love is this place, love is these people.

reasons why i love sevilla.
the smell of naranjos. the hour commute each morning to upo. manoli being my alarm clock in the morning ‘desayuno?!?’ the guadalquivir. 62cents vino from dia. tostada galletas and stealing them in a plastic bag each morning. intermedio class with penelope and how people speak in english. walking to school with ali in the mornings. calle betis. how amir is a hater. ana claudio. el ambiente de Sevilla. the triana bridge. holiday in spain. how everyone is always running out of saldo. “Hola lola! Corre corre corre!” the boys and their absinthe. getting antibiotics from the pharmacy without a prescription. UPO bus treintayseis. getting acietunas from the mercadillo on Sunday mornings. parque maria luisa. En serio?!? De verdad?!? Si!?! how Merillat eats 6 apples a day. cruzcampo. how amir hates sweating. being one of manoli’s ninas. big ben. making history the first day the metro opened. friday morning breakfasts with maryalice. plaza de espana. how my saldo never doubled. café de indias. tinto de verano. how we are always late to carboneria on monday nights. how we are always running to get alcohol from the market before 10pm. el mercado de triana. hanging out at amir’s apartment. going to boss on wednesdays. spending time in the downstairs of mama t’s. talking to Antonio about futbol. robotica mojitos. dinner at 9pm. brian’s obsession with schwarmas. buying strawberries by the kilo at the gypsy market. amir being a picture hater. café con leche. manoli’s cooking. Sabor a Chocolate. giving people a toke because i ran out of saldo. being on djamer’s guestlist and being able to cut the entire line at discotecas. paella from rio grande. andalucía. how triana is the best barrio in all of Sevilla. mal pal/val pal. learning to dance the sevillana. never getting my sevici. reading/doing homework in puerta jerez. our 30day bonobus passes. laying by the river. getting kitkats at al campo. how mal is always losing her phone. and her credit card. ali and i chugging a cup of café con leche outside of longisland. how fc Sevilla is better than betis. ron miel. peanut butter from corte ingles. manoli asking me “cuantos vestidos tienes??” bottelon-ing in plaza san salvador. semana santa. staying up on la madrugada. oh, and how we almost got trampled that night too. luke moriarty and how daniela thinks his music is gay. “cuando queries comer.” parque de los principes. the trambia. the way ali says “him.” listening to Manoli sing. how apparently “the sun is good for your clothes.” giralda – pronounced hiralda. illegally feeding the fish at real alcazar. taking a siesta, daily. trying to explain the carpool lane and my hippie family to clara. "studying” with djamer… because he’s always focused. mer, christine, and i being the monday/wednesday crew. pedal boats. "hombre.. claro!” bonding time with mal on the bus on tuesday thursdays. how Antonio calls everyday during lunch. colonealous for tapas. listening to amir sing and play the guitar. buddha on thursday nights. how the story of ali’s life is “puri made me something nasty for lunch.” la corrida de toros. discoversevilla trips. sangria. sopresas from Manoli. the monkey pipa. feria de abril. tortilla de patata. “oh my golly” –mal. having tinto with erica & ali at school. going to gary’s. flamenco shows at casa de la memoria. open cor. lunch at 2:30pm. alameda. How Daniela loves loves loves sweets. how I wrote a paper for Ana about los excrementos en los calles. the vosotros form. the monkey pipa. Calle Doctor Rodriguez de La Fuente. isla magica. meeting ali at our spot. asking the waiter for the check because he doesn’t want to rush me. April 10th, 2009-4:30, brown sugar. how brian loves to dance. teaching mal a song for claret & singing on the bus. daniela’s lateness. eating everything with olive oil. “buzon movistar el telephono seis zero nueve…. no contesta…” hanging out in bathrooms with ali at abril and bandalai. chupitos at longisland. enrique’s class being ridiculous with merillat. saying ‘hasta manana’ every night to Manoli as she walks by my room to go to sleep. going for early morning snacks at the churro stand. walking to santa justa at 6am with mal and daniela and thinking it really wasn’t that far from prado. “Hola guapo.” walking by mama t’s and running into someone I know everytime I look in. besitos. fruta ensalada on sunday nights.

hasta luego, sevilla.

