(Post #7) Finding my Routines!

(Monday, February 7th) Happy first day of classes at my second university, EUSA! (or so I thought). Today is a tale of Kalie not being her smartest self, but it is still a little funny. So for my two classes at the International University EUSA, I didn’t receive any info or the schedule beforehand, so I looked up their website and found my schedule. It said I had classes Mon/Wed, so on Monday morning I did my full routine and then headed nice and early to EUSA. I walked in the room where my first class was supposed to be, but the professor in there said I was in the wrong class. He said, “look for the other room also called #20,” but that did not exist so I found a woman who looked smart and like she could help me. After coming up to her classroom and standing there in front of all her students while she made a phone call, it turns out that I was looking at the 2018-2019 schedule (it clearly said it on top, but I guess I just chose to ignore that haha) and that my classes were Tuesday &Thursday. I am really lucky that my classes do not overlap with my other two Tues & Thursday classes, but for a few of the breaks, I only have 15 minutes between to travel 25 minutes- luckily the teachers are understanding. The good news is now I only have class 2 times a week which is amazing, but the the only caveat is that Kalie is running around like a chicken on those days haha. The other amazing thing about my walk/bike to EUSA is I go right through the beautiful Maria Luisa park and say hi to the huge Plaza de España (where they actually filmed a scene of Star Wars).

(this is not my picture but you get the idea!) Below you can find a picture from the star wars scene:

I ended up returning home and then in the afternoon I did some shopping. My favorite stores here in Sevilla are H&M, Zara, Bershka, and Pull & Bear. It is fun to see other brands from what I am used to in the USA! Also, the style here is to wear your pants long so sometimes I do not even have to search that hard to find longs as they are just labeled as normal - score!

On this night, I started something else new too- the Erasmus volleyball league. Some friends and I made the trek to the other side of town and enjoyed the sport. On my yellow team, we had two 6’8” guys (one from Milwaukee and the other from Frankfurt, Germany) and the rest of us were Germans or Americans but it is so fun to see so many nationalities hanging out and enjoying my favorite sport.

(Tuesday, February 8th) Happy real first day of all my classes! I was definitely a little rushed but when I was in my two new classes of tourism marketing and market structure, I really enjoyed them. In my market structure class, I am one of two Americans and the rest are either French or German and I super enjoyed it. We are talking a lot about practical tourism topics and the teacher is so fun and gives us so many recommendations/tips. One of the first days we talked about how tourists love to go to Salzburg, Austria and do a specific scene from a movie that involves a hill and singing (do you know which movie scene I am talking about?) I was the only one who knew about The Sound of Music which was so interesting!

(Wednesday, February 9th) Wednesday was a lazy day now that I know that I do not have to go to classes. I usually do some trip planning and sitting out in the sun on the family’s nice patio. At night, I went with my friends and sat down by the river with some new friends from Albania, France, Turkey, and England.

(Thursday, February 10th) I had the normal school routine thing getting down a little easier and then I went to watch the sunset with my new German friends from class! Sitting at Rio Guadalquivir and looking at the Triana Bridge is a magical experience.

(Friday, February 11th) Happy travel day! I headed to the bus station at 5:50am and headed to the train station. I took a first train to Madrid and then another to Toledo where I would be meeting my friends from home from UW-Eau Claire, but they weren’t arriving until later that day so I got to try something new: solo traveling. I am a very detailed planner which helped give me structure and see so much, and I seriously have a new passion for solo traveling. Right from exiting the train station, Toledo was beautiful and I loved the atmosphere. I did realize that I would be getting a workout in though as it is very hilly. I headed to an adorable café and then began the morning at the Alcazar/military museum that used to be a fortress.

It was absolutely huge and so fun to look at all the old military weopons/uniforms/etc.

I was extra challenged because normally museums have the English translation, but now here so I really practiced my Spanish readying skills. After, I made sure to get some marzapan from a nun as this town is known for that, and then I started to tour some of the representations of all three main religions here: Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. I went to the Synagogue El Transito, I went to a lookout at the old Jewish neighborhood, I saw synagogue of Santa Maria La Blanca, the Monsatery of San Juan de Los Reyes, the College of Noble Maidens, and then the Mosque of the Christ of Light where I got to facetime my mom and enjoy the views with her 😊

I then made my way down to the Alcantar Bridge and walked to the San Martin bridge for the sunset, it was spectacular. I then went back and met Chloe, Megan, & Kailyn and we went grocery shopping to make dinner this night in our airbnb. I think the highlight was that Chloe tried to opened the carbonara sauce, but she accidentally flung the lid open and the sauce got all over Megan, Kailyn, & the kitchen – but somehow I was spared haha. We then all caught up and had a chill night and it was so fun.

(Saturday, February 12th) This morning consisted of one of my favorite views of Europe so far of all time. We did a sunrise hike to El Mirador del Valle and we had a great view of the city and watched the sky turn pink and glisten so beautifully, I could have sat there forever but we went and got yummy food and then began day 2.

We toured some of the churches in town and one of them has a painting by El Greco which was really cool. We also went to the El Greco Museum and his painting are a little eerie but also beautiful. It is still just hard for me to believe that I get to see history so easily and right in front of me, but I am trying to not take advantage of it. Us girls then waited an hour for lunch but it was definitely worth it as I got pasta and then a classic Toledo dish called carcamusas. We then headed back to the Airbnb before our night tour that was completely in Spanish. After every stop on the tour, we all made sure to debrief and see what everyone caught on to. We then went to a place with Mediterranean food for dinner and it was delicious! It is so good to catch up with these girls that I used to see at least every other week when I would visit my friend at UW-Eau Claire.

(Sunday, February 13th) Gooood morning. I woke up before the others and headed to Toledo’s Cathedral for mass and it was just gorgeous!!! There were like 10 clergymen/priests and lots of chanting and it was such a peaceful experience. It was a great way to wrap up the trip as after that, I returned to the same café for the third time, met up with my friends, and then had to head home. I had 4 hours of traveling ahead of me but I did not mind the ride. I got back, biked home, and enjoyed the nice February day.