Our final ISA Excursion to Sevilla and Cordoba

This past friday afternoon we left Granada for Sevilla, Spain. After a four hour bus ride we arrived in Sevilla. Sevilla is a much larger city than Granada (Granada has about 250,000 people and Sevilla has about 750,000). We were taken to Hotel Becquer, named after a famous Spanish author, sculptor, and painter, and then went on a walking tour of the Triana neighborhood. Triana is located on the far side of the Guadilquivir river. Sevilla had a very romantic vibe to it, and reminded me a lot of Paris and the Seine river. The river, the lights, bridges and buildings seemed very Parisian. Secilla is the capital of Andalusia... it was my favorite Spanish city outside of Granada. I absolutely loved it!

The next day we toured the city. We started at the Alcazar, the palace in Sevilla modeled after the Alhambra. The alhambra was deserted for a short while and wasn't taken care of, but the Alcazar had the colors that the Alhambra should have and was unique for that reason. It is one of the oldest palaces in Europe still in use. It was very reminiscent of the Alhambra, but had been added on to by various rulers, so it incorporated many other styles as well. Interestingly enough the Alcazar has many monuments and elements in honor of Christopher Columbus and his discoveries. Christopher Columbus set sail for the Americas from the city of Sevilla. One of the paintings in the palace shows the very first depiction of the native americans by Europeans after their discovery. They weren't painted savagely or anything but in a pretty realistic form. Overall, the Alcazar was beautiful and encompassed all of those things I loved about the Alhambra.... minus the fantastic gardens.

After visiting the Alcazar we visited the Cathedral in Sevilla. I was excited to see the Cathedral after learning about it in my art history class. When the Catholics conquered Spainm they destroyed all of the mosques to build cathedrals of their own. But rather than destroy the call tower of the mosque, they added to it and made it a combination of both styles and uses by adding a bell tower. The Sevilla Cathedral is one of the three largest cathedrals in all of Europe... it was impressive for this reason. I am not a fan of large, gaudy Cathedrals, but I could appreciate its size and grandeur. There was a large, silver altar made from the silver of the Americas, after its discovery, and it had a very "mayan" flare to it.

Following Columbus's death, he was "buried" in Sevilla, then Valladolid, then Santiago, then Habana and back to Sevilla. In the process of his post-life travels, the actual remains of his body were unknown. Both Sevilla and Santiago claimed to have the body of Columbus until 2000 when researchers did a DNA sample of the body in Sevilla and confirmed the remains to be that of Columbus. So... there remains a tomb and monument to Christopher Columbus inside the cathedral. When Columbus died he was still under the impression that he had found a new route to India, rather than a new continent. For this reason, America is named after Americo Vespuce who was the first to declare America as a new continent previously unknown to Europe.

After touring the cathedral, we went up in to the Giralda tower (the bell tower). We climbed 36 ramps to make it to the top of the tower. The Moorish ruler originally had it built with ramps rather than stairs, so that he could ride his horse to the top of the tower. Once at the top we were situated underneath the bells and looking out over the city of Sevilla. It was a fantastic view!

After lunch, my friends Ellen, Nicole, Melissa, Cate and I went on a carriage ride throughout the city. It was a blast! Sandwiched in to the carriage, we saw the res of Sevilla on our carriage ride. We went along the river and saw El Torre del Oro, the Bull Ring, the university, Plaza Espana, the large public park and arrived back at the cathedral. We had entirely too much fun and laughed hysterically all day long.

Sevilla has a lot of history in Flamenco and Torreros. A large portion of Flamenco originated in Sevilla and the bull ring in unique to Sevilla as well. This particular ring has eight sides, rather than being a circular ring, and has unique yellow, sand in the arena.

After visiting Sevilla for a day and a half, we went to COrdoba to visit the Mosque of Cordoba (La Mezquita). La Mezquita en Cordoba is the only one of 300 mosques still standing in Spain. The Catholics demolished the other mosques in order to further weaken their moral and establish their own religious customs.

There are three main sections to any mosque ; the tower, the patio, and main church. The Mezquita in Cordoba is a mixture between the old mosque and catholic cathedral. The call tower of the mosque was altered, like the one in Sevilla, to become the bell tower of the cathedral. The patio was left the same and the "Salon de Oraciones," or main room, was altered drastically. The mosque itself was built to look like a forest of candy-cane striped columns and the effect is beautiful. HOwever, the catholics decided to build a cathedral right, smack-dab in the middle . You can no longer see through the forest of columns and the entire flow is broken.

