Ay ay ay I am already behind on this blog. I've had computer problems all weekend, and it's been rainy here, so not much has happened, so here's my chance to catch up!

So on the 24th, I did two really fun things throughout the day. First of all, my program paid for a tour through Sevilla via double-decker bus! That was pretty fun. First-time experience there for me haha. OF COURSE I sat on the top deck! It was a beautiful day to tour the city. Unfortunately for the people on the right, there were some low-hanging limbs from trees at times that tried to clothesline them haha. Our tour started at the "Torre del Oro" which was part of a wall of defense back in the 13th century. The tour told us that the tower has been used throughout the years as a chapel, a prison, a store for gun powder and port offices. All these pictures can only attempt to capture the beauty of Seville, when really you have to be here, taking it all in to get the idea. All I can give you is a taste. We toured the main part of Seville on the east side of the Guadalquivir River for a while and then crossed over to the "old" part of Seville to the Triana district and the Isla de la Cartuja district. Of course calling it the "old" part of Seville doesn't do justice since the city is over 2000 years old itself! But here is a picture from the bus crossing one of the modern bridges that Seville has. We were on The Puente de la Barqueta and down the river you can see the amazing harp-shaped Puente de Alamillo. These bridges (5 in total) were constructed for preparation of the Expo '92, which I will discuss on another blog. All I'll say for now is they're pretty sweet to see! Then here's a picture that I took with one of my fellow ISEPS students, Erika. She along with the third of us, Phil, is from Cedarville University in Ohio. One of the last places we saw was the Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza. Built in the 18th-century, it is still used for "las corridas" (bullfights), and the matadors, like I said before, are some of the biggest celebrities here in Spain! Outside it you see horse-drawn carriages, which are located all throughout Seville for tours. We haven't done that yet, but we plan on it! We can always use a break when we walk 5 or so miles a day! Anyway, that was most of my afternoon. After the tour, I went shopping and bought some clothes that were of the European style, and I'm liking them very much. I'm still looking for that perfect pair of "zapatos" (shoes) to wear out to the "discotecas" (dance clubs)!




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This is where my day got SO much better. One of our directors, Macarena, is a HUGE futbol fan, and she had an extra ticket to the Sevilla F.C. (1 of 2 seville soccer teams) game that night! The first of us to reply got the ticket. I was second to Phil... But then during the tour, Macarena called me and said another person couldn't go, and she had ANOTHER ticket. OF COURSE I went! Phil met me at my apartment, and we walked to the game that night around 9:30. I had no idea where our seats would be, but when we followed Macarena in and she went down to the FOURTH ROW, I about fell over! It was AMAZING. The atmosphere. The perfectly green grass. The chanting of 70,000+ Spaniards for their home team. It was a sea of red and white adrenaline. Electric. The game started a little after 10 p.m. (remember we're on a later daily schedule over here) and the rumble of the crowd could probably be heard for miles. For those of you who know the "Superfan" at IC, there was definitely one of those at the game. I'm sure he goes to every game... He came walking right past us supporting the team decked out in his home team's colors and pumping up the crowd. Of COURSE I had to take a picture of the player with my favorite number! Sevilla F.C. was in white and they played a team from Barcelona (don't remember the name). Here are some more pictures of the action from the game. I captured a lot of video on my camera too and I plan on throwing together a video, but for now, enjoy the stills.

















And at the end of all the madness, Sevilla won 2-0!! They scored both goals in the 2nd half, and the crowd was going craaaaazyyy!! "OLE OLE OLE!" Here is a picture of the outside of the stadium. That is the name of the stadium on the top. It was one of the best sporting events I have EVER been to! OLE!! There had to be thousands of mopeds parked everywhere outside, and the mass exodus of people was like a dam breaking after the game was over. What a night! I'll never forget it!

Lo siento amigos!

Well I'm already two days behind on my blog, so I'm dedicating my free afternoon to updating my life in Seville the past two days. Wow. Wow. Wow. Or as the Spaniards say, "Ay ay ay..." It's more amazing here each day. First, I need to discuss with you the schedule that the Sevillanos follow compared to the US so you're not confused at when I do the activities that I do. Breakfast is around 10 en mi casa, lunch is at 2:30, and dinner is at 9:30. After lunch, many businesses close down for...literally...nap time. "Una siesta." For 2 or 3 hours, it's rest time in Seville. The whole city doesn't stop what it's doing, but many people personally honor the time period with rest. It's wonderful. I remember all those days back in high school... freshman year biology right after lunch... sometimes I could barely stay awake!

