Hey It's Maggie Rae

Week 2: Study Abroad with me in Spain

Posted on February 26, 2023March 26, 2024 by Maggie Rae

Enjoy week 2 of my 6 week study abroad journal log in Seville, Spain!

Monday, July 4th, 2022 13:50

Happy Fourth of July!

I am sad not to be at home eating hamburgers, potato salad and banana pudding but I am sure I can find something to that extent here.

I didn’t update y’all yesterday. Not much happened! I went on a run yesterday morning with our host dad because it was cloudy and cool. Surprisingly didn’t die so that is a plus. One of our roomies tested positive for COVID but the other 3 of us tested negative so we can still continue with life. Anyways, here are the photos for the past couple days!

Tuesday, July 5th, 2022 16:41

Yesterday, I spent my whole day at the school just hanging out with everybody there since my roommates like to take 3 hours naps and that just ain’t for me. I came home around 7 to drop my backpack off before going out and our host mom had washed our laundry. She had us go up to the terrace and get our clothes off the clothesline. What a wild experience!

Even though I had already told her I was going out to eat with friends she convinced me to stay and eat dinner. I think it was the best dinner we had had! It was a sandwich with a fried egg, ham, lettuce, mayonnaise and a tomato with French fries. I still went out with friends and ate a whole hamburger and ice cream, though at Karpanta’s!

Our professor has given us a scavenger hunt of things around the city to find for extra credit points which is very fun to do. So we had to find the bird in the art on a church, go to a bar and get a cerveza con limón which is beer with lemon Fanta, and take a picture with the ice cream girls at Helados la Abuela’s. I got chunky chocolate ice cream.

This morning, we skipped our first class and go to the port in Seville where they ship in different items that they hold in warehouses until prices go up and then they ship them out to be sold. We watched them load ammonium nitrate which is used in fertilizer and is also highly flammable. We got to see them unload sunflower oil from a ship into huge containers for storage. Also, corn from Ukraine and barley. It was very fascinating! There were huge cranes and 3 out of the 5 are electric and they are on tracks so they can be moved around. They can hold 6-13 tons depending on the crane.

Today as part of our scavenger hunt we had to take a picture on a Vespa so we went into the store down the street from school and took our pictures on a cute mint green Vespa. On our way home, we walk past a grocery store that we wandered into and I really wanted some chocolate milk so I paid 93 cent euros for this bottle of chocolate milk that was better than H‑E‑B chocolate milk. Lunch was very good today too! A good meat sauce and noodles!

Wednesday, July 6th, 2022 15:36

Last night we went out on the town again to tick off more of our scavenger hunt items. Original Roman Aqueduct, flamenco dresses from the dance room, BBQ sauce at the Taste of America store.

We had dinner at La Cantina Mexicana and got a picture with Oscar, the owner. He is from South Mexico and the food was absolutely delicious! We got agua frescas a mango and guava one.

We went to the ice cream shop again and I got cheesecake ice cream this time. It was around 10:30 and we weren’t too tired so we went to this cute little park by our house. It was super nice outside and around 68 degrees which was very cool. Last night it actually got cold enough that I had to sleep under the sheet.

We had lentils for lunch which were very good!

Thursday, July 7th, 2022 16:32

Hello! Yesterday was fun! I literally just sat at the school for 8 hours. The last couple of hours we played ERS, scum, and speed. We then went out for dinner at 8:30 to 100 Montaditos where they have 1 euro sandwiches on Wednesday. I ate 6 sandwiches. They were all very good! We then walked around town and got more scavenger hunt pictures. Hard Rock Cafe gift shop, Hotel Alfonso XIII lobby and a stone by the cathedral.

Today, I went to my first class but during my second class which is economics we went to the Mercadillo de Jueves which is the market on Thursday which only happens on Thursday (If you couldn’t tell by the name). It is like a flea market with lots of random things everywhere. It was very interesting to look at all the stuff.

After, we went back to the house and ate lunch which was mashed potatoes, ham and eggs. We also requested that she give us more fruit and she delivered with a huge slice of melon!

We now have just been sitting at the school again!

Friday, July 8th, 2022 16:42

After we finally left the school yesterday we went home for a quick minute before going out. For dinner we had churros and cups of hot chocolate but this hot chocolate is different. More thick and bitter. We had a few minutes to spare between meeting friends and churros so we got gelato. It was one of the girls birthdays and her one request was to watch the sunset and ride in a horse drawn carriage which they have all around here.

