Today is Thursday. I am going to class, going home to lunch, maybe taking a bit of a siesta, packing a VERY light backpack. Then, Hannah, Brielle, Bobiejo, and I are taking the 4:50 train to Sevilla. We have reservations at the (nice) hotel that Hannah's parents are staying in tomorrow night. Sevilla is less than two hours away and I am very excited to get there, and to stay in a hotel again!

Here's the tricky part. There are four of us staying in a triple. Which means that we are going to have to practice our stealth skills to avoid sleeping on the street. Don't worry, it will all be under control, and if not, I'll have a really funny story to update on Monday when I get back to the internet!

I love you guys and have a great weekend!

My literature professor was sick yesterday, so I only had class from 10 am to 12 pm. Which means that we had extra time to sit around in Jenny's air-conditioned hotel room, watch Super Troopers, and get to the pool. Jenny's parents also took us out to lunch, which was wonderful. Having a family around is great! Today we are finalizing our plans for Sevilla; we are most likely leaving Thursday afternoon and coming home Friday night with our group (and meeting them during the day Friday to take advantage of the tours we'll be going on, of the Alcazar and what not.)

So, we lucked out on our time to be in Cádiz because today begins the regada of the tall ships! There are huge, pirate-like ships coming in and racing today, and last night, right after I talked to Mom on the phone, we walked to the bay and there was a FAIR set up! That's right, we got to ride a sketchy carnival ferris wheel in Spain and loved it! Plus, the guy controlling it made eyes or honked his horn at us every time we went around. With a carnival comes carnival food: waffles, fries, ice cream, cotton candy, all that stuff, plus Cádiz does things a little differently. They build these really fancy looking bars and blare music and set up dance floors--so there are basically 6 or 7 dance clubs at this carnival! And let's not forget the fudge... There was so much fudge!

Today, we are planning to get some sun by the hotel pool (I'm so glad Jenny's parents are in town--we don't even have to get sandy today!), and then we have a tour of the cathedral with our program at 5, we want to get in a run, and then there is a place that holds free salsa lessons on Wednesdays, so I'm hoping to do that!

Some more pictures: the first is in Cádiz at the top of the Torre de Tavira and is of Bonnie, me, Jenny, and Bobiejo. The second is myself, Hailey, and Bobiejo hiding in the jardín in the Alhambra.

I forgot to mention a few things. First, the trash workers went on strike last week in Cádiz. All of a sudden, our pretty town smells really gross and literally is overrun with trash. When we got back from Granada, it looked a little better, but I'm not sure what happened or if they are back working, because there's still trash everywhere. They want to resolve it I know because there are going to be tall boat races starting Wednesday and they attract a lot of attention. (I'm really excited about those!)

Another thing: traveling in our free time. The girls I spend most of my time with are wanting to do some extra trips. We go to Sevilla this Friday, but they want to go Thursday night, stay over, and meet the group on Friday morning and just ride back with them. This isn't that big of a deal and I'll probably do it, but at the same time I feel like I'm not utilizing what we have already paid for (ie: the bus ride there).

The next weekend, the only thing planned with API is to go to San Lucar de Barrameda, and only during the day Friday. Well, the girls are trying to figure out a way to go to Barcelona instead. I would not want to miss an opportunity to get to see Barcelona, but then I've already paid for the San Lucar trip, essentially. Plus, I want to tour the bodegas and see the horse races on the beach. But then I'm torn, because Barcelona is amazing. I could also get a cheap flight out (maybe) on Saturday morning or something and meet them there after that trip, but it just seems too sketchy. But I don't want to be abandoned for a weekend when I could be travelling! I'm really torn about the whole thing, and I'll probably be calling home soon to talk it over. I'm kind of hoping that the plans don't work out. They were talking about taking a train to Sevilla, then to Madrid, then to Bilbao, then to Barcelona. Which will add up pretty quickly. And would take so much time! I just don't know.

What I WOULD love to do is go to Portugal. I don't think we are that far away and Lagos is supposedly beautiful. The girls from last trip went last session and can only say good things about it. But who knows.

And now pictures. First, Hannah, Brielle, and me as bulls in Ronda. Then Bobiejo and me eating lunch in Ronda. Then the last one is our entire group, combined with another API group (there are only 15 of us normally) in Granada before the flamenco show. Enjoy!

My face healed. Apparently it was some sort of bite, maybe a spider or something. I also think my linguistics test went pretty well, but I'll find out if that's true or not in less than half an hour. Plus I have another test at noon, but that isn't even one we could have studied for.

Granada and Ronda were beautiful! We went to Ronda first and saw the first bull fighting ring. There isn't a whole lot in Ronda that we knew of to see, so we just ate lunch and took pictures. What's cool is that the city is built around a gorge that has a waterfall and stuff and so we stood on a bridge overlooking it. It was very pretty.

Granada is a great city and I'm so glad we spent two days there. The Alhambra is where we spent a lot of our time, but we also saw their cathedral and the chapel that has Fernando and Isabel's body. The Alhambra used to be its own muslim fortress/town and so a lot of the architecture is old and beautiful, and then once the Roman Catholics finished reclaiming Spain they turned it into theirs, so there's lots of places where the architecture switches. We went to the exact spot where Queen Isabel gave Christopher Columbus the grant to find the Americas. Isn't that neat? I took millions of pictures.

Another cool thing in the Alhambra is the harem, which was the private terrace for the sultan (in muslim times). There is a fountain in the middle, with 12 lions around it. The lions represent the 12 tribes of Israel. Isn't that interesting? It turns out that stricter muslims looked down on the sultan in Spain because he was judeo-muslim. I didn't know that existed!