While it is a shame that such a beautiful building was tampered with, it probably only today because of the cathedral within it. Had the cathedral not been built, it is likely that it would have been demolished like all of the others. When the architect contacted the King, King Ferdinand III, the king had never been to Cordoba and seen the Mezquita, and okayed the construction of the cathedral. It is said, that later when the King passes through Cordoba on his honeymoon he was horrified. He said, "Had I known what they were damaging to build this cathedral, I never would have allowed it."

The Mezquita is truly astonishing, unlike anything I have ever seen before. The columns are astounding and provide a very serene ambiance. It is exactly the kind of place I would like to go to for worship. The pulpit is decorated, but no where as distracting and overwhelming as the altars of a Catholic church. The simple, intricacy is stunning. All mosques are supposed to face the direction of Mecca, but.. the architects that built the mosque were from Sevilla and oriented the mosque in the same direction, thinking the direction was the same as Sevilla. So, the mosque is not actually facing Mecca as it should be, go figure. Never the less it has captivated the hearts of many for centuries.

All of the columns throughout the building are different from one another. They didn't have the time to build them all, so they sole them from various locations. Although this is an odd way of going about building a house of worship, it provides for an interesting result. What a way to end my adventures with ISA! It was a fantastic weeked :)

“El mejor intercambio de nuestra vida”

One of our amazing directors Marissa has put together an annual magazine called MagazaISA. She collects articles and poems and pictures from all of the students who wish to participate and puts them together into one large magazine for all of us to take home. It's a very cool idea and I'm excited that she's doing it. Each article has to be written in Spanish, but can be about anything we've experienced while on our travels. This way, each of us that participates has a cool memento to take home with us :) I decided to write a poem about our experience in the Moroccan desert with the burburs. I'm sharing my poem with you, but I'm not going to translate it, because it won't sound very pretty in English ;) so here it is: “El mejor intercambio de nuestra vida”

Yo Hago las maletas y sueño sobre viajes,
Excursiones con arena y estrellas,
Las dunas consume el mundo en mi mente,
Y los camellos pasea en el paisaje;
Pero está oscuro y me pone nervioso.

Me empaño la oscuridad del vacío,
Los camellos y las estrellas desaparece.
Una figura aparece con una mano extendida,
No puedo ver pero la tomo fielmente,
El ambiente del desierto me da confianza.

Caminamos hacia el amanecer,
Mano en mano, armonía.
Nos sentimos lo caluroso del sol,
Nuestras almas juntan,
Personas y tierra se unen en tranquilidad.

El sol resplandeciente sale,
Todo el desierto transforma en oro.
Los camellos vuelven a aparecer,
Unidos con bereberes y los visitantes,
Las sonrisas ilumina todo y me emociona.

Se celebran todas las diferencias,
Idiomas, culturas, comidas… vidas.
Aunque poco tiempo ha pasado,
Agradecemos y aprendemos mucho.
Se llama “la escuela internacional,”
Lo llamamos el intercambio más deseable en la vida.

Visiting the village in the desert

We left the large dunes on camelback and arrived in a small desert village. It felt eerie and abandoned as we walked through the town, until we realized the eyes peering back at us through the windows. The men were all at work and the women were left to stay in doors throughout the day, so needless to say we saw very few people in the village. A few women stepped out doors to watch us pass by, but most stayed indoors tending to do their jobs for the day. There were children EVERYWHERE! Everywhere we went we had children at our feet asking for water or something to eat. It was very hard to tell them that we didn't have anything for them, knowing full well we had backpacks full of supplies.

On our walk towards the school we passed two brothers playing in the sand. I made sure no one was around and gave each of the boys a small plastic soccer ball. The expressions on their faces vanished and you could tell they were trying so hard not to lose it... the moment I turned around to walk towards the school they erupted in to screams and ran home waving the balls in the air. I can only imagine how many balls they have had to play with in their lifetime... very few.

We were given strict instructions by our directors not to hand out anything to the children if we were surrounded by a large group, otherwise it was pretty clear that we would be bombarded by children. We walked through the town and split up in to separate groups. The Granada group was the only group going to deliver supplies to the local school kids, which made me feel good to know that I was part of conscientious few. The school building was an adobe room without a door and a few broken desks inside.

