Final Week in Paradise and Beyond

Believe it or not, my time in paradise, a.k.a. Cádiz, has come to an end.  We departed at 8 A.M. this morning for Granada, a city 4-5 hours away by bus.  While I am excited about visiting Granada and Sevilla, I am equally as sad to have left Cádiz.  Though it is cliché, I have experienced how quickly that time can fly.  It seems like just yesterday when Minn and I were using maps and taking cold showers.  Now that we have become accustomed to this city and feel like we actually belong here, the time has come to say goodbye. 

Enough of the sentimentalism.  Our last week here has been wonderful!

The Gran Regata is taking place in Cádiz this week.  That means that ships from various countries are docked there.  There are tons of them, along with carnival rides, games, vendors, and the like.  It’s not the SJA carnival, but it sure comes close! 

 Sign at the entrance

The ships are all lit up along the water.  Along with the Ferris Wheel and other carnival attractions, they made for a beautiful sight!

Many vendors were set up at the Regata.

All of the ships were holding parties with music and dancing as we walked by.

Panoramic view of the Regata on the sea

Even better than the ships are the sailors, of course!  There were sailors upon sailors all around Cádiz.  The best part is that they were in uniform all the time.  Imagine walking around a city and seeing men in uniform all over the place.  I sure wasn't complaining:

One of our friends even scored an invitation to the Italian sailors’ exclusive party on board.  We told her that she just couldn’t go alone – she obviously needed some girls to accompany her.  Then we discovered that the attire was semi-formal, so that was the end of that.  But that’s beside the point.

Though we walked around for a while at the Regata last night, we never did find the U.S. ship.  Rumor has it that the American sailors here are Naval Academy students.  We had hoped to come across the ship so we could take a picture with the sailors, but unfortunately, we got tired of walking around looking for it.

Another neat thing that we did this week was go to the Torre Tavira – a tower that you can climb up and see the entire city from!  Seeing the familiar sights that we see every day from such a different, higher perspective was quite the experience.  Here are some snapshots:

 View of the Cathedral (the tall towers and golden dome) and the coastline

The steeples here belong to the church which we attended during the majority of our stay in Cádiz.

Panoramic view of Cádiz bordering the Atlantic

On Thursday after classes, the University held a ceremony for our completion of the four-week courses.  We were recognized with certificates and our parents were present to support us.  It was so cute to see all of the mothers walk in together to see our ceremony.  Notice that I said mothers – Charo told us that Pepe had come with her, but upon noticing that he was the only male in the vicinity, he had grudgingly went back home.  It was the same thing when we first met our families (how was that four weeks ago?!): Only the mothers showed up to greet us.  Seems like an example of the machismo still present here.

Minn and I took a picture with Charo, who lovingly referred to us as her "daughters":

Here is a photo of our Literature class with our professor, Beatriz, whom we absolutely adored (she is the one who is a full-time professor here at the University of Cádiz):

Once we realized that we only have one day left in Cádiz, Minn and I decided that the time had come to take pictures of our house and room.  Here are the highlights:

View of our building from the street - the balcony/window on the top floor directly above the lamp, along with the smaller one to the right, belonged to our house.

The inside entrance to our building.  Our house was two flights of stairs up from here.

Our room!  My bed was the one on the left.  Notice the cork board wall behind the beds - a concept to consider for my future home! 

The sitting room directly off our room.

I’ve also witnessed some interesting things in Spain:

 Yes, this is a bus.  It has two halves, attached by that accordion-looking thing in the middle.

 

Globalization at its finest: The line at Burger King is this long more often than not.  Other familiar brand names that we have seen here: Ben & Jerry’s, GameStop, Claire’s, and a Spanish version of Dunkin’ Donuts  (however, all of you DD fans will be happy to know that it smelled exactly the same as they do in the States).  Cádiz also has its own version of Victoria’s Secret: Women’s Secret.  No joke.

Fun fact: Dora the Explorer teaches English to her viewers here, just as she teaches Spanish to her American viewers.  Go figure!

