Overall

Over all, this trip was amazing and SUCH an experience.
I honestly wish I had photogrphic memory, or that I could remember everything so I could tell you word for word how it felt.
It was an extremely dramatic and overwhelming time for me but other than that it was completely breath taking.
Plus, it was sooooo much easier to breathe over there! The trip was full of great people, I may have lost a few friends but I gained more and hopefully I will get to experience something like this again.
I learned to respect culture on a whole other level. Con ese sentido, vinieron disfrute mucho y conocimiento.

Suprisingly, language has always been very (and try not to laugh for my lack of a better word) foreign to me. I never truly felt (do not mistaken this for ignorance or lack of acknowledgment) that another country could have another language. It was my first time out of the country, and really I think I had grwn a bit too comfortable with English. Being thrown into this culture whirlwind de clase, la moda, el fútbol, el idioma, la comida, la religión, la amistad, las costumbres, las normas, el sol y la belleza realmente me inspiró.

My favorite picture is posted as my last, its kind of ridiculous, but who cares.

So many Cathedrals!

Despues de Morocco nos terminamos yendo a una catedral que solía ser una mezquita(Mosque in Spanish, yes?).
Guardaron parte de la mezquita en la Catedral, y la unión de dos religiones separadas para disfrutar de la belleza de la historia me hizo muy feliz.

When I saw that they had kept part of it even though this was a completely different religion, it meant so much to me. Egh, I sound lame.
Anyway, we went to the Cathedral of Cordoba and it was really amazing, they had a glass case and inside was the tomb of this guy (I'm sorry I forgot his name!) dating back to 300 B.C.!!!!!!!!!
Dang!
Is that completely awe inspiring or what?!
How wonderful is it, that we can have the tools and technology to be able to find something as amazing as that AND keep it in such good shape.
Hmmm, If I had to choose I would want to be buried in the ground though, supposedly you can't really rest if you aren't buried.
I hope that guy is feeling okay :P What an honor though!

Anyways, I need to post a second video, therefore allow me to present to you a recording of me awkwardly trying to order some ice tea. I apologize for the lack of a picture, and clearly entertainment.

More Cathedrals!

Did I mention that I've met Christopher Columbus?
No?
Well...
I DID.
And it was great. We had coffee and he told me about his findings.
Just kidding, though I did get to see where his bones were!
Apparently they've done some DNA tests and the bones belong to him. Freakin amazing right?
I wonder how it must feel to be able to discover something so grand.
Anyway, the place was gorgeous and over done times a billion, i guess its all for the tourists but it felt really weird to be standing in front of a man of such history (even though he wasn't breathing...).

Not really a day, but probably the best part of spain.

So a few people signed up for the super expensive flamenco, and I hadn't. However, I found out that in the next town over we were going to have the opportunity to see another one for cheaper. Well, I grabbed that chance.
It was the most beautiful, fun thing I have ever been to.
They had so much confidence and fun doing it that it made me wish I knew how to.
The first part was okay but the second was amazing. Many of the dancers actually got down with some volunteers in the audience.
I'm actually happy I get to blog about this and post all these pics, it makes me realize that I had such a freaking good time, and that this is MY own experience. Not someone elses, but my own that I even get bragging rights to.
El flamenco era increíble, y después nos fuimos a caminar. Compré joyas de un pequeño joyero, y vi las estrellas en el cielo.

It was in Granada, a place that Anthony Bourdain had traveled to. The place we went to see the flamenco was in a cave and covered in framed pictures.

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In the spirit of festivity I'm going to post a small recording. During the trip the group had a theme song, at the time UEFA was going so everywhere we looked there was soccer soccer soccer, so of course our theme song would be none other than Waka Waka by Shakira (performed at the World Cup). This is a recording of us practicing so we wouldn't mess up on the bus. With of course a few awkward pictures from Spain.

Day 8: Salam O alaikum (:

So, If you didn't know, my arabic is way better than my spanish!
Lol.
Today was the day we went to *drum roll*
MOROCCO :D
Wooh!
Best Day.
No really, I bought saffron and these henna lipsticks. I also bought this gorgeous necklace to frame, and a lovely little mat (was 100 euros! but bargained it down to 50!!).
Anywho, the best thing about that day was the bargaining. I was bargaining all over the place, and not even for my own stuff! I got to see cats, and chickens, and camels. Though be careful when taking pictures so there are no police in them.
Another great thing was the ferry ride, I went outside and it reminded me a lot of going from Rhode Island to Block Island. Block Island is amazing (so tiny!).
Mientras estabamos en el autobus nos pasado por todas estas personas que decoran, recorte, y la plantacion de flores para la llegada del Rey.
How cool is that? :D

Fuimos a muchas tiendas, una jewlery vendido y pequeñas baratijas.

Day 7: La Playa

So we went to the beach the next day (maybe it was a few days after?).  Anyway, the first thing we see are tons and tons of people, but BARELY anyone in the water!
I was like "Whhhhatttttt?!".
The beach was soooooo gorgeous (and the hotel was pretty awesome too). It was like a 5 minute walk from the hotel and along the walk their were people selling all these jackets. Some were leather and others were letterman jackets. How random right?
Like I was saying, NO ONE was in the water, but being as awesome as we were, the group decided to venture into it.
It. Was. Freezing.
So you go and the first 15 feet are pretty clear but the further you went it was more shallow, how odd.
Then after you hit that weird part there was a more deep area where this one old man was just standing and looking down into the water. I thought that was really peculiar, until I looked down. Voila, it was like Jellyfish city. Seriously, there were so many jellyfish that it had nothing on that scene in Finding Nemo.
Next thing ya know Kelsey is howling, "OW MY FOOT", and then I try to calmly (yeah right) explain that we were in jellyfish infested water.
I learned that Mrs.S has been stung before and that apparently peeing on it does not help. After a few jokes about who would have to pee on Kelsey's foot (very mature I know, I know) we made our way out of the water. Then I proceeded to make a kick booty sand castle, it had a moat and everything. I was trying to make one that would somewhat resemble the one in that old book, The Castle In the Attic (great read). Unfortunately it was wrecked after a few minutes.
The Hotel had THE BEST peaches ever! So basically it was all I had eaten for a few days. And salad with some red wine vinegar (sosososososooooooo good). Honestly, if America had food like that we wouldn't need fast food.
Unfortunately, I haven't been able to keep down a peach since we got back. But it was well worth it.

Day 6: The red fortress

ALHAMBRA HERE I COME.
The one in Granada, not Chicago.
You want to see gorgeousness AND walk over 24 acres of land?!
I can point you in the right direction!(:
This place is really old.
Like REALLY old.
It was a city apparently and had the most amazing gardens ever!
To be honest it reminded me of this trail I used to go walking on  when I was younger and live in CT.
It was gorgeous.
And totally worth the walk.
Here are some pics

 So as we were touring the old city, we got to learn about some of it's history:

The Alhambra was named because of its reddish walls (in Arabic, («qa'lat al-Hamra'» means Red Castle). But Arabic? In Spain? Porque?

Well the Southern part of Spain was over ruled by the Moors (basically some Muslims), and the King had built this Castle city where people lived within the fortress.