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.

Paris!

So last week I went to Paris, and it was not a waste of my time. I had already been to Paris back when I was in high school, so I wasn't too excited about spending my money to go see a city I've already been to when I could have used the money to go see a new country or something, but it was totally worth it!

I got to Paris on Tuesday night. I flew with Vueling for the first time, and I was like, "Hm, this might be sketchy..." but I actually liked it better than Ryanair. Too bad Ryanair is usually cheaper...oh well. I felt pretty lucky, because I also had the row of seats all to myself so I took a pretty nice nap on the way to Paris. The best part was when we landed. We landed at sunset, and I could see the Eiffel Tower, and it was pretty much the coolest moment ever.

I took an airport shuttle bus from the ORLY airport to Denfert-Rochereau (probably butchered that spelling), where Megan picked me up. We then proceeded down to the Metro, where I bought tickets for the Metro. I hate the metro because it's expensive...or maybe I'm just really cheap. It was 15 euros for 10 tickets, which seemed kind of stupid. I'm used to Sevilla where I just walk everywhere, with the occasional bus ride when it's raining or when it's really hot. In Sevilla, everything in El Centro is about 30-40 minutes walking distance from my piso in Triana, which really isn't that bad. Apparently in Paris, that kind of distance is Metro-worthy, but I'm not about that life. Needless to say, I made Megan show me around Paris by mostly walking, because I wasn't buying more tickets, because to buy two booklets of 10 tickets each would have been about 30 euros, and I don't spend 30 euros on public transportation for two months here in Sevilla, so certainly I was not going to spend that much on less than a week in Paris.

Anywayyy, the actual Metro was pretty cool. At first it seemed overwhelming and confusing, but after a little while I figured out that it's pretty easy! I had a pretty good guide (aka my free tour guide, Megan) to make things easier, though. ;D

The next day, Wednesday, we headed off to the Sacre Coeur, which when I visited in high school was one of my favorite places despite the super sketchy people who tried to tie a bracelet on my hand. Luckily there was someone with me who saved me from the guy. This time Megan and I did a good job of avoiding them. We went to the crypt, inside the church, and on top to the dome. It was such a pretty view of the city, and wow, Paris looks (and is) 92093842 times bigger than Sevilla!

After the Sacre Coeur, we went and walked by the famous Love Locks bridge, and then the Lourve. We took a break there and sat down by the glass pyramids and fountains for a little while.

Then we walked to Bastille, but on the way there we passed a really pretty building, but I don't remember what it was. After that, we got to the Bastille, where from there Megan showed me the Opera, and a little farther down the street was this thing called the "Promenade Plantee," which used to be old train tracks but now it's this really pretty elevated walkway with lots of plants!

Unknown building

Bastille and Opera

Promenade Plantee

After than, we walked over to the Pierre La Chez Cemetery, aka the most visited cemetery in the world. We walked around for a while taking pictures:

and then we managed to find Oscar Wilde's grave!

It was pretty sweet.

From there, we headed on home for dinner. After dinner, we explored these little baby parks near Megan's apartment. Paris has a lot of really pretty parks, even if they're small. One of them had a cute community garden right in front of some brand new eco-friendly apartment buildings! I was pretty impressed.

The next day wasn't as full of sightseeing and exploring, because Megan had class from 1pm-3pm. So, I just slept in for a while, and then walked with Megan to her University. While she was in class, I walked down the road to Parc Monceau, where I walked around, took a couple of pictures:

...and ate lunch. I didn't like this park very much only because as I was sitting on my bench, surrounded by a ton of other people on benches, this old man (who might have been homeless?), came up directly to me, got in my personal space, tried to shake my hand (I think?) and started talking to me in French. Megan advised me not to talk to anyone, and I agreed...plus, I don't speak French. I wasn't about to let this old guy know that, though, so I just ignored him even though he was literally standing directly in front of me. I wasn't really sure how to handle this situation...and I also really didn't want to give up my bench because it was in the shade. I didn't feel threatened because, like I said, I was surrounded by a ton of other people -- that park was packed! After a few seconds, he finally left and sat down on the bench next to mine. He stayed there for a good 45 minutes before getting up to leave, and before he left, he came BACK to me! This time, he sounded pretty sassy, but since I don't know French, I still had no idea what he was saying to me. He even waved his arms around a little bit. I still didn't make eye-contact. He left with a huff and a puff, and he didn't talk to anyone else at the park. So I'm really confused as to why he picked me to talk to. Of course, he picked the girl who had no idea what the heck he was saying, and of course, this would happen to me when Megan wasn't with me. I'll never know what he was saying, and that kinda makes me mad, haha, but I'm glad he just left me alone.

