The first weekend, Brittany and I did a roomie day and went to go get pancakes for lunch at this place that is definitely catered to American tourists. Everytime an American walked by and saw the pictures of melt-in-your-mouth pancakes and juicy burgers and fries, they would stop and take a seat. Brittany and I are also guilty of this. We just couldn't resist! After that wonderful brunch, we finally explored the Alcázar. We've been here for almost 3 months and we never saw it (it's one of the top tourist attractions of Sevilla) so we thought it was about time that we did. It is the royal palace of Seville and part of it is still used by the royal family. We explored the inside for a bit, but we spent most of our time in the gardens. It was GORGEOUS. And it was the perfect time to go because everything was in bloom, including Seville's orange blossoms. They smell sooo good and they pretty much fill the entire city with their scent during this time of year.
Yummy yummy American-style breakfast :)
Inside the Alcázar
The beautiful gardens and the orange blossoms.
Brittany and I also went to the international food festival going on by Plaza de Armas. It was really cool and made me feel like I was on vacation (not like I don't take a vacation practically every weekend). There were all these different stands surrounding a main deck area. Each area was dedicated to a different country and made food unique to that country. They had stands for Argentina, Mexico, Greece, Germany, and Australia, just to name a few. We started off with 2 tacos each from the Mexico stand but they were not filling at all so we decided to try something else. Australia had pictures of burgers staring at us the whole time so we went to go check that out. However, it said that it was made from "avestruz." We asked the guy what that was and he pulled out a picture of an OSTRICH. After a long debate, we decided to go for it and ordered our ostrich burger. It was actually pretty good!
Mmmm Ostrich...
Then one afternoon, Lindsey, Megan, and I enjoyed the lovely weather in Parque Maria Luisa, the lovliest park, in my opinion, in Sevilla. We saw some people riding around in surreys so we decided to do it too! We got a half hour to ride around and it was definitely an experience with Megan as the driver! haha at one point we were basically in the middle of woods trying to push our way up a little hill. Lindsey was hit with branches several times haha.
The next day, Brittany, Lindsey, Megan, Tatiana, and Catherine and I went paddleboating down the Guadalquivir River! It was yet again, a wonderfully sunny day. We got an hour in the boats, and I didn't have to paddle until basically the last 15 minutes :) So I got to be a little bit of a princess just hanging out in the back of the boat while Lindsey and Brittany paddled. Megan was more of a princess on her boat with her umbrella hahaha.
Haha Princess Megan
Enjoying being chauffeured around the river :)
Pretty sunset over Calle Betis
The following day was a beach day! For 20 euros, the 6 of us got a bus from the Prado bus station and it took us straight to Cádiz. It looked so different from the last time I saw it which was for carnaval! Unfortunately, it was a pretty cloudy day. But the sun made an appearance every once in a while...enough to get me a little sunburnt at least. We spent a large part of the day shopping and eating lunch as we waited for the sun to come out. Once it did, we hit the beach for a couple of hours. The water was too cold to go in, but I still loved that I was at the beach the first weekend of April :). Also, I forgot that the beaches here are topless. So seeing a 50-something woman's breasts was a bit of a shocker at first, but I got over it lol.
La Playa!
So besides these delightful leisurely activities during my spare time in this amazing country/city, I also met with my intercambio for the first time! Our international office at our school here sets every foreign student up a spanish student. The purpose is for us to have someone to practice our spanish with as well as to become more integrated into the spanish culture. Also, a lot of the spanish students are trying to practice their english too so it works out in both ways! So my intercambio and I met and she is awesome. She's currently taking an english class so our conversations are the definition of spanglish lol. We constantly switch from spanish to english. It's fun because she's able to teach me phrases that spaniards my age use. We also met up again at school last week and we adopted a tree! I believe that week was "semana verde" or "green week" so every day had a theme to be more ecologically friendly. That day was "adopt a tree day." Basically all we did was tie a green ribbon around a tree and take a picture with it lol.
Us and our tree!
Besides all of that, nothing else is really going on. Everything is coming to an end here freakishly fast. I still have over a month left, but that month is going to fly. Next week is Semana Santa, which I will be in Greece for. Then there's a week of classes. Then it's time for Feria! After that is one more week of classes, then finals week, then (dare I say) home. Gah! Before coming here, 4 months seemed like it would be more than enough time, but now I'm realizing that 4 months isn't nearly enough. I'll try and make the most of this upcoming month and hopefully it'll decide to be nice and take it's grand old time!
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