IRELAND

This post is late but you can deal with it because I had a lot to write, I was trying to recuperate from traveling, and lack of sleep (can you say 3 hour siesta?), and I had pictures to edit. 

Ireland was the best trip in the history of all trips. Just kidding. My study abroad experience in Spain is, but the lil' vacation to Ireland tops all my European visits in the past.

We sort of left for Ireland on Tuesday. We didn't actually leave for Ireland until Wednesday, but I'll get to that in a few minutes. So on Tuesday, we rolled on over to Plaza de Armas and hopped on a bus to Málaga, Spain because that's where our flight was leaving from. That bus was the best bus I've ever seen, but then again, that was the first bus ticket I've ever bought to travel to a different city so I don't really know if my opinion is that valid. Anyway, it was super awesome because I ended up switching tickets/seats with Isis so she could sit next to Genisis, and that was basically the best trade of my life. Why? Because I got a window seat and aisle seat all in one! Doesn't get any better than that! Also, the bus had wifi and it was playing The Fault in our Stars in Spanish. Oh, and there were little goodie bags, and the bus was basically empty. #winningalready

The best bus seat.

On the way to Málaga, I half watched the movie, I took advantage of the wifi, and I watched it snow out of the window. WHOA WHAT? Snow in southern Spain?! Yeah, that's right. It was snowing on our drive to Málaga. Who knew??

When we arrived at the bus station, we took yet another bus to the airport. Then we stupidly couldn't find the entrance to the airport and almost walked around the place until we turned around and realized we had been next to the entrance when we got off the bus. Oops. 

The time in the airport was long and I must say that I kind of hate that airport now just because I had to stay there for such a long time. We got there at like 23:30 (11:30pm), and I ate my bocadillo (sandwich) my host mom made for me for dinner. Then we did a little exploring and we found a Starbucks that was open 24/7, so we camped out there for the next 8 hours. We slept in shifts...I wasn't tired at first, so Isis and Genisis knocked out fast while I read a book, played games on my iPad, people watched, and wished that we had just gotten a hostel. 

Around 2am I decided to break down and buy the wifi because the Málaga airport is mean and just wants to steal your money. Eh, just like most airports I suppose. Anyway, Isis and I split the price. It was pretty worth it because then I at least could waste away my time that I couldn't sleep by binge watching Youtube and reading Buzzfeed articles.

Around 2am was also the time Isis entered crisis panic mode. We were talking about how she was planning to stay in Spain until July, and I was like, "holy crap how long is your visa good for?" and when she told me it was good until September I didn't believe her for a hot second. She showed me her tarjeta extranjera, and when I looked at the expiration date, it surely enough said 9-1-15. However, here in Spain, the date formula is day/month/year, not month/day/year like in the States. Isis failed to take that into account, so when I told her that her visa was actually already expired, she practically fainted right there. Sooo Isis spent the next hour sending panic emails to basically everyone at the JYS office and talking my ear off about how if you added the IQ's together of everyone at the oficina de extranjeros together, you wouldn't get a score high enough to keep a chicken alive.

Around 4am I decided to get some sleep, and I kind of slept for about 2 hours. I found out that I can't sleep in airports. I'm on too much of a high alert of my surroundings and just can't manage to relax enough to actually fall completely asleep. Good to know for the future I guess...

At 6am, there was this dude behind us who took some sleeping pills, and had a flight at 6:40am...we had talked to him a little bit earlier, and so we felt like we should wake him up for his flight. So Isis and Genisis tried to wake him up, but he might as well have been dead. Then a security guard tried to wake him up, and that didn't work either. So we just sat there and watched the time tick by as he missed his flight. He woke up like 5 minutes before his flight was supposed to take off, and he asked us the time and then proceeded to book it to security...but then we saw him later passed out at a different table. Eh, we tried. 

Somehow the morning passed by pretty quickly, and before we knew it, we hopped on our plane. Getting through border security was pretty scary though, because the guy who checked my passport asked me a ton of questions, looked at my expired visa for a long time, then examined my tarjeta extranjera...and once he saw that everything is actually okay, he asked about my life in Spain and eventually stamped my passport and told me he hoped I had a good trip! Luckily, the guy that Isis got looked at her stuff for like two seconds and didn't even ask to see her tarjeta extranjera, so everything was super okay. Gracias a dios. 

As we were in line for our plane, Isis was still in panic-crisis mode, so she called Giulia, the JYS program director, for advice if she couldn't get back into Spain. I guess Giulia made her feel better because after that Isis basically had the most "don't care" attitude I'd seen. 

