Vamos a la playa!

OH. MY. WORD.

Could I love it any more here? Cause I'm thinking that's a resounding NO.

This week has been jam-packed. Officially this time one week ago we arrived in Sevilla, nervous out of our brains to meet our madre for the summer and to get settled in to classes. Now, just seven days later, this city feels like home.

The end of last week was incredible. After my last post, Whit and I headed out to meet the rest of the gang at one of the bars to watch La Copa del Rey: the biggest of all of the futbol (aka soccer) games in España. We got to the bar, squeezed our way into booths with the locals, and hollered for Sevilla like we’d never hollered before. Yes, I said hollered, I’m from South Georgia. It’s what we do. Right alongside the opposing team, Real Madrid, the team slated to win, the folks cheering for Sevilla and I gritted our teeth as the good ol’ red and white fought their way to win the cup. And you know what? THEY POOPIN DID. Whatttttt the heckkkkk! It was amazing. People went nuts. For the next three nights, cars just drove up and down the streets blaring their horns allll night looong. But I sho didn’t care. Cause it was so worth it!

That night, after we left the bar, we weren’t too sure what to do. Soooo, we decided to go to the part of the city where the locals were going to celebrate their victory – the fountain in the middle of the city. When we arrived, TOTAL. PANDEMONIUM. had erupted. Literally, it was mayhem. Flags were flying, voices were shouting, chants were being sung at the top of their lungs – pure and ultimate joy. Naturally, since none of us knew any of the words, we hung back from the mosh pit and took videos of us pretending to be journalists commentating on the chaos. Those you must be sure to watch on Facebook when they are uploaded – they are revolutionary. We walked around, had some tapas (little appetizer-y Spanish foods), and stalked some of the news stations that had come to film it – yes, I was in heaven.

The next day, we toured one of the oldest neighborhoods in Sevilla, El Barrio de Santa Cruz. Basically, the hood was were dem Jews stayed at when times was rough fo dem. They were SO MANY LEGENDS that came from the neighborhood, and the majority of them are probably true. This is sad though, because most of the legends included betrayal, death, and heartbreak. Wah wah wah. Poor people that dwelled in the Juderia.

After the barrio, we went shopping, but not regular shopping. We went to the flipping awesome HIPPIE MARKET. Hellloooo divine land of shopping. Everything was precious and CHEAP. I didn’t buy much, only the necessities that I had either a) forgotten to bring or b) or had broken while I was here (coughcoughmypursecough). It was such a wonderful afternoon, but then, it got even better. As we were walking home, we just HAPPENED to be crossing the exact street that the FUTBOL TEAM’S HOMECOMING PARADE was happening on AS THEY WERE COMING HOME WITH THE TROPHY. Ridiculous awesome. Insane in the membrane. We sang. We danced. We stuck out cause we’re American. But we didn’t care. We cheered on those home-skillet athletes like we had been cheering for that team all of our lives. And man, they got ONE HONKIN TROPHY. The cup was out the wazoo, and likewise were most of the players (they were all holding quite a number of beverages, if you get my drift.) The afternoon continued to ROCK because after that, Whit, Isabel, Robel, Belle, and I all went to this café and got a BANGING chocolate cake. Picture the molten chocolate cake at Chili’s plus TEN TIMES THE GOODNESS. Oh yeah. Fo sho. That night was insanely awesome too, because you know what Whitney and I did after dinner? Absolutely nothing. We laid in our beds, updated stuff, wrote to people we loved, and received chocolates in our bed from our madre as a prize for staying in for the night. Oh yessss.

Next came Friday – HALLELUJAH. After classes in the morning and an EPIC siesta (I slept for a hot minute), Whitney and I met up with the group for a jincana – a scavenger hunt through the city! God bless my group – Yatri, Hillary, and Claire. We were so chill, casually strolled through the city, found most of the things we were supposed to do, but generally just thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and got acquainted with the city. Granted, we lost, but we had a BALL. We met up at the ending point with the rest of our group, and as we were waiting to leave to go to tapas for dinner, and BIRD CRAPPED IN MY HAIR. I was so happy. It was just like the movies. I was so proud. I wanted a picture with it so badly, but alas, it dried and fell out before we could get one. So, a pro was it didn’t stick, but still – no proof of the hilarious moment exists. After tapas with Manuel – where we found out that pringas (a type of sausage sandwich) is very similar to BBQ sandwiches in the US and that we will be eating those a lot more over here – several of us sat around and chatted for a while before we went back home to prepare for our journey the next morning.

