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Adventures inside and outside Sevilla: Part 1

Hola amigos y amigas! This post is crazy overdue and I apologize for that. I sit down every day at my desk and feel overwhelmed by the insane amount of things I have to do. In addition to my new classes here (!), eating meals with my host family, and spending time with friends in my program here, I am also trying to balance preparing an application for a Discovery Grant this summer, considering topics for my thesis next year, worrying about scheduling for next year, and needing time to recharge, as usual. Writing these blogs sometimes feels like a gargantuan task, but once I get going I remember how fun it is to reflect and write about the things that are happening here. Especially since so many of you are friends and family from home! Also, I am going to count this post as two posts since I am so far behind on my writing. So that means I only have to write one more towards the end of this week. Deal?

I have a lot that I want to include in this post, but my first priority is to fill you in on my Portugal trip like I promised more than two weeks ago! I am going to make this a two-part blog post since it will be very long. So I guess I am retracting on my earlier deal to count this as two posts since it will actually be two posts.

Portugal

Not Lisbon: Faro, on the coast. We hopped on a bus Friday afternoon (January 23) after the last session of our intensive Spanish class. (*Note: over the course of 10 days, we spent 30 hours in this intensive class. Ridiculous right? This trip to Portugal was well deserved, we thought.) First off, navigating the bus station was hard. We had to figure out which port, which bus, etc., was ours, until finally a bus pulled up that said FARO. “That’s probably ours,” we said. It was! So, with surprising ease–especially considering that we would be crossing the border into an entirely different country, and they didn’t even ask to see our passports–we stowed our things away under the bus and took off! We were treated to some great views of the incredible and almost exotic Portugal.

The coolest ride into town.

We transferred buses in Faro–we were actually staying in Quarteira, 30 minutes outside of Faro–and drove into the smaller coastal town. We found our hotel easily while on the bus because it was bright orange, but as we drove right past it we realized it was a little ways out of town. “There it goes,” we said. Eventually we made our way there in a taxi and settled in for the night. Two of our friends went back to Faro to visit a restaurant they had learned about from someone they met on the bus called Tasca do Ricky (more about this below). That night, those of us left wandered around a strangely empty Quarteira, writing off the silence of the town as a product of the off-season (55 degrees Fahrenheit is cold for these people!).

The next morning we decided to walk around Quarteira, planning mainly on visiting the beach. We made it our first stop and was it incredible. The sand, the water, a little bit of fog…I can’t put into words how nice it was. Here are some pictures:

A surfing lesson on the beach

We ended up wandering a good bit, at some point making a hazy decision to find the port town of Vilamoura, which supposedly held a marina. We made a few random turns, said hi to a dog who stared back at us, stopped to rest at a great little burger place (called Tuttapanna Artigianale). After making one last stop in a McDonald’s (a very convenient WiFi spot, if you are ever in a foreign country and don’t have data), almost ready to give up (we had been searching for a good hour or two at this point), a man outside pointed us in the right direction and we found the port!

check out that sun.

I considered it to be a really nice day, but again it was technically the “winter” season there, so many of the shops and restaurants were closed until February. Regardless, the marina was gorgeous under the sun and we did find one place that we had heard about: Nougat Tea’n. This was a pretty little tea and dessert place with outdoor seating that looked like the furniture of royalty (later we would discover that some of the seats were soaked with water. You can probably guess how we figured this out). This is the food we ate:

I had toast with ham, but it wasn’t as pretty as the macaroons.

The sun was starting to go down, so we took a taxi home and showered up. The four of us who hadn’t gone to Tasca do Ricky the previous night decided to put on our nice clothes and go. We took yet another taxi into Faro, despite having been told by our friends that Ricky’s is apparently a particularly difficult place for the taxi drivers to find. Ours was not happy (maybe about having to drive 30 minutes outside of Quarteira?) and told us she thought we were in the right place. Great! But she had actually dropped us off right in front of Ricky’s…which was closed!