Ok so this blog is dedicated to two nights ago. After dinner at 9:30, I decided to walk around Seville and take some nighttime pictures of various historical places. It was beautiful. I stopped at a few restaurants along the way to have a cruzcampo, which if you read one of my previos blogs, you know that it's the town favorite here. I must note something about drinking over here. "No es una cosa mala." aka It's not bad. First off, the drinking age is 18, but that still doesn't matter to the Sevillanos. They don't view drinking as a vice. You don't see drunkards in bars everywhere. What you see is people, young and old, out having a good time with their friends. Most of the time with their drinks they are having 'tapas' which are small servings of food. Most of them are 'deliciosos.' The point I'm trying to make is that no one here has the mentality of "Let's get drunk tonight," which I know many Americans have. Our drinking age will probably never get lowered to 18 because I don't think we will ever grow out of that mentality, which is sad. The purpose of the nightlife in Seville is going out with your friends, finding new places to eat, meeting new people, and just having a damn good time. They actually view a lot of drinking at once as an insult to them. Hello, culture shock. At one restaurant, I sat outside and watched a group of men who all had to be at least 70, and they were talking and laughing about many different things, and it was beautiful and really had me wishing my friends and I could have be doing the same at that moment.

So like I said, I walked around Seville from around 10:30 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. taking pictures. I will show you and tell you about some of them here. The first one we have is the Seville Cathedral (above). Huge is an understatement. I can't fit a picture of the entire building in one photo. It has a really tall tower called "La Giralda" that is on the other side. You can see the tip of it in this picture in the middle on the top (the brightest spire). This cathedral was constructed in the late 12th century and is claimed to be the largest Catholic/medieval/Gothic cathedral in the world. "It's huge! It's huge! And boy, is it ever big..." Here's another picture (above) of a part of the cathedral, this one of "La puerta de la Ascencion." Above the door in stone and hard to see here is a beautiful relief of the Assumption of the Virgin. I have yet to go in this church yet, but it's high up on my list of things to do! Above is a picture of a plaza outside of "El Banco de Espana." The bank is just to the right of the picture and you can see it in my "Cena y una pelicula" blog. There are many people around this area during the day because the shopping district is very close to here. Above we have the "Iglesia de Santa Catalina." I stumbled upon this gem on my way back toward my house. Notice the moped sitting outside. I must note that mopeds are EVERYWHERE in Seville. They own the streets. They drive everywhere. They park anywhere. I wish I had one haha.

Anyway, that concludes my night-time adventure for that specific day. These pictures were the best of the best that I took. I hope you enjoy keeping up with my blog. I'm trying my best to keep it interesting and informative. Now time to work on yesterday's blog! Adios!
-Ryan-

Actividades hoy

So I rolled out of bed today to the dismay of an alarm that I did not want to have ringing. Kind of funny, isn't it?... I'm in Seville, Spain right now, and I don't want to roll out of bed! Bad habits die hard, I guess... I haven't still exactly adjusted to the eating/sleeping schedule, but it's getting there! I've decided that rain follows me wherever I go. I'm not talking your average daily showers. I'm talking torrential downpour. FYI: It's NOT suppose to rain THAT much in Spain...maybe 4 inches all semester I'd say for a fall average... Well it rained here today. It was extremely humid most of the day, but nothing was out of control where I went. I watched on the news where other parts of Spain were rocked and had flooding. Scary stuff. But enough with the negative talk!

Highlights: The 2 other students from the US and I went to the university today to meet with our academic adviser. He's a bit crazy, but he's very passionate about what he does, and sometimes I think that's what it takes. After the meeting, us 3 decided that we are at Hogwarts. Seriously, the university looks like it's straight out of the movie (pictures coming soon...camera battery was dead...) I am Harry, the other chico has fire red there, therefore he is Ron, the girl has curly hair (aka Hermione) and our professors could be doubles for Dumbledore and McGonagall. We joked about that for a while. Afterward, we went to the Plaza del Centro, which has many stores and food stops along the way. I am currently looking for a nice pair of shoes to fit in with the Sevillanos. I found a cool store that is pretty much the equivalent of Journeys in the US! Anyway, afterward I came back home and had another great dinner with Pepi. I forget the name, but here's a picture. Now I'm off to bed, because tomorrow I have to figure out what classes I want to take. Adios amigos!
-Ry-