Last last Thursday night was the perfect way to say goodbye and we all went to Colonealus for tapas with Mal’s family, then the International Beer Bar, and then we headed to Buddha. On Friday morning, Mal, Brian, Amir, Daniela and I got up early to have breakfast together and say our last goodbyes because Mal was leaving at noon with her family for Granada. We met at Coliseo and had traditional Spanish breakfast (toast with olive oil & tomatoes, and café con leche ofcourse) and spend our remaining time together. And Friday was just one of those hardest days to live through kind of days, so it even started rough. Mal told me she woke up crying that morning, which is exactly how I felt too. so of course when she walked up upset, I couldn’t help but cry too. In true Daniela fashion, she was 30 minutes late and but we all had a good laugh about it, while we sat and reminisced about what an amazing semester it’s been. after we were done with breakfast, amir and brian went to go run a few errands because amir was leaving that afternoon. And Daniela and I went to climb up the Giralda tower, as our last adventure together.

After we were done with our Giralda adventure, Daniela went home to pack and I went over to Amir’s to hangout before lunch and before he had to leave for the airport. I didn’t cry when saying goodbye to Amir because I’m going to see him in like a month. But during lunch, was a different story. Mer’s parents were in town and Manoli invited them to lunch. And when I came home I was already upset so when Traci and Mer said that it was there last meal at Manoli’s the flood of tears came. and we all sat at lunch and cried as Manoli said “no lloras, no lloras’ (don’t cry, don’t cry). Because lunch was so hard, I decided it would be the best idea to leave for isla magica before merillat said goodbye to Manoli because if I stayed around for that I would have been a mess.

So Brian and I took autobus C2 to isla magica to go on some rides before the UPO farewell reception. It was fun and we got to go on three rides – one of which being the log ride where brian sat in front and got real wet. The reception was at 7pm and all our teachers were there. it was good because we got to have drinks and tapas with our friends and professors as our last goodbye. I chatted with Ana about jumping off the bridge into the river with some friends and she strongly advised me not to. Christine, Amer, and I talked to Penelope about her wedding this coming Saturday and how she was super stressed about it. It was a nice way to end things with UPO. As people trickled home to leave for dinner, I was avoiding leaving because that meant saying goodbye for good. But all good things must come an end, and so I hugged Ana and told I’d miss her sooo soooo much. Then Jacob, Matt, and I walked off to go catch the bus home. Of course, as we walked out the park, I started bawling because I was so upset.

Later that night, after dinner, a bunch of us met up at Phoenix to have drinks. We sat on the patio and talked until it got late and people with early morning flights had to go home. Daniela and Brian walked home with me and we hugged, promised to call each other all the time, and talked about the next time we would see one another.

Because I really couldn’t bear one more goodbye on Friday, I woke up early on Saturday morning and walked to the airport bus with Brian. We met on Niebla (the street he lives on) and took the metro from Plaza de Cuba to Prado. I gave him a big hug as he hopped on the airport bus and waved goodbye.

Sunday night, djAmer and Jeffrey left for Madrid with some friends and so again, we all met for drinks and goodbyes at Phoenix to reminisce and give abrazos y besitos por la ultima vez (hugs & kisses for the last time).

This week has definitely gone by fast. I have been packing, hanging out with Christine, going out with Mal and Rob, spending more time with Manoli, said goodbye to Clara, exploring more of Sevilla for the last time, and trying to wrap up my life here in my final days. It is most definitely full of bitter sweet feelings. It’s incredibly hard to fathom that after 36 hours of traveling, I am not only in a different place, but in a different life and different world. I was devastated to say goodbye to Manoli and Mal. There were lots of tears and hugs and all of the above. But Mal got up early came to my house, met Manoli, and help me lug my bags to the airport bus in tears. On my last walk down Febo, we laughed at talked about all the amazing memories we’ve had over the past four months and it was a wonderful way to say goodbye.

