Semana Santa

08.04.2009

heyy everyone!
i am just returning from a beautiful trip to the spanish coast line better known as costa del sol (the coast of sun) which borders the Mediterranean Sea. i went with 3 other girls from my program and it was wonderful. i was able to get a sweet discount at the marriot from my oh so glorious job last summer and we were able to stay in a 2 room apartment right on the beach for a price cheaper than a hostal. it was great. our apartment was beautiful and had a full kitchen, 3 tv's which aired stations in english, spanish, arabic, french, and german- i know, craziness. the hotel had 3 outdoor pools and 1 indoor. one of the outdoor pools was a kids pool and had you guessed it, a WATER SLIDE! needless to say, i was in my element and made friends with about 4 ten year old boys from britain who just about killed me. they were able to convince me to try all these different slide techniques including going down on my knees. believe me, this is easier said than done. it took about 10 tries before i mastered the technique.
besides the 4 of us, we were surrounded by oldies and families, clearly few other college kids can afford the marriot hehe. majority of the people were from britain so everything was in english. there were also alot of german people there as well. all of the workers at the front desk spoke at least one other language besides spanish. one of the ladies in particular spoke spanish, english, and german- it was wild. the security guard, carlos, who we became friends with spoke 5! craziness!
overall, the trip was just what the doctor ordered- late mornings filled with sleep, much relaxation, and tons of sun. i loved every minute of it. the hotel was located along a highway so we became frequenters of the bus and took it to 3 of the surrounding towns: Estepona, Marbella, and Puerto Banus. All the towns were lovely and we got to explore all of them a little. Puerto Banus was wild, definitely the land of the posh. we decided to go there saturday night and were knocked off our feet. all the cars were mercedes, bentleys, you name it. there were yachts all over the place. and get this. usually when we walk around seville, clubs will try to get us to come in by saying they will give us a free chupitto (shot). not in puerto banus, they offered us champagne. what a different world. i felt like a mini celebrity for the night.
things in sevilla are good so far. they are midweek of semana santa (holy week). this is one of the biggest holidays of the year and is very important to the people of sevilla. the local churches have floats of the passion that they carry around the city for the week. tomorrow i am going to go venture out and see what the festivities are like. other than that i have some school projects that i should be working on.
the weather is beautiful, i actually am getting some color, no more pasty white for me!
hope things are going well for you all.
miss you!
steph

Posted by S.Stadig 14:08