tori’s visit.

Last weekend, tori and I were in Madrid. We went all over Madrid on a free walking tour with Sandeman’s New Madrid (http://www.newmadrid-tours.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=26) that turned out to be really good. Then, we went to Museo Reina Sofia, which has Picasso’s Guernica (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_(painting)) in it. Afterwards, tor and I saw this pasta/pizza place outside of the museum and decided to eat there. Sunday before we left, we went inside Palacio Real and inside the cathedral. We had seen them on Saturday during the tour but we really wanted to go inside so it was well worth waking up early to do so.

Sunday afternoon, we took a 6 hour bus back to Sevilla. Ah, so long. But we came home and Tori got to meet Manoli, Antonio, and all my other roommates. I took her sight seeing this week and we went to Catedral, Real Alcazar, Museo de Bellas Artes, Museo Archleogico, Parque Maria Luisa, Plaza de Espana, the Mercadillo, La Carboneria for a flamenco show, y Museo de Artes. We ate tortilla de patata at Casa Monolo and it was so good. I also took tor to mama terra for kebabs – bc the falafel is so good there. And we even ran into the hamburger truck man on C/ Betis on Friday night – wonderful eggs in a hotdog sandwich! We also cooked pasta with butter and parmesean at Amir’s one night, which was lots of fun too. Also, to celebrate her last night here we went to Rio Grande (a restaurant on the river) for paella and the churro stand for desert. We did lots of laying by the river this week and just walking around el centro because the weather was wonderful. She left for the airport this morning at 4:30 for her 7am flight. It was a good week and midterms are finally over. I only had one midterm for Spanish Conversation with Corey and a quiz for Spanish Civ/Culture this week while most people had more this week than last. Lots of visitors are flooding in to our lives lately too, tori came to visit me, brian’s whole family was here last week and this week, and Merillat’s best friend from tcu is visiting this coming week too. March/April are going to be crazy busy with visits from friends/family and traveling all over too. Jas&miya are coming for semana santa, dustin comes the week after, and then a few weeks after that my mom comes too.

It was a relatively slow weekend in Sevilla because it was a stressful week with midterms at UPO and all. On Saturday, Lola, Jacob, Amir, Tori, and I went to the gypsy market which was really neat but it was a lot like the mercadillo near Avd. De La Paz. Amir and I bought strawberries at the gypsy market and they were really good.

Also this weekend, Dustin and I finally figured out plans for tuscany and we are going to hit Livorno, Pisa, and Florence while I am there. I’m really excited for this weekend because I’ve never been to Florence before and I can’t wait for the beach/to get tan.

This morning I woke up and Amir and I decided to go to the mercadillo because he wanted to get more mandarinos. But he ended up buying the world aka lots of things besides mandarinos. On the way there we ended up running into some kind of march/protest of some kind. Obviously, Sunday is a day for marches/protesters to be out. It happens frequently and it’s kind of strange. The mercadillo was good, we spent a few hours there and I ended up running home for lunch because we always leave too late. I didn’t think I wanted to get anything but I actually got acietunas (olives) at the mercadillo. They were really good. Sevilla is famous for olives so I had to give in and get some.

feliz cumpleaños a lola y brian.

What a week. I am finally finally finally feeling so much better because I’ve been on antibiotics and on Tuesday I decided that I need to rest or else I would land myself in the hospital soon. I took siesta almost everyday this week which was good for my soul and good for my health. The weather has been amazing too. It has been around 70s-80s during the day but during in the early morning and at night it gets a little colder. It was so nice out actually that Ali and decided to take advantage of it and lay out by the river this week to siesta. It was fabulous. We also laid out by the river to catch up on homework and read a little too.

La senora con la que vivo, Manoli (the senora that I live with), has been sick but she went to the doctor twice this week and he finally gave her antibiotics. This is pertinent to my health also because she cooks all my food. Anyways, so Manoli is better now too, so all is good in the world.

