An Eventful Weekend

By the beach in Cadiz

My weekend began on Thursday night, technically, since we do not have classes on Friday here, so I guess if you wanted to get technical, that particular night wasn't very eventful as the title of this post describes. I decided to stay in that night (although Thursday nights are usually the best and most fun nights to go out here!) so that I would be well-rested for my field trip with my history and mythology class the next day. The day began at 7:15am when I had to wake up in order to get ready and walk to the university for the bus (I unfortunately didn't sleep too well, but better at least than it would have been if I had gone out, I think). Our first destination was Cadiz, which made it my third time in the beautiful city; although it is the only city other than Sevilla that I have visited more than once, I have never done the same thing while there (the first time carnaval, the second was a beach day and this time all we did was walk through the city a little bit and visit the museum). I loved Cadiz and wish that we could have stayed there longer...it is definitely a great place to visit!

Can you spot Morocco's mountains on the horizon?!

After Cadiz, we headed to Bolonia, which is one of the most southern points in Spain. It lies on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean and has beautiful beaches. It is also VERY close to Africa; so close, as in you can see Morocco over the horizon, like when you are on the Long Island Sound and can see NYC--so close, that people's phones changed their network and time to Morocco settings when we were sitting on the beach!!! Bolonia was beautiful and definitely did not appear to be as touristy as other destinations in Spain; the place that we went was literally Roman ruins that were inches away from the beach... the Romans sure knew how to pick the perfect location! The water was so clear and clean and REALLY blue from far away); it was a bit cold, therefore I didn't go in past my ankles and when the wind picked up and blew the sand it was painful. Other than these minor details, Bolonia definitely had one of the most beautiful beaches that I have ever seen.

 "El Foro de Baelo"-- used for Roman court trials mostly.

On the beautiful beach in Bolonia!

My lovely sunburn. See the "stripe" from my purse?

When we got back to Sevilla, it was almost dinner time. I realized that I had gotten sun burnt; the worst thing about it was that I got a sun burn on my neck where my purse strap was--it looks ridiculous, as if my skin is striped! On the walk home, I quickly stopped into a supermarket to pick up some moisturizing lotion (my sunburn is almost gone now, and turning into a tan, only 2 days later) and rushed home. Carmen and I ate dinner right away and I showered and got ready to go out, met up with some friends, and after a couple hours 3 out of 5 of us decided we were way too tired to stay out any longer... it was maybe 2am... not even close to late here. I was in bed by 3 and although I had planned on doing a lot of things Saturday, I ended up "locking" myself in my room in order to try and do my Arab paper/presentation that is due Monday... as much as I worked on it, it wasn't very successful.

Saturday night, I went out to see another concert with Carmen Maria. We met up with her cousin and her cousin's boyfriend and Maria (Carmen's friend that went to the other concert with us last time) came too. The concert was really good, we saw a more modern rock band, called "Gritando en Silencio"... it was funny because the singer had a very deep voice, but after the show, when he signed Ara's (Carmen's cousin) CD and my ticket, I saw that he was really short. I had a great time last night with everyone, the music was great, and I got to practice some more Spanish. I decided to be good and come home after the concert; we were home by 1:15, so that I could discipline myself into getting my work done today. 

Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning and began to work on my paper, my computer decided to freeze repeatedly--I restarted it countless times and even shut it down to 'rest' a few times! I hate this computer. I wish I never listened to Quinnipiac and got the stupid Dell laptops they "required"! Other than that, I haven't done too much today... I am hoping that I can finish off this paper quickly so that I can go for a run before dinner again today. Yesterday I noticed how much better I felt after going for a nice jog and working out and relaxing a little bit after my shower. I will have to try to do that some more, because relaxing is not something I do very well.

Anyways, this was a decent break from my paper, but I better get back to it for an hour or so... perhaps I will get to writing my blog on Extremadura later! I will try my best! :)

A couple random last minute comments:

• Ara's boyfriend had a conversation with me about how smoking marijuana here isn't a big deal... and we also had a long conversation about curbs, yes curbs. I couldn't understand what he and Carmen were asking me (they were trying to describe it to me in Spanish and just wanted the translation in English)... It was kind of funny.
• I just found out that the time of my return flight was changed... and now I have about 8 hours to wait in Madrid's airport if I can't change it as I asked! 
• I just realized that the stupid QU Registrar's office didn't register my classes as they assured they would do for me on Friday since I was on my fieldtrip.
• I have only a little over a month until I'm home! I can't wait, even though I know I will miss some things about being over here.
• If you are curious about the band I saw, they really were good! I want to download their songs eventually. This is their website: http://www.gritandoensilencio.net/ and you can click on the tab "Media" to watch a couple videos they have... or simply type their band name into youtube :) Let me know if you like them!