Possibly the real Andalusia?

Hola todos!

So in november our lovely coursemate who lives in a village outside of seville welcomed us into her house and town an it was a great day. Her friends offered to drive us to the village around 40 mins away. Here I show some generic photos of this great little village, estepa.

My mug

So we walked up hill/mountain to see the overview of estepa and it was beautiful and such a nice change to have hills to walk up as seville is completely flat. You could even see the snow peaks of sierra nevada in the distance which is a skiing resort I MAY visit. It is still strange to me that this is the warmest place I have ever lived and a ski resort is so near and I saw it!

One such hill with steps (friends photo)

LOOK SNOW! Put your glasses on if you can't see the snow peaks. Its just left of the boulder hill on the right. 

SO we also went to an olive oil factory located in estepa. Olives are hugely popular here (obviously) and even me who didn't like olives can't stop going back to the olive bowl (I think they marinate them in a sauce to make them nice or something, Every one I have had in the UK made me vom). We see vine yards everywhere in the fields by the road so we finally got to see how they process them for olive oil. The truck empties the olives into the factory and they are washed and crushed to make olive juice! The oil is subsequently made from the olive juice with more time making the oil nicer (apparently). We tried shots (not LMFAO style) of the oil from different ages and olive, Its fair to say drinking olive oil on its own like that is NOT nice however much the guide said it was... I'l take my own bread with it next time. 

In go the olives! 

Everywhere is a photo opportunity! #FactoryStyle

After the olive factory we went to my friends house which was very nice indeed. Where we had paella and more cooked by the three generation in her family. All in all it was a very Spanish lunch where obviously her family were showcasing their food, culture and themselves to all of us.

Part of the house 

JUST LOOK  AT THIS KITCHEN TABLE! The jamon

What does one call this room?

Such a nice house. 

Right so estepa is famous for creating and being the origin these mantecados (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polvor%C3%B3n) and have MANY factories. These sweets are very famous all round spain at christmas time and my friends' family is relate to the buisness somehow.

Mantecados

So we went to one of the factories and saw them being made and packaged. It made me feel like charlie and the chocolate factory haha.

It very much felt like a christmas evening trip for the spanish people. So although I have mentioned christmas in spain. Again Feliz Navidad! 

Fotos de Sevilla y NAVIDAD!

Hola todos,

Here are some photos from seville which I liked. These are from the first week in December. Followed by those Christmas lights! Enjoy!

This is the golden tower which is by the river (now canal) which used to be the location of the port of seville which used to be the main hub for ships leaving for the Americas and Philippines.

Another view

The river with calle Betis which is v.lively at night. I like the colour of the houses and the sky in this one. 

This is the other side of the river (which contains most of Seville)

These line the bank of the river and along with the many other trees in seville act as shade against the constant beating by the suns rays. 

If it not an orange tree its these.

Ok so I diddnt take this one but I would look strange taking a picture of a tree in the street. These orange trees are everywhere in seville and I mean everywhere. Seville is famous for them. You can't eat them but my house mate put them with hot water and has a sort of orange tea haha. I believe they make marmalade from them. My dad loved these trees when he was here, maybe I have just gotten use to them. 

oo pretty house and balconies.
 

Imagine living here.

In the largest park in the centre. 

Quick selfie in the park.

Where I study

Expensive but gorgeous looking hotel.

And again. 

Cathedral and Christmas market stalls. 

BRING ON THE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS! 

Oh and we went to the local port the other day including going up the control tower. Us maritime geeks loved it. 

There is always one isn't there... Sunny seville strikes again. #Blinded

BOATS SHALL PASS!

Hope you like the photos as much as I like the city. 

I would be lost here Tom

Hola todos.

So my dad visited me a while back. Unlucky Trevor had to visit me when it was raining here (4th time its rained here, Im counting!) and also the coldest I have ever seen it (lowest I saw was 8'C). It has since gone back up to the more comfortable high teens. Despite all this he seemed to enjoy it because he has never been to spain. well he has been to spain probably more than 30 times but never SPAIN.