We stayed out till 2 AM which was rough for waking up early but it was a fun time! The weather for the next month is pretty intense with it being above 100 degrees everyday so it looks like a lot more days spent at the school just hanging out.

I can’t believe it has almost been 2 weeks. This week has just flown by! I am soaking up every minute and trying to enjoy it!

Saturday, July 9th, 2022 15:36

Last night for dinner we had a plate of mushrooms with some kind of sauce. It was kind of disgusting. It is probably the worst meal I have had at the host fam’s.

This morning we had an early morning to be at the train station to get on the bus at 7 AM so we could go on our weekend excursion to Granada/Cordoba.

We visited La Alhambra which is a large complex where the king lived within the city of Granada. It was built in the 1200’s. Granada is also close to the mountains but close to the beach so you can be skiing in the morning and an hour later be surfing on the beach. It was very beautiful with so much texture and intricate designs!

We get to spend the night in Granada and tomorrow morning we will go on to Cordoba to see the mosque there.

The scenery is all just so beautiful in Spain! Also one thing you should know about Spain, or at least Seville is that they love to use their car horn. Even the slightest inconvenience and they honk their horn. So it was very funny to see yesterday morning on the way to school a police officer standing in the middle of the road directing traffic and all the cars honking because people weren’t going! Definitely brought a smile to my face cause it was just so funny!

Come back to see what I do in week 3 with the Texas Tech University study abroad program!

XOXO Maggie

P.S. If you missed week 1 of my journal log check it out right here!

Week 1: Study Abroad with me in Spain

Posted on February 25, 2023February 10, 2024 by Maggie Rae

Enjoy week 1 of my 6 week study abroad journal log in Sevilla, Spain!

Monday, June 27th, 2022 3:53PM

Day 1 of Spain adventures! It might actually be day 2 who knows at this point. I am on my way to study abroad for the next 6 weeks. It started at the Lubbock Airport for the first time flight experience on Sunday, June 26th. I sat next to the nicest man who shared all of his flight knowledge with me.

I was supposed to have a 3 and half hour layover at DFW where I met up with all my fellow classmates but ended up sitting there for just a few more hours because of maintenance issues. Next, was the 9 hour flight to Madrid, Spain. Spain is 7 hours ahead of central time so we ate dinner at 8 PM and breakfast at 2 AM because that was how it correlated with Spain time. Airplane food wasn’t the best, but for being 40,000 ft in the air it was pretty darn tasty. The Madrid airport is huge and very pretty! I have ridden so many escalators which is just the best!

We flew over the Atlantic ocean! It was cool to see itty bitty ships out there!

The train station is very large kind of comparable to an airport. We are sitting waiting for a 6 PM train since all the others were full. Whoever told us we could just book tickets at the station was wrong!!! I have been awake for 24 hours now but YOLO

Things I am thankful for:

The nicest ticket man who was finally able to book us tickets for the train!

The kind lady who spared me a euro to use a fancy bathroom because that is all that is in the train station!

Three stories of the Madrid airport — Flying over a city in Spain

Tuesday, June 28th, 2022

Today, we toured The Royal Alcázar which is the oldest actively used palace. It had the most ornate ceilings, floors and walls. Basically everything was just so cool about it! It was amazing to see the amount of detail that was put into the building of the palace.

Next we got to see the Catedral de Sevilla. It is one of the largest in the world built in 1400 and was built in 100 years. Because it was built in only 100 years it is all from the same style era which was the gothic era. This is where Christopher Columbus’ son is buried and part of his body is, too. We got to go to the top of the bell tower which was 34 flights of ramps designed to for people to be taken up by a donkey.

It is so beautiful and we have been blessed with really great weather so far. Pretty comparable to Texas!

Orange trees in the streets of Spain — Orange trees

Tile designed specifically for the wedding of an emperor in the 1500s in the Royal Alcazar — Orange trees

Wednesday, June 29, 2022 3:20 PM

For lunch and dinner it featured some…uh…seafood. The paella not my thing, the chicken and potatoes were good and the dessert was good. For dinner we had potatoes with cream sauce, very delicious and then the main course came…he sat the plate in front of me and it wafted of *gag* fish. It had a huge glob of mayonnaise and applesauce under it. I tried it, don’t worry, but it was not for me. The chocolate cake for dinner was delicious, though.

We went for a late night walk and the trees in the park there were HUGE! The buildings are just so cool and the streets and sidewalks are all cobblestone. It made rolling our suitcases to our host families fun!

