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!!