last entry :(

so i'm finally back home in the u.s. of a after a week of traveling with my parents. all went pretty well, they didn't seem too enjoy my walking tour of spain i put them through, my mom wasn't a fan of such foods as calamari and lasagna of mushroom, and my mom had difficult remembering with buildings were 'important,' but we all enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. 

if you all want to know anything else about our trip, give one of us an email and we'll fill you in. but i suppose this will be all of this blog now that i'm home!!

as the spanish say tho, this isn't adios, but instead hasta luego!

family matters

so yesterday my dad, mom, and brother finally arrived in sevilla after an interesting trip ... apparently their flight was a bit cramped and rocky, so they were a bit tired and queezy when i saw them. but i think they were exaggerating. lol. but anyway, i picked them up at the airport and we took a bus into the city. after we got off, i gave them their choices of walking to the hotel or taking a cab, and they insisted they were fine walking, altho they proceeded to get mad at me when it took us more than 45 minutes to get there. geez louise ... can´t say i didn´t warn them ...

i took them out for desserts at a pastelería, but then i had to leave them for a bit to study for a final and then take it. but after that we met up again and got ice cream at the best heladería in sevilla and then tapas (appetizers) at 100 Montaditos for dinner. the tapas were these little sandwiches called montaditos (hence the name of the restaurant: there are a 100 choices for montaditos) and i introduced them to the drinks of sevilla: cruzcampo (the local beer) and tinto de verano (my favorite drink that is red wine and fanta soda).

they were a bit tired, so we called it a night after that. today they´ll get to see more of sevilla while i take my last final ... not fair!! but then i´m done for the semester!!!

hasta luego.

Last Weekend in Sevilla :(

So this weekend was my last weekend here in the awesomeness of Sevilla, so me and my friends completely filled everyday with everything we’ve wanted to do but never got around to.

Thursday we went out for the night and enjoyed the nightlife of Sevilla. We eventually made it to a pretty cool dance club called Buddha that was pretty fun.  After we left and got a taxi, it was pretty ironic because Laura saw someone getting in another taxi that she went to high school with, which is sooo random.

Friday we got up and tried to catch a bus to the outlets outside of the city, but the bus never came so we just went downtown instead. We went shopping at a cool store called Lefties, had some shwarmas, then went to the center of the city and shopping for a while. I headed back early to go running and shower before meeting with my intercambio (a student at the University that I meet with to practice Spanish).

We talked for a while and it was really funny because she has such a distorted view of the U.S. She was asking why I decided to study in Sevilla, and I told her how my school was associated with programs in Barcelona, Sevilla, and Granada, but Granada was too small and Barcelona was too dangerous, and she’s like, “But you live in the U.S.!!! That is WAY more dangerous!!” So I tried to explain to her that not everywhere is like New York City, but she still seems to think the U.S. is one big city.  

After dinner, we headed out to a tetería (tea house), which was sooo cool. It was decorated all Moroccan with tapestries and cool beanbag things we sat on, and we hung out there until 1 or 2 or so. Our one friend’s host brother also came, so we got to use our Spanish with him for a while.

Saturday I got up, went running, then headed to the mall for a bit before going downtown for ice cream and then the Archeological Museum. Then we went to dinner at a Cuban restaurant and headed to a flamenco show. It was really hot and crowded, so we left a little early and headed home since we were tired anyway.

Sunday was kind of a catch-up day to do work, so I just stayed in and tried to study for a bit. Except it is extremely hard to concentrate because on one hand, I keep thinking about seeing my family in a couple days. And on the other, I keep thinking about how I’m going to have to leave here really soon, which I am not looking forward to. It does not feel like it has been an entire semester!!!! ¡Ay dios míos!

But anyway, this is all for now.

Paz fuera. (Peace out)

they say it´s your birthday ....

so things have been CRAZY busy around here and probably will be for the rest of my time here, sicne it´s down to 9 days until my program is over. But i´m still gonna try to keep this updated but we´ll see how it goes ....

but anyway, so last week obviously was my birthday on wednesday, which was really fun. 15 of my friends here and i went out to san marcos, an italian restaurant out in barrio santa cruz, the old jewish district. the food was AMAZING and i had this really really good tortelini. then afterward we went out to a flamenco bar to try to watch the dancing, but unfortunately they didn´t have any for some reason and just had this guy singing and playing the guitar, but it was still good anyway.

then thursday we had off cuz it was labor day, so i kinda did a little work and waiting around until seth and amy came to visit. then seth, amy, me, eric, and melanie took the midnight bus to faro, portugal, hung around there for 5 hours until 7 am, then took the train to lagos for the beach!! it was actually really fun hanging around faro at 4 am, because you meet some quite interesting characters at that time. and everything becomes funny after a certain amount of sleep deprivation.

