Anywayyy...
On Thursday they lit up the Christmas lights around Sevilla! They're so pretty. I've never lived in a city with such pretty lights. I don't even remember if Colonial Heights (my hometown) put up Christmas lights...and McKenney (where I live in the USA) definitely doesn't have anything. *Sigh*...the sad struggles of living in a small town/living in a small town in the middle of no where.
Here are a couple of photos I took of the lights with my phone (hence the crappy quality):
Seriously though. I almost don't even want to include these photos because they do not do the lights justice at all!
Onto another topic...I thought for my last "official" post, since this is the "end," it would be fun to say what I miss about America and what I don't miss. So here I go:
What I miss about America:
1. Virginia
-Sweet Briar
-The mountains
-Winter
-The anticipation of a possible snow day
-My friends/family
2. The convenience of Walmart -- a place with basically everything, plus it's open 24/7, and it's cheap
3. Driving my car -- a weird thing to miss, but man I miss it
4. Cooking my own food
-Spicy food
-Asian food
-Mexican food
-The fact that being vegan isn't *as* abstract in the US
5. Studying at Sweet Briar -- finding quiet places to study where you aren't surrounded by tons of other people is really easy there
6. Central heating -- it's so cold inside of my piso...we're in southern Spain, who needs heat here? Newsflash: everyone does (don't worry, we have a space heater and my host mom put winter sheets on my bed: aka fleece sheets, and then like 3 more blankets)
7. Sweet, sweet silence -- good Lord what I would give for some place that I could go where there is absolutely no noise (this ties in to the studying thing, but I also just like silence for times other than studying)
8. The rest of my closet -- I miss my other clothes. I'm tired of wearing the same things.
9. American money/prices -- I do not like euros. I do not like the fact that 40 euros is like 50USD.
10. The lack of crying babies where I live -- My hostmom's daughter brings over her baby once a week and I swear this baby literally just cries the whole time she's here. I've decided that I will never have a baby because I cannot handle this crying.
11. Dressing lazily. I miss the good ol' days of rolling into class in my sweatpants and hoodie and no one thinking it was out of the ordinary. That's basically unacceptable here.
12. My classes being like 5 minutes away from my dorm. A stupid thing to miss, and while the 30 minute walk to school here isn't bad, I would just love to wake up later.
13. Having a job. I miss making money.
What I DO NOT miss about America:
1. Remember how I said I miss Walmart? Well I do not miss trying to find a parking spot there...or anywhere. I do not miss parking, driving in traffic, or buying gas.
2. I do not miss my roommate. Just kidding, I really miss her! But I do not miss having a roommate. I have my own room here, and she has her own room at Sweet Briar, and we were Skyping a while ago talking about how much we like having our own rooms and how weird it's going to be having to go back to sharing a room with each other senior year!
3. Prothro. Who would miss Prothro? (Prothro = Sweet Briar's dining hall, where being vegan is basically asking to die of starvation and malnutrition...but for real though, their vegan options are seriously lacking...meaning they don't exist a lot of the time)
4. Living in the dorms. No annoying loud drunk people running through the halls at odd hours of the night, no annoying people playing their music way too loud, and no mysterious smells wafting through the halls. Also, no disgusting bathrooms dorm bathrooms/showers -- however, that is made up for in the bathrooms in the University, where not only is it disgusting, there is rarely toilet paper! Look, here's proof:
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| Behold! What the typical bathroom stall looks like at the University of Seville. Random tourist map, strands of toilet paper on the floor, trash on the floor, trash oN TOP OF the trash can which looks to be a random glass alongside a Starbucks cup, and what seems like normal toilet paper, but don't be deceived my friends, that toilet paper is unusable because it is soaking wet in a mystery liquid. Not even Sweet Briar's dorm bathrooms get this bad, or at least in my experience. I'm assuming it's definitely possible.
6. The freezing temperatures. Yes, yes, I know. I just said I miss the possibility of snow. But you know what? I am quite enjoying the "warm" weather here. Would I want it forever? Probably not.
7. The stress of going home over holiday breaks. No more leaving the comforts of Sweet Briar to go to the Smokestack...oh wait I mean my house, the place where the air is 78% cigarette smoke, 20% dust/pet hair, and 2% oxygen and where everyone just believes it's okay to start drinking at like 10am...and then never stop until they pass out. None of that crap here, just trips to Belgium and Ireland, and a nice, clean, and safe place to stay.
8. Living in the middle of no where. While I still don't think I'm much of a city person, I hate living in the middle of no where so much.
9. The holiday season in America. Okay, I know I've made a big deal of the holiday season with how excited I am for it, but that's because I'm in Europe. I mean, in general I really love the holidays no matter where I am, but now that I live with my dad, it's just boring and it kinda sucks. We don't do anything special at all. Last Christmas we got a tree, but it just wasn't the same...Christmas is way more fun when people are actually excited about it and there are traditions and stuff to do and see!
10. Having classes on Friday. Thank you, cursos concertados, for only being Monday/Wednesday and Tuesday/Thursday classes. <3
11. Having a job. Yes, this is going on both lists. I love being an ARC tutor, don't get me wrong. But I also love not having a job just because that's one less responsibility that I have to worry about. (Although my internship could be considered an unpaid job).
12. Tipping waiters/waitresses in the restaurants. It's nice to not have to try to figure out percentages or whatever, and it's nice that they get paid a decent amount here.
13. Speaking of waiters/waitresses, I actually like that they don't hover over you here. I can actually eat in peace!
14. Constantly running into people I know. I think that's a perk of living in a city with a ton of people. I rarely run into people where I'm obligated to have an awkward small-talk conversation with. It's great.
So yeah. Most of the things I miss aren't really anything super important, so I definitely do without them for a while longer. You know what I just wish didn't exist because I can't put it on either list? Exams. Exams are coming up this week, so I have to get studying! Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it. |
