Regarding the past few weeks. so very late, i apologize

Finally going to blog about the past few weeks. Thank you guys for reading this and making me feel like I should continue writing. It is super time consuming, and although I like being able to (b)log everything about my time here, i would rather be out doing something else.

I realized today, while i was writing my composition in class about the things I have done in Sevilla, that I really havent gone "site-seeing". I mean I walked around, saw the U of Sevilla, Plaza Mayor, el Prado, Plaza de Espana and Parque Maria Luisa, but I havent gone to museums or anything. I suppose I dont want to waste my time in museums about random crap that I wont remember, but I really really really want to go to the art museum. I mean who would I be if i missed all the art museums in Spain? Not that I have gone through the galleries in the ducky museum (aka QAC) over my past three years at St. Bonaventure, but oh well. (Its on my list of things to do before I leave Holean)

So Friday night we went to watch flamenco at La Carboneria, which was up this random cobblestone street a bit further than El Centro. It was old and authentic and had a not so good flamenco show, but the atmosphere was very "summer in spain" if you know what i mean. thats not supposed to be an inuendo in any way, its just that i cant describe what a "summer in spain" type of place is. so we tried this drink called Agua de Sevilla, which is this awesome fruity, creamy-ish drink that consists of champagne, pineapple juice, rum, triple sec and something else. Plus, it was topped with whipped cream, which obviously made the whole thing a hell of a lot better. And, there were straws, and we all know how happy they make me. anyway, this drink was delicious and Im very happy i tried it while here. watch out US, the recipe's coming home with me.

Saturday day we went to La Rabida and Matalascanas. La Rabida is the place where Christopher Columbus contemplated how to get completely lost around the world. There, he spent hours upon hours praying and determining what path to take to India. Good thing he didn't waste his time or anything. Good thing he totally reached the Indian shores. Yea, good one Cristobal. Anyway, my contempt for Christopher Columbus did not change the fact that The Monestary in Rabida was beautiful and the tour was fairly quick. We also got to see replicas of the Nina the Pinta and the Santa Maria, so that was pretty cool. The ships were fairly small, so it is pretty impressive that they made it all the way to the Americas without being completely destroyed. Plus, they were great locations for some photos.

Saturday night, we went to the oldest bar in Sevilla, called the Rinconcillo. I have to say, in the nicest, most eloquent words possible, that this place was a hole. It looks like the oldest bar, and it probably still has dirt from the construction of the building on the floor. Ok so maybe thats a bit of an overexageration, but i didnt like it that much, and neither did the rest of the group, so we left. After that failed attempt at a fun new place, half the group wanted to go home, half wanted to go to a club and the other half wanted to just chill at a bar. I was in the last half. Whitney, Donavan and I finally decided to go to this Irish pub called Flahertys. There, we were even more incongruous and ordered mojitos (which are still pretty gross to me). We were having a nice relaxing night, planning on going home in a little bit, when this Scottish dude came up to us and starting talking to us about who knows what. He then brought his little buddy too and suddenly we had made two foreign friends. I have never been to Scotland, and I dont know if I will ever make it there, but it doesnt seem like the place for me. Apparently if you have 3 drinks, you are not "on it" and need to be more "savage". They were ridiculously drunk stereotypes of Scottish guys, but they were not creepy, so that was a plus. Eventually, we told them we were going home, and we pretty much got labeled as the most lame youngins in Sevilla. Well, we had reps to preserve, so we decided to go to a club with them.

The place was called Cathedral and it was actually pretty sweet, but it was a total boys club. And by boys club I mean that all the dudes in the place were just standing around with their drinks pretty much waiting for a female to catch. It was a crazy little scenario when I actually think about it. It was like those turtles who wait for the rain to eat worms. They just stand around waiting for the worms to come out of the ground and then they pounce. Well, I guess turtles dont really pounce, i suppose they slowly sidle over to the slimy little critters. Not to get side-tracked or anything...

After some clubbing time, we left our new friends and got home at around 5:30am. It was a pretty entertaining night to say the least. Those Scots really do know how to drink. Sorry American frat boys, you got nothing on these men.

