Architecture at the Alcazar

Today for my art class, we met early at 10:30 and walked about 5 min to the alcazar palace. Its an important example of mudejar architecture. It was really interesting to see the Islamic techniques and characteristics and then the differences in architecture as later kings added on. For example, on the main walls there was arabic and it looked very muslim. Then, we went upstairs to a gothic cathedral portion. My favorite part was the main garden. We didn't spend much time there because our teacher had to get back for her next class, but I'm planning on going back because I get in free with my student id. We had been in the darker rooms and touring the inside and we finally stepped out onto a large patio with a waterfall falling right in front of us. After being inside, the sun was so bright! It was beautiful. There were palm trees everywhere, potted plants along all the walls, ivy, plants that I don't know the name of, and fountains. It was breath-taking. I love that this has been college for the past month. I can't wait for the next 3 months and more field trips.

Bible study

Today was another really sunny day! I love it. I went to lunch with 2 of my apartment mates and another friend. I also booked an overnight trip to Barcelona at the end of March. Tonight we had Bible study. Its really cool to meet up with a bunch of believers from all different programs and attending different universities here. We met at a cafe and had prayer time and a small message/devotional. Ashley and I offered our roof for next week. There's some really good galletas (cookies) that are more cracker-like that we love. We can buy a big 4 pack for 90 eurocents. Being the fabulous hostesses that we are, we're going to make a big investment and buy a pack to serve on the roof. I'm really looking forward to next week. God is good!

my day today

Since I don't feel like doing the TONS of homework I have in Spain (not really), I thought I'd share my day today. It wasn't anything special, but it was beautiful. My art and architecture class was the usual. On wednesday, instead of class, we are taking a tour of the Alcazar. Its a palace in Sevilla. Once again, I'm really looking forward to going somewhere that we've discussed in class. And, the weather is so beautiful that its nice to walk around for "class" and not sit in a class. For my break between classes, Ashley and I came home for lunch and to hang out. After lunch, we went up on the roof and read. It was so warm up there! Everyone, BE JEALOUS. I think today was about 70 degrees, but definitely hot in the sun, especially up on the roof. I'll be honest, I don't really like my religion class on mon and wed afternoons because the teacher is not that great and all the information is jumbled. I hope to actually learn something, but as of now, its not looking too bright. The class usually drags on, but today it went quickly. Ash and I stopped at home and then we decided to explore the other side of the river. All along the river there were groups of people hanging out and getting some sun. It was so great. We walked a while on our side and then took one of the main bridges over. The side we live on is the more historic center, the other side is called Triana and there are more apartments. We stopped for some delicious Dulce de Leche ice cream with brownies. yum! It ended up being over a 2 hour walk! It was really fun and relaxing. This evening I skyped with a bunch of people. If you have skype, friend me. My name is stephsteph.randolph

Bed time! love,
stephanie

watch this youtube

Ashley's friend gave us this youtube video to watch. Its really funny! Read the more info on the side to hear about why they did it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1kjkUAA9VM

