The final stretch

Here we are, after 3.5 months of life in Sevilla my time has nearly come to a close. I can hardly believe it! I only have 1 more day left in this wonderful city until I go back to the icy tundra that is Chicago, and I can't say I'm ready to go yet! The past week was spent spending a lot of time with friends and visiting all the places I wanted to see one last time (which trust me, there are a lot!). There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in a day to see everyone, do everything, AND study for exams, pack, and write final papers!

These past 2 weeks I have made a point to stay in Sevilla and enjoy what there is to offer close to home. One thing that I have been really excited about is that they FINALLY turned on the Christmas lights all around town. These lights have been up for probably 2 weeks, and they are all over town, strung over all of the main streets and a few plazas and government buildings. Every street is different, and I just want to see them all! Unfortunately, everyone else does too! The first night when we went out to see them, it felt like all of Sevilla went too! I have never seen so many people walking the streets at night! They are so beautiful though, so I don't blame them. Since they've lit them, I've gone out almost every night. Just to add to the Christmas spirit, at school we had a Christmas party complete with Christmas trivia, tons of things I shouldn't be eating, and Elf!

This weekend we had off on Friday and Monday, so a few friends and I decided to take a day trip to Aracena, a small town about an hour outside of Sevilla. When we got there we first went to the caves that are famous there. We took a tour of them, and it was really incredible. All of the formations were so impressive (some looked like flan,haha) and the ponds were so still they looked like glass. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures, but trust me, it was amazing! After the tour we set out to find a famous pastry shop we had been told about. As you can guess, I wasn't about to leave until we found it, which we did, and it was very good! Afterwords, we walked up the top of a hill/mountain where there is a church and an old castle. We weren't allowed to go into the caste, which as it turns out, was just an outside wall, but I didn't mind, because the view from the top was equally amazing. From this mountain you could look out and see miles and miles of beautiful, rolling mountains. It was so wonderful, and I didn't want to leave!

On Monday I went out for breakfast with a group of friends. My food came with a cafe con leche (coffee with milk), so I figured I would at least try it. Well, turns out that after 3.5 months of being here, avoiding plain coffee because I thought I didn't like it, I have been wrong. I guess it's a good thing I just found out now though, because I saved a lot of money in coffee! For lunch, my family ate with my host mom's mom, and the two girls that she hosts. We had a big family meal with 10 of us, filled with laughter and great food! It was so wonderful to simply spend time as a big happy (extended) family! That night we went to the apartment of some of our friends for another Christmas party. It was a wonderful time of decorating cookies, exchanging Spanish and American Christmas carols, and sneaking clothes pins onto each other.

On Wednesday I had my final meeting with my intercambio Lola. Instead of doing our normal cafe route, Lola took me out to lunch at one of her favorite restaurants that serves Italian food. Now this wasn't just any old restaurant. This place was partially built inside an old Muslim bath. These baths have arches and rounded ceilings with star-shaped holes built into them. It was so amazing sitting in the bath, eating amazing pesto pasta! After lunch we walked around the Juderia (old Jewish neighborhood) looking at shops and hidden plazas. In the end, I had to go to Encuentro, and I had to say my first of many "see you laters" (not "goodbyes"). It was so hard parting with someone who had become such a dear friend to me over the entire semester, but I know one day we will see each other again!

Thursday I had 2 exams in the morning, and after these exams a group of us went and had an early post-exam treat. We went to a churreria, where I had some fantastic churros con chocolate. Afterwords we went to the river and simply spend some time together. In the afternoon we went to the Cathedral to see the presentation of the seises, which was going on one time each day this week. In this service there was a small orchestra, a children's choir, and 10 young boys in traditional clothing dancing a dance that has been done for hundreds of years. It was really interesting to watch this program that has been done for so long and is so culturally rich!

Today was my last day here, and it has been a huge mix of emotions, to say the least. After my exam this morning, we had a final farewell/photo presentation. We all watched a slideshow, ate food together, and then had a time to say "see you later" to all of the staff and professors at school, as well as a few students who weren't taking the group fight home. It was so hard leaving these people who have had such a big part in my life the past 3.5 months, and there is no way to accurately put into words the influence they have had in my life. For lunch Inez cooked our favorite foods, which were delicious as always! After lunch, a group of us went busking (street performing) for an hour. We spent the time singing Christmas songs, and actually made 15 euros! I had a great time singing with this group of other very talented musicians and friends. Afterwords we met up with more people to go ice skating (yes, there is an ice rink in Sevilla). We went for about an hour, and then went on the ferris wheel they had, which from the top offered a beautiful view of the city. Afterwords we all hung out in the Plaza de España for one last time. Then I went home for dinner and a movie with the family. Once the kids went to bed, and we said our "see you laters", we went out once more to a restaurant, where we met a group of friends for one last hoorah. I stayed out with them until about 1, when I went home to finish packing and get a little sleep before my big traveling day tomorrow!

Thank you everyone for all of your prayers and support over the past 3.5 months. I have been so blessed with my time here, in ways that I can't even explain. God has been so good, and I'm looking forward to being able to see you all in person and tell you all about it! Love you all!

