this photo is taken right outside the cathedral in Sevilla. a beautiful sight to see and a beautiful spanish square made for a delightful day. after seeing the cathedral and famous moorish tower, we headed over to alcazar, the palace in sevilla.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Sevilla...
this photo is taken right outside the cathedral in Sevilla. a beautiful sight to see and a beautiful spanish square made for a delightful day. after seeing the cathedral and famous moorish tower, we headed over to alcazar, the palace in sevilla.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
breakfast at riad taghazoute in marrakech
although i haven't yet posted about our trip to morocco, i figured i would first put up a few pictures so you could get a feel for it before i wrote all about it. the picture above is Elissa and myself at our breakfast table at our riad, Riad Taghazoute. This converted home served us a beautiful breakfast each morning in a typical moroccan setting with a beautiful view of the city of marrakech. each morning we drank fresh squeezed orange juice, drank coffee, and had moroccan fried bread with honey, marmalade, and butter. on the last day we even got chocolate croissants. deliciousness!
Barca, Barca, Barcelona! Futbol=Vida!
On my last night in Barca with Elissa before my program started, we decided to attend a FC Barcelona futbol game. We were pretty high up in the stands (as you can see from the above photo) but still had a great time. The atmosphere is incredible and this picture doesn't actually do justice to how well we could see even though Camp Nou is a 98,000 seat stadium! Viva Barca!
Settled in...
well, i have finally settled into my room here in barca (not sure that settled in is the entirely correct phrase for my current situation seeing as there is crap still all over my room but at least my suitcases are empty and underneath my bed). let's see if i can give you an accurate recap of the last week. after having an incredibly tough couple of days leading up to the start of my program (as i detailed somewhat poorly in my last post), i walked 8 or so blocks with my suitcases to the hotel where i was supposed to be picked up to head out of town to sitges for the start of orientation. upon arriving at the hotel, i met erin and sam, a couple who were going to spending the year together here in barcelona. i also met alex and ted, both of whom would also only be here for the semester. after hanging out and chatting for a bit, some of the program staff arrived and we hopped on a giant tourbus (the 5 of us and 2 staff on this huge coach bus) to head out to the small coastal town of sitges. the ride in the bus took just over an hour as the traffic trying to get out of downtown barca was really tough. since we were on such a huge bus, we couldn't go directly to the hotel which was located directly on the waterfront. instead we hopped off, took our luggage out of the hold and proceeded to walk down. the view on the walk down the hill was absolutely incredible with an old church sitting just above a beach and boardwalk scene typical of coastal spain. we checked in and then i hit the beach with sam, swimming around and tossing a disc. later in the afternoon we had our welcome orientation session in the hotel and afterwards i walked into town with my roommate at the hotel, thomas, mitch from fordham, henry from tufts, and ted. we wandered around for a while before plopping down at a restaurant to take a break. that night, the program hosted a huge dinner for us at the restaurant. while i wasn't really up to eating all that much, the food was delicious and there was no shortage of it as well.
in the morning we woke up and found out where we would be living. i was fortunate enough to be placed in the melon district marina residencia. located only 8 blocks from the beach front, 5 or 6 blocks from class, 8 or 9 blocks from the famous gaudi church and really close to a lot of other famous barcelona places, i really lucked out! i have a great room on the third floor of one of the closest towers to the entrance of the complex. i have a full bed and my own bathroom and closet and then share a kitchen with the floor. it has been great so far and though one of the nights i didn't have sheets on my bed, it has been working out. we are also only 2 blocks from the metro so that is very convenient as well. i live next door to mitch, a senior from fordham, so we've been meeting up to go to the various program events.
the next day we went to a hotel in town (the same one where i was picked up on the first day) to take the placement test and receive our academic schedules. i am very pleased with mine though i don't expect it to be all that easy. on friday, in the morning we attended the orientation at the spanish university (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and then we had our first language intensive class in the afternoon. i really like my teacher, gema, and while 3 hrs is really a lot to do in one sitting (we get one 15 minute break), we are definitely going to need it all to be ready for the classes at the spanish university. in spanish classes, i usually go by the name "jota" since that is the letter "j" in the alphabet and they don't have a j letter in spanish so it is hard for them to pronounce my name. however, my teacher is catalan and so she pronounces jota with the j at the front which i found pretty amusing.
