Un repaso de Caceres y Sevilla

The past few days have flown by. On Wednesday, we spent a large portion of the day touring Cáceres and nearby Trujillo. The morning began with a walking tour of the old section of Cáceres. This section of the city is enclosed by a "muralla," which is a large stone wall. These walls were constructed to defend the city from attacks. Our tour guide explained the history of Cáceres, and we were able to see some of the ancient constructions, like cisterns and palaces.

After lunch we all traveled to Trujillo, which is a bus ride of about 45 minutes. By the time we got to Trujillo, it was almost 4pm......still a very hot time of the day in Spain. The heat was definitely a turn-off for some of the students, who would have very much preferred to stay in the hotel at the pool. Nevertheless, they braved the heat and explored parts of this very old city. Trujillo is most well known for being the place from where many of the 15th and 16th century explorers came. There is a statue of Pizzaro in the town's main square. Our guide discussed the different palaces and some of the architectural complexities, which are interesting, but the highlight of the tour may have been the ice cream store at the end. After a hot day the students were ready to head back to the hotel, relax, have dinner, and get ready to head to an even hotter city: Sevilla.

Our first day in Sevilla was fairly relaxing....although many of the students started freaking out when we arrived and passed a temperature reading of 44 degrees centigrade (do the math.....it's HOT). Luckily, our hotel has a pool, so we had some siesta/swim time before heading out the Plaza de los Venerables, one of the many plazas in Sevilla. Here we had about an hour free time to get some tapas, ice cream, soda, etc. At 9pm we enjoyed a traditional flamenco show. The music and dancers were incredible. It certainly takes years of practice for a person to move their feet that fast. After the show we had a late dinner and went to bed, in preparation for another full day.

This morning we went to two of the most important locations in Sevilla: the Alcazar and the Cathedral. The Alcazar originally was an Arabic fort (built during the time of Arab rule in Spain) but was later reconstructed (and reconstructed, and reconstructed, etc) to become the palace that it is today. Most of the major constructions were completed during King Pedro's rule in the 14th century. The Alcazar is so interesting and beautiful because a majority of it was built in "el estilo Mudejar," a combination of both Christian and Arabic ideas. The intricacies in the construction are amazing. The Alcazar is actually where the current royal family of Spain stays when they come to Sevilla.

After the Alcazar we took a quick tour of the Cathedral, including the Giralda tower, which was originally built as a Mosque tower, but later converted to part of the Catholic Cathedral. The students climbed the tower, which definitely provides the best views of Sevillla. We walked across a bridge (crossing the Guadalquivir River, the only navigable river in Spain) to the neighborhood Triana, where we ate at an Italian restaurant. After lunch we went back to the hotel to swim and rest, as there is nothing else to do during the afternoons in Sevilla. The locals know that when it is 100 degrees, it is best to stay indoors.

Once it cooled down a little bit (although not much), the kids were divided into three different groups. Each group was to create their own "telenovela," using Sevilla as the background. They were to create a script, and take pictures that would tell the story. This assignment will be finished later in Pontevedra when they'll have some time to put their pictures on the computer and create a presentation. We just got back from dinner a little while ago, and hopefully everyone is packing to prepare to leave for Madrid tomorrow morning. Our bus leaves at 9am.

I asked the students earlier today f they had any message they wanted put up on the blog. I got the same response from many of them: they want their AP scores. I'm sure if they told me a second message, it would be that they miss you.

More to come when we get to Madrid!!