I'm coming home! (Bilingual version)

¡Hola todos! ¡Voy a regresar a los Estados Unidos en viernes...dos días! ¡Puedes creerlo?! España ha sido buenísimo. Este país, y más específico, Sevilla es uno de mis hogares en este mundo. Por siempre, amaré Sevilla. No quiero salir Sevilla, pero es el tiempo para regresar. Estoy emocionante para ver mi familia, mis amigos, y mi ciudad natal. Me encantan los Estados Unidos y Tennessee. Por siempre es mi hogar. Estoy un poquito triste, pero más contento. Voy a blog más después de regrese. No tenía tiempo, mis amigos! Lo siento mucho! Vale, no diré adiós. Sólo voy a decir, en mi mejor acento andaluz, "'ta lue-oh'". Sólo voy a decir hasta luego. Éste no es el último tiempo, mi precioso Sevilla. Vale. Ta luego, mi amigo.

Hey everyone! I'm going back to the United States on Friday! Can you believe it? Spain has been wonderful. This country, specifically Sevilla, will always be one of my homes. Forever, I'll love Sevilla. I'm excited to go back to see my family, my friends, and my dear hometown. I love the US and Tennessee. I'm a little sad to leave, but more excited. I'm going to blog after I return, because guys, I haven't had time. Okay, I will not say goodbye. I'll only say "ta lue-oh" in my best Andalusian accent. This isn't the last time, my beautiful Sevilla. Ta luego, my friend.

My flight leaves at 8:35 a.m. (1:35 Central time) from Sevilla on Friday morning. I'll arrive in Nashville at 9:00 p.m. (Central time), assuming everything will be on time. Let's just hope that happens! I can't wait to tell you guys about all this. In person. It's been the absolute time of my life. I will never forget all this. Really. Feel free to ask me any questions in person if you see me! I'll be blogging on the 3 country trip I took, Feria, Granada/Córdoba. I'll try to do those as soon as possible. Thanks for reading this blog, guys. I hope you've gotten to know a little bit about Europe through all this. I'll see you guys soon!

"Quiero ser una gota de lluvia." I want to be a raindrop.

In 5th grade, I was taking the writing assessment that the state of Tennessee required me to take. The prompt was "Pretend you're a raindrop. What would your life be like?" I remember that I wrote something about falling into a rainfall meter that was owned by my uncle, Brian. I then wrote how he took the water to my grandmother's house so that I, along with my liquid compadres, could be used in a hummingbird feeder. Let's just say that 21 year old Tanner is slightly different than 11-year old Tanner. This is my take on raindrops as I was sitting in a bus, in the rain, between Granada and Sevilla somewhere in the mountains of southern Spain. Enjoy.

I want to live like a rain drop. But I don't want to be just any rain drop. I want to be a rain drop that is just so fortunate to land on a car. Watch them. Watch the tiny highway system they create on a window as a car drives down the road. With guns ablazin', they smack the side of the window only to stay stationary for just a split second. Then, one, two, three, four raindrops come together to create a little liquid rocket ship and they shoot across the window. Once their tiny journey is over they join all the rocket ships that came before them at the bottom of the car. They then make a big pod and fly down onto the road. From there, they're picked up either by other cars or evaporation. Why do I want to do that? Well, it's not the journey that's important for the raindrops. It's what they leave behind. As they shoot across the window, they leave a clear jet stream that contributes to the tiny little highway system. With these little streams, tiny little water rocket ships or even the lonely, straggling single raindrops can jump onto that little jet stream and shoot along with ease. I want to leave a path. I want to live life fast and furious and see and do all I can but all along, I'd like to burn a trail across the world so others can do exactly that. Then as they drop off the car to what later becomes the final resting spot of these little rain drops. Except, just because their life is over doesn't mean they aren't continuing to aid in this thing called "life". They are working together to help animals, plants, and other organisms live. They're creating amazing bodies of water just to add to the beauty of this amazing planet. They're creating that mud puddle in that driveway in Lawrenceburg, TN that that little 5 year old named Tanner rides his battery powered Jeep through only because he thinks he's "mud man". They assist so much in this world simply by being exactly as God created them. This is what I'd like to be. A raindrop.

Walk from Isabel's House

Another video blog!

Morocco. Maroc. Marruecos. المغرب.

On March 29, I went to Morocco.

The day started with me meeting Becky and the rest of the DiscoverSevilla.com (DiscoverExcursions) group at the Portuguese Consulate at 9:30 and jumpin’ on a bus. We jumped on this FULL bus and hit the road for Tarifa, Spain. There are two ports where one can catch a ferry to Morocco: Algeciras, Spain and Tarifa, Spain. After the 3 hour ride and the Toy Story 3 watchin’ on the bus, we finally got to the port. There, we loaded a ferry (pictures below) and headed to Africa. It was so cool that we could see Africa from the land of Spain. We stood on one continent and looked at another. How cool is that?! So here are the pictures of the ferry.

 That's Africa, y'all.

Okay, now we’re in Morocco! After going through the “security” which was just people shoving each other through some “metal detectors” that did absolutely nothing, we were boarding the bus that also rode with us on the ferry. As we’re exiting the port on the Morocco side (Tangiers, Morocco), I look to the right outside the window only to see 5 teenage boys running at our bus. We’re driving and they JUMP ON OUR BUS. They begin riding with us on the back of the bus. Now, at this point, I’m not sure what to think. I’m wondering if this is normal. I mean, this is my first time in a third world country, so I have no idea. Turns out, they were actually trying to get in the bottom of the bus to get our luggage. Someone got out and ran them off, though, so it was all good. So, that was my introduction to the country. From there, we drove about an hour to our REALLY cool hotel. It was on the beach, but the beach wasn’t visible. We were covered by trees. It was set up like a resort. Super cool. That night, we ate at the restaurant in the hotel (like we did the second night as well). The interesting thing about this restaurant is that they bring the big plate and uncover it and put it on the middle of your table. Then you just get your food off that and put it on your plate. Also, everyone just smokes inside the restaurant. The weirdest thing to me, however, was the fact that there were cats walking around the restaurant. Like, real cats. They just walked around, ran under the table, or whatever else. It was so weird. After eating, we ran off to bed and went to sleep.