At this point, having spent close to 7 Euros per person on a taxi and also having eaten nothing very substantial since breakfast, I think we were all on the verge of tears. (I was.) Dejected, we stood there for a few minutes until a townie trudged up the otherwise deserted street and knocked on the door to Ricky’s. Some hope? The woman looked at us and I asked, “Aberto?” Is it open? She smiled and motioned for me to wait until someone came out of the restaurant; they exchanged a few words. The person went back into the restaurant and the woman held up seven fingers–Ricky’s would be open at 7! It was 6:45! Thrilled, we walked around for a half hour and then came back.

This was the experience of a lifetime. Ricky jumped up to greet us when we arrived, since we were the only ones there, and immediately sat us at a table and began to chat with us. He is an outgoing, kind-hearted, and funny person who believes strongly in what he does and how he lives. He told us how he believes in the small-restaurant business and in providing fresh, well-cooked food for his customers. When I say well-cooked, I don’t mean well-done. I mean that he pours tenderness and attention into his cooking to ensure that he is bringing out the best of the natural flavors that the food already has. He is especially fond of making seafood, since Faro is right on the coast. I ordered a salmon dish, which came paired with potatoes, sweet potatoes, and a salad. Of course, we decided to order some sangria to accompany our meal.

I think about that salmon every day.

Ricky also has a fantastic assortment of desserts. There were four of us and just as many dessert choices so…why would we not get all of them? We ordered one of each: flan, chocolate mousse, rice pudding, and a cookie-mousse thing.

I know you’re eyeing that chocolate mousse.

They were all wonderful. We finished with an almond liqueur, which Ricky told us was a digestive aid. Honestly I was so full that the sweetness of the almond, which he mixed with fresh lemon juice, was too much for me. I drank as much of it as I could.

Phew, this post is almost over. I promise. The next day, we had a leisurely breakfast (did I mention we were some of the only ones in the hotel? We nearly had the breakfast room to ourselves both days). It was even warmer on Sunday than it was Saturday. We took the bus back to Faro, where we walked around town for a few hours until our return bus to Seville was scheduled to leave. I’ll leave you with a few pictures from our adventure there!

Stay tuned for part 2!

Location: Faro, Portugal

The sights of Sevilla

For those reading some of the other posts on this site, everything being written is true: it is extremely difficult to keep up a blog while abroad. I’m glad I have made a commitment to the GeoBlog, since I am obligated to post with a certain frequency (I just spelled frequency like this: frecuency, similar to the Spanish equivalent frecuencia). But scheduling time to write is very hard, especially when I am trying to form relationships here with my peers as well as dedicate time to my Spanish familia. I apologize for not posting sooner but I plan to write again towards the end of this week.

I think part of what is getting me is the energy of this city and the people around me. There is an element of frantic desire to live and experience things, which I think the photograph above these paragraphs captures. I took this picture at a bar/cafe in el centro of Sevilla; I went with some friends there to get churros con chocolate (a type of fried dough, covered in sugar, which you then dip in the melted chocolate). The cafe-tenders were yelling and in a sort of purposeful frenzy. They seemed to be loving every minute and were joking and laughing with the many customers at the bar. “Proximo! Un cafe con leche! Vamos!” they called out. The customers fed off of the energy of the men behind the counter and laughed right along with them.

This is the energy that I become wrapped up in every day. I lose track of time and when I do have a few hours free, I feel the need to rest and recharge, probably due to my inherently introverted nature. But my friends in this program are eager to see and do everything they possibly can, as am I, and when the situation demands your full attention and participation, you find that you have the emotional and psychological resources to get your head in the game (so to speak). I think this is part of how you grow and mature.

But enough of this psychological mumbo jumbo! Here I list some of the things that have been occupying my time in the past week and a half, during which time I have not written a blog!

