The Alhambra consists of gardens, fortifications and luxurious palaces. It was home to many Arabic Sultans who ruled the province. It is Spain's most visited monument recevieng 8000 visitors per day.

View of the sky from inside a cave

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I've been here for nearly 2 months, and I'm having a fantastic time.

However, I don't want to mislead people that it's all visiting taking pictures at the Opera House, having brunch at the college, and eyeing kangaroos.

Studying abroad is an opportunity of a lifetime...but it has its challenges (what doesn't?).

So for this entry, I'm real. I'm not visiting a museum, eating at Little Italy, or talking of my studies.

Simplicity

Everyone kept telling me not to overpack and that I would regret it if I did. Sure overpacking messed me up at the airport (see the first entry), but there is not one day were I don't wake up and wish I had more of my clothes. My sense of style has been lowered by about five levels...and it's especially shocking considering I worked at a high end department store (this past summer) and had to look the part every day.

I feel that I am just wearing the same things over and over again, mixing and matching (blue shirt, long black shirt, short black skirt, striped tee, trench coat, pink dress, green cords, pink capries, two jean skirts). Luckily my mom sent me 10 summer shirts, so luckily that will help extend my wardrobe flexibility.

Also...shocking... there have even been a few days that I have gone on without makeup. Most days I wear minmal makeup (foundation, mascara, blush, lip gloss.) I brought the wrong eyeliner coming here, and so I have to go eyeliner-less for the past 2 months. I could buy an eyeliner here, but it costs (minimal) $12! (I pay $3-$4 for cheap, covergirl-kind eyeliner.) It's all a cycle too... if I wear more makeup, I run out faster...and resupplying it is very costly here (for some reason or another, makeup is particularly expensive here). And if I wear more, I need more makeup remover.

To shock you even more, I am about ready to temporarily retire my heels. There is almost no sense in wearing them here. I can't wear heels around the city or sightseeing. It's too much walking. As for school, I had no problem walking to class in heels at VCU, but here it's a further walk to class with more hills. I'm considerably slower when I walk to class in heels, which does not help my case when I am rushing to 1 p.m. classes Wednesdays and Thursdays (lunch starts at 12:35, have to eat fast). I also broke part of the lining on a pair of heels I have. I nearly fell down the stairs of the business building a few weeks (the stairs are steep.) It's fastest to walk to class through the oval sport fields behind Sancta... but my heels pludge into the dirt, often getting stuck.

Above all else, after walking up and down hills, further distances, along the grassy fields, my feet hurt. The days I wear heels to class in the morning, by the afternoon classes I have switched to flats. I will return to my heel-wearing ways when I return to Richmond... but for the time being they just aren't working.

Annoyances

I've tried to remain very flexible and tolerant during my trip. I must say, for the most part, I have done a very good job at this. I was warned that the small things we never used to think about will be challenging at first (going to the post office, language differences, currency.) For me, there have been a few things that have annoyed me:

#3 paying for Internet use, by the minute.
That's right..there is no free Internet here. You pay by the minute. This was completely foreign to me. Some days I may only pay 50 cents...but there have been a few days that I have paid $4.50 for Internet use. I have concluded that something has to be different with the network some days, because I could not conceive how I spent that much money on the Internet, when in fact I was not sitting in front of the computer screen all day. I once accidently left my Internet up while I was out. That must have cost me at least a couple of dollars. I have never felt so guilty reading the newspaper online...in fact writing this blog is costing me money (case in point... I better move on...).

#2 water fountains
There is a lack of water fountains at the University of Sydney, Australia. I have only seeN one so far, and it was at the gym. There is no water fountain in the library. This perplexes me... I was studying there on Tuesday, and asked the front desk where I could find a water fountain, only to learn there are none. In fact, nearly every time I am out and want to refill my water bottle, I cannot find a water fountain.

#1 meet my arch enemy...

(will insert picture here..)

The Sancta computer lab printer. I hardly appreciated my very own printer until I am here without one of my own, and dealing with an evil one. I learned (on my own, because no one tells you all the 'little things') that you must provide your own paper when you print things. But they are charging us per page... I assumed part of that cost was paper costs, but no. You can have the printer loaded with paper, but it stills thinks it is empty. You can fix the paper jam, but it's still beeping at you "paper jam, paper jam." I'm somewhat technologically challenged, and so I have found myself banging every button on the printer, even yelling at it. This printer has made me late for class. It has stopped working just in time when it is my turn to use it. This printer and I will never get along.

