I pay for internet here!

Hola friends and family!

So today started out well... I got to sleep in because I don´t have class until 1:00 in the afternoons now. Slept til 9:15, had a leisurely breakfast with Dani. Took a shower BEFORE class which was amazing! And then walked to school with Dani to blog and work on my Wartburg schedule for next year. Upon arriving at the school... I went straight for my favorite computer room only to find that the internet was NOT working as it was promised to when I originally signed up for this program! Yeah... how exciting! Not... So... I walked back down the street I walk every day and now I am paying to use the internet because the network at the school here is about 20 years behind any other network I´ve worked with! So... there´s my little rant for the day.

Also, woke up at 5:00 this morning and couldn´t breathe and my throat hurt. Laid in bed thinking to myself that most of you were probably still awake either watching the Oscars or doing homework because it´s only 10:00 your time for most of you. Anyway... still can´t breathe and still have a sore throath. My roommate pointed out that it is probably due to the fact that I wandered around ALL day and ALL night on Saturday in the rain. Stupid rain! Altho I shouldn´t complain because the sun is shining and it´s 70 degrees here. Sorry for all of you surrounded by snow!

Anyway... so now I´m at an internet cafe paying for my internet and I can´t access anything from wartburg.edu so I can´t work on my schedule anyway... grrr.... My good morning is turning out to be crap! Um yes... so let´s just go with something new then!

On Saturday I got up really early and went to catch the bus to take me to Jerez and Arcos. Jerez is where the Gonzales Byass winery is that makes Tio Pepe wine, one of the most sought after wines internationally, and some other stuff here. It was kind of interesting and of course we got to take a taste of the Famous Tip Pepe Jerez which Jerez means Sherry. It was kind of interesting and I have some good Pictures. Then we went to another small town and saw half of a horse show. It was pretty good. Not my favorite but whatever. I thought that we were going to get to ride horses but no... they lied! Um then we went to Arcos where it was still raining! Most of us went into a bar and had lunch and of course becasue it was siesta everything was closed and there was NO ONE on the streets! Arcos is a ¨white town¨because all the houses are white and it´s built into the side of a mountain. It would have been gorgeous if it hadn´t been raining. Owell... It was still ok.

This week I have three days of class and then I go to London! I´m so excited! I know it´s going to be super expensive tho... owell... the money train is slowing significantly because I have booked so many trips on my card which means I´ve spent a lot of money so far I just haven´t received any of the benefits yet! I will send out more pictures after my London trip. Those should be a little more interesting!

Let´s see what else... um... Not a whole lot going on really... if I¨m home on Sunday I just hang around the house and do nothing because everything is closed. I met up with some friends for a coffee last night and we spent probably 3 hours talking. It was a good way to kill some time and get out of the house for awhile. Other than that, nothing really went on this weekend. And because it´s the first day of the semester I don´t really have anything going class wise either. Owell... life is life! And I´m thouroughly (sp?) enjoying it here! Sunday´s get a little boring because we can´t do anything... but that´s when I sleep the most or read. It´s not a bad life. Just sucks when it´s raining because then I can´t even go to the park! Yikes!

So my friend Zach will be here next week and I´m so excited for that! And in exactly 3 weeks poozie and I will be in Madrid starting our adventure! I can´t wait! The entire family called me last night from a program that runs through the computer. It was good to talk to them all. So confusing tho because Pooz and Mom have very similar sounding voices here epecially over the computer! Well... I should probably head back to the school. I´m sure I can find someone to talk to... Hasta luego!

Love ya,
Alyssa

Estoy tarde... Yo Sé...

Hola! I know it´s been awhile since I´ve written. I´ve been very busy and it´s a half hour commute on foot to get to a computer. I just sent out a link to the pictures I uploaded. Let me know if you don´t get it and I´ll forward it to you! Um... This is going to be random and kinda long I´m sure... so here goes....