Our director Eugenio began handing us each a bag of pencils, pens or markers to hand out to the class. Immediately the kids jumped out of their seats and tried to attack you for something. One of the young burbur men had come in with us and he immediately yelled at everyone to sit back in their seats. He proceeded to tell them that if they couldn't handle the excitement and act politely that we would take our things somewhere else. It was amazing to see the kids respond so quickly to him, he wasn't the teacher or anyone remotely connected to them, but they knew to follow his orders. The kids squirmed in their seats and tried to maintain some composure. We were in the classroom for about twenty minutes and handed out every single thing we had.

When we left the school and headed back towards our camp I felt a small tug on the back of my shirt. It was the two boys that I had given the balls to. They had come back to play with us :) We didn't have any plans with our program that afternoon, so our director told us it would be okay to stay behind and play with them for a few minutes, so we did. We played with Hamid and his little brother as they chased the soccer balls around the desert. It was a very rewarding and uplifting experience. These two boys didn't want to hoard their treasures to themselves, they wanted to share in it with us. Our director handed out two small pieces of candy to a little girl, and instead of eating them both she unwrapped one of the candies and promptly stuffed it in to our directors mouth. They don't have a lot, but they aren't poor. They just have a better idea of what is necessary and what is excessive. They don't seem to miss out on anything or feel as though they're missing out, but simply have what they need to get by. It was a great reminder that the things we have in life can bring joy, but by themselves are of no importance.

Saharan Sunrise and Camel Rides

We were woken up at 5:00 am in our tents to watch the sunrise in the desert. Can you believe it... some people decided to sleep instead! But for those of us smart enough to get up, it was absolutely beautiful. The Burburs took us out on a trek to the big dunes, which was quite a work out for 5am. But they ensured us that the higher we went up the dunes the better it would be and they were certainly right. Before the sun rose the sand was a light grey, but the moment the sun began to peed out from behind the dunes everything turned a bright golden color. It was one of the most peaceful, serene moments of my life. There was not a building, person, or animal as far as the eye could see. We were in complete solidarity and it was the best feeling. We sat and watched the sun rise for a half an hour or so and then headed back to camp. We had to get ready for our big day. We were going to ride camels and visit a small desert village.

After getting dressed and eating our breakfast of hard boiled eggs, bread and yogurt, we bought turbans from the burburs to protect our heads from the sun... and just because it's cool :) I bought a bright yellow turban and had it wrapped around my head by one of the burbur boys. It was absolutely amazing how cool the turbans kept you that day! We would have died without them.

The camels began to arrive in small trains and the photo taking began. I was a little apprehensive that the camels wouldn't be very nice, but I was completely wrong they were all very nice. Nice and smelly! They smelled awful. It took quite a while for the 80 camels or so to show up, but as soon as they were all there we were assigned to certain camel trains. Ellen and I shared a camel of course and it was a hoot. It wasn't that strange for me having ridden a horse before, but most people had never even done that, so you can imagine. The getting on and off was the most interesting part. When a camels back legs are up and its kneeling on its front you very nearly fall off each time. The funny thing is, the camels are very picky and don't like more than one person getting on. So one person has to get on and hold on tight while it stands up. Then they have to sit the camel down again and you nearly fall off again and then wait for the second person to get on and start the whole process all over again. It was very entertaining.

Once we were all on our camels, it was a lot like riding a horse, in terms of how it felt anyway... we weren't steering or telling them where to go, I have no idea how that would have gone. The camels were connected in small trains, about three or four camels to a train, and were lead in the front by a man on foot. We walked for about an hour giggling and taking pictures of everyone as they passed. It was then time to give the camels a rest, so we all climbed a VERY high dune to look at the view. Our director Noelia brought her snow board so that she could board down the dunes. Many people boarded down the dune and other road it like a sled. It was a lot of fun to watch, but it was entirely too hot for me to think about boarding down and walking all the way back up! A couple of people actually got sick for the heat that day after over exerting themselves on the dune... so I'm glad I didn't follow suit.

The adventures begin in the Saharan Desert!

My favorite part of the trip was by far our stay in the Saharan Desert. The morning after our show we took an eight our bus ride towards the desert. Here all 150 of us piled in to thirty plus jeeps that would take us to our tents in the desert. We reached the jeeps around sunset and would not be driving through the desert with any light left... this made it very interesting.

