I've been slacking on writing my blogs...but here's a post, ¡por fin!

Ahhhh I definitely missed two weeks. The first was after Feria and the second was as I was starting to study for my finals! But I'm back to the blogging world!

So, I'll start with Feria. It was an amazing experience. Everyone in their dresses, the horses and carriages, the rebujitos, the music, the rides, the smells, sounds...the way every person you passed on the street was talking about Feria. The casetas, the bright colors, the general excitement in the air...and at the end of it all, fireworks (and churros...)! I've never experienced anything like it. Here are some photos:

Also during the week of Feria, Toni made me this little monedero that I am probably going to use a ton in los Estados Unidos because I love using things like this :D

The week after Feria, nothing super exciting happened. Isis and I went for a walk one day and stopped to get drinks from this new place near Corte Inglés where they sell "bubble drinks." It kind of reminded me of Sweet Frog except for...weird soda/tea/milkshake things? I don't know, I asked if they had anything made without milk and they had fruit slushie things so I got the watermelon one with little exploding fruit candies in it and straight up tasted like someone blended fresh watermelon with ice and put it in my cup. It was amazing. They also got our names wrong...as usual.

Also, everything in Sevilla is beautiful right now. Then again, Sevilla is always beautiful, but it's *extra* beautiful porque there are flowers everywhere:

Last Sunday was Mother's Day in Spain, so of course I made my host mom a Mother's Day card because she's definitely my Spanish mamá.

It made her cry, and then she gave me the biggest hug I've ever received and she kissed my cheek like 8,000 times (aka the "Spanish family" kiss). She's literally the cutest host mom on the entire planet, and I am so lucky to have been placed with such an amazing woman. Not only have I learned so much Spanish from her, but she's basically a living book full really good advice. Some of my favorite things she has told me are (translated into to English for you non-Spanish speakers) are:

"Don't let other people complicate your life."

"There are many stupid things to do in life, but none of them will get you to where you're supposed to end up."

"You're young. You have to live life to the fullest, because if you do nothing now, what are you going to do when you're my age?"

"Always have a job and a car so you don't have to depend on any man."

"Never have kids, Kari. They do nothing for you." (hahahaha)

"If you have a problem, just tell someone right then. Solve it, and that's it."

"When you don't want to do something, just tell the person you don't want to go with that your feet hurt. Sorry."

"Exams? Pshh, don't worry about those. There are bigger things in life to worry about."

"Never doubt yourself, you're very intelligent. Don't forget it."

"You have to always remember to stick with what you love, because in the end, that is what is going to bring you the most happiness, and it will all be worth it in the end."

"If you know you can do something well, don't settle for anything less. Just be patient with yourself and it'll turn out." (this was actually her telling me about how she feels when she messing up what she's knitting haha)


There aren't even enough words to explain how much I'll miss her when I go back to the States. I'm tearing up just thinking about it!

The next day, we had our JYS graduation and the señoras were invited, so obviously my roommate and I made it our goal not to leave the graduation without getting a "family photo" with Toni. Por fin, I have photos with Toni:

Wow the quality of this picture was decent until I uploaded it to my blog. Yikes.

Same goes for this. The quality has decreased after being uploaded...oh well, this is Toni and me! :D

This week, also, Toni ~finally~ me enseñó cómo hacer una tortilla española (vegana). (She taught me how to make a vegan Spanish tortilla!) It was so easy, and I can't wait to remake them in the States.

It's not perfectly round like a normal because we didn't use much in case I messed it up haha

Other than that, this past week was really stressful though despite the good things that happened, because #1 it was the week of my final final exams in Spain, and also my cousin's husband, Lance, went missing. It was some stressful days studying and hoping that Lance was okay and would turn up...and thank our lucky stars, HE WAS FOUND! It was such a huge sigh of relief when I was told he was found. We are all so so so happy he's back.

This week was also the last day of my internship. I'm not going to lie, I never thought this day would come, and I am sooo happy that I am done with it. I'll miss my classes, but really...I don't think I'm going to miss this internship...at all...

