T.Pot

john and kate are no more. life is no more. sad, sad day.

Mi última semana. ¡Qué triste!

Hey all! It’s the final week of my program in Sevilla and everything’s starting to come to a close. These six weeks have FLOWN BY! It’s been sort of crazy trying to fit everything in that I’ve wanted to do in Sevilla and kept putting off thinking that there was a ton of time left to do it. Leaving is definitely going to be bittersweet. I’ve grown really close to a lot of the people in the program and these are our last few days that we’re all going to be together. We all keep saying that it’s going to be so cool passing each other on campus next year or meeting up for reunions or just hanging out.

So a little about what’s been happening since my last post….

I left off talking about how I was going to go visit the Protestant Church AND the Cathedral two Sundays ago. I went, and they were SOOOO cool, especially the Protestant Church. Cody, who I already knew before coming to Sevilla through FCA (Fellowship of Christian Athletes) at UNC, has found this Church through one of his friends who had studied in Sevilla for a semester about a year ago. We didn’t know anything about the church except that it was Protestant and it started at 11. We decided it would be a good idea to arrive around 10:45 because that’s how early we would get there if we were in America. They do things a little differently here. When we got there at 10:45, NO ONE was there except for what looked to be like the pastor’s assistant. She was very welcoming and invited us to take a seat. A little after 11, people started trickling in. In Spain, time means nothing. A church service that starts at 11 means that people don’t even think about coming until around 11:05. But once people did start arriving, they wasted no time in making sure that they introduced themselves to me and Cody. They were all sooooo friendly! The church only consisted of about 40 people so the community was so close and connected. We picked a GREAT Sunday to go. Apparently, a student from England who had been with the church for a year was leaving, and they were throwing him a party to send him off.

The church service itself was amazing. It was so cool being able to praise and worship in Spanish. During prayer, one person would start, and then everyone would just start praying their own prayer aloud, so all you heard was yelling and rejoicing that came from all directions. AMAZING. In all, the service lasted around 2 hours. They seriously don’t do anything too quickly here. As soon as the service was over, the food started coming. Cody and I couldn’t resist, so of course we stayed, and I’m so glad we did. I still can’t get over how nice and welcoming everyone was. We had great conversation with almost everyone in the Church during the lunch (which, by the way, was probably the most delicious food I’ve that has ever entered my mouth). We talked for an especially long time with a girl from France who was fluent in Spanish and didn’t know many people in the area. We got her number with hopes to meet up with her later that week. That service was BY FAR the coolest thing I’ve done and it made me soo pumped (if you can’t tell by my lengthy description)! I’m sad that we don’t have any more free Sundays in Sevilla because I would have LOVED to go back, but I’m glad I got to experience it at least once.

After that Church service and lunch ended, it was time to go to the Cathedral. We didn’t actually show up in time for mass, but instead for something called the “seista.” It was a service in the Cathedral made up of little Spanish children dancing and singing. Very cultural and very cool!

That next week we made sure to get in as much cultural things as possible! Throughout the week I made sure to hit up a Flamenco show, an outside discoteca, some intense shopping in the city center, and some amazing Spanish tapas and dessert places.

This last weekend, the program took one last group trip to Granada, a city about 3 hours away. We saw about our 5th Cathedral (after awhile, I’ve realized they all start to look the same) and some graves of famous dead people. We also saw the Alhambra, which was really cool but by that time everyone was so worn out that we couldn’t fully appreciate it for what it was. That night, a big group of us went to a discoteca in a cave which was pretty much awesome, but it made me sad that our time together is winding down.

NOW, it’s time for exams. I have my two finals tomorrow and them I’m DONE! That means 2 full days of freedom in Sevilla for the rest of the week. Cody, Alex, and I leave for Florence, Italy on Saturday and we leave out of Rome to head back to the US on the 10th. It’s weird to think that we’re taking a vacation from a vacation, but I can’t wait! As much as I’m ready to go home, I’m not ready to leave. I’m really going to miss everybody here but I definitely can’t wait to see all of you back in the States.

Hasta luego!!!!!!

Muchos Viajes

Hey!  So long time no blog…. It’s definitely been a crazy last two weeks full of travel and school!

