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!