Monday, I met with Clara, my intercambio, which was very exciting. University de Pablo Olavide has this program with intercambio (literally meaning like exchanges) where you are paired up with a Spanish student who wants to practice English and you want to practice your Spanish so you converse with each other to help each other learn language. It was lots of fun, I wasn’t feeling that well but I had a good time talking to Clara we met at Starbucks and I got tea which helped my throat too. We are going to meet every week and chat, some of the time in Spanish, some in English, and some Spanglish too.

Wednesday, Ali and I began our lunes y miercoles afternoon adventure club and went into Catedral to take pictures and explore Europe’s 3rd largest cathedral. It was lots of fun. We are going to be going on afternoon adventures on Mondays and/or Wednesdays every week because we get out of school at the same time together.

Thursday night was interesting too. Mallory met these Spaniards at an intercambio tapas event at UPO on Wednesday and we went out with them on Thursday night. We walked around town a bit, then went and hung out by the river before going to a discoteca later that night. We actually sat in a circle by the river and played ‘never never have I ever’ while they spoke in English and we spoke in Spanish. It was really funny and it helped us practice Spanish too! I was really not feeling well later that night so I went home early with Daniella and didn’t end up going to the discoteca but later Brian and Amir had a run in with some punks who wanted money from them. At first they asked for gas money because they said their moped ran out of gas and so Brian gave them a euro. But then the guys started asking for their credit cards and wouldn’t leave them alone. Amir started yelling at them and shouting once one of the guys pushed him and then so the Spaniards who were getting churros with Mal called the cops and the guys left. It was a crazy story. I’m glad they’re safe and nothing bad happened, it’s good that Daniela and I went home too so that we weren’t there either.

This weekend we celebrated both Lola’s (Danielle’s) 20th birthday on Friday and Brian’s 21st on Saturday. It was so much fun. Friday, we went to the Banos de Arabes (Arabic baths), which was so so so relaxing. It was 2hour spa-bath treatment where we got to go in a cold, mild, and hot bath, salt water pools, jacuzzi, and a sauna room. Also, we got a 15 minute massage and had tea afterwards too. It was great to have a spa-type day and we even convinced the boys to do it with us too.

Friday night, we hung out at Amir’s apartment for a while had cake for Lola and Brian and sang happy birthday to both of them. Then we went out to Calle Betis and Buddha later on which ended up being really fun. Amir always gets stopped at the door at Buddha because he never has nice shoes. Hahaha, then he always tells him he didn’t know and that next time he’ll wear them. It’s great. But anyways, it was a great way to celebrate both their birthdays.

Saturday, we all slept in because we stayed out pretty late. We ended up studying in the basement of Mama Terra (a restaurant with wireless internet) because mid terms are this week. Also, we spent a good portion of the afternoon trying to figure out whether The Reader was playing at the movie theater in English or Spanish… it was only in Spanish so we opted not to see it because we were tired.

Sunday afternoon, Amir, Brian, and I went to the mercadillo (kind of like a farmer’s market) on Avenida de la Paz. Melissa lives over near there so we met her there. I brought the dslr to take lots of pictures of it but Amir was a hater most of the day and told me someone was going to rob me so I should put the camera away. I put the camera away not because I thought he was right, but because I wanted him to stop being a hater about it so I only got a few pictures. It was fun, I love outside markets but I’m a bad barginer so I have to work on that. I bought cute earrings for a euro (they are super cheaply made too so I’m going to put nail polish remover on the backs). Brian finally bought sunglasses, Melissa bought shoes, and Amir bought like 4 kilos of fruit. It was a very successful day.

Things to look forward to in the next month: Tori is coming to Spain for her spring break to visit me! I'm meeting her in Madrid on Saturday and then she will come back with me and spend the week in Sevilla. Christine and Elise are traveling on a European excursion for their spring break too and so I am meeting them in London, also, while Marie bbbbBbbbbbBbb will be there too. At the end of the month, I'm meeting Dustin in Florence and we'll travel in the Tuscany region and hopefully meet up with Bailey too. So many loves from home and so many adventures in the next month. I can't wait! :)

Pictures: 1- Amir buying oranges at the mercadillo, 2 - shoes being sold at the mercadillo, 3 - Brian, Lola, Mal, Amir, and I right before entering the Arab baths, 4 - Ali and I laying out at the river