The Seville program gives us 2 long weekends (one three day and one four day) in which we’re free to do whatever we want.  For the three day, me and 10 other people from my program went to Madrid, the capital city.  To save money we chose to pay 35 Euros for a 6 hour bus ride instead of the 200 it would have cost to fly.  RIDICULOUS!  We checked into the Hostel El Pilar as soon as we arrived.  I recommend that to anyone who stays in Madrid (perfect location and it was set up like a hotel——nothing near the horror stories I had heard about staying in European hostels).  We grabbed a quick dinner and I had my first ever experience with Paella, the Spanish dish that is supposedly crazy popular here.  It’s basically rice and some type of meat or fish (which means squid).  My reaction….ehhh its ok.  Not the best Spanish food I’ve had, but definitely worth a try.

After settling in, it was time to go out.  One of our friends from UNC is studying in Madrid, so he gave us a tour of the city and showed us some of the nightlife.  We went to the most amazing place I’ve EVER been in pretty much my whole life….KAPITAL.  It’s a 7 floor discoteca that has a different type of music playing on each floor AND a karaoke bar, where we lived for a good chunk of the night.  We did a little Enrique, a little N*SYNC, and I wish we would have done a song in Spanish but we were way too intimidated at the time.  That has to be the most fun night I’ve had in Spain so far, and it’s going to be near impossible to beat!

Most of the next day was spend at the Prado, a must see for anyone traveling near, in, or through Madrid.  I’m usually not someone who likes looking at art AT ALL, but it was so cool to actually see stuff I recognized and I felt like I learned a ton about art just by walking around and looking at all the paintings.  My favorite piece was “Flaming June” by Frederic Lord Leighton.  It’s posted right above this blog, so maybe you’ll be able to see why I absolutely love it!  Random story from the Prado, though…..while I was walking around the museum, I ran into my Spanish professor from UNC who had written my study abroad recommendation letter.  It was cool to run into someone I know in another country on the other side of the world.  SMALL WORLD for real!

The rest of Madrid was really fun and it was a great choice to go there for the weekend.  We traveled back late Sunday night, rested up for class on Monday and Tuesday, and then took off for our next weekend trip to Barcelona on Wednesday.  The travel there was a little more hectic than the travel to Madrid.  We took the 6:15 a.m. bus to the airport, flew Ryanair (a popular student airline which means you only get to bring a bookbag and THAT’S IT) into a city outside of Barcelona, took a 1 ½ hour bus ride, and took the metro to our hostel.  We fit 9 people into our 8 person room in the hostel so quarters were a little tight!  But, nonetheless, Barcelona was amazing!  The city is huge, so getting used to taking the metro everywhere was an adjustment.

In Barcelona, we did a ton of sightseeing.  The chocolate museum is a necessity simply because your entrance ticket is a chocolate bar!  Talk about heaven on earth for me.  We also went to the Picasso Museum, another necessity.  Again, I’m not the biggest art fan but this place (in addition to the Prado) converted me completely.

The greatest thing about Barcelona for me was Las Ramblas, the street famous for its shopping!  I was in heaven here.  They had amazing stores AND a fruit market with fresh smoothies.  Seriously, I LOVE THIS PLACE!  Our last day there, today, was great too.  Since we had to check out at 10:30 and our bus to the airport didn’t leave until 5, we decided it would be best to take our stuff and head to the beach.  Such a perfect idea!  Decently clear waters and non-humid weather was ideal.  I’m pretty sure I could have spent another few days just hanging out at the beach.  What I loved about Barcelona was that it has so much to offer…beach, museums, art (Gaudi’s work is EVERYWHERE and is sooooo cool—-look it up!).

Tomorrow is the first Sunday we’ve actually been in Sevilla in what seems like forever, so of course big plans have been made!  I think I’m going to go to a contemporary Protestant service at a nearby church in the morning and then go to the Cathedral for a mass later tomorrow night.  I’m excited to see how the two compare.

It’s crazy only two weeks are left for me in Sevilla.  I feel like I’ve been here for so little time.  Traveling around Spain and seeing other places makes me really appreciate everything about Sevilla.  My love for this city has grown so much.  I know I’m going to miss it and all of the people that I’ve grown so close to.

