After about six weeks in the States, I headed back to Europe. On Monday, February 3rd I arrived in London to visit Trisha for a few days. It had snowed the day before I got there, so everything was covered in slush - and I thought I had left New England!? Since it was so cold and wet, we went to the movies the first day I got there. The next two days we did some site-seeing with two of Trisha's flatmates, Devon and Ollie. We went to the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, St. Martin-in-the-Fields, the British Library, and the British Museum. We all cooked dinner together the first two nights. The last night we went out to eat after going to see a show. We saw "Avenue Q" and it was hysterical! I quite enjoyed it. It was a great way to spend the last night in London.
On Friday I flew out of Heathrow to Madrid and then on to Sevilla. The flight from Madrid was delayed for a few hours, but I made the best of it. A very nice lady from Sevilla who now lives in Belgium basically adopted me for the remained of the journey and helped figure out what was going on with the delay. It turned out that our flight crew was still in Italy when we were supposed to be leaving, and so Iberia flew an empty plane up from Valencia to Madrid so that they wouldn't have to cancel the flight. They also fed us, which was great. I met a very, very nice older couple from Michigan who are staying in Sevilla for two weeks. We got to chatting (of course, it is me we're talking about) and then decided to go out to dinner in Sevilla. On Saturday night Grace and I met up with Bev and Jim and took them to a local favorite, Coloniales, for tapas. We had a great time! They used to import French wine, so they gave us an entire lesson on wine-tasting and some other great tips. We are hoping to meet up with them again before the leave.
As you have gathered, I made it back to Sevilla in one piece. Classes have started again, and I think I am really going to like all of them. I am taking:
-Novel and Cinema
-Contemporary Spanish Literature
-Social Justice and Community Service Practicum
-Methodology of Teachind Spanish as a Second Language
-Contemporary Latin-American Poetry
I realized how familiar I am with Sevilla now; the city has lost its "Spain" smell. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I am in a different country; it just feels as if I am away from home, but no longer foreign. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it is something I have noticed.
The weather here is beautiful. It's about 60 degrees! It feels as if Spring has already arrived. From my house I can see that they are beginning to prepare for feria, a huge festival the last week in April. The building I live in looks out on the grounds where the week-long event will be held. It seems that there is much to look forward to this semester.
Many wishes to you, wherever in the world you might be!
