Aaron and Jess Do Spain!

Hi everyone!!! So now that I am officially settled back in to my home in Sevilla, and leaving in two days for Italy, I figured it was time to begin the blog about Aaron's visit to Spain. I think I have been putting it off a little because writing about all the fun we had makes me miss him!! Well, and the fact that we did so much, I don't even know where to start!

I guess I will start from Friday morning though (March 20th), the day that Aaron arrived! I got up at 5:30 am to catch a train to Malaga at 7:35 am. The train right was almost 3 hours and I was exhausted, but I was so excited that I couldn't sleep for a second. I got to Malaga at 10:15 and then figured out the trains to the airport, where I was going to meet Aaron after his flight got in at 10:50! Well, unfortunately, I JUST missed the 10:18 train to the airport, and had to wait for the next one at 10:50. I figured I would still make it in time to be waiting outside of baggage claim though when he arrived (which was the plan all along). Well, I was wrong. The train took longer than expected, and once I got off, I had to literally walk across the whole airport to get to his terminal! None of this would have been a problem, except that he didn't have a cell phone, so he had no way of contacting me while he was waiting for me in the airport for 20 minutes worrying! Anyways, I finally made it to his terminal, and went to the receiving area for when people come out after baggage claim. After searching around there for a minute or two, I did not see him anywhere, and decided to walk around to get a better view. It was on my way to the other side when I finally spotted him, frantically putting euro coins into a Spanish payphone to try to call me. I yelled his name, and he hung up the phone with a HUGE visible sigh of relief. Then I gave him a big hug!

From there, we caught a bus to Marbella, which only took about 25 minutes. We then hopped in a taxi, which took us to where we would be staying for the weekend- La Trinidad. My Uncle Fred's friend Jamie was nice enough to let us stay in his apartment for the weekend, and it turned out to be one AMAZING apartment!!! We were so fortunate to be able to stay there, here are a few pics of the apartment:

The living room.

The view of the complex from the apartment!

Aaron in front of the pool!

Anyways, we got settled in there, and decided to take a walk to the nearest beach which was about 5 minutes away. It wasn't perfect weather, but was gorgeous in the sun. We were starving so we decided to eat at this little restaurant on the beach. Turned out to be probably the most expensive restaurant we ate at the entire time because of its location, but we were just so hungry and so happy to be together that it didn't even matter at the time. We had some delicious calamari and salad (Aaron was VERY happy that I like calamari now!). We walked on the beach a little more after lunch, and then decided to go back to La Trinidad and lay out by the pool while it was still sunny. We did this for an hour or so, until it got too chilly, then went inside for a much needed siesta for the both of us. For dinner that night we went into the downtown part of Marbella, not that we knew what it was, we just asked to be taken to the centro. We had dinner at a seafood restaurant where we shared a delicious paella!! I am happy to say that I think Aaron enjoyed his first paella experience!! It was a great first day and night in Marbella!

Aaron eating paella. Yum! We tried to be brave and eat the shrimp, but they had eyeballs. Unsuccessful.

On Saturday, we were hoping for a beautiful day so we could hang out at the beach all day. Well, that was just about the opposite from what we got. We even brought our bathing suits and towels with us around all day, just in case the weather got nice...which it did not. It was pretty chilly and windy all day long! It was a bummer, but we still had a fun day walking around the really nice harbor area in Marbella called Puerto Banus. There are tons of ritzy stores and restaurants lining the harbor that is filled with huge, fancy boats. We also walked to a "flea market" that turned out to be like 10 stalls of strange artwork, walked around the shopping malls that were around there, and had some good pizza for lunch. I have to say, Aaron was a pretty good shopper this day! He got a little sick of it by the end, but overall, he was a trooper! I don't think either of us actually bought anything though besides two oranges, chocolate, batteries, and wine. Oh well! It was a pretty long and chilly day of walking around, but it was great just to spend time together. After going back to the apartment to siesta, shower, and get ready, we took a cab back into the Puerto Banus area for dinner (unfortunately we had to take cabs everywhere...this really added up). We went to this Italian restaurant that we had spotted earlier which was very affordable and turned out to be good food!! After dinner we went into a few bars around that area, one in particular where they were playing basketball!! We were happy to catch even a few minutes of the tournament, so it was fun. Aaron also had the pleasure of realizing how expensive mixed drinks are here, when our 2 rum and cokes turned out to be 10 euros. Despite some bad weather, we had a great day and night in Marbella.

On Sunday, we had to leave around 1 pm to catch a taxi to the bus station in Marbella to get back to Malaga to catch our bus back to Sevilla! We decided not to waste the money on a cab to get food, so we were literally starving by the time we got to the bus station, but figured there would be food there. Well, the restaurant was really sketchy looking, so our only other option was to buy lots of chips, and a 90 cent freshly baked baguette of bread from the gas station. The bread turned out to be kind of amazing, but we both felt disgusting after eating such an unhealthy lunch.

Our lunch on the bus. Yikes...

We also were a little nervous that we were not going to have enough time to catch our bus in Malaga to Sevilla, but it all worked out well and we even had time to spare. We got to Sevilla in the late afternoon, and checked into our hotel, Hotel Catalonia Giralda. The room was nothing special, but overall the hotel was pretty decent, and we had free internet! It was great. We decided to go exploring a little bit, and I realized that our hotel was actually very close to my school, and to where we go out! So it turned out to be a great location. We sat at a little restaurant bar and had some cafe con leche and two tapas to hold us over until dinner. Aaron tried tortilla (the Spanish egg and potato omelette thing), and really liked it! I was happy. Later that night, we showered and went to dinner at another restaurant where we had some more delicious tapas. We came back to our hotel, watched Slumdog Millionaire on Aaron's computer (I had never seen it!), and went to bed. It was a great first weekend :)

Ok well seeing as this post is already really long and I've only done one weekend, I guess I should stop giving so many details. I don't know why I always end up doing that, I guess I blog as if I am telling this story in person to any of you! Oh well, like I always say, feel free to skim at any time. I'll try and be a little more succinct!