Monday, Melissa and I got the urge to get our hairs cut. I dont know what the plural of Haircut is. Is it Haircuts? We had the urge to get haircuts? I suppose that works...So we searched (fairly feebly, i might add) for a place to get our haircuts and found a place close to home. It was clean, and looked professional, and anti-tacky haircuts, so we got our hair washed, cut, and dried. I chopped my hair off pretty short (as short as I had it when i was 10 almost). It wasnt as drastic of a cut as Shivani Sharma circa May 2010, but it was big for me. I was pretty happy with the cut, and have finally accepted my lack of edge. Anyone who knows me will know this is a problem in my life (and yea, if that is my biggest problem with life, I have a pretty sweet life). Its ok though, cute haircuts fit me better than extremely dark eye-makeup (see Elliot Reed from Scrubs season __. You know that episode when she gets her hair layered and choppy and then wears ridiculous black eye makeup that was so not Elliot of her? yea that one. I just got a European haircut, no makeup change ensued). Anyway, it was pretty cool getting a haircut and having to tell the hairdresser things in spanish. Luckily the pantomimes for "up to here" are pretty universal...

During the week, we somehow ended up at Flaherty's once again and had a fun night. I am pretty sure it was for the first Spain futbol game, but dont quote me on that. On the way back, we stopped at this tapas place which was probably too expensive for my taste, but delicious (note the reason we stopped is because of my bladder, not for their food). Well, we ordered this delicious solomillo con whisky tapa. It was pretty much a piece of meat cooked in a whisky sauce with lots of soft garlic. Oh man it was good. So tender, so garlicy. So delicious. I think one of my favorite parts of Spain is the food. I dont know what I will do at home without daily gazpacho and fresh bread!

A day after, we decided that the next weekend, we would go to Milan! So we bought our tickets and booked a hotel and had international plans for two days. Friday, the school took a trip to Alcazar, which is the beautiful castle where royalty stays when visiting Sevilla. It was apparently amazing, but I have yet to go. Instead of going on a field trip to the center of Seville, we took a trip to the center of fashion in the world aka Milan. Our flight was scheduled for 1:45 and we arrived with plenty of time. Too bad we (3 girls and a guy) can not pack lightly at all. Our one checkin bag weighed about 6 kilos over the 15 kilo limit. We took three tries in and out of the line and rearranging between carry on bags to finally get an acceptable mass. And still, I am fairly certain that the woman at the desk fudged the numbers and somehow decreased the mass by 1.5 kilos to an even 15 kilos. Still, we got it on the plane and thats all that really matters.

We got there early, and wasted time with the rearranging, but we still had plenty of waiting time because our flight was delayed for about 45 minutes. We took Ryanair, which is the no frills european airline, and I mean NO frills. You had to pay to use the bathroom on the plane. You had to pay for orange juice. You had to pay for your mini bottle of champagne (ok you do that anywhere pretty much). Well Donavan and i decided that the fear for our lives on that flight required some champagne. It was overpriced and tiny, but fairly tasty, and made me sleeeeepy. It allowed me to close my eyes for a little bit before our whirlwind italian adventure. We arrived at some time around 5, i would assume. Honestly, I didnt have a watch, and I didnt check my phone, and I really didnt care.

It turns out that the international Bergamo airport is farther from Milan than I had assumed. We took an hour-long bus ride to Milan before having to navigate the metro without knowledge of the train system, specific geographical location or the italian language. It was a bit more difficult than I would have assumed it would be, so that sucked. But we figured it out with the help of lots of employees and a homeless man. After getting off the metro, it was another 45 minutes until we finally walked to our hotel. Whoever steered us to the stop that we took claimed our hotel was right at that exit. Whoever that was lied. We finally got to our hotel, which was a chic, old looking hotel that had clearly been renovated recently. It was beautiful, but also a bit fancier than was needed for 4 americans taking a weekend trip to Milan. Regardless, after about 45 minutes of room discussion, we ended up taking two rooms for the 4 of us, adding a good amount of Euros to our bill (aka my parents credit card...thanks mom and dad!)

We went for pizza that night, but got this horrible microwaved imitation crap from an Arab place called Bilal. We were hungry, and tired, and all we wanted was pizza, so it wasnt that bad, but some ON we were in Italy! We needed some goooood pizza. well that was a failed attempt, but we were full, so that was a perk. We decided we wanted to go out in Milan, so we went to a bar called Coffee and Cigarettes (just like the song by Michelle Featherstone) which was really chic, but empty. I think we got there a bit too late for the Milanian rush. Just because two countries are part of a union does not mean they live by the same schedules (aka in Spain we would have been right on time). But we had a drink and wanted to go to a club afterwards.

