An update for the bicycle rental.

I chose one where the pedals weren't broken and it took about 5-6 minutes to get to the next bike station from Ponce de Leon plaza to the part next to to the high school near where I live.

The bikes are awesome.

The past weekend was the Cordoba trip with the school. The trip was only a day trip on Friday but I stayed to show Elizabeth, Hannah, and Donelle around my home city here in Spain. They said at the end of the trip that Cordoba deserved more than just a day to visit and there was yet much unseen after we left on Saturday. We toured the city zoo, the riviera, two malls (Zoco and Eroski [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eroski]), and las tendillas(http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_de_las_Tendillas). We also say La Corredera (http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plaza_de_la_Corredera) which is very similar if not exactly the same as Plaza Mayor in Madrid.

Las Tendillas features many stores big and small along with some iconic landmarks of Cordoba. El Gran Capitan can be seen at the top of a fountain riding a horse. There are some interesting stories as to why his head is white marble while the statue is black bronze. http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monumento_al_Gran_Capit%C3%A1n#Leyendas_en_torno_al_Monumento

Also there is a clock tower that plays an interesting tune every hour. Here is a link to youtube for it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fexMbX4EsRE

In class we learned some fun things about el Camino de Santiago de Compostela or The Walk of Saint James of the Star Lit Field. There is a lot about it that I would have to write and none of it would do it justice since I have not done it. If you are interested there are plenty of blogs and journals from people who have done the pilgrimage. I find the topic interesting and if you do to I urge you do read more about it.

Today is the first day of tests and my first test was rather simple. The Spanish Cinema class is interesting and our first movie was Planta 4a. This is a story about the "Pelones" or the bald kids who are being treated for cancer and how they live their life in the hospital while going through the teenage years.

Bikes are very useful in Seville and there are bike paths everywhere. I am able to park a bike inside my apartment patio so I will consider buying a used bike that I would be able to leave in Cordoba after my stay. In the mean time I did receive my Sevici card that lets me use a city bike that can be found in one of the many stations around the city. You must be careful to get a good one though. Make sure the tires aren't flat and nothing wobbles. On my first ride the bike's left pedal had issues and would not turn properly. This resulted in a loss of acceleration and speed. Maneuverability was also diminished because of this and I was forced to go on the sidewalks instead of on the streets for the parts with no bike paths.

Well it's been rather uneventful for the past week. The garbage strike did end and they're still in the process of cleaning up the garbage. It actually smells worse because the new trash is gone and the older trash is now exposed. But it's better because the mountains on the way to school are no reduced to overfull dumpsters. I don't know the details behind the strike but it seems to be going all over Andalucia. I've heard complaints that it's not fair that the garbage workers can fight for less cuts and more pay and better hours while those who have studied and now work for the government currently make less than them. I think it would be better if the government would quit being corrupt as it really seems it is. (22 million Euros taken by the PP government according to the documents).

Last Thursday was the bike ride. We were to be 15 people but only 3 showed up. Oh well, it was more fun with less people to keep track of. The bikes were nice little folding ones and they had about 6 gears so they were fun to ride. We traveled to the Olympic stadium and back and both ways we took the bridge built by Santiago Calatrava. Yesterday was the ice skating day, I fell a few time but it was good fun (not as cool as bikes though).

Last week I also went to see "La Vida es Sueño" at the theater by the University of Seville humanities building. I was also shown where to find the Geography department there.

My internship is on stand by since the company I was originally going to be with decided to not go through with the whole thing. Now I'm waiting on some scheduling for two possible classes to take at the University of Seville. Still, I don't have any details on what I would actually be doing there aside from being in a laboratory.

In recent news the Pope quit his job and that hasn't happened in almost 600 years it would seem. I wonder what he would use as his name now since he had to chose a new one for his Papacy.

Last weekend I traveled to Cordoba to see my family. They fed me well and I feel as though I could not eat for a week. The train was only 13/05E and would have been 20E for a round trip. I do intend to go to Madrid for a bit though the details for that are time dependent and currently out of temporal range. There are talks among my group of friends to travel to Barcelona and Andorra and maybe some other country like Germany but that is still under construction. I think it's best to wait to plan that after the Lisbon trip in two weeks. This weekend is the Cordoba trip and the plan is to stay the night at a hotel (at least the others will) while I go home for the night. We would take an afternoon train back home on Saturday. The following Friday after a week of tests is the Ronda trip which is followed by Lisbon, Portugal.

I really do enjoy it here and perhaps one day I'd live here. I'm not sure since I can't possibly know what will occur in my life.

The cleaning strike is still on because the workers want more pay, better hours, and they want the worker cuts undone. There has been no agreement and it is expected to continue for a while. The work being done though is to remove garbage from the streets and from around schools to avoid accidents and keep some level of hygiene going. Another interesting bit of work is the cutting of the orange trees. This is done so that the trees will flower and to keep the trees from expanding into the streets. The oranges are too bitter to be eaten straight up so they will be sent to England to make English orange marmalade.