Today, I went to the Alcázar, probably my favorite place in Sevilla besides the Plaza de España, la Catedral, Parque María Luisa, el Puente de Triana...el Barrio Santa Cruz...okay well I just love all of Sevilla, okay? But the Alcázar is super awesome. Here are some photos (side note, I don't know what's up with this website today, but the pictures are not uploading with good quality...like they actually look better on Facebook, which is kind of saying something):

I only have a few days left here in Sevilla. I'm just going to try to enjoy it to the fullest. Every time I do something for the last time, I try not to be sad. I try not to think, "This is the last time I'm doing this. This is the last time I'll walk down this street. This is the last time I'll be in this store. This is the last time..." because that just makes it more sad (I learned that from Megan ;D). So I just push that all out of my head. I don't think about it at all. I just go through the day like everything's normal. It's the only way. I'd be too sad to function if I didn't do that. I don't usually get sad when I leave a place. I'm always just hopping around from place to place, especially in the last few years that I've lived with my dad. But you know, I've never loved a place so much. Every single time I think about leaving, I start to tear up (like now!). I can't think about it. But that is how I know for sure that I actually love a place. I don't cry very often, but when I do, it's because there's something big. These seriously have been the best 9 months of my entire life. I really wish I didn't have to go...but I know I'll be back.

Blah, okay, no more of this nonsense. I'll save the sad/sappy post for when I'm really leaving next week. For now, just rollin' on enjoying my last bit in this wonderful city.

I don't have any concrete plans for this upcoming week. Just going to do all of my favorite things, and walk around as much of the city as I can to take it all in while I'm still able...before I'm stuck back in the middle of nowhere, Virginia.

Last Week of Freedom

This week started late for me because I got back from Ireland on Monday night, and I didn't really do much this week...but surprisingly I still have things to write about.

Wednesday wasn't too eventful, but it was still a really good day. I went for a walk in the morning with Genisis by the river, and then for another walk (also with Genisis and Isis) that afternoon. The morning walk was more for exercise purposes while the afternoon was our "welcome back to Sevilla" super long all over the city walk, with a churros pit stop by the river of course (totally canceling out whatever "exercise" we did that morning, oops).

Then later that night, I bought tickets to Paris! I'll be going to Paris on April 9th to visit Megan, who's my roommate when I'm at Sweet Briar. We're both studying abroad through Sweet Briar's study abroad programs. Obviously, I'm studying in Spain with Sweet Briar's Junior Year in Spain, and she's studying in Paris with Sweet Briar's Junior Year in France. I can't wait to go see her! I haven't been to Paris since I was 16(?), and normally I don't like to repeat cities that I've been to, but Paris is worth it when it involves seeing such a good friend!

Lil' dork in Paris back in 2011. Looks like I was having a rough hair day.

Thursday was the worst day I've ever had in Spain. Why? Because I bought my ticket to go back to the United States. 

No, I do not want it to be official. I do not want a reminder. I do not want an itinerary. I do not want to leave Spain.

I was completely fine with ignoring the fact that I didn't have to go back. Ugh. I really don't want to leave. I just have to make the best out of this semester, though. There's no use in focusing on having to leave. I'll just go back to ignoring it, because clearly if I ignore it, it'll go away. 

Anyway, on May 13th, I'll be taking a bus from Sevilla to Málaga, then flying out of Málaga to Dublin, and from Dublin I'll fly to Boston, and from Boston I'll fly to Richmond...and from there my dad will pick me up and take me to the worst city in Virginia...McKenney.

However...Thursday wasn't too horrible, because that's also the day Megan bought tickets to come visit me here in Sevilla! She's coming in March, and I'm super excited!!

This is probably how dumb we'll look when we're reunited.

Friday I went to the University with my roommate, Vanessa, to find our classes. I have 3 classes in the same room, so that's convenient. Finding Vanessa's classes wasn't too hard, until I realized she had some classes in the "secret classroom." My first class ever in the University was in that stupid classroom which is hidden away up this random staircase in what looks like an entrance into just an area with professors' offices. I don't remember how I found the classroom last time, but I know I was almost late to class, and I had walked around the whole dang school 32,033 times to find it. Hopefully Vanessa won't have to experience that nightmare now that she knows where it is. 

