, and the appropriate bus was an adventure in itself. I had a bus map of Seville, but it was of no use. Our group of 7 met up after mass in the huge central Cathedral, and we walked for a good mile or two to a bus station to find out that we needed to walk some more to the next bus station down the road. We finally made it to the right stop, and found out we had just missed the bus, and the next one didn't come till 2:30, a hour an half wait. Which was actually fine with me. Time flies here. You can sit down on a bench and just be amazed by Seville and next thing you know it has been an hour or town. People watching, as well as getting stared at, is always a blast haha.

This trip was only a day trip, such a small town with a lot of history that included a medieval fort, a bunch of awesome churches, and a Roman necropolis (which was very very disappointing in the end). Had a great time, but only needed about 3 hours to see it all and then we headed back to SEville. Round trip cost was $5...score!

The picture on the left is a view of the city. You can see the castle walls and two beautiful churches. The city was very hilly, unlike Seville. On the right is the city tower.

This is the crew that went with me. While I was taking this picture, a car almost ran straight into me. I moved and then he parked right where I was standing. Apparently Spanish patience and tourist respect doesn't exist in Carmona. 

Me on the fly

We didn't actually get a map of the city. When we arrived, we noticed these little metal arrow that say 'Tourist route'. We would simply follow the arrows, and it was a great self-tour of the city. Pretty sweet

One of the things that I had read about prior to going to Carmona was the fact that they had a roman Necropolis. It was made out to be a phenomenal place, the best in town. After searching, and finding it, we came to this site...the necropolis. It looked like mud, that's it. Pretty lame if you ask me. I was expecting a huge building, not this. Cool but disappointing. 

Our group excited that we made it to the Necropolis.

Riding for dayz

The best thing that I've found about spanish culture is the whole concept of the siesta. But yesterday, instead of actually partaking in a siesta, I decided I wanted to explore Sevilla. I wanted to see more of Sevilla, and I came across some very awesome places. My whole siesta time (3hours) consisted of my riding one of the bikes around with my camera in one pocket and a map in the other...and not a care in the world.

First week

My 2 days of orientation are finally done. I've learned many things that I'm glad I now know.

Things I've learned on my own:

-Chinese tourist like to take picture of Americans for some reason

-I'm going to look like a tourist anyways, so why try and hide it.

-Tapas are really really small portions, hence why they are only 2 euros

-Don't sit down in a restaurant dining area when you want to order a tapa, you do that in the bar area.

-Wifi is pronounced 'wefi'

-EVERYONE stares at you 

-McDonalds has a 'walk through' window...similar to a drive through, but you get the picture.

-PDA does not exist here

-Siestas are really long

-People don't go to sleep till 2-3 am, even on weekdays. I'm not just talking about young adults, but children and older people 50+

 Other things that I learned about today in my orientation were:

-Look confident because you are less like to get robbed

-Put your wallet in your front bottom, not behind

- Watch out for 'Canis', who are punk teenager kids that try to apparently pick fights with American men, even though they are 5 feet tall lol

-Don't jump off bridges, don't sleep on buses, don't go home with strangers all fell under the "use your common sense" category

After all of this, I'm an expert tourist. 

To finish off our orientation we are having a very typical Spanish dish with the whole group tonight called pizza (sarcasm on the typical spanish food).  I'm getting to know all of the other students, and my senora. It looks like this semester is going to be a blast. Till next time. 

My Senora

After what seems like a years adventure, I finally am going to move in today with my senora. Staying in this hotel for the past 3 days has been a lot of fun and I've enjoy staying here with Allison and Catherine, but I'm really excited to finally get to meet Alejandra and Jose, my parents for the next 4 months.

Also today all of the rest of the student from this program are flying in. They all are getting here around 5 and then tomorrow morning is when we are to check in for orientation. I feel like I already know everything about Sevilla from the past 3 nights which has included going to a spanish bar to eat Tapas (which I'm still trying to understand) and then going to this place called Carboneria in which they had some typical Spanish music and Flamenco dancing. It was quite the show.