Dinner in Sevilla, plus a trip to the discoteca

Last Saturday night, January 17, a group of us went out to the centro in Sevilla to celebrate our one friend’s birthday. It was a fairly large group–I think around 15 total–and because the restaurants in Sevilla are fairly small (especially in el centro, where cafes and bars thrive on the visits of small groups, not large ones) we had to sit outside. Luckily there were heaters, but oh my gosh. It was around 55 degrees with a breeze. Warmer than State College, but not quite summer weather, or even spring. Regardless, it was a nice dinner: I ordered a small bocadillo (sandwich) with smoked salmon and cheese, served with chips. Then we headed to a discoteca called Buddha (if you look it up online, it is actually called Kudeta, but for some reason everyone calls it Buddha).

We were stamped in and explored a little bit! Buddha has three floors, all playing great music, but a group and I decided to stay on the second floor (actually considered the first floor in Spain, and the rest follow accordingly), where they were playing some Spanish hip hop. It was about 1:30AM when we arrived, and we spent the next 4 hours dancing. One of the things that amazes me about the nightlife in Sevilla is how late it starts and how long it lasts. We were there until 5:30AM and there were people that stayed hours longer than we did. I have no idea how they have so much stamina.

Local Finds

One of the things that has been really fun in Sevilla is just walking around and seeing what kinds of things you can stumble upon. Restaurants, sights, cafes, artwork, you name it.

Ofelia’s Bakery

A friend in my intensive class discovered this before coming to Sevilla and it happened to be very close to the CIEE center in el centro. They sell cupcakes, brownies, coffee, all kinds of sweets. It’s tiny but wonderful. I bought an Oreo cupcake for my host mom and a carrot cake cupcake for me. Yum.

Apparently nameless tapas bar

We actually first saw the back of this tapas bar while walking along the river one day. We thought it looked really cool! Then a week later a few of us were on our way to buy bus tickets to Portugal (look for the post about my trip on Friday!) and we walked into the same place. We looked everywhere for a name but couldn’t find one. It seems like it is more of a building that houses many small vendors, each selling something different–wine, gelato, focaccias, etc. I’m excited to come here intentionally one day and spend some time trying different foods.

Various architectural sites

Sevilla is teeming with incredible architecture, even in places where you wouldn’t think to find it. After class one day I was walking around with a friend and we took a random turn down a street that looked pretty. We ended up in a pretty little park that didn’t have a name (seems to be a trend). We found a bench where we were able to sit in the sun and bask while watching the people and their dogs (plus many stray cats) pass.

Some other great things I’ve seen/done/been to:

a coffee shop/bar (the combo is pretty common here) called Mercado Provenzal, where they sell coffee that costs half of a Euro
the church (iglesia) where my host parents were married (doesn’t your heart swell?)
a local chain of coffee called Cafe de Indios (I think that is the right name)
another local chain for sandwiches called 100 Montaditos (where they actually have 100 different kinds of montaditos, or tiny sandwiches)

It’s that time again. Currently it’s 12:53AM in Sevilla and my bed is calling me. But, like I said, I’ll be writing again towards the end of this week, and I’ll have pictures of my weekend trip to Faro, Portugal. Hasta luego!

Location: Plaza Nueva, Sevilla

¿Sevilla, vale?

the skyline of Seville from the top of Las Setas

Wow, it has been a seriously insane week. I’m sure that I share the exhausted post-arrival sentiment of nearly every study abroad student: I’m overwhelmed, amazed, confused, frenzied, [etc, etc] and above all, tired. I arrived at my homestay last Wednesday night at around 8PM (Seville time). That means it was about 2PM on the East Coast of the United States, and I had been traveling for over 24 hours. We were held up by fog when we landed in Portugal, and ended up having our departure to Seville pushed back to 4:30PM instead of 8:30AM. Luckily there were a number of other people from my program also waiting for the flight to Seville, so we banded together to wait out the weather.

Truly, I don’t know where to begin. So much has happened and I want to share it all. I’m finding it difficult to record every single event, or really to record anything at all. It’s craziness to try to make a comprehensive copy of your life down in a book. As one of my new friends here reminded me the other day, there comes a point you have to stop writing about your life and just live it. (Is a #YOLO inappropriate for this meekly Penn State GeoBlogger? Too late, I guess.)

Anyway, since I’m rambling and want to spend my time here actually TELLING you things about my life in Seville, here are some of the highlights from the week.

