Last Group Trip: Sevilla

Me and some of the gang with Starbucks in Sevilla.

The Roman ruins in Sevilla.

Los Reales Alacazares in Sevilla

The gardens of Los Reales Alcazares.

Me, Chris and Brittany in Parque Maria Lusia riding on the cool bicycles!

Me in the driver's seat! Look Out!

The Cathedral in Sevilla.

An view of the city from the tower in the Cathedral.

Me and Kathryn at the top of the tower of the Catedral.

Hola Amigos!

I write this blog with only about one month remaining in my adventure in Spain. Crazy!! But needless to say, I am ready to come home. Don’t get me wrong, I love the city of Granada, my classes and my host mom, but I do miss the great northwest and the wonderful UP campus.
So now I will catch you all up on the details of my life here in Granada. Firstly, I have been sick the last couple of weekends, bad cold and then a nasty stomach virus that prevented me from eating anything for about three days. Not fun, but I am fine now and my host mom is the best and took really good care of me. It is actually cold here now. It has been warm through all of October, warm being low 70s and sunny in the afternoons, but a little chillier at night. So far in November it has been a lot colder, but the last couple of days have been sunny and on the warmer side. Still no rain. There are actually clouds in the sky today which gives me some hope that it might rain, but it has yet to rain since the beginning of October. This is unusual for Granada, where it normally rains more, but in the last few years Spain has been experiencing droughts due to lack of rain. I miss the rain. So if you can send some to me. We could use it here.
So I took the DELE exam last Friday. It went better than I had expected, but I have no idea if I was able to pass it or not. You have to get 70% or higher on each section in order to pass. I have high hopes of passing the writing and reading sections, but the grammer and vocab section was difficult. I don’t find out until February or March if I passed. So for now I am just basking in the glory of having completed the exam. And all of my midterms are over, so I don’t have anymore tests until finals week in December. Yay!

Last weekend, after the DELE, my program went on its last trip together. Sad! We went to Sevilla for the weekend, a beautiful city about twice as big as Granada, about 3 hours away. On Saturday we visited Los Reales Alcázares, which are basically a bunch of beautiful gardens and castles that were built for the kings to live in. Then later I went to La Hospital de la Caridad (Hospital of Charity), a church that has a beautiful “retablo” in it that I learned about in my art history class. It was really cool to see what I had learned about in person. Later my friends and I went to STARBUCKS! Yeah I know totally an American thing to do, but it had been a long time since I had a frapaccino. Yum! After we caffeinated up, we went to El Parque Maria Luisa, a really big park in Sevilla. In the park we came across a place where you could rent bicycles. Now these were not ordinary bicycles, there were more like carts that you sat in and pedaled your way around. Since there were six of us, we rented two and split up. And of course when there are two bicycles and a bunch of caffeinated youngsters, what else do you do but race? My team won! It was tons of fun and a good work out! Since there was only one person who could drive at a time, we would switch occasionally and do a Chinese fire drill! Needless to say it was a fun evening!

On Sunday we got a tour of an old Monestery that Christopher Columbus had stayed at during his time in Spain planning a second trip to America. Then we went and saw some roman ruins just outside of Sevilla. The Roman Empire, during its glory days, had occupied what is now Spain. After a lunch break, we visited the Cathedral and Plaza de España. It was a really good trip and I had lots of fun hanging out with my friends. I am sad though that it was our last trip together because I have gotten to know all of the people on the trip and I will miss them when it’s over.
As for my last month here in Spain, I will spend some well deserved time in Granada. This weekend I am going to explore the city I call home and visit Parque de las Ciencias (Park of the Sciences) here in Granada. And of course I will be hanging out with my friends and hopefully my intercambio.

In early December, we have a five day break so I am going to travel one last time with a few friends before we leave Spain. We haven’t decided where yet, but are considering Santiago de Compostela, Cadiz or possibly Portugal.

I hope everything is well back home with you all. I miss you all and can’t wait to see you. Only one more month!

Peace,
Annie