Italy!

Alright I feel as though I should warn you now that this post is going to be a lengthy one. So if you're not prepared for a good read, I suggest you come back later.

My trip to Italy started off with some of the worst luck I've experienced in a very long time. It started a couple of weeks ago when we tried to buy our train italia tickets. Because flying into Milan was significantly cheaper than any other option, we had to take the train to Florence from Milan. One of the girls who I went with, Molly, accidentally bought our tickets for the wrong day and had to buy them twice. An honest mistake but a costly one. She ended up only being able to get a half refund and felt so bad about the whole situation that she didn't make us pay for the other half. This was the first bad luck we encountered. I should have remembered the saying "bad things come in 3s" because pretty soon we were bombarded with bad luck. After working all day trying to get our school's printer to work, we finally were able to print our boarding passes. Colleen and I were so happy to have everything all printed out when we realized that we hadn't printed our plane tickets for the way home. Well turns out, Jess had accidentally booked the flight home for March 27th instead of February 28th. My stomach immediately sank and I honestly felt like I was going to throw up. It was an easy mistake to make when buying tickets through RyanAir in spanish, but once again it was going to cost almost as much to buy the one way ticket home as it did for us to buy the round trip airfare the first time. Feeling very much like a Barber, I insisted we wait until we got to the airport the next day before buying the tickets home. I thought for sure there would be a chance that someone would take pity on us. Turns out RyanAir's customer service is as bad as everyone says it is. The lady at the airport in Italy was very firm in telling me there was nothing they could do. And no manager or higher authority seemed to exist. In fact I'm not even sure she worked directly through RyanAir. So we were forced to bite the bullet and buy the tickets home. The prices had gone down slightly though so we did have at least a little bit of luck on our side.

Oh right I'm missing one. Well the third bad thing that happened on Thursday only really affected me and Colleen. We woke up early to make sure we'd catch the bus to the airport. We stood at the bus station for a good 20 minutes with our bags waiting to see the bus come around the corner. When it finally did it stopped across the street from where we were. We ran after it yelling and saw people on the bus pointing to us. (Not to mention Molly and Jess were already on the bus from the earlier stop yelling, "Espera!") Long story short the bus left us stranded with no other option but to suck it up and split a cab to the airport. It could have been worse, but it was still not a great way to start off such a long trip.

After the hour long bus ride into Milan from Bergamo airport (a small airport that RyanAir can afford to fly to for cheap), we went out for lunch. I ordered a pizza with shrimp and mushrooms that the waiter said was his favorite. We of course followed that up with a cup of gelato. It was delicious as was everything I ate while in Italy (and believe me I ate more than my fair share of food). There are some weird customs though that I wasn't particuarly fond of. First of all instead of tipping (which you don't do at all in Sevilla) you are charged table service if you choose to dine in. And tap water does not exist. Nor do water fountains. Meaning you must either be dehydrated, spend tons of money on bottles of water, or fill up your water bottle in the bathroom (yes, that's the one I chose). Plus in general we found we had a hard time ordering what we really wanted since we didn't know Italian. A surprisingly large number of people we met spoke perfect English, but in the whole in the wall panini shops we often found ourselves in we had to just point and hope we ordered well. Luckily I think you'd be hard pressed to order something that wasn't delicious in Italy. It really did make me appreciate my ability to speak Spanish. I'm not fluent, but just being able to get around without a problem is something I've been taking for granted.

After a long day of traveling on Thursday, it was nice to just relax after checking into the hostel. We went to this panini shop that the hostel owner recommended and it was absolutely amazing!! I know my mom can make a great sandwich, but the paninis at this little whole in the wall put up some stiff competition. After that we met up with one of Colleen's best friends who is studying abroad in Florence this semester. We went to this bar called Fish Pub and the owner was very nice! He was from the Dominican Republic so we got to speak to someone in spanish for a little while.

Panini from my first day

 On Friday we woke up pretty early to a wonderful breakfast at our hostel. In fact our hostel itself was incredible. For being so cheap, the customer service was amazing. It was really small (only 8 beds in one room, 6 beds in another) but really personable. Everyone was so friendly and Johnathan, the owner, was accomadating beyond belief. He gave us great suggestions on where to eat, circled things on a map for us to see, gave us free wine every night, didn't charge us for towels (something that most hostels do), let us use his printer to print boarding passes...the list goes on and on. He said at the end that next time we come back we'll get a big discount. His english was not very good but I wouldn't have changed hostels for the world...even if the location was not ideal. We met so many nice people in the four nights we stayed too. We were smart to base our bookings off of hostels that have the best reviews.

