Sevilla la Maravilla

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Toledo & Sevilla

Hola a todos,

The past few days have been absolutely wonderful. I am enjoying living in the moment. It is so much different than what I am used to. Life as a student consists of constantly planning ahead and preparing for the future and right now I am simple living for each moment. Such peace of mind.

Anyway, here's an update on what I've been up for the past couple of days.

On Wednesday, we spent the day in Toledo, which is about an hour south of Madrid. It is an old medieval city with a large wall and river protecting it. It used to be the capital of Spain so it is a very important city to the people.

Toledo!

During our day in Toledo we went on a tour of San Juan de Los Reyes Church which was built by Queen Isabella. It still houses about a dozen monks. We also went on a tour of Santa Maria la Blanca which is an art museum that houses El Entierro del Conde de Orgaz by El Greco. I couldn't take a picture of it, but here it is:

Beautiful, right? Our last tour was through el Zocodover, which is the town centre. We walked around and I had my first bocadillo de camarones. It's like what PB&J is in the states. EVERYWHERE! It's basically french bread with any kind of meat or fish. I had one with camarones, which are calamari. Very good!

We spent the rest of the day at our hotel and just chilled for the evening.

This morning (Thursday) we finally traveled to Sevilla! It was about a 6 hour bus ride, but totally worth it! I'm so happy to be here. Home. Katelyn and I shoved into a Volkswagen Golf hatchback with our luggage and our mama, Maria Dolores or Lola- what she wants to be called. CUTE!

We settled into our room, of where you can see pictures here: http://alegrepacientefiel.blogspot.com/ (at Katelyn's blog) and had a home cooked meal that consisted of grilled chicken, green beans, and soup. It was delicious! Our host mama is wonderful. She talks our ear off, all in really, really fast Spanish. I understand about 70% of her. She's getting up in the morning and making us breakfast and walking us to where we need to be for our orientation. Lovely.

So, the plan for tomorrow is to get our school schedules and an orientation of La Universidad de Sevilla. Very excited to see the university! It used to be an old cigar factory and is 500 years old. Plus, my mom went to the same university in her wonder years. I love history!!

For more pictures, go to my Facebook. I posted all from Madrid and Toledo. I'm planning on taking a bunch tomorrow of Sevilla.

Thanks for all your support and comments, glad I can share this experience with you!

Mucho amor,

Kristina

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Madrid. Day 2.

¡Hola a todos!

Life in Madrid has been good to me the last couple days. Last night we took an unnecessarily long walk around Madrid to find the BEST tapas place. Unfortunately, we only found an overpriced restaurant with small portions. Fortunately, it had some YUMMY sangria. We all split some carafes and had a good time. : )

Today, we woke up and had the best continental breakfast I’ve ever had. This ain’t your Motel 6 here in Madrid. They hooked us up with some fresh-squeezed OJ, a plethora of fruits, and some yummy Spanish doughnuts.

After our breakfast of champions, we headed to the Prado Museum to check out some fabulous art. We saw lots of Goya’s work, including El tres de mayo de 1808 en Madrid and Diego Valázquez’s Las meninas o La familia Felipe IV. It was a wonderful experience!

After our visit we headed to El Placio Real (The Royal Palace) which was built by King Enrique III and took 21 years to construct. It was absolutely beautiful! We only saw about 10% because it is extremely ginormous. These Spaniards live it up in style!

After this visit, we had the whole afternoon to explore on our own. We went with some friends to find some lunch and ended up at an adorable bar/restaurant back in the winding, narrow roads.

After lunch we journeyed to Plaza Mayor. Plaza Mayor is a large area with a lot of shops. It was a bit touristy, we all got our picture taken with an overweight Spiderman. Oh joy. I was surprised at our navigation skills today. We didn’t get lost once and made it to all the destinations we wanted to see. I can’t believe we ventured around Madrid on our own! Personal accomplishment. Yes!

We’re heading to Toledo tomorrow morning at 8:30am. It’s about an hour away from Madrid. We will spend one night there and head to Sevilla on Thursday morning. It’s about a 7 hour ride to Sevilla on bus. Oh boy. Wish me luck.

Love you all!

Adios

Monday, January 31, 2011

Madrid

Katelyn and I arrived in Madrid about 8am (Madrid time. FYI Spain is 6 hours ahead of GR) this morning. Our plane ride was long(ish)… 7 hours. We flew in a huge jet with 8 seats in each row and luckily the plane was not full. There were about 100 seats not filled, so we had plenty of space. We met a few girls at the airport terminal waiting to board and it is quite evident that girls out number the boys! Just like GVSU! Anywho, plane ride = non eventful. Watched “Life as We Know It,” had supper, and caught a few zzz’s.