My entire four months here has been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs and adventures along the way, and I’m not sure I’m ready to get off yet. But this adventure is clearly coming to an end and my life will resume as normal in the coming weeks, because I’m back in fort worth and start summer school this morning.

pictures: Amir, Mal, Daniela, Brian, and I at the International Beer bar, 2. Melissa, Alison, Brian and I at Isla Magica, 3. Clara (my intercambio) and I 4. Ana Claudio and I at the UPO farewell reception

nearing the end.

This week has been a whirlwind and gone by so fast. Last Saturday, I went with Rachel, Erica, and Ali to the gypsy market near puerta de triana but we went and it was closed. We don’t know why… it was just really strange and no one was there. But it was okay, because then Amir and Brian and I woke up early on Sunday morning, after a late night out on C/Betis, and we went to the Mercadillo on Avenida de la paz. I bought a shirt for matt there and some aceitunas (olives) and then we went home for lunch.

My Sunday afternoon was spent in the downstairs of mama t’s cramming for the two Spanish finals I had on Monday with djAmer and LaRea. It was good and I got a lot of studying done while Amer provided for lots of entertainment and distraction, because he was so focused on studying.

Monday, after finals Ali, Erica, and I had tinto de verano in the cafeteria at school to celebrate the fact that Intermedio was over. Then in the afternoon, I met up with Clara and we had icecream in el centro and talked about how no one in Spain uses an air conditioner.

Yesterday, before my final, I ran to the Mercado de Triana to get Ana flowers. Ali and I wrote her notes and gave her purple & white, TCU colored flowers. I will see her again Friday at the Isla Magica final reception but still all three of us were on the verge of tears, that Ana had to tell us to leave because she was about to cry.

Then, I ran off to Spanish Civilization and Culture, and I finished my last undergraduate finals (EVER!!) It was very exciting.

After that, Ali and I caught the metro home and took her last walk through el centro. And then after lunch, we went for her last C/con/L (café con leche… coffee with milk) and then went back to her house. I saw Puri again (whom I previously met at Family dinner) and she said I could come in the house and wait while Ali got the last of her things. We lugged Ali’s bags down the street, took the metro from Plaza de Cuba to Prado, and then said goodbye as we put her luggage on the airport bus. It was so hard even though I’m going to see Ali in two weeks in Texas, it just won’t be the same because we won’t be here in Sevilla together. I definitely came home, layed on merillat’s bed and cried.

It has been a memorable week, just trying to spend our last bit of time with each other in Sevilla. Brian, Amir, and I have gotten a lot of use out of our Sevicis that we rented for the week and have definitely taken advantage of eating our last tapas together. And then we went to bandalai last night to see Amer dj for the last time and to celebrate the end of finals.

And I am prepping myself for an even more difficult day to come tomorrow with saying goodbye to Daniela, Brian, Amir, and Mal especially. Because they live all over the US, in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and North Carolina, and so I really don’t know when I am going to get to see them next or if we will ever be in the same place together at the same time, ever again. I know that’s really somber and sad to think about but its crazy true too. Also, tomorrow, is our final UPO celebration at Isla Magica (Sevilla’s theme park) and all our teachers will be there to say goodbye too, which of course means saying goodbye to Ana.

I went on a morning excursion with Mer today to go buy t-shirts from UPO and walk around el centro and we were talking about how leaving is sad, but its also so good, because it just means that this adventure is over for now. And it means that we have a whole summer of adventures to look forward to. And that is the way I would really like to think about it, especially tomorrow, because this experience is something I will keep with me forever and look back on with a huge smile on face. So, there will be lots of happy, sad, exciting, crazy, and wonderful moments in the next few days that I am getting ready for.

afternoon adventures and despedidas.