after we got to lagos, we checked into our hostel (which was called the rising cock, take it as you will. and imagine the jokes that ensued the rest of the weekend). then we went to the beach, where we all proceeded to get burnt to a crisp from falling asleep in the soon. i was saved a little from getting up with eric to go look for laura and janette, who were taking a later bus since they wanted to sleep for some weekend and wait til friday morning to come.

saturday we went exploring through the rocks and beaches and took an interesting, to say the least, boat ride. there were just a FEW waves, aka a ton, so all of us were feeling pretty seasick, and the family on with us were all throwing up the back. but it was really really trip so it made up for it.

the hostel was really cute too because it was a family business, so mamá made everyone crepes every morning that were DELICIOUS!!! and the people were really nice and accomodating, so it was fun.

now i´m just keeping myself busy in sevilla showing amy and seth around, since they´re here til tomorrow. and i´m also keeping myself busy with essays and work that comes along with the end of the semester.

but anyway, i suppose this is all for now!!

hasta luego!

Pueblos Blancos

All day Sunday I went on a tour with Laura and her parents to some pueblos blancos (white towns) outside of Sevilla. These are towns where all the houses and buildings are white-washed and it is literally against the law to paint your house a different color. (If you do, you have to pay a fine.) We went around to 4 or 5 or so towns, and they were really pretty. We had to drive a bit to get to some of them, so we got to enjoy the beautiful Spanish countryside along the way.

The tour was only Laura, her parents, me, a couple from Pennsylvania, and two women from California. It was pretty cool because the one woman from California said her one daughter is studying in Guinea right now, and the other is in the Peace Corp in Senegal. So I guess after she isdone in Spain, she is going to visit them.

Our tour guide was an Australian who has been living in Sevilla for 10 years. He was pretty cool and really knew his way around, the towns all had the NARROWEST streets, and he drove through all these country roads that I would NEVER want to drive through.

Not much else is going on besides that. I have a paper I should be writing that is kind of due on Wednesday (my teacher now has given us an extension, although I´m going away all weekend anyway so I pretty much need to finish it anyway for Wednesday), but have I started it??? NOPE. But oh well, I´m just doing like my fellow Sevillanos and relaxing and taking a siesta.

p.s.

here's a link to more pics.

check 'em out!!!

Feria y Primavera

Tests and Motos

So this week was pretty busy because I had tests Wednesday and Thursday in my grammar and Spanish-American Civilization classes. It was so busy, in fact, that Laura and I skipped our volunteering on Thursday for the first time since we got here so we could study. I felt a little guilty because the kids at the guardería are starting to recognize me and run up to me and give me hugs when I come, but school comes first, and it was the only time we’ve skipped so far. I think it was justified from the time we walked to the guardería in the POURING rain during Feria and were absolutely soaked the whole day, or the time we got pooped on by birds while walking over.

But anyway, the test on Wednesday was really easy, so I was happy about that. But Thursday’s was pretty hard and I’m thinking I didn’t do so well, but whatever. Such is life.

Today I didn’t have classes so I got up bright and early to go for a morning jog for the first time in a while, and it was pretty good. It’s getting really really hot here, as in this weekend it’s gonna be in the 30’s, aka mid-90’s. (A quick side note: to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit, double the temperature and add 32. And another random side note kind of related, to convert kilometers to miles, take ten percent of the distance and multiply it by 6. I can thank running for knowing that, I figured it out from knowing a 10K equals roughly 6 miles.)

But anyway, back to my story. So, I was out running this morning, and on my way back I stopped to stretch at my usual place in the park. After I was done, I started running out the park when all of a sudden a moto riding on the sidewalk rounded the corner and crashed into me. I was like, whoaaaaa lady!! (I didn’t literally say it cuz I was caught off guard, but I was thinking it.) And then SHE starts yelling at ME in Spanish, and is like, “what are you, eight???” And I’m just like, “Lo siento (Sorry)” and kept running.

I think she was still yelling at me while I was leaving, but it was obviously her fault because 1. she was driving her stupid moto on the sidewalk, and 2. She didn’t stop and/or slow down around the corner. But yea, so I’m probably gonna have a pretty sweet black and blue mark on my leg since I bruise like a peach.

So today and tomorrow I’m basically just going to be working on my research paper for Spanish-American Civilization. We got to pick our topics and I’m writing about pirates!!! It’s pretty interesting, so I’m not minding the research too much.

Well, I suppose that is all for now.

Hasta luego.