So we spent Sunday night- Thursday night in Sevilla, and had a great time. The hardest part was forcing myself to go to my classes (don't worry, I did!). On Monday, we went to Plaza de España, Parque María Luisa, walked along the river, saw the bullfighting ring, and ate lunch with my friends outside in our usual lunch spot. At night, we went out for some more tapas at this restuarant called Levíes Cafe which is right near my school, and discovered that it was amazing! We accidentally ordered all our tapas at once though, which we soon realized was a bad idea because then you have TONS of food on your table and look like huge fatasses, while everyone else in the restaurant stares at you, oops! After dinner we met up with my friends Franny and Chrisy and went to La Carbonería, that flamenco bar that I also took my family too. I don't think Aaron enjoyed the show as much as my dad did, but he liked it, and got to experience some real Andalucían culture! It was a fun night!

Some of our tapas!

On Tuesday we woke up to very gross weather unfortunately. It was rainy and pretty chilly. We decided to go to the Cathedral and La Giralda because they are inside activities. Well, it was only drizzling when we went out, but by the time we had been walking for about 10 minutes with no umbrella, we were soaked. So we stopped in a little souvenir store and got one, however this did not prevent my cute mocassins from getting completely soaked. Major bummer. We took a good tour of the Cathedral and then climbed La Giralda. This was I think my 5th time doing both, but oh well, I was glad to show them to Aaron! We had some cafe con leche, and then headed into Triana to go to....my señora's house for lunch!! She had invited Aaron and I to come to lunch there one day, and Tuesday was our day. Overall it went very well. She told me that Aaron was MUCH more handsome in real life than in the picture I have of him in my room, and that I needed to get a new picture!! She served us stew with chicken, beef, potatoes, and garbanzo beans (actually one of my favorite things she makes!), and I was really nervous that Aaron would not eat it, but he did a great job and ate it all! I was so proud :). We had to leave because I had class, so it was a nice, not too lengthy visit. She told me she really liked him.

Me outside my bedroom window! I swear it looks less jail-ish from the inside.

Tuesday night we went to a yummy fish restaurant which was recommended by the New York Times. It was very good, slightly pricey but it was our one nice dinner in Sevilla so we didn't mind. The highlight was when I asked how much sea bass would be (because it said depending on market price) and he came out with a full dead fish on a platter to show me the one they could cook for us. Luckily, the fish tasted a lot better than it looked on that platter haha.

Wednesday we had to switch hotels to one just down the street because we had originally planned on going to Córdoba for a night, but decided against that plan. Unfortunately we couldn't get the same great rate for our other hotel for that night, so we just switched. This hotel was pretty nice too! Anyways, Wednesday was a nicer day, and we did some shopping (as much as Aaron could stand), eating, and drinking wine outside in between my classes. At night, we had tapas again for dinner (I swear we did eat other things), and then met up with my friends and went out in Sevilla! We went to a few bars and then headed to this discoteca called Catedral. We didn't stay too long, but I was glad Aaron got to get a glimpse of what a disco looks like!

Thursday was our last day in Sevilla, and it turned out to be gorgeous weather. We had to check out of our hotel in the morning, and then we headed to Reales Alcázares (the royal palace and its gardens). I showed Aaron around the palaces, and then we spent a while walking around the beautiful gardens in the amazing, sunny weather!

Us in the palace! I was not very happy that Aaron chose to wear an orange shirt; we clashed big time!

After the palace and gardens, we stopped to take a few pictures outside the Cathedral and Giralda since it was a beautiful day. I include this part in my blog because it is a great example of how AWFUL people on the streets are at taking good pictures. Over and over we would kindly ask people to take a picture of us in front of some monument, such as the Cathedral, and over and over they would cut out half the monument. Here is an example:

We set up this picture perfectly so that the whole Cathedral would be in the background, and this dumb guy managed to cut out the left two-thirds of it! Ridiculous. Would have been such a great picture. And don't worry, we tried asking more than one person- all failures!

After the unsuccessful pictures, we walked into this area called Santa Cruz to get some lunch. We saw the Judería, the old Jewish quarters where all the Jews lived before they were kicked out during the Spanish Inquisition. Then we had some lunch in the sun, did a little souvenir shopping, and headed back to our hotel before my class. After class, we grabbed our stuff and went to the train station to catch our train to Madrid. We took the high speed train so it only took us about 2 and a half hours to get to Madrid- it was great! Once we got to Madrid, we took a cab to our hotel, checked in, and rushed to a restaurant before their kitchens all closed at 12. We walked around a little afterwards, and then went back to our hotel, exhausted! This hotel was called Senator Gran Vía, it was on the big Gran Vía street in the center of Madrid- perfect location! It was also very nice!! Aaron did a great job finding hotels!

We woke up early Friday, as we only had one full day in Madrid. We decided to skip out on all the art museums (I didn't think Aaron would really enjoy seeing hundreds of old religious paintings), and instead do the more fun things! We walked down Gran Vía, went to Plaza de España, and then headed to the Royal Palace which was great to see again, and Aaron enjoyed it too. From there we went to Plaza Mayor where we hung out for a while, looked at all the weirdo street performers, and had two mini Coca Cola Lights for over 6 euro. Lesson learned: do not order soft drinks at restaurants. I'm pretty sure beer is about half the price.

