4/22/14

I cannot believe how fast time has gone here. I am 3 days away from being on a plane back to the US. I  am super excited to go home and see my family and friends, but at the same time, I know I am going to miss Spain so much! I have had the most amazing experiences during my time abroad. I still can't believe I rode a camel in Morocco and saw the Eiffel Tower in Paris, two things I really never thought I would get to experience. I have loved every second of my time abroad and I have really learned a lot about myself through this experience. I have fallen in love with the beautiful city of Sevilla and know I will have to come back to visit again at some point in my future!

4/8/14

I cannot believe I only have 17 days left in this incredible place. The past few weeks have been great. Although rainy last week, the weather this week could not be better! It has been in the 70s and 80s with clear blue skies & great weather makes everything more fun!

This past weekend Tina and I went to Triana to look for ceramics and we found a ton! Triana has a whole street of ceramic shops and they are super cool. I bought two really pretty hand painted mugs and salt and pepper shakers with really pretty flowers painted on them for my family. I plan to go back and get more ceramics before I go home because they will be great reminders of Sevilla and they are really pretty! We enjoyed sitting by the river in the evening and enjoying the sunset. The weather was amazing. I was able to go without a jacket for the first time since I have been here in Sevilla, which was wonderful. It is finally shorts weather!!

I have been spending a lot of time in the last week writing papers and creating presentations since this is my last week of classes, so all my papers and presentations are due this week. I am so happy to say I am finished with all my work now and only have exams to worry about, but they are two weeks away, so I have time. Next Monday, we leave for Paris! I am so excited to go see the Eiffel Tower! I cannot wait to explore the gorgeous city and eat some macaroons, while I am there! Next week is also Semana Santa, which is huge here in Sevilla. There are processions through the streets and lots of crowds. I am not a hugs fan of crowds, so I am glad I will not be here in Sevilla the whole week. I will be back Wednesday to experience a few days of the week. I am excited to see what it is all about!

This past Monday was my last week volunteering at Padres Blancos. I had a great experience there and will definitely stay in contact with the teacher I helped. She was very nice and always so welcoming. The students were great and I was so happy I was able to help them lean english and they could practice speaking with me to better understand the American accent. I really feel like my presence there made a difference and I will miss volunteering there.

It has been an amazing semester here in Sevilla and I am loving every second here, but I really do miss all my family and friends and cannot wait to see everyone in just a little over two weeks!! :)

AFRICA

This past weekend we traveled to Morocco and spent time in Tangier, Tetouan, and Chefchaouen. It was a great experience. Although VERY different than Spain or any other place I have been, I really enjoyed the weekend. We walked around a lot and took a lot of pictures. The houses are painted very cool colors, mostly shades of blue and green. The colors keep the bugs away and also the blue was painted by the jews and the green by the muslims. The colors represent different things like fertility. It was very interesting to learn about the culture and what life is like in Morocco.

On Saturday morning, the prayer calls woke me up at 4 something in the morning and were repeated at 5, so I had trouble sleeping that night. Since Morocco is a muslim country, the prayer calls remind muslims to pray 5 times a day. However, as I learned over the weekend, there are not only 5 calls. In addition, there are reminder calls for some of the times. I found this part of my experience very interesting and very different. I feel like my experience really broadened my view of the world.

We rode camels on Sunday and that was definitely my favorite part of the trip!

3/18/14

I cannot believe how fast time has flown here! It is already March 18th and I have just a little over a month left in this amazing place. Lately, I have been running by the river every other day. It has been a great way to get out of my room and at the same time get in better shape! The river is only about a 40 minute walk from where I live, which turns into about a 15-20 minute run, which is not bad at all. Running along the river has been extremely peaceful and a great way to enjoy the city! I forgot how much I missed running, I love it so much! I have 37 days left in Sevilla and I plan to enjoy every second!! :) There is still a lot I want to do in the city before I leave, I'm not ready yet! I want to go to the top of Las Setas and definitely inside Plaza de Espana, two things I have not done yet.

This week has been full of exams, but I am looking forward to this weekend, we are heading to Morocco! I cannot wait, I know it will be an amazing weekend!

Italica!

On Friday, we went to Italica and saw the Roman ruins there. It was a very cool trip and Reda, who is our monuments professor, taught us a lot about the history of the place, which was great.

Tina & I looking over the Roman ruins amphitheater

The Amphitheater 

On Sunday, las weekend, Sarah, Tina, Kelley, Amy, and I attended mass at the Cathedral. It was really cool to have that experience. On our way out of mass, a newspaper reporter stopped us to ask a few questions about where we are from, what we are doing here... etc. It turns out we made it into the Diario de Sevilla newspaper here!!

Cordoba

Yesterday we traveled to Córdoba and spent the day there. We had a tour of the Mezquita, which was beautiful. There are  1,013 columns in the mosque. The colors and arches were so cool looking. We had free time to walk around and have lunch. We tried the friend eggplant and honey, which was so good. It was a beautiful day with great weather.

flower street 

Portugal

This past weekend we traveled to Portugal! It was such a beautiful place and we had so much fun. Along with visiting the castles, I think my favorite part was trying the famous secret recipe pastry in Lisboa. It was delicious, but no one knows exactly what the ingredients are because the recipe is a secret, which is pretty cool.

City of Lisboa

Beautiful sunset!

Famous pastry "secret recipe"

Sunset on the way home

  

Home away from home

This is the quatrefoil fountain at the Alcazar. As part of the monuments in Seville course, we visited the Alcazar. This was my second time here, but I still found many things I did not see the first time, like this fountain! 

Tina, Sarah, and I went shopping one day after school and we found this little guy in one of the stores! He was super adorable and friendly. The woman who works in the store leaves a leash on him, so he can walk outside to say hi to people, but he can't run away. He was super cute! 

This past weekend was very relaxing. I am so fortunate to be able to spend this semester in such a beautiful and amazing place. The weather was perfect on Sunday, so Tina and I bought sandwiches and ate them by the river. The sun was out and it was awesome, especially after the many days of rain and dreariness we had been dealing with. We did some people watching and studying, while enjoying the great weather. This week we have our first exams for every class, then on Friday, we are headed to PORTUGAL for the weekend!! I am so excited!

Over the weekend, Tina and I ate lunch at The Room, which is a restaurant right across from school. We had great tapas. I had a tuna burger, which was delicious and Tina ordered hummus.

We ate dinner at the falafel place we love! We have already been there 3 times since we have been in Seville. I love falafel!

My Tuna burger with the best potato chips- they weren't greasy or too salty, they were perfect! 

Day Trip to Ronda!

This was taken from the bus- it was so beautiful & really was as green as it appears in the photo. 

The mountains were so beautiful

This is the "New Bridge" Puente Nuevo

Sarah, Tina, and I with the bridge & mountains in the background

Statue of a bull outside the bull fighting ring

The bull fighting ring in Ronda

Where the royal family sat to watch the bull fight- as the tour guide indicated- even the pillars are different in this section. They are more decorated compared to the others around the ring, which are much more simple in appearance. 

The stairs to walk up to the second floor of the bull ring

The quatrefoil is my sorority symbol & this was taken from the second floor of the bull ring

Statues outside the entrance to the bull ring

This past Friday we took a day trip to Ronda. We left around 9:30 and it took less than 2 hours to get there. We had our own tour guide who showed us the bull ring in the new part of Ronda and then, she took us to the old part of Ronda where we saw some churches and cool buildings. To get from the new part to the old part we crossed what is refereed to as the "New Bridge" or "Puente Nuevo" which was beautiful! We took lots of pictures and we could also see the mountains, which were also amazing!