Meat and Potatoes

It has been 10 days since my last blog post. I cannot describe how busy these past ten days have been, but I'm going to try to type it all down for y'all. Wednesday and Thursday of last week was spent patiently waiting for my parents and froomie (friend and roommate) to get to Spain! On Friday, I had to tour around the Bella Artes of Sevilla, and while I tried to be all in it, I was honestly beside myself with excitement knowing I was hours away from seeing them. I made a sign that I said "Bienvenidos a Seville David, Michelle, and Amber" with the NO8DO symbol of Seville. NO8DO means "No me ha dejado" and carries a lot of significance to Seville. I would explain it, but this post is already going to be long (you can google the meaning, and it's a short little read). I met them at Atocha, and we all shed a few tears of happiness. The first stop on our crazy week of traveling was in Cádiz. My parents and froomie were jet lagged, so we all went to bed early after watching the sunset on the beach. They also slept in early on Saturday since they were awake for so long traveling. I got them up around lunch though, so we all went to the Plaza de Las Flores and Parque Genoves. At this point, we only had three meals in Spain, but my dad was already asking, "Where is the steak house? I need meat and potatoes." Let's just say that Dave had a hard time adjusting to the food here which I understand completely. The Mediterranean diet is so different from the rich foods we are used to eating in America. We made fajitas one night in Seville (which I haven't had in forever), and I was so full from all the richness of it that I felt uncomfortable trying to fall asleep that night. Back to Cádiz, we went to the beach after the plaza and parque to catch some rays before dinner. After dinner, we went to the Plaza de España and the plaza outside of the Catedral. We got to look at the boats in the port as well before walking 2.5 miles back to the AirBnb.

Early Sunday, we traveled to Seville for lunch with my host mom who was very excited to meet and host my parents. She really outdid herself with a four course lunch meal. First course: Shrimp, ham and cheese, and bread. Second course: Vegetable soup. Third course: Roast beef and cheesy potatoes. Fourth course: Ice cream with cookies, whipped cream, caramel, and fruit and a sugary drink. It was so, so good, and Dave FINALLY got to eat the good food he wanted. My mom and froomie enjoyed it as well. We all left stuffed and happy. It was really special to me that my parents got to meet my mamá Sevillana because she's a part of my family now to me. My home in Texas will always be home, but Mamá Carmen and her apartment are home now too.

After lunch, we took a siesta before watching the sunset at the Setas and seeing the outside of the Cathedral at night. I had class Monday morning, but we went to the Plaza de España after (Seville has the best one). There is a museum of the Spanish armies in the plaza that we went through as well. It was really cool to see their army's history because there is SO MUCH to it since Spain is so old. Way older than the young 300 yr. old America, that's for sure. We did a little bit of shopping before the orientation about the big week long trip ahead of us. That was the night we made fajitas (yummm) and went to bed early because we were leaving Seville at 6:30 am.

We spent the better half of the next two days on a charter bus. The first stop on the Toledo-Madrid trip was in Almagro to visit a golden age theater that was found during excavations to the building. We also got to watch tatting done in this pueblo which is kind of like knitting, but it looks like lace. The process is really interesting, and I'll be uploading a video for y'all to see how tatting is done. After this, we continued to Consuegra where we saw the windmills in the book, Don Quijote by Cervantes. It was VERY windy and very reminiscent of Lubbock. We hurried to Toledo to stay the night there. This city is up on a hill, and the lights at night are luminous and give Toledo an almost mystical appearance. We took an escalator (yes, it saved our feet and legs) to the bottom of the hill to get a view of the whole city at night. Dinner was after that, and we ate at a nice restaurant where I had an ACTUAL steak for the first time in over 2 months. *blessed* It was very, very good.

The next morning, our group went to la Iglesia de Santo Tomé to see El Greco's painting, “El entierro del Conde de Orgaz." The painting depicts El Conde de Orgaz's death, and his soul's entrance into heaven. It is hung right above his tomb, and I highly recommend looking into the painting. A lot is going on with it, but it's totally worth looking at and researching. We went zip lining after this as our last hoorah before leaving Toledo. My parents and roommate absolutely loved this city and wished we could've stayed longer.

But on we went to El Escorial. This palace is austere and was home to Felipe II. All of Spain's kings are buried here with the exception of two. We got to see the original royal bed rooms, waiting rooms, dining rooms, courts, and gardens before entering the tomb. All of it was so eye opening because movies give us such a warped vision of what palaces we were like. The beds aren't big because the people weren't big. The rooms are open and have some tapestries. The palace was beautiful in a different way than I had pictured or envisioned in my head. It was really neat to see. We headed toward Madrid after this and stayed there from that day (Wednesday) until today (Saturday). Wednesday was our last day of long traveling on a charter bus!!!!!! WOO because I was tired of being car sick and having a headache.

On Thursday morning, we visited another palace called La Granja. This one wasn't as austere as the other, and it housed some of the Bourbon family. The king and queen that lived there had a competition to see who could collect the most art, so this palace was full of paintings everywhere. It was very grandeur, and it had two rooms that held porcelain from China just to show how far they could go and how much they could get. This palace is often compared to the Versailles palace. La Granja also held a beautiful, extensive garden. After this, we made our way toward the heart of Segovia. This town has a large aqueduct system running through it, and it was still working up until recent times when they had to take down part of it to build a road. There are still parts of it around the town though, and these parts are about 2,000 years old. In this town, we had a large lunch of soup, suckling pig, and a dessert. The suckling pig is what the town of Segovia is known for, so we signed up for this lunch through the school. I thought it was okay, but my dad was super happy with the meal because meat. Hahaha. I had a school thing to do after lunch, so I met up with my parents and froomie after that. They shopped around a little before I got there, and dad and I sun bathed while we waited for the bus.

Yesterday morning, I had another school thing to go do, so I met up with my crew after that to eat lunch and go to El Prado. I went two months ago when I first arrived in Spain (wow, I cannot believe two months have passed), so I showed them my favorite painting ever, "Las meninas." We looked around there for a little bit before returning to the hotel for a siesta. After siesta, we had dinner at a "BBQ" place. They had ranch which was pretty cool. None of us had the bbq, but the meal was overall okay. We went to Plaza Mayor and El Mercado de San Miguel after that to browse around before heading back to the hotel. I spent the rest of the night with my parents talking and setting up social media for ole Dave. I just really wanted to spend my parents' last night with them just hanging out and being together.

We woke up early today to finish packing up and to eat breakfast. They called a taxi and were off by 9. Saying goodbye is never easy and never will be. I feel so lucky that a friend and my parents got to come visit me for a week because it was such a relief to my home-body self to see some of my people. Their visit had gave me something to look forward when times were rough, and it will get me through the second half of this semester for sure. From today, I only have 54 days left. Over half of the semester is over. This time is flying by so, so quickly, and I honestly don't know how to feel about it. Part of me doesn't want to leave my host mom and the roots I've made here, but a large part of me is so ready to be home and so excited to start my PreLaw career this fall. I'm also excited to have my best friend at school with me. It's a lot of mixed emotions, but I know that no matter what I will keep truckin' on and movin' on. Life is happening whether we are ready or not, and every passing moment is a blessing.

xoxo,

Care