"You must forgive me If I'm up and gone to Carolina in my mind..."

So unfortunately I'm not going to be home tonight.  I'm sure most of you know that.  But the good news is, I'll be home tomorrow night.  Lord willing.  It's been an emotional roller coaster the past couple of days.  Thinking I'd be home today.  Spending hours on the phone with different airline companies.  Having to switch my flight to Sunday.  Being home a day later.  Trying to check-in for tomorrow's flight online this morning and the computer telling me that my passport wasn't issued by the US.  Having to spend another half hour on the phone with an airline company to get me checked-in. 

Anyway, I will be on my way home tomorrow.  I'm so excited to see everyone and can't wait to see that "Nash County" sign.  So, pray for safe and smooth travels tomorrow.  Can't wait to see you all!

Christmas in Sevilla...and saying more goodbyes...

 After my exam last night (which was a joke), Camilla and I went to the Nativity at Cajasol.  The above picture is the gorgeous Christmas tree they head set up in the plaza by the Nativity.

 It was a hugeeee nativity scene, but not in the traditional sense.  As you can see above, it depicted scenes of daily life around the period in which Jesus was born.  The above one shows the market.

 I think this was supposed to be pregnant Mary?!?  Not sure though since Joseph isn't standing by.  Could just be a woman on a camel.

 More scenes.

 And again.  This one is a band playing and dancing.

 And this is the actual nativity.  The angles surrounding it were sooo pretty!

 This shows the details...the clouds in the back and the stars!  Soooo pretty!

 And the whole plaza.  :)

Me and Camilla!! 

Had to say more goodbyes over the last couple of days.  It's sad, but I'm ready to be home.  I'm going to miss Sevilla and definitely my senora.  But at the same time, I miss so many things about being at home.  I have my last exam in the morning and then I'll be catching up on sleep and packing my entire life up!  Then headed home on Saturday morning!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)  See you all soon!!

Saying Goodbye?!?

How can it already be time to say goodbye?  Last night I had to say my first goodbye to Jessica.  Although we've only seen each other a handful of times over the semester, we have grown pretty close and it was definitely rough saying goodbye. 

Yesterday afternoon Camilla and I did a little last minute souvenir shopping.  Thankfully I was able to find things for people that I hadn't been able to get something for thus far.  Afterward, we were walking by the Cathedral and there was a huge line, so we got in line.  Not really sure what we were in line for until we noticed that it was a nativity scene.  It was so intricate and pretty!  There were actually two separate ones.  Here's the first one:

 The front of it.  Notice the pretty stained glass at the top!

Sooo detailed and pretty!

The second one in the Cathedral was a group of smaller scenes.  Again, very detailed and absolutely gorgeous.

 Showing pregnant Mary and Joseph.

 To the left is Mary and to the right is the Gabriel informing Mary that she will have a son, Jesus.

 After the nativity scenes we sat in the Cathedral and watched a group practicing for a Christmas concert. 

 Then we walked a little further downtown and saw this nativity scene that was much larger and outdoors.

 And of course the huge Christmas tree.

 With my favorite chica! :)

All lit up!

Afterward, we met up with several of our friends for dinner.  There were 14 of us total so we split up into 2 groups of 7 to eat.  Of course the food was great, as it always is at Coloniales.  And very cheap...I had calamari, fried eggplant with honey, and our favorite bread/jam/cheese dish for 4 euro.  I'm definitely going to miss that place. 

Today was spent doing homework and studying the entire day.  I finished one paper and have two more to go as well as three more exams.  But I'm getting very anxious about going home.  Can't wait to see everyone!!

Time?

Time is an interesting thing.  It seems to drag by when you want it to fly and fly by when you want it to go ever so slowly.  Yet somehow time is constant.  Over the past week or so I have become very aware of the concept of time.  For instance, in Rome it seemed that the days were so incredibly long--which is a good thing, since it was a vacation.  We got up around 8:30 and were out the door within an hour visiting every possible place of interest in the gorgeous city.  We would look at our watches after about 6 or 7 hours and the sky was already beginning to get dark.  It seemed like it was 11pm when it was only 4:30pm.  I look back on my time here in Sevilla and I can't believe how quickly it has flown by.  Now I know to most of you back home it probably seems like I have been gone an eternity, but looking back I can't believe that I am a mere 8.5 days away from being at home.  How did that happen? 

