Never Buy Rings in Foreign Countries

First of all, happy World Nutella Day. I am eating some Nutella as I write this, so I thought it was only appropriate to mention it. Go have some, it's delicious. End of PSA. Secondly, I'm aware that it's taken me a week to update, but bear with me, I had to write a paper this week so I'm still recovering from the realization that I have to do actual work while I'm here too.

I'm also trying to open a package of glue that I bought earlier today. Why do I need glue, you ask? Because I'm an idiot and forgot that I have the worst luck ever when it comes to buying rings, especially in places that are not Michigan. In Córdoba yesterday, I bought a ring, which was luckily fairly cheap but looks nice. As I went to remove my cardigan on the bus on the way home--yeah, the ring didn't even make it a full day--the sleeve caught on one of the pearl-like objects (because they are very obviously not real pearls) and it popped right off. Now I have to glue it back on. The saga of my unfortunate ring-buying experiences begins in North Carolina, where I bought a really pretty ring for myself with my Christmas money. As time went on, the stones started falling out of their settings so that now about half of them are gone. Disappointing. Then I bought a ring at a now-unknown location (read: I can't remember where) and the band broke and pinched my finger. Then I went to Toronto and saw one ring I really liked, but chose not to get, which I still regret, later buying a different one that turns my finger green. So I really can't explain why I thought it would be a good idea to buy a ring in Córdoba, since clearly it never works out for me. I guess I just haven't learned my lesson. Hopefully the glue will render it wearable once again and all will be well, more or less.

Besides the ring mishap, Córdoba was lovely. We went to the Mezquita, which was originally constructed as a mosque, but a cathedral was added to it later. It was very cool to see the different time periods and religions. We also got a tour of some of the city, the Jewish quarter specifically, as well as the synagogue. There are a lot of very narrow streets and alleys, even more so than in Sevilla. Our guide explained that they set them up that way to block the heat of the sun so that in the summer you can retreat to the cool shade. The city overall was far more touristy than I though it would be. I guess I didn't really think about it too much, but there were a LOT of tourists. And many of the shops around the judería (Jewish quarter) were souvenir shops. I've noticed also that Spaniards tend to joke about all the Japanese tourists around. My grammar professor cracked a joke about looking at the Prado's paintings online so that you don't have "cien japoneses" (100 Japanese people) standing in front of you while you're trying to see Las Meninas. Our guide in Córdoba also mentioned the numerous Japanese tourists in and around the Mezquita multiple times. I don't really have much to say about that other than it's comical and interesting. Tourism aside, I liked Córdoba. I do think I prefer Cádiz to Córdoba, but they're both nice cities. Although I'm pretty sure as long as you're in Spain, you can't go wrong.

As I said before, the past week entailed writing an essay for the culmination of our cultural orientation as well as taking an exam. We're done!...sort of. We still have a second essay to write. Essays here are even more annoying because the paper size is longer and they only use 1.5 spacing instead of double spacing, and that makes a big difference, to be sure. I decided to write the longer of the two essays first, since real classes are about to start and I knew I wouldn't want to have to try to do it amidst figuring those out. Monday is the day of truth, when Universidad de Sevilla courses begin. I have a pretty good idea of what I want to take, so hopefully all of my classes will work out. We choose classes by picking 10 or so that interest us, then visit them next week and decide which 5 we want to take. We take 1 or 2 at the program center, which are more like classes at Michigan and only include program participants, and we take 3 or 4 at the University, so that we have 5 total. I'm most likely taking 4 at the University and 1 at the center, and I'm going to take a lot of literature. I'm really excited, the classes look pretty awesome. I'm just hoping they won't be too hard and that I'll make Spanish companions. We met a few students last night who will hopefully be able to show us the ropes a bit. Check back here for a full report about classes! I'm sure it will be...interesting.

Photos (from top): Mezquita: mosque, Mezquita: cathedral, Mezquita: outside, flowers in the Jewish quarter, a pretty picture of some orange trees.