I made it!

Finally, I made it to Spain. I've never had really good luck in airports. Whether it is a 20 hour layover, or whether I missed might flight, that has been the story of my life at airports. Well, why change the tradition.

Flying out of Lexington, I witness a lady and the flight attendant getting into a pretty stupid argument, and the flight attendant had to talk to the pilot about whether or not she should be kicked off the plane. Pretty ridiculous. Made it to Chicago with all of our passengers just in time for me to run to the nearest restaurant and watch the end of the UK- Tenn game. #BBN. Also killed some time watching UNC get blasted as well. So a great day for college hoops.

The flight from Chicago to Madrid went smoothly. Saw Real Steel and Thor (great movies). Had a really, and Im not kidding, a really great dinner. Beef and potats, with bread of course and crab. Apparently we made great time because the pilot told us he knew of a short cut (that doesn't made sense to me). In Madrid I found out that I had a 7 hour lay over while Allison and Catherine's flight left right away. My luck. It wasn't too bad, because the airport in Madrid is gorgeous! No joke. Sat next to some Portuguese lady who I thought was talking to me in Spanish, so I had a complete conversation with her until I realized she had no idea what I was saying and I had no idea what she was saying.

Got in to Madrid, took the bus with Allison, Catherine and Katie into the city which saved me a lot of money. We had a girl from the TRinity program on the flight from Chicago to Madrid who was with Allison and Catherine so we were able to figure out which bus to take. We made it to our hotel no problem. It took me a total of 5 minutes to fall asleep. I had been awake for 30 hours straight, so I was able to sleep for a good 18 hours until the construction crew outside started using the jack hammer. Which woke me up immediately.

Now I'm sitting in the hotel lobby with unlimited cafe con leche listening to classical spanish music. We've been walking around all day exploring. I took a lot of pictures. Words can't describe how beautiful this city is, so I won't bore you. But all I know is that the cathedral is the 3rd biggest in the world...and it is breathtaking.

This is the Cathedral I was talking about. Gigante!

My sister and I

The Torre de Oro which is right next to the school. You can't see it but it may be attached to that building right behind it...just to the right more. I'm standing on the bridge

Right outside our hotel window

Random statue that I'm sure has a lot of history but I have no idea what it is

Now I'm sitting in the hotel lobby with unlimited cafe con leche listening to classical spanish music. We've been walking around all day exploring. I took a lot of pictures. Words can't describe how beautiful this city is, so I won't bore you. But all I know is that the cathedral is the 3rd biggest in the world...and it is breathtaking.

The Preparation

This is my first official post. I'm pretty excited about everybody being able to follow me through my blog, as it will make it easier on me not having to write every single person, when you can all see my blog at once. I'm very new to this blogging, but I'm learning quick.

Here is a little pr-trip fun.

Today was a very interesting day for me. A few weeks back I had a dentist appointment. It started out as simply a typical teeth cleaning appointment. To my surprise I had 5 cavities, and to make matter worse, I found out that I needed to get my wisdom teeth pulled sooner than later. Knowing that I was going to Spain (!!!!!!) soon, it needed to be done this week.

Today was the day that I actually all 4 wisdom teeth pulled. The procedure went very well, and I've been sitting in bed all day just watching movie after movie. A pretty boring day, but everyone has got to do it sooner or later in their life..the pulling of wisdom teeth not the sitting around part. With all this being said, I thought that after todays adventures, and thanks to my dad's video recording, I thought you guys might want to see what drugs can do to even me. Haha. Hopefully you enjoyed them as much as I do. I don't remember doing anything of this, as a matter of fact I don't remember anything until about 2 hours after the surgery.

Unfortunately, the videos won't upload, but check out my Facebook, they are hilarious!
http://www.facebook.com/