I'm not going to call the touristy areas of spain (benidorm, costa del sol etc) spain because you can easily go there and speak english all year round. When my dad arrived in spain he said that he would be lost here. Sometimes you need someone else's perspective to see things. He showed me that no one in the area I live (I don't live in the touristy area) speaks english. My dad would frequently say "cold isn't it" or "he (me) speaks good spanish doesnt he?" and just get blank expresions from the spanish. However they did try, with some managing "thank you" and "three" haha. I took my dad for some tapas and got him to try tinto (de verano) for the first time.

It made me feel good that dad said he was proud of me when he heard me speak spanish. Whilst I'm sure he's proud of all us kids I'm guessing for him its easier to be impressed with physical things. I mean getting a PHD or degree may be difficult to comprehend the effort but hearing someone speaking a different language or getting a well paid job is clear.

I end the blog saying that I'm proud of myself living here and using and understanding spanish. Whilst learning a language as an (young) adult was not easy it is definitely one of the best decisions I ever made because I love speaking spanish. This blog may seem a bit big headed but we all need to say things we are proud of now and then and maybe it takes the need of others to point your successes for you to realise them.

Despite all this I'm struggling to get the effort to learn the languages of the countries that I will visit next and in my arrogance wish I could just speak spanish or english to them instead :p.

Next blogs include my trip to my spanish friends village (best day in spain so far), my trips to Barcelona, valencia, sierra nevada, possibly others and xmas in spain! Sorry that I hve made so few but it really takes a lot of effort. Very proud of my friend Nicole who has wrote a blog every day for a year, see nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.com .

¡ EL GORDO !

Hola todos.

It has been a month since my last blog so this one will have to be el gordo. Just pretend each section is a seperate blog in october :p.

Which brings me to welcome you to november! Today (1st nov) is a public holiday here (One of the 12 they have here). So happy día de todos los santos everybody! I don't really understand the link between this 'all saints day' and all the men playing guitars and walking around the street last night but I just went with the flow and went to a halloween party after. The best thing about halloween I saw here is that because they love to roller skate here in sevilla we passed a huge procession of monsters and ghouls on skates whizing past. Why are skates guay and awesome here but in UK lame and unpopular? It was also many of my international course mates first halloween so that was nice, welcome to american influenced europe y'all.

So you may recall I wasn't happy with my flat so after bumbling spanish with my fast speaking landlord I managed to leave my flat without paying until feb and not paying the full month. Consequently when I was in her house this was my first encounter with spanish children as her flat was full of her nietos watching rey león. Sometimes I don't like the spanish accent but on kids it is the best, so cute and the "but why" just sounds so much better on them compared to a whining english child. After leaving said flat I moved in with my Montenegrin and Filipino coursemates. I like it here and all. I do feel like I'm living in a old peoples home due to the large amount of abuelas here but they are nice and even helped us out when we went through phases of having no electricity, hot water and internet at the same time! (we were practically living in a cave, candles and all). Here is me on the balcony and the dreaded washing line that I constantly fear that I will let my pants fall to the patio down below that we can't access!

As well as my 15 course mates I have made friends with the people from my hostel and also people I have met at intercambios (places where you exchange languages) both of these places are where I learn the most spanish as I can ask why the spanish say this and that. I went with these guys to a beatles concert which was funny as the spanish band's english was awful. They played at a festival with foods and events from countries all over the world. I tried some polish, german and cuban drinks and was disappointed not to see a UK stall. I wanted some god damn custard creams and digestive biscuits, is this too much to ask!! Although they did have an english day where apparently marry poppins was meant to turn up. I gave it a miss. Going out here is very much an outdoor activity, there are outside clubs and everyone buys drinks inside at bars and goes outside to drink. This can lead to huge crowds of people drinking in plazas which is actually banned in seville and the consequent piles of rubbish and bottles left behind. I am not exaggerating the mess left behind in these plazas, the first time i saw the rubbish at 4am I had to take a double look. Quick rundown of spanish time that I have observed. Lay in followed by siesta followed by more siesta followed by dinner at 9/10pm predrinks until 2am and club until 5 or later. Here we are with the beatles.