Us with Jonathan on the last day. He was so sad to see us go and insisted we take a picture!

Panini from day two was even better than my first one!

 Anyways on Friday we spent the day walking around Florence. The city itself is absolutely breathtaking. You can't walk down a street in the historic center and not want to take a picture. We visited the Duomo and climbed the tower next to it. The views from the top were amazing!!

One of the many streets in the leather market

After climbing the 400+ stairs to the top, we decided to treat ourselves to an italian lunch. We split bruschetta, a pizza, gnocchi and desert at a restaurant and stuffed ourselves full. After that we walked around the leather market. Florence is known for their leather and it was really fun to just walk around and see different people's tactics for trying to sell you stuff. Jess ended up buying a really nice leather jacket for way cheaper than the original asking price.
After climbing the 400+ stairs to the top, we decided to treat ourselves to an italian lunch. We split bruschetta, a pizza, gnocchi and desert at a restaurant and stuffed ourselves full. After that we walked around the leather market. Florence is known for their leather and it was really fun to just walk around and see different people's tactics for trying to sell you stuff. Jess ended up buying a really nice leather jacket for way cheaper than the original asking price.




After spending far too long shopping, we walked towards the river specifically to find this gelato place that Jonathan had recommended (it was cheap and was made from milk and not water like some of the lesser quality gelato places). The views along the river were even more beautiful than the views from the tower. The gelato place we went to was out of this world good. I don’t know if I’ll ever be satisfied with just Breyer’s vanilla fudge twirl again. 

View from one of the many bridges

For dinner that night we went to this place that Jonathan recommended. I ordered the pasta the waitress said she liked best. It was really spicy, but delicious just the same! We then went out with some of Colleen’s friends. We ended up at this club called Twice. It’s apparently where Jersey Shore went a lot while they were filming in Florence. It was disappointing and needless to say we did not go twice. We did get more of a sense of how forward Italian men can be. Turns out they are even worse than Spanish men at discotecas! Colleen’s friend told us that if you make eyecontact with an Italian man they automatically consider that a signal to more or less pursue you for the rest of the night. It was hard to dance seeing as how I was trying hard not to look anyone in the eye. Luckily we didn’t have to deal with anyone too weird. Mostly they just tickle your back and try to talk to you. Very weird and very awkward. We didn’t stay very long at all.

On Saturday, after grabbing a quick caprese panini (if it isn’t obvious by now how good the food is and how much I ate then you haven’t been reading very closely we hiked up to the Plaza de Michelangelo and saw some of the most incredible views of the entire city. We hung out and relaxed up there for a while. Very blissful. Before going back to get ready for dinner, we stopped in for gelatto one more time. For dinner we went to a restaurant called il Gato that Jess's friend Molly had recommended. Molly lives in Florence and she certainly knew good restaurants to choose from! We all got a bunch of different pastas to share as well as a few bottles of wine. It was a great experience. Then after that we went to see the lucky bore statue. Supposedly if you rub its nose then you will come back to Florence one day. I hope it comes true!

Sunday was a very relaxing day. We tried to plan a day trip to the Tuscan countryside but it ended up being far more trouble than it was worth. But that didn't bother us at all because we were still in Florence! By far the best part of the day, and really of the trip, was the meal we had on Sunday night. We all decided that it would be worth the splurge to try a real family style Italian restaurant called il Latini. We found great reviews for one and got there before our reservation to beat the crowd. They essentially just suggest different courses for you to try and everything we ate was absolutely amazing! The meal is accompanied with a 2 liter bottle of their house wine which was very good. I really didn't think I liked wine very much before coming to Europe, but now I'm beginning to really like it. They started us off with appetizers that consisted of four plates full of the best prosciutto I've ever had. We then got a plate full of fantastic sausage with tons of bread. Then he brought out a mysterious appetizer of some sort of meat on top of toasted bread. We all tried it and loved it. I asked him what the meat was when he came back and was surprised when he said it was chicken liver. Who would have known I like chicken liver!? After the appetizers came three different types of pastas: a ravioli, a gnocchi and a spaghetti. Here again I was surprised when he said the gnocchi had a rabbit meat sauce on it. Sounds weird I know but it was INCREDIBLE. Then after meat he offered soups which we turned down, preferring to go straight to the meat. We only ordered 2 servings of meat but the chef messed up the order so we ended up getting twice as much for free! We got lamb, veal, chicken and roast beef and it was all to die for good. After the meat we got two types of desert cakes. Both of course were delicious (are you sensing a pattern?). He then brought us a "gift" from the owner of desert wine and biscotti. We were nervous to have the owner come over and total up our check. But it turned out to be way less than I thought. I could have sworn I saw him write 300 as the total (to which my heart dropped) but was so glad to see it was really 130 for all 4 of us. He then came back with free limoncello for each of us. It was the absolute best way to spend 32 euros...in Italy in general you can't go wrong spending money on food!

