Junior, Dept. of English Lang. & Lit.
Poohkim09@hanmail.net
The first day of arrival! Excited, we got out of the Madrid airport and went to the center of the city, the Plaza de Colon. Looking around, we suddenly recognized we were not checked at the Inspection Department. Worried if we became illegal entrants, we returned to the airport. We had to get the entrant inspection when we crossed the national boundaries, but we did not know that. When we got back to the city, we could not find a room to stay in.
The time when we visited was the high-demand season so there were only a few rooms available after the check-in time. Because we had not make any reservations, it was too late to find a room so we spent one night in the airport. An interesting thing was that the night began late. When it was 10:00 p.m., it was getting dark and cool. People started going out into the street in the evening.
The next place was Granada. Granada was a really good place for sightseeing. Every building in the city was a historic site. It was very impressive to me preserving the historic buildings so well. Some modern fast food restaurants such as McDonalds and Burger King did not build their own buildings but only hang their signboards.
We faced another pleasure on the sixth day. We could understand what people talked about! A few days before, every word seemed like the roar of animals. But now we could speak and listen simple words and sentences. The Spanish people were very kind and had graceful attitudes. Once, we wanted to see a statue, and asked a local how we could find it but he could not understand. So we used body language as much as we could.
Trying to explain each other, we could finally make him understand and we all laughed very loud. At last, we reached at Sevilla. The reason why I used ‘at last’ meant I really wanted to see the flamenco dancers. Seeing flamenco was one of the main reasons I wanted to go to Spain. Sevilla was the home of flamenco.
Sevilla was a very famous sightseeing city so all along the year, there were always lots of people. The accommodations were good, although the cost of a youth hostel was a little high.
Flamenco began at 9:00 in the evening and continued into dawn. Gypsies originally did Flamenco but nowadays, most performances are done for money in the evening at Tablao. The performance was fantastic. There was only background music played by guitar and applauds. Splendid movement of tap dance, energetic actions, and intense eyes were good enough to catch the audiences’ hearts.
They performed six different dances. I was touched by 2 different ones. One was a little scary flamenco rather than bright. One foreigner interpreted the dancer’s face to be ‘mean’. The other was very beautiful although somewhat opposed to the first one. The dancers dressed in very long and splendid clothes and used instruments similar to castanets.
That night, I was really enraptured. The excitement lasted when we were coming back home. On our way home, we were dancing on bear legs under the stars, even though it was mid night. The spanish traditional beverage, ‘Sangria’ was also great.
It was a wine but when you drink it with fruit, the consistency of alcohol got low so it made for a beautiful night life. Many people drank it before eating meals. We took a rest at Malaga. We stayed for three days there. Malaga was famous for black beach sand and cold and clean water.
Native people were free from others’ attention, we enjoyed very strange and beautiful(?) sceneries. The last place we visited was Barcelona. We saw more visitors there than ever before. We recognized the fame of Balcelona again. There were many performances on Rambla Street a great place for tourists.
We saw many funny things. A person disguised as a real statue stood motionless. When someone gave money to him, he performed very strange and funny things and made her laugh. Also, the whole family went out in the street and played classical music. All through the trip, we were hungry due to the high cost of food.
But here in Barcelona, we ate fresh fruits and fish, as much as we liked. This whole trip was a little difficult for me. The price of goods was so high than we ate only once a day. The days we traveled was high-demand season, reservations for train tickets were really hard. We had to change schedule many times. We stayed only in Spain so we could know specific things in Spain.
Now we can speak to other people proudly. When we have a map, we can explain where the terminal and shops are. Due to the support from our school, I could afford the cost of the trip and it was a good chance for me to have many experiences. I regretted I did not pay attention to preparing for the trip.
If I studied more about Spain, I would have had a more pleasant trip... Everyone knows traveling can give many good experiences and instructions. Our school students are much more advantageous than other school students. So take a chance when you catch it. Last, I am sorry I cannot express my experiences and feelings so better.
Translated by Koo Sun-mo
The UOS Times
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