The plane ride was pretty run of the mill. When I got on the plane and found my seat, there was the most adorable old man in my seat -- the window seat. I *almost* didn't say anything because this old man is literally the picture perfect gramps and I didn't want to make him and his wife get up and move around because I also felt like they'd break if they moved too much. But...I wasn't letting gramps steal my window seat. So I went to say something, but then I was stuck...did they speak English or Spanish?? So, I stuttered in  Spanglish for a few seconds before just giving up and asking them if they knew English o español. When they said English, I was relieved, but my brain was still in Spanish mode so I had a hard time spitting out what I was trying to say. 

Anyway, I got my window seat and the old couple ended up being super nice and adorable. They told me all about how they have property in Málaga, how they've lived just outside of Dublin all their lives, and they even gave me travel advice. We also had a super in depth conversation about education because low and behold, the lady used to be a teacher in Ireland! Then we proceeded to compare and contrast education systems of Spain, Ireland, and America.

The view of Málaga from the window seat that I took back from the old guy.

The entertaining conversation with the old lady made the flight go by really fast, and before I knew it, we were starting our descent. I have never been happier to start the decent, and not just because we were about to land in Ireland, but because I have never had to use the bathroom so bad in my life. It didn't hit me until the flight attendants were like, "no more bathroom, suckas, we be landin' soon! if you gotta go, too bad!" (Okay obviously that's not what they said, but it's how I interpreted it). 

As we were landing, I had two impressions of Ireland:

1. QUÉ VERDE (how green!)

2. Oh wait, that was the ocean, wtf? *actually sees land* QUÉ VERDE!

I was embarrassed at myself for thinking the ocean was Ireland, but w/e. It was weirdly green and I wasn't wearing my glasses and I had a whole like 2 hours of not even complete sleep, what do you expect?

The first glimpse of Ireland from the plane

We landed to Dublin at around 2 in the afternoon, and then we got to our hostel around 3 I think. We were starving because we hadn't eaten anything since 8am, so after getting our things situated in our hostel, we headed out to the lobby to set up day tours and then to go off in search of food. Genisis really wanted to go to Cork to kiss the Blarney stone, and I really wanted to see the Cliffs of Moher. Well, the receptionist was super helpful and set everything up for us with the tour companies, and all we had to do was give a down payment of 15€ for each trip. Bam, done, two days full of excitement and all we had to do was show up at a bus stop two days in a row.

Then we went out to explore and find a super early dinner. We explored for a little while, and then we tried to find the hostel receptionist guy's directions to this restaurant, but we got lost and of course, tired hangry me was like, "I'M SO DONE WITH THIS STUPID MAP! *aggressively shoves map in pocket* WE'RE JUST GOING TO FOLLOW GOOGLE MAPS EVEN THOUGH THE DUDE SAID NOT TO!" So then I angrily walked ahead of Isis and Genisis, turned a corner, and BAM there was the restaurant. I cried a little.

The restaurant was called Govinda's Vegetarian Restaurant. It was Indian food, and it was amazing. The portion sizes were GIANT and the small plate was only 5.55 euros...and yeah, I said "small" plate but they PILE the food on. 

Okay...my plate was a small plate, and for a size comparison...it was the same size as the vegan tart's plate I also got on the right.

After we ate, we walked around Dublin a little bit more. We even walked past Trinity College, but at the time we didn't know it was Trinity College so we were like, "Hm wonder what this place is. Looks pretty cool." *facepalm* We also stopped by a grocery store where we found BAGELS. HALLELUJAH PRAISE THE LAWD. To make things better, I found a jar of peanut butter for 1.50€. I almost cried because I have not seen PB that cheap at all here in Europe. So then, we headed back to our hostel because 1. Our faces were frozen and 2. We felt dead.

So clearly, we called it an early night and went to bed at like 9pm because we are grandmas and we hadn't had a full night's sleep since Monday night...and it was Wednesday night.

The next day, we got up around 9:30am and headed out for breakfast because I had found a place that was supposed to have vegan pancakes. It was too good to be true, though. They lied about their hours and when we got there it was closed, so we just found some other random cafe. Not all hope of a good breakfast was lost, though. This cafe had bagels.

If you're wondering what's so special about bagels, it's the fact that Spain doesn't have them and they're my most favorite breakfast food of all time. If I remember correctly, the last thing I ate at my house in America was a good ol' bagel with peanut butter.

Hallelujah, a bagel. I also got green tea (in the back). What a great way to start off a morning. 

Anyway, I happily ate my bagel, and then we went to find the "hop on, hop off" tour bus stop. Here we are on the bus:

When we got on, we rode it the whole way through around the city, and then on the second round we stopped at Christ's Church because Isis really wanted to go see it. It was pretty and they had interesting stuff on the inside, such as a mummified cat and rat that were stuck in an organ pipe for a trillion years. I was also particularly impressed by the floors.

After the church, we tried to walk to the Guinness Storehouse because it was basically Genisis' #1 dream to visit it, but then we realized we actually had no idea where to go so we just hopped back on the hop on hop off bus and rode it there. 

