Of Roman Ruins and Tiny Sandwiches...

Hello again! It's Tuesday, which means it's new blog post day!

This past week has been kind of a whirlwind! I'm getting used to my intensive class, although 3 hours a day seems a little long. We had our midterm on Friday, and that went pretty well. The class is over at the end of the week though! I start "real" classes next week and I'm also supposed to get my final schedule at the end of the week too.

Inmaculada is as wonderful as always! This weekend, one of her old boarders, an American girl who stayed with her in 2009, came to visit. It was nice to talk to someone who had been through the program and she assured me that Inmaculada was the best host mom, and that the program is a lot of fun. She's been right so far!

I've made a lot of friends, mostly from my orientation group. Living with Laura is very cool too, a nice little break from the total immersion experience. I sometimes hang out with her friends too, which is nice.

 This is my friend Mattie and I at a local bar called the Phoenix. She goes to Indiana University and she was part of my orientation group.

 These are my friends and I at the Phoenix. From left to right there's Mattie, Carly, Jessie, Mandy, and me.

 So this picture was taken at a local restaurant called Montaditos. My hand is in the picture because I was trying to show how tiny the sandwiches are compared to my hand. They're so cute! The restaurant has a HUGE menu and all the sandwiches are a euro each.

This weekend my friends and I went to Itálica, which is the site of some ancient Roman ruins. It was a very foggy morning, which kind of lent an ethereal feel to the whole site.

This is right at the entrance to the city. It's less than 20 minutes from downtown Sevilla. It's so beautiful!

This is a statue of the Roman emperor Trajan. Our guide told us that the emperor probably didn't have this impressive physique. Then he asked us to imagine what a naked statue of one of our world leaders would look like. No thank you. :)

This is an example of some of the beautifully preserved mosaics at Itálica. It's really impressive how much has survived after 2,000 years!

These two pictures are from the ruins of the bath houses of Itálica. The top picture shows the mosaic that was at the bottom of the cold water baths. It shows Neptune and his Nereids, which made the Greek and Roman mythology nerd in me happy :) The bottom picture shows where the fires would normally be built to heat up the hot baths.

These two pictures are from the ruins two bakeries. The second one has been rebuilt, although the first one remained intact.

These three pictures are from the "House of the Birds", which was home to one of the richest families in Itálica. The second picture is from the study of the man of the home, and the last is one of the courtyards.

This was my favorite part of the whole city. This is called the "House of the Planetarium". Each portrait represents a day of the week. Monday or Lunes is represented by the goddess Selene, goddess of the moon (luna in Spanish). Tuesday or Martes is represented by the god Mars, god of war. Wednesday or Miércoles is represented by Mercury, the messenger of the gods. Thursday or Jueves is represented by Jupiter, the king of the gods. Friday, or Viernes is represented by the goddess Venus, goddess of love. Saturday or Sábado is represented by the god Saturn, father of the gods. And Sunday is represented by Helios, god of the sun.

These pictures are from the amphitheatre. The top picture is from the hallway the gladiators would go down in order to enter the ring. The bottom picture is the hallway that the spectators would use.

 This is the amphitheatre. It's really impressive how much of it still remains. The sun started to emerge from the fog when I took these pictures.

This last picture is from the pit of the amphitheatre where they used to keep the animals that the gladiators sometimes fought against.


This coming weekend my friends and I are going to Granada for 2 days! It should be a lot of fun. I'm learning lots and having a great time. Until next week! Hasta luego!