it has been an interesting month so far, just seeing the way everyone is dealing with getting ready to leave. some people are really excited and can’t wait to be home and eat mexican food and live their normal lives again. i have other friends who are like absolutely devastated about leaving and they just don’t want to go yet. It’s definitely a crazy time for us all and emotions are coming out in different ways because we are trying to study for finals, move 4 months of accumulated junk from Europe home, say goodbye, and end this adventure for now. It really depends on the day for me, but I was kind of in denial at first and I didn’t want to talk about it. and when people brought it up, I didn’t want to hear about it ending. But I mean its inevitable and I do have to say goodbye. So there are moments when I get really sad and don’t want leave Manoli, Clara, or Ana and then there are days when I get really excited about spending time in june with Sharlarose, Christine, elise, shane, and Emily. Then I get excited about seeing my dad, kays, mom, and matt in july too. it has definitely been a bitter sweet past two weeks now but here’s some of what I have been doing:

after mom left, hace dos juves (two Thursdays ago), I ran to make it to our UPO fieldtrip – which was riding down the Guadalquivir on a boat/crucero – cruise ship thing. it was fun and good to spend time with my friends after a busy week, but I was sooo tired because I had gone out the night before.

I have this friend, Amer, that DJs in New Mexico (that’s where he’s from) and so he was talking to some Spanish people at on of our UPO intercambio mixers one day and he was telling them that he DJs, then the guy like hooked him up and gave him a DJing job at Boss and so we would go to there every Wednesday night to see him pinchar (DJ). And so he’s met all these DJ friends, who are giving him jobs at other discotecas/clubs…. which means that we get to go on his guest list and get in free, which is so awesome. So in the past two weeks, all our friends have had a lot of fun going out to Abril and Bandalai too.

so in our final weeks here ali and i decided that we are making the most of our time and going on afternoon adventures everyday. saturday night, ali, erica, carla, and i went to an FC sevilla soccer game, in nervion plaza against mallorca. it was great because Sevilla won and everyone was happy! the crowd was singing the whole time, and we even joined in by ripping up random advertisement papers and making confetti, while ali blew her whistle horn too!

On Sunday, ali and i had a Sunday funday. we went to real alcazar and just walked around, and illegally fed the fish, then we went to mcdonald’s and got icecream for one euro, then we went to parque de los principes (the park in los remedios) and we sat on the swings for awhile and swung, then we fed the fish in that park. But funny story, so I didn’t have any bread type deal except goldfish that mom brought me so I brought those and we fed cheddar goldfish to real goldfish. ahaha and this old man in the park was like you want some bread? or uncooked cuscus rice to feed the fish? And I was like a little wierded out by him at first but then he was just like there. It was funny. after that, ali and I found a tree that reminded me of teribithia, so we climbed it.

Tuesday, I took a twenty minute siesta at amir’s house on his couch, before we went souvenir shopping for friends and family. he made me go to a smelly china bazaar (china bazaar’s are like dollar stores) with him to look at cheap luggage. Then, we met up with ali in el centro, and we found the smoothie place… sooooooooo exciting!! We sat and had juice/smoothies for awhile then we walked around buying gifts. I got a 5euro No-Do shirt so I was happy.

Wednesday, ali and I wanted to jump BUT the trampolines in the nervion plaza were closed, even though the guy told us on Saturday when we were there (but I was wearing a dress, so we couldn’t jump then) on Saturday, he said that they were open everyday of the week from 10am -8pm… but we went after school on Monday and just got off early at the nervion stop, but it was closed!! well, that’s spain for you. But instead we went pedaling down the river in pedal boats, which was so much fun. We have been wanting to do it for a really long time too, so I’m glad we finally accomplished our goal. Wednesday night was so much fun too because we had our TCU family dinner. where all 24 of us went with mary alice and our senoras to Abades Triana, a really nice restaurant by the river and had dinner with each other, so we finally got to meet each other's senoras!! and i got to meet Puri (ali's senora!).then, we went to Abril and almost all my friends were there so it was just wonderful to go out with everyone.

