Made it through my first week of classes, and it wasn't too bad at all. I really like my teachers and classmates. The main thing that is great is hearing Spanish all the time again. I love it! Even if it is Spain Spanish with the lisp and all... it's so good to my ears :)

Hmm... I don't what else there is to say really.. I guess I'll tell you what my typical day has looked like so far. I get up around 8:30 when Catherine is heading out the door (she has a 9 o'clock and I don't start until 9:55.. woohoo!) and get ready. Put my coffee in the microwave and make my tostada. I have had the same thing every day, and I honestly don't think I'll ever get tired of it. The bread is just so darn good!

After breakfast I head out for my 20 minute walk to school in the chilly morning air. Can't ever forget my gloves or my hands are freezing by the time I get there. I have found my solitary morning walks to school very relaxing! I just put one headphone in and listen to some awesome worship music on the way to school, a wonderful way to start my day! This is just one of the sights on my way to school... the beautiful Bridge of Triana.

School lasts for three hours and then it's off to lunch at home at 2:30 pm. By that time I am always starving! I don't know if I'll ever get used to the eating schedule here. I usually go to the park after that and play volleyball with mis amigos and amigas de la escuela. Most of the rest of the day is different depending on the day, because we have free time until dinner at 9:30 pm. After that we either go to bed or go out with friends. And that is an ordinary week day in Seville!

I don't have too much more to report for now. Once we start going on field trips and excursions I am sure I will have much more to report and many more pictures to show. Here are a few more pics for the week.

Orientation? ...Check!

So the orientation stage has come and gone, and I have had the chance to learn a lot more about the city of Sevilla. Probably the most fun thing that we did during orientation has was the photo-scavenger hunt. Me and the three others on my team roamed the city looking for different sites... El Museo de Bellas Artes, La Campana (which was actually a street instead of an actual bell, very helpful to know when searching for it), Las Columnas de Hércules, La Plaza de América, among others. It was such an adventure trying to find all of these areas with one map (and slightly cheating with Catherine's iphone GPS). We walked a total of 8 hrs that day! I have walked more in the past 7 days than I have in the last several years, it is exhausting and awesome at the same time! It is a lot different to go out for a walk when you know that each time will be different and you will see something new and exciting that takes your breath away. Sounds cheesy, but if you were here with me you would understand... everyone is so beautiful, I just can't get over it!


At the end of the day, all of the groups got together at the school and viewed all the pictures along with some churros and chocolate. Honestly I was a little disappointed over these churros, because they didn't have any delicious cream on the inside like they do it in Costa Rica. Oh well, churros are churros :) After all pictures were viewed and points were added up... we won! Our prize was a free trip to the movies, including refreshments... Score! If you know me, you know I love movies... so you can imagine my excitement when I heard the prize :) Ha, oh yeah. Another funny thing that happened during our night-time get together was that Jonathan didn't show up until the winner was announced. His afternoon siesta went a little overboard, if you know what I'm saying.. and he slept right through it! I called him before we starting looking at the pictures, but unfortunately he didn't make it in time. I guess it goes to show: you snooze, you lose! 

Our group (minus Catherine) Emily on the left, Michelle on the right

Today we went to The Cathedral for Church. That's right, The Cathedral... the 3rd largest Cathedral in the world! Which is just as equally beautiful on the inside then it is on the outside! It was suprisingly short and a cool experience. Next week we will probably try going to a closer, smaller church.

Still getting used to being blatantly stared at everywhere I go from all the Spaniards. It's kind of hard to blend in when you are a feet above everyone else.. even in a huge crowd! lol. However, we did give some lost Spanish speaking people instructions to get to a street nearby.. I think that gives us Spaniard points, right?


School starts tomorrow! I am looking forward to seeing what the classes will be like. I am taking Art, Literature, Advanced Grammar, and Tres Culturas, and I don't start until 10 AM.. which is pretty awesome! Well, I guess that's all for now... enjoy the pictures!

Moving things along..

Today we got to meet our Señora! She and her husband are SO sweet. After we lugged our suitcases up to the apartment (which is only on the second floor, thankfully) from the taxi, we had a nice chat with our Señora, Amparo. We talked a lot about Sevilla and the places we have been able to go so far, while she recommend several hot spots around town for different activities. We unpacked all our things later and let me tell you, it feels so great to be moved in! And not having to live out of a suitcase anymore like we did at the hotel.

Lunch with our Señor (Jose) y Señora was delicious! It was kind of an interesting mix of foods, but it was really good! It had chicken on top of French Fries along with some vegetables and peas all in this delicious sauce. There was also bread and these little fried ham and cheese balls. To top it off, we had delicious, juicy oranges for dessert!

For the rest of the evening we have just been enjoying being outside. It was such a beautiful day, very sunny and warm... my kind of weather :) 
 
Orientation starts tomorrow, and classes start on Monday so I am sure there will be some big updates coming soon. Love you guys!

First full day in Seville

Today was a great day! I wouldn't say I had the best sleep, woke up about 1 and kept waking up off and on until 5.. then woke up again at 11:30. Once we got up, we walked over to the school with the directions that our hotel clerk gave us. We also had a map, which didn't help us too much at first because we didn't see any street signs anywhere (later, we found out the names were on the sides of the buildings). Not sure how we actually made it to the school because all we kept doing was taking the best looking side streets or going towards the beautiful cathedrals. One way or another, we made it to the school, and were able to meet a few of the teachers and people will be seeing a lot more of once school starts.


After eating lunch with Katie and her friend at a cute little Chinese restaurant, we roamed the streets. Figured out the general areas where we will be living in a few days and saw a lot of awesome sights! It is seriously beautiful everywhere you look... especially the tiny one way streets, I can't get enough of them! You just have to watch out for a taxi coming by, if you are not against one of the buildings you may get hit! The sidewalks on each side are only a few inches wide.. pretty crazy.


Here are a few pictures from our walk. Can't wait to get out again tomorrow and explore some more!

The view from our hotel window.. you can see just how small the street and sidewalks are.

Enjoying a few free cafe con leches at the hotel after a long day of exploring!

All packed and ready to go!

A few days and several "army-rolled" t-shirts (look it up on YouTube.. it's pretty sweet and efficient!) later, I am all packed for Spain! Both my suitcase and Jonathan's were a little over 50 lbs so we decided we would add one more bag for an extra price, which is really nice because I didn't have to sacrifice any of the things that I wanted to take. 

We head out tomorrow at 12:30 for Chicago to meet up with Catherine, from there we will stop at Madrid and end up in Seville! I can't wait! I'm really going to miss all my Wilmorian and Asburian friends.. not to mention the beautiful horse farms and back roads of KY.. but definitely looking forward for some new experiences in Seville. That's all for now, peace! :)

Only one more week!

Hey everyone! So there is only 7 more days until the exciting journey begins and I can hardly contain myself! I've never had a blog before, so I want to apologize ahead of time if this blog isn't great as far as blogs go... but I promise I will try my best to keep it exciting and worth your while :)


I will have to start packing soon, and honestly... I don't know how I am going to do it. It was bad enough moving across town to my dorm for college, but moving overseas for a whole semester with only one suitcase, a carry-on and my backpack? It is going to be very difficult to squeeze it all in. I'm sure by the end of this whole experience I will be an expert in maximizing packing space.


This is such a wonderful opportunity and I can't wait for it to start. At the same time, I am going to miss everyone back home A LOT. Thank goodness for skype :)


That is all for now, stay tuned for my next blog from Madrid or sooner!