Friday Febrary 26th

Well, the intensive period has ended, and it really flew by. I knew that my time here would go by really fast, but not this quick! After our final exam today, a few of the girls and I went shopping on the way home. I believe there are three big periods of sales, and the one going on right now ends at the end of the month. So that is basically my rationale for going shopping ☺ Yesterday we had a short day of class as well, then went to visit Itálica, the Roman ruins. It is about a 10-15 minute drive out of the city. I was surprised by how country our surroundings were! It reminded me a little of Dublin, in that you can drive a few minutes and be among fields and farms. We saw rows or orange trees with little towns situated in between. We arrived at Itálica and went first to the reconstruction of the main road and some of the homes. This village was first built to house soldiers I believe, but that part is actually underneath a town now. Itálica was built on a hill which was good for the rain and spotting enemies. We saw the skeletons of houses and tiendas as well as recreations of some sculptures. Finally, we visited the amphitheater, where people enjoyed watching fights between men and exotic animals from Africa. Oh- I forgot to mention that these houses had water running to each one….quite advanced for the age! After trudging through the never-ending flood back to the bus, we drove home and went to our house for lunch.
I have thinking how I want to immerse myself into the culture here, and I was able to do that on Wednesday when I went to a Manifestación, or march. My friend had heard about it in the paper, and we decided we wanted to go. It began at 7;30 p.m. and stretched along the Avenida de la Constitución, one of the main roads in town. The protest was against raising the age of jubilación-or retirement. Most of the people were elderly there, but some families were present. We were laughed at in the beginning due to our picture taking, but suddenly Katie obtained a flag, and we joined the march! There were drums and chants, and one man was dressed as an Indian! It was fun to read all the banners and figure them out. The march (while we were there) was completely peaceful, and we remarked at the obvious lack of policemen. To me, the most interesting thing was that the march went right over the railway and one of the rail signs read “Rail closed for the manifestación” (the picture is on the google site). It was definitely an interesting experience-and something which I have never participated in while in the States.