So much to catch up on….

So I met a man in Spain and we’re engaged… hahaha, just kidding. Spain was a blast and I was thankful to have the opportunity to visit some places I had been before and see new ones. The stretch between the Bahamas and Spain included 7 straight days of classes- no weekends for us! My typical day on the ship begins with the Global Studies class from 9:20-10:35- the entire ship attends this class. This is the class that preps us for our upcoming ports and often features guest speakers from the country who sail with us for a few days. The lecturer for Spain was a University of Virginia professor of Spanish named David Geis- he was a hoot! In fact, he was knighted by the Spanish king for all of his contributions to spreading Spanish culture- he has authored a number of books.

Our days are lettered A and B days- needless to say I have more or less forgotten the normal Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. On A days I am taking a class about Islam and politics followed by an International Strategic Management class. The later is far more interesting and is taught by a delightful British woman. On B days I have been sitting in on a variety of classes- unfortunately because the classrooms are rather small, we can’t check all of them out. Most of all, I feel like I have learned a lot about Islam and the history of northern Africa. At first it was hard to stay awake in class with the rocking of the ship, but I’m doing well now.

We were blessed with fantastic weather in Spain! The first day my friend Nichole and I walked around Cadiz and took in the sights- it’s a beach town on a peninsula. We were very brave and ordered the “tapas variadas” for lunch- a variety of local cuisine: fried sardines, risotto with lamb, fish egg sausage with pineapple in a cream sauce, oysters with salsa. That night we went to a flamenco show with SAS. It was way out in the country at a ranch with a little corral complete with seats. They did traditional flamenco dancing with a horse (a very well trained one) out in the corral. Then they had a mini-bullfight. A bull ran out who was not much bigger than Guinness and one of the students yelled out the funny nickname “Killer.” Obviously no swords were involved and the bull returned to his mother unharmed- after trying to a couple of naps during the show. We then went inside for sangria and tapas and more flamenco dancing. That night we went out to a couple bars in Cadiz and had a good time.

The next morning my fellow lifelong learner Hayley and two students, Josh and Maverick, went on an SAS trip to see the white towns of the south. We first visited Arcos De La Frontera which looked out on a valley and then on to Ronda- also on a cliff. We had a lunch of traditional food- pork, rice, French fries and a soup with egg and ham. We then split from the group to find our hotel. David Geis had told us about a great hotel named the Parador. There are 83 of them altogether- like McMenamins, most of them are old buildings that have been redone. We got a great internet special and were able to stay at the Parador right on the famous cliff. We wandered the streets of Ronda and took in the sights. The next day we took a 2 hour bus to Seville. Unfortunately we got a little lost trying to find our hostel- but it served as a great way to see the city. We went out for a traditional Spanish dinner that night- we tried paella (the national dish of spain- rice with saffron and a myriad of seafood) and traditional sausages. We went out a little bit that night- the streets were packed with US students studying abroad in Seville. The next morning we toured the Palace and hoped to see the Cathedral- but unfortunately didn’t get to. I had seen the palace before, but it was neat to see it again- lots of Arabian tile work! We boarded a bus back to Cadiz to make sure we weren’t late- you get “dock time” for being late which means at the next port you have to stay on the ship for a while.

We only had one day on the ship between Cadiz and Casablanca, but we stopped in Gibraltar to fuel. There ended up being a big storm, so we had to stay overnight anchored in Gibraltar until the seas were calm enough to bring the fuel out to us. Some of the students thought we had stayed there just so we would get enough television reception to watch the SuperBowl- but that wasn’t the case, haha. We did get a foggy reception and about 300 people stayed up until 1:30am when it started. So we ended up losing one of our days in Casablanca, but there isn’t much we could do about it. Fortunately, it doesn’t affect my main trip which leaves tomorrow morning. More to come on Morocco soon!! I love you all lots!!