This is what I have eaten since I have been here:

Paella con mariscos - The national dish of rice with veggies and seafood YUM!
Soup with Beans - In various different forms...
Soup a la puré - something the color of the outside of a lime blended into soup!
Soup with fidejos - soup with noodles
Soup a la chicken broth and maccaroni noodles - I mean just that!
Hamburger - litteraly, a HAM burger!
Hamburger - with beef
Bocadillos - Like a hot ham and cheese sandwich... one of my favorites here!
Sardines - I would just like to state that fresh sardines are good... however... you should all know that I was given a plate with 4 WHOLE sardines on it and told to pry them apart and tear out the espinas (spines) and pick the meat off the skin. You should all be so proud of me! It took me a lot but I did it!!!
Ensalada - plain lettuce
Ensalada - plain lettuce with salt
Ensalada - lettuce with salt and vinagre
Ensalada - lettuce with salt and olive oil
Fried ham patti - two pieces of ham with cheese in the middle breaded and deep fried... in olive oil of course
Arroz a la cubana - white rice with tomato sauce to taste and salchicha (like kielbasa)
Croquetas de jamón y pollo - like a chicken nugget but with potato and ham or chicken
Something that reminds me of a mashed potato patti breaded and deep fried
Tortilla de patata - basically like a potato omlet with garlic and onion
Tortilla a la francesa - plain egg omlet
Tortilla con queso - egg omlet with cheese
Fried egg in olive oil - fried egg sunny side up with it´s own pool of olive oil!
Cold tomato soup - not gazpacho... rather something with a TON of garlic and salt and of course, tomatoes!
Fruit - various forms... oranges are the best followed by apples and pears
Yogur - Yogurt... also in various forms and flavors. Aimee´s favorite was RASIN yougurt... if the color and texture weren´t enough... the taste was!Icky! My favorite is banana
Pan Tostada - toast with butter and jam. But not regular toast... more like a small loaf of french bread cut in half and toasted. It´s what I eat every morning but I like it!
Café con leche - coffee with milk... finally my señora has started making me café con leche rather than leche con café.
Tinto de Verano - my favorite drink at the pubs... red wine and something else to be revealed later... trust me... it´s good! Even when you buy the 2 euro bottle at the M.A.S. supermercado!


I think that might be it. Or at least it´s what I can remember! Hope that gives you a better idea of what I´ve been eating over here...

As for me, last week I went to the palace here. It´s called Alcazar. Make sure you pronounce the z with a th sound. Then you will be truly speaking like a spainiard. It´s my goal to come home with a spanish lisp. I´m kinda excited! Um... the palace was beautiful. You can see where the Muslims built and then where the catholics built on to that and it´s just beautiful. The pictures on my website are from Alcazar and the cathedral. I´m not sure if I wrote about the cathedral in my last blog because it´s been awhile. Nvm... I remember it now. It was awesome! This week is the last week of the intensive period here. That means I wont have class for 4 hours every morning any more! And no more class on Friday´s! Heck yes!

What else... Oh! We moved rooms in our piso (apartment). Aimee and I now live in a bigger room at the front of the house with two sets of bunk beds. We live on one and put our crap on the other. It´s worked out ok so far. We are still waiting for our dresser with drawers to put stuff in. Right now the closet is a little cramped! Um... the two beds thing worked out well the other night. On Friday night Aimee and I went with Dani to his friends house and watched Casino Royale. It was pretty good I must say. I´ll have to watch it again in the states tho to actually watch it. Um... Saturday we hung around the house and went to the park in the afternoon. It was gorgeous! I did some homework and then I just laid in the sun and enjoyed the beautiful weather. The two bunk beds came in handy Saturday night when no one in the house was really up to going out. So Dani brought in Volver, a newer movie here by Almodovar, a famous Spanish director. We put the laptop on the bunkbed we don´t live on and then the three of us crawled up to the top of our bunk and watched the movie. It worked out pretty well. And it was something cultural to do even tho we sat in my bed in our pj´s and watched a movie! It was a really good movie tho. I´m going to watch it again when I´m not so tired.

Earlier that afternoon I had gone to an internet cafe with some friends to book our flights. It´s official! I´m going to London in 2 weeks!!! And I´m going to Rome later in March. So exciting!!! I probably wont get to all the places I wanted to but I´m doing a lot of traveling through the school so I am going to be away for quite a few weekends. I´m going to Jerez y Arcos this weekend. Small towns outside the city to ride horses through the country side on a wine tour. Then it´s London the next weekend. My friend Zach will be here the following weekend and we are going on an adventure! Then the next weekend I´m thinking of doing a day trip by myself becasue all my friends here are going to Morocco. Then POOZIE gets here!!!!! And then we are going to Madrid and then spending the last part of the week here. Poozie and Mommy... you need to get Euro! Then I think I go to Portugal and some other places April. So fun! I´m really looking forward to it!

Um... I think that´s about all I have so far. I´m going to post this and then try to upload some pictures in another blog.

Hasta Luego!
The Bloned

This is what I know...