Genisis

Isis

Me

We spent a lot of time walking around, and I couldn't care less about the beer, but the place was actually pretty interesting and entertaining. That place was huge and they had lots of cool and informative displays. Also, the view of Dublin from the top of the bar was beautiful! 

Dublin from the top of the Guinness Storehouse

So after Guinness, we went to head back to the center of Dublin, but Granny Bladder Genisis had to pee really bad, so we got off the bus in front of some old famous jail so she could use the bathroom. While we were waiting for the next bus, we were practicing bending over backwards to kiss the Blarney Stone, which we were doing the next day:

I can go pretty far back. Who knew? #secrettalent

Then we headed to a Korean restaurant for dinner where I had some super yummy kimchi fried rice (w/o egg of course!). 

yum!

The next day was our trip to Cork! We were talking about it at the restaurant, and I got so excited that while exclaiming, "YESSS CORK TOMORROW!" I knocked my glasses off my face. I'm an adult, I promise. 

We headed out pretty early. Our tour guide was pretty cool, and I learned some interesting stuff about Ireland:

1. We were going through the "Golden Veil" of Ireland, which is where all the dairy production is.

2. There are apparently 48 shades of green in Ireland (I believe it).

3. Kissing the Blarney Stone means you'll get the Gift of the Gab for 7 years -- which basically means you'll be able to BS really well.

4. Blarney = BS

Our first stop was some random gas station, and I didn't understand a word the cashier was saying to me. I just wanted to buy a Clif bar and a smoothie, but she said something to me (in English!) and I was like "..........????????" I just mumbled "no" and handed her my money. I didn't want to admit to her I had no idea what she said because darn it, I just came from Spain where understanding people is a real challenge because I'm not fluent in Spanish, but I am fluent in English, and I wasn't admitting I can't even understand my own language! I got my food successfully, though and that's all that matters.

Then we stopped in Cork for about an hour. We explored the English markets, which was basically like a giant farmer's market. It was pretty neat, and I even found vegan chocolate! I was excited because apparently vegan chocolate basically doesn't exist in Ireland. 

I didn't take many photos in Cork, but here's one that I thought was cool.

Our next stop after that was Cobh (pronounced "cove"), aka the last city the Titanic ever stopped at! I stood next to the water and just kinda stared at it with my mouth hanging open for a good 4 minutes as I pondered how crazy it was that I was actually in the last place where people set foot on solid land before dying in the Titanic wreck. So creepy and weird...

Where people bought their tickets for the Titanic in Cobh

We also went to see some pretty church in Cobh:

Cobh (and the church)

Made it up to the top where the church was! This is me being excited about being there. 

Pretty colorful houses in Cobh

After Cobh, we finally headed to Cork for the Blarney Stone! The grounds of the Blarney Castle were sooo pretty, and they looked just like I'd imagined Ireland would look. After we kissed the stone, we explored for a while and found some cool stuff, which you'll see in the photos below.

 At first I was a little scared about the kissing stone because you had to bend over backwards and it was pretty high up...and the only thing separating you falling to your death is like three iron bars that looked like it would still be easy to slip through if you were panicking and flailing around. But as I bent all the way and was kissing the stone, I got a super awesome adrenaline rush and it was actually super fun and not terrifying anymore!

Blarney Castle!

Your warning's aren't going to stop me!

At the tip top you can see the 3 iron bars that are supposed to keep you from falling to your death if you slip, and you can see the silhouette of the old guy who holds you while you bend over backwards.

Here I am kissing the Blarney Stone!

On the grounds

We found a waterfall!

We also found a duck

...and a druid circle!

That was our last stop, so after that we headed back to Dublin. We got there around 9:10pm, and so we decided to head back to the Korean restaurant for dinner again because it was cheap and had vegan/vegetarian food. I had the fried rice again, but this time I also got some avocado maki to go along with it.

After we ate, we headed back to our hostel to go to sleep early because we had to get up at like 5am to get ready to leave at 6:50am for the Cliffs of Moher!

The Cliffs of Moher trip was my absolute favorite day in Ireland. It started off kind of rough with the getting up super early and the freezing temperatures as we waited for the bus. Then the bus was really cold and the dude driving it wasn't too friendly, and I totally thought he was our tour guide so I was kinda upset at how lame he was. Turns out he was just driving the bus to our tour guide. Anyway, the bus also didn't have the heat on the whole way to Galway so we were freezing our toes off! 

Things turned around when we got to Galway and got our tour guide. He turned on the heat and he also ended up being HILARIOUS. People in Ireland have the best humor. It's a super raw humor, which is really unexpected so I found it even funnier, and a lot different than in the States or in Spain. 

