Two weekends later, the group had our trip to Cordoba and Granada. Cordoba is this small town that is famous for its giant mosque. After my intense art midterm, I was happy to say that I probably could have given the tour at this place. It was better than I had imagined. 800 marble columns that surrounded this monstrosity of a church. In the 16th century or so, a bishop of Cordoba wanted to put a "small" chapel in the Mosque. 500 columns were removed and this grandeur church was put in the middle. I kept thinking wow, they really wanted to make a point that they had conquered the moors. In Emily Huth terms, "It was way too much." It was my favorite site to date. After the tour we walk around and got on the bus to Granada. Favorite part of Granada was reuniting with Emily and Lindsay! After a walking through a local neighborhood, we got to go out that night. Evidently, Granada has the biggest Botellon in Spain! It was seriously a block long of kids drinking and smoking. A site to see. I also had the best Kebab I have had to date, Thanks Lindsay! The next day we went to the Alahambra which was fun to see again. Couldn't believe how big it was!
Last week a special friend from the States came to visit me! I was so excited to see him, I kept myself busy for the entire week. Too bad that when I picked him up from the airport I had only gotten 3 hours of sleep and it was raining like cats and dogs. The week was filled with seeing the local sites and eating out a lot. Got to try a lot of new restaurants and see things from a tourist perspective again. We got to walk around Triana and through the Maria Luisa park! So nice to catch up with the guy I had been missing for 4 months! Crazy right!? On Sunday we went to the football game! Unsurprisingly, James was ecstatic. Even though they lost, definitely something I had to see while I was here. After many bottles of wine and deserts galore, Thanksgiving arrived. If you could ask anyone on our trip, Thanksgiving was definitely the day everyone wanted to be at home with their families. Thanks to James, I was not alone! I also got to talk to everyone at thanksgiving in Racine and Columbus! So Special! We decided to go to this sushi place, where we had yummy appetizers, sushi, and wine. It was awesome! On Friday we went to Italica, this small town that has a collection of Roman ruins. James loved it! Pretty cool to think about how people used to walk down the different streets that lined the ruins. Quite a flash-back.
Through the past few weeks, I have been trying to get to see more things and really think about what it has meant to live here and experience abroad. Honestly, I have learned a lot about myself and I don't think I have changed that much, but I have become the best part of myself. I have discovered new interests and I have definitely come to appreciate everything that Spain and Europe has to offer. Although there are points of this trip I have just wanted to have things the "American" way, I know on returning to the US I will ask why can't we do the "Spanish" way? I have started to notice things in great detail. This past week I had to do this research paper on the Alfonso XIII hotel. Its been a lot of fun to visit it, make observations and think about influence it has had on Sevilla. Its also so fun getting to know this new group of people. It's only in these types of experiences, would I get to know, people that are not necessarily like me. Its been an eye-opener. One week till London and 3 till my return to the USA. In away its been so long and in others its gone by so fast. Wish me luck as I experience my first cold climate since I've been here.
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