BG & Mini-Me

Over Halloweekend, my mom came to visit me! It was perfect. After class on Friday, I ran from my classroom to the train station and took a 2 hour ride to Sevilla. When I walked off the train, my mom was waiting on the platform and ran and gave me a big hug. Obviously there were some very public mother-daughter reunited teary eyes (and absolute crocodile tears from my mother).

We took a taxi back to the hotel so that I could drop off my things and walked around Sevilla for a short while until we met back up with my mom's friend, Carin. We went out to dinner and saw a Flamenco show with a very cute guy we nicknamed dimples. He had dimples, obviously, and some manly thighs! With all the crazy hopping and toe-heel tapping, you have got to develop some insane leg muscles.



The next day, we took a walking tour and went through the castle on our own. I think La Alhambra was much nicer, but apparently a few weeks before, the queen of Spain decided to come visit Sevilla and they locked down the palace and she stayed there. It's interesting how they still use it. It rained that day and we found a Starbucks where my mom got me a SOY CHAI LATTE! In Spain, there is no such thing as Chai and soy milk can only be found in the grocery store. It was like I was back in Seattle.



The next morning, we hitched a ride on the train back to Cadiz and I took my mom and Carin around. They got to meet my host mom, Puri, and see the little apartment where we live. Unfortunately, it was Sunday and all the shops were closed. They got to have drinking chocolate, but sadly there were no churros in sight.

We spent the night in a hotel and on Monday (yay no school!) woke up bright and early to go to Tangier in Morocco! We hired a private guide ahead of time and after a long bus ride to Tarifa followed by a ferry ride on huge rollers across the Straight of Gibraltar (I got sea sick), landed in Africa. My mom and I made it to yet another continent! South America next year, Mom?

We met up with our tour guide, got an authentic Moroccan breakfast (dark bread with honey/jam and goat cheese) and went around the city. We visited the spice markets, browsed textiles, walked through the STINKY fish market, bought some dried fruit (the walnut-stuffed dates were excellent), and rode camels- my FAVORITE part.



We went to a big open area right by the ocean. There were a few grown-up camels and one little baby. I was kind of scared of him because he kept showing me his teeth and I was scared he was going to bite me. What can I say? That's what dog body language dictates. Anyways, my camel was really tall and very sweet. The men guided the camels around and kept yelling ridiculous things like, "Yee-haw!" while our tour guide took pictures of us. We ate some delicious thing called bastillas which are basically personal pies with a filo-dough crust stuffed with almonds, spices, chicken, and lightly sprinkled on top with some cinnamon and powdered sugar. It was the best mix of savory and sweet and probably one of the best things I have ever eaten in my entire life.



We took the ferry back, luckily it was much calmer so I wouldn't see my lunch, and took a bus to some weird town where we waited for another bus to Cadiz and then finally got back. I got very sad and upset that my mom was leaving me and while she went and got me a hot chicken dinner, I cried over my tea a little bit so she wouldn't see. You never realize how important it is to smell or touch the people you love until you're gone for a long time. Hearing their voice just isn't enough.

We got back to the hotel and the next morning, she dropped me off after a great Mommy hug and I entered a little funk for the rest of the week, but perked up because I was going to Paris!

Córdoba, La Alhambra, and Granada

As you can tell by me not blogging for years (not really, just a few weeks), I have been fairly busy. I am currently working on a 10 page, single-spaced paper analyzing a bunch of literature works from the Romantic Era. Oh yeah... It's IN SPANISH.

When I got back from Ireland, I got really sick and then kept traveling so whenever I came back, I had to do lots of school and was pretty much too drained to blog. Regardless, the 2nd to last weekend of October, my group and I went on a trip to Granada. We visited the Mesquita in Córdoba, which was first a church that was burnt down. Then, a mosque was built in 4 stages to expand and then once the Catholics took over, a cross-shaped church was placed directly in the middle with typical baroque, over-the-top decor. We wandered around the city and checked out the teeny-tiny Jewish quarter, remnants of harsh anti-semitism in the 1400s at the hands of the Catholics kings.



Later on, we went to Granada and spent the rest of the weekend there. We visited around the town and also went to La Alhambra, a summer castle for the kings with expansive gardens and moorish influenced architecture. It was absolutely gorgeous and I learned how obsessed I am with carvings into plaster on the walls. The designs are breathtaking.



Another nice thing about Granada is how you eat dinner: for every beer or drink you purchase, you get a free tapa! I found Chinese noodles, a bagel sandwich with beef and cheese, and spring rolls! Yum! It was a fun weekend with everyone in our group. The bus ride was 5 hours each way, but it was worth it.