Seville

Oh no big deal, just chillan on some Roman ruins.

The journey to Seville was by far my favorite. It was beautiful and had one of my favorite things about American CLEAN AIR. Oh how I have missed it. Before we had reached Seville we stopped at some old Roman ruins. On top the air being clean it was beautiful. My favorite part was the remains left from the Roman coliseum. I can't imagine a time where people fought in a cage to the death against animals and other people, much less that act being the best form of entertainment. A couple students even ventured around the ruins attempting to truly experience all they could.

Royal Garden

Once we entered Seville I knew I was going to love it. Not only did they have the MOST AMAZING SHOWERS ever but it was by far the most beautiful.  Some highlights of the weekend were the showers, seeing my first flamenco show, the royal garden we visited and the park we visited. One of the first places we visited was a garden. The garden in part of the property the palace is on where the king (Juan Carlos) stays when he comes to Seville. It was stunning and had so many difference influences on the garden including Italian. It is interesting to see how gardens are often supposed to represent "paradise" in this country. They are meant to remind people of Eden before the fall. Like a little piece of heaven on earth.

After the gardens we went to lunch and what was the by far the best restaurant we could have gone too. I tried tomatoes and apparently like them! That's new. We ate that and pasta alone with delicious desserts. I just kept wishing we could stay in Seville forever. When we finished lunch Inma (our guide of Spain) took us to the Plaza de España. It was spectacular. This plaza not only includes a huge beautiful fountain but also includes detailed tile creations from every province in Spain. In Spain, we learned that regionalism is more common than nationalism so I can only imagine how much time each province must have taken to design their creation. Here are a few of the places we visited....

Plaza de Espana

Flamenco dancer

We also so an authentic Flamenco show! The show included a man on a guitar, a woman singing, and a female dancer. The style was more gypsie like than traditional dance, which is amazing to see because the dancer was so passionate. They way she moved her feet was incredible. She would alternated around on her feet from tapping to stomping. It sounded amazing. I was in awe for most of the performance because if that was me I would have fallen off the stage to my death. Everything you have can be used for the beauty of Flamenco. The dancers body and strength as well as the singers voice and hands. I love the passion all three of the performers had.



After watching the show we all went out to a tappas bar. Tappas are an amazing part of spanish culture When you buy a drink you get free food. That is in most areas, however, in Seville it is different. This is because they have the best tappas because it is where they began. It is a great way to try new things and just hang out with friends. Traditionally on weekend nights Spaniards go for tappas around 10 at night, go to a pub at 12 and go to the discotechas around 2. In America, I am asleep by two. At the tappas bar I tried my first baby DEAD squid. I liked it surprisingly, but I can't get past eating a baby creature. I probably won't be eating that again.

My trying baby squid

Amanda, me, and Kat

 We have had amazing weather on this trip except for ONE day. The day we had to lug our suitcases 20 minutes away from our hotel. This called for desperate measures and I took a garbage bag and created an extremely attractive (NOT really though) hat to shield myself from the rain.