winding down

well, i've officially reached the point in my trip where i have to accept the fact that i'm going back to the united states and try to squeeze all of my possessions back into my bags. yikes!

i have less than 48 hours left in sevilla. in fact, i'm leaving for madrid tomorrow night on the AVE after finishing up my last final. then, very early tuesday morning, i'm leaving on a jet plane (yes, that was a nod to john denver) and heading back to the states. it's going to be a very long trip, but totally worth it! i'm really sad to leave spain and say goodbye to the people i've met here, but i'm so excited and ready to be back at home where everything is familiar and where i don't have to make a constant effort to understand everyone. it's going to be so nice to have my full mental capabilities back! i feel like i've constantly spent at least 50% of my brain paying attention to the things people say, so it will feel good to just listen and understand without putting the puzzle pieces together. i'm also excited for other american things, like long, hot showers, central heating, and driving a car... oh, it will be so nice! not to mention the people... i mean, that's why i'm really excited to go home, right? :)

the past week has been such a blur! i had my last days of class on wednesday, and it felt so nice to just wrap things up and walk away. thursday, chelsea and i made lunch for rosario. we made her a traditional american breakfast, complete with homemade hashbrowns, pancakes, bacon, and a really tasty egg scramble with cheese, onions, red peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes. it was so good, and she really appreciated everything. she was so complimentary, telling us that it was the best meal she's ever had (complimentary, like i said). she was so delighted and it made me incredibly happy. afterwards, we gave her a little gift: a pretty scarf we bought at the cortes ingles. she was so touched that she started to cry. she told us how wonderful we both were and how she wished that we were staying for the full year. it was a pretty awesome morning/afternoon, and it made me so happy to make her so happy! that has definitely been the highlight of the week. friday was spent studying for my art history final exam, and then i actually took the exam friday evening. yikes. it was intense! my hands actually hurt afterwards from writing like a mad woman! i felt so wonderful and relieved after everything was said and done, though. it was a nice release. afterwards, i met up with chelsea and liza, and we went out to dinner to celebrate finishing (or almost finishing, in my case) the semester. we went to pizzeria san marco, which has wonderful food. it was so great to hang out with the two of them one last time! we had such a blast.

yesterday morning, i woke up to nasty, nasty weather. i headed into the center all bundled up against the wind and rain and i met up with liza to do some last-minute shopping. we went across the whole center buying gifts. i had a lot of success and i got everything that i needed (woo hoo!). i headed back to the house for dinner and a play date with carlos. he came over for lunch because he wanted to play with me one more time before i leave. it was fun :) he's such a cutie, and we had a really good time. he was poking me with this lance at one point (i know, it doesn't sound like much fun, but it was), and somehow he managed to cut himself and not me (go figure). his little finger was bleeding and i said "oh carlos! look! you're so brave, just like a knight." and he got this very serious expression on his face and nodded slowly, saying "yes. i am.". it was pretty funny. after he settled in for a nap, i came upstairs to study for my last final and pack. yikes. packing is a slight nightmare. everything fits fine in my bag... the only problem is that my bag weighs about 8045.6 pounds. it's a little out of control, and i'm not sure what i'm going to do to offset the heaviness. i don't have another bag (i sent it home with my parents) so i seem to be at an impasse. oh well, i'm sure that i'll figure out something.

today has been lazy, with studying, more packing, and general straightening-of-the-room activities. chelsea's been in barcelona the past few days, and i've had the room to myself, which allowed me to explode my stuff everywhere in the process of organizing. it was somewhat convenient, though i'm sad that i didn't get to spend this last weekend here with her. she gets back tomorrow morning, and we have enough time to eat lunch with rosario and hang out a little bit more before i have to head into town to take my last final. it's going so fast! i can't believe that i've been in spain for 100+ days and now it's coming to an end. i'm meeting to hang out with liza one last time this afternoon. we're swapping london photos and eating crepes at bliss (ah bliss... i'll miss that too!). anyways, i'm trying not to wax sentimental, but i've had such a wonderful time here, and i can't believe that it's coming to a close. thanks for everyone who's read the blog and left comments. i'm still planning on writing my london blog... it just might not happen till i make it back to the states! but that way, i'll have a record of everything for myself.