The jeeps didn't seem to follow any particular path through the desert. Everyone took off in different directions at full speed. They were clearly trying to avoid the dust from the jeeps ahead by taking different routes, but we had absolutely no idea how they knew where they were going. It was pitch black outside and not a single landmark in site to orient yourself from. We drove for about an hour in the desert, bobbing up and down and swerving to miss other jeeps, but we arrived safely at our destination.

We stepped out of the jeeps and were in complete awe at the scene around us. The burbur people were there to greet us and show us to our tents. We slept in large tents made out of blankets and had a large dining tent for all 150 of us to eat in during our next two days. We were completely overwhelmed. We ran in and found a tent to put our things in and wasted no time in exploring the rest of the campsite. It was only seven clock of so, so we had a few hours to relax before dinner. The burburs served us tea and we settled in to our new home.

We felt like little kids that had been cooped up for days. Everyone was running across the dunes and somersaulting down them. It was a full moon, so it appeared as though there was a light turned on somewhere in the desert illuminating everything. We tackled each other in the sand and sat under the stars, struggling with the idea that we were sitting in the Saharan Desert of all places. We were slightly bummed that the moon was so bright, because it ruined our chances with star gazing, but nonetheless we were captivated.

Moroccan Show in Fes

After our fun filled day in the Medina, our program took us to a Moroccan show. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Throughout our travels in Morocco each Spanish city had its own tour bus... and it didn't take long for the group to realize our bus had the most fun ;) Our bus quickly learned the title of Granada Buscoteca. Our Granada directors were an absolute kick. They knew going in to the trip that the bus rides were going to be a part of the experience and wanted to make sure we had as much fun as possible at all times. On our way to the show our directors turned off the lights on the bus and turned flashing green and blue lights while we all sand our hearts out to songs from "Grease" "Beyonce," anything they could get their hands on. It was a blast :)

Our entire program, 150 students, took up the entire venue. We were all seated at round tables and served the traditional mint tea. We weren't sure what to expect for the entertainment and we could not have prepared ourselves for it. We had become so accustomed to seeing women fully covered throughout the city that we were taken aback by the fairly naked belly dancers at the show, it didn't seem to match up at all. Their were four or five belly dancers that danced throughout the audience for a majority of the show. However in between the dancers there were other various acts as well. There was a group of four men that played various instruments and danced around the audience. One of the men played a pair of rusty old scissors! It was the strangest thing, scissors of all things. The other played different types of drums and dance and sang. Another man danced with a tray of tea on top of his head. He was the contortionist part of the act. But my favorite part involved two of our friends from our program. Our friends Randall and Cate were selected from the audience and taken back stage for fifteen minutes or so. When they emerged they were dressed in full Moroccan attire and acted out a Moroccan wedding ceremony. Cate was hoisted up in the air upon a seat and paraded around the room as Moroccan women sang and danced around her. It was very interesting. Cate's dress and headdress looked to weigh about 15 pounds! She could hardly move underneath it.

Overall I wasn't overly impressed by the talent in the show, but the cultural experience was an experience all on its own. It was a very interactive show and they kept the audience entertained. We had a great time :)

Fes: The Medina

Our first full day in Morocco was spent in Fes, the third largest city in Morocco. Our tour guide was fantastic! We visited the Medina in Fez, a giant labyrinth of over 9,400 streets, all without street names and addresses. We visited five major portions of the Medina; the tannery, the pharmacy, the ceramics, the rug district, and the market. We stepped in to the narrow, winding streets of the food market and were hit with the stench of fresh meat, fish, cheese, vegetables... you name it. There was no easing yourself in to the experience, Morocco came at you full force. Shouts of "Balak" rang throughout the streets, as men attempted to lead their donkeys through the crowd with their merchandise for the day. Camel heads hung on the stalls, acting as food labels. Full sharks were laid out upon the counter tops as men sold fish to women buying food for the day... but not without being noticed by the cats in the alley, as they waited patiently for something to drop their way. There was so much to take in at every moment that your senses were simply overwhelmed. It was clear that none of us were going to buy any food that day, so we moved on to our next stop, the pharmacy.