Thursday, after lunch, I took another siesta on amir’s couch because they are doing construction in my apt building and they hammer, so I can’t sleep… ali was too sick from going out the night before, so, amir and I hungout at his house and he played his guitar (that he bought here in spain) because he is selling it on Saturday and he wanted to get some more use out of it. Thursday night, we also had our last hoorah dinner. mal and i had our usual tuesday bonding time on the bus and decided that we should all have dinner together and celebrate before everything gets crazy with packing, finals, and leaving so that we could have a proper despidida.(goodbye) so we all went out together for tapas on Thursday night at this place by the cathedral and it was good, just to all spend time together. Then we went to an outdoor concert in Plaza San Salvador, which was okay, it wasn’t great because I was really tired. But then Jen (brian’s gf who was visiting), brian, amir, and I got week sevici passes (like communal rental bikes strategically located around the city), and rode home on those. Jen and Brian were tired so they biked home. and Amir and I rode around a bit on bikes by the river and in los remedios because it was a nice night.

Friday morning, I rode my sevici to amir’s. and jen, brian came over too so that we could have breakfast/mid morning snack. We just spent the morning together, which was nice. After lunch, we met up to go to this medieval fair that they are having in the park next to Prado. It was fun I bought some earrings and a bracelet. Ali bought a new ring too, and amir ate a schwarma. But it was too hot and so I went home and siesta-d. Then we went out later to bandalai and saw DJamer, so it was a great night.

Also this week I had three oral exams, one Tuesday with ana for conversation class over la comida espanola, which went really well and corey asked me “te gusta jamon serrano?” (which is like a tapas ham) and only ana, corey, and I got the joke because only they know that I am a vegetarian, haha very funny right.. anyways, and then on Wednesday I had my lola lago oral exam with Penelope which was really easy, and merillat and I studied for it the night before, so it went really well too. but Thursday I had my individual conversation oral with ana and I had to talk to her for 11 minutes about life. Before hand I was really nervous about it because I don’t like oral exams, especially in Spanish, but since I had, had so many this week already the nervousness wasn’t as bad. But I was also worried because Ana is like one of my favorite people in Sevilla and I really just wanted to do well because I wanted to show her how much Spanish I have learned from her, it’s a world of difference really, it is. I’m going to be so incredibly sad to say goodbye to her.

I have to go study a bit now for the 2 spanish finals I have on Monday morning, but I will write more later. Hasta luego! (Until later!)

pre-feria fiestas. la corrida. vacaciones de primavera: barca y roma, y después.

I’ve literally been horrible about blogging lately, before and after feria and now before finals. Gosh, its been like 3 weeks since I’ve written a new blog. Sad story. Anyways, I’m procrastinating studying for my lola lago oral exam tomorrow because I figure I speak Spanish everyday and so if I don’t know what I am talking about then I’m just kind of out of luck. But in true Spanish fashion… no te preocupes, todo esta bien, no pasa nada. (don’t you worry, all is well... it doesn’t matter)

I haven’t been writing lately because i went on my second spring break and coming back from the first one, i had to catch up on life. Also, because my mom was in town and now because finals are beginning, time is nearing the end, and I haven’t got a moment to spare because I’m trying to take in every minute of everyday spending time with friends, soaking in Sevilla, and continuing to vive la vida (live the life).

SOOOO much has happened in the past few weeks, where to begin. Well, the weeks before feria were really very busy, On Wednesday ali, Jacob, Rachel, Erica, brian, amir, and I went to una corrida (a bull fight). It was definitely different from anything I had ever been to. Before i left the house, I was like, - Manoli what do people wear?- and she told me that most people dress up, like in fancy clothes, kind of like going to a horse race. But we just wore sun dresses and nicer clothes. Some people were really dressed up like in suits and dressy dresses but for the most part, not really. La corrida (the bullfight) was really interesting though. I thought that I would just get really grossed out and sick but it was a very cultural experience. It was like if we had all gone to a dodgers game or something like that. Well, anyways yes there were 3 bullfighters and 6 bulls and all the bulls died. But it was crazy bc one of the bull fighters almost got gored, and then another messed up and the bull ran after him so he was rolling on the ground like how you learn to stop, drop, and roll in elementary school. Also, there was one bullfighter that won an ear, (you can win two ears and a tail, that’s the highest). Oh, another highlight of the week was learning to dance Sevillana from Penelope in our intermediate class and then learning all 4 parts of the Sevillana from Ana in Spanish Conversation as well. SO MUCH FUN. and Ana was like if i see yall at feria, i will make you dance with me! haha, it was great.

