...Pintaresca.

This past weekend was SEVILLA!

Starting off, we saw the third-biggest Catedral in Europe:


There were lots of orange trees in the inside area. They use them to make marmalade.


Inside...


We got to climb up the Giralda, which was awesome!!


The view was quite spectacular


This was followed by a trip to Los Reales Alcálzares, a palace-fortress of Al Ramán III.


Horses...


The river, and El Torre de Oro


La Plaza de España! There were also some beautiful gardens in this part of the city. We found some fun playgrounds, too. :)

(They filmed some Star Wars scenes here.)

We finally got to see flamenco! We were in a bar stuffed with probably 200 people, and we had FRONT ROW seats! I literally couldn't have gotten any closer. She came close to kicking me a few times, and when she bowed at the end she almost hit me in the face with her hair. There was also a flute player, singer, and guitarist. They were intense. It was amazing.


We got two heaping plates of paella on Saturday, and we also got to go aboard a replica of an old Andalusian ship. Sunday we went to mass ("misa") at the Catedral. The Catedral was right across from the hostal. We got to climb out of Rachael's window on the sixth floor onto a terrace that overlooked it! But perhaps the most gorgeous sight we saw all weekend was on the bus ride back, when the moon looked enormous as it rose above the snow-capped Sierra Nevadas. No photo, but it wouldn't have done it justice anyway.
Good times.

So yesterday I did something unheard of in Spain...
...I wore flip-flops. In February. Big no-no. But you see, I didn't care, because my sneakers were still soaked from the previous night due to another rare bout of rain. Fortunately our wet trek was well worth it; we went to a friend's apartment for a delicious dinner of cheeseburgers, fries, salad, and chocolate chip peanut-butter cookies. And then we got to snuggle up in our warm, dry pajamas when we came back. Anyway, wearing flip-flops in Spain in February is something you just don't do. There's an unwritten rule that you don't wear summer clothes until June, even though it's gorgeous out today. It has nothing to do with the temperature, just the month. Some of our teachers will admit that it's silly, but it's just the way it is. The word here for foreigner/tourist is "guiri." Sometimes when we walk past people we hear them say that word. Or they'll just come right out and make fun of us. I was the essence of guiri yesterday. And I'm okay with that. It was kinda nice to have people stare at my feet instead of my face. What a funny culture. I still like it here. :)

Today we had our first music class, and it was awesome! Our teacher is hilarious. And he brought in a guitar and played for us a lot.

¡Hasta la próxima!
♥Tracy