Anyway, our first stop was this really old castle. It was really pretty and I got some good pictures there:

After that, we stopped at yet another castle/church thing (I should have written down where we were because I straight up don't remember right now...I was too occupied with how cool everything was!) But it was to see some of the original high crosses!:

Then we headed over to this super cool place where the ground was basically rocks and weeds, and we saw a 5,800 year old religious site where people did sacrifices in the olden days. Our tour guide said they'd sacrifice people and leave their bodies out in the open so that animals could get rid of the flesh/because it was like giving your body back to nature, and then they'd take whatever was left and put it in the tomb:

The tomb

Lunch was our next stop. We stopped in a place called Doolin, where we ate at a pub. They luckily had a veggie option that was really good, but somehow they screwed up our order and we didn't get our food until 10 minutes before we had to be on the bus. Luckily, our tour guide was super understanding and he told us not to worry because "everyone's human and things happen." 

We still inhaled our food, though. I didn't actually taste much of my food because #1 I was eating it at like 23904823 miles an hour and #2 it was super hot and I burnt my tongue. From what I could taste, I think it was pretty good! It was some potato croquette thing with fries. So anyway, we managed to eat everything and make it to the bus on time without anyone choking and dying. Success!

After lunch, our next stop was finally, FINALLY, *cue emotional dramatic music* The Cliffs of Moher. I have wanted to go to the Cliffs of Moher...basically forever. I went through a phase in high school when I decided to plan out my entire itinerary for traveling the world, and when I found out the Cliffs of Moher existed, I put that at the top of my list for Ireland because the pictures I saw were simply spectacular, and I'm a huge sucker for amazing nature views/nature anything?

I never ever thought I was going to get to go...so when I saw them for the first time, I actually teared up a little bit. 

This is me being super happy and trying not to cry at seeing the cliffs in real life. 

This place exceeded my expectations. It was absolutely breathtaking. So so so so beautiful. To whoever is reading this, I have two things to say: 1. Holy crap I can't believe you've read this far and 2. If you go to Ireland, YOU MUST GO TO THE CLIFFS OF MOHER. 

I can't even describe how that place made me feel. I felt so small. The cliffs were huge and super tall. I really just wanted to stay there forever.

Since I can't describe this very well, here are pictures:

When I saw this sign, I thought, "nope, not stopping me!"

This is thew view with your back turned to the cliffs.

Looking down at the water! I got pretty close to the edge & it was slightly terrifying but slightly exhilarating. 

All three of us at the cliffs!

"For those of you Americans whose plane tickets blew away on the cliffs today, I'll stop the bus so you can get out and start swimming. In about 3 weeks you'll reach Boston." -- Our tour guide on the way back from the cliffs

After the cliffs, we headed back to Dublin. We got there around 9:30pm, and for dinner we made a spur of the moment decision to go to this restaurant that happened to have veggie burgers. I wasn't 100% sure if it was vegan or not, but at that point of me being starving and not having internet to look up a place w/ vegan options, I just bought it and hoped it didn't have egg or something in it. It was pretty good, though, vegan or not.

We were so tired when we got back, so we had another early night and then "slept in" until 9am the next morning.

Time for another day in Dublin, our last full day in Ireland. :(

We declared Sunday officially "café day," aka "we don't really know what to do since we've already explored the city so we'll just wander around and hit up 92324 cafés and chill out all day. So we started our morning in Starbucks because Genisis "needed" her coffee, and I just used their wifi to catch up on what was going on in other parts of the world. 

Then we headed over to a gift shop next door where we bought souvenirs. I typically like to get practical souvenirs rather than lame key chains that I'll probably lose and stuff like that, so since I like cooking a lot, I got a super cute apron with lil' Irish sheep on it. I've been wanting an apron, so I thought it was a good idea. I also got my dad and me matching ball caps that say "Ireland" on them (we both like wearing caps and my dad literally always has a cap on). Then I got a couple of things for my friends as well. Oh, and also I fueled my earring addiction and bought some really pretty earrings.

Then we went to the post office and bought stamps out of a little vending machine. Those stamps were tricky, because it was 10€ for 10 international stamps, so we just split the price and we each took turns shoving our change in the slot because we had a lot of change to get rid of and we hate carrying around so many coins. 

So then we went over to the Indian food place that was nearby to eat some lunch and to write our postcards. After we ate, we dropped them in the post office box and made our way over to another place of mine that I've wanted to visit forever: the Trinity College Old Library

The first time I "saw" the library was on a list of the most beautiful libraries in the world, and let me tell you, it was NOT a disappointment. 

We bought our tickets and we went through the Book of Kells exhibit which is what you have to go through first before getting into the library. The exhibit was pretty cool, but I didn't care about it as much as I cared about just getting to see the library. 

When I set foot into the library I was overwhelmed with the smell of the old books and the lighting and the wooden shelves and the EVERYTHING! I was just in complete awe and I couldn't even believe this place actually existed and that I was standing there! It looked just like I was standing in a picture. I couldn't actually believe I was there. 

