Oops

So, I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning to get in a taxi to get on a bus to get on a plane to get on another bus to get to London. Right now, it's 9:38. And I know I promised a Morocco post, but I'm just too tired and my legs hurt (yeah, I'm sitting down, but the pressure of my legs on my feet really hurts right now) so I'm going to be posting about Morocco as soon as I have free time after Semana Santa. Or during Semana Santa, if I can get Claire to let me use the computers at the ICLC.

In the meantime, here's a picture of my EU class. Our prof wanted a group picture with us, so without further ado...

Pre- Semana Santa Update

I know, I know. I'll post about Morocco too, but I wanted to write this while I remember. Also, if you haven't seen my last post about Gibraltar, read it. I'm posting them back to back, so you might not have seen it. Anyways, today is Wednesday, and in 2 days I'm starting my spring break! I'm going to London this year, no more galavanting across four countries and 8(?) cities like last year. However, I would like to mention that I'M GOING TO THE HARRY POTTER STUDIO TOUR and I'm SO EXCITED. I'm thinking I can get to the theme park in FL next year, but I don't know when I'll have this chance again, so I'm taking it while I can. I will also probably be seeing Wicked and The Lion Kind, since I haven't seen the first one yet and the latter, 7 years ago. I'm also going to see some familiar faces from camp, as well as the people of the ICLC. So don't be surprised when I disappear again for a week.

I promise to post about Morocco soon!

Gibraltar

Before I get to Morocco, I'm going to do a separate post about Gibraltar. Sorry I'm so behind, but I've been busy with midterms and life and a lack of motivation to blog.

A few Fridays ago, I got up early and got on the bus with about 40 other IES students, and we took the 3 hour trip to Gibraltar. Gibraltar is a British ... not colony, but sort of like that... in southern Spain

It's a mere 14 miles from Morocco, and you can see some of the mountains in Morocco, and according to legend, one of those mountains and the Rock of Gibraltar (Which is not, in fact, a rock. It's a mountain) are the pillars of Hercules, or something, which Hercules pushed apart to open the path to the end of the world. 

Anyway.

Despite its vicinity to Andalusia, Gibraltar is ridiculously like England. Their currency is the Gibraltar Pound (like the Scottish Pound, it is legal tender in England but is regarded as sketchy there), and everything is English. The signs are in English, the people speak English (although they also speak Andalusian Spanish), the phone booths are English, they even have Zebra (rhymes with Debra) crossings. I loved it, because it reminded me of last spring and whatnot. 

After crossing the border, we hopped on mini buses to take tours of the peninsula, including the Rock. We went to Europa Point, which I was told is the southernmost point of Europe, but I don't believe, because I've seen maps and Tarifa is definitely farther south.Our guide/driver, Robert, drove us through town, and through some tunnels in the Rock that were excavated quickly at the beginning of WWII. After Europa Point, we went up the Rock, from which there were some amazing views of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, as well as the Spanish Coast, and, of course, Morocco. 

The main attractions on the Rock that we went to were St. Michael's cave, which is the biggest cave in the Rock, and the apes. The cave is big enough to hold concerts in (although all the noise in such a confined and possible fragile space seems like a bad idea to me) and has some beautiful formations. And its gift shop had Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel, so that helped. The apes were sort of terrifying but also wonderful. Some of them were adorable, moms grooming babies and babies grooming other babies, and others were sort of menacing. I think one hissed at us once, and they would just pop up on the wall right next to you out of nowhere. They were used to people, thought, and mostly really chill, so I actually got close enough to one to take a picture with it. A few brave monkeys even jumped on people's heads or into the vans. Thank God neither my head nor my van were involved in that, because I would have freaked out. 

The bus dropped us off near the main plaza... square?... where we had some free time. There was an optional hike up the Rock, but I was tired and really just wanted to find some Strongbow, so I opted out. I walked around the town a bit, bought cute postcards (seriously, one is adorable), bought some mini caramel eggs (oh how I've missed those), and had some Strongbow. We regrouped for dinner at a pub called The Clipper, where I got more Strongbow and some fish and chips. It was delicious.

The whole experience in Gibraltar was just beautiful, and made me miss London. Luckily I'll be there again in about 48 hours, for spring break. 

and here are some pictures, from other people's albums. The link to my Gibraltar/Morocco album is in the next post. 

delcious

these things are just everywhere

monkeys and me

view of the Rock from La Linea, the Spanish border town

me with Kassie and her very first Strongbow

Morocco Orientation

Did I say I wouldn't be posting for a while? Oops, oh well. My phone needs to charge for just a little longer, so I figured I would post (again) before bed. Hokay, so. Today was my orientation for my morocco trip, which is Friday. For those of you who don't know, Morocco is at the North West (top left) corner of Africa, just south of Spain:

see? I told you, it's right there on the top left

Now that we've got our geography lesson over with, here's basically what's going down. Today I got a bunch of facts, rules, suggestions, and words crammed into my poor little midterm-meltdown brain, which led me to take copious notes the entire time. In fact, I have 2 pages, plus the 2 sheets of paper (one with more notes) that Javier, the IES director gave us. 

The first day of the trip is in Gibraltar, the 'only place in Spain where people's first language is Spanglish.' Sounds like I'll fit in just fine. I can also apparently use the 29 quid I have leftover from last spring, or I can get the cool Gibraltar Pound, which is sort of like the Scottish pound: legal tender, only made in one place, and deemed sketchy by most Brits. I think I'll probably hit up an ATM, just so I can at least get a fiver to take home as a souvenir. There, we also get to climb the Rock of Gibraltar, which apparently has a lot of monkeys? 

