viernes, 29 de abril de 2011

And The Backpacking Begins

So for the next few weeks, I'm going to backpack Asia and Europe. Initially, I wanted to go to 3 or 4 countries in this time period, but I just ended up deciding to do two countries... and do them right. So, I decided to do Israel and Italy. Venga!

I'll be doing the whole trip with Robbie, my travel buddy since the beginning of the year. Of what we are going to do, we don't have it planned, but we have some ideas.
The plans go like so... it'll be interesting to see how they change:

Saturday: 12.5 hour train ride from Sevilla to Barcelona to catch the 12:00 am flight to Tel Aviv, Israel

Israel: 5.1.2011 - 5.8.2011
Sunday -Tuesday: Going to be doing a 3 day visit to the Baha'i Holly Shrines in Haifa, Akka, and the Mansion of Bahji
Wednesday: Make our way down for the Dead Sea and the Masada
Thursday- Saturday: Spend time in Jerusalem.
Sunday... We leave at night so still undecided. Maybe we'll hang around Tel Aviv.

Italy: 5.8.2011 - 5.16.2011
Rome for a few days
Rent a car and drive around up to Florence
Do the Cinque Terre for a couple days
Then make our way to Milan, see my old bud, check out the cool lakes they supposedly have... and that's about it.

Flight back to Sevilla on the 16th. Enjoy half a day there. Take a bullet train that night to Madrid... On the 17th, I head back home.

For those of you that are wandering... A nice fat Steak will be my first meal back home.

Liria Spain National Baha'i Youth Conference


Liria 4.21.2011 – 4.24. 2011
So as some of y’all might know, I’m a Baha’i. Though a relatively smaller religion, there are Baha’is in every corner of the world. For the last part of my Semana Santa, I went to Liria, which is a town outside of Valencia for a gathering of all the Baha’i Youth from Spain. There were people from Islas Canarias, Pallorca, Pais Vasco, Barcelona… everywhere. It was really fun comparing accents (of which I still understand Sevillans the least) and simply speaking in Spanish for 3 days in a row non- stop.

In this gathering, we studied many present day writings and we talked about what youth can do in this world to make a difference… it was one of those things that I feel really helps when putting things into perspective. It makes you analyze what you have, what you’re doing, and what you should do.

But to say the least, it was a lot of fun. There was a lot of music, singing, skits etc… It was also cool how their Baha’i Center had living accommodations. They basically had hostal- like rooms for people to sleep in.

I met a lot of great people. I hope to see them one day in the future.





Morocco

First off, I want to say this was the coolest trip so far. I hadn't ever seen or done anything like Morocco. To add on, I never knew how different the landscape of Africa could be. I was surprised to see ]the Sahara Desert, Mountains, and Oasis, fields full of grass, and crystal blue beaches all within a country in Africa. The words I say and the pictures I took don't give justice to the scenery and the lifetsyle of Morocco.

Friday 4.16.21011
Left Sevilla at 6 am for Morocco. We took a fairy from very south Spain to arrive in Morocco. Once we got here, we drove, and drove, and drove. I felt like I was in a drum corps bus again. I was actually surprised to see how much of Africa was green and Hilly… definitely not what I had in mind, We finally arrived in Fez that night in a nice 4 **** hotel. We then ate dinner, which was absolutely delicious. I hadn’t eaten that much in months… my fat-boy tummy was satisfied.
We then went out to explore a lot. This was the first time I have been to an Arabian country. It was really cool to see all the words written in Arabic because about 85% of the letters are similar to Farsi. I couldn’t read much because in Farsi and Arabic, they don’t write their vowels, but nevertheless… it was just cool.
Later that night I dipped into the pool. I hadn’t been in a pool in nearly a year so that was refreshing. I had an early night… for an early morning.



Saturday 4.17.2011
We left for the Medina at 9:00 am. The Medina is a huge market with 9,000 unnamed streets. ie.. if you get lost… good luck. No, you’ll just t have to pay a Moroccan kid to navigate you around.  If you are there at night though, I hope you make it out safe. As soon as the sun sets down, the shops close and the places is deserted. Not really the safest place to be. The weird thing is that the people that work there claim to know the Medina like the back of their hands. They know how to navigate in and out of every street because they have lived and grown up there all their life. Also, a lot of these people can speak 4 languages… Arabic, French, Spanish, and English. One guy we met knew 7.


