Sevilla!

I finally arrived in Sevilla at about 7PM this evening! I haven't posted in awhile so I will recap this past week:

Wednesday-Wednesday morning we had a guided tour of El Museo de Prado. The tour was limited to the works of El Greco, Diego Velazquez, and Francisco de Goya. My favorite painting was Las Meninas by Velazquez, one of his most important works, for el Rey Felipe IV. We only spent about two hours at the museum but I could have wondered around all day. I'm planning on visiting again when I am back in Madrid. After El Prado, we walked across the city to el Palacio Real, the home of the Spanish royal family until 1931. For lunch a few girls and I ate at a Cruzcampo, a Spanish restaurant chain, and I tried paella, a traditional Spanish dish consisting of rice, meat, vegetables, and occasionally seafood. I order "paella de pollo," chicken paella, and it was delicious!

Thursday-Our group checked out of our hotel in Madrid and headed for El Valle de los Caídos y El Escorial in the mountains just outside of Madrid. The temperature at El Valle de los Caídos was about ten degrees cooler than in Madrid and felt really nice. None of us knew what El Valle de los Caídos (The Valley of the Fallen) was, and we were in for a surprise. It is a giant monument of a cross, 150 meters tall, built by los republicanos for Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War. The monument also happens to be the burial site of the infamous Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Franco had wanted to be entombed in Monasterio del Escorial, the summer royal palace and the resting place of all of the Spanish monarchs since Felipe II in the sixteenth century, but the Catholic Church would not allow it because he was not from a royal bloodline. Instead, he ordered the construction of a giant monument in the mountains about 10 km from El Escorial so that he could be higher than the former kings and queens of Spain, signifying that he was more important. The monument and the Basilica de Santa Cruz at the base of the cross were constructed by los republicanos, the losers of the Spanish Civil War. The monument is quite controversial because for many Spaniards it glorifies Franco’s rule, which is why I am assuming we were never taught about it in Spanish class. The monument also serves as a tomb for the more than 40,000 soldiers who died during the Spanish Civil War, hence the name Valle de los Caídos. After, we toured El Escorial, the former summer home of the Spanish royalty. The actual palace is only a small part of the building which consists of a boarding school, a monastery, and the second most important religious library outside of the Vatican. We then departed for Toledo, which is about an hour south of Madrid.

Friday-We had a guided tour of Toledo that included stopping at a fifteenth century church constructed during the rein of Isabel and Ferdinand-the Catholic Kings, a twelfth century synagogue, and a mosque. We also saw El Greco’s famous painting, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, which was spectacular.

Saturday-We left Toledo around 11AM for Sevilla. In Spain there are laws regulating how long a bus driver can operate a bus without stopping. For every three hours on the road, the driver needs to take an hour break. So somehow, our five hour trip took eight hours and we arrived in Sevilla around 7PM. It was really awkward because when our bus pulled into a plaza, all of our host families were waiting for us. Kelsey and I met our mom and her 32 year-old daughter, Paz, and after packing our luggage into Paz’s car and climbing into our mom’s car, we finally went to our new home. Our house is very nice; it’s actually part of a floor of an apartment building, as are most homes in Spain. We each have our own room and bathroom and a pool! We also have two older brothers who we will meet tomorrow, and two birds. At about 10PM, we ate dinner. Dinner consisted of Spanish tortillas (similar to an egg and potato omelet but much more appetizing), san moreno (similar to tomato soup), pollo relleno (kind of like a chicken sausage-chicken mixed with other meats), and of course pan (bread)! For dessert, we had fresh fruit. They showed us where all of the food was in the house and my mom already has a stock of soy milk and yogurt for me! We all talked quite a bit at dinner (with some difficulty) and neither my mom nor Paz speaks English, which is great because it will really force me to practice Spanish.

More from Sevilla later . . .

Also, I finally posted my pictures, so take a look!