Prosciutto

Surprisingly delicious chicken liver

Pasta sampler

Meat platter (the after picture is much less appetizing)

The 2 liter table wine. I forgot to take a picture of the deserts, but I'm sure you get the idea by now!

On Monday we slept in for a little while and had a nice lazy day. We ordered delicious salads from the same panini place and bought some fruit from a local grocery store for our journey. It was a much needed change of pace from the carb overload we had experienced during the past couple days. I think in the dinner the night before alone, I ate enough food to feed a small family for a day! But overall no regrets.

We then walked to the train station to make sure we had plenty of time to get to where we needed to be. We didn’t want to take any risks given what bad luck we had had. So after finding the train station, we went to the McDonalds across the street to sit for a while and wait. We went back to the station about 20 minutes before our train was supposed to leave, but when I walked in I could not find our train number on the departures board. Confused, I walked up to the man working at the desk and asked for him to help me find it. His English was hard to understand, but I heard him say “wrong station”. We immediately all starting asking him questions. How far is it? Where is it? Can we walk? Do we have time? What about if we took a taxi? Luckily the lady next to him spoke much better English and told us if we ran we might be able to catch a train that was leaving in 3 minutes headed in the direction of that train station. We sprinted over to the train and got on without tickets. Luckily on trains in Italy they just come around later in the train ride to check tickets, so train hoping was not too risky. We immediately got off at the train station only to see that we had 5 minutes left until our train to Milan departed. Frantically, we all started looking for someone who spoke English because we couldn’t understand how to change platforms without running through the tracks. Luckily a lady showed us the staircase and we made it to the train just in time. We got a workout in and in the end our good luck outran our bad luck. The train ride was 3.5 hours (we didn’t take the high speed train because it was much more expensive). We met a Ukrainian woman who gave us sunflower seeds. Well I guess we didn’t actually meet her seeing as how we had no idea what she was saying, but none the less she smiled at us and spoke.

When we got to Milan, we took the metro to the duomo in Milan. I was really not impressed with the city. Or at least what I saw of it. I’m glad we spent most of our time in Florence because Milan just felt like your typically big city. After hanging out in Milan for a while, we grabbed dinner and took the bus back to the Bergamo airport. Being cheap college students, we roughed it by “sleeping” in the airport. The concrete floors were freezing and the lights were really bright so I never slept for longer than 20 minute intervals. It was pretty miserable, but we saved some money and were guaranteed to be at the airport on time. Our flight left at 6:30 am and we were back in Sevilla by 9:50. Plus on the way home we were able to save money by taking the bus!

It is nice to be home in Sevilla. This place really does feel like home to me now! Traveling was so much fun and Florence is definitely a place I hope I go to again, but after a long day of traveling and no sleep I cannot wait to sleep well in my own bed tonight! Plus going on a run today gave me a reality check about the amount of food I ate in Italy!

I’ll be sure to keep you guys updated on what happens this coming week!  I only have two days of class this week, but I need to catch up on the work I’ve missed. This weekend Colleen and I are going to try to go to Ronda if the weather is nice and hopefully try and see a Sevilla futbol game on Saturday. Then of course it’s time to watch our Tar Heels beat Duke! 

Carnival in Cadiz

Yesterday was one of the best days I've had since being in Sevilla. Our family decided to take a day trip to Cadiz to visit some family so Colleen and I had the house to ourselves! I can't tell you how nice it was to just have a day of peace and quite without children running around or Carmen screaming her head off ever couple of hours. Colleen and I both got to sleep in and when we woke up we decided to fix ourselves an actual breakfast! We put papa Luis's fresh eggs from work to good use with our interpretation of Spain's tortilla de patata. It wasn't nearly as pretty as Pilar's but it tasted just as good! Really I think it was just nice to have an actual breakfast and feel more independent cooking for ourselves.

