Sister in Seville

I promised a post about Jennie's visit, but I just don't know if I can do it justice with a few hundred words. However, I will try...

On February 23, I took the overnight bus from Seville to Madrid in order to be at the airport in time to pick my sister up at Barajas. Her flight didn’t arrive until 10:30 am, but after the overnight bus, the next one didn’t get in until 1pm, too late. So Carolyn and I, (she was catching a flight from Madrid to Brussels) took the overnight bus together. I swore I would never do it again after the first time I did it, but lo and behold, I did it again. It wasn’t as miserable as I remember the first one was. There was even some entertainment when the Spanish tour group thought they left their friend in the rest stop, and it turned out she was on the bus the whole time!

So, we arrived in Madrid about 7 in the morning after about 25 minutes of sleep. Since I had to wait at least 3 hours before Jennie arrived, I spent my time café hopping (had about 3 cafés con leche in those 3 hours). I was waiting at the gate for Jennie to come out for what seemed like three weeks, the excitement was killing me. Then finally, I saw her and that’s when the fun began…

Both of us were pretty deliriously exhausted from overnight travel (not sure if its worse on a plane or a bus, but she did have the time difference to deal with too). I’m pretty sure when we got to the hotel we were running on adrenaline because somehow we mustered up the energy to walk around. We hit up some of the most important sites of Madrid, stopping for a coffee in almost each one. But then we crashed, for what I think was a few hours but felt like 5 minutes. We couldn’t sleep through the night because Conchi (host mom from my semester in Madrid) had invited us over for dinner and who are we to turn down free food. It was a lovely dinner but by the end we were practically falling asleep at the table.

We spent the next few days touring around Madrid (I’m still not sure if Jennie’s ever been there before). I finally got to go on a rowboat in Retiro Park (something I never got around to when I was studying abroad). Then we took our adventures south to Andalucía on the AVE (high speed train) to Seville.

Since Monday and Tuesday were a holiday at school, we took advantage of the time to take day trips. The first one was to Cadiz, a beautiful beach town approximately 2 hours from Seville. We only had a few hours there because the last bus/train left at 7pm. So in order to take full advantage of the time we had there we took the tourist bus. Yes, that’s right. In a city you can traverse in half an hour, we rode the tourist bus. And I don’t regret one second of it. If we hadn’t rode the bus we wouldn’t have gotten the awesome hats we did.

The next day we went to Ronda, a city/town in Malaga province. I may or may not have been there before I really can’t remember. We went with an auxiliary friend, Kaela, who taught in Ronda last year, so we had personal tour guide. Unfortunately, it was Día de Andalucía, which meant that nothing was open. Still, we enjoyed our walk around the beautiful (gorge-ous city).

We spent the rest of the time in Seville, because by the second half of the week we were tired of traveling. Also, there are a lot of things to see in Seville. We climbed to the top of the Cathedral, we strolled the gardens of the alcazar, we relaxed at the ancient Arab baths, we watched a typical flamenco show, we kayaked on the Guadalquivir river. Turns out staying in Seville was just as tiring as traveling. It was a good tired though. I had so much fun showing Jennie off at school, to the families I tutor for, my friends (both Spanish and American).

I even got Jennie to eat jamón, so all in all, I would say it was a huge success.

Squirrels and School Buses

Gosh I’m really slacking on these blogs and I do apologize for that. But there are two good reasons I haven’t written in so long. One-I’m lazy. Two-Spring has finally sprung (I no longer sleep with three blankets on my bed, I am down to two) and I have been spending much of my days outside. Three-Jennie came to visit and we were busy each of the ten days she was here, literally from morning till night. Some of you observant people might have noticed I gave three reasons…I said I only had two GOOD reasons.

Anyway, a lot has been happening this past month. Of notice, besides my wonderful visit from my sister, I have volunteered at a 10k race and gone on an excursion with the first cycle to see Bella y la Bestia (Beauty and the Beast).

I’ll start of with the race because it’s fresh in my mind; it was this morning. I woke up at 6:30 AM, I should have taken advantage of the time to talk to some of my fellow Americans in the USA who probably still hadn’t gone to sleep. So I woke up at this ungodly hour for a Sunday, and walked over with Carolyn to the meeting place for the volunteers. We arrived promptly at 7:30, as we were asked. And then spent approximately the next two hours doing nothing. Our task at this race was to give out water, bananas and aquarius (Spanish Gatorade) to all the runners at the end of the race. Ergo, we were not needed until the end of the race. I didn’t mind waking up so early because I got to see all the late night partiers getting kicked out of clubs and stumbling home. It made me feel productive today, waking up at 6:30 instead of going to sleep at that hour.

At the race, Carolyn and I (mostly Carolyn) attempted to make some volunteer friends. But this experience was very different than the Davis Cup. For one thing, it was only one day for about six hours, whereas the Davis Cup was literally every hour of my life for five days. So, there wasn’t that much time to get to know people, and we all met very early in the morning. Another factor was that most of the volunteers were there to support someone running in the race. And they were really only there to watch them finish the race. Still, it was an enjoyable experience. Plus, we got some super cool gear (sarcasm).

Earlier this week, I went to see Bella y la Bestia with the first and second graders at school. They went on a Tuesday, and since I don’t normally work on Tuesdays I just met them at the theater in Sevilla, instead of going all the way to Pilas to take a bus with all the kids to Sevilla. I was told to meet them at Parque Maria Louisa, one of the parks in Sevilla, because they were going to hang out in the park, and eat a snack before the show. When I got to Maria Louisa, I realized how big it actually is. I was walking around for a good ten minutes before it dawned on me to find out where in the park they were. I called teacher Fran, and what did he tell me, they were in parque de las palomas (pigeon park). Yes, that’s right, I went to a place intentionally, knowing it was filled with birds. I didn’t last very long.

Luckily, there were only around ten minutes left of park time by the time I got there. But ten minutes is plently when there are birds flying around, children feeding them and kicking them. It was a nightmare. But then, I rode with the kids on the bus from the park to the university that was putting on the show. I had so much fun. Honestly, I felt like I was famous (one of the kids even told me I am the most beautiful girl in the whole world, TOMA!). We were playing “who stole the cookie from the cookie jar.” I recently taught this game to Fran’s class and now all they want to do is play. But I’ll take 45 minutes of who stole cookie in exchange for being the most beautiful person in the world, and some free chocolates!

The show itself was not that enjoyable for me personally but it was put on for children and I think all the kids really enjoyed it and that’s important. I had quite the adventure getting home from the show, I couldn’t go on the bus with the kids because they were going directly to Pilas and not passing through Sevilla. So I had to walk around the campus for a while until I found a bus stop, and then got on with about 35 university students. The bus was packed, and then as soon as we got to sevilla everyone got off. I didn’t know what the last stop on the bus was so I just got off with them. I was closer to home, but still pretty far. To end this boring rant, for all those who are curious, I did eventually make it home after a bus, metro and bicycle ride.

I was going to include some details of Jennie’s visit in this post, but I think its getting too long as it is. Also, it’s so special I think it deserves its own post ;) So keep an eye out for another post soon!

Also, there are no squirrels or school buses in Sevilla.

End blog.