After that week, was feria. Yes, I had another ‘spring break’ vacation next week! lucky me!! Sevilla is also famous for Feria de Abril, it is the 2nd largest fiesta in all the world. And I’m really not just saying that, a girl in my class told me so. It’s where all the people have casetas (tents) and go socialize, dance flamenco, eat tapas, drink rebujito (sheryy+7up), and spend time together, OH also, they go to feria in horse and buggies. Yes, the epitome of a typical Spanish fiesta. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in Sevilla for a lot of feria because my mom came to visit and we went traveling. But we got to see Sunday of Feria and I came back and watched the fireworks with my friends too (and it was probably one of the best fireworks shows I’ve seen).

Barcelona and rome were so much fun with mom. We both loved all the art and architecture in the Barcelona, especially Park Guell and all the rest of Gaudi’s works. We were there three days and we went on a bus tour, saw Sagrada Familia and went up the elevator to see the view of Barcelona from there, went to Park Guell, went to the casa museu – gaudi inside the park, we went to casa battlo, and actually ended up running into Amir and Brett at casa mila – where amir tried to scare me and made a great first impression with mom. Then, we went my the beach, the Olympic stadium, las ramblas, mercat de la boqueria – which was like an outside, farmers market, and it was so cute and we bought strawberries there!, the gothic cathedral – where we ended up buying some jewlrey for me and kels in the outside market in front of the cathedral. We both talked about how Kelsey would loveeeeeeeee Gaudi architechture so we for sure have to bring her back there one day.

Rome was a lot of fun too. I have already been there, but mom wanted to go and I just love the city so much that I didn’t mind going again at all. the first day, we did a lot of stuff in Vatican city… went to St.Peter’s square, went inside the basilica, and then we walked around the Vatican city market place – where we just so happen to run into my roommates Merillat, Traci, and friends Matt, Madison, and Jacob. The next day, was Wednesday and we had reserved tickets before hand to have seats to see the pope, which was a lot of fun. He rode around in a car for a while everyone took pictures and then he sat up and had a service on the steps of St.peter’s basilica, later that day we took a bus tour to Tivoli, which is something that we had really wanted to do. Jason and Uncle Martin had recommended this place to both of us so we figured we HAD to go, and it was so worth it. Tivoli is a small Italian town 30km outside of rome and it has these gorgeous villas. We took a bus tour there and went to Villa Adriana – which was a retreat home for Roman Emperor Hadrian in the early 2nd century, and it reminded me a lot of the trip we took to italica with UPO. It was very neat and it had a lot of roman castle ruins, and ruins of the old palace there. Villa d’este – oh my gosh, one of the most gorgeous places ever. I absolutely loved it. So its this gorgeous renaissance architecturally built palace with garden design and fountains. Yes, I would love love love to live there someday, or ya know, I can settle for getting married there someday. Anyways, so we got back to rome and went to the trevi fountain that night. Yes, I love the trevi fountain probably more than anything as well. So it was a great day. Oh but then, that night when we got back to rome, we ate a nice restaurant across the street from our hotel in Vatican city. But that night, and early the next morning I got really sick. Like food poisoning sick. It was so sad and miserable. I was in bed all the next morning, thinking that I was going to die/never eat again. But mom went to the pharmacy and got me some stomach medicine, and that helped. so later in the afternoon, we went to the roman forum, palentine hill, and the Coliseum, which was fun, but I literally had to stop every 10 minutes to sit down because I was still having stomach pains. So sad. But I was better the next day, I just couldn’t eat very much. We took a bus tour the next day – yes because mom likes those, and they are always fun. And we went to the trevi fountain again, boca de la veritat, the pantheon, piazza venezia, spagna – the Spanish steps, piazza del popolo, and piazza navona, where we debated about buying an oil painting for the house. The last day we were there, we went to the Sistine chapel and waited in line for 2 ½ hours!! But it was well worth it because it’s so enormous, even though I’ve been there before I still loved it again. Then on Saturday, we flew back into Barcelona, stayed the night at a hotel near the airport, and flew out in the morning to Sevilla.