Now this is not to say that I'm not ready to go home.  I miss the US.  I miss NC.  I miss Chapel Hill.  And I really miss Nash County.  So weird to say after having traveled to 3 countries and over 6 cities in Spain, but I do miss it.  I miss little things like not having to smell smoke alllll the time, free refills at restaurants (non-existent here), people who clean up after their dogs, mom's cooking (although my senora's is definitely delicious), being able to throw my jeans in the dryer so they fit just right (we don't even have a dryer), etc.  But at the same time there are a lot of things I love about my life in Sevilla--the fact that my classes here are soooo much easier than at UNC, having more free time, being able to travel on weekends to places like Morocco, Barcelona, and Rome, not feeling so stressed out about work, school, and life in general, etc. 

Tonight Camilla and I went to Mas (a grocery store that has a cute little cafe/bakery) and got churros y chocolate (aka fried dough - like funnel cake - that you dip into a cup of hot chocolate).  They were delicious - not the best thing I've ever eaten, but good nonetheless.  Plus, it's always nice to be able to enjoy good food with good company. :)

Well, I have an exam in the morning.  Probably should start studying for that.  Hopefully I'll be able to write again before I leave.  The rest of my time here will probably consist of frantically studying/writing papers, buying last minute souvenirs, and packing.  Can't wait to see everyone next weekend!

Roman Holiday - Part 2

 Day 4 of our trip started a little later as we were able to sleep in just a little bit - until 9:30.  We got breakfast at the hotel as usual and then headed to the tourism office to get some information.  While at the tourism office, it started raining and so we decided to go back to the hotel to change to more appropriate "rainwear" clothes.  Then we were off again to visit the Forum.  It is the area right by the Colosseum and basically just a "big pile of rocks."  It was really neat to see though and we were all pretty interested in it and tried to imagine what it was like when it was original.  It's was also so interesting to know we were walking around ancient ruins that have survived the test of time for such a long period of time.  The above picture is one of the buildings from the Forum. 

 This is one of my favorite pictures because of the view of the ruins as well as the gorgeous clouds! 

 Another cloud picture that I love!

 View of the Colosseum through the arch.

 Me with the Colosseum in the background!  (Thanks Allegra for the nice hair-do!!)

Below is my lunch from Day 4.  I had cannelloni.It was absolutely delicious!!  It was pasta noodles filled with meat and tomato sauce.

 After our late lunch we headed to check out whatever other monuments/museums we could find. The above picture shows medals from WWI in a war museum that we stumbled across.

 This is a picture of the hugeeee monument to Vittorio Emmanuele II.  He was a King at some point (I think the 1800s??)

For dinner that night we went to the grocery store and got chips, bread, salami, cheese, and Sprite.  Between all of us we ate a pretty filling dinner for only $1.70 a piece.

The next day we visited the Spanish steps again to take pictures during the day.  As you can tell it was pretty crowded, but at least I got a picture of me on the steps.

 And a group picture at the Trevi fountain during the day.  It was hard to get pictures of stuff during the day because it literally started getting dark at 4:30pm.  So if we wanted pictures with daylight we had to be there pretty early during the day.

 And me at the Trevi Fountain. 

 And the Pantheon.  Too bad they were doing restoration on it.  But it was still really awesome to see.

 A nativity scene inside the Pantheon.  It was completely carved out of wood.  It was gorgeous!

 Me in the Pantheon!

That afternoon we trekked up to Villa Bourghese.  After having a bit of trouble finding it (including getting out of the metro stop in the middle of nowhere), we finally found the park and spent a wonderful afternoon exploring.  We rented a six person "bike-vehicle-thingy-ma-bob" and had quite the adventure riding through the park.  There were some scary parts where I definitely thought we were going to run someone over, but it was really fun.  The above picture is a view of the city from the park.

