Today is my easy school day, I have one 11:45am class and then I am done for the day. The pictue above is the place where I have all my classes. Very different than the two other universities in Seville. The one class I have today is probably going to be one of my favorites because Artistic monuments have always fascinated me but even more so, the learning style is going to more enjoyable. The professor will lecture for about 30 minutes then, we go out and walk to the monuments we just learned about. During class today, we learned a little bit about the history of Seville and luckily for all you reading, I will share some with you.
Seville, before 3 B.C, was inhabitated by many tribes in which there was no common language between them. The Romans took over Seville and united the city as well as gave it an offficial language of Latin. Christianity was also brought over by the Romans, which has stayed a part of the culture ever since. The fall of the Romans meant the rise of the Muslims in which Islam then became the primary religion in Seville. The picture shown above is an awesome examble of the Muslims trying to build over the Roman architecture. Those arches used to be apart of a Roman building and it extended down below what is now the ground. A Mosque now lies above what was then a Roman building. The rise of the Spanish Empire started with Fernando III and the discover of the Americas in 1492. The major river called Guadalquiuir was the main mode of transportation from the Americas to Seville then Madrid. Where my school is located (the first picture above), is the closest highest point to the river, which meant that the the hub of Seville was there. The plaza in which my school stands, used to be a fish market and right down the street was the bread market and so on and so forth. Well there is your history lesson for today, maybe use it for a fun fact of the day. Now that I've shown my parents that I am in fact learing something over here, time to talk about soccer!
First practice went really well. Triana C.F has two fields and a building with a training room and two lockerrooms for women and men. Supposedly compared to other facilities, this is a 5 star park. The guys have a game this Sunday in some village. Because of that, we practiced on a dirt field. This is completely normal for many of the semi-pro teams around Spain. I could not believe it, players of this caliber playing on dirt, it just goes to show how lucky we really are playing on beautiful grass fields from the day we start club soccer back in the states. I found the speed of the game only a little bit quicker than that of college soccer. The only difference is every player on the field had unbelievable ball skills and technique even the goalies. I also noticed that a lot of the players like to hold on to the ball a tad bit longer and also physicality does not play a huge role in their play. We started practice with a jog around the field then some passing drills to get our feet moving. We played a little possession from end line to end line and then we ended practice with a 7v7. I was able to get my first goal of the new year during the scrimmage, which was awesome. I played very well after getting used to the ground and how the ball reacted to bouncing on it. Once I got adjusted I had so much fun and could not ask for a better practice, I could do without the
rain and cold weather but other than that it was a perfect introduction into the spanish culture through their soccer. My next blog will probably be over the weekend because not much will be different in the coming days. Until then, ¡Adios!
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