My Home of Sevilla

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I feel like the luckiest person right now to be sitting in a little Starbucks Cafe, watching people bustle around with their kids, spouses, friends, on their bici's, taking horse-carriage rides, and enjoying this beautiful 70 degree weather! I'm back in one of my favorite places in the world--the lovely Sevilla, Spain. I am only about 35-40 minutes away from Sevilla by car and have not fully taken advantage of that yet. Although, living in my little town of Bollullos where the communication between towns is rather lacking makes it a little bit harder to get over here. I have definitely been back for day trips to go shopping, visit some of my dad's friends here traveling, visiting my old host families (Puri & Maria), and around Christmas time. However, I have not been back here long enough to fully enjoy a weekend here in this wonderful place

Now I may be biased because I lived here for 4 months, but there's something so special to me about being in this city. I feel almost like I turn into a different person when I arrive here. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a huge smile on my face whenever someone simply mentions the city or says that they are going to visit. I love being able to visit my host families here/old friends that I knew from studying abroad, walking all throughout the city, taking in the sites by the Guadilquiver River, visiting the beautiful gardens/fountains, going for a ride on the bici, having my good ol' starbucks cold coffee while reading/listening to music/people watching, and enjoying the nightlife.






This weekend we had a "puente" which means long weekend in Spanish and the kids didn't have school Friday or Monday because they were celebrating the Dia de Andalucia. This is a day to commemorate when Andalucia became established as its own region. This is obviously a very important holiday for the Spanish because if you know something about Spanish culture, then you would know they are very patriotic about where they come from. There are all different regions in Spain, separated by culture, language, dialect, etc. The northern part of Spain(such as Madrid) is a whole different place than southern Spain such as Huelva where I am living. The southern part of Spain is known for having very amiable and open people. I have definitely experienced this many times when random people perform acts of kindness towards a foreigner like me : )



I decided to take advantage of this long weekend and go to my home away from home of Sevilla. Usually it's very hard to get a flight somewhere on a puente because the hotels/hostels are all booked and the flights are very expensive. That's why I decided to keep it low key and take an hour train over to Sevilla. Normally, I would have stayed with my host mama Maria, but she has 4 students living in her house presently. I decided to treat myself to a hotel stay for the weekend in a nice 3 star place. I usually would never have spent the money on myself to do this, but thought it would a great relaxing vacation for me, and have some good alone time. My hotel ended up being a little far from the center of the city, but there wasnt any problem with the ready available transportation system there.




I was able to relax on Friday night at the hotel, take a little nap, watch some t.v, talk to the family on skype, and enjoy a nice quiet dinner in the hotel. This was definitely needed after a long week of non-stop running around. I got up early on Saturday, enjoyed my complimentary breakfast buffet in the hotel, and headed out on the streets to explore this beloved city. I went to my host mom Maria's house for the usual fantastic lunch that she prepares and met her new American student living with her. I was so impressed that even when he knew I was American, he continued to speak Spanish with me the whole time even when Maria was in the kitchen preparing the lunch. He told me he had been here in Sevilla since September and had a different host family last semester that was a little odd so he was glad to have changed over to Maria. I told him, "You are so lucky to have been placed with Maria now because she is a wonderful host mother and will make your experience here incredible".



I know that's how I felt when I changed host families half way through my semester abroad and went to live with Maria. My first host senora was a disaster and treated me so badly that I was so scared to go see what Maria was like. The first encounter with her I remember asking, "What are all your rules for me"? and all she said was "Just remember to lock the door on your way out" haha I was thinking wow this is what a real host family is supposed to be like?? She made me an ample amount of food, let me take showers for longer than 3 minutes, didnt yell at me in the morning when my bedspread was touching the floor, let me use her towels wherever and whenever, and she spoke to me slowly so that I could understand everything! Maria made up for everything bad that had happened in my first part of studying abroad and I didn't even let the first half affect how my experiences played out.




If I didn't mention it enough already I love this city--haha whenever I come here it's always something different to experience. Since my hotel was located in a place I had never been before, I got to see where the famous Cruzcampo brewery was located, saw a huge mall that I never knew existed, saw an amazing group of street performers outside the cathedral with a crazy man in a bandana in front dancing to the beat of the music :) and went to see a movie in a really nice movie theater I had never been before.





As usual, it's always an adventure and you meet the most fascinating people here. I happened to be so "lucky" to meet a man on the bus last night on my way to meet my friend Yassine for dinner. He was on the same bus as me going into the center of town. I noticed him starring at me on the bus, but didn't think anything of it because I get that a lot with my peleroja y ojos verdes (red hair and green eyes which screams foreigner haha). Anyway, I got off the bus and he walked up next to me and asked me if I was a senorita or senora..stupid me was offguard and automatically said senorita..ahh why did I say senorita!! This is why I have a ring on my wedding finger just in case something like this happens and it's an easy escape, but no mr creeper continued to talk to me and ask where I was from and what I was doing here. He followed me all the way to the cafe where I was meeting Yassine, proclaimed his love for me and said he just had to meet me coming off the bus. He wanted to come drive to see me in Bollullos and that he kept repeating, I'm a man, not a boy haha. This just only made me laugh and felt a little sorry for him so I let him do his speech and let him down with an easy lie, "I'm sorry but I don't think my boyfriend would be comfortable with me seeing you" It was a good try though on his part...just not so much into guys who could be my father's age.




If you had asked me my junior year of college when I studied abroad here for 4 months whether I would come back here anytime in the near future, I would have probably thought no. I had no idea what I wanted to do after college and teaching English in a different country would never had been what I expected. Many of my friends here are renewing their applications to do this teaching abroad in Spain for another year. I have decided not to because I think a year is a perfect time for me here. I love everything about being here in Spain, but definitely miss my family and friends back home. I want to be a part of my sister's planning her wedding for the near year and a half and do want to go back to get my masters in psychology sometime. It's not to say goodbye though because I have never felt more comfortable and at home in a place before than Sevilla so I could see myself living here someday :))



Spain is a special part of my life and always will be, which is why I could see it sometime in my future. My dad always makes me laugh when he tells me the story of when I was a baby. I was crying all the time and he couldn't do anything to get me to stop. Then finally he said in Spanish,"Cual es tu problema nina??" and all of a sudden I stopped crying and he laughed to my mom and said, "She's a Spanish baby Joan!"




You probably can see why I enjoy being in this city/country so much from reading about all my experiences and viewing the beautiful pictures. Hope you enjoy and glad to be able to share my adventures with all of you!