Setting Routines and Sevilla!

Hi everyone! I'm so sorry I haven't been able to post in quite a while. I have been having so many issues with uploading my images to the blog posts. I wasn't able to actually add any media for a couple weeks and I've been working to find a solution to that, but I think it might have been that I was uploading too many images. I'm going to be posting quite a bit of my experiences and adventures in the next couple blog posts so to prevent any one of them from getting too long, I'm splitting it up and posting multiple at the same time. Hopefully the issues with the media has cleared up and we don't have any other problems arise moving forward, but just in case, I'm going to have fewer pictures on the blog. If you'd like to see them all, definitely reach out and I'd be happy to share them with you! Anyways, let's talk about everything I've been up to for the past month!

Approaching the end of my first month in Spain, and with classes becoming more regular, I'm falling into a pretty regular routine during the week. We've been learning about pretty neat stuff in our classes - my only complaint being Biomechanics. So far, the material we're covering in the class is the same as Statics last semester - just stress and strain. However, our lecture professor isn't the best at explaining the general concepts and prefers to prove concepts by delving deep into the theory behind it rather than practicing. Because of this, most of the class has been pretty confused about what we've been learning. However, our recitation professor is a lot better! He explains each concept with physical examples before diving into the math and theory. So for now, the class isn't as bad. My favorite class right now is definitely Biotransport Phenomena. We've been going over simple diffusion, convection, acceleration, and surface tension, but the professor's absolutely phenomenal! He teaches with a great pace and simplifies complex topics down very clearly. For example, he explained the topic of tensors in just 30 minutes, when we spent close to a week and a half on the topic in the Biomechanics class. I was really worried about the Bioinstrumentation class but for right now, I'm following along really well. Some of the topics are familiar from Circuits, but just expanded upon. As for the class I've been attending without actually being registered, Systems and Signals - we finally heard back from the university! We were registered into the class with an override, but were given the section of the class we didn't want. This new section still works with our schedule, but means that we have all four classes on Thursday (each one being 2 hours long).

Since we don't have classes on Friday, we've had long 3-day weekends to travel and explore, or just relax. Last week, we took that opportunity to plan out some trips and make lunch for our host family! Zaida always makes us amazing Spanish food (with more than generous portions) so we decided to give her a break from cooking for a couple days! On Friday, I made a grocery list for Zaida so that we could make fajitas! I chopped up all the veggies (white onion, red onion, green pepper, red pepper, yellow pepper) and sautéed them in lots of olive oil. I spiced them generous amounts of salt, black pepper, parsley, cilantro, thyme, basil, oregano, paprika, garlic powder, and lemon! While those were cooking down, I cut up a tomato, red onion, and jalapenos to make pico de gallo. I mixed those with salt, lemon juice, cilantro and basil! Once those were done, Brennan cooked chicken for everyone but me. We then added the veggies (and chicken for the meat-eaters), cheese, salsa, guacamole, and pico de gallo to the tortillas!

On Saturday, I gave Zaida a grocery list so we could make pesto gnocchi and garlic bread! The first thing we did was to cut carrots, white onions, green peppers, red peppers, and mushrooms! I sautéed these down and spiced them with salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley, oregano, basil, thyme, and lemon. After they were done cooking, I made the sauce by mixing tomato paste with water and spices, like salt, pepper, cilantro, basil, garlic powder, oregano, and lemon, and then reducing it down to the right consistency. As that was finishing up, we started boiling the pesto gnocchi (premade - I am nowhere near talented or brave enough to make my own pasta). While I did that, Brennan made some great mozzarella garlic bread! When the gnocchi was cooked, we simply mixed it with the veggies, the sauce, and some pasta water, and were ready to eat! The meal was absolutely delicious and extremely filling; we didn't even want to eat dinner that night.

Pesto Gnocchi with Garlic Bread - Pic by Brennan

We finished off last weekend by going to El Rastro, a flea market in Madrid every Sunday from 9:30 am to 2:30 pm! The flea market is about a 6 block stretch of a street that's closed down by the police for people to set up stands and sell their products. We found everything from souvenirs to handmade art, clothing, decor, and more. It was simply incredible! Everything was also super cheap so I bought lots of gifts for people! On our way back, we also stopped by a 3-D print shop and checked out some of the products they had!