Okay, it’s March 30^th now! We are headed to Chefchaoeun, Morocco. We got on the bus, and rode for 2 hours through what was quite possible the most gorgeous landscape I’ve ever seen. Seeing mountains in North Africa was something I don’t think I’ll ever forget. We finally get to the city and meet our hilarious tour guide. First, about the Moroccan people, they’re wonderful. But, like other Arabic-speaking people, they’re body language is so foreign to us. They’re in your face, loud, and mean-sounding. They SCREAM at each other just in regular conversation. It was so odd and off-putting. Anyway, so he tours us around the “Blue City” for a little while and it was SO picturesque. We did the tour and then hit the streets to shop and have free time. The cool thing about shopping there is the fact that EVERYTHING is bartering. You never accept anyone’s price. I did all my haggling and everything in Spanish. It’s funny because when I’m in a foreign country, Spanish just comes out first. I automatically assume the people speak Spanish. I don’t know why, but it just happens. So the Moroccans spoke Spanish and English with me like it was no problem. As a people, they speak many languages. There’s several people there that speak 3 or 4 languages. I bought little keychains, pins, and leather products and then we left this city to return to our hotel, have dinner again, and crash. Overall, I loved it. Before I went to bed, though, I went to sit on the beach by myself. It was really cool. It was completely dark and it was just me and the ocean in Morocco. Gosh, I loved it. Here are a few more pictures of Chefchaoeun:

Tour Guide 

The whole city was in the mountains.

So then, on the 31^st, we got up, and left for Assilah. We drove once again on the bus for what seemed to be 110 hours and finally got to Assilah. Assilah  was another really cool city. To me, though, it wasn’t as cool. Whereas our hotel was on the Mediterranean, Assilah was along the Atlantic Ocean. They had some more amazing views of the ocean. However, it rained like the whole time we were there as well. We didn’t really get to do much there because it wasn’t that huge. We didn’t have a tour guide or anything. We did the ocean and things and once again hit the streets for some shopping. I once again haggled and bought some more handmade things. We then left and headed toward the...CAMELS. We drove like 30 minutes or so, stopped at a cool cave, stopped at a restaurant to eat, and then hit the camels. What’s funny is that the camels were just on the side of the road in like a driveway. We rode around a tiny circle and then got off. We weren’t on the camels long, but hey, I can say I rode a camel in Africa. We then left the camels and headed back to Tangiers (the port) and headed back to good ole Spain. Below are some pictures of Assilah and the camels.

Overall, my Morocco trip was nothing short of life changing. Although I spent less than 48 hours there, I learned so much about a new culture. It was truly a different world than anything I’d ever seen and I’m better because of it. If you ever get the chance to go to this beautiful country, do it.

Semana Santa

Sorry for waiting so long to blog again! Once again, I said it wouldn’t be long, and it was. Well, this is the blog for Semana Santa. I’ll blog about Morocco really soon. Anyway, here we go.

La Semana Santa means “Holy Week”. As you probably know, Spain is a non-institutionalized Catholic region. They, in their history, were institutionalized, but now they have religious freedom. Because of this history, basically every piece of history and every tradition is connected to Catholicism. Semana Santa began something like 500 years ago. What Semana Santa is is each church has their own “paso” (float) or “Virgen” (Virgin Mary on a float) and sometimes both. Actually, some churches have several. Each paso or virgin (just call them both pasos) has its own route, time, and length. With each paso walks the “nazarenos” which translates to Nazarenes. These are the men (and more recently, women) that are wearing the garb akin to the Ku Klux Klan. The nazarenos’ uniforms are based upon the Spanish Inquisition outfits. The KKK then used these uniforms as their uniforms. The two are completely disconnected. Here is a picture of the nazarenos I’ve just described.

So anyway, that is La Semana Santa in a nutshell. I had the ones I wanted to see, as did my friend Becky. We hit the road on Sunday and, after moving through the 100 gazillion people Spaniards, got to see a paso that’s called “La Borriquita” at the Iglesia del San Salvador (San Salvador Church). Here’s a picture of that paso. Throughout that day, we saw La Estrella (The Star) too. My old host brother, Bartolomé, was in that one as a nazareno. Throughout the week, we saw La Macarena and a couple other ones. Sometimes I didn’t even know what we were looking at. Haha, that’s just how it was.

  

Overall, I didn’t love Semana Santa. It was really cool getting to see the pasos because they were GORGEOUS. But, there were so many people it was almost hard to enjoy. You had to try to make it through all the people all over the city and then spend about 3 hours standing through the whole process of 1 paso. The floats themselves took about 1 ½ hours, but you had to get there so early to stand to have a good spot. I’d give Semana Santa a 4 out of 10 if I were scoring it. But hey, chalk it up to yet another experience! Below are a couple of pictures.

La Borriquita

La Estrella

La Macarena (this is one of the most famous statues in Sevilla, it's a Mary that is crying and her face is on postcards, shirts, etc.)

I really am not sure what this one is because it was one that I just happened to run into and couldn't get past until it passed so I could cross the road.

Video Blog (Vlog)!

Here is a video! Let's see if this will work properly.

Lisbon and a Big Announcement

I apologize for just putting this blog up! I arrived back from Portugal last Sunday, but I am just now posting this. I’m sorry, my loyal subscribers, I’m sorry. However, here I go.