Example of the weird street performs: crazy fruit lady.

We kept on walking (I remembered how to get everywhere from last time! for the most part), stopped for some lunch at a Mexican place (being in Spain makes me miss Mexican food!!), and headed towards el Parque del Retiro, this very pretty park that my parents went to when they were in Madrid, but that I never saw. We walked past the Prado along the way, so Aaron could at least say he saw it from the outside! The park was gorgeous- we walked around for a few and once again enjoyed the beautiful weather. There was this really cool glass building that had these crystal snowflake statue thingies in it (great description huh?). Here's a picture haha:

You could take cool reflective pictures in these things, like the bean!

Aaron and I in front of a pretty pond. Someone finally took a decent picture of us!!

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel and did some packing and preparing for our travels home the next day. We showered and got ready, and had an amazing dinner at that Argentinian steak place I went to with my family where my dad ate a whole cow. I don't think Aaron or I ate a whole cow alone, but combined....it was very possible. After dinner we walked around a cute little area of Madrid that had lots of night life. We sat outside and had some wine, and had a very lovely last night together.

Saturday morning was very sad. We woke up, finished packing, enjoyed our free hotel breakfast, and then grabbed our stuff and checked out of the hotel. Aaron was going to the airport to catch his flight home at 11:50, and I was going to the train station to catch my train at 10:05, so we left at the same time in two separate cabs. Saying goodbye to him and then watching him get in one cab as I got in another was very, very difficult, as was the 3 hour train ride home alone. Adjusting back to being in Sevilla and living in my homestay proved to be a little challeging after being with Aaron at all times (except for class) for a whole week. I really miss him a lot. But the important thing is that we had an AMAZING week together, and I am so so so grateful that he came to visit me!! It was a week I will never forget!

Anyways, I only have a 3 day week this week, because I am going to Italy on Thurday morning to be with Dori and Emily!!! I am flying into Rome with my friends here, but then we are all going our separate ways. I am going to meet up with Dori at the train station, and we are going to spend Thursday and Friday in Florence. We come back Friday night, when I will finally get to see Emily! We are staying with her in Rome until Tuesday (which is also her 21st birthday!). Two of my other friends from school will also be in Rome over the weekend, so I am very excited to see them too! I have no school next week because it is Semana Santa (Holy Week), and Sevilla is famous for their celebration of this week, which includes everyone having the week off of school and work! So I get to stay in Italy until Tuesday of next week, I will be in Sevilla to see Semana Santa Wednesday and Thursday, and then we are going to the beach in Portugal on Friday! It should be a great next week and a half!

I'll do my best to post on here when I can, but I can't promise anything since I don't know how often I'll have access to a computer. I miss everyone at home a lot and I hope everyone had great spring breaks! I also hope the weather starts to get nicer in the Midwest...no more snow!! I'm sure the lovely spring weather will start soon :)

Love you all,
Jess

Has it really been 2 months??

Yes, it is true, I have now officially been in Sevilla for just over 2 months. TIME HAS LITERALLY FLOWN BY! It is so hard to believe I am half way done with my semester abroad!!! Wow.

Anyways, on a happier note, it is Thursday night at 8:20 pm, I have finished all my midterms for the week, and AARON COMES TOMORROW!!!!!!!! I could not be more excited. As for my midterms, they were fine...I found it VERY difficult to study as hard as I do at home, but I also sort of expected that. The tests here are also formatted very differently than at home...each test had a maximum of 10 questions. What is that about? I like long multiple choice tests...not 10 question tests where I am writing the whole time. But now at least I know what they are like and will be able to study better for finals.

Other than than this week was pretty good. Tuesday was Franny's 21st birthday, so we went out on Monday night to celebrate since a bunch of us had midterms on Wednesday. It was a very fun night! We went out for Mexican food, where our waiter Francisco literally poured tequila down Franny's throat...yikes. Then we went to a few bars in search of green beer, but unfortunately they did not have it until actual St. Patrick's day. The funniest part was that I managed to get two groups of foreigners to sing her happy birthday...first some Italians, then some Dutch men. I really felt like I was in Europe!

Another interesting moment of my week was today when I decided to get a pedicure. It all started the other day when Chrisy and I decided to get pedicures at this place called Spejo's that we knew did them because it said it in the window. It turned out that we needed appointments, so we made them for today. Mine was at 11 and hers was at 12, which we thought sounded odd that it took so long! Well, I was not only there until 12...I was there until 1!!!! When I first got there, I had to wait a good 15 minutes until someone finally told me to come with them. Then, she told me to sit in one of the hair washing chairs (you know, the chairs connected to the sink). I told her I was here for a pedicure, not a haircut, and she said she knew. Ok, sort of strange. Then, she proceeds to put plastic bags over each of my feet, at which point I was VERY confused. Next, she poured some hot soapy water into each bag, then wrapped them in paper towels, and I sat like that for about 15 minutes. Ummm....what? By the time she finally started the pedicure, which involved putting my foot on a high stool and having it be asleep the whole time, it was almost 12!! And then she kept telling me that I had blisters and she didn't want to touch them. She also painted my right big toe nail really weird...and I asked her to fix it and she said that she had painted it like that because the shape of my nail is weird and she was trying to make it prettier, haha! Thanks a lot! It all worked out fine in the end though, and my toes are ready for the beach!