Today we got our HOST FAMILIAS! There are four girls in our house 2 in one room and 2 in another. We have the coolest host mom her name is Fatima, and she is 55 but doesn’t look that old. Her husband Enrique is also so super nice. She only speaks in Spanish but for the most part I can understand her. She told us that American boys are very ugly but Spanish boys are very handsome and have very good style. For lunch, she fed us pasta with a cream sauce and watermelon. I ate mine so fast. It was sooo good!

It is siesta time right now! So I am just chillaxing before we venture out on the town.

Paella for lunch from the hotel — Paella

Chicken and potatoes for lunch from the hotel — Paella

Thursday, June 30, 2022 14:37 PM

Yesterday after we all took a siesta and rested we took a walk to the school so we would know how to get there from the apartment. It is a short 12 minute walk with most of it in the shade. The nice thing about the buildings being so close together is there is always shade. After, we just wandered the streets and checked out some shops. I bought a cute dress 50% off for only 12 euros that my host mom later said I paid too much for!

Dinner was at 8 and it was very good! We had tuna empanadas (the one fish I will eat) and garlic carrots with flan for dinner. I eat very fast especially when the food is good. She told us what everything was on the table in Spanish and then later quizzed us to see if we remembered. She is very funny and tells us about the feo (ugly) stuff like American boys. Her exact quote “España niños muy guapo, americano ninos muy feo”. We took quick 5 minute showers as that is all we are allowed.

They do not have A/C here which led to a very hot night. Around 4 AM I woke up drenched in sweat because there was no breeze. We sleep with the window open and a fan under no blankets. We got up and got ready for the first day of school and then ate breakfast. In Spain, breakfast isn’t a huge thing so we had cornflakes with milk, cookies and coffee if we chose. Coffee is a big thing here especially cafe con leche.

We walked to school for class although our professor has the unmentionable disease of 2020 so we just watched both classes over zoom. After, we walked around a bit and explored some more. We went into a supermarket and food prices are very reasonable here. For lunch, we had garbanzo beans, chicken and rice with watermelon. Very very good! She told us that our clothes very much sets us apart and that women here usually wear pants never shorts.

Now time for our siesta!

Garbanzo beans, rice and chicken with watermelon for our first meal at our host families — Garbanzo beans. rice and chicken with watermelon

Tuna empanadas with carrots and flan for dessert for dinner — Garbanzo beans. rice and chicken with watermelon

Friday, July 1st, 2022 17:32

Feliz primer día de julio!

Last night for dinner we had eggs, green beans and ham with yogurt for dessert. It was very good! We decided to go out with all the others so we went to Bocoa Bar which is the Texas Tech bar in Seville. Everybody goes out once it gets cool which is around 10:30. I didn’t drink anything but enjoyed observing all the people in the bar. Going to the bar in Spain is a very social thing.

For breakfast we just had toast with either Nutella, cream cheese or marmalade. We didn’t have class this morning so we instead went shopping with our host mom. We took a 20 minute bus ride to the other side of town to go to all the shops. For lunch we had pork and French fries with watermelon. Very very good!

We had our brief siesta and then I did a thing. I cut my hair!!!

It feels so light and fun! Probably the shortest I have ever had it! The salon was so fun! She cut and washed my hair for 23 euros which I thought was a pretty good deal!

Green beans, scrambled eggs and bacon for dinner — Eggs, green beans and bacon for dinner

Nutella with jam or nutella and juice for breakfast — Eggs, green beans and bacon for dinner

Saturday, July 2nd, 2022 15:33

Hola, a todos! It is becoming hard to type and talk in English since we speak Spanish so often.

Last night for dinner we had tortilla de patatas which is a Spanish potato omelette. Very very good! We ate it with salsa and ketchup! Afterwards, we didn’t have anything to do and they were all tired so I took a walk around the city at about 21:30. We are about 10 minutes from Parque de Maria Luisa, the Plaza de España and the river. The park is a great place to go running my host mom keeps telling me! The Plaza de España was in one of the episodes of Star Wars, too.

This morning we walked to the train station to get on the bus to go to Itálica. It is a Roman city that was found by someone that was digging under their house and discovered it. It is very impressive to see just how good the materials upheld and were preserved throughout the many years of this ancient city. The amphitheater was built to hold 20,000 people. Muy grande y mucho calor!

After, we stopped at the McDonald’s at the train station to sit in the air conditioning and get some ice cream! I got a white chocolate sundae which tasted like ice cream with sweet and condensed milk on top. And yes the ice cream machine was actually working!