Once in Morocco, we get to stay with host families (Dad if you're reading this, don't worry. They have never once had anything bad happen on one of these trips), go to a Hammam (Arab bath), get henna, eat our weight in couscous and oh, yeah, RIDE CAMELS. No big deal. I'm totally not excited to do that last one. 

During orientation, Javier clued us in on a few rules that we have to follow during our 4 days in Morocco

1. Don't take pictures of people, unless you get their permission first. They are offended by it, except kids. They like photos

2. Don't make physical contact with boys, unless you're shaking hands upon meeting or if they are pre-pubescent. 

3. Don't wear shoes on rugs

4. Eat, touch people, and give alms with you RIGHT hand. In Morocco, they don't (usually) have toilet paper; they have a 'dirty hand'

5. Giving a beggar your spare change is good and normal. 

6. You're going to eat from a communal dish, but only take what's in front of you. No stealing your neighbor's couscous. 

7. Don't talk about homosexuality

8. Don't question the king's authority, decisions, or lineage

9. Be very careful when talking about international politics, Western Sahara, or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

10. Dress like you live in Utah: no shoulders, chests, upper legs, or tight clothes

11. Leggings are NOT pants (oh, how I love this one)

12. Don't drink

13. Don't buy the weed in Chenchaouen. The dealer is probably working with the cops, and you'll spend the next 20 years of your life in a Moroccan prison. (yes, Javier actually said that out loud to us)

So that's pretty much it. I'm fairly certain this will actually be my last post until next Wednesday-ish. Next time you hear from me, I'll have been to Africa!

Malaga, Morocco, and Months

So last Friday, the watercolor class had a trip to Malaga, to visit the Picasso museum. Due to my unquestionable lack of artistic ability, I'm not in the class, but they had extra seats on the bus (for free!) so of course I went, with some friends. And although art is cool and everything, the beach is a lot cooler, so that's where I ended up. (also, a side note: is my English getting worse? Everything I'm writing sounds so dumb) We planned to be on teh beach all day, tanning and maybe swimming, but the weather had other ideas.

It had been warm and glorious for about an hour, when ominous, dark, clouds came rolling in from the mountains. We took this as our cue to take a coffee break, and we ended up just chilling near the beach for the rest of the day. It was still fun, though.

Not much has happened other than that; we had a game night on Thursday, at a bar with a bunch of board games, but that's really it. On Friday I'm going to Morocco (can cross another continent off my to-go list) with IES, which I'm super excited for. I have orientation for that tonight.

PS. I probably won't be updating a lot in the next month. This weekend/monday/tuesday is Morocco, then Christina is coming for the weekend, then a week later is Semana Santa (aka Spring Break: London Edition), and then a week later I'm going to Italy, too see Christina again. Oh, and some other cool cultural and historical stuff, like the Sistine Chapel. No big deal.

Cordoba, Fuentevaqueros, and Valderrubio

This weekend has been full of trips. On Friday, all of IES went to Cordoba and a nearby archaeological site, and this morning (Saturday) I went on a visit with my literature class, to the birthplace of Federico Garcia Lorca, as well as a town he lived in for four years. 

The site we visited yesterday is what's left of an old city from the period of the Omeya Caliphate. As a show of power, the first Caliph in Cordoba founded a new city, whose name I can't remember to save my own life. The city is about 8 kilometers from Cordoba, and the majority of wait remains pertained to the Alcazar, or palace, the gardens, and the mosque. It was pretty cool, as most of the walls remain, and you could more or less see the layout of the palace and the rooms within. Those moors certainly knew how to make the best use of space, because although it seemed small to me, it was actually an opulent royal palace.

Since this was just a day trip (no fancy hotels and long showers for us!), all we squeezed in to the Cordoba stop was a visit to the mosque-cathedral (I'll explain that in a moment), a visit to the synagogue, and a visit to Casa del Sefarad (which will also be explained). First stop was the cathedral-mosque. To clear things up right off the bat, it doesn't function as both a cathedral and a mosque. The next paragraph is going to be a super impressive history of the mosque, so if you're... one of the people who doesn't care about those things, cough cough... you can skip over to the one after.

The original structure was started in 785, by Abd al-Ramn I, who was the emir in Cordoba at the time (the Caliphate didn't begin until 929). All he built was the patio and the prayer room (that could be the totally wrong name, I'm doing my best to translate because my art history class is in spanish), and his son Hisan added the alminar, or tower, in 788. In 833 Abd al-Ramn II extended the naves in the prayer room towards the river. Nearly a century later, in 929, Abd al-Ramn III, amplified the patio, tore down and reconstructed the alminar, and reinforced the facade, which was beginning to lean into the patio. Al Hakam II extended the naves all the way to the river in 962, and finally Almanzor laterally extended both the prayer room and the patio in 988. And unless you really want to know more, that's all I'm writing about the history. If you want a really detailed description, I can do one with all the interior details and stuff.

Anyways, it was really really interesting to see the transition from mosque to cathedral, right in the middle of the building. It was amazing. I mean, here's a baroque cathedral smack dab in the middle of an 8th century mosque. Crazy. I'll post the link, once again.

This morning I got up early again for my literature class trip to Federico Garcia Lorca's birthplace. It was sort of cool, but mostly I just felt like I was intruding, even though everyone who ever lived in the house has died, because it was set up exactly as it was while the family lived there, with the original furnishings, textiles, and everything. They even had Lorca's younger sister, who was the longest surviving member of the family who had lived in the house, help with the restoration in order to make it perfect. The majority of the interesting-ness of both houses we saw was the connections to Lorca's works. For example, he used to listen to a neighbor yell at her husband and kids by standing over the well, which was connected to all the other wells on the block. This woman inspired a character in one of his plays, La Casa de Bernarda Alba.

So, basically, that's it. If you don't have facebook, check out my album from the weekend. :)