Hasta luego,
Rachel :)

Top of the mountain at Aracena with Liz :)

The whole gang at our Christmas party

Lola and I out for lunch

Looking at the Christmas lights!

Post-exam celebration

Getting ready to ride the ferris wheel!

With a heart of thankfulness

Hola todos! So here I am again, one week later, writing a blog post... Time is going by so fast now, I can hardly believe it! This past week has been a really great one, one of the best actually, which may possibly contribute to the whole going by really fast thing! It was a week of new experiences, travel, and a lot of thanks!

On Tuesday, I went with a group of friends to the Universidad de Sevilla, where they have a free salsa class. There were probably 100 people there, the vast majority being students at the University. We spent 2 hours learning bachata and salsa in the humid stuffy basement of school, which was a fun, and somewhat humorous experience for me. First of all, this class has been going on all semester, and so the majority of people already knew what they were doing, except us! Also, being a tall american female dancing with short spaniard guys resulted in a few elbows to the face (and it wasn't my face). After the class, a group of us went over to the apartment of some of our spanish and finished the night off watching Tangled in spanish! Which watching movies in spanish is always a good time!

Wednesday afternoon started off with another lovely meeting with my Intercambio. We had a great time and talked for 2 hours (which unfortunately meant that I wasn't able to get over to Encuentro until it had just ended!). Afterwords, a group of us went to the theater to watch the new Hunger Games movie, Sinsajo. Seats are always assigned in Spain, and when we got there they only had seats in the front 2 rows open, but we went anyways. The movie was really good, and I loved that I understood the majority of the plot and conversations... there is something really fun about watching movies in theatre in Spanish when you can understand them! If you haven't seen the movie, you totally should!

Although Thanksgiving is not a thing in Spain, we still knew how to celebrate here! In the morning our school took a trip to a city outside of Huelva, where Christopher Columbus spent a lot of time. We visited the monastery the he went to when he was planning his first trip west, and we also went to a museum where they have real size replicas of his ships the Niña, Pinta, and Santa María. It was really cool to see what they looked like, and they were a lot smaller than I expected! That evening, the school rented out a restaurant and gave them american recipes to make for us. We all dressed up and ate a delicious dinner of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin and apple pie. I hadn't eaten mashed potatoes in 3 months, and let me tell you, I didn't realize how much I had missed them! At this dinner we all had "amigos invisibles" (like Secret Santa) that we had to buy a gift for, and some of the gifts people received we pretty hilarious. It was a Thanksgiving unlike any other, and one that I will never forget!

Friday morning a group of us left for the beautiful city of Granada! We got there in the afternoon, and spent the evening wandering through the many colorful shops selling Indian and Arabic items. Every store was so colorful inside, it made me happy just looking at everything! Once it got dark we made our way to a lookout where you can see la Alhambra, a muslim palace built in the 14th century (I'll get there shortly!). The lookout was right by some caves in the mountains where people live year-round, legally and illegally. One of my favorite games in Granada was "cave of no cave?", where you had to guess if someone was living in the caves or not... It was usually pretty obvious though! Saturday morning I went to la Alhambra, which was by far the highlight of Granada. I had a ticket for 8:30am, so I was there early enough to see the end of the sunrise behind the Sierra Nevada mountains, where Granada is situated. We spent a good chunk of time in my art class learning about muslim architecture, and la Alhambra has some of the best muslim art and architecture in the world! The palaces and gardens were just stunning! The amount of detail put into every corner of the buildings is incredible, and something you simply have to see for yourself. My favorite spot though, would have to be the top of one of the defense towers. From this tower you had a view of the snow topped mountains that was absolutely breathtaking... Did I mention there was SNOW?! My first, and probably only glimpse of snow in Spain, and it was wonderful!

On Sunday afternoon my host family pulled out the Christmas decorations! Christmas isn't as big here as in the US, but my family still has a small tree and some other decorations! It was so much fun listening to Christmas music and setting up the tree with the kids... it felt just like home.

Seeing as it was thanksgiving this past week, I just want to take a second to share a few things I've been thankful here in Spain. First, I'm so thankful for the fact that I have even been able to come to Spain. This has been one of the best times of my life, a semester I will remember forever. I'm also thankful for all the people I have met here, because people really make a place, and I have been blessed with the best people! I have a host family that cares for me, teachers and other staff at school who are always there to help me (with everything from travel plans, to speaking spanish, to understanding Sevilla in general!) and friends that are truly irreplaceable. God has provided for me and grown me in ways that I never could have asked for or imagined, and for that the word "thanks" hardly seems strong enough!

Anyways, as always, I am so grateful for the prayers and support I have received from the stateside! All of the thanksgiving messages were especially cherished! As I look towards the home stretch, continued prayers for diligence in my work and good time management would be really appreciated, especially with final exams coming up! Love you all, and hope you had a wonderful Thankgiving!
Hasta luego!
Rachel :)

The Niña, Pinta, and Santa María

After Thanksgiving dinner... I'm so thankful for these amazing people!

At la Alhambra

How can you not be in love with this mountain?!

Practically every store looked like this inside; I love the lamps!

We worked long and hard on this tree ;)