This past weekend, after another great week of classes, Brennan and I took a train to Sevilla for the weekend! We had a super early train Friday morning, around 6 am, from Puerta de Atocha, one of the biggest train stations in Madrid, and conveniently right next to our house. Since we got out of class late on Thursday and had to pack and get ready, we didn't get much sleep overnight. So I spent most of the 3 hour train ride to Sevilla sleeping. This was definitely needed; I had no clue how long of a weekend we were going to have. We arrived in Sevilla around 9:30 am on Friday, but we couldn't check into our AirBnB until 11:30. So the first thing we did was to go to a super neat café called PinePan, where I got a coffee and palmera de chocolate (chocolate Palmier) and Brennan got a coffee and bocadillo de tortilla española (Spanish omelette sandwich). We then made our way over to the neighborhood with our AirBnB and found a really nice park to sit down and relax in. It also had an observation tower and a cool mural!

Once it was time to check in, we got settled into the AirBnB and I took a needed hour long nap. After waking up refreshed, Brennan and I chose to go to two art museums and to explore the city. The first museum we went to was the Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla. This museum was interesting; it was full of classical art pieces by famous Spanish artists like El Greco, Velázquez, Zurbarán, and Pacheco. It was a huge museum with a couple gardens in the middle as well! Here is a slideshow of pictures:

When we finished, we decided to head to another art museum - this next one containing contemporary pieces, rather than classical. We saw three exhibits - Rosalind Nashashibi, the Richard Channin Foundation, and US GIRLS, again. I wasn't the biggest fan of the first exhibit. Nashashibi's work focuses greatly on relationships between places and the people interacting within them. The concept of this was very neat, but most of the work there didn't connect with me as much. The Richard Channin Foundation was a lot more interesting to me. I didn't get as much meaning out of the work, but the pieces simply stood out more to me. It was more pleasant to walk through. My favorite exhibit from the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo was US GIRLS, again (NOSOTRAS, de nuevo). It was a follow up to a previous exhibit the museum organized. In 2010, they presented a gender-centered collection of artwork from female artists. From the moment I walked into the exhibit, I had chills. I could really feel the work. The styles of each piece varied greatly but each work left an impression. It was unlike the other two exhibits. These works left you thinking even hours after leaving the museum.

After we finished up with the museum, we decided to walk around the area on our way back to the AirBnB. The area was super neat; it had a Pavilion of the Future, a model rocket, a concert hall, and even a biotech park with remnants of Sevilla's bid for the Olympics. However, this area was a bit creepy. It was 6 pm on a Friday and the whole area seemed deserted. It was like a ghost town. We could see parked cars and street vendors, but the streets were empty. We hardly saw anyone. Once we made it back to our rooms, we needed rest. We had covered over 12 miles that day! So we grabbed some pizza for dinner and slept.

Our plans for Saturday were ambitious. And that's probably an understatement. We aimed to see the Cathedral of Sevilla, the Real Alcázar, a science museum, Plaza de España, and watch the sunset from Setas de Sevilla (Mushrooms of Sevilla). So after a late start to the day (we slept in), we sat for a delicious breakfast at BrunchIt. I got coffee, bread with butter and jam, a croissant, a bowl of fruit, and freshly squeezed orange juice! I couldn't believe how incredible the juice was. After all the freshly squeezed juices I've been drinking here, I don't know what I'll do back in the states.

When we made our way to city center, we found out that the Cathedral (the biggest in the world) was actually closed for a wedding! So we saved it for Sunday and made our way to the line for Real Alcázar, a palace built for Peter of Castile. We ended up standing in line for almost 2 hours, which was incredibly frustrating! The wait was definitely worth it! The palace was giant and absolutely beautiful. Each room was unique and while exploring each one, I ran into the couple that had booked the Cathedral for their wedding! They were taking pictures at the Alcázar! Did you know they also filmed part of Game of Thrones here? But my favorite part, by far, were the gardens. The palace had more gardens than I have fingers, and each one of them was incredible. Even with the crowd, I felt completely at peace, like I could walk through the gardens forever. I actually got lost in the Labyrinth Garden for a good 20 minutes. I even got to see lots of ducks and peacocks. Here are just some of the incredible pictures I took.