Then later Friday night, I went out to dinner with Genisis and Isis to our ol' favorite vegan restaurant. We hadn't really been there in a while, so it was nice going again. They have the best bread and little appetizers ever. This time it was some yummy black beans in some type of sauce w/ other veggies...and I had no chance. I had taken like one bite and it was already half gone. They tried to blame my slow eating on being an only child -- I don't know what it's like to have to fend for myself at the table (eat fast or eat nothing?), but really, they're just vultures. So then it became a "who can get more of this stuff the fastest" competition, and I obviously lost. I gave up on the beans and took all of the good bread. It was almost a win-win situation. As soon as there was nothing left, Genisis goes, "Wait...where's the good bread?" to which I shrugged my shoulders and replied, "I don't know." You snooze you lose. We also stayed from like 9:30 until almost 11:30 talking about everything there ever was to talk about. We were totally the last ones in there. Pretty sure they were about to kick us out...but I feel like we always have the most interesting conversations in that restaurant.

Saturday, I went to Ronda along with the new spring semester group. Since Genisis, Isis, and I had already seen and done everything during orientation last semester, we were allowed to break off from the group and do our own thing. That sounds really great, and it would have been considering that Ronda is amazingly beautiful...but the weather was freakishly horrible.

When we got there, the weather wasn't too bad. It was drizzling and breezy, so we went with the group to visit the bull fighting ring to see if passing the time there would allow for the bad weather to pass, but as we left, it just got crazy. There were straight up hurricane force winds along with tons of rain, plus it was freezing! While the rest of the group walked in one direction to continue their tour (the poor souls), we forced our way against the wind down another street, dodging tree leaves and trying not to break our umbrellas (Isis' umbrella did turn inside out, though).

Basically how it was for us

We hopped into the first café (with wifi) that we came across. I got piping hot green tea to keep me warm, and we sat there for a little while until the weather cleared up. After that, we went around to different stores to look around. Then we met up with Anjali (the JYS orientation assistant), went with her to buy cookies for the group, and then we ate our lunch on a bench in the warm sun. Then we went to another café to use the bathroom, and then it was time to head back on the bus to go home to Sevilla.

On the bus I started reading the book I bought...like back in November(?). I tried to read it when I first got it, but I just didn't have the time, and it was kind of difficult. I don't know what happened between November(?) and Saturday, but I yesterday when I started reading it again, it was soo much easier! I understood exactly what was going on. Sure, there were still words I was looking up as I was reading, but whatever...it was only a few words per page! I could actually picture the story in my head as if I were reading in English. But sometimes the words I needed to look up wouldn't show up in my dictionary app, but luckily I was sitting next to one of the María's, so I just asked her what stuff meant when I couldn't figure it out myself. She was super nice and helpful. She also complimented Genisis', Isis', and my Spanish and said that we had improved from last semester (although I kind of feel like the reason she included me in that compliment was because I just happened to be sitting there next to them -- obviously my confidence when it comes to speaking is at a 3 out of 10).

When we got back to Sevilla, Genisis, Isis, Anjali, Vanessa and I went and sat by the river for a while. I love sitting by the river, especially as the sun is setting because everything's so surreal. I've been in Spain since September, but everyday I wake up and can't believe I'm actually here. It's like I wake up and think, "Oh, I'm still here in Spain?? Perfect!!" It's like I'm afraid I'll wake up one morning and I'll actually just be in America...like none of this is actually really happening.

Also, that night, I finally realized what Toni has been saying when she says "dedeo" on the phone. Toni is *always* on the phone, and I don't mean to creep on her conversations, but she's right next to me and she talks way louder than the TV, so what else am I supposed to listen to? It's basically impossible to tune her out. Anyway, she always says "te dejo" but with her Andalusian accent (and my American-not-super-accustomed-to-Spanish ears), it sounds a lot like "dedeo," which totally isn't even a word...so I never ever understood what she was saying, until last night it just somehow clicked that she was saying "te dejo" which literally means, "I leave you," but I think it's like when we say, "I'll let you go." Now it sounds so clear, and I kind of don't know how I missed that before.

