What a fast week! Filled with more travel and also more homework, and plenty of everyday adventures in between. It has been a great week in between Toledo and the lovely Spanish cities of Cordoba and Granada, and I’m here to tell you about it all!
Monday morning was a little rushed; Amanda and I were still on our way home from the weekend in Barcelona. We hurried to grab the train back to Toledo, and from there, I practically sprinted home on my way to get to my internship in time. I gulped down some breakfast, blitzed through a quick shower, and then got walking to my internship. Once at my internship, I helped to develop a lesson about mobile phones, in which we would look at various comics in English satirizing the general public’s devotion to their phones, talk about why they were funny, and then initiate a debate about teenagers’ use of mobile phones. I also prepared a St. Patrick’s Day presentation, to show students how the holiday is celebrated in the United States, and then in French class I talked through a “What time is it?” exercise. I had still more to do when I got home, and so after a certain point (which occurred following dinner, of course), I just kind of collapsed into bed from exhaustion.
In fact, on Tuesday I ended up waking up way later than I would have wanted, and so I rushed through getting ready and eating breakfast to be able to make it to school in time for my three classes. After those were done, I had coffee with my French conversation partner again, which went wonderfully as always! Noelia is always a great conversation partner, and she really knows a lot of French for having studied for 3 years. After that, my afternoon was kind of free, except I had as much homework to do as ever… and so I ended up getting at least some things done, and once again I turned in not too late after dinner.
Theology class on Wednesdays is always a treat - as I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, you can clearly see how much the professor loves the subject (although it’s not his main field of study). In my internship in the middle, I helped with more writing, and then did the mobile phones lesson with the other class, which worked a little better than the first time on Monday because these kids were older, more mature, and more confident in their English (if only by a sliver). I had a quick chat with Miguel, the student coordinator here in Toledo, about how my internship was going, and of course I said spectacular, because I have truly been having a wonderful time! After that, theology class again, and then finally I had a little bit of free time, before I met up with some classmates and watched an Almodovar movie, What Have I Done to Deserve This?, which is 1 hour and 40 minutes of my life that I will never get back… My goodness. Some people may regard him as a genius, but I really don’t see it.
On Thursday, I had the usual 4 classes, and I was feeling more than a little tense because I wasn’t exactly prepared for all of them. However, the day ended up going just fine, and at the end of classes, I had a new reason to be hurrying: I had to pack for my weekend in Andalusia! I packed up most of my things for the weekend, went to chat with Sara and her mom in English again, and then instead of staying with my host family, since we would be getting up extremely early, they allowed us to stay in the Fundación for the night.
Friday was the start of our great excursion! We ended up leaving at 5:30AM and arriving in Cordoba around 3 hours later. After the comfy and sleepy bus ride, we met our guides just outside the historical part of the city, and then proceeded to the guided tour of the historical city center and the Mezquita. The atmosphere was charming and refreshing, with the white buildings with blue accents, and then we learned a lot about the different parts of the ancient mosque, including how it includes a Roman Catholic church inside, and is a meshing of the two cultures (like many parts of Spain, including Toledo). It was really interesting learning about so much history! As I’ve mentioned before, every so often I just have to stop and marvel at how just about everything I see and hear about in Europe is hundreds of years older than my own entire country.
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| Where we met our tour guides: just outside the wall of the old city in Cordoba. |
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| Inside the synagogue. |
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| Just after entering the mezquita, looking into the beautiful courtyard. |
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| Architecture typical of the time it was built. |
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| Looking down a main aisle in the mosque. |
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| The Roman Catholic church inside the mosque. |
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| Just one of the incredible ceiling details. |
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| One of the side chapels. |
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| The altar of the Roman Catholic church. |
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| View from the courtyard of the main tower. |
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| It was a great visit! |
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A cute photo of me and my friend Lindsay, which also happens to show
typical Cordoba architecture and exterior design. |
After the tour, we were given some free time, so some friends and I wandered through the city a bit. We ended up finding some Roman ruins, and of course we got a few silly photos. After discovering the city a little bit more, we headed back to the meeting point, because we were already leaving for our next stop, Granada. We were on that bus for an hour or two more, and then we got dropped off at our hotel - which was a very nice one indeed! We actually had some time to relax at night. There had been the option to go to a Flamenco show, but as I hope to return to Seville and catch a different show of the same type, I declined this opportunity. So, my friends and I had a quiet night in, where we traded sangria and stories to make for a riot of a night.