Homestay

This is the first thing many of my family and friends were eager to hear about. CIEE sent me off alone in a taxi to my homestay after my flight landed and I had retrieved my luggage. We drove for maybe 10 or 15 minutes, during which time I made exhausted small talk with the cab driver (who would later convince me that people in Spain give their cab drivers propinas, or tips. It is actually unnecessary to do this and now you know how I spent my first 5 Euros in Spain). I’m surprised I remembered any Spanish at all, to be honest. I haven’t studied Spanish since high school (besides some sporadic DuoLingo sessions during the fall semester) and by the time we got on the road to the apartment I was running on fumes and very little sleep. We arrived at the corner where my Spanish parents were to meet me, and they took me to my room.

my Spanish cuarto

I ended up with an adorable and extremely accommodating family (they ended up in the CIEE promotional video for my program!). Fernando and Rosa have been married since 1988, and they have two children: Noelia, 28, and Fernando, 22. Neither of the kids live at home full time but still have rooms here in the apartment and sleep here some nights. No one speaks English except Fernando, the son, and he only comes by on the weekends. So I do my best to understand the parents, who I spend the most time with. Both adults speak very quickly and in clipped, Andalucian Spanish. They often drop the “s” on the end of words, and accordingly I have some trouble trying to understand what they are saying. That “s” is very important in distinguishing between a question and a comment, especially if that question or comment is directed at me, so it causes some awkwardness as I stumble my way through a conversation. But both parents are eager for me to learn Spanish, and through Fernando’s constant jokes and Rosa’s sincere explanations, hopefully I will start to pick things up soon. Hopefully.

Vistos

Now I am sure that you all are just dying to see and hear about what I have seen and heard since I have been here. I feel like I have seen an incredible amount in just 8 days (!). I will post some pictures here and give a little explanation under each of them.

Alcázar

I’m embarrassed to admit that I had to go back and look up what the significance of this place is, but our tour guide was very quiet and had a thick accent so I didn’t quite get it the first time around. Alcázar is a (retired) royal palace with gorgeous Moor-inspired architecture. It was built close to 700 years ago and after various updates and additions still stands today. The palace is fairly large and has a number of sections, all with architecture similar to what you see above. Unfortunately posting too many pictures would make this post outrageously long (as it already is), but I hope they give you a little sense of Alcázar’s charm.

La Plaza de España

look at the great view…and I’m not just talking about the chica on the left

When you Google “Seville,” this is probably one of the first images you see (minus me smiling like a dweeb). La Plaza de España was built for a 1922 expo, and it is just breathtaking. My host parents told me that the arches that run along the front of the building each represent a province of Spain. Theoretically there should be 50 arches, but I cannot confirm that because I have not counted them. I’m sure someone would have noticed by this point if they got the number wrong.

El Río Guadalquivir

70 degrees and sunny: this is winter in Sevilla

I’m happy to be able to post this because I just visited today! After class I went with two friends to get gelato and we ended up walking 3 or 4 miles along the riverfront of the Guadalquivir. It is just stunning. My favorite thing about it is that it has walking and biking pathways that extend for miles alongside the water. It is quiet and peaceful, though never eerie or isolated. And many of these paths are made of cobblestone (like the one in this picture).

Well here is where I’m going to cut it for the night. It seems like I wrote so much here and at the same time, there are so many things that I have not told you. Sorry if I jumped around a lot– I’m so happy to be here. Hopefully as the excitement wanes a little (just to a healthy level) I’ll be able to share some more specific details. This was fun; and it’s only week one.

Location: Seville, Spain

From my Sevillian home to yours

Hi all!

Whether you’re a newcomer to this blog, a member of my family, or a friend, I thank you for joining me on the first of many installments to this Geoblog. You’ve caught me during a week of frantic packing, obsessively translating everything that I read from English to Spanish, and convincing myself that this trip is actually happening. My thoughts here are more scattered than I would have liked, but hopefully they will give you a taste of this crazy, overwhelming experience that I am about to have. (Maybe I’m just crazy. But you can decide for yourself.)