Sunday, I got up and went to the Parque de los Principios to meet up with Mercedes, a super nice teacher that I met from my internship. I never taught with her because she teaches science and not English, but I was with her and her class on the field trip to the Cathedral back in December. She's studying English and has to pass a test to get a certificate. She needs a 60 to pass, but the last test she took...she got a 59.

I sooo know how frustrating that feels. Before the Praxis I (a test you have to take in order to get your teaching license/apply to the Teacher Education Program at Sweet Briar) changed their scoring system to where you have to pass each subject individually rather than using your composite score, I "failed" the math portion by just one or two points. Luckily, I took it before they changed the scoring system, so my composite score was passing because of my high scores in reading and writing.

Anyway, I'm helping her with her English, and she's helping me with my Spanish. We walked around the parks and then sat in the warm Sevillian sun and chatted about all kinds of things. I was facing the sun the whole time, so in between squinting at Mercedes and staring at the ground to let my squinting muscles rest, I think my forehead got new freckles. Normally I get more freckles in the summer, but I guess for me in Sevilla, it's a year round thing. I still have more in the summer (and I had even more when I was little), but when I got home the first thing I noticed when I looked in the mirror was a new cluster of them.

Besides that, today I've just eaten lunch, had a hilarious conversation with my roommate and Toni about making up excuses not to do stuff (Toni's go to excuses: My feet hurt, sorry. I'm having "bathroom problems," sorry.) I also took a super long walk with my roommate where we got lost en el centro but then we some how ended up in Alfalfa, and then we got lost again and we like turned a corner and we were at Plaza Nueva. Our minds were completely blown. It was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed getting to know Vanessa more. 

Tomorrow.....classes begin, bright and early at 9am.

*Side note*

I was going to post this yesterday, but then our wifi didn't work last night when I wanted to post it. I have a real excuse! I promise I'm not slacking...yet :P

Adiós 2014, Hola 2015

Where did this week go? Wait, no, where did last year go?

Not having class makes me completely lose track of the days...and now it's a whole different year? Yikes! It seems almost impossible that it's 2015.

One of the last things I did in 2014 was get a haircut. I was soo nervous for two reasons:

1. I would have to describe what I want in Spanish, and my hair salon vocab is practically non-existent (well it's better now)
2. My last haircut was horrendous and I figured since I was speaking in Spanish this time, my hair could only turn out awful due to lack of communication

Well, that was a backwards experience. Yes, the communication in the salon was kept to a minimum, but my haircut was on point. How is it that in America, where I can communicate perfectly, the hairdresser screws up my hair, but here in Spain where I had to use vocab that I Googled 30 minutes before getting to the salon, where I almost forgot out to say "layers" and had to use my hands to help get across what I was trying to say, and where I'm not even fluent in the language, my hair comes out wonderfully? I don't understand it, but I'm not going to argue with it. I'm just gonna have to find Spanish speaking hairdressers back in the States, hahaha. No but really, look at this:

That's some nice hair.

I was going to compare this haircut with my last haircut, but I just can't. The last haircut was just too bad to even put on my blog. So let's just rejoice with how not-horrible this one is.

Also, let me tell you all about my interesting New Year's Eve. On New Year's Eve, my friends' host mom let them invite me to their New Year's Eve dinner. Before I begin, I want to say I really had a good time and it was super cool getting to see how they celebrate New Year's Eve in Spain...but that night was quite the patience tester.

Soo, on Wednesday, I got dressed up and moseyed my way down San Vicente de Paúl, took a left on Ronda de Triana, and about five minutes later I was waving at Isis who was going to show me up to where her and Genisis live. I had already met all of their host family except for their host dad and their host grandparents, so when I got there I greeted everyone with dos besos and made small talk (ugh) with their family. At one point, Isis and Genisis left me alone with their host grandpa, Javier, who (while very nice) has a very thick accent Andalusian accent. He was talking to me about the weather (of course, the most typical small talk known to man), but I could only catch about 75% of what he was saying. While that sounds pretty decent, the important parts of the conversation were included in the 25% that I didn't understand, such as questions he was asking me. Once I finally understood a question, I took that and ran with it. I started talking about how the weather here was different than Virginia and that lasted me until Isis and Genisis came back and saved me from the small talk nightmare.