I went to Portugal last weekend! We arrived on the first day after something like 5 hours on the bus (AGH!). We arrived in Lisbon, or Lisboa in Portuguese and Spanish. In Portugal, they pronounce the ‘s’ with a “sh” sound. So, it’s Leesh-boa. Anyway, so we arrived and went directly to our hotel after a tiny little bus tour as we got to our hotel. So we kind of hung out there, ran to get coffee, and started our bus tour. Oh but wait. We’re in Europe and moving around isn’t that easy right now. PROTESTS. There was a demonstration going on so we couldn’t do the bus tour so we had to walk EVERYWHERE that day. We walked through the very hilly city, saw some shops, and headed up the hill to the castle. There we got an awesome view of the city. We could see the estuary of Lisbon and where some of the most famous voyages began and ended. In Lisbon, the buildings are colorful (most of the time) but the roofs are red. It created an amazing view. I’m actually posting a picture this time, you’re welcome, my loyal individuals.

So we left there, and walked through one of the famous neighborhoods of Lisbon where all the stereotypical, European houses are with the clotheslines draped across from building to building as you walk under them and the flowers growing in the window boxes. We left there and had some free time which we used to eat and have some amazing coffee.

The next morning (Saturday), we woke up and went on a real bus tour this time. We went with a tour guide this time. Se llama Paula. Her name is Paula. So, we rode around and saw some of Lisbon, and then went to another beautiful church. The funny thing is, churches and their beauty are becoming so common that I’m not appreciating them as much. I want that to stop. So we left the church and headed to a tower over looking where the Tagus River touches the Atlantic Ocean. It was, you guessed it....surreal. We left there, went downtown and down to Plaza de Comercio (that’s in Spanish, I don’t know what it was in Portuguese, maybe that) which means Commercial Square. That is where all the markets and things were back in the olden times when the harbor in Portugal was THE HARBOR in Europe. So after that we had free time. We enjoyed some wonderful strawberry orange juice and some good food as we overlooked this harbor. So surreal. We left there, got on the train and headed to Cascais to see the Atlantic Ocean from the other side. We rode a commuter train which is essentially subway above ground. We got there and immediately went for what we always do...coffee. We sat, drank our coffee, and stared in the direction of our beautiful and wonderful homeland, the good ole U.S. of A. We then hit the water. Was it cold? YES. It was like ice. We walked around in it so much that our feet became numb. We then stayed and watched the sunset and it was WONDERFUL. We finally left there, returned to the hotel, went to get some pizza, and returned to the hotel yet again to watch some American TV. They had a bunch of American TV channels on the TVs and we were EXCITED.

The next morning, we got up, packed up, and came back to Spain. Portugal was definitely a different kind of place to me, but I liked it. I’d like to come to the beaches of Portugal in somewhere other than Lisbon one day. So, that was Portugal.

Onto the serious thing I wanted to tell everyone. I apologize if it seems depressing, but to me it is. So, after an eventful week and events which I had zero control over, I will be moving to a different house with a different family tomorrow. I know, I know. I have absolutely enjoyed my time here at the Badanta Martinez household. It’s been amazing. Isabel is an amazing woman and I hope I can stay in contact. I can’t really go any details about what’s happened, but I’ll just say that my roommate and I could simply not live together anymore. That’s neither good nor bad, but it sometimes just happens. We decided to not live together anymore and our company (ISA) decided that it was the best decision for me to move out. Was I happy? Not really. But ya know what, life isn’t fair. You don’t always get what you want. However, I’m excited. I get to move in with a whole new mom in a whole new place. I’m moving into El Centro (The Center) neighborhood. It’s a single woman in her 40s who does work. I really don’t know any more details other than I won’t have a roommate. I really think this is the right decision after everything, although this isn’t what I pictured as my best option. I’m learning thought that sometimes when God’s ready to put you somewhere else, it’s going to happen whether you want it to or not. I’m supposed to learn something else now! I’ve also learned that in the moments in which you’re the most uncomfortable, you learn the most. I plan on learning a lot over here in this beautiful city so that’s just right! Anyway, this isn’t easy for me or my host mom. Thank you all for your support and I’ll make sure I pass along to my host mom that you all love her! She’s a wonderful lady and I’ll miss her very much. I don't care what my new host mom calls me. I'll always be Tahnee, dang it. Once again, thank you all.

God is in control and when that is the case, everything is perfect.

Photo Blog is being updated!

Okay everyone, before I ride off to Portugal tomorrow, I decided to upload a little bit of my photo class projects onto my Photography Blog (tannersphotographyblog.com) if you'd like to go to them! If not, okay bye.

Click here to go to Photo Blog


If the link doesn't work, just type it into the search bar. 

"Ciao, ciao, grazie. Ciao, grazie, ciao": My trip to Italia

My trip to Italy. Whoa. What a whirlwind this was. I apologize for the length of this blog.

               