However, before I go on, I should explain one thing. There are no laws or health care systems within the Medina. People are left to govern themselves and have managed their businesses this way for thousands of years; however in order to ensure a good life, you have to have a lot of children. Children are considered life insurance here. The more children you have, the more people you have to work for you, and care for you when you're older, and continue the family business when you pass away. So, the pharmacy that we went to was run by a father and son and had been in the family for over 6 generations. It was a natural medicine location that sold everything from cooking spices like safran and cinnamon, to makeup and oils, to herbs for the sick. The father, salesman, gave us a demonstration of a handful of their products that he would gladly sell to us at the end of the presentation, aka sales bit. It was very interesting to see the natural eye liners and lip sticks and perfumes... and they sure made a profit off of our group ;)

With the pleasant scent of natural perfumes in our nose we headed for the tannery. As we stepped through the door we were kindly handed a stem of mint before our noses were assaulted by the odor. We were standing in a leather goods shop overlooking the entire tannery itself. There were huge tubs that the hides soaked in for 7 days at a time, sometimes with color dies, before being made in to handbags or boots. Men stood in the tubs mixing the hides and checking them for consistency. It definitely made you think twice about buying leather in your lifetime. There is a sad hiccup in our system that allows us to be completely ignorant about the things we buy, that you could never do here.

After leaving the pharmacy we went to a very nice lunch... half of which we could not eat. We were advised not to eat anything uncooked and washed in water during our stay because of the parasites in the water, so we looked longingly at the delicious salads and fresh fruit. We did eat a fantastic mound of cous cous with chicken and peppers and cooked vegetables... it was wonderful!

After lunch we went and visited the rug and tapestry portion of the Medina. Moroccans are known specifically for their handmade rugs and they are absolutely beautiful. There are different kinds of rugs, but we were taught mostly about Burbur rugs. The Burbur people are people of the desert. There are no books written about the culture of their people, so the rugs act as the only "written" history of their culture. They have many different rugs, wedding rugs, family rugs, traveling "caravan" rugs and many more. We were taught the significance of the patterns, symbolizing the dunes of the desert etc., and the importance of the colors, yellows representing the sand, blue for the sky and freedom, and so on. It was fascinating! My favorite part of the Medina :)

We ventured on in to the ceramics portion of they city and were blown away by the intricacy of their work. They made everything from mugs, to table tops, to clocks. The workmanship was beautiful. A large majority of the pieces we saw were mosaics. The men didn't measure the pieces to fit properly with one another they simply measured by eye and were right on each and every time. There were mosaics of old ships, intricate geometric patters, flowers, anything you can imagine. It definitely made you appreciate the workmanship that went in to those pieces.

It was time for us to leave the Medina, but before we could leave our tour guide took us to a lookout point that overlooked the entire Medina. We knew we had been winding our way through thousands of streets, but looking at the sheer size of the area from above was truly astonishing. We were told that the Moroccans often come to Fes to visit the Medina to remind themselves of what life used to be like throughout all of Morocco and what their parents used to live like before them... we had truly been transported back in time.

Morocco Part I: Departing for Africa

This past week I visited Morocco with my program and had the time of my life! :) Not many would have enjoyed a trip with more than 40 hours of transportation by bus in six days, but we were in good company and could not have asked for anything better. We left Granada at 3:00 am on Friday morning and drove down to Algeciras, Spain. Here we hopped on a ferry and crossed the Mediterranean to Ceuta, Spain in Northern Africa. We could not believe we were on the African continent and probably would have been content with that if we had not gone further :) You can tell by my ecstatic picture on the ferry ;)

Ceuta, Spain looked pretty much like the rest of Southern Spain, much to our dismay, but this soon changed as we headed for the Moroccan border. Our customs experience crossing in to the Moroccan border was interesting to say the least. Our directors had collected all of our passports to be examined and stamped with approval while we waited on the bus. However while we waited, a young police officer stepped on to the bus and promptly pulled out a black gun and pointed it at the forehead of our director... naturally startling him, and everyone else. Little did we know this black gun was used only to check out temperatures! SO after he explained himself, he walked down the bus and point the gun at everyone's face to check out temperature before passing through the border. It was a bit nerve racking. So after an hour and a half in customs we had made it to Morocco! :)

The minute we turned the first bend in the road we knew we were in an entirely different world. Donkeys and mules pulled carts, filled with vegetables and children, along the road and donkeys worked the fields alongside the road as well. It was as if we had stepped back in time. You'll have to hang with me throughout the next few entries... I haven't the slightest idea how I am going to tell you everything!