Oh boy. I just got back from a looooooong trip to the south of Spain. It was a lot of fun, but long at the same time. First, we visited Granada. Granada is a rather big city and the home of the Alhambra, an Arabic Palace. The palace was amazing and full of intricate designs, but the weather stunted our enjoyment of the trip. It was freeeeeeezing!!! Our teacher didn't tell us that the south of Spain would have nice weather, but that the Alhambra was located in the Arctic. Most of us were wearing jeans and t-shirts, so most of us, including me, just wanted to get back to the hotel. Once we got back to the hotel, we were off to watch some people flamenco dance. It was a lot of fun to see a little bit of the culture there rather than all the touristy things. I am still in awe of how fast they can move there feet...woweee.
Our next expedition was to Marbella. I attached some pictures of the beach. It was beautiful and reminded me a lot of the beach towns at home. We walked around and there were a lot of expensive shops, restaurants, and A LOT of expensive cars. We saw BMW's (7 series), Ferrari's, Bentley's, etc... We also walked down the area where all the yacht's were and man alive they are huge. I swear that some of them were bigger than my house in California. Anyways, after walking around and "wishing" we could buy things, we were off to the hotel. This was the start of our Nutella and Bread Only diet. To save money we bought bread and nutella at the market instead of eating out at all those expensive places. Let's just say that I won't be eating nutella and bread for a little bit...i need a break.
The next morning we were off to Morocco. I was really excited about going to Africa, because it's Africa, but also because it gave me some idea of the living conditions that my friends are in while SMing in Africa (Nolan, JD, Fletch, Laura, Emily, Alex). Africa is a wild place. I loved it there actually. There is so much culture there and it made me realize that the states really doesn't have much culture. We had a rockin' tour guide name Abdul who told us he practices polygamy and was looking for his 4th and final wife (supposedly they can only have 4 in Morocco). He like to go by Michael Douglas, because he thought he looked like him, but i beg to differ. He was hilarious and was fluent in 7 different languages. It was amazing how fast he could go between the languages...i was in awe. We rode camels, we went through the open markets and i smelt 100000 million smells all combined. It was a little much for my little nose. I think i might have gagged a couple of time. The produce there looks amazing, however they have live chickens there. When people bought them they would cut off their heads...I didn't actually see this, but this is what our tour guide told us. He also took us to this apothecary shop where we leaned about all these different spices, balms, and perfumes. I enjoyed it a lot and bought 12 dollars worth of mint tea. Let me tell you 12 bucks in Africa is a whole lot of tea, but the tea was that good. Mint tea is something that Morocco is known for and it definitely made me fall in love with it even more. Lastly, we were served a traditional moroccan meal. I was slightly disappointed, but i think that it's because it was a really touristy restaurant. We had "snake soup," (which was really soup with egg, where the egg looks like snakes), couscous, break, and omelette, tea, salad, and a cookie. It was mediocre, but i can be quite the critic when it comes to food...i guess it's because my dad is amazing!!!!
Next, we went to Sevilla...my favorite city in Spain so far. There were a lot of young people in the streets, lots of eye catchers (pictures, cool buildings, etc...), a super dooper nice hotel, and STARBUCKS. Oh man i had my first starbucks drink since i've been here and probably my last. It is soo dang expensive here, however it was perfect. In Sevilla, we had a lot of free time. We shopped, ate, explored, and watched movies. We found this restaurant like Souplantation at home and i wanted to eat there every meal. It was amazing!!!!!! I bought a few things, but still not much. My favorite thing about the city was probably these picture advertisements that were all over the city for the Flamenco. I attached a picture of one of them, while Karol and I are doing the Shimmy...haha so fun!!! It was Chelsea's birthday on Sabbath, we Karol and I were really hyper while we were walking around town. We were the typical American's making a lot of noise and laughing hysterically. Also, in Sevilla we saw where the king's lived and climbed the tower in the cathedral.
Last stop....Cordoba...lame town. This was the last place that we stayed and it was a terrible way to end our trip. First of all, Cordoba isn't a city it's a small, old town. We got there on Sunday and in Spain EVERYTHING is closed on sunday. The school didn't have anything planned so we just sat in the room all day and watched movies. We walked about the town, but that only took about and hour to explore. The next day, we took the 8 hour bus ride back home..........soooo long. Even though this wasn't the best way to end the trip, I had a lot of fun and i am enjoying Spain a lot more now!!!! I'm going to Italy in a week and a half, so i'll make sure and update you about that asap. Miss you all...
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