Lunch with Pica

Everyday we have lunch with Pica. It is honestly one of my favorite parts of the day, because I love trying to talk to her in Spanish and I love learning more about her life.

We usually watch TV while we eat too. We end up waching something kind of like E news at home. It's the news about celebrities. This week she kept on telling us that she knew people on the show. We ended up finally saying- you know a lot of famous people! She said, yes that's because my son is famous. He's a famous horseback rider here in Europe. When we asked her about him, she went and got a file folder full of newspaper articles and magazines all about her son! There were pictures of the entire family, and tons of him on horses! She said she is very proud of him because they didn't have a lot of money so he worked his way up to the level he has achieved. In one of the magazines, they had a list of the "50 Most Guapo (Handsome) Men in Spain" and her son was NUMBER 2!!! We were so amazed!

Today she invited Kelsey's boyfriend over for lunch. He is here in Seville with the group of Engineering majors from Texas Tech. It is really rare for Spaniards to invite other peope into their homes, so we knew it was a special occasion! Since he was here though, we were able to get a picture of all four of us with Pica!

K'Lann, Kelsey, Pica, Megan, and Me

(my Spain family)

Me and Pica

The table set for lunch!

The Bull Fight

So tonight we went to a bull fight! It was a major one here in Seville and there was a sold out crowd! It was also the hottest day in Seville yet- with a high of 99, which is ridiculously hot when there isn't air-conditioning anywhere!

The bull fight was a fun and interesting experience. The head of the Texas Tech center here in Seville had a class about it earlier today so that we could actually understand what would happen when we were there. It's kind of sad how the bulls always die. There were six bulls tonight and three bull fighters.

The Bull Fighting Arena

Megan, Me, and Dr. Delgadillo at the bull fight- it was so packed!

The bull fighter trying to get the bull to follow him.

One of the bull fighters after he did a good job!

When the crowd likes a bull fighter, they all wave something in the air. This was the only time they really liked one, but it was obvious that they were very pleased with him!

One of the horses. They are incredibly padded so that when the bulls go after them, the hopefully won't get hurt! The bulls practically pick up the horses sometimes with their horns! It's crazy!

If the bull fighter can get the bull to follow his cape two times in a row, the audience gets excited and starts saying "Ole!" after every time the bull follows. If he gets the bull to follow 4-5 times in a row he's doing a great job and the crowd is very happy!

Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi is a Catholic holiday that is very elaborately celebrated here in Sevilla. We moved our final exam from Thursday morning to Wednesday evening so that we could go to the parade this morning. We felt very underdressed while we were walking there, everyone we saw on the way was all dressed up! Oops!

The beginning of the parade!

This is a float that was carried on top of some people's heads. It was kind of odd, but we saw people practicing for this all month! They would walk around the streets with big structures on their heads- and we always wondered what it was for. We asked Pica, and she told us they were practicing for a religious holiday. Now we understand!

K'Lann, Maria, Matt, and Me at the parade


We got tired, and went to the Starbucks next door. It was two stories so we sat upstairs and watched part of the parade from there. It was really nice, and comfortable! :)

Corpus Christi at Night

So while K'Lann, Matt, and I were walking around after we went to the cathedral, we stumbled upon this! It was just past midnight, and we saw the beginning of the Corpus Christi celebrations!

There were tons of people out!

We saw a parade type of thing with gorgeous gold things that we believe came out of the treasury of the cathedral.

Every church that we passed had the doors open and an altar in the doorway, very beautifully decorated!

The Cathedral at Night

Tonight we got all dressed up to go out and celebrate the end of our class!

Here are Me, Megan, Kelsey, and K'Lann in the elevator of our apartment complex

K'Lann, Matt, and I decided we would rather go see the cathedral at night and take pictures of it instead of going with everyone else. It was so much fun!

The cathedral all lit up

La Giralda!

Me in front of the cathedral

K'Lann and Me!

Me, Matt, and K'Lann in front of the cathedral

Strike and Pizza!

Today in between our class and final exam, Dr. Delgadillo took us all out to lunch! There is this great little pizza shop just a couple of blocks from the school that is just delicious! Delgadillo took us for our study break and then told us to go study for five hours until the final!

On our way from school to the pizza shop we passed a huge strike that was going on! All of these people were walking down the street blowing whistles and yelling things and carrying signs! There were tons of people! I asked Delgadillo what was going on, and he told us that these people were street cleaners, and they wanted more money!

Yummy Pizza! He made our pizzas fresh though, so they looked even better than this!

Delgadillo treated us to as many pieces of pizza as we wanted, a drink, and a dessert! Yum! Here's the delicious chocolate cake I had!


Delgadillo talking to the owner, I'm pretty sure they became friends!

Some Normal Sights in Sevilla

So everyday we walk thirty minutes to and from school. During this time, we definitely see a lot of interesing stuff!

Here are some of my favorites...

Everyday we would walk over this heart in the ground, and the day after K'Lann and I decided to take a picture of it they started to redo the sidewalk and destroyed it! We're so glad we got our pictures!

Okay, so the majority of people here in Seville walk everywhere. The crosswalk lights have these little green men that either are walking or are red and stopped. But, when you get down to only 3 seconds left before it turns red, the little green guy starts running! It's hilarious!

In the middle of the street, there are just random ruins sitting there, like no big deal.


The flowers here are all gorgeous!

The Alcazar

Today after class K'Lann and I went to the Alcazar. It's a beautiful building with gorgeous gardens. But, going there just a couple of days after we went to the Alhambra was a bad idea. It was basically a miniature, wannabe version of the Alhambra. Haha. I still got some pretty pictures though!

This was just a random window on our way home, and I thought it was gorgeous!

The Great Mosque of Cordoba

The Great Mosque of Cordoba is currently a Roman Catholic Cathedral and a former Mosque. When the Christians took over this area of Spain they built a cathedral in the middle of the Mosque. It's really weird! The styles of these two buildings are SO incredibly different, but they're both in one building!

A very old clock from 1747

Just a few of the 990 columns in the Mosque.

Look at the imperfections in this, since it was all made by hand, and not very well planned out. They just had to add some random stuff on the bottom right, because the two circles didn't fill the space.

Beautiful doors!

The Mosque from the outside.

The Cathedral inside the Mosque

Cordoba

Cordoba is a nice little town. We were only there for part of a day, so we didn't get to see a whole lot of it besides the Mosque.

Here are some pictures from Cordoba...

The olive trees while driving through Spain

The whole business group in Cordoba

K'Lann and Me in front of a Roman bridge

The guy who invented the idea of glasses!