In the Medinas we visited a leather factory which was insane. The picture below shows the working environment. It’s messed up to because the workers will do manual labor and get all sorts of physical problems and diseases, but they’ll just do it to get a job and they’re satisfied. They also make the products for the leather shops right next door to sell. The venders pocket a lot of money. It’s a messed up system but it really makes you appreciate what you have.

The Medinas is a place a to bargain… so Robby and I used our bargaining experience from the Grand Bizarre in Istanbul. We bargained an awesome leather briefcase from 700 dirham to 250 dirham each!!! So essentially… I bought an authentic, hand- made, real leather, briefcase for 25 euros… success!

Here, we also visited a Pharmacy shop which basically used herbs as their medicine... too cool. We visited a rug store (Persian rugs are better… not biased at all). Then we went to a place where they made ceramics. These ceramics are hand crafted and hand painted. The amount of detail they put into their work is unbelievable and their work environment is just unheard of. It means something else though when you see a young kid working the same job as a 50 year old right in front… and you know that in 35 years, that kid will be sitting right where the elder person is… doing his specialty and his skill. That will be his life.



Later on that night we went to a Moroccan show, We saw belly- dancers (Oww Oww!!!) and Moroccan music. It was pretty authentic and just a whole bunch of fun. It is just miles of fun when you get American people to dance foreign music… especially Arabian. The dancers would get the people from the crowd to dance with them so it was just a bunch of fun for everyone. Everyone was in the dancing mood too, so on the way back... we put some music on the speakers of the bus and started dancing.... "Tsamina mina eh eh. Waka Waka Eh Eh"

Sunday 4.18.2011
Early morning, we made our way to the Sand dunes. While we driving, we again, saw amazing landscapes. On the way, we drove through mountains and made the steep cliff turns only to see below a beautiful Oasis. I have never seen one before, but I now know why a band would call themselves Oasis… because in the middle of a desert, a valley of tropical palm trees, blue water, and a symbol of life lay along the low point of a valley. Across the red/ orange desert, it’s green… Truly amazing.
como se dice "la mujer de mis sueños?"




Then we took 4X4 jeeps into the desert. We rode the jeeps across the Sand dunes until we hit our campsite. We got to see the sunset during that hour too. The sand was so soft and shiny... it was exactly like I pictured it... something like off the cover of Aladin.


So the first night we wait for food… in which Moroccan food is absolutely delicious. After food, we spotted a dune miles away. We debated on how long it took to get there… and we had ranges from 7 minutes to at most 25 minutes. We end up walking toward the dunes and at 35 minutes we realized there was at least another 10 minutes. No one believed Robby when he said it was further than we imagined… but he was right. We decided to head back before stuff got scary because we were in the Middle of the Sahara, and if the wind blew, we had no way of retracing our steps. Plus, it was 1:30 am, so getting lost was not a good call.

The people native to where we were at were call Burburs. The ‘Burbubr Babies’… aka, the Burbur kids were loads of fun. We would all wrestle, throw each other around, do flips off the inclined dune and more. Those kids seemed so happy to play with us, and every single one of us loved playing with them. These kids were indestructible and laughed if you tackled them… haha. They were just too cool.

Later that night, a few of us were feeling adventurous so we took our blankets outside and slept bare in the sand outside. The Sahara Sand is crazy soft and it literally felt like a tempus- pedic mattress. Though I must have swallowed tons of sand… I never woke up once…. Well, other than the time my friend right beside me jumped because he saw a spider at his feet.

Monday 4.19.2011
We woke up at 6:45 to the sunrise. Like any desert, the sunrise is the best part. I feel like the sun showed a lot of the African tribes colors they have never seen before. It was a bit cloudy, but nevertheless, the best sunrise I’ve seen.

In the afternoon, we took a camel to a distant city. We had an army of camels…. +/- 100 camels storming through the Sahara. Hahaha. I felt like for all the stereotype jokes I have ever gotten, this was finally my chance to take advantage.