at night, i decided that i was going to do my best to go out. we met our guardian angel (the local students that the program has set up for us as a local mentor/friend to help us get adjusted), jofre, who took us out for some great tapas and sangria before taking us to a cool local bar called black sheep. at black sheep we played some pool and drank clara (a mixture of lemon soda and estrella damm, a local beer). afterwards we headed down to the beach to go to a club called shoko. it was an absolute blast and we ended up staying there and dancing until around 330am before heading back. upon returning i passed out but had to wake up early (around 8) for our day trip excursion to tarragona.
tarragona was a beautiful little coastal town. after driving for about an hour (i passed out on the bus immediately), we took a 3hr tour of the archaeological sites and roman ruins before having a nice lunch near the beach. upon returning to barca, i took another long nap and didn't wake up until nearly 11pm when henry and i had dinner before heading down to las ramblas (one of the most famous streets in barca) and meeting up with my old camp friend, katie. after walking around with katie and her friends for a while, we split up from them and grabbed a mug of clara in placa real (at least i think thats how it is spelled) and watching the people walk around. around 2am the bar closed so we decided to walk down to the waterfront and then back to our residencia. we ended up walking about 3-4 miles and didn't get back until 4 or 430 am but it was a lot of fun and really cool to see the city in the night (tho it definitely was still hopping that late and usually people don't go to bed until 6 or 7am). today i didn't wake up until 3pm and then unpacked for a bit before making some food and taking another nap. well that is all i got for now. more to come on morocco and this summer when i get the chance!
hasta pronto!
in the morning we woke up and found out where we would be living. i was fortunate enough to be placed in the melon district marina residencia. located only 8 blocks from the beach front, 5 or 6 blocks from class, 8 or 9 blocks from the famous gaudi church and really close to a lot of other famous barcelona places, i really lucked out! i have a great room on the third floor of one of the closest towers to the entrance of the complex. i have a full bed and my own bathroom and closet and then share a kitchen with the floor. it has been great so far and though one of the nights i didn't have sheets on my bed, it has been working out. we are also only 2 blocks from the metro so that is very convenient as well. i live next door to mitch, a senior from fordham, so we've been meeting up to go to the various program events.
the next day we went to a hotel in town (the same one where i was picked up on the first day) to take the placement test and receive our academic schedules. i am very pleased with mine though i don't expect it to be all that easy. on friday, in the morning we attended the orientation at the spanish university (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and then we had our first language intensive class in the afternoon. i really like my teacher, gema, and while 3 hrs is really a lot to do in one sitting (we get one 15 minute break), we are definitely going to need it all to be ready for the classes at the spanish university. in spanish classes, i usually go by the name "jota" since that is the letter "j" in the alphabet and they don't have a j letter in spanish so it is hard for them to pronounce my name. however, my teacher is catalan and so she pronounces jota with the j at the front which i found pretty amusing.
at night, i decided that i was going to do my best to go out. we met our guardian angel (the local students that the program has set up for us as a local mentor/friend to help us get adjusted), jofre, who took us out for some great tapas and sangria before taking us to a cool local bar called black sheep. at black sheep we played some pool and drank clara (a mixture of lemon soda and estrella damm, a local beer). afterwards we headed down to the beach to go to a club called shoko. it was an absolute blast and we ended up staying there and dancing until around 330am before heading back. upon returning i passed out but had to wake up early (around 8) for our day trip excursion to tarragona.
tarragona was a beautiful little coastal town. after driving for about an hour (i passed out on the bus immediately), we took a 3hr tour of the archaeological sites and roman ruins before having a nice lunch near the beach. upon returning to barca, i took another long nap and didn't wake up until nearly 11pm when henry and i had dinner before heading down to las ramblas (one of the most famous streets in barca) and meeting up with my old camp friend, katie. after walking around with katie and her friends for a while, we split up from them and grabbed a mug of clara in placa real (at least i think thats how it is spelled) and watching the people walk around. around 2am the bar closed so we decided to walk down to the waterfront and then back to our residencia. we ended up walking about 3-4 miles and didn't get back until 4 or 430 am but it was a lot of fun and really cool to see the city in the night (tho it definitely was still hopping that late and usually people don't go to bed until 6 or 7am). today i didn't wake up until 3pm and then unpacked for a bit before making some food and taking another nap. well that is all i got for now. more to come on morocco and this summer when i get the chance!
hasta pronto!
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