The Monastery

We went to an old monastery that is also a current convent. The nuns in the convent are cloistered, but we saw a few of them as they cleaned the chapel after a mass. It was very interesting!

The chapel was originally going to be a cathedral, but then the queen of Spain changed her mind and wanted the cathedral to be in a more central part of Granada. So, the chapel was not finished, and was given to the Geronomites. The Geronomites eventually let one of their rich women decorate and finish the chapel in memory of her late husband. She told the designer to do whatever he had always wanted to do on a chapel but hadn't ever done. So he was paid to just have fun and do what he loved and wanted to do! It is a very unique and beautifully decorated chapel!

K'Lann and Me in the chapel

We also saw the place in Granada where the caravans of camels would stay. The people would stay in the rooms on the sides, and the camels would stay in the open area here in the middle. Basically, a really old hotel!

Granada

When translated into English, Granada means pommegranate.

Those of you who know my Dad probably know that he has tons of pomegranate trees growing in our front yard. He loves the fruit, so he often cooks with it. So he sent me this letter when he found out I was going to Granada for the weekend.

"So, if you find a pomegranate tree in Granada, break off 10 inch limbs, wrap them in wet paper towels, put them in a plastic bag, and bring them home. Or don't! It'll probably get you difficulty with customs."

So Dad, I didn't do it, I'm sorry! But I did take this picture with a pomegranate tree, just for you! It's the best I could do! :)

The Alhambra at Night

Tonight we all hiked up the mountain to go to a place that was supposed to have a great view of the Alhambra at night. It was a beautiful sight!

The whole group from below.

Housemates in front of the Alhambra! K'Lann, Me, Kelsey, and Megan

The Alhambra once it was lit up and starting to get dark outside.

Me in front of the Alhambra.

The Chapel

We also went to see a chapel in Granada. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed in there, but we learned an interesting story!

Ferdinand and Isabella had a daughter. She was certifiably crazy. When her husband died, she did not know what to do without him, so she (the queen at the time) commanded her servants to put his casket next to her on all of her trips through Spain. He rode beside her in their carriage. And at night, she had her servants put his casket in her room with her so that she would always have her husband with her. Finally, they knew she was truly crazy when she made her servants take his remains out of his casket and put them on her bed one night, saying that she "needed to sleep with her husband".

We saw this casket that she dragged all over the kingdom! We also saw her casket, and Ferdinand and Isabella's caskets! It was a really interesting chapel.

The Granada Cathedral

The Granada Cathedral was a beautiful place. What I am ususally most impressed with in these cathedrals are the fabulous organs! This cathedral did not dissapoint me!

Here are the two organs, the organists would sit facing each other across the pews in the cathedral. I just can't even fathom how incredible the sound of the music must be sitting in those pews in the middle! I wish I could've heard it!

Another interesting thing at this particular cathedral was that this music was available to see. The notes are different, some are triangles and some are literally longer than others. Matt and I tried to figure out how exactly to read this. The staff is still the same! But there is no clef that I recognize. When did music become more standardized?

These were the books for the choir during mass. Here is the stand that they were put on. There were books on all sides of the stand and it was constantly being turned so that the choir members could see most of the music at once, and just remember what they couldn't see!

The Alhambra

Today, we went to Granada and saw the Alhambra. It is a massive, beautiful palace that was built for the Moorish rulers of Granada. The most impressive part of the Alhambra in my opinion was the abundance of beautiful gardens. They were absolutely gorgeous!!

Me and K'Lann

This is the room where Christopher Columbus first presented his plan to Ferdinand and Isabella .

This is the actual Alhambra. It was also incredible!

Granada from the above!

The snow capped Sierra Nevada mountains from the Alhambra.

Walking Through Sevilla

Today Kelsey, Megan, K'Lann, and I walked to El Corte Ingles to buy some snacks for our trip to Granada this weekend. On the way, we passed a honeysuckle bush. It is on our normal path to school, just up the street from our apartment. It smelled fabulous, and they taught me that you can taste it! We had lots of fun with this!

Me, K'Lann, and Megan

Also on the way to El Corte Ingles, we got sidetracked by a fun little shop on the way. We tried on these crazy expensive and fancy hats- and just couldn't resist taking a picture!

K'Lann, Me, Kelsey, and Megan

We had a fun little walk!

University of Seville

This morning, instead of having class we went and visited the University of Seville business school. We were taken on a very nice tour of the school by one of the Information Systems teachers there. (We are currently taking an Information Systems class.) Then, we went in were given a presentation by the Associate Dean of the business school. It was pretty interesting!

The University of Seville is spread out all over the entire city of Seville, and the business school is a building by itself. So, it has its own library and cafeteria. That would be nice!

The inside of the building.

Holt, Austin, our tour guide, Jenny, and Orion in one of the computer labs

The picnic area/courtyard

A Night Out

Today, we went out and walked around some at night. We ended up near the cathedral. I just wanted to include some pictures!

K'Lann and Me

Kelsey and Me

Megan and Me

Matt and Me

Maria and Me

Britney and Me

A Pretty Building

Ybarra

Today instead of having class, we went on a company visit to a company called Ybarra. Ybarra is a company right outside the city of Sevilla that makes olive oil, mayonnaise, and salsas. The company has been there since the 1800s and is family owned.

We got to tour the factory and see how everything is done! It was really cool, and interesting. Dr. Delgadillo translated for us. The man who took us around the factory is the head of the department of quailty control. He was very nice and let us go to lots of parts of the factory that they apparently don't normally let tour groups go.

First we saw how the olive oil is put into the bottles. You'll see empty bottles here on the left, and on the right, the bottles are full. There is a big circular machine there that squirts the olive oil into the bottles. These bottles are the smallest bottles of olive oil that they sell in Spain. They even have 5 liter bottles of it! They send the smaller bottles to places like America, where we don't use it as often. Also, he explained to us that we Americans like a different kind of olive oil than the Spaniards do. We like it with a lower acidity than they do...the extra virgin olive oil.

He also took us around and showed us where they make the bottles for the olive oil. They make the bottles on site now because they realized that it would save them tons of money to start making them as opposed to buying them. They make the bottles by adding heated air to the little test tube looking thing on the right, and it becomes a bottle like the one on the left! It was really neat to see how that worked, it was so fast!

We also got to see them adding cocktail sauce to the bottles for it. Ybarra has a one year contract with Heinz right now to make and package this sauce for them. They want to extend the contract.

He also took us to the factory warehouse where they store all of the food that they make before sending it out to the stores.

It was a really fun and interesting way to spend the morning! I loved it!

Later in the day we all went to a lecture on World Religion from a Tech professor. It was different than we were expecting, but it was okay. Then K'Lann and I went to go to the palace, but it was closed already. I will go there someday! We went shopping instead and had a great time! :)