After our visit through the Alcázar, we had worked up quite an appetite so we found a small but excellent place for tapas. On the way, I also grabbed some gifts for my family. At the tapa restaurant, I ordered Spinach with Chickpeas, Roasted Peppers, and Papas Bravas. It was definitely the best meal I had in Sevilla so far. After our lunch, Brennan and I met up with Isabella and some of her new friends studying in Sevilla and we walked to the Science Museum (of course we were going to visit this; we're two STEM majors)! It was a small museum but they had really neat exhibits on Egypt, Geology, Women in Space, and Ocean Mammals. Out of our entire group, I ended up being the last one to get through each exhibit. I don't know if that was because I'm a slow reader or if I was just having too much fun. I felt a bit bad for making everyone wait but it was definitely worth it.

As soon as we finished, it was getting late so we made our way over to Plaza de España, which is a huge complex that is connected to gardens. It's about a 30 minute walk southeast of the city center and right next to a port where we saw cruise liners. This park was just as big, if not bigger, than Retiro Park in Madrid. We didn't spend too much time here as everyone was tired, but there was a boat rental (we unfortunately didn't do this), lots of street vendors, and a man blowing bubbles for all the kids. We spent a pretty decent chunk of our time releasing our inner kid and enjoying the bubbles.

Since everyone was tired, we decided to rest before meeting up at Setas de Sevilla to watch the sunset. However, the weather had different plans for us. It had been gloomy and drizzling for most of the weekend and this evening wasn't any different. We weren't able to watch the sunset because of the clouds so we saved Setas for the next day. Instead, we were able to get a good night's rest.

The next morning, we packed up all of our belongings because it was checkout time. This meant we had to carry everything we had brought on our backs for the entire day! I was optimistic at first, thinking I could handle it. Did I? Maybe. I survived, but I wasn't a happy camper. I was exhausted by the end of the day. I hadn't carried this much stuff with me since high school, and I sure hadn't walked 14 miles with it. Our first stop for the day was getting breakfast on the way to the Cathedral. Once again, I had a delicious (and nutritious) start to the day!

After waiting for service to finish Sunday morning, we were finally able to tour the largest cathedral in the world! It was absolutely beautiful. Everything I saw was attention-grabbing and I ended up spending close to 2 hours walking through. The Cathedral is also attached to La Giralda, which was built as a minaret for a mosque in Moorish Spain, but now serves as the bell tower for the cathedral. And this, along with the Setas, was one of the best views of the city. We walked up close to 35 or 40 flights of ramps to get to the top. Upon reaching the top, I was tired, but amazed by what I saw. I'll let the pictures show you what I mean. The trees you see in the courtyard of the Cathedral are actually orange trees!

Since it was close to lunchtime by the time we were finished, Brennan and I ended up going to one of the fancier places we ate at this weekend. I got a delicious truffle hummus tapa and an even better fried vegetable rice tapa. I even decided to treat myself to a chocolate, orange, walnut brownie. I said earlier the tapas yesterday were the best meal, but I hadn't had this meal yet. This was by far my best meal in Sevilla. Nothing else compared.

Re-energized, we set off towards our next attraction - Las Setas de Sevilla, at last. It was one of the sites I was looking forward to the most on this trip. And it definitely did not disappoint. I'm usually terrified of heights, and while this was scary, just seeing the engineering and architecture behind creating an all wooden structure like this was absolutely amazing. I loved every bit of it! There was a walkway on top of the mushrooms and I spent my time walking down, not once, but twice. It was super relaxing!

At this point, it was approaching our time to depart the amazing city. We had a train to catch at 9 pm, and about a 2 mile walk back to the train station before then. So we set off on our journey. We got to the train station much earlier than we needed so Brennan ate dinner at the McDonald's and I grabbed a sandwich for the train, if I got hungry, and watched the Colts game! At 9, we took the train back to Madrid and I slept soundly until the moment we got back to Atocha. From then, it was back to the sleep and prepping for class that week.

Now I know this was a long post but the trip was an incredible experience that I just had to share. For the next couple weeks and my more recent trips and adventures, check out the next post (I'll be posting it pretty soon, I promise)! Once again, I apologize for the long break but here's to more regular posts and no technical issues!