Brugge, Belgium

For Valentine's Day, Ashley and I spent a romantic weekend in Brugge, Belgium. It is about a 1 hour train ride from Brussels. We went to a Flamenco show on Thursday night and then took the bus to Madrid. Then, the metro to the airport. Then, the plane to Brussels. And finally, the train to Brugge. It was really cold. I wore all the clothes I brought... every day. The trip consisted of a lot of EATING. We ate lots of chocolates, waffles, fries, more chocolate, pancakes, and pastries. While we wandered around to find the hostel, we stopped in a tea room for our first real Belgian waffels. It was a good first experience :) After we checked into the hostel, we took an hour power nap and then went exploring. It was freezing, but really fun. We just wandered the streets and stopped in a bunch of chocolate stores. We generally could buy 100 grams (so usually 6-8 truffles) for between 2-3 euros. Plus, sometimes we got free samples. Friday evening we had a really nice, fancy, warm meal at our hostel. The downstairs has a really nice restaurant that was actually recommended on our tourist map. On Saturday we went to a Flea Market, The Church of Our Lady where this is one of the few Michelangelo sculptures outside of Italy, St. John's Hospital, and then we took a tour of a brewer! And this was all before noon! The brewery tour was probably my favorite. There used to be hundreds of breweries in Brugge, but this is the only one left. We saw new and old equipment, learned a lot about brewing, and tried a free sample (gross). The coolest part about it was that we were in a really old building with very small, narrow hallways and even smaller doors. We had to go up and down the narrowest steps, so we went backwards. We actualyl went up to the roof for a little story-telling by our very animated (possibly a little tipsy) tour guide and to get a great view of the city. After the tour, we had lunch at a pancake house. Then, we walked a bit to the other side of the city to visit the windmills, the Jerusalem Church, and the Lace Museum. The Lace Museum was really cool. We went to teh demonstration room where there were about a dozen women between the ages of 60-100 hand-making lace. It was really intense. Took a power nap and then met up with some people we had met during the day for dinner. However, we didn't really take Valentine's Day into account, so we ended up eating fries and croquettes from the famous dueling fry carts. That night, we went to this bar place that had BOARD GAMES! We played scrabble with another study abroad student and Ukranian we met. haha, playing scrabble with someone who can sort of speak english, but definitely can't spell was interesting. So, he was on my team and the game ended up being pretty comical. The trip back to Sevilla was very long and tiring, but we made it back to our apartment at 4:15 AM on sunday night/monday morning with classes on monday.

I highly recommended going to Belgium. Seriously. Brugge was nice and not overwhelming because it was smaller. All the buildings were beautiful. Plus, everything was even better for the big Valentine's Day. There were cute little tea rooms and small, intimate restaurants all over the place. Brugge doesn't get many tourists, so they welcome them pleasantly. Many people speak English which was a nice break from espanol. It was the kind of little city that is most enjoyed by just wandering around and exploring. Even though it was really cold (1 degree celcius when we landed in Brussels in the afternoon), the sun was shining and we had enough layers. I think this will probably end up being my favorite trip!

Buildings in the city center. It reminded me a lot of Holland.

Ashley and I enjoying our amazing date on Friday night.

The clock tower at night.

Ash and I on the roof of the brewery.

Me on the bridge. There were canals and bridges through the whole city.

Me being a windmill!

italica and madrid pictures

At the amphitheater in Italica. It was the 3rd

largest amphitheater in the Roman empire.

In the ruins of a Roman house.

In front of the Palacio Real in Madrid. The king used to live here and its used for state occassions. There are beautiful gardens in front of it and we were able to take a tour of the inside. The rooms were really ornate. One was the porcelain room and the walls were covered in porcelain with 3D decorations.

La Plaza Mayor.

The Goya Statue outside the Prado.

Madrid

We pretty much conquered the city of Madrid in less than 48 hours. After our Italica trip, which was very interesting, we packed for an hour and walked to the bus station for our 6 hour ride to Madrid. When we got there, we successfully figured out the Metro and got to our hostel. The hostel was nicer than expected. It was just the 5 of us in a room. I wish I could point to a map and explain all of this to you, but i'll just tell you about the places we went. We got up early on Sat, had breakfast at the hostel, and figured out our attack plan. We left the hostel at 9AM and didn't return until 9 at night. We went to the Plaza de Espana in Madrid, the temple de Dedod (an Egyptian temple donated to Spain thanking them for something that I forget right now), walked through some Gardens by the Palace, ate churros with chocolate (different than the cinnamon mexican ones sold at amusement parks), toured the Royal Palace and saw the royal armory and royal pharmacy exhibits, saw a bunch of monuments, walked to the Plaza Mayor, went the to Puerta del Sol (a main shopping area with more monuments), and then went to the Prado. We were exhausted by the time we got to the Prado, but we were able to re-energize to see as much as possible. It was really cool to see things that I've studied before. There was a lot of Velazquez and Goya. I got to see Las Meninas by Velazquez and the 3rd of May by Goya. Madrid was a lot chillier than Seville, but luckily no snow or rain. So we bundled up to walk back to the hostel and rest for an hour. Erica, one of my rooommates, has some friends studying in Madrid so they met up with us and we all went to tapas. Slept so well saturday night and then got up again to finish our Madrid plans on Sunday. There's a really large flea market that we went to and then the Museo Reina Sofia which is a modern art museum. This museum had a lot of Picasso and Dali. We got to see Guernica!!!! It was huge and a lot more powerful in person. Slept for most of the bus ride home, obviously.