First, I left my house at 7:10 a.m. (still dark over here) in order to make my 9:30 flight to Milan. I catch the bus to go to the airport at around 7:45 and get to the airport around 8:10. I have no problem going through security or anything and then just wait on my flight. The thing about RyanAir (discount airline I flew with) is that they don’t give you assigned seats so everyone stands in line as soon as the gate is announced to get the best seat. So I stood, along with everyone else, and waited on my flight to board. Anyway, it did and I landed in Milan on time. I only had about two hours in Milan, so I rushed to the Metro in order to take the metro to the Duomo (cathedral). I only knew the way because of my wonderful friend Tara (woop woop shoutout) who is currently in Barcelona as I’m typing this. Anyway, I go to the cathedral in Milan. The outside is unlike anything I’d ever seen. I’ve seen quite a few cathedrals in my two trips to Europe, but this (fittingly being my first Italian one) was different. It’s actually the 4^th largest gothic cathedral in Europe (right behind Sevilla). Mind you, this is my first time in Italy, first time visiting a new city on my own, and also my first trip since I’ve been studying abroad. I walked in, paid the 2 euro to take pictures, and began snapping away. It was such an odd feeling in that cathedral. It was almost dark and gloomy. It was very interesting. The part that I was really wanting to see was a nail from the Crucifixion. Well, I start looking for a red light up high. Those were literally the instructions given to me by Tara. I finally find it and just begin staring. I then notice I’m THE ONLY one staring at what is quite possibly the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. However, I just keep staring. I then decide to sit down...still staring. I begin to think. There I was, in the middle of Milan, Italy, by myself, and staring at a relic from the most important event in history to me...you know what, scratch that, to humanity, to the world, to the universe! I had a tiny little moment by myself in which it was hard to hide my emotion. I couldn’t get over the fact that there it was. That thing touched JESUS. That thing was used to CRUCIFY JESUS. “CRUCIFY, CRUCIFY” kept playing over and over in my head. I could go on, but I won’t. I then, discovering I won’t be able to get to other things if I don’t hurry, snap a few more pictures and exit the cathedral. I go back out into the square to see the beautiful sunshine just peeking out to see me. It was a perfect moment. For a split second, things got super surreal again. Then, reality snapped back (or was it the 9287352 African men trying to sell me “free jewelry”) in and I walked to the famous mall to the side of the cathedral. In this mall there was a small bull on the ground. What you’re supposed to do is spin on the bull’s testicles. Nope. Didn’t make that up. There’s even a divot from where people have done it so much. Why is this a custom? I truly have no idea. Maybe it means good luck? Maybe it doesn’t? I have no idea. So, after that, I walked around some more in that square, went to a souvenir shop, and headed back to the train station. There, I had Burger King, sat and rested, and boarded my train to Rome.

I get on the train to head to Rome and am slightly excited about this whole idea of “high speed rail through Italy” thing I’m about to discover. We start going and it is SUCH a smooth ride! I was very impressed, TrenItalia. After a beautiful ride through the Italian countryside and about 3 hours ride, I finally arrive at Rome Termini and meet my gracious little hostess, Claudia. We board the Bronx-esque metro and arrive at her house. After making a few phone calls to assure everyone I was in Rome safe and sound (because I wasn’t able to contact anyone all day), we left to tour a little and go get pizza. We walked by the Coliseum, Pantheon, and countless other historical relics of Rome. Then, onto the pizza. Not just any pizza, oh no. We went to Pizza Buffetto (sp?). This place was listed on all kinds of websites as a must-do, given awards, and covered in people. The best part about it is that it’s run by just old Italian people in a tiny little hole-in-the-wall restaurant. They stone bake the pizza, by the way. We all get large pizzas because the pizza is too thin to split and a pitcher of red wine. The wine was great and the pizza was better. So, there’s my first Italian meal. We then go home after just chilling at the restaurant for a while and go to bed because I have to get up and go to Florence the next morning.

           

Okay, so everything that’s happened to this point has happened on February 28^th, all in one day (the day the Pope stepped down, remember?). I get up and catch my 8:35 train to Florence. Another great train ride and I get to what, in my opinion, could be a contender for the most beautiful city in the world. I’ve seen Paris, southern France, northern and southern Spain, northern Italy (as of this point, yes), the beautiful southeastern United States, but NOTHING compares to this. It is just like I stepped into a painting. It’s quintessentially Italian. That’s the best way I know to describe it. Okay, so once again, I’m in Florence by myself. Which this idea, being over here and all, is really not that bad to me. I actually quite like it. I can do whatever I want whenever I want. The first thing I do in Florence is hit the cathedral because, according to Claudia, it’s beautiful. It’s once again a whole other experience when it comes to cathedrals. It’s a COMPLETELY different style than Milan or even Sevilla for that matter. Quite frankly, I don’t even know what style it is. I get in and begin my super touristy time in the cathedral by buying the ever famous audioguide. This is just a cordless phone-like contraption that you press numbers and listen to the facts of the object you’re looking at. It’s quite convenient, but in addition to its strap around my neck, my backpack, and my huge Canon strap around my neck, I am one word:  TOURIST. I don’t care though. I spend LOTS of time in that cathedral looking at everything. Once again, please add me on Facebook if you’d like to see pictures because it’s just easier on me that way. If you’d like me to post pictures and things if you don’t have Facebook, just leave me a comment or shoot me an email (nbeck1@utk.edu) and I’ll try to start doing it. The cathedral in Florence has a GIANT dome that at which, once again, I simply stared in amazement. It was just wonderful. I left there and began my journey of looking at other things. I just start walking toward the eventual goal of the Piazza Michelangelo (Michelangelo Square) in order to see the view of the city. The fun part is just walking through the streets, shops, and restaurants on the way. So I make it to the top of it (FINALLY) and see one of the most (here is this word again) amazing sights I’ve ever seen:  the city of Florence. By the way, Florence is in the middle of Tuscany, so that’s the scenery that surrounds Florence. I can see several cathedrals, basilicas, and other important historically relevant buildings. I come off there, eat at a restaurant and a couple cafes (wonderful cappuccino) and then head on back to the train station for my ride back. I spent a total of like 8 hours in Florence. So then, I get on my train back to Rome and here I go!

                
Okay, so that was March 1^st. I had spent two whole days in Italy and the best was yet to come because I had 2 whole days left in Rome! I get back, meet Claudia at her house, and have dinner there. I then set off to meet my friend from school, Will, who is studying abroad in France. I then meet his friend, Brandon, also studying in Pau, France. So, we meet up, go have a drink, and call it a night to meet in the morning. The next morning, we met at a metro and headed to the Vatican. The Vatican wasn’t the madhouse I’m expecting it is now with Conclave. It hadn’t started yet when I was there. That day, we saw St. Peter’s Basilica and the tomb of St. Peter. THE Peter from the Bible. You know, PETER. That was yet another “amazing” or “surreal” or “awesome” moment. We leave the gold plated Basilica, pay the 8 euro student discount price to go to the Vatican Museums with only one goal in mind: The Sistine Chapel. After what seemed like miles, we finally entered the chapel. Whew whew whew. I can understand why so many people would like to see it. It’s a masterpiece if I’ve ever seen one. One could probably spend like half a day to a day just in the Sistine Chapel because the ceiling tells the entire story of the Bible from Creation to Resurrection. It was fascinating. We left there, got some quick food, and moved on to see so much more. We walked along the tiny streets to find the Spanish Steps, walked up them, and continued walking to a park off to the side. This park was cool because it was only locals. We then watched the sunset there. To watch the sunset over the Basilica in the Vatican was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I can now say I’ve done it. We then went and just chilled out, drank some wine, and watched movies at the house. That was quite fun in itself.