For lunch we had patatas con carne which is potatoes with pork meat. It was very good!

Tortilla de patatas for dinner — tortilla de patatas for dinner

A fire station in Sevilla — tortilla de patatas for dinner

Garden at Italica — The amphitheater at Italica

Come back to see what I do in week 2 with the Texas Tech University study abroad program!

XOXO Maggie

Front Door Makeover

Posted on November 20, 2020June 23, 2022 by Maggie Rae

Number 13 on HomeLight’s 2022, What upgrades increase home value? says, “Front porches have come back in vogue since the pandemic began, with rocking chairs or other cozy seating offering a safe way to visit with neighbors or have a quiet cup of coffee. A welcoming front porch can add an estimated $6,000 in resale value, HomeLight’s 2022 trends study found.”

Not that I plan on selling my house anytime soon, it is never a bad idea to try and increase the value of your home. Why not make it a place you will enjoy while you live there.

In my previous blog, We Finally Found a House, one of my hopes and dreams for the outside of the house was to paint the front door. It was just a plain, boring white door that was in need of a fun pop of color. So, what any normal person would do (or at least me) I hopped on to Pinterest and started to look at colors that would compliment the brownish siding that is on the house. I decided that I wanted it to be either a pink or coral color of some sort. You can see of my inspo on my pinterest board here!

**This post DOES NOT contain affiliate links** These are simply products that I used or considered and would recommend! I also do not own the rights to these photos.

Picking a paint color

The next step was to go down the street to the local Home Depot. I looked at many paint swatches BUT the moment I laid eyes on it, I knew it was the one! I ended up falling in love with the color, Watermelon Slice by Behr. By the name of the paint color, you would think it would be more of a red color, after all watermelons are red, but it is actually more of a coral color. It complimented the siding perfectly and I was sold!

Things didn’t go as planned

Painting the front door, sadly, got postponed because it ended up snowing. Who would of expected it to snow, in Texas, in October! On the bright side we found out that there was a very cold draft that came under the door as it was not sealing properly. Since it was an old wooden door we decided to replace it, which meant that I got to choose a new front door. YAY!

Picking the perfect door

The first step to finding the perfect door was online searching of what I thought I would want. I wanted to keep it on the cheaper side so I knew I wanted a primed steel door. Since the room does not have many windows, I knew I wanted it to have a window to let in some natural light.

I ended up liking the style of this door that had a six pane divider over it that would both fit the style and the price range I wanted to stick to. It is the JELD-WEN 32 in. x 80 in. 6 Lite Craftsman Primed Steel Prehung Left-Hand Inswing Front Door w/Brickmould. We got it from Home Depot for right around $500. While we were there we grabbed some composite shims and a can of spray foam insulation to hopefully reduce the amount of times that we would have to go back.

JELD-WEN 32 in. x 80 in. 6 Lite Craftsman Primed Steel Prehung Left-Hand Inswing Front Door w/Brickmould

The chosen JELD-WEN door

Choices 2 & 3

These are a few of the others options that I considered but passed up. The JELD-WEN 36 in. x 80 in. 3 Lite Craftsman Primed Steel Prehung Left-Hand Inswing Front Door w/Brickmould was a nice modern option with the horizontal pane option but it was a little more than I wanted to pay at $650 considering I found another door that I really liked.

The JELD-WEN 32 in. x 80 in. 9 Lite Primed Steel Prehung Left-Hand Inswing Back Door with Brickmould. I briefly considered this one but it was a little too casual as it was a back door and you could see in and did not offer the privacy that I wanted as the front door looks straight into the living room.

The process of installation

The installation of the door was much more than expected. The siding was installed over the door so in order for the door to be removed so did the siding. Luckily, we just had to remove the screws that were holding the siding in place and we were able to easily slide the siding off and access the door. It did make this a much larger task than anticipated which meant more TIME! You can see here we finally had the old door removed and we were making some final adjustments before we could install the new door.

The new door is in

The new door from the inside-Hey It's Maggie Rae

The new door from the outside- Hey It's Maggie Rae

It was so exciting to finally have the new door installed. We used the shims and spray foam that we had grabbed to make sure that the door would not stick or squeak when used and it was airtight. The new door also just greets you with a newness as you approach the house!

The door after painting

A close up of the color-Hey It's Maggie Rae

The view from the outside-Hey It's Maggie Rae

While painting the door we taped off the windows with painters tape just to ensure that no paint got on the glass. Before painting I lightly sanded the door with a 320 grit sandpaper to scuff it up and so the paint would stick better. To paint the crevices I used a soft bristled paint brush and a small roller for the bigger flat areas. I painted 2 coats on just to get a good finish. Here is the beautiful door after it was painted! Isn’t it just such a fun color! It is bright, cheerful and makes me happy every time I see it, which is quite often as I live here. Hahaha!