We went in search of a cab while walking towards the club, but we did not get too far. We encountered an accident between a motorcycle and a car. We heard the cracking and shattering of glass, the skid of metal on the pavement, the voices of the passengers. We were just far enough from the accident to not be part of it. We waited while the cops came, and the ambulance took the motorcycle driver away in the back. His friend who was also on the bike managed to jump off before any large damage, but the driver skid on the ground and had a bit of a gash on his one arm. All in all, they were all ok, and would be perfectly healthy (from what it seemed) in about 3 weeks.

Needless to say, that was a major buzzkill, so we headed back to our hotel to debrief and thank God for our lives. We stayed up until about 5am, i think, talking, laughing, photoing, you know the drill. Also watched a pretty awful fashion show and some Italian MTV (mtv isnt any better internationally). ok I dont know if it was actual MTV or jsut music videos, but whatever. The only exciting part of the TV was the Sean Kingston song that came on. Yea thats right, he was on Bonas property 2 months ago.

Next morning at around 10, after missing our 8am wakeup call completely, we ventured out into the streets of Milan to find some real, live, Italian pizza. After about 35 minutes, we found the place. Apparently, I cant open doors in Italy, and Italians dont know generic hand motions like "push the door dont pull". Ditziness aside, I had the best pizza of my life in that restaurant. It was about a 10inch round pie with mushrooms on it. I was Janice right then with the "Oh My Gawd" that ensued after the first bite. So delicious.

Afterwards, we walked around near Il Duomo in Milan, which is the big attraction. Melissa found a mime guy that was taking pictures with people and fell in love. Then she and Whitney attempted to get into the cathedral, but were rejected due to lack of clothing coverage! that was probably the only culture shock I felt in Italy. But Donavan and I went in while they waited in the impending rain. We didn't bring in cameras because we were following rules (dumb idea, except for the fact that we wont go to Hell...for that reason, at least). The inside of this cathedral was majestic and ridiculously gaudy. but oh man, so beautiful. There isnt much I can say about it besides the fact that each little piece of the decorations must have taken like 4 months at least to complete. And Im talking about the really small things! It really was breathtaking.

By the time we left, it was raining and we found shelter in a cafe that had its dining room 4 floors up. We had to take a narrow set of stairs to get all the way up there, and so did the waiter, with our drinks (poor guy). At least he was in shape (probably because of his job). We did a little souvenir searching and went back to the hotel to get warmer clothes. The nice thing about fancy hotels is that they provide simple things like umbrellas when its raining. We took a few red umbrellas (I wish they were yellow) and set out again to discover milan. We were the ultimate tourists and stopped to buy souvenirs and used a map. We stopped to take pictures everywhere and looked like we didnt belong. it was awesome. We decided that our last italian meal should be pasta, and we should dress nicely, so we went back to the hotel, got dressed, and headed to this cute restaurant.

When we ordered our meals, we were so excited to eat pasta from italy, and when it arrived, we were so excited to get the hell out of there. Ok it wasnt that bad, but it was no where NEAR the goodness I expected it to be. grrr. Oh well, we had amazing pizza!

I will continue this later, because I have been writing this one entry for days and I really dont want it to be like nine pages long. k cool, I'll write later, folks! Probably when Im back in the States... so sad!

i found another playing card on the ground! in sevilla! thats gotta be a good sign. it was a 4 of....swords fyi

this is more like a twitter at this point

ay dios mio. im not in the mood to study. midterms tomorrow and thurs boooooooo

Quicktime 1.0

So another six days has gone by in Sevilla and I have not updated narcissistically about my life. I'm too tired to write a lot, but here is a quick update:

Thursday: class, lunch, chilled
Friday: Flamenco at La Carboneria, then Sepo
Saturday: La Rabida y Matalascanas way too early in the morning, then El Rinconcillo, Flaherty's and Catedral
Sunday: Woke up at 3PM, first drink of the day was tinto de verano with lunch, chilled
Monday: class, bought plane tickets for this weekend, reserved hotel for this weekend, shopped in El Centro
Tuesday: plan to go study at cute cafe
Wed: First midterm (language class eeks), plan to study at cute cafe, then watch Spain/Switzerland futbol game, study some more
Thurs: Second Midterm (culture class equal eeks), el centro to return purchases, buy stamps for postcards, flamenco show at Santa Cruz! chilllllll
Friday: Fly away from Sevilla for the weekend (bittersweet, but more sweet than bitter)

Im a cat and other mish-mash

i guess i havent really updated about life since saturday, and that is because life has been a bit relaxed. Sunday, i was a cat. I slept, ate, lounged, scratched posts, the whole nine yards (minus the licking). it was a much needed rest from the weekend, but just got me used to the sleeping in the afternoon thing. So for the past three days, I have taken major siestas. not even siestas, they were like half night sleeps. This makes doing anything a lot more difficult since i end up getting up right before dinner, and then leave the house a lot later than I would have liked.

Also on Sunday, we finally tried tinto de verano, which is red wine with soda. We had ours with sprite, which was delicious, actually. its very refreshing, and not as dry as red wine usually is. Still, it is wine, and it does make me a bit tipsy pretty easily.

So on Monday, we went to this place in the park called Ylang Ylang, which was the most beautiful bar I have ever been to. It is in the middle of the park and is outdoors. I really liked it, but we didnt get back till about 2 and I didnt sleep till later than that. Going out is fun, but lack of sleep in the morning means I am a zombie in class. Note, it is 3:05am as i write this, so even though i realized that, nothing has changed.

im still really excited about the wonders of skype. So much that I have gotten really tired with blogging. I think I have a problem sticking to things. The two things I have ever stuck to in my life are Spanish and Biology. Im a nerd, go figure. But I really will try to keep up with this so that I will have a (b)log of what I did in Spain.

p.s. started watching "the backup plan" with the roomies. it isnt terrible. Predictable, but not terrible. Tomorrow, we will finish it.
p.p.s. sometimes, i think i would be a much more successful tweeter than blogger
p.p.p.s. i dont think i need to write p.s.'s bc this isnt a letter, but i will anyway
p.p.p.p.s. my spanish is getting better! yo entiendo mucho de los frases que mi madre usa, y puedo formar oraciones mas rapido que antes. buenas noches munecitos

skype

let me just quickly mention that skype is the best invention EVER! less than 2 cents a minute to call US phones from my computer. amazing. thank you mr. skype inventor, a tip of the hat to you.

First Day (two days late), The Museo (one day late), and Cordoba (right on time)

I went to bed the first night at around 9:30 without eating dinner, and slept like a baby. I dont really know why they use that phrase because babies wake up in the middle of the night all the time, but oh well. Speaking of babies, when Spanish babies become Spanish toddlers, they speak Spanish (shocker). Well Spanish speaking children are 100x cuter than English speaking children. They have the cutest accents and adorable suspenders that are way too lame for American snob children...Anyway. Woke up in the morning around 7:30 to get ready for school. Unlike School in the US, I actually had to eat a real breakfast before with the family, so I couldnt just run off 15 minutes before school and be ok. The three of us (Whitney, Melissa, and I) coordinated schedules so we would share the bathroom kindly and be on time, but we left a little late after our breakfast of toast with strawberry jam, coffee, and pineapple/grape juice (which was delicious by the way).

We walked to school (the three of us), which was about 13 minutes away by foot, in a cute white building with yellow trim. We (Whitney and I) found our classroom and went into class a few minutes late. Our teacher, Susanna, is really cool though, and doesnt really flinch if you are a tad bit late. The class went well, but we didnt have our textbooks yet, so we had to share with one of the other three students in the class. Thats right, folks. Classes here are smaller than at Bonaventure. Language class has 5 students and Culture class has 7. I suppose it is the summer, so I shouldnt be surprised, but its still a little bit new to me. Susanna is really sweet and kind if you dont know how to speak Spanish, even though you are in the advanced class, which is very helpful. We went to the English-speaking culture class, but they made us switch to the Spanish-speaking one, which is also taught by Susanna. This class contained the same people as the other class, plus two of three of the boys in the whole program. I was very lost at the beginning, when we started class in the middle of some era or another. Clearly they had learned things the three days that we werent around. Oh well, I'll figure it out.