The actual dinner wasn't too bad. Genisis made me a yummy tofu dish since her host mom had no idea what to feed me. All in all, though, the dinner was quite the learning experience.

Anyone who has known me for even five minutes knows that:

1. I am quiet.
      1.5. I am an introvert.

That being said, I didn't say much at dinner. I didn't say much because I didn't think there was anything for me to say. I'm more content listening to the conversation. In group situations, I don't typically speak up unless someone directly addresses me or unless I really feel like I have something important to share. However, lil' ol' Granny (the host dad's mom) thought I wasn't speaking because I didn't know/understand Spanish. I mean, seriously, even if they were talking in English, I still wouldn't have chimed in. The granny asked me something, and I didn't hear all of what she had said because I didn't realize she was speaking to me for the first half of the question, so when I asked her to repeat, she proceeded to turn to Isis and said, "Ohh, pobrecitaaa, ella no puede entender nada que he dicho. *clucks her tongue* Ella está sentando allí con ni idea de qué está pasando..." Translation: Ohh, poor thing, she can't understand anything that I've said. *clucks tongue* She's sitting there with no idea of what's going on." My reaction was something like this:

I do not like people assuming I do not understand them. Mostly, I don't like people talking about me when 1. I can in fact understand them and 2. When I'm right there. I literally sat right across from her. I was trying to tell her that I just didn't hear the question, but Isis and Genisis jumped in before me to explain to her that I actually do understand Spanish, but lil' ol' Granny didn't seem to listen or care. The granny ignored me for the rest of the dinner...not making eye contact with me once. She literally would look at Javier on my left, skip over me, and look at Genisis on my right. 

It's very rare when I just straight up don't like someone without getting to know them with concrete reasons to not like them, but I did not like her. I can usually get along with just about everyone. I have been told that I have a "neutral personality," but if you're going to not even give me a chance to understand you and then just ignore me for the rest of the time we're together, that's going to get on my nerves and my "neutral personality" will become a sassy personality.

And then, the whole freaking time at dinner, about 90% of the dinner table conversation was about vegetarianism and veganism and the big question of "Why do you do that????" Don't get me wrong, I really like Genisis' and Isis' host family a lot, but good lord...the ignorance and lack of respect was getting on my last nerves. I got asked several times about cheese, eggs, and other stuff. I didn't go into detail about it. I spent most of the time just listening to Isis and Genisis defending their points (they're vegetarians btw). They were being completely respectful about it, but their family was just like, "But animals are to eat. Animals taste good. I think you're wrong. I don't care if I'm eating a dead animal -- me da igual. You wan't some of my lamb or shrimp or crab??" My face during the dinner went through several levels of "unimpressed." I'll illustrate these levels with some nice hand selected gifs:

Level 1: The Unimpressed Emotionless Staredown Face

Level 2: The "Yes, please go on telling me about how you need to eat animals to survive" Face

Level 3: The "Did that tontería (nonsense) really just come out of your mouth" Face



Level 4: The "I'm listening, and I think you're wrong, but I'm not going to say anything" Face



Level 5: The "Well they're never gonna change their mind so I'll just tune out" Face




In the whole time I've been in Spain, I have never encountered someone who gave up talking to me on the first interaction. Seriously, every time I don't understand someone, they literally just repeat themselves, which is what I prefer. Sometimes I just need to hear something twice, and I expected that from the lil' granny too, but nope. She just assumed I had no idea what was going on and refused to talk to me for the rest of the time.

I also haven't encountered anyone, not just in Spain but in the States as well, so insistent that meat is so vital to life and that if you don't eat meat you'll get sick and die/if you don't eat meat then it makes you some weird freak. Not even my dad was that annoying about it, and I thought he hit like the top of the top of annoying. I think it's worse when there's just a table of 6 people all with the same opinion that meat = life -- which is quite the opposite. Meat is actually death, and eating it can contribute to a shorter lifespan...just saying.