Now all I have left to do tonight is eat, pack, and get to bed early!!! Aaron will be leaving the US in a few hours!! I'll give you all a quick run down of our week! I am catching a train to Málaga tomorrow at 7:30 am, and he is taking a connecting flight from Madrid to Málaga. So we will meet around 11 at the airport (yay!), and take the bus together to Marbella, which is only about 45 mins away. We are lucky enough to be staying at my uncle Fred's friend's apartment in Marbella for the weekend- it sounds amazing, and I cannot wait to be on a beach! So we'll be in Marbella until Sunday, when we are taking the bus back to Málaga and then to Sevilla. We'll then be in Sevilla Sunday night to Thursday, and Thursday night we go to Madrid. Then Aaron leaves from Madrid Saturday morning, and I take the train back to Sevilla. But I'm not gonna think about that part now!! I am very excited to see him and to show him what my life is like here, and I feel very lucky that he is visiting me! A lot of people do not have anyone coming to visit them during the semester; I've already seen 3 of my friends from school here, my family, and now Aaron! I am definitely a lucky girl.

Ok, it is just about dinner time but first I figure I should post my travelling schedule for the rest of the semester. It's pretty exciting!

March 20-22: MARBELLA with Aaron
March 26-28: MADRID with Aaron
April 2-3: FLORENCE with Dori
April 3-7: Visiting Emily in ROME with Dori
April 10-12: Lagos, PORTUGAL with Franny, Chrisy, and Jillian
April 17-19: MOROCCO with my interest group
April 24-29: PARIS with Dori
May 7: My birthday!
May 14: Last day of class!
May 17: Flight home (thinking of extending it a week and going to Greece though...!)

Alright, that is all for now. Time to pack!!!!! Hope all is well back at home and that everyone has been having/has a great spring break! Very jealous of all of my friends going to Amsterdam together this weekend AND of the Puerto Vallarta spring breakers....but I'll take Spain with Aaron :)

Barcelona!

Hola!!! Soooo...basically, I am awful at updating lately. Now that it's nice weather here, I try and spend more time outside rather than sitting in my room on my computer all day, leading to less blogging on my part. So I apologize about that, but I guess it should be taken as a good thing that I have less time to blog because I've been out and about more. The weather has really been beautiful here lately- I laid out by the river all day on Friday! I didn't even burn!!! And I'm slightly less pale!

Anyways, I never blogged about my trip to Barcelona, so I'll do that first. All in all, it was amazing!! Barcelona was one of the cities that stood out to me when I took that student trip around Europe when I was 14, so I had originally planned on studying abroad there for years. Unfortunately, there was no Wisconsin program there, and I also changed my mind and wanted a smaller city feeling, so I ended up choosing Sevilla which I am very happy about. Madrid and Granada were cool, but not as great as Sevilla. Barcelona was SO cool and so much fun, but it still feels like a very big city compared to Sevilla, not that Sevilla is that small (700,000)!

But moving on...I travelled to Barcelona with my friends Franny, Chrisy, and Jillian. It was our first trip that we had planned ourselves, so it was pretty exciting, and everything ended up working out great! We had a few minor mishaps (almost missing the bus to the airport, for example), but the flights, hostel, transportation, etc all worked out very well. Our hostel was called Gothic Point and was in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, which turned out to be a pretty good location! We were right next to a Metro station (which we successfully used several times!), right by some good shopping, lots of restaurants, and even a few blocks away from the Picasso Museum (which by the way, was so interesting and fun to see!). As for the hostel itself, it was very nice, however the actual rooms were slightly sketchy. You can even see for yourself:

Yep, down where Franny is standing on the left is where our beds were, thank god on the bottom. Interesting, huh?

Anyways, highlights of the trip included seeing La Sagrada Familia, an amazing church designed by the famous architect Antoni Gaudí (yes, I have started putting links in my blog to wikipedia...for those of you who want to actually know more!). Construction of the church began in 1882, and still continues to this day!! Apparently it is supposed to be done in 2010...but they've been pushing the date back for centuries already so...yea right. Gaudí has tons of other structures "sprinkled" around the city as my friend Adam so nicely put it. We went to one of the most famous ones, Park Güell. It was SO cool that we spent a few hours wandering around there. Check out my album to see the pics! Especially cool are the benches:

Me and Franny sitting on the benches. The park is literally surrounded by these benches, all different designs!

And here is a facade of La Sagrada Familia- the older side. The front facade looks a lot newer.

Another plus was that my friend Adam is studying in Barcelona, so it was also great to hang out with him once again (he came to Sevilla once too). He did a good job of helping us get around and telling us where to go! My cousin Zach was also in Barcelona at the same time, however he did not have a phone and we never managed to find each other. Major disappointment. The other big bummer of the weekend was that my Blackberry got stolen. Some guy literally took it out of my hand on the street and ran off with it. I am fine, everything is fine, no need to worry- I already have a new phone. But, it was a wakeup call that I do need to be more careful. Sevilla is very safe, and although I am very careful most of the time, I do probably let my guard down at times, and that came back to get me in this case in Barcelona. But I definitely learned my lesson.

We got back from Barcelona midday on Sunday, and I had a pretty good week since then. As I said, the weather was gorgeous, so we spent a lot of time outside. I had a really cool interest group meeting on Tuesday where we listened to a prominent member of the Jewish community here in Sevilla speak. I learned that out of the 700,00 people living in Sevilla, only 100 of them are Jewish. I was in SHOCK. I knew that there weren't that many Jews left here (due to the Spanish Inquisition back at the end of the 15th century), but I thought that meant at the VERY LEAST 5,000. And in Spain as a whole there are over 40 million inhabitants, 30,000 of which are Jewish. Wow. So that was very interesting to learn about.

