A very long post long overdue...

Drue got into Sevilla Tuesday afternoon and I met him at the stop of the bus from the airport. We then walked to the apartment we would be staying in (Loli used our fall break as a good time to do some traveling of her own) and got settled. The apartment was really cute, with a small sitting area and a little kitchen so we could do some cooking and save a bit of money. It was also only two minutes walking from my school, which was a nice change from the thirty to forty that it normally takes. I had to go back for a class that afternoon, so Drue took a bit of a nap to recuperate from his flight. That night, we went to a little tapas bar called Estrella, which I hadn’t tried before. I really enjoyed the food; tapas are great (in addition to the taste) because you can sample a bit of everything for a cheap price. We had: avocado stuffed with shrimp covered in a tomato-y type sauce; fried goat cheese on toast with a tomato spread; fried eggs with fried potatoes and peppers; fried baby squids; and some sort of grilled meat with peppers and potatoes. It’s really nice because although that sounds like a lot, you just get tiny plates of each thing, so you aren’t stuffed afterwards. Which made it really easy to go get some tasty ice cream (a cone with strawberry and chocolate with cookies for me, and pistachio for Drue) yum!

The next day, after I was done with my morning classes, Drue and I fixed lunch with the groceries we had purchased the day before. We had very tasty sandwiches made with fresh bread, chorizo, eggs scrambled in the chorizo oil, and Manchego cheese over the top. Very yummy! We then spent the afternoon by the river, since I had to study for my art history exam that evening. It wasn’t the most fun thing to have to do right after Drue got there, but at least we had a pretty view. The exam was somewhat exhausting, but it went rather well and I was relieved to be done with it. Wednesday evening was much better because we were able to eat dinner with Loli before she left for her trip. She fixed us a delicious spinach salad, pureed soup with dried ham, and a tasty tortilla. I was very happy that Drue got to try Loli’s food (which he loved) since I had been talking about it to him for so long. Plus, Loli loaded us up with all the fruit that was in the house, plus a package of chorizo, a tin of tuna fish, and the rest of the spinach from dinner.

Thursday we went to Taberna Coloniales, where I had gone for tapas once before with Rachel, Nicole, and Justo, and I am sad to say that this time, it wasn’t nearly as good. We only got a few things, but our last tapa was some fried calamari that tasted like it had been cooked in bad oil. It wasn’t very appetizing and neither Drue nor I could get the taste out of our mouths and felt a bit icky afterwards. It was slightly disappointing, but then we went and saw a bit of Flamenco dancing at La Carboneria and had a little sangria, which was very enjoyable.

I think (it’s getting hard to remember what we did every day) Friday we headed to the Plaza de España and the Parque de María Luisa. Overall, it’s a very pretty location and Drue and I just sat in the Plaza for a while and chatted. I have to say that one of the things I liked most about our trip was that we could actually talk without worrying how much it costs for the phone call. Since I will be graduating in May, we wanted to talk a bit more extensively about what’s going to happen once we go out on our own, though neither of us are certain about anything career/job-wise. Our plan as of now is to try and find an affordable apartment in the Atlanta area, where we would be close to jobs/schools/friends, etc. Though I still am not sure what I really want to do, it really helps to know Drue and I have some sort of plan (and continuing to learn Spanish is definitely involved for the both of us). Then, that night we headed into the Alamenda area and checked out a tapas place called Bar Ambigú. I had probably one of the best tortillas of my life (right up there with Loli´s) with lots of garlic.

Saturday we went to the Alcázar and wandered around. It was great to go back (especially since it’s free for students studying in Spain) and explore more of the gardens. When I went with my school we didn’t spend too much time there. They are a lot bigger than I thought they were, and beautiful of course. We also did a bit of shopping, and Drue found a really cool coat at H&M. I have been searching for a coat for a while now, but it proves to be a difficult mission because I am very picky (plus I don’t want to spend a lot of money). We decided to make that night our tapas-hopping night, in order to sample more of the dishes at a few of the restaurants in the Santa Cruz area. Thanks to my guidebook, we found some really neat places, and had a delicious and varied meal without paying a lot. Some of my favorites of the night include tiny blood sausage (another one of my new favorite things) sandwiches, a plate of jamón (Spain has the best ham I have ever tasted, and they slice it right off of the legs hanging in many of the bars which is always interesting), and hake tacos with potatoes. A very tasty night overall I would say, which more than made up for the night before.