We had to wait at the airport until 11am for the ISA staff to pick us up. We all loaded in 3 HUGE buses and are currently at a beautiful hotel in downtown Madrid. The name of the hotel is called NH Nacional. It is very close to El Prado Museo & the AVE train station.

Katelyn and I met two girls, Ally & Steph who we get along with very well. Steph and Katelyn found out that they both have type 1 diabetes. They’re soul-mates! We’re planning on going on an ISA bus tour of Madrid at 6pm with them and then out to dinner for some tapas and sangria!

Tomorrow we are touring around Madrid some more and then heading to Toledo on Wednesday morning. We will finally be in Sevilla on Thursday!

For those of you who don’t know, Katelyn and I are roommates and living with a single, 61 year old woman named Maria Dolores. We will be in the neighborhood of Los Remedios, which is about a 15 minute walk to the University.

I will try to give an update on Wednesday or Thursday when we arrive in Sevilla.

Don’t worry, we are safe and loving Spain!

Love you!

Kristina

P.S. A note about the weather. It is sunny and about 43 degrees here in Madrid. It doesn’t seem that cold because of the wonderful sun and NO snow. Sevilla will be warmer, at 55 or so degrees. I LOVE THE SUN!!

Sunday, January 30, 2011

A Note from Philly

Hi everyone!

Katelyn and I have safety arrived in Philadelphia! We have about an hour until our flight to Madrid takes off. We will arrive in Madrid about 2am Grand Rapids time and 8am Madrid time. Hopefully we can catch some zzz's on our flight.

Overall, our travel time has been moving along smoothly. I had a few glitches along the way, starting with my bag being 10 lbs over the weight limit; my scale at home lied to me. The lady was nice and let me get away with 72.5 lbs instead of 70. Also, there wasn't enough overhead room for me to fit my carry-on & "personal item," so I had to check it and pick it up in Philly. No biggie.

We met a 90 year old woman on our plane who is traveling to Israel by herself for a bar mitzvah! Precious. I love old, independent women!

Thanks for all of you who surprised me on Friday night. I had a wonderful time chatting and seeing all of you before my trip! I am very blessed to have such wonderful family and friends. I've had a great time reading cards and notes on my flight.

Lastly, continue to pray for safe travels as we board our long flight here in a little while.

Love you,

Kristina

OH and P.S. I was a little mushy-mush and shed a few tears at the airport in Chicago. GOSH!

Monday, January 24, 2011

1 WEEK. 7 DAYS

Man oh man.

In one week from now Katelyn and I will be on an airplane across the Atlantic on our way to Madrid.

CRAZY!!!!!!!

I have been waiting for this week to approach for some time now, and it's strange to think it's so close.

Today I had a mix of emotions.

I spent the majority of the day with Pete and it was a lovely day. My mom made some yummy roast and mashed potatoes for my "last" Sunday, then Pete and I snuggled a bit (awww!), then ventured out to Grand Haven to see the sights. We chose a perfect day because not only was it sunny (gasp!), but Pronto Pups was open!!!!! We both enjoyed our pups and explored the snowy sights. Then to end our perfect day, we went to see No Strings Attached which was surprisingly funny and witty. We both enjoyed it. (Ladies, Ashton's butt is featured in it ; ) )

Spending this day with Pete made me realize how much I am going to miss him, and home in general. For one of the first times throughout this whole process, I felt sad. Sad to leave Pete, my friends, and my family. I have never been away from home for this long of a stretch before, but I know I am ready for this space and adventure. After this wave of sadness I felt excited again. Excited to make new friendships, see new places, hear new sounds, and to experience a trip I have always dreamt of.

So Sevilla, (sadness and all) once again, I can't wait to meet you! (in 1 week!!!!!!)

Pete and his Pronto Pup

Yey!

Monday, January 17, 2011

The Joys of Packing

I am an over-packer.
Have been and always will be. I like to give myself plenty of options instead of sticking to a strict wardrobe schedule. (Although I wear my favorite pieces of clothing continuously.)

For the past week or so I have been packing my bag and unpacking my bag to make sure it is under 70 lbs. 70 lbs. you say?! That's outrageous! Well keep in mind that I will be in Sevilla for 3 1/2 months... I need options! I really don't like this process because I currently have a suitcase in my room with all my wearable pieces of clothing in it. Oh what we women do for clothes...

Anyway, throughout my griping about packing I have complied a list of essentials I am taking with me on my trip.