Dia 19-20: Just another day in paradise

Well hellllooo there dahhhlings,

Thanks for opening my post! You are beautiful/handsome and I appreciate you :)

I have had two quite lovely days in Sevilla this week.

On Monday, I met up with friends in a plaza to have a coffee and a delicious treat called a "gofre" before my class at 1pm. A gofre is effectively a Belgian Waffle covered in chocolate with buttery whip cream on the side. So. Damn. Good. It was deff a FAB way to start my Monday.

(gofre nomssss)

After enjoying the beautiful sun in the plaza and chatting for a bit, I headed to my culture class from 1-3. When I returned home for lunch, my family had waited for me to eat. It is truly a special occasion for me when my family waits to eat lunch because otherwise I eat alone, and we all know I'm bout it bout it with social interaction. We had an orange stew called "Potaje de garbanzo y chorizo". This was a potato, carrot, garbanzo bean and chorizo soup. Very tasty. Sadly, Rafael nos dijo que si continuamos comer platos como eso vamos a engordarnos porque es tan grasiento. Pero, no pasa nada. I didn't come to Spain to watch my weight. Quiero disfrutar en todos los platos! 

(maybe it doesn't look that lovely, but who cares? It tastes DANK)

After our very very tasty lunch, Cassie and I went to a different barrio in Sevilla que se llama Triana to check out the shopping scene. We found a store called "Lefties," and it was super guay. Apparently there is a massive company called Inditex and it owns Zara, Mango, Lefties, Stratvarius and other awesome and fashionable stores. Cassie bought approximately one million different colored cardigans haha. Although things were pretty mono aqui, no encontre algo que me gusto. 

We continued walking around Triana y COMO SIEMPRE, compramos helado. We then went back to the center of the city and went to an awesome store called Stratvarius (I'm not sure if that's how you spell it, pero NBD). Here I bought a BAD ASS pair of pants that they legit call "pantalones de party" here in Spain. They are leggings with awesome patterns on them. I'd like to think that I invented this trend back when I wore crazy leggings to ULTRA. I haven't said this out loud to anyone, but lets be real, I'm totes una vanguardista de la moda. 

We camee home and PRAISE THE LORD we had salad for dinner. 3 cheers for fresh veggies!!!! Woop woop.

On Tuesday, I went to class from 10-3 rocking my new party pants. Needless to say, todo el mundo was totes digging them. Unfortunately, my 1-3pm culture class dragged on so painfully I thought I'd die before it ended. Usually we have awesome discussions but today consisted of our professor just giving us fact after fact after fact about dates, and acronyms and presidents and dictators and blah blah blah. Estoy llena de hechos sobre Espana ahora. 

(we are all rocking our spanish party pants! ... in other news: my friends have chicken legs)

Walked back home and had spaghetti with ground salmon in it. Que raro, no? It tasted good though. 

At 4pm we had a tour of a famous barrio in Sevilla que se llama El Barrio Santa Cruz. This is the famous Jewish Region of Sevilla that is no longer only inhabited by Jewish people like it was immediately after the Inquisition. It was lovely. 

The best part of this tour was that my favorite person, MJ, was giving it. She has an adorable spanish accent and is always speaking to us in spanglish. One of the words that she struggles to pronounce correctly is "Focus". She usually ends up saying, pardon the French, "fuck us". Naturally, we all die laughing whenever this happens and she does too. 

To make things even more hilarious, we were standing in a plaza and MJ was telling us about the history of the area and a mime walks up to us and stands directly behind MJ making weird faces. She turns around and tells him to go away and he quickly obliges. HOWEVER, as he was walking away, he suddenly turned around to pick something off the ground. What was this item you ask? A red G-string. He made it look like one of the girls in my program had lost her panties on the floor. She was wearing a short dress too. WE ALL DIED. Honestly, her red face combined with the giddy mood we were all in after laughing at MJ's mispronunciation caused people to legit cry from laughing so hard.

Regardless, the tour was still lovely.

(a statue of a literary legend named Don Juan Tenorio, it is said he is the man that "conquered" the most women and killed the most men... AKA a literary P-I-M-P)

After our tour, MJ showed us one of her favorite little hole in the wall bars because it sells a specialty drink specific to Spain called "Vino de Naranja" (wine from oranges). She told us to go there soon. Being the persuasive group that we are, we convinced her to go with us right then and there and she said yes! We were quite excited :)

It was actually tasty. It wasn't as sweet as a cordial glass of wine, which I was glad about because those are almost sickeningly sweet.

(I am super proud of this picture. I really love when how the glasses are in focus and the faces are not. Me gusta mucho)

(Vino de Naranja con MJ y mis chicas)

(oh yea my new tucan top, you're jealous, I know)

After our little beverage, the group scattered to go shopping or return home. My friend David and I decided we wanted to enjoy the day outside chatting and having some sangria. We asked MJ if there was another local place she recommended. She looked at us, smiled and said "voy a acompanarte".

We knew this was gunna be good. To our surprise, she brought us into a chic looking hotel and told us we were going up to the azotea (rooftop). 

OH EM GEE. It was soooooo beautiful. This hotel was located in the same plaza as the famous Catedral de Sevilla and so it had a breathtaking view of the iconic landmark "La Giralda". We ordered una jarra de sangria y despues unas cervezas. Charlamos en espanol y todo fue perfecto. 

(the view from the azotea)

This was one of those moments that solidified that this trip would not be my last to Spain. El ambiente, la conversacion, toda fue inolvidable. I especially cherish the time I spend with MJ because she is so fun and relatable and since she works with ISA she's very busy and we don't get to have tons of one-on-one time with her. 

After our perfect afternoon, I walked home and bought un helado (como dije: siempre).  At dinner I told my family about the beautiful roof top experience that I had and they suggested a couple other roof top bars that I ABSOLUTELY intend to check out ASAP.

Now, I am lying on the couch en la sala con mi padre, listening to a movie starring Pierce Brosnin that is dubbed in Spanish. The spaniards are seriously infatuated with Pierce, which is another reason why I should live here.

Keep your eyes peeled for my next post! It will likely be a review of my first experience at a bull fight. I am anxious for this. I don't like violence, but I decided to at least give it a shot.

Hasta Luego,

Raquel