Top 5 Reasons Why I Can't Stay Forever

It's my last week in Spain.  I can't believe that's true, so depressing!  As I'm getting ready to go home, I can't help but be SO SAD!! I just really don't want to leave!  So, as an attempt to make myself excited to go home, here is my list of the top 5 reasons why I can't live in Spain forever, no matter how badly I want to:


1.  PARKING
I can't park!!  And Spaniards cars usually look like this:

2.  CLOTHES
When it's 100 degrees out, I like to wear this:

And Spaniards look like this:

Also, I prefer to wear clothes that are comfortable clothes, like these:

While Spaniards always look like this:

On second thought, those are the unfashionable Spaniards...


3. MOUNTAINS
I miss my mountains! Enough said.

4.  SPANISH SCHOOLS
I could never work in a Spanish elementary school for a long time!
Here the little angels are:

Don't be fooled....they are usually more like this:

True Life.


5.  FAMILY AND FRIENDS
I need to see these lovely people (and everyone else!) again.  Spain is not complete without everyone I love <3 

Oh, who am I fooling, I don't want to leave!!!  T-minus 3 days until Sevilla is no longer my home :(

DO YOU SPEAK ENGLISH???

I came to Spain with the hopes of truly becoming fluent in Spanish.  Well, I'm not sure if that came true exactly, but I can say that there have been a few times when speaking Spanish has DEFINITELY come in handy!  Here's the top 5: 


5.  When I am talking to my host family!


The couple Drew and I live with speak NO English.  When we asked her if she speaks English she replied with "No, sólo 'Oh my God'"  And she wasn't lying.  She literally asked us one day "qué quiere decir 'good'"  She has had over 50 americans live with her, I don't know how she still doesn't know what good means!! Also, one day I translated between her and the parents of a girl who had stayed with her in the past that came to say hello!


4.  When I was hanging out with the Niños :)


This semester I was able to hang out with some pretty cool niños and "teach them english."  They were 4 and 5 years old, sooo there wasn't a whole lot of English being learned, but they can sure count to ten and name all of the colors!  They are the cutest!  This little girl Laura is my favorite.  Here she is telling me about the tooth fairy! Just ignore me talking at the end and look at how cute she is! 

3.  When I almost lost 260 euros!!


When we did the horseback riding on the beach, multiple people called me from their office (they were NOT very organized people) and our plans changed multiple times.  Finally I was so frustrated with them that I cancelled our reservations and we showed up and paid in cash.  Bueno.  Well, not quite bueno because when I got back home I saw that I had been charged 260 euros to my bank account, and I was so angry I called them up, and after a bit of explaining, arguing, explaining some more and a tid bit of yelling, she told me I would get my money back, and I did.  Phew!


2. When my parents almost got stranded in Sevilla


Huelga.  If I had come to Spain in a different semester, I may have never learned this Spanish word, but you better believe I know what it means now.  Huelga is the Spanish word for "Strike".  On March 29th there was a "Huelga General"  which basically meant that most things were closed, some classes were cancelled, and everything was in a bit of chaos.  They provided "servicios mínimos" which meant the metro ran once every so often, etc, but there were tons of flights and trains cancelled.  This would not have normally been a huge deal, except that my parents were scheduled to fly out on March 29th to go to Barcelona for their cruise.  Well, we looked online and their flight was cancelled, so we went down to the train station and I got a worker to assure me "cien por cien" that their train would be leaving the next day.  It was a bit stressful, but their train left as promised, and they made it to Barcelona just a bit behind schedule (:


1.  When we had to beg our way onto a flight


On our way back from Vienna, Austria, we had two flights with about 45 minutes in between.  Not a huge deal.  But our first flight left 30 minutes late! Soo we had 20 minutes from the time one plane landed to get onto the next one.  Should be able to make it right?  Well the catch is that we were flying Ryan Air.  This airline requires that non EU citizens get their boarding passes stamped before going through security.  Well, we didn't have time for that, so we sprinted to our gate and decided to give it our best shot and talk our way onto the flight.  Changing the flight would have been 110 euros plus whatever a hostel for the night would have been.  It was not an option.  So when we got to the gate, we begged ("por favor, no es nuestra culpa"), reasoned ("tenemos los pasaportes aquí, tenemos los billetes, por qué no podemos entrar"), and begged some more ("estamos en una isla, no tenemos opciones").  There was lots of yelling and then finally crying (good work by my friend Deirdre) before about 15 minutes later they broke down and let us on the flight.


Best part?  We got stuck in the emergency exit seats because that's all that was left, and they happen to be the most comfortable on the whole plane (:

Feria!

Feria.  aka Sevilla's week-long party including lots of Flamenco dancing and drinking for nights on end.  For this wonderful excuse for a holiday we got 12 days off of school which gave us the perfect opportunity to travel!!

But first, we spent the first night of Feria in Sevilla seeing what it's all about.  The first night is the "Pescaito" which is where everyone eats fish dinner in their "casetas" which are big tents.  It is also the "alumbrada" which is the lighting of Feria that happens at midnight Monday night.  

This is the Puerta de Feria (the entrance to the Feria grounds) all lit up at the Alumbrada

After getting home around 4 we had to sleep fast before our 8a.m. flight out of Sevilla.  Next thing we knew we were on our way to Germany, which was our first stop of our Feria travels! Berlin was so great.  I didn't expect to really "love" this city, but I did.  I loved it.  There was so much history everywhere, and it was a lot more beautiful than I had expected!

Berlin is full of beautiful buildings like this one (:

We may or may not have accidentally taken part in a peace rally...Umbrellas for Peace! 

The second day in Berlin we visited a concentration camp.  It is definitely a once in a lifetime experience that I would recommend to everyone.  Our tour guide was great and had a way of making us think about the holocaust in a way that I never have before.

Before we left Berlin, we went to tiergarten, which is basically a big garden right smack dab in the middle of Berlin.  It was beautiful! And a nice escape from the city life.

Before we knew it our time in Berlin was over and we were headed to Prague.  I think I had unreasonably high standards set for Prague, and they just weren't quite met.  It was a beautiful city, sure, but it was SO crowded with tourists that I could hardly think straight!  I think my highlight of the time we spent in Prague was renting paddle boats--our one escape from being surrounded by tourists!

Finally we headed to our last city, Vienna.  Vienna was my favorite of the trip.  It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL.  I wish we would have had more time there, but the time we did have was great! We couchsurfed in Vienna with the best hosts ever, Johanna and Sebastian.  They were so great, and had a great apartment right in the center of the city with an incredible view from the roof (which they kindly showed us).  

Random Asians wanted to take pictures of us and with us haha People are so funny!

Beautiful gardens of Schonbrunn Palace

Johanna and Sebastian in their apartment! Best decision of the trip was to stay with them (:

After a bit of conflict (saving that for another blog) we made it home safe and sound.  Feria was an unforgettable trip with three girls that I have grown to love.  <3 It was a great way to spend our 12 day vacation, and I wouldn't change a thing about it!