After class, we went back home, where we ate lunch. We had gazpacho, a roasted chicken, salad, and strawberries and melon with whipped cream for dessert. The gazpacho was so good! I never thought i would like a cold soup made of purely tomatoes, olive oil, onion, garlic, cucumbers and peppers. It was just a pureed salad, but so refreshing and delicious in the Sevilla midday heat. The chicken was also really good. It was roasted in red wine and had a touch of oregano and salt. It may have been the most tender chicken I have ever had. It was great. After lunch, Whitney and I went out into town with Melissa, Brittany, Brett and Adrien. We walked for like 8 hours around the city, from fountain to fountain to fountain. Literally, we circled the city until it was past dinner time. Still, we went out to this place called Casa Molina, which was a little sketchy to get to, but really cute once you got there. The waiters were super nice and the prices were cheap, which is always a plus. We got back at around 1am and ate a really late dinner before going to bed.

Got up really early for school in the morning, but we had a field trip to the museo de archeologico instead of Culture class, which was good. The museum was nice, and situated in a really old building that was built to make Sevilla look good (it does). Susanna taught us everything there was to know about each piece, though, so the trip was a bit dull for a while. Whitney and I broke out the nerd inside when we saw the remnants of a hip bone and starting labeling the parts. Oh well, we still are "biologists" at heart. The museum was actually really cool because it took us through the different eras of different cultures. You could see the Roman and Moorish influences at separate times, but in the same pieces as well. There are lots of pictures of stuff that I have to post, but thats a special treat for when I am back in the States.

We came back to the house after going to the phone store after the trip for lunch. We got our phones, which are simple, but I HAVE TEXTING so I am pretty stoked about that. Its really expensive, but if need be, I can do it! Our phone numbers have only nine digits, which is confusing because I always feel like I am missing a number. But it really is easier to memorize a triple of triples rather than two triples and a quadruple...Anyway, lunch. We ate this rice dish that was similar to paella, but it did not have seafood or chicken, just pork. It was very good, even though I am not a fan of pork at all. I couldnt be THAT picky when I already cant eat nuts and dont like pickles. So I ate the pork, and I didn't die because of it, and I didn't hate it either. There was a lot of fat on it, which I was not a fan of, however. For dessert, we had the leftover strawberries and melon with whipped cream.

We partook in the siesta ritual yesterday and slept for maybe four hours in the afternoon, which was awesome, and definitely something we could use in the US. We got up at around 6:30 and went to the papeleria to buy a notebook and other office supplies. We walked around a bit and got some flan at a cafe, which was so much richer than any flan I have had in America. Mexican flan and Spanish flan are completely different consistencies. I dont think I am a huge fan of either, but would probably pick the Spanish one if I had to. You know, if I had a gun to my head and needed to choose between Spanish flan, Mexican flan or death...

When we came home, it was almost time for dinner, so I started writing this post and waited for dinner at around 9:30/10:00PM. I bought a bottle of wine for dinner because 1. they love wine here, 2. wine is super cheap aka 1.62 euro and 3. I can buy wine! It was a fairly dry white wine, that didnt really match our dinner of pasta with meat sauce, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, olive oil and awesome ricotta like cheese, and salad. But it was alright, we all enjoyed the change in pace with the wine. Also, I think we may have had our first big dinner conversation, which was really nice! It turns out that Maria Jose is all about equality for women, and is a bit of a liberal. Just my type! We talked about the discrepancy of women to men in education and the work field, and how women have to try so much harder to be noticed than men. And by noticed, I mean academically, not physically. Many of you may not agree with that, but I do. We discussed lots of things that I cant remember completely, but it was a very enjoyable meal.

We got word at around 12:45am that people were at Cepo (or Cepa, I dont remember which) and that we should join them. So we got ready quickly and met people at around 1:30. Everyone was there, almost, which was nice. I got to meet a lot of the other people that I hadnt met before. I suppose making new friends isnt that hard after all. Maybe it was just 5-yr-old me that had that problem. Some of the girls wanted to go to a club afterwards, but we had to get to the bus at 8am, so I wasnt too keen on that one. Whitney and I stayed around Cepo, where we met a dude who looked like Obama, a dude that drank too much, and a dude that blew pathetic smoke rings. We came back at around 4, but our Melissa and a few people went to the club and stayed out all night (crazy kids). I dont know if the 2 or so hours of sleep that I got was at all better than staying up all night.