Sunday we rode along the river on rental bikes, which was very nice. It had warmed up a bit, which was great, because it was a bit odd for the weather to be so warm one day, and the next be pretty darn chilly. I think it also seems colder because my house and the school are still open, and there isn’t central heating. I have definitely started to layer my clothes when I get dressed, as the afternoons can still be pretty warm, especially walking to and from school. Anyway, after the bike excursion, we headed to a restaurant that is affiliated with a cooking school, and thus offers a three-course lunch for a reduced price. I treated Drue as a (very) belated birthday present, and we had a really good time. It was a bit more formal of a meal, but very fun to experience. We ate (splitting everything) pasta with baby squids in its ink, white beans with some sort of organ meat (tasty, but unknown), veal with vegetables in some sort of teriyaki sauce, a bacalao (cod) dish, a brownie type pastry with honey ice cream, and a cheese-cakey type pastry with vanilla ice cream. We also had some sangria and, after dessert, espressos. A point to explain: previously, I haven’t eaten veal, but I feel like I should either be eating everything (since I enjoy food so much) or be completely vegetarian. Since I don’t feel like I could be completely vegetarian, I think I should just eat what I am served, especially in a meal situation such as this. Overall, I enjoyed the dishes, and the experience, a lot. I believe my favorite dish was the pasta with squid ink; it was really tasty, with a mild and slightly sweet flavor.

Monday night we finally tried a place I had been hearing about for a while called 100 (Cien) Montaditos. It literally means one hundred tiny sandwiches. You have a list of all 100 sandwiches and you just mark which ones you want and then pay at the counter. It was really crowded when we went so we just stood at a bar, but there was a special going on and every sandwich only cost 1,, which was fantastic. We sampled a few and I think our favorites where the chorizo and brie (actually a terrific combination) and the duck pâté with crispy onions. Fantastic and quick food for not a lot of money is always a good thing.

We headed back to 100 Montaditos for just a couple tiny sandwiches the next day for lunch since we had enjoyed them so much and didn’t want anything costly (they still had the awesome special going on). Tuesday night we met up with my roommate Rachel, her boyfriend and two friends (Scott and Curtis), and Meara and Chelsea. We all hung out for a bit in our apartment, and then went out for tapas. We revisited La Giralda, which I thought was just as good the second time around. It was a lot of fun to be out with such a big group and goof around. It’s definitely harder to do that here, since everyone is usually in different parts of the city, but this worked out really well and I had a great time. A highlight of the night was when Rachel and I ate the unripened oranges in order to win free ice cream. They really didn’t taste that bad (though sour of course) and I would say it was definitely worth it.

Wednesday Drue, Chelsea, and I went out for coffee (though I just had fresh orange juice since I wasn’t feeling well). Then we all hung out in the Plaza Nueva and chatted. It was really nice to all be together and catch up about what’s been going on (less so between Chelsea and I since we’re here together). Later, Drue and I met up with Rachel and the boys and walked to Loli’s to all have lunch together. It was pretty interesting, since there were seven of us around our little dinner table that could even hold all of the food that Loli prepared. We had a platter of meats and cheese, shrimp, a salad of cod and roasted red peppers, and white beans with chorizo in an orange-y sauce. It was delicious of course, though it was a bit confusing with translating back and forth between English and Spanish so everyone could understand each other. Drue is anxious to learn more Spanish and he did really well while he was here, so I am definitely happy about that. Loli seemed impressed as well; overall, it was just great to have them meet.

Drue left from our apartment at about five the next morning, which wasn’t great, but we had had a really great visit, so it wasn’t terrible. His flights went rather smoothly and I went back to class (writing a paper before one of them - though I got a 90.5%, not bad for twenty-five minutes worth of work before class started).

Now that I am mostly caught up (Drue – feel free to add and/or make corrections) with my break, I’ll start writing about my trip to Barcelona, which now seems like it was ages ago. I may insert a short blog at some point about the past couple of weeks, but they haven’t been nearly as exciting. Keep me updated with events in the States!

Pictures from Drue´s visit!

Here are just a few of the pictures from my fall break:

Here I am hanging from the beam in our kitchen!

Drue pretending to jump out of the window onto Calle Arfe.

Drue and I in front of the Alázar.

This is me enjoying an apple tart from Horno San Buenaventura and...

this is Drue devouring his!