Pretty messy but delicious!

After breakfast, we set up a makeshift yoga studio. Even though really isn't any room in the house to do yoga and we didn't have yoga mats, we still worked our core and felt more blissful afterwards!

The towels really didn't help much but we made it work!

Then after a quick siesta, we went to buy our costumes for Carnival in Cadiz, Spain. Colleen decided to be Minnie Mouse and I was a magician. We met up with our group at 8 to get on the bus and had a great time! Over half a million people came to Cadiz for Carnival this year, but I still managed to see tons of people I knew! Including our TA from UNC who was dressed up as Ginger Spice. The night was definitely an experience, and I'm glad I went. We got back on the bus at 3 and I slept the whole way home. I was tucked into bed by 5 and slept in very late! Now I'm just enjoying my lazy Sunday. 

This Thursday I leave for Milan and then off to Florence. I'm so excited! I've always wanted to go to Italy, and I can't believe I'm actually going this week! I'll be sure to blog all about it when I get back Tuesday. Hasta luego!!

Luis's Birthday!

I think this is the first time I've ever posted two days in a row, but today was eventful enough to merit its own post. Carmen spent the afternoon making Luis a "card". I hesitate to say card because it was really just a cut up piece of paper covered with tape and stickers. She then went around the house collecting gifts for Luis. She was generous enough to give him her used slinky (that was originally Luis's), a movie the family had in the cabinet, and a first communion book (which I also think was originally Luis's).

The first time we really got to talk with Luis was around 7:30 when he came into our room to chat. He told us he doesn't really like his birthday which made me really sad. Throughout the night he got tons and tons of calls wishing him a feliz cumple. For dinner we had all of his favorite foods which made for a very random meal. Fried eggs, green peppers, ham, french fries and bread. It made for a pretty delicious meal. Pilar and Luis (the dad) both did not seem very excited about Luis's birthday either. The dad cooked dinner and was happy to see Luis enjoyed it, but at 9 the Sevilla futbol game came on and he ran off to the living room to watch it with a friend. Maria got out the cake and I was disappointed to see that Pilar didn't end up making the cake she had talked about for so long. Instead we had one from a bakery that was still quite tasty. In what reminded me of a typical Barber family birthday, Pilar couldn't find any candles. She managed to find numbered candles but only had a 1, 2 and 0. Maria tried to do a makeshift candle arrangement, but Luis said he didn't mind not having candles. We then sang "cumpleanos feliz" to Luis (not feliz cumpleanos by the way--Americans have their Spanish impressions wrong when it comes to singing happy birthday). Luis the dad didn't come in from the tv room to sing happy birthday and once Luis got a piece of birthday cake he ran off to go watch the game too. It was an anticlimactic birthday celebration to say the least, but I think that's just the norm here. 

Luis's birthday cake!

So I know my mom is going to be mad at me, but I still haven't been able to get a picture of Pilar without it being super awkward. I should have taken advantage of tonight, but I completely spaced. This is the best shot I got, but it's better than nothing!

The absolute BEST part of the night was watching Luis open his present from us. He could not believe we had found skittles! We were so lucky to have found this store. It was called American Sweets and has only been open for a week! It is tiny and currently only has about 20 things including peanut butter, pancake mix, milanos cookies, hershey's kisses, dr. pepper, pop tarts, baskin robbins, and skittles! It was quite a find! And they're getting in a new shipment of new inventory this week. We decided to get him 13 packs for his 13th birthday. He counted them out and screamed with excitement. He later told us in English "I love you!". It was definitely one of the greatest birthday presents I've ever given! His reaction to Carmen's presents were equally hilarious and he seemed to like Maria's gift of ping pong balls. 

Luis opening Carmen's "gifts"

Initial reaction to seeing the skittles

Counting out his skittles

We later asked Maria whether or not her parents were giving Luis a gift. She told us the food from today was her Dad's gift and that her mom was going to make him a suit for Semana Santa. The culture here is just very different from America I think. Our siblings are definitely spoiled with toys as it is. I don't want to give the impression that they are abused or something. From what I can see, I think birthdays just aren't a big deal. But it still made me very happy to see Luis so excited at our present.

