An Almost Blogless Week

This is going to have to be a skip week for me. The reason the title says "almost blogless" is because technically, this is still a blog. #loopholes

Why?

#1. I am sick with acute tonsilitis which means my tonsils are infected and disgusting. It basically feels like someone ripped my tonsils out of my throat, ran them over exactly 72 times with an 18-wheeler, and then glued them back in my throat with acid. I also had a fever Friday and a good half of Saturday, and today (Sunday) my host mom made me go to the hospital because the medicine the house-call doctor gave me on Friday has done diddly squat. If anything, my throat has only gotten worse. I also just generally feel pretty out of it. Writing this short amount is actually pretty energy consuming. Thank goodness for spellchecker.

#2. As you probably know, Sweet Briar is closing, and I still haven't completely gathered my thoughts. I don't know what to say yet...and if you know me, you know I like to have what I want to say ready to say before I say it.

#3. Exams. This week I have midterms. I have yet to begin studying due to the whole Sweet Briar thing and then unexpected illness thing. If I feel ready to write my blog later this week, I'll likely not have the time because (you can bet each hair on your head) I'll be cramming for those exams.

So yeah. Basically the only thing you really need to know about this week is that Tuesday I found out my college is closing which basically feels like your life is ending, Friday I got really sick, and exams are this week. So much bad luck in one week. I kind of hate everything, but underneath the hatred, I know something good will come out of this...I hope.

Aaaandddd, if I can just make it to Thursday, Megan is coming to visit from Paris!! I haven't seen her since September before I left for Spain. It's been tooo long. Here's to hoping I'm still a functioning human being when she gets here...because right now I'm definitely more on the non-functioning side of things.

Uneventful Events

This has been the most uneventful week of my life, which is why I basically forgot about this blog until like an hour ago...because there's not much to write about. My American friends were traveling and my Spanish friends were studying...so it was me and my host mom for the majority of the week. 

Most of this week was spent talking to my host mom about random stuff. I definitely got some serious Spanish practice in with the amount of time I spent talking to my host mom. I also spent a ridiculous amount of time organizing my recipes and searching for new vegan recipes to try once I get back to the states. Oh, and I took a lot of walks this week, and managed to take a couple of pretty pictures on my walks, too:

If you can't tell, these photos were taken from the same bridge on two different days at two different times.

On Thursday, things in my life started to pick up the pace. The new JYS Primavera (spring) group came, and so now I have a new roommate! On Thursday I showed her around Sevilla some -- where the JYS office is, Puente de Triana, Puente de los Remedios, the University, the Cathedral, the Alcázar, Plaza Nueva...and I think that's about it. Toni, our host mom, went with us through Triana to show her lil' supermarkets and other important things in our neighborhood. 

Friday, I went to my internship to finally pick up my certificate with my hours and accomplishments. I spent a little while talking to my internship supervisor getting advice on how to improve in the classroom and stuff. It was a super useful conversation, and I can't wait to get back in the classroom to improve from last semester and to use the new advice I got!

Later on, my roommate and I walked to la Plaza de España, one of my favorite places in Sevilla. I took some pretty nice pictures with my phone while I was there. But you know, even though I love that place, I think it's bad luck for me to go there. Something stupid happens every time. The oficina de extranjeros is there, and each experience I've had there had something go wrong. This time it was super beautiful at first....and then it started to rain and we were trapped there for about 20 minutes waiting for it to stop. It could have been worse, though. I'm going back tomorrow with Calee to figure out what she needs to do to extend her visa...we'll see how that goes.

Here are some pics from the trip:

Ahh, la Plaza de España <3

Saturday I went to El centro to do a little shopping, and things just kept going wrong. I only needed one clothing item and I had found what I wanted, and I was like 290239% certain I had enough money on my card, but I totally didn't. At first, I couldn't remember why I didn't have the money...but I was like, "Eh, just need to transfer money from my savings." Well, then the internet on my phone wasn't working. I thought that maybe my signal was bad, so I went outside of the store, and that didn't help. So then  I checked how much money I had on my SIM card, and my balance was a good ol' 0.00€. It's supposed to recharge itself with 15€ every time I go below 5€ in my account, so I don't know why it didn't do that this time. Whatever, so then I was like, okay let me go creep outside of a Starbucks to use their wifi, but I could only access Facebook with their wifi. After that I was just like:

So I went to an ATM to see if I could withdraw from my savings account, and while I found an ATM that said my bank would not charge an ATM fee (woo!), I couldn't do it. Then I remembered that the reason I didn't have enough money is because I totally made some iTunes purchases earlier in the week that I had forgotten about...and once I got home, I saw that I was literally only 2 dollars short in my account of what I needed. Of course.

