Sevilla has my heart.

After we spent the day in Toledo, we left early the next morning to travel to Sevilla! It was about a 5 hour drive. Soooo long but it didn't seem to matter since we were on our way to meet our families. I knew that I was going to be nervous to meet my family, but I didn't realize how nervous! As we got closer and closer to Sevilla, I got more and more nervous. The entire bus too. We were all freaking out because the home stay is a major part of your study abroad experience. We got dropped off to meet our families and it was much less stressful than I thought. Courtney and I met Rosa, our host mother, and her daughter who does not live with us, Rosa Marie. They were both SO nice and wonderful! At first it was really hard to understand but then I think my survival instincts kicked in and it somehow started to get much better! She even complimented us on our Spanish! Now, she has never had students stay in our home before, so she might have low standards, but I'm taking it as a compliment. 

Her apartment is gorgeous. There are three floors that are beautifully decorated with a patio and terrace on top. I cannot wait to use the terrace when it is warm outside! I plan on doing homework and reading and napping up there. I will definitely put pictures up of the apartment when I take some. We live in Triana which is right over the beautiful river from the center of Sevilla. It is the most perfect location ever. 

El Rio that I cross literally every day. And that's the Torre de Oro in the back. 

The first day or so we just took a general tour of the city and just wandered around. There is so much to do here and I love that you can walk almost everywhere. We also went to the Plaza de Espana (below) and it is BEAUTIFUL! I was in shock for like 10 minutes after I saw it. So so pretty. I want to go boating in the little moat sometime soon. 

I LOVE MY AKPSI BROS!

One night we sat at this little cafeteria (not cafe because cafe in spanish is coffee) by el puente de trianna. I just can't get over that view.

So I'm basically living in paradise with the most wonderful host mom and room mate ever. I am so happy right now, and so incredibly blessed. I know I'm going to have the most amazing 4 months ever!!!

Sarah

Toledooooo!

After we were in Madrid for 2 days, we went to Toledo. It is about an hour outside of Madrid and its a cute very old town. It is so historical and sooooo beautiful! I absolutely loved it! It was one of the most beautiful places I've been. We went to a few cathedrals and museums but the best part was definitely the view. Here are a few pics of Toledo.

Like this cannot be real!

My wonderful roommate, Courtney! And yes, she does look like she has a hat.

The cathedrals were incredible.

Me, Matt and a few other friends got lost and couldn't find our group during our tour. We had to call Courtney to help us! That night, we unknowingly went to a really fancy restaurant and ate a lot of really fancy things. Like octopus, mussels, ox loin, venison, and tuna. It was strange but very interesting. I'm glad that I've become more open to trying new foods because there are a lot of different kinds of food in Spain.

Toledo was seriously awesome. We only spent one day and night there, but I'm so glad we visited there, even for a short amount of time. I have more photos on my Facebook of the beautiful Toledo! 

Sarah 

Madrid

So I'm going to backtrack to the beginning to get y'all caught up! I left from Raleigh on January 17th at like 2pm with my friend Matt. He's one of my good friends from school and he is studying abroad in Sevilla too and with the same program (kind of but not really planned). It's awesome to have a travel buddy. I was definitely excited to not face the confusion of the airports by myself. After a slightly tearful, but better than expected, goodbye to my family, we headed to JFK before going to Madrid.

We got to JFK fine and although it was slightly foggy when we flew in, I knew NYC was extremely close. I'm always so tempted to just take a taxi into the city. Anyways, we got off our plane and tried to figure out where our Iberia flight to Madrid was. To make a long story short, we got very confused about our gate and boarding passes and JFK was much more stressful than it needed to be. But after we found our gate, we met up with another girl named Chelsea who is studying abroad in our program and from USC too, but we didn't know her before! It was awesome to meet someone new, and another Gamecock! We managed to switch seats to sit together on the plane to Madrid.

Here's the awesome part - we got to Madrid!!! All of the students from our program, ISA, met up at one area of the airport to take a bus to our hotel. We definitely looked like a bunch of tired Americans with too much luggage, including myself (thank GOD my two were both under 50 pounds). Once we were picked up by pretty much only Spanish speaking Spaniards, we went to our hotel. The first day is a little hazy. I just remember walking around Madrid and taking a bus tour half-asleep. I mean we were up for like over 30 hours. It was a longggg day.

The next day we went to Museo del Prado and el Museo Reina Sophia. They were both pretty awesome but a lot of walking. It was so worth it though because we saw paintings by Picasso, Goya, el Greco, and Dali. 

Salvador Dali

I think we really just did a lot of walking and eating for the next day. I was a little disappointed with Madrid in general. There were some parts that were absolutely beautiful, but others not so much. And the food was good, but not amazing (don't worry it gets a jillion times better in Sevilla). The only other fun thing I did in Madrid was watch the Real Madrid and Barcelona game with a bunch of Spaniards who are totally into futbol. I really wanna go to a game! Oh I need to add that to my list. 

Yayy for new awesome friends!

THERE WAS A WHOLE MUSEUM FOR HAM! well it was actually a store, but whatever.

Madrid :)

So that's our very short, two days in Madrid. Next stop: Toledo!

Sarah

I LOVE ESPANA!

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in you shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go..."

 - Dr. Seuss, Oh, the Places You'll Go!


Hey everyone! 

I'm studying abroad in Sevilla, Spain this semester and I decided that one of the best ways to share my experiences with you all is through a blog! Plus, it will be really awesome to eventually look back on. I have been in Spain for a little over a week now, and finally decided to start my blog. I hope you enjoy it, I expect to write about all of my adventures (and inevitable misadventures) in Sevilla and around Europe. I got the title of my blog from Dr. Suess, as you can see in my quote above. I really can't wait to explore, meet new people, and try new things. I have set a few goals for myself to hopefully accomplish by the end of these four months: 

Become fluent (or really comfortable with speaking) in Spanish

Explore every back street and alleyway of Sevilla

Go to Cinque de Terre in Italy

Visit my cousin in Amsterdam

Become friends with locals

Go to church in the Cathedral and grow in my faith (Psalm 139)
Volunteer or do some kind of community service in Sevilla 

Live freely and truly enjoy every second of my time here!

I think those are pretty reasonable goals, don't you? I'll probably add a few on the way, but those are just ones that I definitely want to accomplish. I feel so incredibly blessed to be able to spend four whole months here. I am absolutely living a dream. A quick thanks to all of my friends and family for being so supportive! 

So join me on my journey! I'm hoping to post frequently, and maybe sometimes with some Spanglish, so be prepared! 

Adios!

Sarah