               

So that all took place on March 2^nd. Now, onto March 3^rd, we had another awesome day. We met up kind of late and hit the Coliseum. That place is also something else. It’s just like you walked into a movie or travel show just walking around it. We then hit the Roman Forum. This was the old city. We spent lots of time just strolling through all the ancient ruins and wondering about what this was and what that was. It was great. As we left , we headed toward the Pantheon. We ate along the way, did coffee, and assorted other things then the day was over. We decided to split up, rest a while, and meet up later for dinner and that we did. I then met back up with Claudia. We (all 4 of us) then went to eat at another tiny little pasta place. Also some of the best food we had there. Then, the night ended by us all going home. Claudia hung out for a little while and off to bed. I left her house at 4:50 a.m. and headed to the airport and before I knew it, I was back in my house.

               

Overall, it was a wonderful trip to Italy. It’s something I’ll never forget. Really. It’s also not the last time I’ll be in Italy. I can promise you that.

Photography Blog

Just a quick post here about this new blog. I have to start a photography blog for my photography class so I figured I'd go ahead and link it to this blog. I have no idea how much I'll be posting to it, so whatever. Click here to go to it. The address is tannersphotographyblog.blogspot.com.

Routine

Okay, so sorry for not blogging for a little while. This week (or however long it has been since I blogged last) has been pretty normal. I have class 4 days a week. My classes are just that...classes. Yes, I like some of them, and yes, I dislike some of them. I do know though, that I am learning a whole lot through them. I have 3 classes in English and 1 class in Spanish. My class in Spanish is by far my hardest and most demanding class. We have quite a bit of homework every day for that class. My Contemporary Spain class is literally the easiest class I've ever had in my life. We don't do anything. We sit and "research" for 2 hours when in reality, in order to complete our projects, we need about 30 minutes total. However, the teacher in there is wonderful. She is a Spaniard, yet studied in Scotland to get her Master's degree. Because she lived in Scotland, she learned English through a Scottish accent which, when coupled with the Spanish accent, creates a combination that is absolutely endearing. She's actually only our teacher for the first half of the semester and we have another teacher, whom we have already met as well, coming in to teach the second half. Which, as crazy as it is for me to understand, we're almost midway through the semester. WHAT?!? Anyway, so that's 2 classes. My other two are my more "artsy" and "practice-y" classes: Photography and Flamenco. Flamenco is 4 hours long on Mondays and is divided into two parts, academics and dancing. The academic part is INCREDIBLY boring while the dancing part is actually quite entertaining. I'm not as bad as I thought I would be, but let's just say I won't be dancing Flamenco professionally in my future. My teacher is an American so that makes things much easier to understand when she speaks English. Now, my next class is Photography. While only two hours in all, it's still boring...sometimes. The academics are bad. Why? Because my teacher speaks VERY broken English and I can honestly understand him better in Spanish. Now, he's a super nice guy and quite helpful, but he is just hard to understand when it comes to what exactly he wants to do. I can already tell that I'm going to be learning a lot about photography through this class, though. My camera is perfect for it! Well, those are my classes.

Now for the REALLY exciting part....wait for it...here we go...I GO TO ITALY IN 2 AND 1/2 DAYS. I leave for Milan at 9:40 on Thursday morning. As many of you know, I've always wanted to go to Italy, and now I finally am! I'm going to go stay with ole Claudia (who will probably read this blog) and then I'm also meeting one of my friends from Knoxville, Will, in Rome. I go into Rome the night of the 28th (Thursday) also known as THE DAY THE POPE RESIGNS. I have said this all before, but it's just really really exciting to me. Anyway, that's all for today. Get ready for lots in the coming month or so because I have a whole lot of traveling coming up so I'll have a lot to say. Hasta (ta) luego, mis amigos!

LADKJFSOAIUEWRBNLKAJDSF

This has been my mind lately. Hard to make sense of all the thoughts racing through my head. I can't make real words so I choose to make fake ones. Llakjdsfoiauasdriojgnh, I love Spain. So, I last blogged about my trips to Malaga and Italica. I haven’t been anywhere different since then (except for this beautiful city I live in). I can’t tell you guys enough. I love it. LAKSJDFLKAJSOGHAEWORIUJ! Something about doing something I’ve never done has flipped some sort of adventurous switch I have in my brain which I never even knew existed. I can’t get enough. I can’t see enough in this city. I can’t see enough in Europe. This is why I’ve booked two huge trips today. The first one I booked is to Morocco for the 29^th-31^st of March with my friend Becky. The trip will include 3 cities in Northern Morocco and will include camel rides on the beach. WHAT?! Who does that? Camels? In Africa? On the beach? Alakjsdfoiurlakjsdfpoiue. That will be the first time I’ll set foot on the continent of Africa. Llakdsjfoaiewurh. Life is good. The next trip I schedule is the big one. From April 13-20, I will travel to 3 other countries: Malta, Sweden, and Poland. The reason to go to Poland is to go to Auschwitz. Yes, the Auschwitz. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for so long. I don’t think it will be fun nor entertaining, yet I believe it will be worthwhile. It’s almost as if to pay respects to the fallen is the reason I want to go there. I’m not really sure. But, I’m going to Poland. Alakjdsfoiuaeworh. Stockholm, Sweden before that. I’ve never really considered going to Sweden until we discovered the flights were cheap. So, we did it. Llaskjdflaewr. Sorry I’m doing this backwards, but I am most excited about Poland, so that’s why I went backwards. The first place we go is to Malta. Malta is an island country south of Italy. ENGLISH SPEAKING. Hallelujah. It’s got beaches for miles. Yes, please. Ladflkajewoiur. 9Q83RHJGABNSLDFJ09328U.