For some reason we didn’t ride the camels back, so instead, we rode a van. More less…. We rode on top of a van! It was ridiculous. We had a van full of people inside with seats that were basically benches that weren’t nailed to the gro!!!nd. And we had a rail on top in which we fit 15 people on top. That was our ride through the Sahara… very uncomfortable, but it definitely felt like a Safari ride or something, It wasn’t as fun though when the van got stuck in the Sand…. Haha. So I guess we weren’t mudding… but instead, ‘sanding.’ Stuff like that will never be found in the US… but we were in Africa J

Later, we had lunch, rested, played card games, and then made our way out to play football. We ‘tried’ to play football outside but the sand blowing sideways made it a bit hard to see. It was a lot fun playing with the Burbur kids and what not, but I felt like I was going blind while swallowing a bunch of Sand… not the best feeling.

At dinner, a Morrocon band played music with hand drums, singing, a violin, and a keyboard. Then it was time to dance the night away. With the mix of Morrocon music, Spanish music, American music, Salsa, and so on… we had an amazing time just dancing in a huge tent. I got to play hand drums with some of the locals… that was pretty neat. There was definitely some communication going on there. No one really had showered in days and we had sand falling off of with every inch we moved, but we danced the night away in our big tent… Good times!


To add on to the adventure, we tried to enjoy our last night in the Sahara outside, where we went a bit further off to a sand dune. After chilling out for a while, a sand storm hit… and it hit fast. All the sudden, we couldn’t see who was in front for too much further and we had to make sure we got back with a 10 minute walk. I was literally worried because we probably ad 2 girls for every guy, and someof them didn’t want to run. Butttt we made it out fine. That night I slept and inhaled the sand. Bueno.

Tuesday 4.20.2011
In the morning, we made our way for Sevilla. It goes to say that Morrocco can do some funky stuff to your stomach after being there so long. Unfortunately, there were people vomiting left and right in the bus and stomach problems too… I wanted to take a picture Buuuutttt I thought that might be a little mean. I’m sure you can picture a bunch of sick people in a bus driving through the deserts of Africa.

We also stopped at this one place that had monkeys… you had to go out there and look for them though. They wouldn’t come to you.

We went to some nice hotel (which ISA hooked us up with all **** hotels), and alas, we took a shower. I was so covered with sand that I still had sand on me after the shower and I have less hair than anyone else.
That night I passed out… I was too exhausted to do anything.

Wednesday 4.21.2011
Second day of driving for Sevilla.  Enjoyed the northern Morrocconlandscape, did the whole Fairy business, and was back in Sevilla by 9:30… the Cupa Del Rey game with Barca and Real Madrid was on within minutes so I did what any other Spaniard would do… I took my luggage right to the closest place that was showing the game and yaaaaa…. It didn’t end how I wanted to but heyyy at least Morrocco was awesome!





martes, 26 de abril de 2011

The last week in Sevilla

So I'm going to make sure I put up stuff from Morocco... it's just been taking quite a while. We had our Spring Break lat weak during the Semana Santa and I made a trip out to Morocco (which was incredible) and then a trip out to Liria (the outskirs of Valencia) for a Baha'i Conference for the youth of Spain. They were both AMAZING!!!

The good thing is I'm back in Sevilla, but the bad thing is it's the last week and I'm more busy than can believe... Between classes, homeworks, projects, presentations, trying to plan out trips for after the program, trying* to go out and enjoy Sevilla, and the 5 exams I have in the next two days... it's just crazy. I can't believe everything has gone so fast. It still hasn't hit me that my study abroad semester is ending. I guess it'll hit May 17th when I'm on the plane back home.

I'm going to dedicate a post on Sevilla, bc thought I haven't put much about Sevilla on here.. it goes to say that Sevilla is God's way of showing how beautiful a city can be without forests, beaches, mountains and so forth. It is beautiful by the culture you see, the customs they have, the buildings they continue to build, and the people they have. Such an energetic city that I'm going to miss. 

martes, 19 de abril de 2011

BARCA BARCA BARCELONA!!!!


Barcelona 4.7.2011 – 4.11.2011

Thursday 4.7.2011
We got a late night flight into Barcelona, and by the time we got settled in the apartment… it was 1:00 am. Later, we got some Burger King, walked around Carrer Las Ramblas, and basically got our whole first taste of Barcelona. It was wayyyyy different than any other city I had been to in Spain… and so the appetite grew.