Mom really liked Sevilla because of the ambiente, (feeling/atmosphere) there were a lot less people than Barcelona and Rome, a lot less tourists, and its just a lot slower paced. On Sunday, I took her to eat at Mama Terra (a shwarma place – like with pitas/falfel/and kind of like rotisserie meat, hard to explain..) and then we went to see Feria and walked around a bit. Monday, I went back to school while mom rested and she met Manoli, then we went shopping and she bought me two new dresses. Tuesday, we went to plaza de espana, parque maria luisa, and we ate lunch in the park. Wednesday, we had lunch at my house because Manoli invited her over and Manoli cooked a special fish plate, and tortilla de patata for mom. We also had special postres (desserts), one was flan, another was strawberries and chocolate, and then the other was a special semana santa postre that kind of reminds me of French toast. That was really fun too because Manoli asked traci how to say como estas? But in English and so when Manoli busted out and was like “hooow areee youu?” to mom I was like OMG> you speak English, and we all laughed. Before lunch, I also wrote down some phrases for mom to say to Manoli in Spanish so that was fun too. after that we went to the cathedral and walked around town a bit, the weather was real nice last week and its continually getting hotter in Sevilla. Thursday before mom left we went to rio grande for lunch and had paella, which is my favorite. We also worked on packing my bag to send it home with her and mom bought me the harry potter books in Spanish. It was a really good two weeks with mom and we had lots of fun sight seeing/relaxing in Sevilla together because mom never goes on vacation, so it was a fun treat!!

lagos, portugal. to the end of the world & back.

Let me tell you about my trip to Lagos!! It was a great weekend. Mallory, Daniela, and I went with discoversevilla to lagos, Portugal. The weather ended up being not so nice on Friday and it sprinkled a little on Saturday, but the sun made up for it on Sunday. We left Sevilla, at 10am on Friday and got to lagos by noonish. The girls and I settled into our hotel room and went into town for some lunch. We explored a little and followed the shoreline to walk into town. When we got there, we found a really cute café that had outside seating with heaters and umbrellas so we decided to stop there. After our lunch break, we explored town a little more but lagos is really not that big and there are not a lot of things to see – it really was just a beach weekend. So we went back to the hotel and decided to take a nap before dinner. Daniela wasn’t feeling well so she slept right away. But Mal and I went to venture out in the rain to find a market. We actually missed the one right by the hotel and ended up finding one that was kind of far away – and it wasn’t that easy to get by, ya know because we speak Portuguese and all… but we found it and bought some food for dinner/snacks. Then, we made dinner in our little hotel room kitchenette, which was really cute. We watched TV (yes, in English!) and then Amer and Jeffrey came over to hangout before going to bars later. We heard noise from next door and realized that Kathleen, Jen, and Suzanne were in the hotel room next to us and they had people over so we went to join them. Around 8ish we left for Joe’s Garage, which was this bar that DiscoverSevilla rented out to throw a welcome to Lagos party for us and they gave us free drink tickets too, which was fun. After we were there for a few hours we went bar hopping and enjoyed the night life in Lagos.

Saturday, we got up at like 9ish to eat breakfast at the hotel before our boat tour. The boat tour left at 10:30 and we took the busses to the docks. The boat trip was actually really fun. I wish I had brought a heavier jacket though because it was a little cold with the wind. Amer, Daniela, Mal, and I hungout on the boat all morning and drank free sangria. Then we took smaller boats on a cave tour and got to see lots of neat caves that were carved out by the tides. Some of them were so awesome. Later that day after the tour, Daniela and Mallory took a nap in the room and I layed out by the pool to try to get some sun but it was a little windy. The sun would literally come out for like 30seconds every 5 minutes. So bipolar. Anyways, at 6:45pm the whole group met in the lobby to go to the end of the world. Now you think I’m kidding but I am really not.