So let me outline the next few weekends I have coming up in my remaining 3 months. February 28^th-March 4^th, Rome. March 8-10, Brian, Rita, Clint, and Brianna come visit. March 15-17, Lisbon, Portugal. March 29-31, Morocco. April 13-16, Malta. April 16-18, Sweden. April 18-20, Poland. ADSKLFJAOSIEURJUNB. On the alternate weekends, I just want to find cool little unknown things in Sevilla, because as you now know, I love to do. This place continues to amaze me. I’m just in awe of the history of this place and the life lessons it’s already taught me. I can’t wait to be in Italy in two weeks as the Pope is resigning. It’s going to be crazy and I will be in the middle of it. LKJAFOEUJOIAEJIOGJU. Let’s do some traveling, everyone. Oh yeah, and class. ADJOFIUOIRHTOGIAJDSNRKUJIOGHANSIORLUOIUGNOIAKJ!!!!!!!

Surreal

First, this is going to be a long post. Second, if you want to send me letters, packages, etc. here is the address. Customs and things like that is really weird so I'm not sure what you can send. I'd really appreciate some letters if you would like, but just stay as simple as possible because I don't want to have any complications with customs: 

Nicholas Tanner Beck

ISA Sevilla 

C/ San Isidoro 30 

41004 Sevilla, Spain

This is the address of the office, not my personal address. I'll get it eventually. I really don't know how long it takes.

Also, if you would like to see any pictures from anything I talk about, feel free to add me on Facebook. There will be plenty there.



Okay, so I posted about Madrid. I posted about Toledo. I posted my initial post about Sevilla. Since then, I've been to Malaga and Italica. Okay, Malaga is a city, also in southern Spain, but on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It's a really nice city. I really enjoyed it there. They have a cathedral (just as every Spanish city does) that is absolutely gorgeous. They called it the "one armed lady" because one of the two towers isn't finished. Why? Because they built this cathedral in 1776. They ran out of money building it. Why? Because they gave the money to the STATES! They supported us in a revolution against the British. Soooo, they couldn't complete the second tower. We actually did return the money far into the future from that point, but they put it to use for streets connecting Málaga to surrounding cities. Pretty cool, I thought. Once I got into the cathedral, I was absolutely speechless. Surreal. The details in these European cathedrals is absolutely stunning. I don't have words to describe to you how beautifully the stained glass windows beam onto the baroque styled golden arches with the combination of the Jesus statues everywhere. It was a religious experience for me. I could have stood there for hours. But anyway, after touring the cathedral, we left and had free time. My free time was spent where else but the beach. I stood, for the second time in my life, in the Mediterranean Sea. It's pretty astonishing. The beaches are just...prettier. The town that juts out right onto the beach is something to behold. We waded, took pictures, and then ate the traditional seafood that comes from the Mediterranean while sitting on the beach overlooking the ocean. It was surreal. Some of the people I ate with had some...let's just say, weird things. I couldn't try it. I wanted to at first, but when I see a fish's eye staring at me, no. Just no. Okay, so then we left Málaga and went home. On the way home, my friend Tara and I had a conversation about everything that life has to offer. We are at such an interesting age where we are really learning about ourselves and the world around it. It's so interesting to hear another person's view of reality, another person's interpretation of the world. We got back, and basically went to bed because Julia, Tara, Becky, and I were arising early to go to Italica!

So, after much confusion over where the bus is, how to pay for the bus, and where exactly the bus was taking us, we got on a bus to Italica. It's only about a 20 minute bus drive. So you know how, in the last blog, I said it was about the little things in Spain that I love? Well, here's one for you. We're standing there, talking in English, as typical Americans do and a man comes up to us and says "Ah! English!" He is an elderly gentlemen, he and his wife, that are from Australia but just recently moved to England. They were staying in Seville for a week. It's not everyday that I meet someone from Australia, England, or really just an English speaker. So I basically spoke with him about travel the entire way to Italica. He and his wife moved to England to travel more. You heard me. They retired in Australia and moved to England because it was more central. That's pretty dadgum (southern raised word) cool. They had been to the States many times and he was shocked that so many Americans hadn't traveled within the country. Then he mentioned "I guess since you all only get a 2 week holiday, you can't do much traveling." and Tara said "Yeah, we just sleep on our days off." This made me think. Do we Americans value our time off? Do we take advantage of it? Just a thought. So we finally get to Italica after riding the bus through Santiponce. By the way, this entire Italica trip cost me 3 Euros. That's all. We paid for the bus. That's the entire expenses. We got to the gate and the super nice man asked us where we were from and we said the United States and he said "it's on the house" and let us in. Still not really sure about that one. Well, we got into Italica...and I was left speechless yet again. Surreal. We walked all over that hill side that city used to be on. Italica was used for 500 years, historians think, as a Roman city. It began in 206 b.c. Meaning, I touched things from before Jesus Christ had even come to the earth. Surreal. It makes one feel so small to stand beside something so unreal. Their ingenuity, intelligence, and inventions made us the population we are today, and to see how they lived their lives was...surreal. Being that we didn't have a tour guide, we were able to speak and create our own theories about the things we were seeing. I, the Political Science major, Becky, the legal minded student, and Tara and Julia, both with a psychology background were all able to bring our own areas of expertise to the table to almost rewrite the story of the Romans. It was something like I'd never seen before. Surreal. We walked around for hours, learning about Romans, learning about Americans, learning about each other, and learning about ourselves. It was wonderful. We then left, finally, and went back to Sevilla and had the most American meal I've had since I've been gone - a bacon cheeseburger with fries and a Budweiser. It was wonderful, once again. So, that was Italica. Surreal.

