Well, from my title, it is clear I did not meet Figero in Sevilla. But, I did get to see the tobaco factory where Carmen worked, in that famous opera Carmen. But I am getting ahead of myself.
So since I last left you, my friend Roxie from DePaul came to visit. She had been in Dublin for 5 days, and then flew to Madrid for 4 days since she is a Spanish minor, and also knew many people who were studying abroad in the Madrdi program from DePaul. She got her Wednesday night, and after dropping off her bags at her hostel, we went to go see La Bella y La Bestia. Fue fantastica! It was the same as I remember the one in Chicago being, and also very similar to the Beauty and the Beast movie, but it was all translated into Spanish, and the music was slightly different. The seats were pretty good too, for only being 25 euros. While she was here, we did some walking tours of Spain, but we couldn't hang out too much because I was in class all day. She did a lot of touring though, which is good, and she was excited to talk in Spanish a lot.
She left Saturday night, and I left for Sevilla that morning at 8 am. After the 7 hour busride (including some rest area stops, and the movie Los Hombres Malos II (bad boys 2)), we made it to our hotel. Sevilla was quite excellent. If you were not aware, I had been there before, but it was really great to see it again, and I had much more freedom this time around. We had 6 hours of free time after lunch, and I went exploring. I saw la Catedral de Sevilla, which is one of the largest in all of Europe, and also claims to have the bones of Cristobol Colon (Christopher Columbus)...although my senora and her husband believe that to be false. There is a lot of speculation on it, the Christopher Columbus family says that the cathedral has the bones of his brother, Diego, because the bones were stolen, and they stole the wrong ones. Anyways, it was still pretty cool.
We also climbed this large tower in the cathedral, la Giralda, which was 35 ramps high, and had bell towers at the top. They used ramps instead of stairs, since the priest were usually old, and had to go up and ring the bells 5 times a day. With ramps, they could ride a horse up it, since horses are not able to climb down stairs. The view from up there was incredible: you could see the flying buttresses on the cathedral, and it was a great panaramic view of Sevilla. We then walked around, passing the Tobacco factory that Carmen worked at in the opera, which is now the main building of La Universidad de Sevilla (University of Seville).
Then we made it to La Plaza de Espana. It was built in 1929 for the Spanish-American Exhibition. The Plaza is a huge half-circle with buildings continually running around the edge, with many bridges that take you over the moat. It was used as Queen Amadela's palace in Naboo, in the Star Wars movie Attack of the Clones, and it also was used in a scene in a Dan Brown book I read, Digital Fortress. It is quite fantastic. Along the half circle, there are countless little seating areas. Each represents a city in Spain, and during the exhibition, there were reading materials about each, and the area is covered with Spanish tile, representing each area. Also, it was used so that if you were traveling through Spain, and were homesick, you could come sit in your city area a while, and meet up with other people from your city.
The next morning, we did some more touring, which was great, and got to see the Alcazar and the gardens, which were both really beautiful. Then we had lunch, and it was back to Madrid (8 hour bus ride). Unfortunately, we watched Notting Hill on the ride home, and I almost threw up ("I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love me.") Disgusting.
This week has been pretty usual since Sevilla. I am starting to really look into getting an apartment when I get home (Kerry and my dad went down to check some places out, and a lot of great pictures for me). I am looking at this apartment on Clifton and Dickens (really close to campus), and if I get it, it will be the second time that I have lived on clifton. One of my other roommates is going to check it out today, and if he likes it, and my other roommate agrees, hopefully we can make an offer on it. It's really hard to figure this all out from Spain lol. I also went to go see a movie with my roommate last night (Red de Mentidos, or Body of Lies). It was in English again, with Spanish subtitles, and was really good. At many points though, since most of it took place in the middle east, there would be arabic dialogue on screen, with spanish subtitles explaining what they said. I am proud of myself in my ability to keep up, and get the jist of what was being said (the subtitles would appear some times so fast, that it was impossible for me to read it all and understand it in time). But the movie was great.
I am staying in Madrid this weekend, and looking forward to doing some exploring. Also, I need to start looking into getting some souvenirs, and making sure I am not taking home one suitcase full of just souvenirs lol. I also just bought my plane ticket for Paris, and am planning on going from Dec 4-7. I have a couple of friends there (one that is fluent!), and I am going with one of my roommates here (John). It should be really great.
This week, I wrote this at CEA (the study abroad office I am with), and I am not on my computer, so I have no pictures. And I am aware that last week I didn't post pictures. I promise I will add pictures tonight, so make sure you check again if you are interested in seeing pictures.
Love,
Ryan
ps...did anyone get anything in the mail? I'm not sure how long Spanish mail takes.
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