Another interesting little fact is that I have somehow acquired two Italian 17 year old roommates since I got back from Barcelona! Apparently they are some friends of a friend of my Señora's daughter and are doing a 2 week stay here in Sevilla. So it has been pretty entertaining....their names are Beata and Denise (however Tita Charo can only remember Beata's name). They do speak some Spanish, but it usually just sounds like Italian and therefore is very difficult to understand. The three of us usually eat dinner together and Tita Charo eats after, since there are really only 3 spots at the table. I find it pretty funny trying to converse with them at dinner, and I've enjoyed having some of the attention off myself around the house. And by some, I mean mainly all because there are two of them and they are much less easy to live with than I am haha. The only hard part is that I have to basically compete with them for first shower. It's a fun little game....

Lastly, today I went on a day trip to Aracena. I had already been there to go hiking, but this time we went to see the caves. I haven't uploaded my pictures yet from today, but the caves were SO cool. It was hard to believe that it was real, I felt like I was in a movie! Or possibly Huckleberry Finn. I also was really brave and went without any of my friends- they all couldn't go but I was still signed up so I just decided to go for it. Who am I? I would never do that in real life. But it worked out fine, I did in fact find people to hang out with for the day and was not a sad loner (my roommate from orientation, Emily, and her friends...I liked them all!).

Anyways, definitely bedtime because I have a midterm tomorrow (ah!), but here is the link to my facebook album from Barcelona:

Barcelona!!


Hope everyone's doing well! Love and miss you all, Jess

P.S. AARON COMES ON FRIDAY!!!!!! More on that later!

Seilers en Madrid.....I finally finished it!!!

Alright, so I guess it is time to write the second half of this update....our trip to Madrid!!! I'll pick up right where I left off. Oh but first, I am still trying to insert pictures into the other blog...sometimes blogger just doesn't want me to. But here is a link to my photo album on Facebook that hopefully everyone can see:

My Family Does Spain: Sevilla y Madrid!

And here is a link to Jilly's album:

I Have a Kit Kat

Ok, onto the blog!

FRIDAY
So we had a quick flight from Sevilla to Madrid (it's only about 45 minutes), and then hopped into a cab to go to our hotel. The traffic was pretty bad at that point in the day, which gave my dad plenty of time to make friends with the cab driver and embarass us with his once again, really awful Spanish. We got to the hotel and it was AMAZING! Even nicer than the first one!! So nice in fact, that there were swarms of Russians staying there because the president of Russia was arriving in Madrid on Sunday and staying at our hotel!

Our hotel at night!

Once we got settled into our gorgeous rooms, we went out to grab some lunch at this place we were recommended called Los Gatos. The waiter recommended us some dishes, so we got those. They were very good....except then we realized we had fallen into the restaurant's major tourist trap and had gotten totally ripped off due to how we ordered. Major bummer, but we learned our lesson. After lunch, we set out to do some exploring. We went to Plaza Mayor, one of the most famous sights in Madrid. We walked around there for a while, did some shopping, and then stopped for some traditional churros con chocolate at a little churro shop. Churros here are very different than what we think they are...they dont have any cinnamon and sugar on them, they're just fried stick of dough. Some people eat them plain, but the BEST way is to order them with chocolate (it's like a very thick hot chocolate) and dip them in. Yum!

The girls in Plaza Mayor!

It was then time for to go back to the hotel for a siesta, of course. After siesta, we got ready, and headed out to a late (well, normal for Spain, late for my parents!) dinner around 10:00. We ended up at an Argentinian restaurant which was DELICIOUS. I hadn't had any sort of steak since being here, so it was quite the treat! My dad ate so much steak we think he might have eaten a whole cow...not sure though. It was a great dinner, and then we walked around Madrid a little in an attempt to work off some of the huge dinner we just ate. Madrid is pretty at night all lit up! After a nice walk cut short by Jilly complaining about her shoes, we went back to the hotel, where we did some catching up online and called it a night.

SATURDAY
Wow, it has been so long since my family was actually here I hope I can remember well enough to do this update! Haha. But here goes!

So Saturday morning we woke up early once again, had some great hotel breakfast with all the Russians, and headed off for the day. Our first stop was the famous Museo del Prado (the Prado Museum)! Some of us were more excited than others, as it is a museum filled with very famous paintings....but very old and religious-themed famous paintings. Once we got in, my dad of course purchased an audioguide right away. You know, those little walkie-talkie looking things that type in a number, hold it up to your ear, and get to hear great information about what you're looking at. We spent about an hour and a half at the museum (one really could spend the entire day there) which gave us enough time to see all the famous paintings we wanted to see and then some. It was very cool for me to see some of these paintings that I've been learning about in my Spanish classes since high school. It was also just cool to see so many paintings by such famous artists that lived centuries ago (Velázquez, Goya, El Greco, Murillo, Rubens, Rembrandt, Botticelli, etc!).

After the Prado, we stopped back at the hotel to grab some free apples (my dad was all over those), then took a cab to our next stop for the day- El Palacio Real (the Royal Palace). This is where the King and Queen of Spain still have their permanent residence!! Unfortunately, we didn't run into them while we were there. But anwyays, the Palace from the outside was really amazing, it is so big and breathtaking, so I was excited to go in! There was a pretty long line to get in, so of course my mom, dad, and I waited in line while Jilly sat down a few yards away. What a champ! Once we got in, my dad obviously got us some more audioguides. I have to say, I definitely learned a lot...but did not look so cool. Oh well!

Here is me and Jilly in the main Plaza inside the gates of the Palace. Kinda big right??

As for the inside of the Palace, it absolutely amazing. Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures, but it was just SO grand. Fit for a king and queen! Really, every single room was just more spectacular than the next. So all in all, the palace was great!

