NO8DO

"Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto
Me ha dado la marcha de mis pies cansados
Con ellos anduve ciudades y charcos
Playas y desiertos, montañas y llanos
Y la casa tuya, tu calle y tu patio"

-Violeta Parra

These past four months have been what I call "fake life", in which we all had the opportunity to step outside of our bubble and into a completely new scene. All the things you think about; like going to the gym, what someone said at work, if gas prices went up, what traffic is going to be like... have literally stopped, and its been replaced by the endless possibilities of what you can do on that day. Wake up, have breakfast then go back to sleep until lunch? Sure! Didn't have time to run an errand, doesn't matter, you can do it tomorrow. Sit by the river and have a bottle of wine? Yes please. The best part is that no one knows anything about your life, so YOU get to decide who you are, what you do and what you like.

That's the whole point of this, finding out what ultimately works for you and what doesn't.

Obviously there is the whole cultural immersion aspect; travelling to different cities, getting lost, all the wonderful architecture, the good and the bad food, not to mention the ridiculous Andalusian accent... but six months from now when I'm heartsick for Sevilla and looking through all the pictures I'm not really going to be saying "look at that fountain" am I? Absolutely not. I'm going to be saying "I remember that day when I was with ________ and ______ and we did this and that." 

These people are the ones that I chose to spend my days with, and all of a sudden it hits that after we part ways, that's it.

People always say that age is just a number, well I think that time is also just a number. Who's to say that your friend from high school is more significant than your friend from a month ago? You enjoy each other's company all the same, you share about your past and talk about plans for the future... a friend is a friend. Of course Portugal will still be beautiful and you can sit on the beach and watch the sunset, but it will be boring after a while if you have no one to share it with.

Sevilla will always have my heart, and I know that sooner or later I will come back and visit good old 100 Montaditos on a Wednesday, go to Los Coloniales for dinner, grab a beer at La Cerveceria Internacional, then head to the river. This beautiful city will always be here, waiting. 

But all the people who made it special will not... and they too will always have my heart.

So to España and all my friends, I say thank you from the bottom of my heart, every single second of these past four months exceeded my expectations. I hope life and its crazy ways will throw us back together again.

NO8DO.

Short and sweet

To some of you, living in Spain for four months to "study abroad" is really only an excuse to go on an extended vacation. Truth: you're absolutely right. Yet living the hard of life being lazy and eating all the time sometimes requires its own mini-vacation.


Portugal is about a two hour drive from Sevilla, and as soon as you cross the border the landscape is completely different, and nobody will speak in Spanish to you. Only English or Portuguese. Actually, even the people are quite different... maybe a little nicer?


Although this spring has been quite rainy and cold at times, we made it onto the beach all three days; but Sunday was picture perfect, not a single cloud. With only two weeks until I head back home, Portugal was by far the best way to end the term. Lagos was lovely and calm. Not a lot of people in the city, and its almost impossible to get lost. Our itinerary was basically to do whatever we felt like doing; so that included a lot of sand, sun, and sangria.


Lagos is at the southernmost tip of the country, and its coastlines are incredible. We had the opportunity to hike out onto the massive cliffs that hug the ocean, and we even tried to catch the sunset at Cabo Sao Vicente (aka the End of the World); which is the closest tip to the United States; but that didn't really work out as planned because it was extremely windy and cloudy. On Saturday we all hopped on a boat, drank some sangria and got an awesome view of the grottoes. Those things are MASSIVE, and create a cool network caves. And of course the beaches were beautiful, the sand was different; it kind of looked like sesame seeds.


If I lived in Spain I would be going to Portugal every single weekend.


But of course, the best part of any trip is the company. Even though we filled three buses, it didn't seem like there were that many of us. Everybody was on the same page; to have a relaxing weekend and have fun. At night the city came alive, all the locals and tourists go out dancing in the clubs... in which you can apparently still smoke. We weren't sure what the typical "Portuguese cuisine" was, but it seemed like it was similar to what we eat here in Andalusia, so of course we find the best places with burgers, ribs and Mexican food.


At the end of the day, its always so nice to come back to Sevilla. Going out of town for a little bit definitely makes you appreciate all the good things about "home", wherever that might be at the moment.


It also makes me wonder: leaving all my soul mates for a few months in Canada was hard, but I always knew I'd be seeing them again. But now that I'm leaving these new soul mates that I might actually never see again... how much harder will it be?