(Post #18) Wrapping up the Semester in Sevilla

Hello readers, I must admit that it has been a little bit of time since I last wrote a blog post! I am currently writing this blog from Amsterdam, but to explain how we got to this point, I first must go back to May 9th and fill you in on everything that I have been up to! I must warn you: this post is a little bittersweet as it is about me wrapping up this semester in my classes. Like seriously, where has the time gone?

(Monday, May 9th) When a semester is wrapping up, there is a lot of grind time and less fun

moments as it is all about studying and working hard. I spent all of this day studying until the nighttime when I invited my roommate Jillian to watch the sunset over the river. Jilly (as I call her) and I have gotten quite close, and I am sad that we had to part ways so soon. After the sunset, my German friend Chris joined us and he insisted that we get his favorite ice cream: Häagen-Dazs.

(Tuesday, May 10th) I took my first final today and it was luckily not too difficult. It was honestly harder to say goodbye to my 3 classmates and our Intermediate Spanish 2 prof because we have so much fun in that class. Our Culture of Food & Wine class was fun today though because we tasted cheeses and wines! After classes, I ran some errands and then went out with a lot of my European friends for a couple drinks as this was the last time I would see a lot of them.

(Wednesday, May 11th) Studying, studying, & more studying was the theme of this day but it had a sweet ending as our CEA program hosted a big farewell dinner for all the students. It was good to see everyone in the program together again, but as we all headed home that night, we gave each other extra tight hugs as we knew realistically that some of us may never see each other again. The pro and con to studying abroad and doing programs like this is that you meet the best people, but we all live so far away from each other. It is important to remember that some relationships won’t last forever, but the memories in that season of life will.

(Thursday, May 12th) Today I felt a big weight on my shoulders disappear as I took my Culture of Food & Wine in Spain final. This class had a lot of knowledge and information, but I think it went okay! I really enjoyed this night because during my Tourism Marketing class during the day, my professor Enrique asked me to plan a gathering for our class just to hang out as a goodbye party to the Americans, and we ended up getting a group of 20-25 people together and a very big table and it was just such a blast to see everyone and to hang out as one big group.

(Friday May 13th) Although my actual exams are over, I had to work on a project for my Tourism Marketing class at EUSA that I knew would take me awhile. I went to a cute coffee shop with a friend later in the day for a change of scenery, and then some friends and I headed to Plaza de España to take some pictures together with the beautiful background. We ended the night with sushi and we were also melting as the temps in Seville are up to the 90s every day. I will never take air conditioning for granted again.

(Saturday, May 14th) Today I did something new and went to a free techno concert in the park with some pals. It was mostly a chance to socialize but it was good to enjoy the riverside of Seville and just being outside in the beautiful city in general since I was running out of time. The saddest part of this day is that it was the last night of my roommate Jillian sleeping in our room. We reminisced on our time together and then we went to bed (sorta) in the 80/90 degree weather.

(Sunday, May 15th) Does a beach day sound good to anyone? It sure sounded good to me! Before I left Seville, a couple of German friends wanted to bring me to the beach for the day and so we headed to Cádiz. I cannot begin to tell you how relaxing and amazing it was to go swimming again in the salt water and to also just take in the nice white sand. We explored the town a little bit before dinner and then we jammed out to songs the whole way home. Something I have sure missed are road trips! Something that I have not missed are sunburns.

(Monday, May 16th) As today was my last free day before a lot of traveling and things happening, I spent the morning working hard and wrapping up videos and things to get done. After hard work though, comes time to play. One of my favorite spots in Seville is the beautiful and large María Luisa Park, so to throw one last big hoorah party- I brought my host family’s dog Bimba to the park and met up with lots of friends from both the CEA program and EUSA international. I got home from the park adventure at around midnight and then was up until midnight packing all of my things- I have a lot of things!

(Tuesday, May 17th) My last full day with my host family 🙁 Oh readers, this day and May 18th were honestly days I have been dreading this whole semester. Today was my last day of class so I dropped off a couple of suitcases at a friend’s and then worked hard during classes since the international students aren’t done for 3 more weeks and I had to work ahead on one of our projects. I did my classic sprint home after Tourism Marketing class to eat lunch quick and then rush back to Market Structure where we just worked on a presentation. After the presentation, I went into the city center and it was absolutely packed with Scottish and German people as there was a big soccer game the following day so so many fans took over the city and were extremely drunk. It was crazy but honestly a little fun to watch too. After hanging in the center, I went to a dinner at a friend’s house and we all hung out and reminisced the semester. We then went to Las Setas and we paid to go up to enjoy the Seville sunset above all of the buildings. The sunset was beautiful and it was a good way to end my time in the city. Besides flying to the States from Seville in 3 weeks, I know that I will be back to this beautiful city in the future.