To close this post I'll put up some random pictures of Maria and Carmen being cute!

Granada!

I was exhausted on Thursday of last week after staying up until 5 watch the UNC-Duke game (and then waking up at 8 for class). And what a disappointment that was! I don't think my heart has ever sunk so fast as when that last second 3 pointer by duke went it. Still doesn't seem real. But I guess I should just be thankful that I was even able to watch the game at all. Luckily the ACC live broadcasts games over here even though ESPN360 doesn't.

On a happier note, this weekend was definitely the best excursion our program has been on so far! We all left Saturday morning to go to Granada which is a city about 3 hours away by bus. From the city you can see the Sierra Nevada mountain range covered in snow. When we first arrived we had 2 hours of free time so we all decided to walk around and explore some. The city felt much smaller than Sevilla but in a good way. We walked through an outdoor market for a while and wound up at a tapas restaurant. In Granada when you buy a drink at a tapas bar you get a tapa free! So with my tinto I got a free bocadillo which was pretty sweet. After our down time we were given a tour by our professors of the Capilla Real and the cathedral in Granada. At this point I think I've seen enough of the inside of chapels and cathedrals to last a lifetime. The inside of the cathedrals are absolutely freezing at this time of year since they're typically made of marble and are designed to keep heat out during the summers. After our 2 and a half hour long tour, a smaller group of us went and got drinks and tapas again. (In general I ate way too much on this trip which will become all too clear in the rest of this paragraph). At 9 we all met back up at the hotel for dinner which was surprisingly delicious. We were given a salad and soup bar to start, pretty delicious salmon (which Colleen and I have both been craving--although this one was not nearly as good as my mom's), and finished up with some sort of Spanish version of ice cream cake. After that we were given the option of going on a paseo to the top of a cliff to see a view of the whole city, but luckily some other girls didn't feel up for the trip either. Granada at night was about 15 or 20 degrees Fahrenheit and with the wind from the cliff I don't think I would have made it back alive. Instead a group of us took a cab to meet up with a girl's friend who is studying at the university in granada. We all went to a tapas bar and had the best tapa I've had while in Spain. Goat cheese on a small piece of bread with honey on top. Sounds a little weird but it was amazing! After that we went to a chupiteria (shots bar) and then  to an irish bar. We only ended up staying out for 2 hours or so, but it was still a lot of fun. Granada is much more of a college town than Sevilla so the nightlife seemed a lot more lively. Hopefully I'll be able to go back when it gets warmer!

View of the Sierra Nevadas

We woke up around 9:30 Sunday morning and went to the hotel's buffet breakfast. I actually got to have eggs for breakfast for a change! Although the other options were fairly limited to the typical Spanish breakfast options of toast, ham, cheese, yogurt, pastries, and cereal, it was by far the best breakfast I've had since I've been here. I'm hoping at some point I'll get pancakes or an omelet for breakfast, but I'm certainly not getting my hopes up! We then checked out of our hotel and went on a 3 hour long tour of the Alhambra which is an Arabic city and palace from the 14th century. It was absolutely beautiful! Plus my Spain and Islam professor Fernando led the tour for us so he told us lots of interesting facts.

View from one of the towers at the Alhambra

Part of the palace

Gabi and me!

When our tour ended we got back on the bus and headed home! We only made one stop for lunch at a food court where I had a kebab pita thing and then I was back in home sweet home Sevilla. Tomorrow is Luis's 13th birthday and I think Colleen and I have finally figured out the perfect gift: Skittles. Apparently they are really hard to find in Spain. Our family was under the impression that they are only sold in Malaga. They were even supposed to make a special trip there this Saturday to pick up chorizo and skittles for the kids. For some reason they ended up deciding not to go and so Colleen and I looked into every candy store we passed in Granada trying to find them. Turns out they are very difficult things to find...especially when you're looking for them! Luckily a friend of ours told us that in Los Remedios (another neighborhood in Sevilla) there is an American candy store that sells them. So tomorrow right after my 9 am I'm going on a mission to find skittles. Personally I've never been a huge skittles fan but hey if it makes the 13 year old who already has everything he could possibly want happy then I'll go to great lengths to buy them! I'm interested to see what birthdays are like here though because no one seems to be very excited about Luis' birthday so far. I always felt like my family acted excited a few days before my birthday, but here it doesn't seem to be a very big deal. We'll see. I do know Pilar is making a layered cookie cake with dulce de leche so that is something I'm very much looking forward too. I'll let you guys know how it goes!! Hasta luego!