Now don't get me wrong, I respect others' choice to eat meat. Yes, I think it's wrong, but they have the choice to do that just like I have the choice not to. It's not the fact that they're meat eaters that gets on my nerves, it's the lack of mutual respect. I don't sit there questioning why they're eating meat, throwing all kinds of facts at them about how bad meat is for them and how veggies are way better. I literally just sat there and ate my food, and somehow the existence of a vegan or vegetarian is enough to provoke the unnecessary avalanche of questions and comments. I know this is just one of the many times in my life that this will happen, so I really need to just learn to be less bothered by this kind of stuff. It's just extremely annoying that I try to be respectful of others but they don't have the same respect.

And honestly, I feel like I'm pretty good at shutting down any possibly avalanches of questions, but Genisis and Isis were more quick to explain themselves which kept the conversation fueled, while if I sense that I'm with really non-understanding people, I go straight for the, "I'm not going to discuss this with you" response. I think it's better to just not discuss that kind of stuff until I really have a good grasp of how I think the person will react, and if I think they're not going to react well, I simply avoid it.

Anyway, before I go on even more of a vegan rant, I'll move on. After dinner, we all picked out 12 grapes out and each put them on our own cute lil' baby plate to consume when the clock struck 12AM. In Spain, everyone watches the clock in Madrid on TV (or wherever they happen to be if they're not at home watching it being broadcast on the news) just like we watch the clock in NYC. However, in Spain, the clock in Madrid chimes, and with each chime, you eat a grape. You eat one grape for each month, and the grape is supposed to represent good luck. It's harder that it sounds, but I got all my grapes down (even if towards the end I slightly resembled a chipmunk). It was actually really fun. :)

This is everyone after we got all of our grapes down and were celebrating the first few minutes of 2015:



So yeah, my NYE was pretty interesting. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot, and I'm so glad I went. Annoyances aside, they have a wonderful host family!

The rest of my first week of 2015? Ehhh...not too eventful.

On New Year's Day I walked all the way to Nervión with Calee to help her find the house that she's going to be tutoring at. It was really fun to catch up with Calee and to explore a part of Sevilla that we both hadn't been to before. The directions she had took us through all these little backroads and made things kinda confusing, but on our way back we just stuck with the main roads and found a much easier route. All in all it was pretty successful.

Yesterday I got to witness Aitana, my host mom's 7/8 month old (not completely sure how old she is) granddaughter, try her first yogurt. Her face was sooo adorable! I love watching babies try foods for the first time because their expressions are always so priceless. Also, Aitana seems to like me. She always smiles/giggles at me for no reason haha. Maybe she just thinks I look funny, who knows. But when she was eating her yogurt, she was watching me the whole time, and in between bites she'd kinda reach toward me and giggle, and my host mom was like, "Aww she likes Americans!" Lol, because a 7/8 month old is able to sense that I'm American.

Also, yesterday, I went to a new restaurant with Isis, Genisis, and Calee that I haven't been to yet with vegan options called Habanita. It's a cuban restaurant with lots of vegan and vegetarian options (which are clearly labeled on the menu). The food was soo good, and I think this place is my new favorite here in Sevilla. I got falafel w/ coconut sauce and it was tasty, and the falafel was nice and moist, unlike the other falafel that I've had here. It was also pretty nice to have all the JYS SBC girls spending time together.

Another random thing: I just want to comment on how nice the weather has been here lately. Look at all of that sun! I tok a walk today along the river and I had to take off my jacket at one point because I was getting pretty toasty walking in the sun.

Also these warm temperatures are niiiice. I'm not looking forward to going back to a Virginia winter next year. Good thing my host mom is knitting me a scarf ;D

Lastly, I just want to write the typical "New Year's" blah-de-blah junk. I don't really have any "New Year's Resolutions," because I feel like if you want to do something, you shouldn't wait until the new year to start. This is just going to be an eventful year, and I hope that I can continue to grow as a person as much as I have towards the end of 2014. Almost half of 2015 will be spent in Spain for me, and then the other half will be me starting my senior year at Sweet Briar. I can't believe I'm going to be a senior! It feels like everything's coming to a close and while on one hand I don't like that feeling at all, on the other hand I love knowing I still have lots of adventures lying ahead of me!