1. I know that I do NOT fit in in Spain being almost 6 foot tall with blonde hair and pasty skin!

2. I know that I am not Catholic anymore... sorry mom...

3. I know that the weather here is beautiful and I am already in love with the city.

4. I know that there are girls here who have more money within the contents of their luggage than the price of one year of my private school education!

5. I know that I am a midwest girl and that´s the way it was meant to be!

6. I know that I better lose some weight here because I walk more than 2 hours to and from school EVERY day!

7. I know that I miss you all and wish all of you could experience this!

Yeah ok... So I´m in love... in love with a country. I love Spain. Every day, especially the last two since it has been so nice, I walk across the bridge and wish that everyone that I love could experience this. I can´t wait for Sarah to get here. I want her to experience what I did the first time I was here. Only this time, I get to be with her and for that, I am so thankful! I miss you Poozie and I can´t wait for you to get here!! I´m planning our trip now! You are going to love it!!! You´ll be able to wear your jeans and tshirts, if you want to stick out mucho, because it´s so nice here!! I also would love to experience this with my family. Daddy, you would love it here... everything is so rich with culture and architecture and history. The city itself is beautiful and well, the people are like most, kinda in their own world, but my HyVee Bakery helpful smile in every aisle is still on my face because I´m just so happy I´m finally here!

This morning I climbed to the top of the bell tower in the Cathedral of Sevilla. Let´s just say... it was a climb! But the views... breathtaking! Ask my mom and dad... I called them to tell them that it was amazing becuase I was so excited! It might have been something like 6:15am there!! La Catedral de Sevilla is the third largest Catholic Cathedral in the world. It´s so awesome because you can see exactly where the Catholics came in and took over the land and added their cathedral onto the muslim worship center. The architecture and the history! Amazing! Christopher Columbus is burried in the church as well. Kinda creepy but sweet at the same time! I was going to load pictures today but I forgot to bring my camera cord. Lo siento!

Classes are ok... nothing out of the ordinary. This class I´m in now is a lot like my class in Mexico. It´s a three week intensive period in which we talk about the culture and society of Spain for four hours every morning. And of course work on building vocabulary and working on grammar at the same time. I also have a current events class that is going to be cake! It meets for one hour every week starting yesterday until the end of April. We give 15 minute presentations over something about life in Spain. It requires no official research only what we see, hear, and experience. Me gusta mucho! And then, then there is the clase de baile. Yup... dance class in spanish! I feel like I´m in showchoir all over again. And those of you that had the pleasure of seeing me perform while I was in HS know that I am not the most gifted when it comes to dance. But... I try. Today the profe. had me dance with her and then after we finished she asked why I was so timid to dance with her... she said I did everything really well. That was refreshing and something I am NOT used to hearing from choreographers! So... that goes thru April as well. It´ll be fun!

Let´s see... Oh yeah... I went to Ash Wednesday mass last night in the Cathedral that I toured earlier today. Um yeah... I don´t really remember the last time I went to Ash Wednesday service at a Catholic church... I have flashbacks of early hs but that´s it. Now I remember why I practice Christianity and not Catholism any more. Of course I respect the ritualistic society that still participates in all of the holy days of obligation, but it´s just not for me any more. I kept watching people and it was like they weren´t getting anything out of it. The girls I went with, all attend St. Mary´s private Catholic college in Indiana, were oober excited about the fact that they received ashes from the Bishop of Sevilla. Ehh... big deal... I would have been much happier if I could have actually gotten something out of it other than enough material to journal about for my homework. Ehh... owell... I still have my faith!

Uh... yes... as for being a midwestern girl... MOST DEFINITELY! There are girls here who dress better than I ever will! I brought everything practical. Simple, easy to wash and wear with lots of different things, easy to layer, easy to reuse! These girls from all these east coast schools brought at least 2 large bags of stuff over and a big carry on! I brought one suitcase! I don´t have anything to wear out and I do not fit in here at all! Probably a good thing I never really cared about that anyway. I´m here to be me and study what I want and if I look like crap while I do it... so be it! P.S. The BRIGHT pink ISU sweatshirt got lots of funny looks when I wore it yesterday! I have to do my homework at the center and I normally do my homework in my pj´s so I thought I´d make myself comfortable! I like it so there! About the only thing I brought that fits in is the coat with the fur! Gracias Aunt Stacy! I´ve been wearing it almost every day. I use it like a coat and most of my shirts look pretty good with it. I also bought a brown scarf that looks awesome with it! You did good... the fur fits in in España!

