Posada de Palacio Cádiz

Hello again!
As I said previously, I'm going to jump around a bit and not just go day by day in this blog. Therefore, this entry begins on September 19th on a train heading to Cadiz, Spain. This was my first adventure in Spain with my friends outside of Cordoba, my first excursion.
Honestly, I can't even remember exactly how I met all the people I've become close with on this trip. Well, I guess that's not true. I already told you how I met ...

So today we didn't have an excursion because we had our own private tour guides in Rachel's host family from three years ago. They met us at the pier and were so happy to see Rachel it was great! They took us on a walking tour of historic Cadiz and we had breakfast at one of their places they like and we had churros an coffee with milk. Loly knew everyone we walked by it seemed and although they spoke no English and we speak little Spanish we were ...

... set up a little ladder so that the mice could drink the sherry out of a wine glass!


Then we went to the horse show. Very similar to what the Lippanzaner Stallions do. It was…an experience…but I don’t think I’ll ever go watch something like that again. But I can at least say that I've seen it.

... the way we stopped in Olvera so Mike could get his photo of the village and church tower. We arrived to Nerja very late and couldn't plug in the address in our handy-dandy gps - so we had to call the owner in the UK to give us directions. it was kind of late by the time we got to the house (after midnight). ugh! this was a long, long day! But, we're excited to be at the beach for the next 7 days. Shae can't wait to get her feet wet in the mediterranean.

... that, it reminded me a lot of Southern California, with no waves and the occasional topless person. We went back and took a siesta on the ship in the afternoon and then went out for the night. We had a classic tourist dinner (16 of us that didn’t really speak Spanish, must have been a nightmare for the waiters). The food was great though, a lot of ham and cheese and bread. Then we found a small bar that was showing the Spain football game. They killed ...

... in the late 18th century and extended during World War 2. From the embrasures the cannons pointed up the coast and out to sea. The views were excellent. Then nearby is the Moorish castle, whose tower has survived 700 years of sieges by Spanish, Moorish and British and German armies and navies and also generations of tourists. We had heard many good reports of the Costa De La Luz, which is the correct name for this windy corner of ...

... farly uneasy to see a million of trains packed with dressed up, stoned and half-conscious people; they were shouting, dancing and staggering on the station, dashing towards the city centre. When our train finally arrived, delayed over 2 hours, it was stinking so much of sweat and alcohol that its windows were steamy and everything was sticky. I considered thanking God for the air-condition that helped to sort it out.

I was back home almost at midnight.

... see how to sail the ship. He's there right now. My classes are going well. I'm teaching today. The students are learning faster than I expected, and so I'm doing a bit of scrambling myself to make sure I'm well-prepared each time (In fact, I'm procrastinating a bit now... badgrrl). Every single day, there is a ship-wide class that is mandatory for all voyagers (staff, faculty, students, visitors, spouses) which I'm really enjoying. It's called Global Studies, and it is ...

So we have less than one month left in Granada!!! This past week was pretty rainy at the beginning, but then we got back to our summer weather at the end. Classes have been pretty much the same. We started watching a movie about gypsies in Spanish culture and we are going to start learning about flamenco. In Latin American Culture, we've been learning about music and cinema in Latin America (Mexico, Argentina, and ...

... that had raw egg in it. We decided to head back to the newer part of town, to walk around. We went in the Cathedral, which was huge. It is medieval gothic style, and absolutely beautiful. It was begun in 1402, and is actually the largest Roman Catholic Cathedral. Inside the Cathedral was the tomb of Christopher Columbus. The Cathedral has a bell tower which we climbed. The view of the city from the top was incredible. The whole Cathedral was absolutely astonishing ...