Espana!

Hola!

This “academic voyage,” as we’ve been told to call it, is AMAZING!

We started with some rough seas, due to an approaching hurricane and a storm a bit further north. I got super sick and missed my first day of classes. It was pretty terrible. But I’m much better now, after a couple days I got my sea legs and found a medicine that works to help with my seasickness. My classes are really cool and seem like they will be pretty easy. Everyone on the ship is really nice and I’ve made lots of friends.

The staff on board is really sweet. They clean our rooms everyday and serve us at meals, not like on a cruise, but they clear our plates and refill our drinks. There are a couple waiters that are really nice to me and treat me like a life-long learner (there are older folks on the ship with us that can sit in on our classes and take the trips in the ports, also). They always bring me fruit punch, even if it is not being served with the meal. I feel pretty bad about it, because I don’t ask them to do it, but they keep doing it.

After 7 days at sea, we finally arrived in Spain. And let me tell you, it is beautiful here.

The Spanish definitely have a different schedule than we do in America. Their day doesn’t start until about 10, when they have coffee. They eat breakfast around 11, lunch around 3, and dinner around 9-10. On the weekends, they buy drinks and go to the parks and drink together until around 12, then go to bars until 2, and then go to the clubs and they go ALL night. Everything is closed on Sundays and no one goes out at night.

On the first day, I explored the area with this girl I had met at lunch. They have these four walking tours that you can take independently, so we decided to take one. There are four colored lines painted on the sidewalk that take you past different areas and buildings and into the heart of the city. So, we explored for about two hours. Then, I met up with some friends on the ship and we walked to one of the beaches that is close by. Little did we know, all the beaches in Cadiz, maybe all of Spain, I wouldn’t know, are optional tops. So, we saw lots of boobs. Well, not lots, but enough. Don’t worry, mom, I kept mine on. That night I went to a Flamenco club with my music class and it was so awesome. It was a club that all the locals recommend for Flamenco, so a bunch of our teachers showed up there. But the dance and the music was so passionate, it was amazing. Then, I met up with some friends and we tried to go to a club, but ended up walking the entirety of the island for about three hours before calling it a night and heading back to the ship.

On the second day, I walked around the town again with some more friends. We tried to get to the castle a little off the island where the last James Bond was filmed, but found out it was closed because it is under construction. So we just walked around the city some and looked for souvenirs. I then went back to the ship for a nap, and wound up running into my other friends who were going to the beach. So I went with them. We had dinner and the ship and we going to try and go back out and see the sunset on the beach, but we missed it. We walked around for a bit looking for anything open and stumbled upon some type of ritual/hazing. It was really strange. There was a group of young men carrying a platform with cinder blocks on top and they had to take one step at a time. We had no clue what was going on, but we think it was a frat initiation. After walking around a bit, we joined the huge group of SAS students on the step of the cathedral to use the Internet. Later, we went to find a club we had heard about and when we got there, it was empty, so we just had a good time with our little group. I talked to the bouncer in my broken Spanish and it was pretty cool. After awhile, we headed back to the ship and passed out.

The third day was a bit more boring. I had pretty much been explored most of the city, so I spent some time on the Internet with some friends. That night, we went back to the same club as the previous night, and it was once again empty. So, we started walking back to the ship. This guy passed us and said “hi” and we were surprised because it was English. So we stopped and talked to him. He was from Ireland and had been in Cadiz for about four years. So he told us about some local bars and where all the hot spots were and at what time people go to them.

The next day was pretty easy. We went shopping for souvenirs and just relaxed. Later, around midnight, we went to one of the bars our Irish friend had told us about. It was actually really cool. And there were people there! It is a Cuban bar, and the owner is English and his wife is Cuban. They teach Spanish classes every Monday and Tuesday, so there were a lot of people in there that spoke English, which was awesome. Around 3:30, we went over to the club and there were people there! We were very surprised, but happy. So we stayed until 4:30 and went back to the ship.

The last day, we went to the beach. We didn’t stay long, because my eye was really bugging me. I went back to my cabin and took out my contacts and went to sleep. When I woke up, I couldn’t open my eye, so I went down to the doctor. Turns out I had an eye infection. I had to put eye drop in my eye every hour for 24 hours, which sucked. But it is better now. We left that night around 8 o’clock and headed towards Morocco!

Some things I learned in Spain:

You can get by if you know a little bit of Spanish

They don’t party until 2

A 20-minute walk to them is about 40 minutes

The beaches are topless

Overall Spain was awesome and I would definitely go back again.