First Few Days of Class

So I am officially una estudiante en la Universidad de Sevilla! My first day of classes was Monday and it was pretty intimidating. First of all, I had to wake up at 7:45 to get out the door by 8:30 for my 9:00 class. I learned that our family doesn't even wake up until 8:15. Typical Spaniards I suppose. My first class is Historia del Cine y otros medios audiovisuales and I am one of 3 non-Spaniards in a class of around 60. I'd like to say I made a ton of new Spanish friends the first day of class but the truth is the only girl I met was the only other American in the class (I happened to sit next to her by coincidence). I don't want to sound judgmental but I'm not sure a Historia del Cine class with drama majors is the perfect spot for me to meet my new Spanish best friends. There are some really interesting characters in there to say the least. But the teacher was VERY nice to me so that is a plus. He told me I can take my exam early no problem and has smiled at me twice in the hallway after class. I was lucky on the second day of class to sit on the second row and he made eye contact with me throughout class. (For some reason everyone in that class takes notes on a university given laptop---there all red and have a universidad de sevilla sticker on them. It's really odd to look around and see 50 of the exact same red laptops surrounding you.) Anyways there are only two grades in this class. A paper analyzing a movie we watch in class and a final exam. I'm a little worried about understanding the movies in Spanish and I have a feeling I'll probably have to watch them with English subtitles after class. Although today in class we were talking about actors and we watched a clip of Jim Carrey from Ace Ventura in English. I'm not sure if my professor or anyone in the class speaks English but I found it entertaining. I think the other movies we actually watch though will be dubbed over in Spanish. But how can you analyze acting if you can't even hear the actors voice? I guess I'll have to wait and see!

The other university class I'm taking is quite different from that one. It's a Geography of Andalucia (the region in Spain that Sevilla is in) and there are only about 20 people in there....and 5 of us our American. The professor constantly says things for the "extranjeros" to understand which is both good and bad. It's good because it helps me understand better but it's bad because I feel less like I'm in a real university class. Plus I always feel judged by the other students whenever she singles us out. The professor's lectures are also VERY boring, but at least I think I'm going to enjoy my other university class! I've already made 3 new friends in my classes but unfortunately they are not Spanish....BUT one of them is from England so that half way counts, right? I'm hoping as class goes on I'll get to know some more people. After all it's only been 3 days!

My other two classes are through EUSA and are with only students from my program. One of them is Spain and Islam and is with my favorite professor Fernando who taught the cultural half of my last class. He is one of the smartest professors I've ever had and even though he doesn't speak English I feel I can learn way more from him than I can from most of the professors I've had at UNC. Then my other class is a Spanish Literature class that I'm not super excited about, but I need the credit for my major. The teacher is this teeny tiny little woman named Coro who seems like she'll be entertaining. Although she did say if any of us yawn in her class we all have to get up and run around the class room for a few minutes. But I think I'll end up liking her because when we got the syllabus for the class I realized the midterm was going to be on the day I have to miss class to catch my flight to Barcelona to visit my parents. She had told the class that the test dates wouldn't move under any circumstances, but then turned around and told me it would be alright if I took it earlier that day so I really can't complain about her.

My classes are pretty spread out throughout the day so my days lately have been a lot fuller. I've run, shopped some, and hung out a lot more with Luis and Maria. They both have been home sick this week still and today asked Colleen and I to play monopoly with them when we got back from our classes. The Spanish version has Madrid instead of Boardwalk, Barcelona instead of Park Place and euros instead of dollars but other than that it's exactly the same. I was on Maria's team and Colleen played with Luis. Maria is a HUGE cheater and constantly tried to sneak money out of the bank. Then Carmen got home from school, insisted she be on my team, and crawled under the table to steal money from the bank. Must run in the family I guess. And just like every game of monopoly I've ever played, we didn't finish. It reminded me a lot of the Barber family story of Lucy and Graham getting in a fight over cheating and writing about it on the monopoly box top. Luis got mad at Carmen and we decided it'd be best to just stop playing. Then we played make-shift ping pong on the dining room table for a while. I beat Luis twice which I could tell he wasn't too happy about. These kids honestly are not sick at all anymore. I'm convinced the doctor's here have some special deal going with the children. The doctor told Pilar that Maria couldn't go to school until Monday and could only drink Coke and only eat plain cookies. Wish I had had a doctor like that growing up!