So if my problems in life are that my feet hurt and I am tired of wearing heels, I don't wear eyeliner, I have to pay for Internet, there is no water fountation at the library, and must deal with an inconsistent printer, my life is pretty good.

Before I didn't have high hopes of going. I figured it was somewhere I would force myself to go if my dad comes to visit.

I came across a Pacific on a Plate Food Festival event on their Web site....and decided I had to go!

I was somewhat disappointed when I arrived...sure there was lots of food, but only Russia offered (tiny) free samples. Luckily I had a little cash on me for lunch. Guess I was being optomistic that there would be free food...not once on the Web site or pamphlet did it mention anything about paying. I just read the word FREE.

There were lots of food stands representing many different countries:
China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysa, Singapore, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Russica, Vietnam, Thailand, Taiwan, and Canada.

I didn't have a lot of money, but strategized that I would purchase small food choices so I could taste the many countries. I ate:
rice paper vegetable spring roll from Vietnam
refreshing rose (tea) drink from Singapore
steamed vegetable/pork dumplings from Taiwan
chocolates- fruit and nut, from Peru

There was live dance...

music...and my favorite, a Peru cooking demonstration!

He first made ceviche (marinated snapper) in lime juice with corn, onions, and fresh ingredients. Then he made rare tuna with a potato base, avocado, and garished with a passionfruit sauce.

They had samples, but they were full plates of samples. This wasn't very smart.. there were only 30-40 plates of food. They should have used small sample-sized portions so everyone could taste. A nice couple next to me got one of the last plates, and let me try a piece of the tuna dish. Yum!

Next I decided to walk around the museum, after all, it was free. I was pleasantly suprised - it was very interesting! There werent just boats...but exhibits on jelly fish, swimmers, the bikini, surfers, paintings, Australian exploration, the Great White Fleet. The museum isn't too large... I covered it all in under an hour (I move fast).

You can pay admission fees and explore onto the boats outside. I was rather costly, so I didn't.

I was heading back home...and passed through an exhibit at Darling Harbour. In fact, it was one of the best art exhibits I have EVER seen.

It's called Earth from Above. They had these large-scale aerial portraits from around the world. they were absoluetly beautiful and perfectly sized. I spent an hour looking through the photography. Each portrait had a description about the place, and then below was some kind of environmental fact (as in, how wasteful we are, what we can do).

Yann Arthus-Bertrand. Check out www.yannarthusbertrand.com/index_new.htm. (Go to Photographs, Earth From Above.)

If you are heading to Sydney between now and December 26th, you must check this out. There are other exhibitions being held across the world, although...none in America (not since Chicago 2001).

Study Abroad Program- 9,000

Flight- 500

Internet- €1 per hour

Food-

Cellphone- €40 per month

Seville´s Cathedral is one of the largest in the world.

University of Seville- The main building old University of Seville is known as the "Old Tobacco Factory", because there was such a factory in the building up to the 50´s.

Maestranza is the bullring which is considered one of the city´s most enjoyable tourist attractions.

So I organize all my stuff that I had moved to my house from Richmond and go through and find all the things that I needed for my trip. I was provided with a packing list from my study abroad program so that was a good start. Believe it or not, I really wasn't done packing until a few hours before leaving for the airport.

Once I arrived at Dulles International airport, I checked in my bags and said my goodbyes to my dad and younger sister who had came the week before from Ethiopia to visit, as well as my cousin. I still had a couple of hours before my flight so I decided to wait around for my friend whose flight was leaving from Dulles as well but just an hour later. I realized I had waited too long when I reached the security line and she still had not arrived. It was about 9:05 p.m. and my flight was at 10:00 p.m.

I finally get my carry on bag through the X-ray machine and the lady calls out for a person with the black bag and, of course, that was me. She said I had a big container and I had to take it out, so I went through my bag and found my two big lotion containers, and I had the option of checking the bag in or thowing it away. I couldn´t give it to my family because they had left and I definitely did not have time to go back and check it in. So I had to leave my new Victoria Secret lotions at security check-in and run to my gate. I had bought three-ounce containers that day and used it for other things that I had packed in my luggage that was checked in, but it had completely slipped my mind that I should have used it for my lotion as well. I was the last one to board the plane. I was relieved but somewhat upset that I hadn´t checked the requiremennts for carry-on bags.

