Sevilla is the Sister City of Kansas City!!!

Like I've mentioned in an earlier post, I attend class in the Kenia building.  It's about 45 minutes away from my casa, but I've learned to take the bus everyday.  This is the sign outside the building.

I have to walk up a few steps to get to the building..

And once I'm up the steps, I see this very pretty building.  It doesn't look like a school at all.

The front doors with a fountain in front.

Los jardines.  The garden.  You can't eat the oranges from the trees in front of the building, they are too bitter to eat.

A while back, I learned that my friend, Crystal, has family that lives in Granada.  Her aunt and uncle, Debbie and Shawn, do outreaches for University students and are part of a group called Raices, which is similar to a youth group setting, only for college students.  It's the step between the streets and church.  Last week, there was a group from the University of Virginia doing a missions trip in Granada with Raices.  Shawn and Debbie invited me to join some of the activities they were putting on.  One night they had an open mic night.  I decided to go and watch, it was so fun! I met some really fun people!  This isn't the best singing I've ever heard in my life, but it was really fun!  The first video is "A Whole New World" from Aladdin (sung in Spanish)  and the second video is a flamenco show.

The next night, they had an international food night.  There was food from all over the world, it was DELICIOUS!!!!  There were a lot of people from different parts of Spain, the United States, and other parts of the world.

This past weekend, I went on an excursion with ISA to Sevilla and Córdoba.  I'm pretty sure I told everyone in the world that Sevilla is the sister city of Kansas City!  The architecture of the buildings is the same in Sevilla as it is around the Plaza.  Basically, they look the exact same.  There is even an Avenida de Kansas City, but it was too far away to walk to, and no one else had as much interest in it as me; therefore, I wasn't able to see Kansas City Avenue, I was very disappointed!! This was by FAR my favorite excursion that I've been on with ISA.  Sevilla was small enough to be comfortable, but big enough to be fun and be able to explore.  We got to Sevilla at around 7pm on Friday evening; unfortunately, but the time we were ready to walk around it was too dark to really see anything.  I took some pictures from the bus window, so they have a funny tint to them.  

We passed a little tiny gas station on our way to the hotel! So cute!

The river in Sevilla was absolutely gorgeous with the lights shining on it!!

Hannah, Jason, Rachel, Me

As I was taking pictures of the buildings, Brittney jumped in front of my camera.. this is what the end result was!!! Very cool!  As you can see, some of the architecture is very similar to that on the Plaza!

We walked along the river looking for a place to eat.  Brittney has to have meals that are gluten free (which is difficult to find, considering Spain's love for bread!), so we asked just about every restaurant we passed.  We finally found an Italian restaurant that had a few gluten free dishes.  The restaurant was called Mamma Mia.  The owner was very happy that he could prepare a gluten free dish for Brittney.  He ended up giving us a voucher for a free bottle of wine to use at the Mamma Mia in Granada and gave us free shots at the end of the meal!  He was awesome, but our waiter was far from awesome, he hated us!  I had pasta stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese with a tomato/alfredo sauce on top. It was sooooooo good!!!!

The group!

Of course we had to take a Missouri State picture!!! Go Bears!

On the bridge in Sevilla, there were tons of padlocks with names written on them.  They were signifying being together forever.

The tram is really interesting.  I believe it's part above ground and part underground.  It can be very dangerous because there is nothing guarding the tracks.  It's very possible that  people could get in the way when it's coming through the city!

La Catedral

The view of La Giralda from La Plaza de Banderas.. sin banderas!! (The Flag Plaza, without flags!)

The beginning of the tour of Alcazares.  Very pretty place!

This painting is of the voyage of Christopher Columbus!  You can't see it, but off to the left was a recreation of the Santa Maria (I think).

Does this remind you of La Alhambra?!?!

Outside the Alcazares, there were tons of ducks (patos) and peacocks (pavo reales) running around.  One of the peacocks decided to show off for us!

Right as soon as we walked out of our tour, we saw a bride and groom doing a traditional dance outside the Catedral!  They had gotten married in the Cathedral.. I'm so jealous!!! It's the most beautiful place ever!  Watching them dance was VERY fun!

After lunch, we saw a bachelorette party outside the Cathedral.  The bride-to-be was dressed up like a matador and all the bridesmaids were dressed up as flamenco dancers!  They were pushing around a shopping cart with instruments and alcohol.  They were absolutely hilarious.  We paid them one euro to dance for us!

The beginning of our tour of La Catedral de Sevilla.  These pictures don't do this amazing building justice.  I wish I had taken a video of it to make everything more life-like, but I forgot!

The ceilings were sooo high and soo detailed!  Every part of the cathedral was covered with embellishments.

One of the four tombs of Christopher Columbus (Cristobal Colón).  There are four tombs around the world to signify his 4 voyages around the world and his passion for traveling.

The most beautiful room in the world!! It's sooooo sparkly!!!

After our tour, we climbed to the top of the Giralda, the tower of the Cathedral!  This is the view of Sevilla from the tower.  It was breath taking.  I took a picture from each side of the tower, but I only posted two of my favorites so it wouldn't take up toooooo much space on my blog!

On Sunday morning, we took a 2 hour bus ride to Córdoba.  We only visited the Mezquita.  It took around 3 hours and ended up raining on us right before we got back on the bus, so that made for a wet bus ride home.. for some people.  Like my dad has drilled in my head: Never get cold, never get wet.  SO, I thought ahead and brought my umbrella with me!  Smart me!

The tower of the Mezquita.  This is a mosque and a cathedral in one.  It is the last mosque left in Córdoba because the Christians destroyed all the others, but since this was part Cathedral also, the Christians didn't want to destroy this precious place.

The Mezquita has 1,013 columns.  The red part is made of bricks, and the white is made of limestone.  This has held up so well because the bricks are somewhat "flexible", so it doesn't crack.

This is the cathedral part..

A video of the Mezquita!  Very cool!

After this weekend, I've been VERY tired, but I'm able to take my daily siesta!  My classes are starting to get very hard, and have homework everyday.  I've been watching TV with Encarna and Carmen every night so I can practice understanding and listening to it.. I think it's helping a lot!

Yesterday, we were watching a game show and Carmen says to Julie (the housekeeper/caretaker) "Is that a boy?!" Julie says, "No, Carmen, that's a fat lady with short hair!" Carmen says, "Are you sure? I think it's a boy!!" hahahaha.. Carmen's hilarious.  I also convinced her that Encarna went to a discoteca last night.  She kept asking where her hija was, so I told her she was at a discoteca and she said "Are you sure?? I can't believe it!!!" lol.. Ohhh Carmen!  

This post doesn't have much writing in it, but during the tours I didn't really pay much attention to the history part, I just wanted the pictures, so I would wander off.  The pictures are more interesting to me than the history!  I would listen to some, but then zone out or wander off and do my own thing! haha.

We will see what adventures this weekend will bring!