Fast forward to Sunday, (Malaga was on Friday and Italica was on Saturday). I explored with my friend Susana around Santa Cruz and El Centro and other places. But that wasn't the coolest part about Sunday, today. The coolest part was after we ate dinner at the table, as we always do, our host mom walks into our room with a cell phone to her hear and a twinkle in her eye. She says "habla con el" (talk to him), and hands me the phone. I begin to speak in Spanish to this person and then I realize I detect an American Spanish accent. It's one of the two guys she had last semester. I won't say his name, but she says it all the time. She loves to talk about her former students. She was so excited to tell us about him and all the rest of them. But for her to be excited for us to talk to him was so endearing. We looked up on the internet while she was on the phone and she said "OY! Muy guapo!" which means "AH! Very handsome!" Still, not the coolest part. As she's winding down the conversation, she begins to choke up. At the end she said "estás feliz, no?" which means "you're happy, right?" Then she says "No, escuche me. Estás feliz...con tu vida ahora, no?" (no, listen to me, you're happy...with your life now, right?" What she was really asking was if he was truly happy. Like, not just happy but content and satisfied and loving life. She cares so much about him. She finished the conversation by saying "yo te quiero. Yo te quiero mucho" which means "I love you. I love you very much". She hung the phone up and began to wipe the tears away. She couldn't stop talking about him. She cares so much. It made me feel so blessed to have Isabel as my host mother. I know she cares about me. I know that in just the week and a half I've been in Sevilla, I've made a lifelong friend. This is what this is all about. This is what is really surreal. The little things, once again. Seeing how much she cared for someone she's only known since August/September has changed me. I don't know how, but it did. This is what I'm here for. Surreal.

Tahnee

I'm going to post a list of quite a few things I've learned so far here in this Southern Spanish city. Here you go.

• ·         PDA is MUCH more commonplace and accepted than in the states
• ·         Asians speaking Spanish...it just doesn’t make sense in my head
• ·         No one drives big cars. I’ve seen maybe 2 trucks.
• ·         They have an obsession with American music from like 6 months to a year ago
• ·         If you don’t have a dog sitting with you at the restaurant outside, you’re not cool
• ·         Wine, beer, alcohol in general is EVERYWHERE. For lunch and for dinner.
• ·         Kids speaking Spanish is also very hard for me to get used to
• ·         English is spoken here about as much as Spanish is spoken in Tennessee. Nada.
• ·         Their Coca Cola is different
• ·         I miss sweet tea more than I thought I would
• ·         There’s an overall greater appreciation for history and the past in Europe
• ·         Speaking of history, everything in this city is something historical
• ·         Getting lost is by far the best thing to do here
• ·         Taxis are nicer...like, relatively new model cars
• ·         El Corte Ingles, which is like Macy’s, Target, Walmart, and Best Buy had a baby that only speaks Spanish, is one of the best places on earth
• ·         When they go on strike, they mean it. Garbage is everywhere.
• ·         Coffee is a little baby cup
• ·         Customer service (rapid customer service, rather) isn’t a thing
• ·         Tip? No. It’s included. Don’t tip any more.
• ·         Wine is often cheaper than getting water. Like I said, alcohol is king.
• ·         Speaking of king, some scandal is going on with the Princess of Spain. They’re just as dramatic as the British.
• ·         WiFi is like crack. If you want your restaurant to succeed, have Wifi.
• ·         Sangria is actually not common in Sevilla. All Tinto Verano. Which is a lot like sangria, just carbonated.
• ·         Their 2-liters are weird.
• ·         They sell water in 1.5L containers like crazy.
• ·         Forget the accent you ever learned and all the Spanish you’ve ever done. You’re about to not understand a dang thing.
• ·         They don’t smile. In America, we smile at strangers. Here? No. Not that they’re being mean or cold, they just don’t. They are generally very friendly though.
• ·         Americans are EXTREMELY easy to pick out on the street.
• ·         You must wear shoes in the house. They think you’ll catch death if you don’t. I’m not even making this up.
• ·         No ice. Room temperature everything.
• ·         No dryers. My clothes are hanging on the line as we speak.
• ·         Dishwashers are a thing but they don’t like to use the electricity to use them.
• ·         If it can be eaten, it can be eaten “con pan”. With bread. They eat SOOOO much bread. With everything.
• ·         Fashion is number 1. Everyone, and I mean everyone, dresses well here. The homeless people dress better than I do. Quite frankly, though, I don’t care.
• ·         Everyone wears either cologne or perfume. You walk down the street and it hits you. It’s quite good right now since the garbage is smelling up the whole city.
• ·         Everything is such a communal activity. They all do the same thing just out in the streets.
• ·         The last fact is...you should come here.

