Semana Santa

Hello!!! I hope everyone had a fantastic Easter Holiday!!! I had a wonderful Easter week with my Mom and Rich! I left last Thursday for Seville and met up with them at the hotel. Easter week in Seville is the biggest Easter celebration in Spain. They were expecting over a million people in the city for the festivities. During Semana Santa (Holy week) each church has 2 of these pasos (kind of a float) on display and one day or night during Holy Week they send them out through the streets to the Cathedral and back to the church, kind of like a parade. The pasos (floats) weigh more than a ton and are carried by men, there are two groups of processions each day one in the afternoon and another group that leaves around midnight. Each church sends out people in these robes and pointy hoods (very similar to a KKK outfit, kinda creepy, but you get used to it really quickly). Some processions may have as many as 3,000 people involved. Some have a brass band playing funeral processions or music composed for the procession, while others are silent.
The first procession we saw left it's church around 9 pm and was a silent procession. We were standing outside the church surrounded by hundreds of people watching the paso leave and the entire crowd fall abruptly silent, it was phenomenal, I can't even describe the impact it has.
Seville was great, the city was packed with tourists from all over. The Spanards dressed in their Sunday best for the week's festivities, including some women in traditional dress wearing their tall "combs" and black lace veils. We had some great food in Seville and great wine, including this tiny wine bar that served orange and strawberry wine! We also found some good shopping in Seville. We bought hand painted fans and I got some great Spanish "re-claimed" tile from the 1800s.
We took a few day trips while we were there. First we went to Cordoba by train. I loved it there! Cordoba, like Seville and many other cities in the south, has a very strong Moorish influence in architecture left over from Moorish occupation. In Cordoba there is a Mosque with a Christian Cathedral built right in the middle of it. Inside you are surrounded with these columns and arches of red and white. We had a great lunch in Cordoba where we ordered local dishes like fried eggplant with honey and stewed ox tail, both were surprisingly good! After lunch we found this little tea shop with great tea, infusions and belly-dancing, even Rich got involved in the show, and yes I have video of him dancing!!!
The next day it was off to Ronda, a little white village, with traditional white washed walls and Spanish tile roofs. Its situated high on a cliff, for protection. The city was beautiful and the drive through the mountains was amazing!
Our last day trip was to Cadiz, a city in the south almost completely surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. It was stunning! The weather was beautiful, to cold to swim but not freezing or sweltering. The city is all white, with the exception of the yellow dome of the Cathedral. We visited an archaeological site where you are able to see structural remains from all the cultures who have inhabited the city since 1100 BC, from the Phoenicians to the Christians. We had a few tapas ocean-side at the Parador hotel where I had the chance to enjoy my fino (sherry) next to the water. Sherry comes from the southern region of Spain, and specifically from a city (Jerez) right outside of Cadiz.
After our week in Andalucia we all returned to Soria where we spent about a day and a half. We visited the open air market to see all the produce and meat products, walked along the river, toured a church and had a great lunch. Mom had Migas, traditional Sorian "croutons" with bacon, I had eggs flamenco, and Rich had the traditional garlic soup from the region and chicken.
The holiday was great and I had a wonderful time! I took plenty of pictures (once I had a charged battery!) and they are posted here. Check them out! Hope all is well!
Wish you were here! :)

*My next trip will be Madrid this Friday for an excursion with the biology students to the Body Exhibit. After that I am leaving for Italy April 17th for a few days in Cinque Terre and a day in Rome! I'll keep you all updated!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from Soria!

Hello all! Happy St. Patrick's Day! I wish that I could be drinking a cold green beer with everyone back home! I guess its not a huge day here like back home but there are a few Irish pubs in the city that will be celebrating.
This past weekend I was in Salamanca again. My Mom and Rich had just arrived in Spain and went straight to Salamanca so I met them once I arrived. My friend Kevin from Ohio, who I met studying in Salamanca had also arrived this week for a visit and I got to spend some time with him and some other friends in Salamanca. It was a great weekend. Mom Rich and I met for dinner and had a great dinner the first night. Afterwards I met up with Kevin and Raul and some other friends for a night out. It was quite a typical night out in Salamanca and we returned home around 6:30 am. The next day I met Mom and Rich in the plaza and we headed off for churros and chocolate then followed up with some sight seeing. We visited the Cathedral, which is preparing for Semana Santa (holy week) and had the floats for the processions on display. We saw the University facade, where Rich was the first to find the frog! We had pinchos in the Plaza Mayor for lunch accompanied by some beer and a bottle of wine. After lunch we went to San Esteban, a beautiful church and Gothic-Renaissance cloister in Salamanca and then we dropped in on the cloistered nuns, who sell cookies through a little window that they make in the cloister to raise money. Once we had seen the city Mom and Rich caught the train back to Madrid, where they will be for the next few days. I stayed with Kevin and Raul for another day and then came back to Soria. I have to work Tuesday and Wednesday and then I am off to Andalucia, southern Spain, to meet up with Mom and Rich again. I will update my Picasa account with the pictures I took this weekend in Salamanca. When I return from sipping Sherry in Andalucia I will be sure to post those pictures as well! Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter holiday! Wish you were here!

Holy Toledo!

Hi everyone! This past weekend I went to Madrid to see Malerie and her Mom. I met them in their hotel and afterwards we went out to see Madrid. We started at El Rastro, a big flea market that takes place every Sunday in Madrid. We shopped and looked, afterwards we stopped for lunch in a bar close to the market. Then we walked to the palace (which was closed Sunday for election day), the Plaza Mayor, Sol and saw the sights. The next day we got up and went to the train station and caught the next train to Toledo. This was my first time on any train in Spain, we took the AVE which is a high speed train, it was a very smooth ride. Once in Toledo we hiked up to the city from the bus station. I really liked the city. The charming narrow mid-evil streets, the castle and the Cathedral give it such great character. We only had about 5 hours in the city, I would love to go back sometime. Over all the weekend was great! It was really good to see Mal and her Mom and to spend time with them! This weekend its off to Salamanca again, I promise I will take photos this time and post them! I also this week will be posting some shots from around Soria so check back for that!

Snow!

Hello! Its freezing here! Before I came all I heard was Soria is the coldest city in Spain. Since I got here the weather has been great, on average in the 50s. This week has been so cold! It snowed earlier this week. Not much stuck to the ground, but it snowed so hard. The day before the snow came it was 65 degrees and the next day it was upper twenties and snowing all day. Now its just really cold. Anyways school has been going well. I am going on the excursion trip to Madrid to see the bodies exhibit with the students and a few other teachers. I'm really looking forward to that!
This weekend Malerie, a friend from high school, and her mother are coming to Madrid. I am going to see them on Sunday and Monday then head back to Soria and they will be off to Barcelona, Paris and Rome. Next weekend I am going back to Salamanca. My Mom and Step Dad will be arriving and a friend who studied in Salamanca with me last year will also be arriving. The rest of this month is going to be pretty busy. But I will take some photos and update whenever I can! I hope everyone is doing well back home, I miss you all!