Well... I think that´s todo! More luego!

Ciao,
The bloned

Estoy en España!

Hola!

Well, today was my first day of classes. It went ok. 4 hours of class went a lot faster than expected. So far so good. After the major shock of the hostal and then of our piso(apartment). I had a change of plans when I got here... first we traveled for almost 2 entire days. I can´t tell you how gross I was after that! Then we went to this spiffy hotel and stayed the night for orientation. It was nice. Then on Friday it was off to our homestays. My roommate is pretty sweet. Her name is Aimee and she´s from Utah. Never known anyone from there but now I do. She is a sophomore at St. Mary´s in Notre Dame, Indiana. I wore my ND sweatshirt last week and all 14 students from around there asked me if that´s where I went. No no inuit. Wartburg!!

Our room... well.... it was muy pequeña. I´m pretty sure my parent´s bathroom at home is bigger than the rom I´m going to live in for 4 months. Owell... my señora is pretty sweet. Her food is good and she´s very nice to us. She makes fun of me because I´m either cold or asleep. Yesterday siesta lasted for almost 6 hours. I was out cold. I still slept last night! After the initial shock of our room, we had to go back to school where I talked it out with some people and it seemed like everyone had tight living quarters. I felt a lot better after that. Oh yeah... there´s a chico who lives with us too. He´s studying at the CIEE, another program like mine in Sevilla. His name is Dani and is from Iowa City. Small world huh? He´s the only person here who knows where Wartburg is. Problem is he´s tall and kinda cute... yikes! He´ll be here all semester too so maybe I´ll get to know him!

Anyway... Sevilla is beautiful! we originally got in around 10:00 on Wednesday night. We had made the reservations for the Hostal on the wrong night so we ended up paying twice. Owell... at least we had a place to stay. We were taken to the center of the city and right outside our cab when we stopped was a Starbucks! I knew I´d survive then!! I didn´t like the city at first. I was so scared and had been away from my mommy and daddy for more than 2 days. But our school is in a more residential area... more similar to Waverly and not the crazy chaotic city we first landed in!

Traveling was alright... to start everything off... it was snowing when I left DSM. Yeah... it had been 51 degrees the day before and of course I had to fly out at the beginning of a snow storm. I checked in with the airline only to find out that what I had read on the internet was wrong and my bag was 12 pounds overweight. So...I ran to the giftshop and bought a poka-dotted bag to transfer some stuff too. Thanks mommy! It´s worked out pretty well tho. Mom and I sat in the airport for awhile until I had to go. Of course I cried and as I got to security the guy asked me how I was doing that day and I just looked at him. He told me there would be extra security so I just assumed it was because I was flying internationally. They put my stuff through the x-ray machine and then gave me the pat down and opened all my stuff and did chemical tests on everything to include Brown Bear! Yeah... because the 21 year old girl who is bawling and carrying her teddy bear would be a terrorist! I asked the cute security guy if I was being checked out because I was international. He said no, they do that to about 100 random people a day and my number just happened to be pulled. GREAT! That was just what I needed!! So I left DSM after sitting on the tarmac for over an hour waiting for the de-icing truck... It was very frustrating. I sat there with my teddy and waited for the plane to take off. Got to chicago where it was snowing as well. Met up with my friends from Wartburg who I was traveling with. Made it out of Chicago pretty much on time. Landed in Sweeden around 8:00 Wednesday morning (1:00 CST). Sweeden... we were so confused! Nothing in english and of course none of us knew sweedish!! But Amy and I fit in pretty well being tall and blonde. They asked Amy if she spoke scandanavian or english on the plane! Left Sweeded at 3:15 and headed for Barcelona. Landed in Barcelona at 7:00 to connect to our next flight at 7:30 to Sevilla. We were running needless to say. But we made it. I didn´t sleep on the 8 hour flight to sweeded but I was out cold on the way to Barcelona. It was amazing! Anyway... not much else exciting yet. I´ll let you know when I know more! We don´t even have our classes yet! GRR!! The organizational freak in my is dying a slow death. I think I´m going to have to take on the ¨no pasa nada¨ mentality in order to survive!

Pues, email me, comment on the blog, facebook me, or write me at:

My Name
CC-CS
Calle Harinas, 16-18
41001 - Seville, SPAIN

Don´t expect me to get anything you send me for at least 10 days! But anything is welcome! Muchas gracias!