And a group picture of us on the bike.  Tooooo funny. :)

The end to our last night in Rome was rather rough.  We went to dinner at a wayyyy overpriced, absolutely horrible restaurant.  The canned Coke products were FIVE EURO a piece.  And the 8 euro pizza that some ordered was a microwaveable pizza that looked absolutely horrible.  I'm soooo glad that I didn't waste my money on any food at that restaurant.  I ate back at the hotel. 

Once we got back to the hotel we got a call from the guys from our program that one of the guys had an allergic reaction (he is very allergic to milk/dairy products).  I went to the front desk of the hotel to ask for directions to the hospital that they told us to meet them at and the guy at the front desk did not even look up at me.  He just said "I don't understand you," "I don't speak English."  When he was very clearly speaking to me in English.  He was being incredibly rude and even though I said hospital in both English and Spanish he pretended to not understand me.  I headed back to the room to get the other girls and when we all headed out he called us over and "suddenly" understood the word hospital.  What a jerk.  Anyways, he gave us directions, which turned out to be terrible so we had to keep asking people.  When we got to the hospital, the guys called us back and said that they had wound up taking him to a different hospital in the ambulance.  So we grabbed a taxi and headed to that hospital.  Upon arriving we found out how severe the reaction was and waited for news from the doctors.  All I could do was pray.  I was talking to Shannon afterward about it and she said that she was praying the whole time too.  I don't know how people that don't believe handle situations like those.  After what seemed like forever, we found out that he was okay.  He was released later that night and we all headed to bed soon after since we had to get up and head to the airport the next day for our flight back to Sevilla.  Shannon and I talked about how exciting it will be in TEN DAYS when we get to finally walk into an airport with people waiting to see us!  Can't wait!! :)

Roman Holiday--Part I

I got back from my 6 day vacation in Rome last night around 8pm.  It was a wonderful vacation spent with wonderful friends.  There were definitely some rough patches and things that we didn't expect to happen, but thankfully everything turned out well.  Here's a quick rundown of the first three days in Rome.

We arrived got to the airport on Wednesday around 5pm for our 7pm flight.  After waiting forever in lines, our flight left about 40 minutes after our scheduled departure time.  However, we landed in Rome on time.  We were a little confused that there was no passport check, but found out it was because we were flying from a country in the EU to another country in the EU.  So no stamp in my passport from Italy.  Sad day. Oh well, we took the airport bus to the train station near our hotel and walked the rest of the way to the hotel (about 5 mins).  Our hotel was pretty nice and conveniently located right next to a metro stop.  We headed to dinner at a restaurant near the hotel.  I wasn't very hungry so I just got a Sprite and shared a couple of slices of pizza from what the other girls had ordered.  It was delicious!  After dinner we headed back to the hotel and planned for the next day.

We woke up pretty early on Thursday and had breakfast at the hotel.  It was included in our stay and compared to most European breakfasts, it was pretty substantial.  Since the weather was nice, we headed to the Colosseum, stopping first to buy our Roma Pass.  It was a 3 day pass that give us free access of the metro and the bus system as well as free entrance into the first two archeological sites we visited and discounts on other sites.  It was a great deal and saved us a considerable amount of money and time (because we didn't have to wait in long lines).  The only problem was that mine refused to swipe for the metro.  It was annoying, but I just used one of the other girls after they had already used it. 

The Colosseum was swarming with people, of course.  Tourist groups kept harassing us trying to get us to join their guided tours, but we kept turning them down.  It was quite annoying, but we took a few good shots from the outside and then headed into the Colosseum.  Here's one of my favorite pictures of the outside. 