The culture here is different but still don't think I've experienced the "culture shock". Everyone is so chatty here you can't be at the bus stop (buses cost 0.60€) without the little old lady discussing where the bus is, knowing full well where the bus is as she gets the bus every single day. The best example of this is a woman I heard shouting over a packed bus "oiga! how is your nephew with his broken leg) or the woman opposite our flat shouting over the dreaded washing line "chico! que tal!". I think this roots from the fact most Spaniards are from small towns and work in the city compared to crazy urban areas like urban, with the population density seen here for comparison (http://goo.gl/YbxZ1z). I won't mention their openness about sex but instead show said vending machine in the centre...

Their limits do not end at being open and chatty, they also swear like crazy and I think some of the swear words are not even swear words at all. As I've heard things like this mother fucking rain and what does that bitch think she is doing with the recipients not blinking an eyelid. I soon learned that this aggressiveness that is not really aggressiveness at all,is needed here in everyday life. The bank clerk wants to close but you need to pay that bill, tell them that they have to do it now and do not take no for an answer. This bank scenerio happened many times and even with the government here, I had to get my id card and they wouldn't accept the documents I had and this went on for 10 minutes or so with me saying that there is nothing I can do to please you and that I wasn't going to leave until they gave me it, all of sudden they can give me the ID card, hmm how strange. I won't even mention my bank situation as it annoys me too much, except I hated santander in UK and I hate it even more over here, and consequently have gone with BBVA.

I enjoyed listening to Spanish radio before coming out her but I think I'm enjoying the Portuguese singing brazil music more whilst here. Google Sertanejo for more info.

I am enjoying my course here in seville uni but it has definitely made me realise how good exeter uni is as the info and facilities of this 2nd in spain uni do not compare to exe. A great example is on my course they stated the assesment was 30% "other" without stating what this "other" is. . . I'm hoping it is to demonstrate your best english accent, as this is the only way I may come up trumps. Once arriving people could tell my british accent when talking spanish but the other night I asked a Spaniard what she thought my accent was and she went from irish to russian so yay. I don't really know if my spanish is improving but I guess from having successful conversations with spainards (something I would have had trouble doing before) it must be better.

I haven't had a lot of tapas to be honest but I like the jámon (smoked ham) here and other things. But miss the the availability of things like basmati rice, curry sauce, fajitas and pita bread (yes I can't find these here at the cheap prices we have in the UK!). However chicken is insanely cheap so my diets mainly consist of this and the HUGE peppers they have here. Of course most stuff is cheaper here.

Octopus, other fish and hanging ham. 

It has only very recently (last 2 days) just got cold. But this cold (15 deg) is only really during the morning and night, during the day it is still hot (I saw the sign saying 29' yesterday) and people still wear sunglasses, But I've heard they wear sunglasses all through winter. It has rained 3 times since being here. My dark skinned brother even said it was too hot for him when he visited me in mid october. It was nice having david here to speak rapid english to and to confuse people when I the pale ginger one spoke the better spanish.

We went to cadiz also which I want to rename Cat island as there was so many cats there. A bit of sunbathing and swimming in the sea was nice, but as for the city I most definitely prefer seville as cadiz seemed to ancient and touristy. O and the train there was the best train I've ever been on, beats FGW, SW, southern and virgin hands down!



The sign that it is getting colder means one thing... NAVIDAD! I haven't seen any signs of Christmas here but I'm excited for it this year which makes a change. It won't be long before they have that feliz navidad song on loop in corte ingles and pull and bear. I see at the many lottery stalls (they love a bit of lottery over here) that there is a big lottery draw at christmas and the lottery tickets are really expensive, from what I understood from the man no one buys one ticket but families, friends or coworkers pitch in to buy one ticket which is in excess of 200€. And if you think this purchasing of tickets is happening now you can see how popular it is and this along with the vast prize fund it is called "el gordo", The big one.
A bit like this post.

