How 'bout that camel ride in? I guess that's why they call it the Sahara.

A wonderful thing about studying abroad in Sevilla during the spring semester is you get, not one, but two spring breaks! The second break is for Feria de Abril, which is a week in Sevilla full of private tents, flamanco dresses, dancing Sevilliana, horses, amusement rides, and drinking. But before I embarked on that journey I took a little (6 day) trip to Morocco. I know what you're thinking but do not fear, I went with a tour group who has been plenty of times.

The trip started at the beautiful hour of 4:45am on Friday with a bus ride to catch the ferry. We visited Rabat, Fez, and THE SAHARA DESERT! Saturday night we even rode 4x4's into the desert in order to hope on some camels and head to a desert oasis where we spent the night, whoooo can say they did that! There was berbers signing and playing drums, a fire, and the most beautiful sky I ever seen in my life. With no light pollution for miles and miles it feels like you are in a planetarium except it was way cooler and real. We all woke up at 5:30 in the morning to climb a huge sand dune and watch the sunrise over the Sahara. No big deal. Then we drank some tea and hopped on the camels again for a 2 hour ride to a desert hotel, which hurts after the first 30 minutes. Now if you think Morocco is strictly third-world stuff than think again because these desert hotels are like resorts with beautiful pools, restaurants, tennis courts, and even mini golf. Oh and that reminds me- the food in Morocco is amazing! Breakfast consists of tons of different delicious breads and pancake-type things with honey and jam. Of course there is tea, tea, and more GLORIOUS tea! Then for lunch and dinner there is amazing cous cous and vegetables as well as a oranges with cinnamon (try it- it is soooo good). Anyway I got a turban and even learned how to put it on myself. Turbans are essential in the desert if you do not want a birds nest full of sand as hair. These would be a great addition to the USA when you dont want to wash your hair in the morning- just sayin.

Something that really amazed me was that the berbers do not go to school but each one knew about 4 languages. They spoke arabic, english, spanish, and french all from being around tourists. I have been taking spanish for years and even live in a spanish speaking country and they were better than me. Also, they act like it's nothing cool or out of the ordinary that they can do this. Super cool.

Fez was also really cool. We went to the Medina, which is a huge market area with tiny little unnamed streets and the only "transportation" that can fit inside are horses and donkeys. We visited a place that made tons of scarves and all by hand. We also went to a tannery for leather goods, a carpet-making place, and a pharmacy that sells everything from natural viagra to tea and perfume. It's so strange to see things made by hand now-a-days. I sound like an old lady but really, it makes you really appreciate the beautiful work when you watch a woman produce an 8x10 carpet stitch by stitch.

It really is an amazing place and somewhere I never thought I wanted to visit but will (hopefully) being going back to in the future. And it ended on a great note because there was a party the last night at the hotel with everyone in the tour group. There were surprise belly dancers and a talent show. The prize for the winner of the talent show got a free trip to Lagos, Portugal with the same tour group, Discover Sevilla. Guess what?? I WON :) I performed a little rap and also beat boxed (thanks to Seth) and won my 140 euros back for the trip I am going on this coming weekend! YAY.

Well I am off to watch the fireworks for the last night of Feria! Ahh my time here is coming to a close WAY to fast!!

Later alligators!

The Warrens take Spain

So the next weekend after the marathon Copeland and I headed to Barcelona to meet my parents for their week in Spain! We were walking to the hotel when I heard a voice that I recognized as my loud New Yorker father before he could finish his sentence (sorry dad, i did love the greeting though!). I look up and there they were on the hotel balcony yelling to me as I walked down the street :) We took Barcelona in 2 1/2 days visiting all the Gaudi, Las Ramblas, and odd Catalan language we could in our time there. My favorite parts were the market where they sold fresh fruit smoothies for 1 euro each and tons of other delish looking treats. Also, the Magic Fountain was awesome; its this fountain that shoots water to the sound of the music playing for the show as well as changes colors throughout. It was beautiful night watching the water/lights/music show and drinking vodka for the girls and Aschbach for my dad. He was extremely excited about finding this particular drink and even more excited about its price because he used to drink it in Germany- ahh Euro trip memories.

Next was our tour of Madrid, which was my favorite of the two cities. The Spanish say you are either a fan of Madrid or Barcelona and my mom and I were Madrid's while my dad and Copeland were Barcelona's. (Aren't you glad I told you that and you now know just incase you ever need that information?!?) I loved the history in sights in Madrid from the Royal Palace to the Parque Buen Retiro to, oh you know, GERARD BUTLER AND JENNIFER ANISTON! Oh the glory of walking up upon a movie premier and waiting almost 3 hours to snap a picture of some famous americans. And we were going to go to the Prado (an art museum- HA). Turns out Gerard Butler is in love with me- came over after I shouted "P.S. I LOVE YOU GERARD" and grabbed my camera right out of my hands, snapped a picture of Copeland, him, and me and proceeded to profess his love!! Ok, ok everything is true except me shouting "p.s. i love you gerard" I mean, WHO would do that??

