Hello again from Spain! I thought I would share some more photos and stories with ya´ll! I´ve been here for two weeks now and I am enjoying this experience. It´s exciting and challenging, in various ways. Angela, a girl from Minnesota who is also a Trinity student and who was in my Spanish class last semester, is here doing similar classes and we´ve had the opportunity to hang out quite a bit in the past week. That´s been really cool to focus on one relationship and get to know her better. She shares a lot of characteristics with other people in my life, like Talissyn and Grace, so she challenges me to be flexible and go with the flow! Classes are going well, although it is kind of overwhelming. I´m not sure if my Spanish is improving, although I think I am finally really understanding some difficult grammatical concepts, after a couple years of working on them! But it´s hard to tell if I´m speaking better or not. Here in Salamanca, they are doing some serious road work on one of the main avenues... 
This pit is surrounding by a tall corregated metal fence that is too tall for me to see over. I had to just hold my camera up to get this picture. But on the other side of a narrow sidewalk, there is a raised entrance to a building with a railing around it and I found this next picture absolutely precious... 
These guys are just hanging out, watching the construction work! From time to time they´ll comment on it to each other (I watched them for a bit). And I love that this little boy was looking the same direction! This weekend I went to Sevilla (Seville in English) with Angela. Sevilla is in southern Spain (about 7 hours by bus) and is pretty much what I have in mind when I think of a mediterranean vacation city. Here´s a picture from the journey down there: 
And I find this quite funny. Yes, I took this picture in Spain. 
Look very carefully. So far I have not seen one stop sign that says "stop" in Spanish! They all say "stop" in English! Sevilla is quite warm (31 degrees celsius this weekend, or about 80 degrees F), with streets lined with brightly colored houses and orange trees. Sevilla also preserves many signs of the Arab or Muslim influence in Spain and the cathedral and royal palace there are filled with incredible mosaic artwork and other typically Arab art. We went to Sevilla on Friday, arriving around 11 pm. I had the address for our hostel and Angela just started asking people for directions as we tried to make our way there from the bus station. One man we asked was from the country, but called his son on his mobile phone to get us directions. Another person walked with us about five blocks before pointing us in the right direction. It was kind of hilarious. Our hostel was magnificent, very clean, very nice place to stay. Time in Spain functions very differently from time in North America. Here, morning lasts until about 1 or 2pm. Afternoon begins after the big meal of the day, around 3 or 4pm and lasts at least until dark, around 9 or 10pm. So you still greet people with "good afternoon" at 8:30pm! Spain is known for it´s night life. But its not just the young people who are out enjoying this night life! As Angela and I walked the streets of Sevilla around midnight on Friday night, after dropping our stuff off at the hostel, we were shaking our heads at the number of people out, including families with small children and people old enough to be our grandparents! There were more people out on Friday night around 1am than there were on Saturday at noon! Hilarious. 
A bridge over the river the night we arrived. Saturday, we slept in a bit and then went to visit the Reales Alcazares (the royal residence in Sevilla). It is a quite magnificent complex of buildings and courtyards, built over several centuries by different monarchs, both Arab and later on, Spanish Christians. The influence of Arab art is quite apparent throughout the palace, in the intricate carvings, lack of human figures in the art (since Muslims believe making any human image is like creating an idol), bright colors, round arches, a lot of water (pools and fountains), and lots of tiles and mosaics. It was a lot to absorb, but I did enjoy seeing this. It was also fun because Angela and I saw three or four bride and groom pairs having their pictures taken throughout the palace. Now that would be quite the place to wedding pictures! Here are some pictures from Las Reales Alcazares: 
This is carving over one of the doorways. The colors are really well preserved in this palace because much of it is indoors, protected from the elements. Of course you can´t go to Sevilla without coming across a few orange trees... 
or palm trees... 
And we also happened to stumble across the Plaza of Saint Ana! 
On Sunday, Angela and I had some devotional time together by the river and then did some souvenir shopping and went to see the Cathedral and la Giralda. The Cathedral is an enormous Gothic structure, with soaring ceilings and beautiful stained glass windows. It is also the burial place of Christopher Columbus. I didn´t get very many pictures of the cathedral because my camera battery was running out, but Angela got a zillion and so I´m going to get some of hers so you can see later! I did get a couple however. The cathedral was built (like many churches in southern Spain) on the site of an old mosque. The Giralda is a very tall tower that used to be the minaret of the mosque (the tower they use to make the call to prayer). The builders of the cathedral added the top third of the tower´s height and it is now the bell tower. You can climb all the way to the top and see incredible views of the city below! 
Angela and I, happy to be in sunny southern Spain! 
Wonderfully quaint houses line the other side of the river. 
One of the main streets is named after Christopher Columbus. 
I know this is a terrible photo. I´m sorry. But the cool thing about it is that this is Christopher Columbus´ tomb! The base is white marble and on top are statues of four men carrying a coffin on their shoulders. If you want to see a better picture, I´m sure you could search for one on Google images! 
La Giralda 
Part of the Cathedral roof from the top of the Giralda. See the courtyard with all the orange trees? This is the only other part preserved from the original mosque. It was the Patio of the Orange Trees where the Muslims would wash in the fountains before entering the mosque to pray. 
Another view from the top of the Giralda. I just really liked this street. Look at the bottom of the photo near the center. I don´t know why, but we noticed that in several places in Sevilla, the zebra crossings where pedestrians can cross the street were multi-colored instead of just white! 
One final kinda fun picture...This is the name of the town my family lived in for six years before moving to Oregon. While in Sevilla, Angela and I also got to see flamenco dancing in a bar. Southern Spain is famous for that kind of dancing. It was very intense, fast and unique, but I kind of liked it. She got far better pictures than I did, so I´ll post some when I get them. On Sunday, we relaxed a bit in the afternoon and then took the bus back to Salamanca, leaving Sevilla at 9pm at night, arriving back in Salamanca at 4am this morning! Yikes! It was well worth it thought, to have the extra afternoon in Sevilla! So now it´s back to school for another week. Already I´m trying to figure out what I´m going to do this weekend! The weekends come so fast and I want to use them all well, to see different parts of Spain if I can! I hope everything is going well with all of you. You´re in my thoughts and prayers! | 