Ciao. Miss and love you all.

Me gusta y no me gusta

Sometimes it takes a lot of effort to write down everything that has happened so I'm just going to write every thing that I have like or not liked since arriving here. First what I like.

Me gusta :

• The lack of rain. Its so comforting to just check the forecast and be certain what is going to happen. sunny most days and then that odd day where it REALLY rains. 
• People I have met here. From people I met in the hostel, to those on my course and even friends of friends. Everyone has been so nice. And when they speak fast spanish they are always ok to slow down and explain things again. But apart from the spanish I have met more people from continents around the world in these 2 and a half weeks than my life.
• Prices. Compared to London and exeter nearly everything is cheaper. This one I was expecting as we have all been on holiday to europe and once you venture outside the tourist bubble its cheap. the only exception to this is ice cream (as in you can buy on the go in cup/cone). Cheapest I have seen is 1 scoop for €1.50. Don't get me started on how cheap alcohol is here, haha. 
•   Living in a city so beautiful. I am yet to put most of my photos up but here are 2 I took. With building that I pass everyday. 

No me gusta:

• The mosquitoes. Its october for goodness sake and whenever I forget to close my window I get bitten. =[ This is one thing that I did not realise was the case here and it certainly sucks (pun). 
•  My flat. I was so desperately to leave my flat I moved into the first habitable place (so the other 6 that I saw were not habitable). The shower and kitchen are crap and its expensive. If I didn't have friends with flats that I could I visit or places to go out with them I would be having a pretty crappy time here. 
• When people don't speak to me in spanish. Just because I'm pale and ginger some people have approached me in english and numerous times in german. Guten tag, danke! I may have to start reponding perdon? No hablo aleman/ingles. 
• Things that make me look like a tourist which I can't help. Its so hot for me here I began by wearing shorts and flipflops however now I have started wearing trousers and shoes, but its still hot. Not being able to tell the euro coins apart is another good. There are many other tell tell signs that you are not spanish/european. 
• Vino de naranja. 
• The tiny dogs pissing/shitting in the street everywhere. 

¡NO TE OIGO! (Buscando un piso)

Hola!

So I have been in seville for a week now and it is hot hot hot. I heard it was the hottest city in europe on my first night in the hostel and they were right. I walk past the digital thermometer most days and haven't seen it below 35' at midday.

 In fact I left a rainy england. The flight was awful, I was stuck between two arm rest hoggers and just in general I felt sick and nervous about leaving. The hostel I stayed at was great and met lots of travellers but although I enjoyed the evening sangria with my new hostel friends and going out for tapas I had a task to find a flat.  I did not realise before this trip how important body language is in conversation. Add to this my phone is crap and is really crackly, ringing people in spanish was a nightmare. I constantly had to say 'I cant hear you?' 'What street was that?'. But after a few calls with spanish people I was on a roll. "Hola he visto tu anuncio en easy piso punto com y el piso todavia es disponible? Quien vive alli? add a few vales and they were shocked to see an english ginger kid turn up. 

I saw 7 flats in total, one was a dirt cheap £26 a week where you couldn't swing a cat in the whole flat. I ended up settled in a tiny street on the east of the city to be near my far away uni but also be in the centre. I live with a spanish student and a french student who speak no english so I will have to say bye bye to the english I used so much in the hostel. 

Note: Everyone I have met here in seville, erasmus or travellers have been so nice and they have definitely eased me into this trip. 

Note 2: The first note excludes the man who was snoring in the bunk bed below me last night.

Some photos. (I have more free time now as I'm not stressed finding a flat so will try to take some better shots because its so beautiful here).

 2nd night on the hostel's rooftop. Why I no look at the camera!