A super nice security guard took a picture of me because I lost Genisis and Isis a long time ago back in the Book of Kells exhibit because they were taking their time looking at everything while I was just like, "yep that's cool where's that library??"

It was kind of hard to take pictures in there due to the low lighting, so I had to set my camera on a railing to get a non-blurry photo of the place:

Thank you, security guard!

That library was amazing and I wish I could have stayed longer...like...forever maybe?

After we spent a good amount of time in there, we hesitantly made our way down the stairs down to the gift stop. I kind of cried a little. On the inside. I think I left a piece of my heart in that library guys, I'm not joking. 

Then we walked around Trinity College's campus for a while, and then around Dublin some more.

On the campus of Trinity College

Pretty...but not prettier than Sweet Briar.

After a while of wandering, we ended up in Temple Bar, and then we found a vegan restaurant that we had been trying to go to earlier (the one with the vegan pancakes for breakfast). We decided to eat an early dinner there, and then just head back to the hostel to pack, because once again...we had to get up super early because our flight back to Málaga boarded at 6:40am the next morning. 

I had a giant falafel sandwich with some kind of weird coleslaw knock off on the top (and tons of hummus...yumm, something I also haven't had much of in Spain), and it was amazing. My mouth is watering just thinking about that sandwich. Isis and Genisis got the same thing, but they weren't as impressed. They weren't a fan of the coleslaw...it must be my southern roots kicking in...even though I wasn't even ever a big coleslaw fan (bc usually it had mayo...yuck).

I'm adding lots of food pictures this time because some people have a hard time with "what do vegans eat???" This was my sandwich. 

So anyway, afterwards we headed back to our hostel and spent some time in the lobby using the wifi (no wifi in the rooms, so we had to go to the lobby to use the wifi). Then we headed back to our room to shower and pack and go to sleep so we wouldn't have another day of sleep deprived travel.  

We got up super early and caught a cab to the airport because we don't trust the bus to get us there on time because the earliest airport bus was cutting it kinda close to when we wanted to be there. Our cab driver was amazing. He was one of those typical old guys who always compliment everyone, and while usually that's kinda creepy and weird, I was pretty impressed with his compliments. Mine was, "For it being so early, you look very fresh this morning!" Thanks, old guy! I can't remember Isis' and Genisis' compliments, but they were also equally not creepy and nice. At one point, Isis was like, "You think we'll get there on time?" and our cab driver quickly responded, "We'd get there on time if we were driving f*ckin' backwards!" We all died. It was hilarious!

Our time in the airport was super short, and our flight was even shorter (okay it wasn't actually shorter but it kinda felt like it).

Flying over some mountains in the lovely España

When we got to Málaga, Isis was about ready to crap her pants and have a panic attack because she was so afraid they people would ask to see her expired card and she was afraid they wouldn't let her in the country. Luckily, the guy once again scanned my stuff and examined all of my stuff really closely, but this time he didn't ask me for my tarjeta extranjera. Then he looked at Genisis' stuff less closely, and Isis' stuff even less closely because he realized we were all together and I'm pretty certain he didn't care after he realized we were together. I'm glad it went so well, but while I was waiting for Genisis and Isis after I had gone through, Isis definitely looked like she was about to throw up and pass out all at once. But seriously, everything went perfectly through there. After she got through she praised Jesus and then told me to send Giulia (JYS program director) a Whatsapp saying that she got back to Spain and didn't get detained. 

Once in Málaga safe and sound, we had a lot of time to kill because our bus was at the inconvenient time of 5:30pm and it was only like 11am. Sooo, we decided to sit at the airport 24/7 Starbucks for a few hours, and then we took a bus to the bus station where we found some lunch at some Chinese restaurant. I was unimpressed with my food. I've had way better Chinese food. Now I know why they always say Chinese food in Spain sucks. 

After lunch, we only had like 45 minutes until our bus (back to the Spanish eating schedule of eating lunch late!), so we slowly made our way back to the bus station. I was particularly impressed with the bus ride back to Sevilla...after being in Ireland, I was basically convinced it was the most beautiful country ever...but then Spain changed my mind as we were driving back to Sevilla. 

We were driving through the mountains in southern Spain during sunset, and it was absolutely spectacular. Even though it's winter, the landscape in southern Spain still says "summer" to me. The green grass was turned a beautiful golden green that I usually see in Virginia on summer evenings. The sky was a golden orange red, getting more of a fiery orange as it got closer to the horizon, and almost a very pale green as the light orange/yellow mixed with the blue part of the sky. The mountains were a dark lavender color...like someone had painted over lavender mountains with diluted black watercolor. It seriously looked like something you would only ever see in a painting or a movie. There were also windmills in the distance that were illuminated by the sun and they were glowing the same color as the sun. I thought Ireland was beautiful, but Spain never ceases to amaze me. What a greeting back to my "home country." 