Finally, it was time to go meet Megan at her University. She showed me around her University, which is way more modern than the one I go to. I still like La Universidad de Sevilla better, though. <3

After that, we headed over to FNAC to find new headphones for her, and then we went to this fancy giant mall. We went up all the escalators and walked around, and right as Megan had just stepped on the down escalator, I saw more stairs that lead *somewhere.* So, I made Megan ride up the escalators again, climb some stairs, and luckily, we found that it lead to the rooftop with an awesome view of the city! For freeeeee :D

There was even a bar and ice cream shops up there. I thought it'd be the perfect place to see the sunset, so we decided to go home, eat dinner, then come back for sunset. Once we got back to Megan's house, my phone somehow decided to die in transit. It's okay now, though. I brought it back to life. It scared me, though, because it wouldn't turn on, I knew the battery wasn't dead, and it wasn't being recognized by the computer. Side note: if your iPhone ever looks dead for good, try pressing the on/off button and the home button at the same time for a few seconds. Worked for me! I didn't figure it out until later that night, but Megan let me use her phone to take photos of the sunset :)

So anyway, then we went back to the mall for sunset, and it was beautiful!

Oh, and on the roof, there was a photoshoot happening!

And this was the ceiling inside of the mall -- so beautiful!

The night doesn't end there, though! Megan's host mom gave us two free movie passes, and we found a movie theatre to go to next to the Arc de Triomph, so from the mall, we headed over to Champs-Elysees/Arc de Triomph. The arc was super pretty at night, and we went underneath it.

The movie we saw was called, "Cake." It was.........okay? I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone. This is also when I discovered that movie theatre popcorn is unbuttered until you ask for butter (at least at this particular movie theatre in Paris, I can't speak for the rest of the world). Megan and I shared some, and normally I'm not a giant popcorn fan, but it was gooooood. The movie ended at 11:30pm, so we just headed home after that and called it a night.

Friday was my most jam packed day in Paris. We walked from Megan's apartment to the JYF office. On the way there, however, we had like 29304823 pit stops. First, we stopped at St. Augustin church.

It was pretty! Next, we stopped at the Madeline church:

Next, we stopped at Place de la Concorde, which had some fancy light posts, beautiful fountains, and the thing that I like to call "The Miniature Washington Monument with Hieroglyphics." Oh, also, from this Place, you can see the Arc de Triomph down this giant avenue! It was really cool.

Then, we walked past the National Assembly building and the Museum D'Orsay, which apparently has some famous big clocks:

Finally, we got to the JYF office. I totally felt like I was cheating on JYS by being in there, but it was pretty neat to get to see the JYF office. I have to say, the JYF office was pretty cool. They had a neat little balcony-patio thing. I hate to say it, but the JYF office definitely seemed cooler than the JYS office...but the JYS office will always be #1 to me! ;)

Since the JYF office is right next to the Jardin de Luxembourg, we headed over there to eat our lunches. There weren't many bench choices because it was such a nice day and they were all mostly taken, so we had our choice of benches with a lot of bird poop, or less bird poop...so we went with the one with less bird poop, ate our lunch, took some pictures in front of the palace:

and then headed out to a super cool bookstore called "Shakespeare & Co," but not without more pitstops.

We passed by the Pantheon and the Sorbonne's main building, which was pretty, but not as impressive as La Universidad de Sevilla ;)

The Sorbonne

Initially after getting to the bookstore, I was kind of unimpressed because I went into this part that was just like one room. I gave Megan the "I don't wanna be mean but this isn't that exciting" look, but then we went out and went into another part which was much better. There were so many books and cute quotes on the walls, and it smelled amazing (like an old library), plus there was a cat sleeping in a chair! I wasn't allowed to take photos in this place, so I guess you'll just have to go for yourself.

The bookstore was basically right next to the Notre Dame, so we looked at the Notre Dame from afar (I've already been in, and I wasn't super interested in going again, so we just kinda skipped on past it).