I eventually gave up trying to get things situated and went to the vegan bakery because I had like 5 euros in cash and I have really been wanting to try their "blueberry cheesecake." So I got a slice of blueberry "cheesecake" (after standing in line FOREVER), and I ate it that night after dinner. It didn't taste like cheesecake, but it was still súper yummy!

The picture is a little fuzzy, and I forgot to take a picture before I ate it...but w/e. It was gooood. 

After dinner, I went out with my roommate to Calle Betis to meet the new JYS group. It's a super small group this time; only 12 people! Drastically different than the 57 or so from fall semester. 

Then today, Sunday, it was cold and rainy so I proceeded to have a lazy day. Even my host mom had a lazy day, and usually she will at least leave the house to go buy bread, but today she had her son come over to go buy bread for her. That's when you know it's gross outside...

Tomorrow, like I said, I'm going with Calee back to la Plaza de España/la Oficina de extranjeros to figure out her visa situation. Then I need to prepare for Ireland! I leave for Ireland on Tuesday night...taking the bus to Málaga, and then we leave for Dublin Wednesday morning. We would have just taken the bus on Wednesday bright and early (more like dark and early) but the only one available was the night before...so this will be interesting. We're too cheap to get a place to sleep in Málaga because we're arriving pretty late at night, so we're totally just gonna sleep on the bus and then in shifts at the airport, and then probably consume large quantities of caffeine on Wednesday. Will we regret this decision? Maybe. We will regret having a little extra money in our pockets because we decided to sacrifice sleep? No.  

Personal Post #2: A Hangry Venting Session

I can't even deal with today. I am choosing to dedicate my weekly personal post to my hot mess of a day I had when applying for my TIE (Tarjeta Identidad de Extranjero), aka a Foreigner Identity Card.
Here goes:

Today started off pretty great. I woke up to the awful sound of my alarm, but I wasn't super tired! Plus, I was especially excited for breakfast. Instead of my normal, filling (and what I think my host mom considers "bland") breakfast of pan tostada (toasted bread) and peanut butter, I made pan tostada with yummy apple butter I brought here from the Rockfish Gap Country Store in the good ol' Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Little did I know, this would cause some problems for me later. But anyway, after I ate, my roommate and I set out to the University of Seville for our official welcome! The walk was drizzly and cloudy -- a little annoying but not too horrible. Once we met up with the rest of the group in front of the main entrance, we toured around the building and learned where the Pabellón de Portugal is (the site where we'll be leaving for a few of our JYS excursions). Eventually we went inside and took our seats for the Bienvenida.

Side note: There was a translator at the bienvenida, which I found quite interesting...people are gonna be struggling if they need a translator for that. 

After the welcome, which was really nice, I found Calee and Timo, two other JYS students who are staying for the year who also need a TIE, and we headed down to this little reception they had after the welcome. Of course, I couldn't eat anything offered. Normally, this wouldn't bother me, but I was sooo hungry already (and it was only 11am and we don't eat lunch till around 3pm!). I really wished I had packed a snack. I had to suck it up though, because we had to go to the Plaza de España, where la Oficina de Extranjeros (Foreign Offices) is located.  Neither of them had been to la Plaza de España before, so I led them there. However, I only knew one way to get there, which happened to be the super long way...oops. But it was really nice to see the looks on their faces when they saw the Plaza for the first time, though! It's pretty magnificent. Here's a panoramic photo I took about a week ago when I was there for the first time (but this photo doesn't give it justice -- also, ignore the random people to the right):