I didn't take any photos because my phone was almost dead and I felt weird taking out my big camera on the bus, so I just decided to take it all in with my eyes and just try to store the beauty in my mind as a mental picture. It was worth it as I had more time to appreciate everything I was taking in. :)

When I finally walked in to my piso, Toni exclaimed "¡HOMBRE!" before I even set food in the door. She got up and rushed over to give me a hug and dos besos, and then she proceeded to have me tell her all about my trip. It was so nice coming home after a week of traveling and seeing someone be so excited to have me there. :D <3 I absolutely adore my host mom! It's going to be so hard to leave here in May. We definitely got closer over break and I hate that I only have a semester left here...:/ But I'd rather have this semester than not have any time at all!!

So yeah, that was my trip to Ireland. Super amazing and I'm so happy to have had the chance to go.

As for this week...let's see. This week is my last week of vacation. School and internship starts up on Feb 2nd, so that'll be interesting. I hope I'm not as busy/stressed as last semester! I'm only taking 4 classes, and I'm only doing 9 hours a week at my internship (could be less -- it's not set in stone, I've only told her what hours I'm available to go there, she still has to make the schedule, and there's a chance I might get less hours). That's 4 hours less of class each week and 4 hours less of the internship...so 8 hours more free time a week this semester compared to last semester. How will I use that time? Probably sleeping. Not gonna lie. I was always trying not to fall asleep in my classes last semester! Goal of the semester: get more sleep/do more things with my newly found free time.

Also I would just like to take up a little more space on this already extremely long post to just brag a little about how I'm currently in Spain where the weather is going to get up to 19ºC (66ºF) this week, while Virginia/northeastern USA is getting a crazy blizzard. Don't freeze to death, everyone! 

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.  

An interesting week, to say the least...

What have I been up to this week? Oh, the usual...got pelted by candy thrown by children, received a scarf from the Tres Reyes, laughed at unsuspecting victims stepping in dog poop, and dealt with rude people with Calee at the oficina de extranjeros.

So, I'll start with being pelted by candy. On Monday night there was a cabalgata (parade) to celebrate los Tres Reyes Magos. 

Actually, first, let me explain (or better yet, let me let Wikipedia explain) what this holiday is. This is an important holiday that they celebrate here. It's known as El Día de los Reyes or El Día de los Tres Reyes Magos. Here's a rundown from Wikipedia:

In Spain and some Latin American countries, Epiphany day is called El Día de los Reyes (The Day of the Kings),^[115] i.e., the day when a group of Kings or Magi, as related in the second chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, arrived to worship and bring three gifts to the baby Jesus after following a star in the heavens. This day is sometimes known as the Día de los Tres Reyes Magos (The day of the Three Royal Magi) or La Pascua de los Negros (Holy Day of the Black men)^[116] in Chile, although the latter is rarely heard. In Spanish tradition on January 6, three of the Kings: Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthazar, representing Arabia, the Orient, and Africa, arrived on horse, camel and elephant, bringing respectively gold, frankincense and myrrh to the baby Jesus. Before going to bed on the eve of January 6, children polish their shoes and leave them ready for the Kings' presents to be put in them. The next morning presents will appear under their shoes, or if the children are deemed to have misbehaved during the year, coal (usually a lump of hard sugar candy dyed black, called Carbón Dulce).^[117] Most towns in Spain arrange colorful parades representing the arrival of the Reyes Magos to town so children can see them in their camels or carriages before they go to bed. The oldest of this parades is held in Alcoy, Alicante – Alacant, Valencia, which has hosted an annual parade since 1885.^[118] Sweet wine, nibbles, fruit and milk are left for the Kings and their camels. In Spain, children typically receive presents on this day, rather than on Christmas, though this tradition has changed lately, and children now receive presents on both days. In Spain the Epiphany bread/cake is known as Roscón^[119] and in Mexico as Rosca de reyes.^[120]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epiphany_%28holiday%29#Spain_and_Latin_America

Okay, anyway, at first, I was all, "Oh yay parades are fun!" But not this one...it was just dangerous. There were bands, small cars, floods of people dressed up w/ blackface make up, and the floats. 

Those floats...let me tell you something, those floats look cool from afar, but then they get up next to you, and suddenly you're being pelted with little hard candies that children are supposed to be "gently tossing." But no, they're just children so they pummel those little caramelos (lil wrapped candies), and when they hit you they feel like rocks. Here are some pictures and videos I took (with my phone so excuse the horrible quality) so you can see for yourself:

Looks pretty from afar...

People w/ their blackface make up

This float didn't have kids throwing the candy, but still...the flinging of the candy is not the safest idea.

The parade was super intense. Candy was EVERYWHERE. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the car tires that were carting around the floats. They were completely caked in candy that they had been running over. Everyone had candy stuck to the bottom of their shoes and were scraping their shoes off on the curbs, and the roads and sidewalks were just an absolute mess.

