Sara Baras "Carmen"

This past Wednesday we went to "Carmen" performed by Sara Baras in the Teatro Lope de Vega in Madrid. The flamenco show we saw in Seville was amazing, but this was extraordinary.

Aunque no puedo bailar, me encanta flamenco.

The constant beat of clapping, stomping, snapping, and guitar was mesmerizing The costuming was beautiful and the long fringe on the Spanish shawls was perfect. I loved the use of the doors and fans opening and closing. The strength and independence of Carmen was inspiring.

La Primavera

Springtime in Spain!

El Escorial

El fin de semana pasado visitamos El Escorial.

The austerity of the monastery/palace was more beautiful to me than frightening. Maybe that's because I've always had a soft spot for symmetry. It was built in late 16th century under Felipe II. The library of El Escorial is one of the best perserved ancient libraries in the world. I thought that it was rather small, but the books were pretty impressive. Before we even went into the mausoleum I could smell something funny, I think fermaldehyde, which makes sense because there is a separate room called the Pudridero Real where the royal bodies rot for 20 years or so before being buried. Good thing I didn't open that door. The Panteon Real where all the Spanish monarchs are stacked up in there coffins was pretty interesting to see though.

Inside the courtyard.

Next we went to the Valle de los Caidos (Valley of the Fallen) where there is a monument and an underground basilica. It claims to be for the "Fallen for God and Spain" from the Civil War, but basically it was for Franco and his regime. Inside the basilica I felt very small.

Alina, me, Megan, and Emmaleigh with the amazing view of the valley from the mountainside in the background.

We also were able to tour a really neat castle in Manzanares.

El Dia de San Valentín

We celebrated St. Valentine's Day early in Spain with making/decorating sugar cookies and Valentine cards.

My super cute roommate Lauren. (Muchas gracias to Lauren's mom for sending supplies and inspiring the idea for a V-day party!)

Lauren likes the color purple, saying "Oh Hey!," Kinder chocolate, "Arrested Development," and colorful scarves (scarfs?). She is a terrific running buddy and friend, and I am so glad that we are roommates here in Spain!

Kami displaying the cream cheese icing for the cookies. She was our cookie critic (her mom is the genius behind Flour Girls and Dough Boys), and Kami was right about the cookies tasting a little "off," but I blame it on the foreign appliances.

We used melted chocolate for decorating also.

Shopping for the sugar cookie ingredients at Carre Four was quite a trip. It took us forever to find powdered sugar and it came in tubes a quarter of the size of a regular bag you find in the states. This (above photo) was the closest thing to vanilla extract that we could find. It was kind of like vanilla-flavored sugar crystals. One vanilla bean cost almost 5 euros here!

Sierra with her Valentine's heart for a certain special someone.

Sami and Megan celebrating the holiday with some splashes of red!

In the kitchen with Kiley.

Chelsea and Alina with the finished product. Tasty, no?



¿Va a ser mi Valentín?

. . . . . .

For the actual day of St. Valentine we slept in late because we had been discoteca hopping the night before. After getting ready for the day we headed off to Madrid to spend the day at el Parque del Buen Retiro. It felt just like spring! We played some frisbee, ate some lunch, walked through the park, and lounged around on the grass. We were among hundreds of Spaniards enjoying the weekend/holiday/nice weather at the park.

Something else that some us did was rent a row boat to take out on the pond in the park. It was really relaxing.

I was in the boat with Tim and Mark. Got to love these two!

They let me have a go at it.

There was a puppet guy doing a show with to Frank Sinatra music.

Segovia

Segovia. A beautiful spring day, an ancient Roman aqueduct, a gaudy cathedral, a Disney-like castle, gorgeous tapestries, and a Mason-built church. What more can you ask for?

Something that makes this even more amazing was that it was built without cement or mortar.

I love this picture because of all the school boys looking over the edge into the moat of the castle.

This is just one of the tapestries in the Alcazar of Segovia. I wonder how many years this took to make.

Italica

On Saturday before heading back to Alcala, we stopped in Italica just outside of Seville. Here are some pictures of the Roman ruins there.

Seville

It may be impossible to condense Seville into one blog post, but here it goes!

The Seville Cathedral has been one of the most beautiful things I have seen so far here. It is the third largest cathedral in the world. The orange trees lining the streets of Seville are really something else! (Warning: the oranges are super sour. Someone told us that they are shipped to England to make marmelade.)

The courtyard in the Cathedral had a very interesting watering system for the trees.

There is a big mirror on the floor of the cathedral so that you don't hurt your neck or fall backwards looking at the magnificent ceilings.

This is Cristopher Columbus's tomb. (Sorry, this is the best I could do without flash.) I never really knew much about Columbus, except for the little rhyme, until this semester.

I love stained glass windows!

We climbed the Giralda, the tower left from when the cathedral was a mosque, to see out over Seville. Marvillosa!

The rest of the day we just wandered. We went to El Barrio de Santa Cruz, Calle Sierpes (shopping!), and to El Corte Ingles. We went to a great bakery and ended up walking down by the river in the evening. I stumbled across this and fell in love...

If only.

Jenna, Meagan, Sierra, Chelsea, Alina, and I (with awesome bridge in background). I love these girls! When we got back to our hotel we ate dinner and watched "Sabrina."

The next morning, Friday, we crossed the river once again. It was a picture perfect day!

Our first stop was to tour the Alcazar in Seville. I am really loving the intricate moorish style found here in Spain!

Once again, some beautiful gardens!

There were some painters in the gardens while we were there. This was one of my favorites.

that, we visited the Bullfighting Ring and Museum of Seville. The bullfighting doesn't start until March and I'm looking forward to going to one.

Feels like Spain no?

This is the Plaza de España. Without really meaning too, the whole group ended up here for a couple hours during siesta.

"In 1929 Seville hosted the Spanish-American Exhibition. A number of buildings were built for the exhibition in the Maria Luisa Park. On the park's edge was built the current Plaza de Espana, which at the time showcased Spain's industry and technology exhibits."

I guess this place was also where part of the episode of "Star Wars, Attack of the Clones" was filmed.

I will never forget just sitting in the sun on these benches while listening to a man playing the guitar and singing and a woman next to him clapping in a flamenco-style.

That night we went to a flamenco show as I have mentioned before. Here is another photo of the male dancer. It was the cherry on top to our trip to southern Spain!