ALRIGHT already, everything is true except the part where Gerard professed his love but that's ok because he did touch my camera, take a picture with me, and signed my hand (which he also touched in order to sign it). The wedding is next August :)

Our next and last stop was Sevilla. It was Semana Santa- holy week- leading up to Easter, which is a BIG deal here in Spain and the biggest celebration is in- you guessed it, Sevilla! There are millions of people and it is extremely hard to navigate through a usually easy-to-get-around city center. I first realized this when I was going to meet my parents at their hotel after I dropped my things off at my home sweet home and it took me an extra 30-ish minutes. First I couldn't go the direct route because it was blocked off by millions of Catholic Spaniards trying to get a glimpse at the procession passing through. Also, the actual procession had tons of people in it (people wearing hoods that look like they are official members of the KKK) and so I had to wait until it was stopped and run through the parade to cross the street.

The precessions are really cool though because each one has a different huge statue/scene at the end with a Jesus or a Mary with lots and lots of men carrying it through the streets. These men are underneath the gigantic thing and they can only take little baby steps, cannot see, and are under a huge platform filled with lit candles and heavy silver and gold. It is quite an amazing sight.

We had a great week though filled with Spanish food and drink, the arabic baths, sightseeing, and the spanish siesta of course. It was great to see my parents since the longest time I have been without them in, oh, 20.5 years! And Copelands family arrived 2 days before my parents left so we all got to hang out and go to dinner a couple times as well as attend a Sevilla Futbol game. I think my dad was very pleased to have some more testosterone around and we are all excited to spend some more time together over the next year when Copeland and I (and Erin!) live together again.

Anyway it is currently the last week of classes and I have some major school stuff to be doing but I promise I will post about the Sahara Desert/Morocco this week! Then only one more post about Lagos and my last week in Spain before Seth arrives and we are off to tour 3 other countries :) AHHH can't wait!

See you soon (literally SEE because I only have a month left, sad.)

Sorry, Sorry, Sorry

Soo I did a great job of keeping up with this blog...
My bad.

Anyway lets move past that and start where I left off, Lisbon and the half marathon :)

Lisbon is a b-e-a-utiful city with its hilly streets, new buildings, and old railcars. Oooo those railcars- soo cute! They remind me of San Francisco even though I have never been. Also, great news, our hostel was very clean, had a great breakfast, and awesome rooms. They even let us come back after we checked out and shower after the half marathon :) It was a very welcome and pleasant surprise from my last hostel experience. We toured Lisbon using the #28 railcar which takes you up to a spot with a great view as well as the castle in Lisbon. We had to check in for the marathon the day before the race, which was in another side of Lisbon and also very beautiful with great museums, towers, and churches.

I was worried about running 13.1 miles in the first place so I was really hoping everything would go ok that morning (like I would feel good and my calves/knees wouldn't hurt because they had been) but of course nothing goes as planned. My knees and calves were fine but Copeland and I planned to meet up with Cameron and some of our other friends who weren't running so they could hold onto our stuff. We were at two different hostels so we decided to meet at the metro station in the morning and head to the half marathon together. Well. turns out we met at the same station but two different entrances so we didn't find each other and headed to the marathon separately. This wouldn't have been a problem had I not taken a drawstring backpack with my (very large) DSL camera, a long sleeve T-shirt (it was chilly), and some fruit and cliff bars. The camera weighs a ton and I had to wear it on my back- perfect. So we are running across the bridge, which is the start of the marathon. Actually we were hardly running because there were so many people that you couldn't really run. Anyway I'm running with this awesome backpack on and the drawstring breaks (due to the fact that it was given to us by the sponsors of the marathon and therefore cheap). So I had to retie the string and continue running. Not so much fun running with a giant camera on your back and I was feeling pretty down until I saw some of our friends (Rachel, Katie, Katlyn, Brad) standing along the race route! I was SO excited to see them and I ran over and threw the the bag without an explanation and continued running. I felt SO much better without weight on my back and the rest of the marathon was great :) I finished without stopping and even got another glorious backpack at the finish line filled with a european-brand Special K bar, a metal, a water bottle, and (get this) MILK. Ew. I skipped the milk carton and settled on an ice cream bar they were handing out instead haha. I was very proud of myself for finishing and also really excited that I felt so great doing it. Let me tell you the best part about participating in a half marathon- you get to the stations where they are handing out bottles of water and a Gatorade-type drink and you get to take a sip or two and THROW the bottle on the side of the course like you are a real professional- it makes you feel SO COOL! Sadly, I am not kidding about this being my favorite part.

After finishing we got a good meal and even better ice cream before touring a little more of Lisbon and heading on the bus home.

Summary of the story: yes, I have finished the world's biggest half marathon :) Also, someone broke the record for the fastest half marathon that day. A man from Africa with the name Zersenay Tadese and a time of 58.23. I finished RIGHT behind him.