At the end, there were about seven/eight people with their balloon bundles trying to sell balloons to the masses.

Tons and tons of balloons. Also, can we just take a moment to appreciate this random girl's face in the bottom left corner of this photo?

So after the parade, Calee and I walked around el centro to look at the aftermath left behind by the parade. The parade went all through Sevilla, leaving from the University around 4pm and eventually making its way back there around 9pm. Here'a a map of their route:

When I got back home, I was in my room when Toni called me and said, "Kari, toma!" (direct translation: Kari, take! Better translation: Kari, take this!) I honestly just thought she was giving me my laundry, and I didn't really feel like putting it away so I just kinda sat there for a few seconds and silently cried on the inside...but when I stepped out of my room to receive what I thought was laundry, Toni was holding a shiny silver gift bag for me!

I obviously was surprised, and as usual when I'm caught off guard/surprised I can't form words, but I managed to stutter out, "¿Eso qué es?" (What's that?) She told me that the Reyes brought it for me. I think it's funny how everyone here, even adults, don't say, "Oh yeah, so and so gave me this gift!" they all seem to say, the Reyes brought me this gift! At least, in my experience. I can't speak for all of Sevilla or Spain. Anyway, it was a super soft scarf. I like it a lot and it's super warm! 

A few days later, I was out and about exploring a different part of Sevilla that I don't usually go to with Genisis and Isis, when Isis stepped in a really gross pile of dog poop right across from a small shop that sells things made from hemp. Genisis went inside to look around while Isis and I stood outside trying to figure out the best way to clean off her shoe. After she finished scraping her shoe on the corner of a building, we looked up to see a man step in the same pile of dog poop as Isis. We didn't even try to hold back our laughter, and we just stood there snickering for a good minute and a half. He didn't notice though since he was across the street. We're horrible people...and before we left, Isis saw one more person step in it! Poor people...why can't people just pick up after their dogs, though?

Lastly, on Friday, Calee and I had a fun time going to pick up her foreigner identity card (aka the card that acts as our visa extension). And by fun, I mean irritating. We thought we were just going to go over there, pick up her card, and waltz away with no problems. But in Spain, nothing's that easy.

****Note to readers: This is where a rant starts. If you don't feel like reading the rant, you can just skip it. No pasa nada.**** 

We got there, realized after a minute or two that we were in the wrong line, changed lines, waited for not too long, and finally got to the lady, who actually was the Spanish woman version of Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation. Calee handed her the papers and told her she was there to get her card, and the lady got her card, but after looking it over, looks up at us and says, "La tarjeta ha expirado," but with the Andalusian accent it sounded more like this: "Latarjetahaehpirao." 

Neither Calee or I knew what she was saying, so when I told her I didn't understand her, she just repeated herself. Now normally, that's okay and I figure it out on the second time...but this time I still had no clue what she was saying. So when I asked her what that meant, she just looked at me, repeated herself, and got all huffy and just made frustrated noises.

What I wish I could have said to that lady...

I was thinking, "Okay excuse me, lady, for not being freaking perfect at Spanish. Let's see you go across the freaking world and communicate in a foreign language. Let's see how easy you think it is after that!" Finally, after Calee and I just stared at her, she showed us the card, pointed at the expiration date, and said, "Mira." (Look.) When I saw what she was pointing at, I said to Calee, "Ohhh, expired! The card's expired!" The rude lady then proceeded to look at us and with the most mockingly annoying tone of voice said -- in English --, "Yessss, EXPIRED!" 

oh no she didn't.

What I was thinking: Oh really?? You're going to sit here and mock us about something you couldn't even figure out how to explain to us? Seriously???

What I said: Ohh, okay, but she needs a visa extension...what do we do?

What she said: No sé. (I don't know.)

Hold up, say what?

What I was thinking: Okay, how does she *not* know?? She works there, this is her JOB, how is she going to sit there and tell us that shE DOESN'T KNOW? 

What I said: ........................................

Nothing. I said nothing.

After a few seconds of Calee and I freaking out and trying to figure out what to do since this dumb lady was of no help, she finally told us we should go talk to the police across the hall. We said thank you and left, and we actually decided to head over to the JYS office first because they were closing soon and we thought they'd be a little bit more helpful at least in terms of who we should talk to or what we should do. 

Our walk back to the office was full of questions. How is it expired? Why is it expired? We filled out the same paperwork and went on the same day to turn it all in, how did this happen? Who screwed this up? Why was that lady so rude? 

When we got there, Calee tried to explain in Spanish what had happened, but after a few minutes they switched to English so nothing important would get lost in translation. This isn't really something you want to mess up, especially since it's already messed up. Basically, they told her that she just had to go back there and try to talk to someone else since the first lady was clearly unhelpful. Then they told her that it totally wasn't her fault, and that she didn't even need to worry because luckily, her actual visa doesn't expire until March. 