Yes, I’ve been here 2 weeks. Yes, it sounds dramatic when I say it’s already changed my life. But I’m telling you guys, it has. It feels like I’ve been here for months already. It’s been a whirlwind, yet, it seems as if it’s gone by relatively slowly. In just two weeks, I’ve been able to define Nicholas Tanner Beck from Lawrenceburg, TN in a more...pure...fashion. I don’t know how to describe it without seeming dramatic and playing on overused terms so I’ll just say it - I’m “finding myself”. I’m finding myself through the magic of Europe. Some people find magic and entertainment in night clubs, staying out until the wee hours of the morning, and just having a party. That’s fine. I’m so glad people can have fun through that. I can’t find that “magic” I referenced through that. The magic is found in the little things. It’s in the way I hear my host mom say “Tah-nee” because she can’t pronounce Tanner. It’s in the sound of the boat going under me as I walk across the Guadalquivir River on my way to class. It’s the finding the small bar with the excellent sangria as you overlook the largest cathedral in Spain. It’s the finding the small hidden little church in the middle of my neighborhood with the poem written on the side in mosaic tile. It’s the child singing a song in Spanish with his mother on the way to school in the morning. It’s being told I’m a “funny American” in a taxi. It’s hearing Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Spanish version coming on in the living room. It’s listening to my host mom explain her family dynamic. It’s finding the Roman ruins, 30 minutes away, built before my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ was even born. It’s seeing the timid teenagers going on what is clearly their first day walking down the tiny alley. It’s the little things. That’s what it is. It’s the things you can’t read about in travel magazines. It’s the things no one can explain to you until you experience them.  It’s the things you dream about experiencing. It’s...Europe. So, for Tah-nee, at least, it’s already life-changing. I hope I can learn more about this Tah-nee creature while I’m over here. I leave three months from tomorrow. I simply cannot wait to see what this enchanting city has in store for me.

                                                                                                         Sincerely,

                                                                                                                         Tahnee

Amazing.

Forgive me in advance for the disorganization of this blog post and grammar mistakes because it's pretty much like I'm just vomiting onto paper. I have a huge amount to tell everyone.




Okay guys, I'm all settled in.  This place is...amazing. I don't have words for how it feels to be here. I've been waiting on it for so long and now I'm here! I'm in my room! I'm typing this while everyone else is watching Super Bowl coverage. This is the first time I miss home. Do I want to go home? Of course not. I am not homesick. It's just a weird feeling all the festivities happening at home and I'm here. It's a fair trade off though! So my journey started in Madrid, obviously, then I went to the most magnificently beautiful city I've ever seen: Toledo. Toledo isn't a place I would want to live, but I would like to get lost in the tiny cobblestone streets surrounded by shops. The small city is nestled in the mountains and had amazing panoramic views from every angle. It's the kind of city Spanish postcards showcase. We left there and came to the best city in which to live in Spain (in my opinion). I've been to Madrid and Barcelona, the first and second biggest cities in Spain and now live in Sevilla, the fourth largest. Sevilla is unlike any city I've ever been to. Madrid is kind of like New York. Barcelona is kind of like Miami. Sevillia is kind of like....well, Sevilla. It's got everything a big city has except it just feels different. It's absolutely gorgeous in every neighborhood. I live in a neighborhood called Triana. Triana likes to identify itself as a separate city from Sevilla just because it's across the river. The coolest part about where I live is that it's off the beaten path, but yet it's in good walking distance from everything. I don't live with tourists. I don't live with Americans. I live with the Spaniards. I live around families. In the mornings as I walk to El Centro (the center of the city), there are countless families walking their children to school while the children sing songs. One day, one child was singing a song and a child across the street started singing the song with him. It was amazing. I've already learned so much in the little under a week I've been here - whether it's how to walk on the sidewalk, how to eat at a restaurant, or simply the how to speak the Spanish language. Everywhere I walk, there's a new lesson to learn. It's amazing. That's the word I keep using. Amazing. I don't think I'll ever be able to explain how this will be at the end of my stay here. It's one of those "just had to be there" moments. The pictures do no justice and neither do my stories. The Spanish lifestyle, along with many other places outside the United States, is much more lax than ours. We keep saying "Spanish time" for everything because they are literally late to EVERYTHING. My tour guide in Toledo said "Time is important. But it's not the most important. That's what we believe." This made me start thinking. In the United States, time is number one. That's really not okay. To recognize and acknowledge that time isn't the most important thing in life, to me, is admirable. Life is too short to worry about waiting that extra 20 minutes you might have to wait. Now, those of you that know me know that that is far from my personality. I hate tardiness. Hopefully I can work on that. Finally, I just want to touch on what I think is the reason I was sent over here. To learn about people. Not from a sociology standpoint or even a behavioral one, but more on a personal and "real" level. My best times so far here have been the extensive conversations I've had with Americans either on the bus, sidewalk, or street corner waiting for coffee. Ironically, I'm learning about America WAY more than I am about Spain. Being able to reflect on my own personal experiences as well as our country's collective ones have already taught me so much. All this has happened in 6 days and about 18 hours. This is amazing. There it is again. Amazing. I can't wait to see what God has in store for me in this city in southern Spain. I know it's something...well...amazing.

I'm here!

Okay, so I'm here guys! I'm still in Madrid for another night and then Toledo for one more and then I'm going to Sevilla! The last two days have been an absolute whirlwind. I left Nashville at 12:40. I actually got held up at security because they thought my Pepto Bismol tablets (yet to be opened and still had the seal) were magnesium ball bearings. I still don't really understand. But other than that, my flight to JFK was fine. Just a tiny plane. Then I had a 2 hour layover at JFK and boarded a plane and here I am. We actually got here an hour early. When we got to the airport, we had to get from terminal 1 go terminal 4. That sounds easy. Nope. We had to ride a bus for 15 minutes on the Spanish equivalent of an interstate in order to do so. That was weird. Then we got to said terminal and discovered trash. EVERYWHERE. The cleaning crew is on strike here so nothing was getting cleaned. Many people bring in their garbage and dump it in the airport. So we waited there for like 3 hours and finally left. We got to the hotel and I crashed. After a nice nap, we got a panoramic tour of Madrid by bus. Then we had a meeting to cover a bunch of stuff. Then, a group of us went to eat at a small place called El Brillante. That's where I had a bocadillo for the first time. It's fried calimari (squid) and lemon. It was...okay. Haha. Then we walked around and did some souvenir shopping, and came back and crashed. I am now writing this after 10 hours of sleep in one night. It was wonderful. Now we tour Madrid more. The Prado Museum, Puerta del Sol, and La Plaza Mayor. I'll keep you updated! Below are some pictures of the stuff I mentioned in this post.