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| As we were exploring the city, we found Roman ruins right in the middle! |
Saturday was our intensive day, which is to say that we had a good breakfast before touring the Alhambra for the rest of the morning. The tour of the ancient Muslim capital of Spain was really very interesting, as we listened to details about how flowing water was an important part of Muslim culture, and how the geometrically patterned wall tiles reflect the Muslim culture of the time. Once again, the tiniest details fascinated me, and before I knew it, we were over and done with the entire place. We were then free for both lunch and dinner. We chose a pretty nice Italian place for lunch, where we enjoyed the good food and the great conversation, and then we stopped right around the corner for some excellent ice cream (and I also figured out that I like more dessert-y flavors of ice cream rather than fruity ones). After we filled our stomachs to the limit, we went back to our very nice hotel to take a siesta (and once again immerse ourselves in Spanish culture in so doing).
Originally, we were supposed to have dinner on our own, but then just before dinner time, our coordinators informed us that we would be having dinner in the hotel, free of charge! That was nice, because it was a great buffet, and we really got our fill of good food. (We found out the next day that it was a mixup and we weren’t supposed to have dinner in the hotel, but it ended up being the hotel’s fault.) So after a good meal, we had more free time, and so on our coordinators’ suggestion, we headed to the Arab baths in Granada. It sounds like a spa place, and it pretty much is; you put on your bathing suit, relax in some swimming pools with water of differing temperatures (although you don’t really relax in the super cold one!), you sit in the steam room, and then you drink some tea and pick out which scent of oil you want for your massage! In case it isn’t absolutely clear yet, my friends and I had an excellent time at the Arab baths - it was so relaxing, and a perfect way to basically wrap up the trip. We went to bed quite late that night, but definitely feeling relaxed and refreshed.
In the morning, we got up with time for breakfast, packed our things, and before we knew it, we were walking to the Cathedral in Granada for Mass. It was inspiring to see how many people from our group went! The entire altar and decorations were made from silver, as this city is apparently known for its silver or has some connection, and the priest gave a great homily extending from the Gospel. After this great mass, we actually made our way to the adjacent market, which had a very Arabic feel, and my friends and I looked over all the wares for sale. I got some nice comfy pants, and then it was time to head back to the hotel for lunch before departure. Before we got back to the hotel, we also shared a last bit of friend time, where we headed to some cafés to try some of the local cuisine and coffee, and then we hurried back to where the bus was waiting. Then we had a 5-hour bus ride to look forward to, and so many of us napped… but my friend Caroline graciously lent me her laptop with her copy of Amélie, which was a movie I enjoyed very much! Not least of which because it was in French :) When we finally got back to Toledo, as it is with every single trip I take, I felt like I was coming down from the clouds - a prosaic feeling, if you will. I said goodbye to my friends, hopped off the bus, and made my way back to my host family’s house, feeling as wonderful as I have after every cultural experience I’ve had here in Spain (and Europe, for that matter).
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| The start of a parade for the International Day of Women on Sunday! |
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| A feminist group. |
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| Enjoying some last pastries and horchata before we left. |
These cultural excursions are such a cool part of this program. This one happened to cost extra and be a whole weekend, but I think it was worth it - I might not have made it to any Southern Spanish cities if not for this experience. I really appreciated having the tour guides along with us, learning about the history of the places, but also having our own time to check out the cities and do what we wanted. Moving forward, Spring Break isn’t too far off on the horizon, and so I’m definitely looking forward to my plans for then - I’ll keep them a secret for now (as they aren’t quite firmed up yet). Until then, I hope you have a great week - ¡Hasta pronto!
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