Holy cow, what a weekend! It was long, lovely, and much needed. However, it ended on a bad note. But more about that later.
Friday, we finished our final exams of the intensive period, woohoo! I think that they went well, and I am satisfied with the first three weeks of my studies here. After exams, I decided that I needed a mental break, so I took to the roof, my new favorite location in my house. I put on my bikini and slept in the sun for close to three hours. It is such a great place to sit and read, listen to music, look at the views of the houses around me, and just enjoy the sunshine of the gorgeous weather we had all weekend! And when it gets too hot in the sun, I can put up a big sheet over the clothesline and sit underneath it in the shade, like a little fort!
After an afternoon of taking in the sun, I went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant (with a Spanish flare to it) with some of my girl friends. We got pizza, and I ordered bacon on mine. Yet I always forget that bacon here is NOTHING like bacon in the states! It is not crispy and delicious, but soggy and basically uncooked. No me gusta. I have to remember never to order it again while I am here! But after I picked the bacon off, the pizza was good! After dinner, we walked around Plaza Alfalfa a little bit, stopped into some shops, and I bought a scarf with shades of green that will be perfect for Saint Patrick’s Day! (Which I will be spending in England with my friends Brittany and Wesley!) Then Ebony and I went back home and had a nice relaxing evening reading our books.
On Saturday, no surprise, I spent quite a long time on the roof. Ebony and I enjoyed the sun and listened to music and read our books. Our friend Mikaela came over for awhile and joined us. Then we had lunch, hot dogs and chips and little mozzarella stick things, and it felt like being home again in the summer. It was the first “American” meal that I have had cooked for me since I have been here, and although I am loving the Spanish food, it was very nice to have. Later in the afternoon, our host mom Tony left for her hometown of Cadiz (where Carnavale was) for the day. Ebony and I met up with some friends and we went shopping, and then we went to another Italian restaurant for our friend Megan’s 21st birthday. This one was much better than Friday nights, and I got Spaghetti with four cheese sauce. AMAZING. Then we went to Rayas Helados, an ice cream shop that is very popular here. It was the best ice cream that I have ever had. All in all, it was a very good food day!
Then Ebony and I went home and got ready to go out to the discoteca, Buddha. We went with our friends Jovita and Malik, and it was such a fun night! Malik is such a fun and nice guy, and I am very glad that I have a new friend. We actually went out somewhat like normal Sevillanos: we didn’t go out until 12:30am, and returned home at 4:30am. Not as long as some people stay out, till around 7am, but we are making progress! Haha.
I slept in late today, woke up and had breakfast, avoided the roof for once so that I didn’t get a sunburn, and then Ebony and I went to meet Mikaela for a walk around the city. It was so gorgeous and sunny out, and we wanted to explore new areas of the city that we haven’t seen yet. We started out just going around the centro, through side streets and little neighborhoods. We walked along the river, and then we went over the Puente de Los Remedios, the bridge that leads to Los Remedios, a district neighborhood of Sevilla. We decided that it wasn’t our favorite part of the city, overall. Then we came back across the bridge and walked into the Plaza de Espana, which is easily my favorite place in Sevilla. After enjoying the Plaza for awhile, we walked back to Mikaela’s house, and met up with Michele, and we went to Mass at 7pm. The church we went to is much smaller than the cathedral, but just as beautiful, and less crowded.
After mass is when the nonsense happened. We went to a café to get some sweets, and as we were sitting and talking, and man came in trying to force us to take pamphlets from Starbucks. We kept saying no, and refusing, but he kept demanding that we take them and he wouldn’t leave. After saying no over and over again, and him flashing the pamphlets around, he finally left. However, he had taken Michele’s wallet with him. At that point, it was too late to do anything except to go back to Mikaela’s house so that Michele could cancel her credit cards online. It baffles me that a man would walk inside a coffee shop off the street just to rob someone.
Other than that, it was a great weekend. Classes start tomorrow. Off the bed now!
