Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Bienvenidos a Espana Lawrences:)


Nazarenos during a procession ( not the KKK)

Plaza de Espana

Marbella





churros
One night at dinner after saying calamari in spanish and pointing to it on the menu
our old blind waiter gave us this...yes it still has its head on!
Last week was Semana Santa (Holy week) and I had the whole week off school. I was so lucky that during this week my parents and aunt Richie came to visit me! I was so excited for them to come because it had been since Feburary since I had seen them! When my parents first got to Spain, I met them at their hotel which was in my neighborhood! My dad and aunt went right to sleep after being jet lagged all day long however  my mom and I went right up to the pool to tan! After the tanning and nap time, I showed my parents around Triana and all my favorite places to go! Then I showed them El centro which is where the Cathedral, my school and all the fun shops are! The next day we went to the Alcazar which is a huge palace full of gardens, I had previous gone there on a school trip but it was neat to see it again because I never got to see the whole thing! Then I took my parents to plaza de Espana, which is where they filmed star wars so my dad was so thrilled to stand in the same spot where the filmed it! During semana santa its tradition for each of the Catholic churches to have a procession with different kinds of huge pasos of jesus and virgen mary that symbolize jesus death and resurecction. Everyone comes to the different cities, especially my city to come see these processions. So needless to say Sevilla was packed so while I was giving the tour of my city, it was quite difficult to move but we just kept pushing our way through ( at one point we ended up crossing through a procession causing us to get seperated and had to climb over a million baby strollers; however after learning to you just have to push people out of the way we reunited together in one piece)!  The next two days my family and i traveled to Marbella! we ended up getting a hotel that was all british speaking people, so it was a nice break for my parents to have a break from spanish and it was nice for me to not have to translate everything for once! When we returned to Sevilla, my parents had a different hotel in Macarena, a different part of Seville. During the last few days, since the weather was rainy and since a lot of shops were closed for the holiday,  we try to do as much exploring and shopping as we could. During the week, my parents and aunt fell in love with tapas, which are basically little meals. Everywhere we went we found the best tapa places and truely eat like spainards do everyday for a week. Although the weather wasnt what i expected and the city was crowded, I was so grateful to spend the week sharing my life in spain with my family!

Granada

Finally i have time to write about my trips and latest adentures! Life has been crazy with tests and papers piling up at the end of the semester! I can't believe my time in Spain is almost up! So heres what I been up too: A few weeks back my school had a trip to Granada! At first I thought this trip was going to be lame..another school trip but actually it was beautiful there and quite fun! My friend Jaclyn and I shared a room and we had our own prvate deck to sit outside and eat our bocadillos(sandwiches) that our host moms packed for us when we first got there. The weather was perfect! Later that day we got to explore around to see what was around our hotel. My friend and I decided to get some ice cream and explore the sights.Later that day we also took a trip to the Alahambra, which is a famous palace, and the Generalife Gardens where we had a private tour guide and had to wear headphones to hear him speak. Both of these sights were gorgeous! Later that day, we had free time to explore Granada. Some friends and I climbed up a series of hills to reach to the top of Alahambra to see the view of the Sierra Nevada. This view was the neatest thing I have ever seen because it was 80 degrees but looking out you could see snowy montians!  The next day we visited the Capilla Real, which is the royal chapel where the monks were burried, and the Cathedral of Granda. The Capilla Real was so gourges inside and had incredible religous architecture although it was kinda creepy seeing tombs of dead people from the 1500s. Overall, it was a great time to bond with friends from my program and two of my favorite teachers:) Here are pictures from my trip:



View of the Sierra Nevada

Cathedral

top of Alahambra

Capilla real

Capilla real

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Morocco..Waka Waka


So I know it has been forever since I have updated on here so i will be sure to include all the details and latest trips since I have last blogged. In the middle of march I went to  Gibraltar and Morocco with some  friends and a local travel agency here in my city. It was such a great, fun filled weekend. We left a a Friday and took a bus to the Gibraltar to see the monkeys and some caves. It was incredible to see these wild monkeys everywhere! All my friends and I tried to get the monkeys to sit on our shoulders and climb on our backs. The picture below is the closest I got. After we visited the monkeys, we went to Europa point, where we got to see the Gibraltar on one side of the ocean and Morocco on the other. 
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This is the shape of Africa inside a cave




he is drinking a coke:)

After visiting Gibraltar, we took a ferry to Morocco. Over the three days we visited Ceuta, Tetuan, Chefchaouen, and Tangier with professional Tour Guides.We had a special Lunch in a Moroccan Palace with shows and a special fantasy Show with Belly Dancer, Musicians, Candle Dancer, and little kid acrobats!



This guy was  one of our tour guides..my favorite of them all


Candle Dancer
And of course..on the last day..we got to ride on the camels!! At first, i was really nervous to get on the camel! The camel lays down and its trainer tells him to stand up while you are on it so it was kinda freaky..but so worth it in the end! it was definitely an experience to remember and would want to try again!