Next we decided to do a little walking to see some more cool sights. We walked in the general direction of where we wanted to go next, but saw lots of cool things on the way (plazas, statues, cute doggies!). We made our way over to Gran Vía street, which is a hugeee street running through the central part of Madrid with tons of restaurants, hotels, and shops. After much debate on where we should make a pitstop for lunch, we settled on an Italian restaurant that looked like it had some good pizzas that we could split. Well, the pizza was great, but the service was literally the worst any of us had ever experienced in our lives. It was actually pretty hilarious by the end of the meal because our waitress was just SO bad it was entertaining. Not even just bad, but all around rude. We told her we wanted to order right away and she literally just ignored us for 10 minutes until she felt she was ready to take our order. Then when she finally was ready, she decided to clean out her pad of paper and dropped paper scraps all over my lap. Haha there are many more examples but I think you get the point. Needless to say, my dad did not feel bad this time about not leaving a tip (you don't really tip in Spain- my dad had a VERY VERY hard time with this).

After lunch we walked a little more on Gran Vía, then decided to take a cab to our next destination- el Museo Reina Sofía (The Queen Sofia Museum). Our dogs were really barking after all the walking, so a cab was pretty much necessary. While this museum had a lot more contemporary and less religious paintings in it, the setup was weird so it was a little bit of a struggle getting through it by the end. The highlights of the museum were seeing the Picasso and Dalí collections (two of my favorite artists). We even got to see Guernica- one of Picasso's most famous works!

After that museum, we headed back to the hotel for a MUCH needed siesta. On the way though, we happened to run into this awesome vertical garden wall thingy!! It was literally a giant wall with amazing vegetation covering the whole thing. It was so cool- like a jungle wall in the middle of a busy block in the center of Madrid!!

Mom and dad in front of the wall!!

So we got back to the hotel and had an excellent siesta, got ready, and hung out a little before going to dinner on our last night all together :(. We went to this Italian restaurant that we had tried to go to the night before called La Creazione. It was a really nice restaurant, and a REALLY great meal. I hadn't had Italian food since being here either, so once again it was a nice treat! We tried to eat as slowly as possible and enjoy the meal, and not be the gluttonous Americans that we really are...we had some success haha. After our delicious meal, we went on a hunt for gelato. It was surprisingly hard to find gelato in Madrid at night!! We finally did find some though, and my dad got some lemon sorbet. While walking though we got to see this cool area of Madrid where a lot of tapas bars and restaurants were, my family was surprised at how alive the city was at such a late hour with young and old people alike! That's Spain for you....they're a lot less lame than us Americans.

My fam out on the street in Madrid....with some random guy smiling for my picture??

We finally got back to the hotel and called it a night after a very busy day in the capital of Spain!

SUNDAY
Unfortunately, Sunday was the day that Jilly had to leave us. We were all very sad that she was leaving, but I think she had a pretty great first experience in Europe!! Too bad it was so short though! We had some breakfast and then my dad took a cab with Jilly to the airport, while my mom and I headed out for a little shopping. We got some scarves, some gifts, I got some shoes, and also just did some looking around at cool shops. It was very fun. Then my dad met up with us for a little more shopping (he obviously loved it), and a little more walking around.

We stopped to take some touristy pics with the cows in Madrid- how could we not!

Then we stopped back at the hotel for some free apples (duh) and went just across the street to our final art museum, the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. This museum has a great collection of Impressionist and Expressionist paintings from Europe and America. We saw absolutely gorgeous paintings by Monet, Renoir, Degas, and Van Gogh. This was definitely more our type of art- beautiful impressionist and post-impressionist landscape and people paintings. Although our feet were once again pretty tired, we saw all the collections we wanted to see in that museum and really enjoyed it!

After the museum we wanted to find a little bite to eat, and figured we would go to a random tapas place to just get some little sandwiches or something. My dad found a place he thought was good, so we went in there and sat down. Our waiter was very nice, and told us he would make us an arrangement of little tostadas (different tapas on little pieces of bread). I told him I wasn't sure what the things on the menu were though (all Spanish foods I had never heard of), and he said he'd makes ones we would like. I said I don't know if we will like a lot of the things, and he replied by asking if we liked fish, to which I responded yes (my dad was getting ham and cheese, so I figured my mom and I would be great with fish). WELL, by fish, this man did NOT mean the kind of fish I was thinking of. About 10 minutes later, our waiter comes out with just about the nastiest looking food I think I have ever seen. There were some tostadas with salmon, some with tomatoes which seemed fine, but got completely overshadowed by the ACTUAL WORM-LOOKING SPECIMENS ON BREAD that were also on our plate. We had a moment of panic, but explained to him that we didn't think we liked any of these things, and he very nicely took it back. We all ate ham and cheese sandwiches.

Turns out the nasty worm babies were actually baby eels. I would post a picture of what they look like on here, but then I would never be able to look at my own blog again, so I'm gonna refrain. If you're feeling daring though, feel free to do a google image search for "gulas" and enjoy.

After "lunch" we headed back to the hotel for a rather early but much needed siesta. We had to do a little research in order to find a restaurant for dinner, as a lot of restaurants are closed on Sunday nights. Actually, a lot of stores and restaurants are closed in general on Sunday in Spain because they are very Catholic. But we ended up at this really great paella restaurant called La Barraca, where we had some delicious paella with veggies, chicken, pork, and seafood in it. It was great! I even ate the seafood! Well, the calamari. Yes, I eat calamari now! Aaron, get excited for when you come! Haha. After the paella my dad and I split some delicious ice cream (we do love our desserts), and then we headed back to the hotel after walking around for a little.