8am, we were on the bus to Cordoba, sleep deprived, and hot already. I slept the whole ride, and felt pretty good when I got off the bus. Then I took about 30 steps and my flip flop snapped. I have awful luck with shoes. Maybe Im a shoebuser (ha get it? shoe abuser? shoebuser?). Brittany and Melissa tried to mend the broken flip flop with gum and bandaids, but it didnt work very well, sadly. Still, I greatly appreciated the effort. I walked around barefoot for a while and went into shops asking if they sold shoes. Most of them looked at me like I was insane when they saw my shoe-less feet, and finally one place sold shoes! I bought a pair of yellow ochre guy's moccasin looking things that were clearly to be worn in the Mosque. They were not exactly attractive, but they matched my yellow ochre shirt, and prevented my feet from touching the ground, so I was good to go.

We went to the Mosque/Cathedral that was pretty cool. Our tour guide was probably the most excited out of the group, but she did a good job explaining the architecture and history behind the building. This Mosque was originally built by the Moors in the 7th century, i want to say. They prayed there until the Christians took over Cordoba. When they took over, they changed the Mosque into a cathedral, but kept the Muslim structures and details. They pretty much added a few touches, but really just built their own extension. I was pretty impressed that they were so nice not to knock down the mosque, and allowed the two cultures to coexist. I think that that is probably why I liked this building so much. Clearly, these cultures are capable of making beautiful unifying architecture, so the people should be able to unite as well. Sadly, thats not the way life works, and people arent always as accepting of each other as they are of each other's buildings.

When we left the mosque, this "homeless" woman came begging for money, and when I didnt give her any, she said "eres fea" meaning "you're ugly". That horrible woman, who would have probably wore me down eventually, and gotten some change, just made me angry. Enough that I just wanted to smack her with my large bag. Then, there was this man playing guitar in the street and I was all ready to give him money, but my large bag was an abyss for my small coins and I couldnt find any. Hours later, when we were all done with our things and pretty much just waiting for the bus, she found us again and asked me for money again. Seriously lady? I didnt give her money and she insulted me the first time, why the hell would she come back? She needs to get a job. She clearly has a whole day to spend in the street pestering people she yells at. Maybe Im a heartless bitch, or maybe I expect better from people, I dont know.

We got back today at around 7pm, and rested and ate dinner. Tonight, we might go to this place called Ylang Ylang in the park. The place is pretty much all outdoors and the park must be beautiful at night, so I really hope we go. Im finally done with this post that I started yesterday afternoon! Hasta luego!

Sleepy sleepy

It is too late to write all that happened today, but I will hopefully update you tomorrow during siesta. I would like to sleep, but maybe I will blog instead. Sevilla=gorgeous, by the way

goodnight people! even though its only 8PM in NY...

NY to WI to ATL to Madrid to Sevilla!

This is from June 2nd in the evening, but I didnt get to post it:

I left home on May 27^th at 10am and I finally arrived in Sevilla on June 2^nd at 15:50 aka 9:50am NY time. Its been a long journey, but I am finally here (well, we are finally here). Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Ankur Aggarwal! Or should I say Dr. Amy Aggarwal? Its not everyday that a person doubly changes their name within 3 days of each other. It was a hectic weekend, but the happy couple managed to tie the knot twice, and seemed to have fun doing it. Saturday was the Mehndi, which is a sort of beginning of the wedding celebrations’ celebration. There, our New York family proved just how boring we really can be, and let the Wisconsonians out-dance us. Granted, they won at their own game, and we put up a fairly good fight for our first-try. Watch out though, next time, we got this in the bag. Anywho, Saturday was a nice fun time with no costume changes (except for Bria, who definitely out-danced any kind of act that hit the stage that night).