They took us to Cabo de San Vicente, which is the southwestern most point of Europe and in days before Columbus sailed the ocean blue, people thought this was the end of the world. They really did. So we went to the end of the world to watch the sunset but the clouds and the rain didn’t agree with that. It was really windy, overcast, and started to sprinkle right as we were leaving. It was a really neat place to see though. Once you are there you can understand why people thought it was the edge of the earth. It was just an awesome place to visit, another one of those life goals checked off my list. After we got back to Lagos, the buses dropped us off in town and we had dinner at this Portuguese restaurant where we had fish, which is suppose to be excellent in Portugal – Daniela had sword fish and Mallory and I had bacalou – cod fish. It was really good. After dinner, Jacob, Mal, Daniela, and I met up with Chris, Brett, and Corey who had schwarmas for dinner, of course. Then we went and hungout at a couple of different bars and went home later.

Sunday was a fabulous day. We got up, had breakfast at the hotel, and then went to the beach. We went to a beach called, Dona Ana. The beach was walking distance from our hotel and it was probably one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been to in my entire life. It was so gorgeous and it had these huge giant rocks in the water and cliffs surrounding it, it was amazing. I spent the afternoon hanging out with Mal, Daniela, Jacob, Brett, Jen, Marisa, Brittany, and Suzanne. It was a lot of fun. We even ran in and out of the ocean a few times even though the water was freezing cold – even colder than the Pacific!! And then Jacob and I walked up and down the beach a few times and I collected seashells. It was just a really nice relaxing day and calm weekend overall and it was a much needed rest, from my crazy life as an adventurer/traveler.

life update. grad school news. summer plans.

I forgot to mention something very important in my last blog. Well, yes to summarize the blog I posted yesterday - I had the week off for Semana Santa, ali and I went on lots of afternoon adventures, and Jas/miya were here. On Sunday, Amir and I also ate hard boiled eggs to celebrate Easter. Then we had a study party to catch up on hw from the vacation. BUT that’s not the important part --- my big news is that I decided to go to TCU for graduate school for the next two years. I am really excited about my decision and I think it’s the right thing for me and plus that means I get two more years in Texas with Sharlarose, Christine, Elise, Shane, and Emily. But that also means I have to move everything back, ah!! that’s okay, because most of my stuff is in the girl’s outside closet anyways. But everything seems to be working out PERFECTLY for summer plans. I am going back to Texas on May 30th for summer clinic/sharing sharla’s room with her for the month of june. Then, I will be heading back to California, July 4th weekend to start working at John Tracy Clinic for their Spanish Summer Session. And that means I get to work with Spanish deaf babies!! = my dream come true. Also, on Monday I heard from the AGBell Association about the Listening and Spoken Language Symposium Scholarship that I applied for in March. And they gave it to me, so it looks like I am heading to St. Louis this summer too!! Elizabeth also received the same scholarship and so I will be going to visit her at Fontbonne when we are there for the symposium. I am so excited! I emailed Dr. Morrison to let her know and she was so excited for both of us too.
She sent me an article she wrote about us for the Harris College of Nursing and Health Sciences Newsletter:

"Valerie Lew and Elizabeth Boschini, undergraduate COSD students in speech-language pathology, have each been awarded scholarships from the AG Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to attend the AG Bell Listening and Spoken Language Symposium July 23-25, 2009. Valerie and Elizabeth's essays were placed in competition with students from across the US, including students at the graduate level. The AGBell symposium is a bi-annual meeting that presents current research topics pertinent to intervention with children with hearing loss. This year's topic is the impact of executive function on education and developmental outcomes.

Valerie Lew will be joining the TCU graduate program in speech-language pathology in Fall, 2009.

Dr. Helen Morrison will be presenting one of 2 invited short courses at the symposium with Dr. Jane Madell Co-Director of the Cochlear Implant Center at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, titled Renewed Perspectives in Listening and Spoken Language."

Anyways, so there has been good news all around and I couldn’t be happier! I will post my blog about lagos tomorrow.