So, my last update made it very clear that it has been raining non-stop here. However, the past several days have been GORGEOUS. Amazing. Sevilla is a completely different city in good weather, and I love it. I've enjoyed these days and used the opportunity to visit some scenic areas of the city--so much so that I'm a little sunburned. Nonetheless, in an ironic turn f events, our house ran out of water today. Marisol turned to me and told me I couldn't shower because there was no water coming through the faucets. For all the rain we've been having, evidently there's not enough for our plumbing to function properly. This was painful to hear since I had just come back from running for a long time and was not smelling to elegant at the time.
This is a good segway for the half-marathon training. Today I ran the biggest distance that I'm going to run before the half. I did 10 miles, and it was pretty painful for the last 1.5-2 miles. Now I've got a 4 mile run, a 3 mile run, and a 2 mile one this week to keep the muscles toned, but mostly I'm just resting up for the big day (a week from today! yikes!).
Like I said, Sevilla's been great the last few days, and I'll include some random pictures from around the city in this post.
Carmona
Yesterday my friend Robert and I went to a small town right outside of Sevilla called Carmona. It was a great day trip...going there and back cost less than 5 euros. There was plenty to see and do in Carmona including an old Roman fortress, an Arabic palace converted into a hotel, an excavated Roman necropolis, multiple cathedrals/churces/convents (of course), and a maintained Roman gate. My personal favorites were the necropolis and the gate, which led out to a beautiful view of rolling, nearly empty Mediterranean countryside. We also encountered a ferrari and took pictures by it, but they're on Robert's camera as I forgot mine. The only low points of the trip were getting over-charged for a mediocre lunch of jamon (thin ham) and how exhausted I was by the time I was finished. But a good day all the same.
As the peregrin window nears...
This "travel window" that I have begins a week from today with my trip to Lisbon for the half marathon. That weekend begins a period that goes from March 19-April 26 in which I will hopefully visit Lisbon, Milan, Florence, Madrid, Italica (Spain), London, Paris, and Barcelona in addition to any side trips that may be taken while in these places. Needless to say, I'm pumped about getting to go explore all these places, especially Florence, London, and Paris. I also hope to visit Morocco while I'm here, but wisdom dictates that we just wait and see how much money I have left at that point.
Have you noticed that...
class is almost never mentioned in my blog? Well it's not, and I've got to say classes here are not much work. However, I can't avoid work forever as the final exam is close to 100% of my grade in a couple of my classes. And I really do like the majority of my classes here. So, they're good, if you've been wondering. ;-)
Oh, and another thing
An interesting fact: my Liverpool scarf (a gracious gift from my friend Allison) has been the biggest conversation starter for me here. Maybe 70% of the conversations I've gotten into here with actual Spaniards (which are always a good thing) are initiated in some way or another by the scarf. Epic.
Well, that's about all for now. Hard to believe that in 2 weeks I'll be halfway done. As always, humbly yours.
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