This is the sweet rope chandelier that was in our apartment.

An attempt to obtain unripened Sevilla oranges (supported by Curtis and Bryce).

From the left: part of me, Scott, Curtis, Rachel, and Bryce (enjoying tapas!)

Drue, Scott, Curtis, Bryce, Rachel, and Loli around our teensey table.

I am currently in the process of writing about Drue's visit, but there is a lot I have yet to cover. I should be posting it soon, but I might not have internet access again until the beginning of the week. I hope everyone is doing well!

Madrid (sorry it´s been so long)

I haven’t written in so long (I am very sorry!), so what I think I’ll do is just catch up on my trip to Madrid this weekend first, and then work my way backwards to write about my fall break with Drue and my trip to Barcelona (both of which were awesome). I also have pictures, so I might post a few here and there during the process of catching everyone up with events here. It’s definitely been a crazy few weeks (and I caught a lovely cold right in the middle of everything), but I’ve been having a really good time. I hope everything is great in the States, it’s been wonderful to hear from everyone, especially about the results of the election!

We left for Madrid a day earlier than the school with the intention of going to Toledo for the day, but since the train was full when we got to the station, Saxon, Rachel, and I just hung around Madrid for the day. We went to a huge park and ate our sandwiches, which was really nice and probably my favorite part of the day. The rest of the time we just wandered around and stopped in some stores so Rachel and I could look for some coats. (It’s not really that cold yet, but since our house and the school are still open all of the time, and we’re walking outside a lot of the time, I never really seem to get warm, especially since I haven’t been feeling well.)

We stopped in the Corte Ingles’ cafeteria for ice cream (for Rachel and Saxon) and orange juice and tea (for me). I was too cheap to pay for both, so I just asked for some hot water and then used a tea bag that I had in my purse. I am trying to conserve money where I can, though it sometimes earns me some odd looks.

After we got back to our hostel, I decided to eat my dinner early (another sandwich, like I said, I am cheap) and then I went to bed early. I think I got around 12 hours of sleep, which I definitely needed. Then, after dropping our bags off at our new hotel and meeting up with the school group, we headed to the Prado. It was really neat to be able to see all of the works that I have studied in art class in person. My art teacher, Conso, was the guide for this trip, and she talked briefly about El Greco, Velazquez, and Goya (while we looked at their works, of course) and then we wandered around the rest of the museum. I especially enjoyed seeing the Garden of Earthly Delights by Bosch. Seeing it up close was super cool because you can really see all of the crazy details and imaginary creatures and whatnot. That was probably my favorite piece there.
After a lunch break we headed to the Reina Sofia, which houses a lot more modern art, which is definitely more my style. We again had brief descriptions of some of the works with Conso, then wandered around to see more of what each of us wanted. It was amazing to see Guernica, which can’t really be experienced the same way if you only see it in a book. The size and expressiveness of the painting are simply incredible; it’s really neat how much emotion you can see through basically simple materials like paint and a canvas.

The next day, after a yummy breakfast of toast, bacon, and scrambled eggs (and juice, and espresso, and cereal...) we headed to the Palacio Real. It is truly enormous, with something like three thousand rooms. The royal family doesn’t live there anymore, but it is still used for state functions and galas and the like. We took a brief tour (obviously not the whole palace) with Conso whispering brief explanations (we weren’t really supposed to have a guide speak the whole time). It was way too fancy for my taste; everything seemed a bit extravagant and over the top. On the whole, I am not a big fan of crystal chandeliers, gold upon gold, and velvet wallpaper. Yikes. However, it was pretty neat to see some real Stradavarius stringed instruments. I guess there are only seven that still exist today, and five of them (that we got to see) are in Spain. As you could imagine, you can’t even put a price on them, they are that valuable.

After another sack lunch, we went to the Thyssen Museum. The artworks there previously made up a private collection. It was unbelievable to think that all of these famous works belonged to a single person. Though it was really neat to see all of the pieces, I got pretty tired while I was there. I think the weekend was just a bit overwhelming, what with being sick and not really having a chance to catch up on sleep before I left. After we left, we headed back to the train station and caught the AVE to Sevilla. I finished up my homework and went to bed as early as I could, though it didn’t make getting up at 6:30 the next morning much easier. I still wasn’t feeling great, but the trip was definitely worth it and I am very happy that I got to go.

I will keep writing to try and catch up all of the way, so be on the lookout for more posts soon!