well, this is probably the last post in sevilla (unless i get bored of something...) so i guess this is me, signing off! thanks for following the adventures, and i'll see most of you when i get back to the states. pray for safe and uneventful travels--i'm worried about the snow and delays. an early merry christmas to everyone! if i start a real-life blog, i'll let you know... :)

random sevilla happenings

here´s a short post in honor of some of the little things that have happened in my life in sevilla during the past few weeks. i´m working on a serious london post, but it´s going to take a while and i find myself in the middle of my last week, which also happens to be finals week, so it may take some time to get it posted. in the meantime, here´s a smaller but still fun look at my life!

hanging out with the niños:

rosario has four grandchildren, and two of them spend a significant amount of time at the house. these two, carlos and jaime, are incredibly cute though somewhat rambunctious and crazy little boys. carlos is four and jaime is about 18 months. carlos loves to play with chelsea and i, but jaime is really shy. in fact, if i look at him and we make eye contact, it´s enough to make him cry! however, last week, jaime finally came out of his shell and we became buddies! it was the best! i tickled him and he kept running and jumping into my arms. so sweet and incredibly endearing. so here are the photos documenting our playtime.

this little guy is carlos. he loves to attack chelsea and i. here he is, grabbing onto my leg in an attempt to bring me down. good thing he´s four--that means i win a lot!

this little guy is the shy one, jaime. he´s so cute! rosario and i had such a blast watching the two of them running around in a wild frenzy. they totally tore the house apart! there´s a reason rosario calls them her two terremotos (earthquakes). oh, this is the first time jaime let me touch him!

aren´t we cute! carlos is, of course, standing on a chair. he´s a total ham for the camera, as you´ll see in a few photos...

me and earthquake #1!

me and earthquake #2--aren´t his chubby hands and cheeks so cute?

here´s carlos, being a total ham for the camera. he loved having chelsea take his picture!

jaime in his happy place, playing with some toys and the t.v. remote control!

hanging out with the shuman family:

the night after i returned to sevilla from madrid after saying farewell to my parents and kevin, my friend liza invited chelsea and i over to hang out with her family. we played a card game called yuker (sp?). i´d never heard of it before, but it was fun, and i plan to bring it back to the west coast (liza claims that it´s a midwest thing). afterwards, we went out for dinner at a really awesome tapas restaurant. it was so wonderful to hang out with her family! they were so cute!

me in the tapas restaurant with our really awesome pork rolls. doesn´t sound so awesome, but trust me, they were!

liza and i strategizing over our hand. we made a mean yuker team!

across the river:

before family week, i decided to head across the river to explore the neighborhoods los remedios and triana, two famous neighborhoods in sevilla. liza lives over in los remedios, and she kindly agreed to meet up with me and show me around. it was fun!

cool tower located right off the triana bridge. i´m hypothesizing that it used to be some sort of tower used to guard the river... i could, of course, be totally wrong.

my favorite bridge in sevilla: puente de isabela segunda (better known as the triana bridge). it connects sevilla and triana.

awesome house on calle betis, the nightlife hotspot in sevilla. i´ve, of course, never been there after dark, but it was cool during the day too!

view from across the river! yay!

juice, crepes, and the flamenco museum:

the friday before family week, i went to sevilla´s flamenco museum with a group of students. it was a pretty cool museum, filled with lots of video footage documenting the evolution of flamenco dance. it was fun because we went with our dance professor and she had lots of interesting things to say. afterwards, a group of us headed over to bliss, my favorite cafe in sevilla. they serve fresh-squeezed juice and really awesome crepes for cheap! it was so nice! i just hung out and had fun with the girls...

afton and i enjoying our really awesome juices. mine is a combination of apple, lemon, and ginger juices... super tasty! it makes me want a juicer!

all of our pretty juices in a row! i´ve become a regular at bliss (so has chelsea) and we totally have our favorites. mine is the one on the closest end, and her´s is the green one. funny how i can recognize them! ivana´s drink is between mine and chelsea´s, and afton´s is on the end...

here´s the flamenco museum group! we´re all striking our best, most impressive sevillana poses (though mine is a little bit more flamenco-y...).

me enjoying the really awesome pair of flamenco shoes on display at the museum! they are seriously so huge. they could totally be used as a crib, which would be really funny and totally awesome... i´m considering it for my future...