I reached London the next day since it was an overnight flight and they are a few hours ahead. I waited for my luggage for a long time and finally decided to see if it had even made it. I filed a lost baggage claim and all they could do was take my contact information. I was staying in London overnight then flying out to Seville the next day so I thought that would be plenty of time to get it.

I arrived in Seville with no luggage and I had to wait two weeks before it was delivered to my apartment. It was not the best experience of my life but it was definately and interesting one

To follow quotes from the Sydney Morning Herald along with some of my observations and thoughts ...

What is APEC?

“Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation forum is a 21-member group of ‘economies’ which discusses trade issues. It is the only intergovernmental group in the world committed to reducing trade barriers and increasing investment withought requiring its members to enter into legally binding obligations ... [blah, blah blah my comments here] ...
It was first put forward as an idea by Australia in 1989.”

“21 government leaders [Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, United States, Vietnam], 400 international business leaders, and more than 6000 delegates and support personnel will attend Leaders Week.”

“While APEC has declared goals for tariff reductions and economic reforms, this message has been diluted by its membership expansion, terrorism, and global warming”

Trouble

“The motorcade expected to wreak most havoc — that of the US President, George Bush — arrives tonight (Tuesday). The 20-vehicle convoy, complete with military helicopter overhead, will be given top priority in traffic. It is expected to travel through the city tomorrow morning and early on Thursday. (U.S. First lady Laura Bush announced she would not attend, citing a pinched nerve.)”

“Railway stations closed, buses diverted in the city and clearways enforced along some of Sydney's busiest arteries: welcome to the APEC summit.” (Expect serious traffic delays!)

“Fenced off from residents, parts of Sydney felt like a ghost town yesterday.”

Protests

“The Galaxy poll also found 74 percent believe the event, which will cost taxpayers more than $300 million, was not money well spent. Others also argue that holding the event is taking money away from Sydney restaurants, tourist attractions, and other businesses.

Protests are already under way across the city, and there is highened security.” (This can even be seen at the Fisher Library.)

I have nearly forgotten that 21 leaders will be attending this week ... because all of the focus has been on President Bush and the war in Iraq. Point of information: There is very strong anti-Bush and an anti-war attitude here. Some Australian troops are in Iraq; to quote a Sancta girl: “We try to suck up to America.” (Political cartoons have John Howard [prime minister of AU] doing lewd things with President Bush.)

There are more anti-war protests and Bush-hating posters than I have seen in Richmond, VA. Tteachers allow brief announcements in front of class before (large lecture) classes ... half of which have been: "Come to the anti-war talk or protest ... listen to an Iraqi solder speak.” Go past the library and I guarantee someone will try to hand you information on the anti-war movement. (I’m not taking a political view either way — just stating the facts.)

Public Holiday

Friday is a public holiday ... meaning no school, no work ... and fitness classes are canceled in the morning :-(

To paraphrase many-a Sydney article, “ … we welcome international business and world leaders ... but Sydnersiders are encouraged to ‘get out’!”

Read more about campus security enhancements at VCU »

The Blue Mountains are past western Sydney. To get there takes approximately 2 hours. We made some stops too and from on the way.

It was such a beautiful day and great weather. As great as the city is, it was nice to be breathe the fresh, mountain air.

Aboriginal (native person)

The Three Sisters

I spent part of the day with a Japanese girl, and a German girl I met. We took a picture of the three of us ... the Japanese girl is going to e-mail it to us.

We went on bush walks along the way. These ferns only grow in the southern hemisphere. Our guide also noted that we were in a temperate rain forest.

We make it down to the valley after walking from the top.

We get back up by taking the railway.

That's right, it's the steepest railway in the world. 52 degrees!

Next we headed to a wildlife park.

There were several kangaroos. They actually scared me quite a bit ...

Look in its pouch....

You can feed the kangas ice cream cones.

I learned that there are over 40 species of kangaroos ... these were huge!

Albino kangaroos

One of my favorite animals: the pelican.

My (new) FAVORITE Australian animal the dingo!

Wombat

This goat followed me around, guess he wanted to be my friend.

We stopped by Olympic Park on the way home -- site of the 2000 Olympics. It's about 30 minutes outside the main city.

I was really excited about going. But actually, it was kinda boring. Not much to see. Sorry to disappoint.

(view from inside the bus) ... Track runner appeared with the torch from inside the fountain to start the Olympic games.

Australia Stadium, since renamed.

The coolest part were the poles; they all the athletes names written on them. They also had television clips from the games.