Please pray for me in these last two weeks with exams and papers and all that junk because as of right now I have absolutely NO motivation for any of it….especially not when there’s a beautiful city to explore right outside my door :)

LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL, Adios!

¡YO SOY ESPAÑOL, ESPAÑOL, ESPAÑOL!

I think I heard that chant about 50 times during the night of the European Cup where Barcelona played Manchester in Rome.  A huge group of us decided to watch the game at Flaherty´s, a local pub that gets packed on game days.  Even though the game didn´t start until 8:45, we had to get there at 6 to actually be able to get a seat in the bar.  I´m soooo glad we did because as soon as the game came on, there was no room to move ANYWHERE.  The place wasn´t crazy big, and so people were pushed against each other and some people were even watching from outside the door which was about 100 feet away from the screen.  I had to stand on my chair because there was no room for me on the floor! These people have true dedication to their fútbol.  After watching the Barcelona fans, Ive decided that Americans have no clue what it means to be a sports fanatic.  The Barcelona people were crazzzzyyyyyy! The intesity level of everyone in the bar was incredible, a UNC/Duke basketball game doesn´t even compare.  A good majority of the people in the bar had actually flown from England JUST to watch the game with some true Barcelona fans.

In order to get even more emersed in the culture, Angel (my roommate) and I decided to stop in at a restaurant/bar right beside our apartment builing and try to get to know some of the people there.  As soon as we sat at the bar, a girl walked up to us and asked in English if we were Americans.  She said she could tell because we were wearing shorts.  (In Spain, no one wears shorts and the women don´t exercise, so the fact that we were wearing shorts and tennis shoes made us obviously foreign.)  We kept talking to the girl, who had lived in both Sevilla and Texas and she explained that she had basically grown up in this restuarant.  She introduced us to the staff—Rafa, Fran, and Diego and we got to use our Spanish to talk to them.  THIS is how I had imagined coming to Spain would be!

This last weekend was our first weekend free since coming to Sevilla.  There were no program-planned trips, so we planned our own.  Saturday was a very early morning.  A huge group from our program took the 7 am bus to Cadiz.  We did nothing but relax on the beach from 9 am that morning until time to leave at 7 pm that night!  GREAT DAY!  What made it even better, though, was that I FOUND MY CAMERA!!!!!  It was in a really obvious place in my beach bag that I had somehow overlooked….praise the Lord!  At the beach, some Spanish boys had taken what looked to be a yoga ball and buried half of it under the sand.  They then jumped off of it and did flips and invertos (a flip in which they do twists and turns before they land).  SO COOL!  I´m so glad I had my camera!

The trip to Cadiz was great for most of the group, except for 5 of us…4 guys and 1 girl forgot to get a bus ticket back and got stuck in Cadiz for the night.  No hostels had any vacancies, so they tried to build a shelter on the beach for the night, but got kicked out by homeless people who then took over the fort themselves.  They said they then attempted to sleep in the park and a car garage until their bus finally left at 8 the next morning.  Their experience was definitely a little different than mine!

The next morning, Sunday, was another early one.  We left for Ronda at 8 am.  We had always been told how pretty Ronda was and how cool the gorge would be to hike.  They were so right!  We got there and couldn´t believe how sterotypical this small Spanish town was.  Ronda is set on a cliff and the main attraction is to hike down through waterfalls, to the gorge below.  We went a little off the beaten path and ended up hiking for around 4 hours.  We were exhausted by the time we got back to town, but no one was complaining!  Everyone that went to Ronda agreed that no place even compared, this is undoubtedly my favorite place that we´ve travelled so far.

My time so far in Sevilla has been absolutely amazing!  The only real adjustment from living back at home is that I don’t control when my laundry gets done.  Our Señora does not do laundry as often as I thought when I was packing so my closet is getting slimmer and slimmer….but I’m not complaining, it gives me an excuse to hit the mall that’s less than 5 minutes from our apartment!