Tonight for dinner we had some very very fishy fish but it wasn't too bad. We also had "huevas" which are apparently fish eggs...not terrible but definitely not something I'd ever order on my own. Oh and to top it off a plate of brussel sprouts. Needless to say it was not my favorite meal I've had. But luckily Luis the dad brought home a enormous bag of oranges and made us all fresh squeezed orange juice for dessert. He showed us where the juicer is and said we can make it whenever. I don't remember ever having fresh squeezed orange juice before but it was definitely a treat! I'm thinking a glass in the morning along with my cereal and banana might be nice.

I apologize for how long this post was. I'm avoiding doing some homework I guess. Also the UNC-Duke game is tonight at 3am our time. I'm hoping I'll be able to watch it while skyping Kevin. I know I won't be able to sleep not knowing how my boys are playing! Go heels! 

Out with the old and in with the new

Friday was the last day of our class. I can remember thinking how sweet it was going to be to just be in Spain for an entire month and only have to go to one class. And it's already over! Time truly is flying. I left home a month ago Tuesday. Looking back it just seems hard to remember not knowing my friends here or my homestay family. I wish I had known how lucky I was going to be with my roommate! My biggest anxiety before coming was that my roommate would be someone I could never be friends with...which has happened to a lot of girls here. I truly got very lucky. Now don't get me wrong, I miss everyone back home, especially if I'm bored or really stop to think about it, but for the most part Sevilla really is starting to feel like home.

Now that I've taken my moment to reflect on my experience overall, time for some details. Friday after we took our finals Colleen and I wanted to go out and celebrate. One of our friends said he was meeting up with a Spanish friend of his to go to a non-touristy discoteca. We were both very excited about the prospect of not being surround by international students and decided to hop on our Sevici bikes to meet up with them. I guess I was feeling overly confident in my ability to find my way around Sevilla and convinced Colleen that I new a faster way to the river. Big mistake. We rode around for 40 minutes trying to find them and at one point we even saw railroad tracks....confirming we were in the ghetto of Sevilla. After awkwardly biking around a huge apartment party, we eventually found our way to a new Sevici station. Only downside was the 0.50 euro cent fee I though Kevin's parents were going to have to pay since he is the one who so kindly let me use his Sevici pass from this summer. I eventually figured out how to pay it off with my credit card the next day though. After finally finding our group, we ended up taking a taxi to this discoteca very close to our house named Abril. The promoter of the club recognized one of the girls in our group and so we got in for free. The Spanish guys who were with us were told they would have to pay a 30 euro cover charge each. Needless to say they did not come in. I have never seen so many people inside a discoteca at one time. It was impossible to go anywhere without someone constantly bumping into you. We also all had our first real experience with just how forward and in many cases creepy Spanish men can be. Colleen at one point was tapped on the shoulder by a guy who said he wanted her to meet his friend. The friend then grabbed her face and kissed her. Without saying anything. Then just walked away. Not something that happens very often in America. Then later another guy kept just touching my friend Rachel's face. Just stroking her cheek or leaving his finger on her forehead. All very weird things. I finally couldn't handle it anymore and pushed his hand down. Good thing a stern NO and Barber brow translate in any language. He was so taken aback that it was very obvious him and his friends had never heard the word no before. I realize I am making it sound like it was a terrible night with only creepy men. This isn't the case at all. These are just the things that stick out to me I guess. For the most part the Spanish people I've met have all been really nice! It's just those select few that ruin it for the rest of them.

On Saturday Colleen, Molly and I all decided we wanted to spend the day exploring different parts of the city. It's so huge there's no way I'll ever be able to see it all! So with bocadillos and camera in hand we went to the Metropol Parasol first. It's a huge wooden piece of architecture in Sevilla. For a euro 20 you can go up to the top of it for a pretty cool view.

Molly and me outside the "waffle" building!

