The last week of classes came quickly and went by quickly. I really believe in the last month of my time Spain everything really seemed to fall into place and we all started to feel more and more settled/comfortable there (which is kind of a bummer since it was just before we all had to leave!).
I had a special birthday dinner with Rosario and Grace Monday night and then Lindsey and her host mother Loli (who is a good friend of Rosario's) came over for cake. It was SO precious and FUNNY! We were all laughing so hard...I think Grace, Lindsey and I had smiles on our faces the whole time just watching Loli and Rosario talk and interact - they are such a whoot! Loli gave me a cute little pouch with a bracelet - she kept saying "Oh, it's a stupid little thing - nothing special." If you know Loli that just fits with what she would say - of course I kept telling her that it was special to me. :) Rosario gave me a Spanish cookbook because she knew I was living in apartment with friends this summer and that we have to make all our food. I told her that I would have to try our some new Spanish recipes with my friends.
These last two weeks there was a lot of rushing to get all the things we wanted to do before we left done. We were all making our lists and trying to figure out when and how to get them done. There was a lot of ice cream eating, beautiful place visiting, and picture taking. One of the things on my list was to get to a soccer game. I had been trying to go for a long time with my language partner Juanlu because he is a member of the soccer club of his favorite team (Real Betis of Sevilla), but I was always gone on trips when they had games. Luckily they had a home game the Wednesday of this week and he got us tickets. WOW - the game and the fans were SOOOOOO much fun!!! There was so much cheering and singing - you just HAD to get into the spirit!! My kind of game! :) To top it off - Betis won 3-1 and has now ascended into the first division! There was a lot of celebrating at the end of the game and a ton of fans rushed the field. Very fun to watch! :)
Friday there was a beach day trip that we could go on with our school. We were in the providence of Huelva in the south of Spain. First we went to La Rábida which is a Franciscan Monastery where Christopher Columbus had visited and stayed because a friar there had helped with the plans of the journey and helped to get Columbus permission from Isabel. We also saw the three life-size replicas of the Niña, Pinta, and the Santa Maria. We were able to climb on board and check them out. My friends and I decided that we would not enjoy traveling across the ocean in one of these ships...they were actually pretty small. After these visits we headed to the beach called Mazagón. Thankfully, for this beach trip we had perfect weather! The sun was hot and the water was cool. The waves of the ocean were amazing and a lot of fun to ride - you just have to remember that this water is SALTY! :) There really is no feeling like getting really warm on the beach, jumping into the ocean, and then going back to warm up in the sun again - I JUST LOVE IT! We did have to be more careful with the sun in Spain - it is definitely a lot stronger there...in other words - many applications of sun screen. :) The hours passed quickly on the beach and we headed back to Sevilla and arrived around 7.
The studying for finals began this weekend. I had two finals left (I took my Sevillanas dance final during this week). I was able to do a little studying outside on our terrace, but mostly in the morning and in the shade. It started to get really hot in Sevilla those last couple weeks and it became almost unbearable outside in the afternoon. Though, it wasn't much better inside as we did not have air conditioning in our house and our room seemed to capture the heat and hold it in late into the evening. The ceiling fan helped some.
My system for studying was work hard during the day and then go out and relax in the evening. It worked well. We met up with some friends for the evenings and one of the nights explored a outside club. I guess that's how many of them are during the summer in Sevilla because it is so hot. I studied hard for the weekend and had both of my finals on Monday.......the last week in Spain to come on the next post!
More pictures :)
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| My b-day cake from Rosario :) |
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| LOVED this b-day party!! |
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| Betis game! This kind of captures the moment, but you really had to be there! |
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| In the gardens of the monestary |
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| Kristine and I by the Santa Maria |
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