Spain

In the words of a well-spoken friend.. I WAS "as excited as christopher columbus to see land"! We arrived in Cadiz, Spain Wednesday morning and spirits quickly arose! Marisa and I joined a few friends on an independent tour of the city which started off with sangria at 10 am. (when in Spain..) We walked around Cadiz, explored the ocean front, stopped for cervezas and queso manchego in the afternoon and managed to squeeze some shopping in there as well. That night, we went to get tapas before taking a SAS sponsored trip to an Andalucian Flamenco Dancing performance. Later we hit the town for dancing with spaniards!

I thoroughly enjoy this country. They sleep in late, stay out late, and value their afternoon ciestas!

Thursday morning we had an early morning bus to catch for another SAS sponsored trip; this time to the white towns of Arcos and Ronda. It was so beautiful! A very long day, but definitely worth the early morning struggle.

With the great mood that set in Wednesday afternoon, we decided it would be a fabulous idea to buy train tickets to Sevilla for Friday at 6:45 am.. so that's how Friday started. Marisa and I jumped on a train to Sevilla to meet 2 of our friends from STL who are studying abroad there for the semester. However, when we arrived before 9 am we had no idea where we were, where we wanted to be, or how to get there. A little scary, but we quickly figured it out. We acquired a map of the city, and eventually decided the best way to tour Sevilla was by way of horse-drawn carriage. =) We found a cute little hotel, and after walking around all day, enjoyed our well-deserved afternoon Spanish nap. We then bought a bottle of champagne, gouda, and some bread to enjoy while we waited for our friends to finish up with their classes. We met up with them for dinner and then went out for drinks after.

Today, we made it back to Cadiz and are leaving at 6 for Morocco!

I don't think I gave enough thought prior to this trip about the fact that we do not speak any of these languages. With my high school spanish, I could recognize about every 10th word on a menu, but we soon resulted in pointing and hoping for the best. We had some surprises; some good, some bad. But all in all we had a WONDERFUL time in Spain!

I'm not sure how to post pictures considering I've already taken well over 500 and haven't found a great internet source. So, those may have to wait.

Missing all of you! Still glad to receive e-mail!

A few more things I've learned:
- the spanish national anthem is the only one with no words
- to convert celsius to fahrenheit, multiply by 2 and add 30
- there is a bridge in South Africa that is the tallest in the southern hemisphere - i would really like to bungee jump off of it. our south african friend on the ship crew has informed us that if you jump naked, it's free! that seems like an extreme amount of vulnerability, but i guess it all depends on the price! ha... RIGHT