After that, we headed to probably the best place in Paris: Le Café des Chats. In English, that means The Cat Cafe. There were cats in this cafe. CATS! I'm basically a future crazy cat lady, so there is really no way for me to describe my excitement, especially after being separated from my Elsie Mae (one of my four cats we have), since the beginning of September. It seemed kind of expensive, because it was 4.50 for tea, but #1 the tea was amazing, #2 THERE WERE CATS, #3 we each got our own tea pot, so it ended up being like 7 cups of tea, and #4 the tea cups and basically everything in there was super adorable. So it was worth every penny. Or euro. Whatever.

Oh, I also didn't mention that I'm pretty much a cat whisperer, so obviously, I lucked out and had a cat jump in my lap for the majority of the time I was there, and then at one point, I had two cats in my lap! It was probably my favorite moment of Paris...well...that and going to the top of the Eiffel Tower, but we'll get to that. As of right then, it was my favorite moment.

After about an hour or so in the cafe, we took the metro back to Megan's apartment, ate dinner, and then walked from her apartment to the Eiffel Tower. It was a super long walk, but I enjoyed it! We could have taken the metro, but since I was being cheap, we walked it. I think it was worth it, because I feel like I got to see a lot of Paris that most people wouldn't bother visiting.

It was near the Eiffel Tower where Megan and I used our safety tactic for busy/sketchy tourist areas: linking arms! We linked arms and busted through the tons of people trying to sell us mini-Eiffel Towers, sunglasses, water, and other random tourist-trap-money-stealing schemes! It has been my dream for forever to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower, and we finally made that happen!

We waited in line for a super long time, and while we were waiting, we thought we were going to die. Not because we were being dramatic, because legitimately at one point TONS of people started screaming all at once! It didn't sound like a happy scream, either. We grabbed each others arms, and I stood up on my tippy-toes to try to see what was going on (there were lots of tall people blocking my view)...and then it turns out, it was just a proposal. So, I can't really say I saw a proposal in Paris under the Eiffel Tower, but I heard it? I think that should could for something. It was kind of a scary experience, though.

The view from waiting in line

It took us about two hours to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower, but it was the best two hours ever. We got to the Eiffel Tower as the sun was setting, and we reached the first floor (or second floor, I don't remember) of the Eiffel Tower *right* as the sun was on the horizon! It was absolutely beautiful! Paris is such a beautiful city, and I feel like I have that moment/view engraved in my mind forever.

I say that this was the perfect time to go up because we got to see a daylight view of the city, and a nighttime view! We even got to stand and watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle as we were on it waiting in line for the elevator. It was the neatest thing:

The elevator to the top was.......okay. I'm kinda afraid of heights, so it wasn't my favorite thing, but being at the top was ~amazing~. I can't believe I finally got to go!

It was *soooooo* windy at the top! I don't even think it was that windy when I went to the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland! It was intense. Also, fun fact, there are bathrooms at the top of the Eiffel Tower, and I can totally say I have used the bathroom on the top of the Eiffel Tower.

After our Eiffel Tower fun times, we headed back down where we tried to take a night walk, but failed because we didn't know where we were going.

The Eiffel Tower on our night walk!

Proven fact: when you don't want a Metro station, they're everywhere. When you want one, there are none in sight. On our Metro search, we passed by the tunnel where Princess Diana was killed. I wanted to take a picture for my mom, but it was dark and wouldn't have turned out very well, and we didn't have time because the crosswalk light turned green!

Our feet were killing us after all the walking we did on this day. Megan has a tracker on her phone that says how far we walked, and according to her app, we had walked 18.57 miles. We're no weenies, I guess.

The next day was a little more chill. It was a dreary day, so we started the day kind of late. Today on our agenda was the Parc des Buttes, some neat canal Megan wanted to show me, and the world's biggest (apparently?) flea market. We took the Metro to the park, but not before doing a little window shopping in a mall which happened to also be in a train station. Anyway, so we made it to the park, which was probably my favorite park we went to. It would have been even better if it wouldn't have been a cloudy/drizzly day. It had lots of hills, grass, and this gazebo on top of this cliff. The path to the gazebo was closed, so we didn't get to go up there.

After eating our lunch in the park, we headed over to the canal. It was super cool, and I wish I could have seen a boat go through. The area around it was pretty, as well.