 Interlaced arcs

 Alcazar with it's double pillars and arcos lobulados. the pool is called Albercas and they serve to reflect the building.

 Arabic writing as decoration, Muslims cannot use images so they use calligraphy

 The triple arch is a variation of the double arch called Ajimez

 This ceiling is not the original Alcazar ceiling and was placed by the catholic kings I think. The rest of the palace is not of this style.

 This text is sandwiched between two pictures of the courtyard area of Alcazar.

 Tower of Gold. It is called that for a few reasons, one it was covered in gold azulejos (plasterwork). It was built in 1220 to help stop the christian reconquest of Spain. The tower also housed gold brought over from the Americas and guarded the river. The tower of gold was connected by fortifications to many other towers including the nearby and lesser known (also smaller) tower of silver.

 Oranges for shipping!

 An orange tree and also it seems like a girl and her guide dog got into the picture. It's a mediocre shot of two things so I guess it's ok.

 Police on strike!

The jeep has a guy in a mask that I've heard it is of the mayor.  The police are on strike as well.

The first weekend trip of the semester was this weekend. The bus ride was three hours and was our first time driving in the country side. I noticed that much of the landscape I was used to from past travels is very much modernized. Many of the run down ruins of old houses and ranches that used to be seen are now covered up by newer buildings or removed. There are many projects being built like apartments and bridges though a few have been temporarily abandoned. We were very excited to see mountains (at least I was since all we have in Wisconsin is Rib Mountain and it's not technically a mountain. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rib_Mountain ). It was great having a geologist to talk to (Luke) about the mountains. Grenada itself is a beautiful city, our first stop was the hotel where we then returned to the bus and rode to Alhambra. My camera decided to stop reading the card so there are none of Alhambra this time around (I have been there before). Something that was not there before was the lion fountains, I had others take pictures of them for me since I was unable to. The throne room was an amazing place where Isabella gave Columbus boats to reach Asia by going across the Atlantic. Also in Grenada is "La Capilla Real" where Fernando and Isabella are buried. No pictures were allowed so I only have a few blurry ones. After a hike on Saturday to to see the gypsy neighborhood and the caves where they lived Donelle, Liz, Hannah and I went to explore the river and ended up going on the other side of the valley where the Alhambra was seated. After climbing up a road we wandered along a path where other hikers were visible. on our way we noticed paths leading up the mountains but they were of rough terrain and steep. So naturally I had to explore them. These paths led to actual gypsy caves (none were occupied when we were there) and there we saw some furniture scattered about in these crevices on the side. The view from higher up was amazing.
As for the social part of this trip I definitely got to know Hannah, Donelle, Gretchen, and Liz better since we all spent most of the visit in each other's company. The fish in a tank joke was a success in my eyes even though Liz in her jolly mood didn't laugh (thanks Hannah for finding my joke funny). As for the experience of the others I'm sure a thing or two was learned about drinking and impressions. Let's hope that kind of thing doesn't happen to us again, especially in Morocco.

(for those interested; here is the wikepedia page of Alhambra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alhambra)

 We played many games of chess until Donelle finally crushed me.

 This guy was driving backwards and downhill while carrying heavy objects. It made your heart skip a beat until you realized he actually was in control.

 We went down this little path and found rosemary. We had our "leaf lady" deterrent. Most of the pictures I took were with Donelle's camera.

 This car is from Madrid I think. I figured I'd post a license plate so people could see what they looked like out of the States. If I should take this down message me personally (I'm not notified of the comments on the blog, or at least not that I'm aware of)

 One of the gypsy neighborhood "caves"

 Gypsy wedding.

 Donelle and Grady enjoying the view.

 The view.

 I found a map!

 Liz and Alhambra.

 This is taken from one of the many paths on the mountain side that I scampered up. In front is Hannah followed by Donelle and Liz in the back.

 Tessa and Britini at the top of the gypsy neighborhood. Behind them is a church where we saw the gypsy couple go into. the couple had been walking around the neighborhood.

 This here is the wall opposite the Alhambra and where the gypsy neighborhood was.

 One gypsy cave.

 This was a little public transportation device. It was fully electric I think.

 Every frozen yogurt place has a funny name. This one was especially funny to me for reasons related to an inside joke among my Platteville friends.

 The city buses are Mercedes-Benz, Granada also has 10 new buses that are of double length it would seem.

 On our wanderings we encountered this fine fellow who we keep trying to prove wrong (in hopes of easier interstellar colonization).

 This is the front end of a typical city bus in Spain. The ones in Seville and Granada are both red while Cordoba has green buses.

 Hannah!

Luke!