Well you, the anxious reader, has probably been waiting about a week for this, the next post. Hope it doesn’t disappoint. I haven’t really talked much yet about what I’ve been doing, so I figured I’d start there. As you probably saw in previous pictures, I’ve already been to Italica and Cordoba. Italica is a small town about 15 minutes from Sevilla. It was founded by the Romans and was home to Emperor Trajano and some other Emporer (guess the tour didn’t sink in as much as I thought. oops). It was pretty neat. They had some really cool Roman mosaics and a huge stadium where they used to have gladiator fights (it’s the third biggest one around).
The Cordoba trip was 2 weekends ago. It’s about an hour and a half from here and is a pretty neat place, too. It used to be a huge center for science/academia and was the 2nd biggest city around, right up there with Baghdad and Constantinople. **I should probably note here that this tour was about 2 weeks ago, and like Italica, the details are a little fuzzy. I guess you really wont know though if I’m making all of it up, so just go with it**. It was founded by the Visigoths, then the Arabs took it over, then the Christians booted them out and have kept it since. Because of this, though, there’s a ton of Arabic influence there (like in Sevilla) and a lot of really neat architecture/art/etc. The biggest thing in Cordoba was the Mosque (Mezquita in Spanish). The Arabs built this huge thing when they were there, then the Christians came in and instead of tearin it down, decided to throw up a Cathedral right in the middle of it and call it a church. They have mass there every week, but everyone still calls it a mosque. I’ll pause here in case you need to sit down and think about that one…
This week we started our real classes for the semester. 3 of my classes are at the University of Sevilla and 1 is at the CIEE palacio. I’ll post some pictures, but both buildings are pretty awesome. The classes I’m taking at the university are Hispanic Poetry, Contemporary Spanish Film, and Transition to Democracy in Spain from 1975-Present. At CIEE I’m taking Politics and Society in the Contemporary Arab World. All of my professors are pretty great and all the classes seem really interesting, especially the film class. We just show up, watch a movie, then talk about it. Tues and Thurs classes don’t start till 1 and no classes on Friday. Niiiicccceeee.
I’ve gotta talk about the University too. This building is awesome. It used to be a big tobacco factory where people would roll cigarettes/cigars all day. The opera Carmen was based here, and they think Carmen was sort of a stereotype of the women who worked there (but she still might have been a real person). They converted it to a university about 500 years ago and have been getting their study on there ever since. There are a ton of neat courtyards and fountains inside, and as you go to class you’re walking by marble statues, huge stained glass ceilings/open air courtyards, etc. Now don’t get me wrong, Mizzou is a beautiful school, but it’s just hard for me to put the Arts and Science Building where most of my classes are in the same category. In an interesting side note, you may be surprised to know (or not so surprised if you’ve seen them) that the bathrooms in both places look about the same. I’m not sure if that says more to the good maintainence skills over 500 years at the Univ of Sevilla’s or the sorry state of things at Mizzou. Both have seen better days.
Outside of school, things are still goin well. I’m sure you guys don’t want to hear this as you’re trudging through snow, but the weather has been pretty perfect here. The sun’s been shinning and sometimes you don’t even need a coat. It was 18*C today, whatever that means, but it felt like spring.
During the nights, we’ve usually been starting off drinking down by the river and then headin to the bars afterwards. A ton of Spanish people our age hang out and drink down there, and they even have their own word for it – botellón. It’s been a pretty good way to meet people and save some money (a liter of beer costs 1 euro, and you can find bottles of wine for about the same).
Finally, I also received my membership to SEVici this week, and boy is it great. SEVici is this bike system that is basically made up of bike stations every 300 meters. The general idea is that you pay 10 euros for a year long membership, and then once you’re a member, you can go to any bike station, swipe you’re card, and then rent a bike for a half hour. You can then ride your bike wherever you need to go and return it at any other station you want. Sevilla is pretty flat and they have bike paths running throughout the city so it’s super convenient.
That’s about it for now. It’s Valentine’s Day on Sunday so I’m assuming I’ll meet that special someone Saturday. Or I’ll eat myself into a sugar induced coma and then cry my lonely self to sleep.
Cheers to a happy Nov. 14th
Fowler you're definitely crying yourself to sleep before meeting someone special
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