El primer domingo en Sevilla

Estoy muy cansado! aka I'm friggin' tired! I finally stayed up all day to try to adjust to this whole jet-lag thing, and I'm about ready to fall asleep. 'Pepe y yo' are watching a movie in Spanish right now... "Assault on Precinct 13" I believe it is called. Let's see... highlights of the day. I woke up this morning to get ready to meet up with my advisor, Macarena. I got out of bed after 2 alarms, took a shower, got dressed, then checked my phone and noticed I had a text from her that said she was rescheduling our meeting for tomorrow because of the forecast of rain all day. (p.s. It barely rained all day...) For "el desayuno" (breakfast), I had toast and hot chocolate milk... Pepi had me add vinegar and oil to "la tostada" and it was a little crunchy, but still really good. After that I relaxed until 'el almuerzo' while working on all of my pictures I have taken up until now. I still haven't got around to taking pictures of the room, but it'll happen. 'El almuerzo' was around 3 p.m. and ohhhh was it amazing! Ternera, ensalsa, compatata y chanpiño, ensalada de pasta con bonito, juevo duro, pimiento marron, y la pasta (spelling check on all of those)(see pictures above) After that I had a good talk with one of Ana's friends about how Star Wars: Episode 2 had a part that was filmed in Seville. After that, I finally got to meet the other students in my program. We walked around Seville a bit and then stopped at a bar to share some drinks. I found out that beer is cheaper than Coca-Cola here, so naturally I had some. Apparently it's the best beer in Seville. Cruzcampo is the name (below) It was pretty good too! The bar gradually filled up with futbol fans who all turned out to watch the derby game between Sevilla and Real Betis. The game ended in a tie, but damn those fans were loyal to their teams. The names of the other 2 students (1 chico y 1 chica) are Phil and Erika. They are fun people to be around and I look forward to exploring Sevilla with them in the days and weeks to come! Here are some random pictures I took after the game. We walked to the river and then back to our respective homes. Overall, it was a great day to just soak in Seville. On the way back to dinner, we saw a festival going on, but no idea what for, so we decided to check it out. I saw some kids dancing and they were absolutely adorable! (See video below**) For dinner, I came back home and had "sopa" (soup) with Pepi. It was alright, but I think it had a peppermint leaf in it or something, and it just had a unique taste... But it's taking me forever to type this blog because I keep falling asleep and watching this movie... Anyway, that is all for now! Hasta pronto! -RDB-

Cena y una pelicula

Time to learn some Spanish! First off, "la cena," or supper! And "la pelicula," which is a movie! That was tonight's combination of fun. Before that, I went on a walking tour of downtown Sevilla with my advisor, Macarena. It was georgeous. It's amazing how compactly perfect a city of over 1 million residents is when you walk down the narrow streets and pathways. We walked from "mi casa" (house) to "el centro de Sevilla" (the center of Seville). We went to a restaurant on a beautiful walkway covered in awnings stretching from building to building with hundreds of stores to shop in down below. (p.s. There are Starbucks on almost every corner, it seems, as well...) Then we walked to "la Universidad de Sevilla" (my school!) and then back home. The weather was amazing. Seeing the people all out and about just living it up was amazing. The scenery was beyond amazing! I only took one picture because I was way too preoccupied translating Macarena's Spanish as she told me about everything. I can't wait to just get lost in the city myself and emerge as someone who has become a part of this modern yet classic culture. We walked past a present day bank that before was "el carcel" (prison) in which Miguel de Cervantes wrote his timeless novel, "Don Quixote." !Que historia! For "la cena," Pepi cooked me some "pollo" (chicken) "con verduras" (with vegetables) and then I had "una ensalada" (salad) with market-fresh "los tomates" (tomatos) and "queso" (cheese) topped with "el aceite" (oil) and "el vinagre" (vinegar) and then later some "melon" (melon!) on the side. As Ferris Bueller would say, "It was SO choice!" Afterward, we watched "Ases Calientes" (Smokin' Aces) and "Stardust," both American movies, but in Spanish. I needed subtitles, because damn do those Spaniards talk fast! I'll get there though. For now it's off to "la cama" (bed). !Que tengas una buena noche amigos! -RDB-