I was sad that it was my last night, so I tried to make my parents stay up as long as possible which was semi successful haha. We went to bed pretty late, but there were some issues, as SOME people were snoring, not to name names.

MONDAY
On Monday we woke up early, had breakfast, and decided to find this old area of Madrid that was supposed to be really cool. We had our maps and everything, but for some reason failed miserably at what we were looking for. We even asked people, but they had no idea what we were talking about. Oh well, it was fun just exploring Madrid, and we ended up in some cute little shopping areas.

My mom and me in front of an adorable little confectionery we stopped in.

We then decided to go to el Parque Retiro...but accidentally ended up at the Botanical Gardens of Madrid. We figured this would be a cool place to go to as well, so we just decided to go here isntead. However, we forgot to figure in the fact it was winter. There were some cool trees and plants, but not much color or life there at the time. Haha...oops. After the gardens we went back to the hotel, I packed up my stuff, and we went out to grab a quick lunch. Pizza again- yum! We had to rush a little because unfortunately it was time for me to get back to the hotel and leave for the airport.

Leaving my parents was very sad, as I had such an amazing time with them in Spain (and Jilly), and I knew I would not be seeing them for over 2 months. It was a little hard to go back to my life in Sevilla after being with them for a week, but I got back into the swing of things pretty quickly. My flight back from Madrid to Sevilla was fine, until the airline lost my luggage! I spent like 2 hours in the airport figuring it out, with the end result being that they had no idea where my bag was, and they would deliver it soon. LOVELY. It was not the most fun two days until they finally delivered my bag on Wednesday.

Overall, the trip was absolutely amazing. I wish my family could come back!! After I got back though, I only had 4 days until my friends and I headed off to Barcelona, which I was VERY excited for!! We ended up having a really great time there, and I will blog about that later in the week. For now, I think I am pretty much all blogged out. Sorry it took me so long to get my blogs written- I feel like I've been so busy lately!! But now I FINALLY finished, so I hope you all enjoyed it!! There will be lots more pictures and stories to tell from their trip when I get home :)

BESOS, Jess

Los Seilers en Sevilla

HI EVERYONE!!! I feel like I have not written on here in SO long, and I have SO much to tell!!! As you all know, my family was here this past week!! I guess I will start by saying that we had an absolutely amazing time. Being in Europe with them was an unbelievable experience. We did a LOT of sightseeing, lots of walking, lots of eating, and lots of laughing. Alright well, I guess I'll start at the very beginning of the trip!! I might have to do this post in a few chunks because I have lunch and class soon, but don't worry, I'll get it all up!

WEDNESDAY
On Wednesday, I woke up to a text from my dad saying they had missed their connecting flight from Madrid to Sevilla (oops!), but were getting on a flight at 11, and would be at the hotel by the time I was done with class at 12:30. Minor setback for them (the Madrid airport is pretty confusing), but no big deal. So I finished packing up my stuff for the week and headed off to class. I was so excited during class I could barely sit through it, but I finally did, and then went to the hotel to meet them!!! As I walked up to the hotel, obviously the three of them were standing outside looking in all different directions for me. It was quite the sight. I think my mom spotted me first, and they all literally ran to be the first to hug me. Not embarassing at all! Haha, it was great to finally see them though!

The hotel we stayed at here is the most famous hotel in Sevilla, it is called Hotel Alfonso XIII and it was built for the Exposition of 1929. I didn't take this picture, but here's what it looks like:

It is INCREDIBLE from the outside, and just as incredible on the inside!!! We were very lucky to stay there! But anyways, after I met up with my mom, dad, and Jilly, I dropped some stuff off in the hotel room, and then we went to my Señora's house, where I picked up my suitcases, and they got to meet Tita Charo!!! It was very funny considering she doesn't speak a word of English, and my mom speaks about 2 words of Spanish, and my dad....well, his Spanish is just plain awful (sorry dad). But she just kept speaking Spanish to them as if they would maybe start to understand, so Jilly and I were doing some serious translating. Jilly could understand a lot of what she said and helped me translate, but was too scared to actually speak Spanish, so I had to do all of the translating back. It was quite the experience! She showed them around the house, showed them pictures of her family, and she even dressed me up in a mantilla, which is like this headdress thing that the women wear during Holy Week here.
Haha it was pretty entertaining. Anyways, we left my house in Triana and went back to the hotel to drop off my stuff. Then we set out walking in Sevilla, I began to show them some of the main sights like the Cathedral and City Hall, and we found some lunch. It was a beautiful day, so we sat outside and had some traditional Andalucían tapas! Some of these included pescaítos fritos (tiny fried fishies, you eat the whole thing included head, tail, and spine!), paella, fish, shrimp, calamari, croquetas (croquettes filled with cheese, jam, or seafood), etc!
Us at lunch!

A slightly crazed looking Jilly eating pescaítos fritos! And wearing my coat.

After lunch, we walked around a little more, got some ice cream, and sat in the sun. It was a great afternoon. I then had to go to class, so they all went back to the hotel for their first of many siestas (naps) of the trip. After siesta, it was time to shower and get ready. For dinner, we ate a pretty good 5 course free meal in the hotel in a beautiful dining room, and afterwards, we headed off to a flamenco show!

The show took place inside this bar, you walk in and it looks like a tiny little bar, until you walk through into another room with tons of long tables, centered around a little stage. We were early so we got some great seats right by the stage, my dad was so close he probably could have touched the dancer. Which I am almost surprised he didn't after seeing how much he LOVED flamenco. Seriously! The show consisted of a singer, a guitarist, and a dancer. It started off with just singing, guitar, and the typical flamenco clapping and foot tapping rhythms, and then after a while the dancer started dancing too. It was great, and as I said, my dad loved it! He wouldn't stop talking about the psychology of it- typical.