Products we used for this project

Paint color: Watermelon Slice by Behr

Front door: JELD-WEN 32 in. x 80 in. 6 Lite Craftsman Primed Steel Prehung Left-Hand Inswing Front Door w/Brickmould

Shims: composite shims

Spray foam: Loctite TITE FOAM

Door Knob: Kwikset Halifax Keyed entry door handle

I think all in all I spent about $750 on this project which I felt was pretty was pretty reasonable since I got a new front door out of it!

I am excited to continue to show you the process of making this house my home!

XOXO Maggie

We finally found a house!

Posted on August 20, 2020May 21, 2022 by Maggie Rae

We finally closed on our house! I am so excited to get to live here while I go to school. We will be doing some renovations and updating and I would love for you to come along and see what we have to do with the place to get inspiration for your own homes.

Scroll to the bottoms to see my hopes and dreams for the house!

The search for the perfect house

The search began in April 2020 looking at houses just to get the feel of the market. There were many hours spent scrolling and “hearting” potential houses on Realtor.com. We didn’t do too much looking until the end of May when it was getting closer to the time that I needed a house. We then looked and looked and looked for houses, but as it is in any college town the housing market was CRAZY. We had looked at probably close to 30 houses all over the town that would either sell before we could buy them or that needed too much work. Like a lot of work.

We finally found a house (not this one) at the end of June 2020 and were under contract on it. The inspection came back and…it had major foundation issues, so we decided that it wasn’t probably the wisest choice.

We looked at many more and finally found this cute gem in a quiet neighborhood. We went under contract on this house mid July 2020. It is a small ranch style house built in 1951. It is just over 1400 square feet featuring 3 bedrooms and 1 and 3/4 baths. This house was a well-loved house by a family who had lived here for the past 50 years. They had taken really good care of it, but it has seen better days.

Sooo…before we start any remodeling I thought I would show you what it looked like.

The front with not much curb appeal

When we first saw it — After the previous owners moved out

To start with the yard, there were many old farm equipment pieces throughout the yard, as decoration, that were surrounded by piles of rocks. When the previous owners moved out they took the farm equipment, THANKFULLY, and we were left with odd piles of rock around the yard. The yard is also overgrown and in need of some help to trim back the out of control bushes and weeds.

The front has a built on carport enclosed on three sides which is nice to protect cars from the weather. The house colors don’t scream “WOW” and are just a boring brown. The front door is under the carport which is unfortunate and is also painted a not so beautiful shade of white.

The inside

When you walk in the front door, you are greeted with the living room, with a hallway off to the left leading to the bedrooms/bathroom and a door at the end of the room leading to the dining area. It is a dining/kitchen combo. The kitchen right now is not very functional with the #1 reason being that the washer and dryer is in the middle of the kitchen, yes you read that right the WASHER AND DRYER in the kitchen. Since this is an old house it most likely did not originally have a laundry area when it was built so the kitchen was the easiest place seen fit to put it. It sure does easy make it easy to multitask, though. You could be cooking dinner and doing a load of laundry.

Down the hallway

The hallway features 4 doors. 3 leading to bedrooms and one to the main bathroom. One thing to look at in these pictures is the curtains, as all of the rooms have them. The lady who lived here previously had a curtain and drape sewing business so it only fit that her own home was outfitted as well. The first room was actually her sewing room, hence the weird hanging light. In the master bathroom you might notice the odd shaped tub as the bathroom is only 4 foot wide so this was the mix between a bathtub and a shower.

My favorite picture

This picture just shows the character of the house as in one spot there are 4 different flooring types. In such a small space, there is the linoleum of the entry way, the original hardwood floors, the tile of the kitchen and the carpet of the bedroom. All of this is able to be captured in the one photo.

Four different floors intersect — 4 different floors intersect

The hopes and dreams for the house

For the outside:

Sidewalk and border to the front door
Paint the front door
Fix the spalling of the foundation

For the inside:

Tear down wallpaper (where located)
Fresh coat of paint throughout the house
New floors
New light fixtures
New doors and hardware
Relocate the washer and dryer
Renovate the kitchen
Renovate main bathroom

I am so excited to dive in and make this place a home showing you each step of the way.

XOXO Maggie

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