Segun Dia

Well I survived. The endless flights. The jet-lag. The foreign airports. The passport checks. The baggage checks. The language barrier. The food. The night life. I survived. Here we are. Day 2. El segun dia. AHHH I have SO much that I want to talk about, but I'm on a short schedule right now, so I will do my best to tell you all the best things and worry about the rest later. Highlights: I took the most amazingly breathtaking picture of my life at sunrise flying into Portugal. No words can explain. I'll just show you here. I know it's really really good when I show it to Dad and he tells me I could sell it! On the opposite end of the highlight spectrum, my flight OUT of Lisboa, Portugal a Seville, Espana was delayed right before we took off from the runway. I politely asked the British flight attendant what the problem was, because her seat was next to me. She said it was a communication problem. So we taxied off the runway, and then airport security boarded the plane and escorted a man off. Communication error, eh? Try drug smuggler! Yeah... no lies. It was funny. It was a very very very small plane that fit about 45 people and I boarded the plane right next to the guy that they arrested. It was sweet! The flight lasted about 35 minutes, yet we still got an in-flight meal (see picture below)! We received hot tea, a turkey and cheese sandwich, and a granola bar. Not bad! I arrived in Seville and the weather was BEAUTIFUL! Correct that, because it still is beautiful. A refreshing breeze is blowing in my window right now and it's the perfect temperature. My next blog will consist of room pics, so just be patient with that! However, if you want a free video tour/chat with me, download the program SKYPE and setup an account so we can stay in touch! My SKYPE name is ryandanielbishop so feel free to add me! I talked to my parents on it last night and today, and it works amazingly! Anyway, back to the highlights: when I exited the Seville airport, I had no idea what Macarena, one of my advisors, looked like, and I guess she didn't recognize me with short hair and glasses on, so I was just wandering around the airport for a good 20 minutes, surprisingly NOT worried until she came up to me and asked with a strong Spanish accent in English, "Are you Ryan?!" I think she was more relieved than I was when I said "Si!" haha. You'd think that a kid in a foreign country for the first time all by himself would be a little more freaked out, but I wasn't! I just needed a nap haha. Anyway, she took me to my host family's apartment in the city. My host mom is named Senora Josefa Naranjo Martinez. She's amazing! I don't think she's even 5 feet tall (I'm bending down in the picture!) She cooked me my first REAL Spanish meal, Paella, which is a popular rice and seafood dish in Spain. If you look closely in the picture below (click to enlarge), you will see a tentacle in the middle of the pan. Yeah... that's a squid! It was good! Anyway, Josefa, who's nickname is Pepi, has a daughter, Ana Isabel, who is around my age. I went out with her and her friends last night! Highlights: paid for drinks with my first Euros, met some very fast-speaking Spanish chicos (one of whom looked EXACTLY like Robert from Everybody Loves Raymond!), and then finished off the food and drinks with a toast/shot of Spanish rum! We were going to go to a discoteca (dance club), but Ana wanted to come home and I still needed to unpack and get situated, but we plan on going again soon! It was SO much fun! Anyway, I need to get ready to meet up with Macarena, but I will list a few other highlights of the trip quickly before I go: I saw my first bidet in Pepi's bathroom (still haven't used it!). All the cars here are super small but really cool. I have my own room with a closet, bunk bed, desk, etc. (pictures soon). I need a good pair of dress shoes to fit in here, but the guys last night liked my VANS! The Davis Cup (tennis) is going on right now in Madrid. I watched Rafael Nadal play an American on tv, and I was rooting for Raf haha! I watched pretty much the equivalent of E!News here with Pepi. Spanish word of the day: torero = bullfighter. They are the BIGGEST celebrities here in Spain! Anyway, I could keep going and going, but I need to get back to Spanish life... necesito ducharse! Hasta luego, amigos!
-Ry-

Let the adventure begin...

I wrote this in my journal on my flight out of St. Louis.

... Here we go... More like here Ryan goes. The time has come. I'm on my way to Spain! Seville to be exact. To be more exact, it's pronounced "Say-VEE-uh." There's your first Spanish word of the day. So I just flew out of STL on my way to Philly and then I'll be hopping the pond to Spain! Voy a estar alli para un semestre. Three months in a new place, a foreign world, an undiscovered magical country! Well... not QUITE undiscovered... but to ME at least! I left my life in the midwestern US to... what do great writers say here... discover unknown truths, find my 'calling'...whatever works for you. All I am going to say is I am ready for one helluva ride! Highlights already: I talked to a venerable old man at the STL airport about running track. He saw me in my 8 year old comfy track t-shirt that still fits me. You have to love it when someone refers to races in yards. 'I used to love running the 440...' I flew out of STL and captured some aerial pictures of SIUE, Litchfield, and Greenville (for Emily!) that you can see here. (Click on each to see a better view) The Litchfield one is almost too far away to make out anything, but if you look hard you will see I-55 and the 2 water towers and Lake Lou Yaegar on the far right. For now, I am just listening to some tunes and anxiously awaiting my arrival in Spain! Eso es el primer dia! !Viva a Espana!

-Ryan-