Here was the stage with the dancer, singer, and guitarist.

And here's my dad taking in the psychology of the flamenco show!

Unfortunately, we left the show at intermission because "Jilly" was really tired according to my dad, so we got back to our hotel after midnight. We hung out for a while, but needless to say, everyone was very tired, so we went to sleep. It was a great first day and night!

THURSDAY
Since my family would only be spending about 48 hours in Sevilla, I had a LOT to show them in a little amount of time. There are so many amazing things to see here, so Thursday, being our only full day, was jam-packed with sightseeing! We woke up early and had a great breakfast at the hotel which included lots of ham, cheese, pastries, fruit, yogurt, ETC. We also had lots of cafe con leche (coffee with milk) with every breakfast- yes, I drink coffee now! More on how my eating habits have imroved later....

Anyways, after breakfast we set out exploring. It was a little chilly so we decided to do an indoor activity first- we went to Plaza de Toros y la Real Maestranza...the bullfighting ring! We opted for the guided tour that took us in the actual bullfighting ring and through the bullfighting museum that is also in there. It was so cool!! The ring is huge and amazing, and it was very cool to learn about bullfighting because it is such a foreign concept to us. For example, I learned that the red flag that they wave at the bulls is just a tradition- bulls don't even see color! Who woulda known? Our tour guide was really funny too, she spoke in Spanish and in English, but her English basically sounded like if I were to memorize a speech in Arabic. It was so singsong-y, and I found it 100x easier to understand her in Spanish! Haha.

Here's my mom and dad in the bullfighting ring!

After the bullfighting ring we walked along the river to our next destination- the Cathedral. I was very excited for my family to see it, and I think they really enjoyed it!! (pics to come!)

So we walked around the Cathedral for a while, and then climbed La Giralda (the tower with the 34 ramps, tallest structure in Sevilla). We got to the top where they got to take in the beautiful aerial views of Sevilla. Unfortunately it was pretty crowded up there for some reason, so we decided to head back down after a little while and end our visit to La Catedral y La Giralda.

It was getting to be a gorgeous day outside, so we decided to pick up some sandwiches and take them to one of my favorite places, Plaza de España. We took some pictures in front of the beautiful fountain, and found a bench to eat our lunch on. It was great!! After that, we headed across the street to the amazing Parque de María Luisa. It is a HUGE park with a lot of beautiful plants, trees, and ponds to see. We all wanted to see the park, but our legs were also VERY tired, so we opted for the next best thing: a 4 person bike thingy. Only a picture can do this justice, but it was a 4 seater "vehicle", powered by our pedaling, with yellow canopy, steering wheel, bell, and all! It was hilarious. Little Spanish children were taking pictures of us- the ultimate American tourists. Slightly embarassing, but well worth the fun! We had the bike for half an hour, walked around on foot a little more, and then had to head back because I had class at 4:45.

My mom, dad, and Jilly napped while I was at class, and then we all showered and got ready for the night. We headed down to the funky outdoor hotel bar to redeem our free martinis, and a little while later, my Señora met us there for a drink!! It was very funny, we spent a little over an hour with her, with me and Jilly translating the whole time. We talked a lot about Sevilla, family, life, etc...it was very fun, and I am glad that Tita Charo got to see what my family is like! She keeps telling me how "guapa" and "joven" my mom is (beautiful and young), how funny my dad is (he wouldn't shut up about flamenco), and how my sister seems like a very centered person just like me. Once again, I'll upload the picture with her later when I can!

We then went to dinner at a nearby tapas bar- we got some good olives (olives are everywhere in Spain and so good), tapas, paella, and wine. After dinner, my dad was on a hunt for ice cream and luckily we found some!! Delicious dulce de leche helado (caramel ice cream)! We then went back to the hotel, hung out for a while, and my friends Chrisy and Franny came over. My parents went to bed, and we took Jilly out to the Spanish bars!! She thought it was very cool that she was legal in Europe, obviously. Haha, we had a fun night, it was nice out so we hung out in the streets around the bars just hanging out. Unfortunately we were too tired to go to a discoteca though, so we just called it a night and got home early (yes, early!) around 3:30 am.

FRIDAY
Alright, finally on to our last day in Sevilla! I'm making these posts almost painstakingly detailed haha, so please feel free to skim!

We didn't have that much time on Friday because our flight was at 1:30, so we only had time for one activity and had to get up early to fit it in. As a result of the earliness, Jilly did not attend this activity haha. So my parents and I had breakfast at the hotel, and then left to go to los Reales Alcázares- the Royal Palaces in Sevilla (where the king and queen still stay when they visit!). The artwork and architecture in the palaces are absolutely amazing, so we walked around for a while, and then headed outside to stroll through the HUGE gardens behind. We only had time to cover a small fraction of the gardens, but what we did see was beautiful! My dad obviously loved it, and we kept saying how Grandma B would have loved it too! I'll be sure to put some pictures in because it really was incredible how pretty the gardens were- and it's still the end of winter!

After that we went back to the hotel, woke up the sleeping Jilly monster, and headed off to the airport to fly to Madrid. Minor crisis happened there when they said they didn't have my mom, dad, and Jilly's flight reservations. We figured it out though, it was because they had changed their itinerary on the way there, and we all got on the flight as planned. So that was our stay in Sevilla!!! We had a great time and got lucky with some beautiful weather- they got to see how beautiful the city of Sevilla really is. I'm gonna take a break from blogging now because, well, this has been a lot of information haha. I'll continue either later or tomorrow with the second half of our trip in Madrid!!!