Friday 4.8.2011
We woke up and went for a bicycle- tour ride… Finallllly. I’ve been wanting to do that forever. The company is called Fat Tire and it was 20 euros for 4+ hours of touring. I had sooooo much fun. We got see monumental sites like Familia Sangria by Gaudi, as well as learn about the history of the city, while simply having fun biking through the city. I just remember biking through the city and being so happy. The weather was perfect, the tour guide was funny, and I was with a great group of folks. Literally… loving life.




Later that evening we just walked around the city, just site- seeing and what not. It’s weird, because Barcelona is just so diverse and different. The people dress different, talk different, and just have a different sense of pride.
After walking, we headed back to the apartment, took a little nap, and then got some energy for the night. The night- life in Barcelona is expensive just to enter, and I’m not saying I did or didn’t sneak into a club…. But I’m very well saying that it’s possible.

Saturday 4.9.2011
We woke up and went to the Market…. Amazing!!!  It had fresh food, smoothies, beef, chicken, fish, lobsters, pig, cheese, nuts, etc… just about anything edible, they had it there. It was a fat boy’s dream. We spent 2 hours there, and bought food to make for lunch.



After some delicious Dominican Republic cooked lunch… it was time for a little siesta. By 5 pm, we made our way to the other side of the city for Camp Nou!!!
Camp Nou is the stadium in Barcelona for FC Barcelona (their soccer team… best in the world). We scalped some tickets and made our way to see the best of the best in the infamous stadium. Even against UD Almeria, the stadium was PACKED!!! I had a blast. I also remember at 90:00 +1 minutes saying “I just want to see Messi take the team on solo before we go.” Within a minute he does just that and so it was immediately game over…. Muchas Gracias Lionel! Great day, great night!!!
Sunday 4.10.2011
This was a huge tourist day… it being our last. By the evening we made it out to Park Guell, where they have all of Gaudi’s work and his imagination. This is literally the most beautiful park I have ever seen. It is a MUST if you got to Barcelona… plus, it’s free!!!! You can get a great skyline view of the city, while seeing how unbelievable Gaudi was. Gaudi was an arquitect of the 20th century and had this new style he brought to Spain. Much of his influences are of French style, and he uses a lot of curves. This park was basically created off his imagination. The way he died is also unbelievable… so if interested, I suggest you google him. He must have been one of the most humble persons of the 29th century.






Later on, I made it to the Underground Museum where they showed ancient Roman ruins. It was basically a city that has a bunch of old Roman crap… believed to be of the oldest Roman remains around the world (that’s questionable since Rome still exists…. Buttttt that’s what they say)

That night we take it easy… enjoyed a nice kabob dinner, and napped until 2:30 am to head for the airport.


Monday 4.11.2011
Woke up a 2:30 am and clean the apartment. By 4:40 am we made it to the airport.
We departed at 5:55 am
I stepped into my apartment in Sevilla at 8:40 am to have breakfast and head straight for my 9:00 am class…. Yet another week in a beautiful city in Sevilla, after an amazing weekend in Barcelona.
I am starting to notice how much I will miss Spain.

miércoles, 6 de abril de 2011

Scotland, The Beautiful

First off, I wish I had more time in Scotland. I will return someday but for much longer.... and so it begins


Scotland 3.31.2011 – 4.3.2011

Alicante, España 3.31.2011
To get to Scotland, I had to fly to Alicante with an overnight stay. On my way, I had an hour conversation in Spanish with a girl who sat right next to me. Other than the fact that she was awfully nice, like most the random people I approach to converse with in Europe, it was nice to know my Spanish is finally getting on that level of where I can talk for so long with random people. There were a few moments of those¨what are you trying to say????¨ buttttt that´s why I have my mobile dictionary J

Oh ya, like a good student. I signed up for classes at 7 am here... aka 12:00 am in Lubbock. The morning and new trip awaits.

Edinburgh, Scotland
4.1.2011
I get to Scotland at 1:30. And first off, I must say how surprised I was to see stuff so cheap at the airport. For example, 4 rolls of Mentos at the airport was 1 pound, equivalent to 1.10 Euros. Now in Sevilla, only 1 roll of Mentos was 1.60 Euros..... that´s significantly cheaper.
By 3:00, I made it to see my friend Tori and she started showing me around town. We went close to George Street and Prince Street, and I had a nice, heafty burger. I haven´t had one that good in months... my stomaches was satisified..
Then we move on, looking at more venues. And this is how I describe Scotland:






You know the most beautiful people are those who are beautiful in and out, and all they offer is their humbleness. That´s what Scotland reminds me of. Unlike New York City, where the city would be just a concrete slab without the thousands of skyscrapers and Times Square, and unlike Houston where the city would just be a trees and marshy grass if it weren’t for the construction, and unlike Dubai where 15 years ago there was only sand storms to see.... the city of Scotland rests on pure beauty. There are points in the city where you can see a great bit of the country at a distance. What gets better is the people maintain the vintage look of Edinburgh. Everything looks so medeival with some of the coolest looking castles, schools, hotels, and streets I´ve ever seen. Even their abandoned school for deaf and blind children seems like a palace in itself. So that is my rundown of Edinburgh. I expected Lord of the Rings, but in return, I got a whole different type of Beauty.




After walking around, we went to Tori´s flat to rest and get ready for dinner. It was Tori´s early brithday party, and so we played a game called Mystery Murderer. It´s pretty much just like the episode from The Office... just with a bunch of Scottish accents. It was awesome J My character was Mike Tison.... and I was actually the murderer. No one guessed me too... hahaha.  Woot Woot!!!

That night we saw a bit of the night life. We ended up at a Piano Bar, which I´ve come to find out to be a very fun place no matter what mood you´re in. The pianist is always very good, and it´s always a chance to have a dab at some live blues if you need some.

4.2.2011
Tori took me sight- seeing as my professional tour guide. I got to see a guy in a quilt playing the bag pipes... succes!

We also walked up to the top of the castle to check out a sweet view.

We then walked down the Royal Mile to hit Parliament and Tori´s mom and siblings. Wiiiiiierd architecture. They tried to make the Parlaiemnt building look like a boat... cool idea, but meh, didn´t turn out so cool.

Later on, we went to this one hill where you could see all of Edinburgh and even further at a distance. You can see what is a 40 minute ride... which is basically the distance from Edinburgh to Glasgow. It was absolutely beauitful.

Later, we went to a good ol´superstore..... something else that I hadn´t seen in months. I bought Peanut Butter. Yes.... Peanut Butter was all.

We took a scenic view back to our flat. I was so lucky to have Tori´s family to show me around because I feel like I got the in´s & out´s of the locals. They showed me places like where J.K. Rowling lives, the ´upper class´ part of town, the high school they modeled Hogwrts after (Harriet), the school for deaf and blind children and more. It was too cool.

Once we got home, we ate, and I just go the chance to chill with them, share stories, and take it easy. It was nice, because I had a 48 hour bug beginning back in Sevilla, and by now I was feeling better by taking so many breaks.

Sunday 4.3.2011
We woke up early, and we went driving around Edinburgh again. We went to this one school.. i forgot the name... but apparently it is the boss school. It puts any other school to shame in academics and looks... I mean, it has Gargoyles. What school has Gargoyles???

Then we drove around a little more before we made it to the airport. I said my goodbyes, but Tori and her family come to Houston ever so often, so I´m sure I´ll see them soon.

I was supposed to oend my trip in Faro, Portugal, in which I realllly wanted to hith- hike back, but after a couple faults of my own and the airport, I missed another flight... once again. Note to those who travel with Ryan Air.... The captain has the option to leave 25 minutes early if most the passengers are boarded... that kind of screwed me over a little. Anyhow, if you´re really curious how I lost it, tell me, and I´ll email you. I´m just tired of explaining it is all.

I ended up getting a flight to Barcelona, and Barcelona to Sevilla. That night in Barcelona, I bought the internet package for the night and did homework until 3:00 am. It´s been a while since I´ve done that.

3.4.2011
After doing homework for so long, I had my flight for Sevilla at 5:55 am. I finally made it to the front of my door in Sevilla by 8:45... yet another week for school.

Some point that morning I realized that I was about to make a trip to that very same airport 2 more times that week in Barcelona. That kind of made me feel a little sick of traveling... but whatever.

Next week though, homework won´t be my intenerary in Barcelona.


martes, 5 de abril de 2011

Pre- Scotland post

So I've been running behind, but I went to Edinburgh, Scotland last weekend. I've yet to have time since I've got back to post anything because I got in Monday at 7:35 am and actually made it to a few of my classes. I had a test today so I've been studying, catching up on sleep, guitar, and soccer. I'll have the Scotland trip up by Thursday before I leave for Barcelona