I love how green the grass is in this picture and the pretty Carolina blue sky.  :)

When we went inside the Colosseum, Shannon decided to get an audio guide to help explain everything inside without having to wait around for a tour group.  It was a guy with an awesome British accent so we got to walk around imitating his accent and the ridiculous amount of times he said "ferocious beast" and "50 bearsss."  Our favorite quote of the audio guide: "When a whale conveniently washed up on an Italian shore the Romans would make a wooden replica of it and place it in the center of the Colosseum.  When the mouth of the wooden whale opened, out poured 50 bears."  Now not only does the quote itself sound ridiculous, but the British accent added a whole other level.  Absolutely hilarious.  Here are a couple of my favorite pictures from the Colosseum.

 Me inside the Colosseum.

 This is underneath where the "stage" used to be. 

 View of most of the Colosseum. 

 The girls at the Colosseum.  Allegra, Me, Shannon, and Amelia.

 Allegra and I at the Colosseum.

One of my favorite pictures from the Colosseum.  I love how the sun makes the cross a shadow and you can see the rest of the Colosseum in the background.  Absolutely awesome!

After we left the Colosseum we met up with another group from our program that came to Rome for the vacation as well.  While waiting to meet up with them we had lunch in Piazza di Popolo and I had my first Italian pizza.  It was delicious!  Here's a picture of it. 

Hahahaha.  Bad picture, but you get the idea.

After lunch we went to Plaza Republica.  We explored around the Plaza and saw some sort of exhibition where some soccer players where.  Possibly a charity or something of the sort.  Afterward, Shannon and I headed to a church - Santa Maria Maggiore.  Absolutely beautiful.  One of my favorite churches we've seen all semester.  Here are a few pictures.

 The church from the outside.

 Ceiling inside showing Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Another ceiling. 

After the church we met up with everyone and got gelato.  I had lemon and it was delicious!  Then we made stops at the Trevi fountain, a church by the fountain, and the Spanish steps.  It started raining at the fountain, but luckily most of us had umbrellas so we were able to share.  After the Spanish steps we walked down "expensive street" and saw stores like Gucci, Prada, Dior, etc.  Here are more pictures.

 Trevi Fountain.  Soooo pretty.  It was really weird seeing so many pictures of it and seeing it in movies and then actually being there.

 Me with the Trevi Fountain.

 The group making a wish at the fountain.  Clearly I was veryyy excited.

 The girls at the fountain.  :)

 And now with our umbrellas.

Spanish Steps!

We metroed back to the Colosseum to see it at night.  By the time we got there it was pouring down rain so we took a quick look and then headed to the nearest restaurant.  Shannon and I shared a delicious pizza. Then we headed back to the hotel to play cards and to plan for the next day.

On Friday we literally spent the entire day at the Vatican/St. Peter's.  Again, it was weird actually being there and knowing how famous it is.  We were there from 10 am to 6 pm with only an hour break for lunch.  The Vatican museum was hugeeee.  It took us forever to go through it and we skipped some of it and went really fast through other parts.  I loved every bit of it though. 

Seeing the Sistine Chapel was surreal.  You're not supposed to take pictures in there, but I did snag one (only because it was my once and a lifetime chance of being there).  I saw one lady take a picture (very obviously, not even trying to hide it from the guards) and when the guard tried to stop her she swatted his arm away.  She was quickly escorted out.  Emotionally, I was very moved by every scene in the room.  Most were Biblical stores (David and Goliath, creation, etc.) and I couldn't help but sit and admire every little part. 

Afterward, we headed to St Peter's Basilica.  Again, absolutely amazing.  It was more than just a famous tourist site for me.  It was very intimate and I was able to spend some quiet time reflecting and praying in one of the most beautiful churches in the world.  Here are a few pictures of Friday's adventures.

 Real mummy in the Vatican museum.

 One of the many statues we saw.  This one's of Julius Cesare. 

 Beautiful ceiling.

 Sistine Chapel!!

 St. Peter's Basilica.

 again.  This is at the front, at the altar.

 Me in St. Peter's.

Outside of St. Peter's.

Afterward, we saw a castle and walked down by the river.  It was getting pretty chilly so we headed back to the hotel.  I wasn't feeling very well so I stayed in while the rest of the group got dinner. 

I'll finish with the rest of the trip tomorrow!  :)