Besides my new obsession with Spanish clothes, I have also come to LOVE their food.  My top obsessions are the helado (ice cream— my favorite flavor is, as weird as it sounds, biscuit with cookies) and Fanta Limón (God’s gift to earth).  They have some very unique flavors of a lot of the same stuff we have in the United States.  For example, they have Ruffles chips, but the flavor of choice here is ham.  Weird!  And at McDonald’s, one of their sauce options is Curry.  Very interesting…and in my opinion, good!  I’ve had some authentic Spanish cooking that I will definitely be making when I get back to the States.  My favorite is the gazpacho soup.  It’s served cold and is just a vegetable-based soup made of mainly tomatoes and olive oil.  Sidenote…EVERYTHING here is made with olive oil. I’m not exaggerating. If you walk into a supermarket, you are guaranteed to see at least an aisle or two dedicated to nothing else but olive oil.

So now I am almost a month into my program.  It’s crazy to think about how little time is left!  Work in my classes is definitely picking up.  Two exams and an essay all due on Wednesday is making this actually seem like school.  But as soon as that’s over, I’m off to Madrid!

I still miss everyone back home a ton!! Please keep sending me your updates, I love hearing what’s happening on the other side of the world.  Let me know if there’s anything I can be praying for or any gifts that you want me to get for you while I’m here :)

¡Os quiero mucho!

Hola from Sevilla!

Not a whole ton has happened since the last time I blogged, but I thought I’d update regardless!

Before coming over to España, there were two things that I decided I MUST do: experience a discoteca and a bullfight (corrida).  They are two very different things, but both are VERY Spanish.

First stop: Discoteca.

One night last week, me and about 10 girls from our program made the 45 minute trek to the infamous discoteca of Sevilla…BUDA.  That place was ridiculous!  Its 3 stories tall, and each floor has its own “theme.”  The top floor was the strictly American music floor, where they played some Backstreet, some Chris Brown, only our most recent hits…. The second floor played only Spanish music and was definitely the most fun.  There weren’t as many Spanish guys there looking to get with the hot American chicas like there was on the ridiculously packed American floor.  I’m glad I got my Buda in.  It was a lot to take in, but it was well worth it!  I’ve sort of decided that discotecas are not really the Spanish scene, considering that 80% of the people we met were Americans.  The Spanish people seem to prefer more of the bar and café scene, and I don’t blame them at all! There is seriously a café every few feet, and you can guarantee that they are ALWAYS full….just my kind of place.

A little less exciting than going to Buda, my program took us to Córdoba for more of an informational tour of the city.  We went on a tour of the Mosque that was half-Mosque/half-Cathedral.  So pretty!  I don’t have pictures from it, but I’ll explain about that later.  In the plaza right outside the Mosque, there was this fountain. Tradition has it that if you drink from the “magic water” you are guaranteed a boyfriend in the very near future.  Needless to say, I took a sip.  Some girls really got into the tradition and took entire Nalgene bottle-fulls of the stuff.  I mean, whatever works :)

The next day, Sunday, was definitely a day of rest.  We didn’t wake up until 2:15, just in time for lunch.  Then we made our way to the Plaza de Torreos for the bullfight, destination #2 on my list of things I MUST do!  Let’s just say it’s not exactly what I had expected.  Apparently, it’s not just the guy with the red cloth making the bull dizzy, which is all that I had ever seen about it on TV.  In real bull fights, two men on horses come out after the bull is good and mad, and they stab the bull in the back.  Then three men come out and put hooks into the bull’s back that hang there for the rest of the match.  That’s when the matador finally makes his appearance.  He plays with the bull for a while and then pulls out the killing sword and stabs the bull straight through the heart.  This happens with 3 different matadors and 6 different bulls, one after the other.  We were lucky enough to witness a “perfect match” where the bull died immediately from the final stabbing.  I actually enjoyed the whole experience, but once was enough.

And to no one’s surprise, I now have NO camera whatsoever.  I’ve decided that it must have fallen out of my purse on the way to the bullfight because that’s the last time I remember seeing it.  So far on this trip, I’ve gone through 3 cameras and we’ve only been here for less than 2 weeks.  Those are not good odds at all!  But, hey, it happens.

Other than the whole camera experience, my trip here in Spain has still been fantastic!  I love hearing from everyone back at home, so if you have Skype, FIND ME! traci.potocnik

And yes, we CAN get mail here :)  The address is:

EUSA-CINECU

Att: Traci Potocnik

C/Plácido Fernández Viagas, 4

41013 Sevilla

ESPAÑA