Amigos nuevos

Algunos amigos nuevos

I've only been here for five days and I'm already getting my bearings.  I love being able to walk around the city and know where I'm going without using a map.  The people here are beautiful, and they have such an amazing sense of style.  From the youngest children to the oldest abuelas all the women wear dresses during the day, and the men wear polos or button downs.  There are many dark people, but they are morenos, but also lighter skinned, light haired Spaniards too.

Yesterday was our last day of orientation, so after dinner our guías took us out to a really fun shot bar then club.  At the shot bar (shots = chupitos) we met a lot of people including españoles, germans (alemanes) and some other americans on a different program.  As it turns out the germans are actually staying in the same hostel that Scott and I stayed in last weekend.  We got to talking to them and two of their birthdays are this weekend/next week also!  So apparently we might celebrate with them - smaller fiestas saturday, monday, and wednesday, then a huge party next Friday for all of us.  Who knows if we actually will celebrate with them, but we did exchange numbers, and they are here for the semester so its possible!  They were crazy but also really fun.  After the shot bar we went down to a discoteca with our guías (and only about 5 americans which was awesome) and we drank more and danced and talked.  It was fun to start to see more about their culture and meet more people. 

No te olvides tu pasaporte

I have so much to write about but I've had so little time!  I feel like many people use these first three days of orientation to settle in, write home and maybe meet some people.  Orientation is busy, but I have already made lots of friends and am looking forward to meeting more.  Each night we have gone out to the local bars (and last night to a more club-ish bar), had several drinks and socialized.  In the hotel my roommate was a girl named Sahar from outside of San Francisco in Palo Alto.  She is a junior at the University of Oregon.  We instantly hit it off and were even in the same orientation group (con Victor!) so we have been spending a lot of time together.  Turns out we have a lot in common and we will probably become good friends.

Exploraciones

Last night we went out for tapas and sangria, figuring we could start finding restaurants we like, and places we like to drink.  We explored for a while, eventually getting into an area that was too residential and the restaurants were too expensive so we headed back up towards the area near our hostel and found a nice little place where we could share 3 cold tapas, 2 hot tapas, each have a glass of sangria, and then share a fruit desert at the end for only 17 euros.

It's not cheap but sounded like a good deal and we liked the food on the menu.  It seems like there is seafood and eggs in everything and the food is drowned in olive oil, but the portions are so small, and we do so much walking that I don't think it will matter.  After dinner we went back up to la plaza de San Francisco and had another pitcher of sangria at the same place we tried earlier that afternoon - Bar Europa.

Bienvenidos a Sevilla

Traveling is tedious in general, traveling to Spain was beyond the usual annoyance at other passengers and incidents since I was traveling for a total of 24 hours.  It was business as usual in Newark Airport, but in London I was surprised to find my flight was 4 hours earlier than I had written down.  It wasn't a problem though, after I took the 30 minute bus ride to the other terminal we literally just got right on the plane.  There were many more students on that flight and I sat next to a nice guy who is spending his semester in Barcelona.  It seems like everyone wants to talk to each other but no one wants to strike up conversation.  I ended up talking to a whole bunch of students simply because I was willing to be the first to say "hey".  I didn't meet anyone who was going to Seville though, so I was on my own after Madrid.

I changed terminals and found the general area of where my flight would leave from (they don't announce gates until about 30 minutes before the flight leaves) so I made my way to McDonald's and ordered un ensalada césar.  It tasted nothing like a regular ceaser salad but I was starving and at least the chicken tasted like chicken.  I then got up to check if the gate had been announced - it hadn't - so I went to find another place to sit with all my stuff.  After 10 minutes of reading I was so tired that I put my head down on my book and fell asleep.  An hour later I realized I only had 40 minutes until my flight was going to take off, so I got up and found out which gate I needed to go to.  Typical - it was on the entire other side of the terminal, so I walked about a mile all the way to the end where I sat and waited to get on the plane.  On both Spain flights I had the good fortune of having screaming babies within two rows of me.  What a joy.  I tried to sleep through it but didn't have too much luck.

Andalucia here I come!

So as most of you know, I'm going to be leaving for Seville, Spain in 11 days and I will be living there for the next four months.  I'm going to be living the Spanish lifestyle, eating Spanish food, taking courses in Spanish, and best of all riding Spanish horses.  I've been corresponding with a barn outside of Seville called Hacienda Dos Olivos (www.haciendadosolivos.es).  As a student and a photographer I will have an opportunity to barter my skills as a photographer in exchange for lessons in classical dressage.  Let me say that I am beyond excited to have an opportunity to learn from a fabulous instructor on gorgeous Andalusian stallions.

And I'm back!

Forgive me for it has been too long since I last blogged.  A summer without horses far from ideal.  I have lessoned twice and ridden some horses for Gloria several times.  All in all its been about a handful of rides when I was used to riding several each day.

Remember the crazy crazy yellow baby?  Well guess what?  I think she realized how much fun it is to have me around.   I went back down to Elon for the whole week this past week and she was FANTASTIC each and every day.  Thats five days straight of PERFECT pony.  It was unreal!  We walked, trotted, cantered, and jumped a few fences on a loose rein!  And I rode her bareback and she couldn't have cared less.  I don't think anyone else could do this with her, but she and I have a relationship based in trust and it makes our ability to create success that much more feasible.  We really are truly happy when we are with each other.

I know its pretty clear that the blogging has been limited for the summer.  That will change when I leave for Spain (I will try to write regularly) and when I get back I will be getting back into riding full time so I will have plenty of adventures to share.