Southern Spain & Super Bowl!

Around 7:30am February 5th, our class left for Andalucía, which is a region in southern Spain. It took about 6 hours to get to the city we were staying, Cordoba. However, it was so worth the trip. It was like going from Indiana to Florida! In Segovia, we had 40 degree weather and in Cordoba, we had 70 degree weather! It was "increible"! For the first time, I felt fine leaving my winter coat on the bus.
We arrived in Cordoba around 1:30 and got settled in our hotel. Sam and I were roommates and so excited to have a room and bathroom to ourselves. We were really excited that we didn't have to worry about how long we took in the bathroom. However, we did decide that making sure we take short showers and turn off all the lights whenever we leave a room is great practice for living off campus next semester.
As soon as we were settled in, we toured the town with Edu and Marian. They are some of my favorite professors so it was really fun to have them giving the tour. They know a lot of history and have fun explaining things to us. Sometimes Marian would want to add something to what Edu said, but she was practicing not interrupting him-hah. Therefore, if I happened to be next to her, I got my own history lessons.

I'll just mention a few places we visted: a mosque, synagogues, cathedrals upon cathedrals, castles, and beautiful gardens. I might've mentioned this before, but I have found that I like nature a lot more than buildings. (Hence why I don't name and describe all the buildings we saw.) I loved walking through the Arabian gardens, which were outside a castle. The gardens looked like they take a lot of work to keep them looking nice. The trees were tied with wire to make them grow like columns. I'd only seen gardens like this in movies, like "Aladdin". The gardens also reminded me of a book I've read, "A Voice in the Wind", which is based on bible times in Rome. I love looking at the scenery and imagining what it must've been like hundreds of years ago. I learned that southern Spain is known for their olives. We drove by thousands of olive groves. I've never seen anything like an olive tree before. They are short trees with dark wood and silvery leaves. To give you an idea of what they look like, I would say it's like seeing a bunch of apple orchards lining the hills for miles. I know Paul mentions going to Spain in Acts. I wonder if he saw all the olive trees!?
We got back to Segovia on Sunday around 7:30pm. It was a long weekend, with great weather and a lot of walking. It was interesting to me how different Segovia and Cordoba are, since Spain isn't a very big country. The weather, people, and language were all very different. For example, instead of saying "gracias" they say "gracia". I guess that's not extremely different, but it's one of the only things I could pick up from them. ha
Sam, Becca, Teddi, and I will be heading back down to southern Spain this coming weekend. Next Monday and Tuesday is Carnaval, which is a holiday somewhat like Halloween-except school is cancelled! We will only have school Wednesday and Thursday next week. Then Feb. 20th-> Jenna will be visiting Segovia with her mom! I can't wait to see her!!


LOS COLTS/LOS SAINTS
I watched a live feed showing the colts make it to the super bowl. I was so excited and knew I wanted to watch the game here along with a bunch of other students from Indy. Our site director called a bar close to our school and asked them to stay open for us. So a bunch of dedicated students made their way at 12am on a Monday morning to watch the super bowl. We all brought snacks and sang the national anthem with all our might! It was cool to have a group of people from all over the US to watch the game together. It was also fun to think of all the people watching it back home. However, I did miss watching it with close friends and family. The girls and I decided we were each other families for the night. The annoucers were speaking Spanish (Big surprise!), and there were no commericals. It was like we were at the game seeing all the time outs and everthing. We were all kinda disappointed about that. By half time, I was exhausted and few of us decided to call it a night. We waited till the half time show, which was very disappointing, and then we left with the colts ahead. I thought for sure we had the saints, but I guess I was so tired, I forgot what they can do with a whole half left. It was fun to watch it for a while, but I am glad I went on to bed instead of watching the colts lose. Oh well-It was just fun to be able to watch Indy’s team play. I look forward to watching the super bowl in the US next year. I’ll probably think- Oh wow time flies- a year ago I was in Spain! :)