So, as you can see, that building is huge. We had no idea where the police station (where we were told we needed to go) was, so we just made a guess, walked up some steps, and turned right. This is where things started to go downhill. We wandered around aimlessly for a few minutes, and then Timo decided to ask a security officer where we were supposed to go. While he was doing that, I was drooling over stuff in a vending machine while trying to decide what in there was vegan. There were these weird corn things that looked like they'd be vegan, so I excitedly put in my .40 cents and watched the little metal wheel spin...only to be extremely disappointed when they got stuck. Por supuesto (of course). I was so hungry, and the stupid vending machine was teasing me! I tried shaking it, but my weakling arms didn't do diddly squat (also I was afraid the security officer would be mad at me for messing with the vending machine, and I totally didn't wanna get yelled at in Spanish). So I gave up, and Calee and I followed Timo where the security officer directed him. Finding the office was a little difficult, but we finally got there. But what did we have to do when we got there? Get a waiting ticket. What number was I? 61. What number was currently being called? 44.  I was upset about that for about 30 seconds until, low and behold, I spotted yet another vending machine.

By this time, my stomach was pretty much eating itself, and I thought, "Yes! A second chance!" So once again, I put in my .40 cents, and this time I tried to get some peanuts. I stood there in front of the vending machine, anticipation seeping out of my pores as I watched the little metal wheel spin, only to have my heart (or should I say stomach) ripped right out of me. The freaking peanuts were stuck. THE FREAKING PEANUTS WERE STUCK. My snack, my key to happiness and sanity, was just hanging out (literally), completely untouchable, through a glass window in a vending machine. How could that happen to me twice in a row within 5 minutes on two different vending machines?! I was hangry. 

Don't know what that means? Let me help you:

Thank you, Urban Dictionary

So for the next 30 or so minutes, I sat in a really uncomfortable chair in the waiting area while blankly staring out of the doorway, watching a thunderstorm roll in, which was basically the reflection of my soul at the time. I tried to focus on the sound of the rain to drown out the vending machine as it buzzed (read: mocked me) behind me. At last, it was Timo's turn to go up. He went in, and about 30 seconds later he came out! I thought, "Wow, so fast! This will be a breeze." until he said "We're in the wrong place."

At this point, I was no longer hangry -- I was hangfurious. 

Another thanks, Urban Dictionary

I just wanted to get this stupid application process over so I could go home and eat. That's all I wanted. But no. We had to leave this office and walk to the COMPLETE other side of the Plaza (and thanks to the storm, we couldn't just take the short way and walk across the Plaza). Getting to the other side was not even remotely convenient. We had to squeeze our way through a giant crowd of tourists mixed in with people trying to sell umbrellas, fans, clicky-flamenco things, weird pieces of trees (don't know what they are, but they look like pieces of a Christmas tree), and who even knows what else. It was a hot mess, and I was so annoyed. I was so relieved when we finally got to la Oficina de Extranjeros, until I realized we had to stand in a line that was going out of the door:

Also, waiting in the line outside sucked because, like I said before, there was a thunderstorm happening, so we got this nice constant chilly sprinkle-y breeze. Spain is not fun in the rain.

See the other side? Yeah, that's where we were...anyway, after waiting outside of the office for at least 15 minutes, we were finally able to go inside...only to do another 15 minutes worth of waiting. That line was ridiculous.

We were so afraid we were in the wrong place again, so we asked someone who worked there, and she told us we were in the right line...¡por fin! (finally!)

So I bet you're wondering why the line was so slow/going out of the door, right? That's because we all had to see THE SAME LADY. There was only one person for all of those people! Why, Spain, why???

Finally, we got our turns, and the process was painless. Each of our turns took about 5 minutes combined. Super quick! And surprisingly, the lady who took our application was really nice. I don't understand how she was so friendly after dealing with so many people, though.

We all booked it out of there, and Timo and Calee stopped for something to eat, but I just went straight home. I would have liked to go with them, but I was not in the mood to search a menu in Spanish at a restaurant I've never heard of for vegan options that probably don't exist, especially after the vending machine incidents. Luckily, I know I can always just count on my host mom for tasty vegan food.

The rest of the day has been much more relaxed, and I am no longer hangry or hangfurious, as predicted by the blue sky peeking through the clouds over Triana (my neighborhood) as I was walking home:

So there ya go. My hangry venting session. And what's a good hangry venting session without some lessons I learned? Here they are, the most 3 important things I learned today:

#1. Eat a filling breakfast (peanut butter 5ever)

#2. If for whatever reason you don't eat a filling breakfast, carry snacks with you.

#3. Do not, under any circumstances, use a vending machine in Spain ever again. 

¡Hasta luego!