Our hotel was VERY fancy, but the only problem was that it was a 20 minute walk uphill or downhill to town. So we probably walked a good 20 miles over the weekend with all the tours and shopping. Flamenco was amazing--I know I already described it, but it was in a cave and very intimate, and I am so fascinated by how their clapping, guitar, singing, stomping, and dancing all mix together. I recorded a little to show when I get home.

And the best thing in Granada: Hammam Arab Baths! We went at 10pm and had an hour and a half. You have to shower before you can get in the baths because they clean them before and everything is hypo-allergenic. It is in a cave, and everything is dark except for some candles and aromatherapy stuff burning. There's a cold room with a hot-tub sized bath that you can sit in up to your neck. Then there's a hot room, which is where the masseuse tables are, and then there's a long, shallow hot tub. It is decorated muslim-style with pretty tiles everywhere and there's arab music playing in the background. It was AMAZING! I seriously wish I could get ahold of that phone number Cori gave me and book my appointment for a massage NOW for when I get home! Anyway, it was the best 25 euro ever spent, I'm sure of it.

I love you guys!

Well, I woke up this morning hoping to run, because we did last night and it was so pretty and I felt great afterwards, but when I woke up my leg cramped up so bad that it still hurts to move it. So I decided not to run. Then I thought my face felt a little weird. I look in a mirror: my entire left upper lip is swollen to about three times its normal size. I have no idea what to do and I'm kind of panicking, but I decided I'll just go by the API office (which is in the school) between classes (ie after my test). It's not open right now, apparently, which is why I'm in the computer lab and not there. I know Bobiejo had to go to a doctor in Santander and said that it was the quickest, easiest thing she had ever done, which I hope is true because we have big plans for today, including sitting around at the beach and shopping, and maybe even going out tonight.

I'm wondering if anything I ate made this happen. Last night's dinner was hilarious: it was just a plate of steamed cauliflower, in oil of course, with one egg, a piece of bread, and an apple. Oh, and french fries, which Mercedes makes all the time because I love them. Yesterday's lunch was some sort of pasta that had shellfish in it. And clams. I ate my first clams. Could I be allergic to clams? If I am, this is the weirdest looking allergy. It's really embarrassing.

After dinner last night, Mercedes talked to us for awhile. I love sitting and listening to what gets her going, because it's always the most random things, like the classes we are taking in school or something on the television.

I'll update when I know what's wrong with me.

Last night was amazing and here's why:
Torre de Tavira
a bocadillo shop with 100 different types of sandwiches
BEN & JERRY'S Peace of Cake ice cream in a waffle bowl
ANATOMÍA DE GREY!
That's right. We watched Grey's in español last night and it was wonderful. And not to mention we sat in a plaza in the most beautiful city and enjoyed our very good, very American ice cream.
The torre was very neat--at the top there is a camera oscura and we were able to look at the whole city, in real time, before us on this big round table-like thing. We also went to the top of the tower, which is the highest point in Cádiz. Overall, it was a neat night.
Oh, the bocadillos were great, too. They are all one euro each and bite size, so I got three. And I could have eaten more!

Today is the first day that it hasn't been sunny and it actually feels a little... cool... outside. Am I imagining things?

So, I have been in Cádiz for one week as of tomorrow. My days are not that interesting. I get up around 9 am, get ready for school (shower if I need to, but usually our room is so hot during the day or we go to the beach so I prefer to shower at night), grab some bread or cookies, then go up to school early so I can check my e-mail in the library before class. Then I had linguistics with Dr. Koike from 10-12 pm, and literature with Rebeca from 12-2pm.

At first, my classes scared me to death. It is exhausting speaking Spanish to a family all day, then going to the university and enduring four hours of class in Spanish--analyzing first the way words are formed and then analyzing pieces of literature. Plus, it's summer school, so things move quickly. In fact, my first linguistics test is on Thursday. But things have gotten easier; my teachers are so understanding and nice and I'm realizing that more than anything, they want us to enjoy our trip here.

After class ends, Bobiejo and I walk down the street (about five minutes) to our apartment, and our señora, Mercedes, makes lunch. She doesn't understand that Bobiejo is a vegetarian; she just thinks she's extremely picky, which is hilarious, because she always tries to sneak her meat or gives her huge portions of fish that she doesn't really like but eats only because she has to. Our señor, Ramón, is originally from Galicia and is impossible to understand, but just last night we sat down with Mercedes and she talked to us for about an hour on her political views (let's just say that she's not too happy with things).

We have eaten all sorts of things here, my favorite of which so far has been this sort of lentil soup that Mercedes made yesterday. We also eat paella, tortilla espanola, chicken, fried and grilled fish, salad covered in olive oil, this soup that has spinach and chick peas in it, gazpacho, fruit, and french fries/onion rings. It's all very interesting food. We don't usually go out to eat just because that means spending money, but tonight we plan on eating at a bocadillo shop (that means sandwich) by the cathedral. There's also a Ben and Jerry's in the same plaza! We do splurge on ice cream (helado) occasionally, but that's because it's very cheap (and like heaven!).

After 2 pm, the city closes down until 6 pm. After staying in our room during one siesta, we realized it was absolutely miserable in that hot room during the middle of the day and so we started going to the beach for three or four hours each day. It was amazing because the beach is literally downstairs and the water is freezing and men push carts selling water and Coca Light. I love it. But we got a little beached-out, so today we opted to go to the library, which is where I am now. I'm doing my linguistics homework, but took a break so I could post.

This Friday morning, we are leaving for Ronda and Granada, where we will be for about two days. We're going to do all the tourist things there, including a flamenco show! I'm extremely excited about that!