Saturday night, we got home fairly late, and had to get everything ready for the day ahead. After 4 hours of sleep, I got up to shower and get my hair done. Makeup came after breakfast, which was provided by the Hyatt Regency Hotel at the mysterious Polaris restaurant. We were ready to go by around 8:20 in the morning, when we had to begin to dress the bride. Oh what a show that was! There was a skirt, that weighed at least five pounds, a top that was at least three and a dupatta (shawl with lots of work, from what I have experienced) that probably weighed somewhere in the 10 pound range. The dupatta had to go on her head and be wrapped precariously, but securely, around her shoulders and back. With all the jewelry and the too-high heels, I am not entirely sure how my sister made It from point A to points B,C,D, etc. Regardless, she did so with grace and elegance, from what I could tell, and she got married into the Aggarwal family around a small indoor fire, led by her new husband.

There is this odd Hindu tradition where the bride’s sisters steal the groom’s shoes when he is on the alter, getting married. Don’t ask me why this happens, but apparently it’s a big thing. Did I mention that when the sisters get the shoes, they get to hold them hostage until the two families negotiate a price to buy back the stolen shoes? That’s the whole point, I suppose, to make some money and have some fun. Well, all the sisters that were in cahoots to steal the shoes (aka me, Tiffany and Bria) were entering the ceremony way after the groom (aka Ankur), so the groom’s family (aka Anshu and Preety) had already hidden the shoes before we even got there, making it impossible to steal the shoes. Jimmy attempted a steal, but of the wrong shoes. So, at the end, Preety gave up a shoe so we wouldn’t feel bad for being unsuccessful (not that we did feel bad, but it was a nice gesture). Anshu took the shoe back while handing me a rolled up bill, so there was no negotiating, but I was not unhappy about the outcome.

After a short break for lunch, we headed up to our room and changed for the catholic ceremony, and hopped in a limo and went to the church. There, we dressed Chechi in her white gown and veil and waited for everyone to arrive. The catholic ceremony was like any other, except in this one, I knew the bride and groom pretty well. As I walked down the aisle, my mind was pretty blank; I was just trying to put one foot in front of the other while holding onto the arm of an extremely tall man. When I saw Chechi come down the aisle, tears rolled down my face (not for the first time that day), but I stifled any continued crying. Then, when Ankur was giving his vows, Tiffany and I were pretty much have wet cheeks and red eyes, followed by runny noses (which is really embarrassing when you are the maids of honor and people are actually watching you). At the end though, the tears were done, and I was pretty sure I wouldn’t cry again that day.

After pictures, we went to the hotel for a cocktail hour followed by the reception. I was successful in not crying at all during the cocktail, and was really in a sprightly mood. After Tiffany and I changed into our lenghas during dinner, we tried to practice our maids of honor speech, but I could not get through it without breaking down. I knew the exact part where I choked up, and honestly, it was the perfect place to choke up. Well, if you can tell me you have cried in front of more than 375 people, then I don’t feel so ridiculous about this next part. As soon as I started speaking, I looked up at Chechi (big mistake). I then thought about how happy I was, mixed with how thankful I was for her and also how sad I was that the three sisters really wouldn’t be the same anymore. The waterworks were just an added bonus to this slew of emotions. I croaked out my sentences and let Tiffany speak. Let me tell you, that thirteen year old can publicly speak better than I ever have been able to, or probably will be able to. Apparently, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room (at least the women’s eyes anyway) and that was perfectly fine with me. I could have done without the humiliating blubbering though.

I made up for it with my sprightly “dancing” skills, which I unabashedly broke out. What was the point of being the maid of honor if you couldn’t have a kickass time “dancing” your butt off to hindi songs you had no rhythm for? The wedding ended too soon, in my opinion. I was ready for some mad after-partying, but I don’t think anyone around me was up for it. It was probably a good idea anyway, since we had to be up for breakfast by 7 (which turned out to be 8 goddamnit).

The next morning, after yummy Polaris food again, and quick packing, the Chechi and I left the parents at the hotel and went to Ankur’s house. We hung out at the house, where I ate some peanutty food and had to take 1.5 benadryl, 1 claritin, rub a billion pounds of high strength cortisone all over myself and then take some prescription high-strength antihistimine which I don’t remember the name of. It was a bit insane, and not good considering I was already lacking sleep. We all took naps as a result of sleep depravity and peanut consumption, then we went to dinner at a famous ice cream/ burger shop as my last supper before Spain. Then, we went to see Sex and the City 2, which was one of two movies that I have ever had the desire to walk out of after sitting through the first 15 minutes. Note that the other movie that made me feel that way was Ghosts of Girlfriends’ Past, so SATC2 must have really sucked major gooseberries.

