Me Encanta Esta Ciudad

Hola!

We discovered something that explains a lot...yesterday (January 6) was a Spanish religious holiday. It was the end of their Christmas festivities! It's called Three Kings Day/Epiphany. It is said to be one of their most celebrated holidays. Now we know why the trains were so booked up on the 5th...everyone was trying to get home to their family for the holidays!

Yesterday was really deserted around town, especially last night. We didn't fully realize that until today though when we noticed a lot more restaurants and stores that we passed a million times the day before but they just hadn't been open.

Last night was our first night out on the town in Sevilla. There are 6 of us here right now from our group that we know of - 4 girls and 2 guys - so we all went out together and had a lot of fun.

This is the grossest "vino" you will probably ever see. They are Andalucian wines - Malaga, Fino and Canasta. We think they're actually sherrys, but not your typical sweet sherrys AT ALL.

After dinner we roamed around for a while and then ended up here - our new favorite place! It's called La Cava, but we re-named it Fernando's because that was our waiter's name who we became friends with. We sat out here for hours just hanging out and people-watching on the streets of Sevilla.

It's so cute with the little lights and all of the outdoor seating! :)

BEST MEAL SINCE WE'VE BEEN IN SEVILLA! It actually had taste! Papas Bravas...it was french fries (which, if you know me, you know they're my favorite) and some kind of sauce. I have no idea what the sauce was, but I would really like a bottle of it to carry around town with me to add flavor to all of my meals...everything is SO bland here. I think I could eat this for every meal now.

Towards the end of our first night out - our little group, minus one.

This is the European Breakfast of Champions. Kelsie woke up really ealry and said she wanted an orange and that made me want orange juice. We compromised with a bakery near our hotel that had water and orange juice with a loaf of bread that we devoured.

This was my lunch today! It actually had some spice to it! We went to this Italian place just a little ways down from our hotel called Mario's. My pizza had green chiles on it which made it spicy...I was in love!

Tonight we went and roamed around parts of Sevilla we had never been to before. It seemed like a nicer and much newer area than what our hotel is in. We also went to a roof-top bar at the Doña María Hotel. It had an amazing view of the Catedral de Sevilla. Our friend Derek had researched it and found it...it reminded me so much of something my mom would have looked up and had us go to. It's so comforting to have someone keeping us up-to-date with stuff like my mom would. :) That's what I'm used to - so why not?

This is a Jewish tomb that was found when they began building a parking garage in Sevilla. It is displayed like this within the parking garge. I don't know much more about it other than what I could decipher from what the sign says.

 This is the new area of Sevilla we discovered. It has a dart-like trainsit that runs through it. We also found a Starbucks and a grocery store that had stuff like salsa, chips and queso! We were so excited we could actually buy some Mexican food. Good to know for when any kind of future homesickness sets in.

Here's La Catedral de Sevilla and the view we had of it from the roof-top bar. It is so gorgeous and the view was amazing!

 Us girls in front of La Catedral

These are hamburguesitas (little hamburgers) we had at our favorite little place (La Cava/Fernando's). They were so good!

Some of our group plus a new family from Brasil that we met. They were at the same bar right next to us the night before too, so we all struck up a conversation tonight. They were very friendly and spoke very good English. One of the sons (who is about 26) was a foreign exchange student in the DFW area. Fernando, our favorite waiter, is also in the picture...he is the second from the right. :)

Tomorrow is the day everyone else has to arrive by in Sevilla, so our "orientation" begins tomorrow evening. I'm excited to meet everyone else and for all of us to get to go out together.

So far I haven't really gotten homesick (knock on wood). We all keep talking about how we feel like it's vacation though. We took it pretty easy today and hung out around the hotel for a while. Since we're going to be here for four months we might as well not kill ourselves trying to go sight-seeing the first few days.

I've really enjoyed everything in Sevilla so far. Not as many people speak English as I was expecting, or maybe just not as well as I thought they would. I kind of like it though. It's definitely more challenging, but that's what I need if I'm ever going to become fluent in this language! I love walking the streets and listening to everyone speak Spanish.

Kelsie and I pretty much keep our hotel window open when we are awake and in the room. It is so fun to listen to the outside noises. This morning it was raining quite a bit, so it was nice to listen to the rain with our window open. :) Having the window open makes me feel so European! Haha.

That's pretty much it for now. I feel like all of my posts have been so long and detailed. I have a feeling once the semseter picks up it won't be like this as much, but for now I have the time, so why not!

Ps: I'm not sure why my font changes back and forth. I think it's when I add in my Spanish accents and whatnot, so y'all may just have to get used to that. It's a pain having to try and switch it all back to the correct font. Maybe I'll figure out a way to fix it, but for now...no such luck.

Nada más ahora,

Paige