Since Charo and Pepe put the news on TV every time we are eating together, Minn and I were able to stay on top of Spanish happenings pretty well.  Currently, the most talked-about headline is the ongoing trash workers’ strike.  Let me preface this story by saying that Cádiz is one of the cleanest, most sanitary cities that I have ever seen.  The streets are sprayed with soap and water daily, the trash is collected daily, the gardens and landscapes are incredibly well-kept, and the beach is cleaned every night.  Until now.  The strike has left piles on piles of garbage throughout the city.  And it is starting to smell.  The piles of trash and food scraps are certainly making all of those stray cats happy, but the citizens are a different story.  Charo and Pepe are pretty angry about the whole thing.  This spotless city is quickly becoming overtaken by garbage, and it’s quite scary.  Though I am sad to leave this place, I think we are getting out of here at the right time.  Luckily, I have yet to see a Spanish rat.  Fingers crossed.

Another funny story about cats: Yesterday morning, as I was running along the wall bordering the ocean, I heard a scream.  It wasn’t a human scream, though.  I’m almost positive that it was the sound of a cat either drowning or being eaten by something.  Maybe that’s the solution to ridding the city of all those stray cats.  Just kidding, obviously. 

For one of our classes, our final project was to make a video describing our cultural experiences here in Cádiz.  If anyone would like to view mine, here is the link:

http://animoto.com/play/LOIoMiw3hOpLP0z0HkWE0g

Disclaimer: It’s in Spanish!  No surprise there, but if nothing else, the pictures are pretty good.

So that’s it.  Final project has been submitted, final exam has been taken, classes are over, and our last day here is rapidly coming to an end.  The remainder of our last day in Cádiz consisted of a long siesta on the beach, some last-minute souvenir shopping, my last nighttime run, our final dinner with Charo and Pepe, and then some drinks and pizza (absolutely delicious, might I add) at a cute café that Minn discovered.  We then proceeded to meet up with the group and head to Nahu: a bar located about 5 minutes away from our house that played 90s American pop music (a.k.a. the music that we grew up with).  It was a great time!  As if staying at the bar until 2 A.M. wasn't enough, we continued on to make one final appearance at our favorite discoteca (club): The Punta.  We had a good time there and lasted until about 4:30 A.M.  Hey, at least I got home an hour earlier than I did after celebrating my birthday.  I'm still trying to comprehend how Spaniards stay out this late on a regular basis.  Oh wait, that's right: They take a 2-hour siesta break every afternoon.  What a life.

This morning, we threw some last-minute items into our suitcases, said goodbye to Pepe (I'm sorry to say that we never got a picture with him), and hailed a taxi with Charo to the meeting point.  I was reminiscing quite a bit, as it was the same location at which we had been dropped off and met our families exactly four weeks ago today.  Also interesting was the fact that it was all of the mothers who brought us, their sons and daughters, to the bus stop.  Must have been a bit early for the men.

It was difficult to say goodbye to Charo.  We thanked her many times for her wonderful hospitality, cooking, and hard work that made us feel like we were at home.  Last night we presented her and Pepe with flowers (fresh from the aptly-named Plaza de las Flores located 5 minutes from our house) and olive oil that we had purchased during our excursion to Jerez (the vineyard where we had the wine tasting).  They really appreciated these gifts and our hand-written card, which we are proud to say was grammatically correct.  That right there is proof that we learned something while we were here.  

Anyway, we all boarded the bus and waved goodbye to the group of mothers.  Some of my classmates shed tears since we had all become pretty close with our families over the course of the four weeks.  We all slept for the majority of the 4-hour bus ride to Granada.  We're staying at a beautiful hotel here, complete with a rooftop pool that offers incredible views of the city and the mountains in the distance.  Updates and pictures to come on our weekend in Granada.  Until then, adios!  Go America!  (We will undoubtedly be cheering on our teams tonight from wherever we can find a live broadcast...)

One of my favorite pictures, taken in Tarifa.  That's the Mediterranean Ocean, and in the distance, the mountains of Africa, behind us.

Also, here are the water trampoline and other inflatable objects that I was talking about in my post about Tarifa.  That's us jumping on them.  I believe that in this photo, I was on the trampoline on the left directly below the "Mediterraneo" sign:

I'm sure they'd work just as well in the Atlantic Ocean off the Jersey shore, too...