For those who don’t know me, my name is Anna Lombardo and I study English at Penn State University, where I am also pursuing a minor in business. This spring I will be participating in a CIEE study abroad program called International Business and Culture, in Seville, Spain, where I will be taking business classes as well as some yet undecided culture courses. I chose this program for a few different reasons. First, and most importantly, it will be warm. If you go to Penn State or ever went to Penn State, you know that the winter (we all know I mean November through April) is abhorrent. Abhorrent: that is the best word I can think of to describe the bitterly cold and snow-heavy months during which the majority of Penn State classes take place. I like to tell people that I am never emotionally prepared for the upcoming cold season and it is always true. So I anticipate that a semester in the south of Spain will be an emotional healing of sorts.

While I am not joking about the alluring warmth of Seville, there are other factors that had a greater influence on my decision to study there than just the climate. For one thing, it will give me the opportunity to make some real progress on my business minor. I also hope it will allow me to become close to fluent in Spanish, despite my three-year hiatus from the language (regretfully, I have not taken Spanish classes since high school). And, of course, I could not pass up the opportunity to spend four months in one of the most gorgeous and culturally rich cities in the world. I’m happy to be able to share all of the wonderful experiences I have over there with you, my readers.

All of the awesome things that come with this trip are, unfortunately, accompanied by some sad realities. In the last day or so I’ve teared up occasionally thinking about some of the things I’ll be missing while I’m away: my family, my friends. (Those are the big ones.) I won’t get to be with my sister the night of her senior prom; I won’t get to celebrate my 21st birthday with my friends. For those of you considering studying abroad someday, I hate to put a damper on the experience before I’ve even left. It is very difficult to put yourself in a situation that you know will probably be amazing but is unfamiliar and uncomfortable at first. I hope, by the end of this blog, I will be reporting to you that my time in Spain was well worth the initial discomfort.

I am, despite the melancholy character of the previous paragraph, actually looking forward to going to Seville. Among some of the highlights I hope to write about: staying with a Sevillian family and eating most of my meals with them; taking a 4-day trip to Morocco; and for all of my food lovers out there, tapas (basically Spanish snacks to the MAX). You won’t want to miss it, so check back soon (once my jetlag has dissipated)!

Location: King of Prussia, Pennsylvania

Escuela y el centro commercial

Day Six!

Holy crumpets, you guys, I’ll have been here almost a full week by tomorrow! Time is seriously flying by.

Had my first full day of classes today, and found it to be pretty chill. We have art in the mornings at 9am (except on Thursdays, when I don’t have class till 11), then either a break or Culture class, and then we finish the day with Translation. And I know it’s going to sound horribly nerdy to say, but the time even flew by in my translation class today, which was pretty amazing (it’s a 2 hour class.)

Things I learned today (both good and bad):

No one fully understands the bus system here. Today the ENTIRE study abroad group got on the wrong bus. Even our Mexican prof. Oops.

One is required to wash one’s own undergarments, which means not putting them in one’s laundry basket. Oops.

The mall is within pretty close walking distance. Win!

My professor for translation used to do translations for the U.S. Department of State and the army. (Translation: She’s secretly been even more awesome than I had assumed all along.) Win!

I have a hearty digestive system, and haven’t been really “sick” at all yet. (Though I kind of knew this going in.) Win!

In other news, I’m still really lagging on the “taking pictures” front, but I promise to do better this weekend at Oaxaca when we’re being supertouristy and checking out all of the archaeological sites there. We’ll be going to Monte Alb�n tomorrow, and it’s supposed to have a pyramid and be a pretty “well-preserved”(ish) Indian city, so I’m psyched for that.

After getting home from classes this afternoon, our TA and a couple of other students and I took a nice long hike to the mall and back today, and my se�ora and I still seem to be getting along despite the laundry debacle, so all in all, I’d say week one in M�xico is shaping up to be a success.

More news as it happens! J

Location: 11 Sur 5307, Prados Agua Azul, Puebla, Mexico

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