Its been cool getting to know some other girls from the program. I went to Madrid with Ashley, our roommate Erica, and 2 other girls Tia and Rachel. Its hard to keep up with everyone because everyone lives in different parts of the city, but travelling together was good.

I will put some pictures up tomorrow and answer the questions from my fans (muggs and the Larew family).

Good news! We will officially have internet in our apartment on Thursday!

love,
steph

spanish classes and FAQ

Hola amigos y familia,

I´m sure you can tell i´m enjoying myself. On tuesdays and thursdays both of my classes are in spanish. Today was the first real day of teaching and wow does my brain hurt. First, i have my advanced spanish class from 9-10:30 and then i have spanish civ from10:45-12. its pretty intense, but in a good way. it takes a lot of concentration though for 3 hours. i´m working on getting together with my spanish friend as part of a speaking partner exchange thing. basically we´ll get together for coffee or seomthing an i can practice spanish and she can practice her english.

Shout out to Mrs. Ferguson for emailing me really good questions! i´ll share the answers with everyone.

is there a zoo? um i don´t know, but i´ll find out. the bull ring is really close to my apartment. its beautiful and on the river. that probably doesn´t count though considering the bull gets seriously injured or killed.

do i walk a lot? YES! we walk everywhere. its about a 15 minute brisk walk to school everyday. My other friends from grove city live about a 40 minute walk away, near the university of seville. The torre del oro, a well known monument, is a good half way point for us. We definitely walk at least 3 miles a day. Its not bad though because thats what everyone does.

how´s the food and do we cook a lot? The food is muy buena. we cook a lot in our apartment, but a lot of american food. one of my roommates is from upper dublin so the other night we improvised cheesesteaks. they were so gooooooooood. we did however buy a spanish cookbook, written totally in espanol, and we are going to start trying to make some bigger spanish meals and save the leftovers. Its really fun eating out! even though i´m not a big coffee drinker, its relaly good here, and usually only a euro or 1.50. its different than in the us and with a lot of espresso. Also, going out for tapas is a must! tapas are small portions. the other night we went out for tapas and had tostada (type of toasted bread) with duck meat with an apple and onion sauce. it was really different, but really good.

if anyone has mas preguntas (more questions) let me know and i´ll answer! it helps me thikn of different things to write about! thanks mrs. ferguson!!!!!!!!

love,
steph

pictures...finally

Hey everyone,
Thanks for being patient about waiting for some pictures. I've picked a few from the last week just to give you a little glimpse of things. As I'm sure you will understand, the pictures don't even describe some of the beautiful things I've seen. Enjoy them!

Our hotel for the first weekend.
Our apartment living room and rooftop view!

Visiting the Plaza de Espana which is in Sevilla: Our apartment, me, Elissa, Ashley, and Erica.

And pictures from our excursion to Cordoba. First we visited the Mezquita/Catholic Cathedral now. It was really interesting to learn about the history of the Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the city. This was originally a mosque and then a Catholic Cathedral. The second picture is at the Real Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos. Basically a beautiful palace. Here we are in the gardens with pools and fountains eveywhere. Its lined with orange trees. After the tour, we spent the day walking aroud the town. There were some little streets even smaller than those in Seville. As I mentioned before, its known for silver and leather and there were many different shops with artsy items for sale. After we got back from Cordoba we rested for a bit and had dinner at the apartment. We were going to go to a Spanish Salsa bar place, but there was a cover charge, so we ended up at an Irish pub...go figure.

love and miss you all!

steph

Cordoba

Hey Everyone!

On Friday when we didn't have classes, my apartment went to the Plaza de Espana.

Then, on Saturday we went to Cordoba. It was a really great trip. I'll add pictures tomorrow when I am at school because right now i'm at an internet cafe and the connection is a little slow. We had a guided tour of the mosque/cathdral, the alcazar (a palace), and the synagoge. Cordoba is known for its silver and leather, so I bought some really cute earrings :) I'll write more tomorrow!