From there, we started our journey to the dang flea market. I say "dang flea market" because finding it was quite the adventure. First off, it was a 45 minute walk from where we were. Not too bad, but when you don't know exactly where you're going...it's a little longer. Also, little did we know we were going to have to walk through some sketttchhhyyy parts of Paris to get there. Everything seemed fine and dandy for a while, but then suddenly there were creepy people on the sidewalks trying to sell us fake iPhones, weird food, and other random knick knacks. We also passed the occasional group of loud intimidating men staring us down. Also, it was just really crowded. We had to use our linked arm safety tactic at one point. After a few blocks, we ended up just going through every ethnic neighborhood ever: African, Muslim, Latino(?)...it was interesting.

Right as we were getting close to the flea market, we saw this little ol' lady working at a crepe stand. As usual, when it comes to traveling and trying a country's typical food (like the waffles in Belgium and the chocolate from the most famous churros place in Madrid), I temporarily threw my veganism out of the window to try a crepe. I did, however, die inside a little bit/feel guilty/feel sick when I watched her stick a giant slab of butter on the crepe to heat/fry it up. I got a banana and Nutella crepe, and it was super tasty and worth the "one time exception" card I gave it. I must say, though, I prefer vegan treats to "normal" treats any day.

Anyway, finally, we got to the "fake" flea market, which was just basically a a bunch of sketchy booths from Africa/Morocco surrounded by those even more sketchy people who come up and talk to you and follow you around and wave things in your face trying to get you to buy them. They were everywhere...it was intense. We wandered through the fake flea market because at first we thought that was it, but then we quickly realized it wasn't, so we kept trekking along past it. The walk to the actual flea market, however, was literally a street of *more* of the same things that were in the "fake" flea market! It was a narrow street and very crowded. Somehow, we managed to get out of there, walk down a side street, and bam, we were at the place we wanted to be!!

Turns out, the flea market we were looking for was just a giant street with tons of buildings/markets to go in and look at. We picked the antique building that was right in front, the Dauphine Market, of us because we were done with walking and trying to get places.

It was in this market where I discovered my new interest: coin collecting. We found these two boxes of old coins and old bills and we straight up stood there for at least 45 minutes looking at all of the old coins and bills trying to figure out which ones to buy. I found a lot of coins from tons of different countries, including coins that are still usable in the States such as quarters and pennies, but the coolest things I found were pesetas, aka the coins used in Spain when Franco was in control. I also found some that say Rey Carlos I. I am super excited about these coins, and the guy selling them gave us a discount, probably because we stood there for so long. So, I got 12 coins for 5 euros!

After that, we were super satisfied but very tired so we decided to call it a day and head back to her apartment to eat some dinner. We spent the rest of the evening going through pictures, talking, and watching a movie: Gone Girl. If you know me pretty well, you'll know that I'm not a movie person, but this was a good movie! I'd actually recommend this one.

On Sunday, my last day, we headed over to the area near the Notre Dame to see a bird market! Such a strange idea, but it was my kind of market. There were plants, fish, rabbits, gerbils...and of course, tons of different types of birds!

After that, we had the chance to meet up with a Sweet Briar alumna (and her daughter!) from the class of '95. We got ice cream/sorbet from Berthillon (may or may not be spelled wrong) which is behind the Notre Dame. She was super nice, and her daughter was super sweet as well (and the poor thing wasn't feeling well either; hope she is better now!), and I'm really glad I got the chance to meet her/spend some time getting to know her!

After that, we headed back to Megan's apartment, but of course stopping for pictures on the way home.

Notre Dame

Once we got to Megan's, I gathered my stuff, and we headed out so that I could catch the bus to the Beauvais airport. The bus ride was about an hour on the way there, and normally I can't sleep well on busses/planes/transportation, but after about 20 minutes I suddenly got really sleepy, and so I knocked out and didn't wake up until we were almost at the airport!

The wait time at the airport was only about 40 minutes, which wasn't bad at all. It was a super small airport.

My plane back to Sevilla!

The trip back to Sevilla was seamless, and on the flight back I just wrote parts of this blog, looked at pictures from Paris, and listened to a podcast I had on my iPad that I didn't know I had.

I ended up getting home around 1am, and it sure felt amazing to be back in a country where I can actually understand the people around me. Also, it was equally amazing to climb into my own bed with clean sheets that smelled like Toni's laundry detergent and fall asleep...........only to have to get up at 7:30am the next day.