The next morning, after getting all washed up and such, Chechi and Ankur dropped me off at the airport before leaving for their drive home with pitstops in Michigan. It was the first time that I flew alone, so I was a bit scared. Luckily, airports are some of the best labeled buildings I have ever been in, so I didn’t have to stop to decide what way to turn even once. The flight to Atlanta was departing from gate 69, so I knew it would be a good one. For those of you who don’t know why that is, I will graciously let you in on the secret. I randomly picked a 6 of some suit from a deck of cards and tacked it to my wall in the spring of sophomore year. Then, I found a 9 of another suit on the floor somewhere and tacked it with the 6 of blanks. I figured something important, or good, or significant in some way would occur and the number 69 would be involved. So here I was waiting at gate 69, waiting for the flight that would start the journey that I was getting nervous to take. It meant something, that’s for sure, and whether it was superstition, or a higher power, or just coincidence, I began to relax, and was not at all worried about the trip anymore!

I sat in seat 19B with seat 19A occupied by a fairly good-looking buffish fellow who couldn’t have been more than 25. I thought I hit the jackpot with a decent plane buddy until he pulled out his maxim magazine and it was clear that he had not bought it for the intellectual articles. In Atlanta, I found Whitney and we boarded the plane together. I sat in seat 36E with a large man in seat 36D. After boarding finished, it was clear that he was taking up both 36C and 36D. I figured since he was large enough to need both seats that he would at least move a bit away from me, since there was an almost empty seat on his other side, while we were sharing his right arm rest. He did not think this was a good idea, apparently, until 6 hours into the flight. That’s after the hour or so we sat on the runway waiting for a storm to pass before taking off. The delay, along with some not so great weather, made our arrival jump from 9:35am to 10:40am. Oh well, I thought, there was no schedule we were really keeping.

After a fairly flawless trip and maneuvering through two airports, we were finally in a cab heading to the Atocha train station where we were going to take a train to Sevilla. The train station was easy enough to navigate as well, and we had plenty of time to drink a caffe latte before boarding for our two and a half hour trip. At the end of another long time of sitting in a seat, we got to Sevilla train station, where we took a cab and gave the cabby our housemother’s address. He tried to make conversation, but we couldn’t really understand his strong castillian accent and fast speech. He tried to point out some landmarks, like the Park of Maria Something (I think it was Maria). He also showed us some stores and such. It was very nice of him. He took us to our building and took out our luggage before darting off to pick up his next passenger. We approached the gated building and pressed the button for the apartment where we were to stay. Sadly, no one answered our call. For the next ten minutes, and 5 more rings later, our housemother finally answered and buzzed us in. We walked in the building, dragging our suitcases, and realized the apartment was on the 5^th floor. Hoping to God there was an elevator at the top, we climbed the half-set of stairs, literally dragging our suitcases with us. Thank god, there was the tiniest elevator I had ever seen at the top. It was probably 4 foot by 4 foot, and barely fit the two of us and our luggage. Still, it got us to the 5^th floor and we found our home for the next month.

Our housemother, Maria, is really nice and sweet. She has two children and a few grandchildren. She also likes to paint and takes a painting class in the evenings. Currently, she is gone, doing that, and whatever else she does with her spare time. Her apartment is cute, with lots of artwork hanging from the walls, so I will definitely have a new piece to catch my eye every day of my stay here.

Our other roommate, Melissa, is also really nice. She has answered all of our questions with no hesitation and been very welcoming to us. She invited us to go out with some of the other students in our classes tonight to a festival sort of thing at the park, but Whitney and I decided with out jetlag and non-showeredness, we should probably stay in and unpack and get situated. So that’s what we did, we got washed and settled and are ready for our first day (everyone else’s 4^th day) of classes tomorrow. Cant wait to meet all the other people in the program (apparently there at about 25). I just hope we can edge ourselves into the already formulated groups after arriving a bit late.

This is a looong post, and if you kept going until the end, I commend you. Thanks for paying so much attention to my trip happenings, but maybe you should find something better to do with your lives ;)