At the top

From there we went to find a nun's convent where they sell sweets once you respond with the proper phrase. We found it without too much trouble but they were already closed when we got there. We didn't let that get us down though! We instead had a nice picnic, got a cafe and then walked around window shopping until we ran into some other friends. We all went to a place that supposedly has excellent chocolate cake and chatted for a while. It was a very relaxing and successful afternoon. After store bought pizza with our siblings, we went out to a 3 story discoteca called Buddha. I knew it was going to be my kind of place when the first song we heard when we walked in was Beyonce's Crazy In Love.

This morning was typical Sunday morning paella but this time our parents had over a bunch of friends because there was a home Sevilla futbol game at 6. They ended up not being able to get extra tickets for me and Colleen, but we decided we'd rather wait and go to a game that won't be so expensive. Tickets for this one were 40 euros for the cheapest. Turns out to be a good thing we didn't go too because Sevilla lost 2 to 1. Plus my mom is sending my a Sevilla scarf that Kevin got for me as a souvenir. They play games until May so I feel certain we'll go to one.

My plans for Semana Santa are finalized as well! We've bought our tickets to Dublin, to Amsterdam, and then to Heidelberg, Germany. Traveling will be so much fun!!

Tomorrow is the first day of classes at the university for me. I'll have Historia del cine y otros medios audiovisuales at 9 am (VERY early for me) and then Geografia de Andalucia at 5. I'm a little nervous to go to a university class, but hopefully I'll get the swing of things. Apparently it's very common for Spanish students to never go to class here so I just hope I can meet someone who'll actually be coming to class! After the first lecture I'm supposed to go introduce to the professor about officially registering for the class. Hopefully the professors are as laid back as the students apparently are. Wish me luck! I'll let you guys know how it goes!

Una Casa Enferma

I wish I could say that this week has been filled with hilarious stories and wild nights, but sadly that is far from true. I don't think I ever fully recovered from the cold I had last week, and when I woke up on Monday my throat was killing me. After suffering through painful swallowing for a day, I bit the bullet and decided to go to the doctor and get some medications. One of the program leaders came with me to make sure I was able to communicate my symptoms accurately. It was without a doubt the weirdest doctor's visit I've ever had. The Medicur (which conveniently was only 5 minutes from my house) was not very crowded at all. I went up to the lady at the desk, gave her my passport and insurance card, and was told I'd go into the room across the hall after the lady with the pink scarf came out. Not even five minutes later I was sitting in front of the doctor telling him how my throat felt. He asked if I had a fever and I said I didn't think so. Weirdest part was he didn't even take my temperature. He just took my word for it, glanced at my tonsils, and prescribed me 3 different medications. Turns out the doctor visit itself was completely free and all my medications came out to be 10.50 euros. Pretty good, huh? And I filled for reimbursement for the medication so the whole thing will end up free! The meds have worked wonders on me and I feel MUCH better now. Although today Maria and Luis are both home sick from school and Carmen was out all last week (hence the title of this post).

While I was sick my computer also decided to contract some sort of virus. It wouldn't start and I had to figure out how to reboot the whole thing. Thank goodness I eventually figured out how to fix it though because I have no idea what I would have done if I couldn't have fixed it! But I feel a good deal smarter for being able to fix it on my own!

Other than being sick, I've really just been hanging around little parts of Sevilla. Nothing terribly exciting but all very cute! I've been slacking on taking pictures but I'm going to try and make up for that this weekend! Colleen and I did do some bonding with our mom last night. She told us she's actually had tons of students before us which surprised us because they treat us like we're their first (in the best possible way!) She could not believe this story we told her about another girl in our program's senora. Apparently this senora does not own a washing machine so instead washes her clothes and the girls clothes in the bidet! After laughing about that for a while, she also said before she had Carmen she owned a clothing store close by but she closed it to become a stay at home mom. It's crazy the random things we learn about our family on a day to day basis.

Only other news is that a group of us booked flights to Dublin and then to Amsterdam for the first week in April! Our mom is SO excited we're going to Ireland because she studied there from age 13 to 17 (and even met Luis there too). We're not sure where we're going after Amsterdam but we're considering different parts of Germany or maybe even Paris. RyanAir is supposed to change their flight specials tomorrow so we're just going to see where is the cheapest and go from there! I can't wait to start traveling! This weekend a group of us are just going to do some exploring around Sevilla and then next weekend we all go to Granada! Then after that is Carnaval in Cadiz and then Italy! I could not be more excited!

Well I have to go sign in to this online orientation for UNC's business school. Should be loads of fun. Talk to you guys soon!