So, we reluctantly walked back over to the Oficina de Extranjeros, and I explained our situation to the security guards who direct you where to go. Unfortunately, he directed us to the first lady we talked to...ugh. Our reluctance was noticeable, as he had to keep ushering us towards the line and telling us, "¡pasa, pasa!" because we kinda just stood there like, "but whyyyyy???"

When we walked up to her, she just stared at us with her unblinking cold emotionless death stare. If she could have done this, she would have:

There was a tense awkward silence until Calee broke it by explaining the situation. She just stared at Calee, so I tried elaborating a little, and then she cut me off mid-sentence to tell us that we weren't in the right place and that we needed to go to the lady who was on the other side of the room. 

So since there wasn't a line for that lady, we just walked over to her and explained the same thing. This lady was just straight up confused, and didn't seem to understand why we were even talking to her. She was like, "Yeah, the card's expired, so what?" We weren't being unclear, so I don't understand why this was so hard for her to understand. This lady asked us stupid questions like, "When did you get the card? Who gave you the card?" Then she started pretending like she knew what was going on, printed out a ticket, and told us to go in the waiting room to wait to talk to yet ANOTHER lady, who ended up being almost just as clueless. 

We waited for about 15 minutes (not too bad, not too bad), where we discovered they also got Calee's birthday wrong on the card as well. Way to go, Oficina de Extranjeros. Finally we went in and saw the 3rd Lady. This lady asked more stupid questions like, "When you got your fingerprints done for the card, did they give you a paper?" Our answer was "yes." Then she asked us where the paper was, and we told her we gave it to some lady. She asked us, "Which lady?" When I told her it was the first lady we talked to and pointed in her general direction, she just told us to hold on. Then she did some searching on her computer and was like, hm, I don't know about this stuff/I'm not in charge of this stuff...looks like you gotta talk with the police on the other side of the building. 

So, we got up so 3rd Lady could take us over there when we passed the new lady, 4th Lady, we needed to talk with. 4th Lady was the smartest and nicest of them all. We explained to her Calee's problem, and she listened, only asked like one dumb question, and then told us to wait in the hall while she went to talk with 3rd Lady. After she was done, she took us over to her desk and sat down with Calee's passport, and within 10 seconds 4th Lady was like, "Ohh, I see why it's expired. They weren't even supposed to give you this card. Your visa is a 6th month visa, so you don't need this card! I don't know who made it, but they shouldn't have. You're all good, nothing to worry about here!"

Whoa whoa whoa, not so fast 4th Lady, it is not "all good." We told 4th Lady that she still needs an extension, and she was like, "Well then she has to ask for a visa extension." So I was like, "...but you just said she didn't need a card...?" (this card serves as the visa extension -- for me and everyone else at least), and she was like, "No, she doesn't need a card, but she still has to ask for a visa extension." Then she explained to us that because Calee's visa lasts for 6th months, she doesn't need a card (still doesn't make that much sense, but whatever). Then she got up to double check what she was telling us, and when she came back I asked her what Calee would receive instead of the card...like what would the visa extension even be? 4th Lady didn't know. Then I asked her who she needs to talk to to get the extension, and she was just like, "The guy who deals with education/students." Then she told us that Calee needs to come back on the next day that she's available to go talk to the education guy for more information, because...like everyone else, this wasn't her "area" and they guy who deals with student stuff was on vacation. Then, she just reassured us that everything was okay, the card was just a mistake, Calee's not going to be in trouble with the law, etc etc. 

****If you skipped the rant, you've finally reached the take-away.****

As we walked away, we complained about how annoying this all was, but we also tried to focus on the positives. Everything happens for a reason...the first time Calee and I tried to pick up our tarjetas together, the line was out the door and we had to leave before we could get the cards because we had class. I ended up going back the next week for mine, but Calee never bothered to go back to pick hers up. However, if she would have picked up her card before it expired, the person who was giving out the cards probably wouldn't have said anything about the expiration date, Calee probably wouldn't have noticed the expiration date, and then things would be bad if she would have either noticed too late or never have noticed at all. So even though it was a really annoying day filled with lots of shuffling around to different clueless unhelpful people, this was probably a good way for it to go. Rather go through all of this than to possibly get in huge trouble for staying in Spain w/ an expired visa and expired visa extension. 

And that is my week, folks. The upcoming week is looking pretty chill. Isis and Genisis are traveling in Paris and London, and Calee is off traveling to Tenerife, and most of my Spanish friends are swamped with school and work and other responsibilities. That's okay, though. I'm an only child -- I'm used to this. Chill week it is! But...on Thursday, the new spring JYS group arrives. I haven't decided if I'll go to the office on Friday to meet them all for their first day of orientation. We'll see how I feel...on Thursday night.

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!