SPAINNNNN!

FYI: We actually wrote this on Wednesday night, 1/28, after our first day in Spain. For some reason, it didn't post and we only just found out tonight when we got back on the ship from exploring Spain! We're writing another blog tonight about the rest of our adventures, but we wanted to post this one so everyone can read about our first day.


Guess what! We finally made it to our first port. We pulled in this morning at about 7 am and were jumping up and down. We quickly got ready, ate breakfast, and went to stand on deck with everyone else and watch the sunrise. It was amazing. As soon as the sun was up, we sprinted off the ship and began our adventure. Our first mission was to look for a store that sold watches. Side note: David Geiss (sp?) was our inter-port lecturer from Bahamas to Cadiz (he was the most amazing person ever! He was an excellent public speaker who has lived in Spain and had soo many interesting things to say. I'm so sad he's not traveling with us after Spain!). Anyway, he told us to go to a department store called El Corte Ingles, which was supposedly really close. Well, we walked around the port area for a little bit, and luckily we ran into David and asked him for directions. He told us how to get there, and as we were walking away, a lifelong learner named Joan asked if she could come along. We said sure and set off. As we were walking, we talked a bit and had some great conversations with her. She reminds me a lot of Grandma Flo (who we miss VERY much and hope is doing well!) and she had so much to say today. Well, when we were walking, we noticed that it was taking a lot longer than David said it would, so we stopped for directions and used very rusty Spanish with a helpful guy who led us in the right direction. We walked for about an hour and a half through the most interesting part of town. We saw schools, stores, apartments, people doing laundry, cats running around (yay), children playing...it was great! We got to see so much just wandering around and trying to find our way- it was an awesome way to start our first port! After we finally found the store and bought our watches, we started the long trek back. Okay, it was actually only about a 20-25 minute walk, but because we got lost on the way there, the whole trip took about 3 hours. haha. Oh well...that's part of the fun, right? And the best part of the morning was that we stopped at a little cafe on our way back to the ship and ate churros con chocolate (long fried pieces of dough served with a thick cup of chocolate to dip). They were definitely terrible for you but absolutely delicious! And while we were in there enjoying our churros, one of the guys that worked there came up and said, "Gemelas? (twins)" and we said, "Si!", and he showed us a picture of him and HIS twin when they were about 5 years old. It was such a great thing to connect with someone and was really a special moment!

When we got back to the ship at about 12:30 pm, we immediately had to turn around and get ready to leave for our Cadiz City Orientation trip at 12:45. There were so many SASers/faculty/staff/LLL's going on this trip that we had about 5 groups of 30 people all starting out walking into Cadiz. It was a funny sight, and we definitely took over their city today! The orientation was perfect! It involved A LOT of walking (5 hours) but was totally worth it! We saw everything in the city, I swear, and I bet we could tell you some interesting facts about Cadiz during the Roman Empire or even what the mayor's favorite office chair is made out of! Our tour guide was great, and of course, we took TONS of pictures! There was so much to see. It was almost overwhelming. We've never been out of the country, really (Mexico and Canada don't count), so the culture shock was amazing. It's not like Spain is that different from America, but just to see all these things that you've read about and seen in movies in real life is unbelievable. And to actually go out and talk to the locals, through a huge language barrier is an experience in itself. Doing things that are usually so easy...finding your way around, buying groceries or a watch....are quite difficult when you don't know where you are, how to get around, or how to ask someone for directions!

After the city orientation, we found out that there were extra tickets for a trip to see a Flamenco show. So we hopped on a bus with Rachel and drove about 30 minutes to a small town between Cadiz and Seville. In the middle of nowhere, literally, is this small resort looking thing with an outside arena. We all go sit in this arena and we got to see the most Spanish thing ever- bull fighting! They train baby bulls there, and we got to see one of the training sessions. We also got to see a horse dancing with women...which was awesome by the way...and then a Spanish man with really tight pants run around and try not to get run over by the bull! After that excitement, we went inside where Tapas and Sangria were waiting for us!! We were in heaven. And while we were eating and relaxing, they put on a flamenco show for us. It was amazing!! If you've never seen Flamenco before- go! It was really good and at the end we all got up and danced (I think some were more tipsy than others. haha) and had a fabulous time. During all of this, we also met a girl named Amy who is absolutely amazing. I can tell we are going to be close and we talked the entire way back to the ship! We also got to call Mom and Dad, Kathy, & the girls today! It was really exciting and we definitely needed a little dose of the fam.

We already feel like we learned SO much and we loooove Cadiz (definitely have to come back some day)! We can't believe we're going to see 3 more cities before the weekend, and then go to Morocco in 5 days! We are the luckiest people in the world and so unbelievably blessed. I know we keep saying that, but I still can't believe we're here doing this. It's crazy!

Well, it is now 2 am here and we have to be up at 7 for our trip to Sevilla, Cordoba, and Grenada. We hope you're all enjoying our blog so far! We're hoping to upload pictures soon so get excited! Also, we're gonna be gone until Saturday night, so you'll here from us after we get back from our trip! Miss you all and love you!

K & S

p.s.- Shout out to Alyssa Eubank......aka coolest person EVER! We love you sooo much!!!