¡Viva la vida Española!: Feb 6, 2011

I'm starting to feel a lot more comfortable being in the city. I can get to the places I need to be without a map now & since its starting to get better weather, I am more inclined to walk everywhere. I live in the Province of Nervión which is about a 30-40 minute walk to the cities center. That's where the Cathedral and the shopping district and everything is. Most of us live in Nervión and so one night we were like instead of going to the center (because its expensive once you pay for drinks or to go dancing and then to get a taxi home) why don't we find something to do at night where we live? We found out that nothing stays open so that's why we have to go to the center.

Now that its nicer outside, when I go to the center of the city (also called Plaza Nueva because thats the plaza closest to it) to go to the study aboard office or something, I find myself just wandering a little more and popping into shops and enjoying everything around me. Enjoying whats around me got me to this cool art exhibit that was in one of the plazas, there were about 8 of these coke bottles but this is just one of them:

I've also been researching cool things to do in Sevilla that are less touristy because now that I actually LIVE here we have seen most of the big attractions which I find myself like oh hey here's the Cathedral again like its nothing special anymore but I try to remind myself to not take that for granted. One cool thing I found was about a free flamenco show that was at this bar that was raved about online so some friends and I checked that out on Thursday night. It was just one woman dancing with the man singing and the other playing guitar. It was pretty good, nothing like the Flamenco I saw in Barcelona a few years back but it was still cool.

It's great being a student here because there are not only fun stuff to do with our study aboard company but also with the university we go too. Also, our student ID's can get us into free events and museams and stuff. If its free, I will go to whatever it is. Friday we went to Italica which is about 20 minutes out of the city and is Roman Ruins from when the Romans ruled the Mediterranean Sea. It was really interesting to see in Spain.

The amphitheater was the coolest thing to see at Italica -->

This is on the outer part of the Amphitheater && a great pic

The view from Italica, if you enlarge it you will see the city of Sevilla in the veryyyyy back!

On Saturday, a group of us friends organized a little day trip on our own to this same town called Carmona. It was about a 45 min bus ride to get there and like Italica, it also shows some Roman rule. It's a small little town but it was cute & it was an awesome day to go! I even had to take off my jacket because I was so warm! First we went to the Alcázar de la Puerta de Sevilla (fortress of the port of Sevilla) and that was really pretty. This first photo is meet at the Alcázar but with the cathedral in the back.

The view from Alcázar (I thought it was the ocean or something but I was wrong)

Me and my roomie Nellie

The pigeons in Carmona make their nests in the walls and they look like they're barely hanging on!

Me, Nellie & Tom at Alcázar

Churches on the left & middle with the cathedral on the right

in the patio of Alcázar

Picture of another church

This is the puerta de Corodoba (which is another city). Its part of Carmona's defense back in the day but it was HUGE and soo pretty! We all took a long time just enjoying the view and the sun here for awhile.

Sara, Me, Nellie, Kristin & Rachel

Adrenne, Sara, Me, Nellie, Kristin & Christina

Just thought this was a cool sun photo!

&& now it's Sunday, a day of rest. Or for me, a day of homework :( But tonight we are going to a fútbol (soccer) game tonight!!! It should be a lot of fun!

Here are some random pictures that I have gotten from other people that I was in: