my three day week

After a week of NO CLASSES during Semana Santa, coming back on Monday took quite a bit of motivation... Luckily, I only have one class in the morning. After class I ran straight the the Stationary store to buy some very belated birthday cards. First off, it needs to be said that Spanish people must not really care about people's birthdays because birthday cards are nearly impossible to find. Once I found the store it was quite the ordeal to find it when it was actually open. Finally I did it and was able to buy, write, and mail all the birthday cards. Afterward, I joined Kendra and Brittany for a much needed hair cut. Only 5€ and done by a student... all things considered, it's not bad. Believe it or not the errors have nothing to do with my Spanish skills. (Thank you wordreference.com for helping me find the correct term for "bangs" in Spanish-Spanish) After our haircuts we walked a couple streets over back to a cafe next to our house for a tostada and cafe con leche that we had NEVER been too (delicious, but AWFUL service). Then to wrap up the day... I cleaned my room! Don't be so surprised, I mean it's SPRING. That means: Spring Cleaning Time!

Nikki's mom and aunt were in Sevilla to visit so I joined them for dinner. It was wonderful - and the food wasn't that bad either. Having visitors in Sevilla makes me love the city even more. When I first arrived here and should have been in awe of the city's beauty I was a bit preoccupied with the whole, "Holy Hannah. I'm in Spain and am going to be living here for the next 5 months!" But really the best part was just getting to know them and laugh at Nikki with them and just have a nice meal, with good conversation - in English!

Now I have to admit something that could be a bit embarrassing: I fell down the stairs. That was my Tuesday (a week and a day ago). Thanks to my graceful nature I now have a bruise that covers a good quarter of my butt. It's gross. I've made Kendra help me monitor the color-changing-spectrum/progression. It's been an array of shades from red, blue, purple, and finally, now, a week later, almost black. So after coming home and whining to Kendra about my tragic injury I had a meeting at the CIEE Study Center where I learned all about how I should prepare for our trip to Morocco. I made it home around 10:30 and there was no sign of dinner or our Senora or either of her daughters, so we headed outside. We were going to go to a place with Brittany and Inez (Brittany is from Kendra's program and Inez is from Monaco and lives with Brittany) and we followed Inez for a good 30 minute walk only to end up at a semi-sketchy bar with NO FOOD. So we made the trek back from Alameda at about 11:15 and into Plaza Alfalfa where we had the BEST Italian food I've had in Sevilla. We were also about to see: ¡A PASO! I was SO excited! They were covered with tarps and I'm assuming were being carried to wherever it is that they are stored but it was after midnight on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning and the costaleros were hard at work bringing their pasos to where they needed to be. It was like Semana Santa was still going strong!

Wednesday was far from exciting. I had my class, studying for a couple hours, attempted to go to my professor's office hours even though he wasn't there, ran home, studied some more and packed for Morocco. Then I met my friend Chris who is in a different program but whom I met on the flight to Sevilla for some ice cream. We hadn't talked since our third or fourth week in Sevilla so we were able to swap stories. This was also my first time having ice cream since the pathetic cone in Triana during Semana Santa - and let me tell you, this was MUCH better. It was FULL of ice cream. Then I went home, studying a bit more, made sure I had everything ready for Morocco (triple checking that I had my passport packed) and went to sleep since I had to be ready for the bus at 7:30 am (a rather un-Godly hour in Sevilliano terms).