Here is a journal entry from Jessica Mathers about her experience in Sevilla:

Today we went to the main cathedral in Sevilla.  While we were there I learned a lot about what made it possible to have so many great works of art and architecture in Spain.  Most of the religious buildings in Spain were built after the Christians defeated the Arab Muslims (other religions, etc.).  The altar piece in the Catedral has got to bethe best piece of religious art I`ve ever seen, and since I`ve been here I`ve learnt a lot about how things are done in Spain (royals first, nobles second, and servants/public third).  My second favourite part of the trip was seeing and learning more about Christopher Columbus and his tomb.  The statue of his tomb represents four men from the four kingdoms of Spain-Castilla, León/Lion, Navarra, and Aragon.  I thought the details on it were cool.  I didn`t really see much of the bell tower because basically as soon as I got up I had to come back down.  After lunch we took a tour of the bullfighters and the whole process of the bull fighting.  I learned that for the matador to win, it has to kill two bulls in 20 minutes.  I thought it was cruel when this bull killed what was Spain`s best matador, and it and every other relative bull to that one except its father was killed.  Oh, and today I learned that more than anything Mr. Slater wants tons and tons of McDonalds cheeseburgers.  I thought he`d want Starbucks.

Here`s a comment from Veronica Valdivia after seeing our fourth cathedral of the trip:

Ms. Olsen, it`s amazing to think that if Spain hadn`t converted from being Muslim to Christianity before Christopher Columbus explored the Americas we might all be Muslim in the Americas instead of Christian.

Rachel Bowen has been a model questioner by posing questions like this:

"Do you know...?"  Instead of "Where are we going?  When are we eating? What`s our hotel going to be like?"

In Córdoba we toured the Mesquita, which is a beautifully preserved mosque from the time when the Moors ruled that part of Spain.  Thinking about the fact that the clash between the Muslims and Christians was often times so bloody and difficult, it`s quite amazing that the mosque was only added to and not almost completely destroyed as we`ve seen in many of the other churches and cathedrals.  We learned that they recycled the columns from the Roman ruins and added moreno marble from the Sierra Morena north of Córdoba to create the newer sections.  The ways in which the Christians altered the mosque to suit their needs and vice versa was impressive (i.e. the Muslims took off the two side arms of the cross to make it not be a cross but a geometric shape, which was allowed as a decoration in their place of worship).