Where was our journey, you ask? Oh, no big deal, JUST THE BEACHHHH!!! Whitney and I SPRUNG out of bed bright and early Saturday morning to grab our things and head to the playa – Cadiz!!! Cadiz is the oldest city in Europe, so it was sure to be a legit trip. We met the group at the bus station, piled on, and rode the 1 ½ hour bus ride there. When we arrived, we took a local bus to our hostel (which was SO STINKING NIIIIICE), and headed out to the beach for the rest of the day. The views were spectacular. Everything was absolutely incredible, except for the whipping wind and the massive amounts of sand that accumulated in my very uncooperative eyes. Most interesting of all though, was the local’s wardrobe. The dear, dear Cadiz inhabitants chose to don thong bottoms and no tops while on the beach – including men AND women. Oh what sights we beheld. Never a dull moment in Spain, I tell you. After six hours of managing the nudity, sun, wind, and sea, we headed back in to get ready for dinner. Six of us girls shared on shower and braved the coldest shower of our LIVES to get good looking for our group dinner. We hit up one of the local seafood restaurants and downed some awesome yet expensive comida, even though our waiter CLEARLY hated Americans. But it was still great, and afterwards we all hung out in one of our rooms and then went out in the city for a little bit before tucking in for the night.

This morning rocked my world though. It was INSANE in the membrane. Everything was just incredible. I got to sleep in the bed of my dreams last night (a precious little day bed with wainscoting sides) and got up before everybody else to get ready and go spend a little time with Jesus and take pictures on the beach. What a glorious day it was! It was so gorgeous outside that I had to go get the rest of my posse and take some group “fot’s” as we like to abbreviate it here. We came back down, took some precious pics, and then headed to check out and hit the open roads on Old Cadiz before we rode out back to Sevilla. And the day just got better from there. Sweet sweet Francesca found out way to the heart of the city, where we found this precious pastelería (a bakery) and bought the best breakfast EVER. I was lucky enough to get a mouth watering cream-cheese and blueberry muffin and then this ridiculous bread thing covered in sugar and drizzled chocolate and filled with some wonderful chocolate cream junk. After we scarfed down the deliciousness in a courtyard outside of a cathedral, we headed into a café and all got café con leche (coffee with milk). It was just peachy.

Too many details? Sorry. I just have GOT to make myself remember this WHOLE TRIP. Cause I never ever ever want it to end! So… just use all of the little things to make yourself feel like you are here with me. I wish you were, whoever you are, cause this is the trip of a lifetime!

After coffee and a sugar high, we started exploring the rest of the city. We found our way to the cathedral, with was incredible with its architecture and majesty. Best of all was the fake dinosaur exhibit that was outside of it. Random? Yes. But so awesome.

Then came the highlight of the day. As we were leaving the cathedral area, the group of girls that we were with got their pictures made with these Native American-ish people playing these little wooden reed instruments. Of course, Whitney and I jumped on the band wagon and did it too. But that wasn’t the cool part. The highlight was when the little feather wearing man asked if we were from America (we scream USA with our appearances) and then asked if we knew the song from Titanic. Dur. Everyone does. It’s practically our national anthem. So when we all freaked out and said yes, he said they’d play it if we had someone to sing. Which, conveniently enough, Miss UGA Idol herself Whitney Keith was standing right alongside us. We pushed her up there, they did a sound test in the mic, and then she was off, belting away the lyrics. It was UNFORGETTABLE. One of the best moments of my life, and it wasn’t even me. When she started singing, only the group of us 9 other girls were huddled around the tent. By the end of the song, THE ENTIRE SQUARE was full and people were hanging out of the windows of their houses to listen it. It was beautiful. Absolutely amazing. I was crying it was so awesome. There will also be videos of this to come later on. Get prepared – my homegirl will BLOW YA MIND. After she finished, there was explosive applause and people in their windows started shouting “otra, otra, otra” à the equivalent of ‘encore’ in English! It was magical. A man even came up to her after and asked for the name of the song so he could download it! How stinking awesome is God for giving such amazing people such wonderful talents!

After Whit brought the house down, we strolled along the coast and took pictures along the way, until we finally ended up at the place that took my breath away. Quite possibly one of my favorite places on Earth. It was this insanely old and massive fort/prison that looked like the PERFECT MIX of Azkaban (for all you Harry Potter nerds like me) and Alcatraz. It was AWESOME. I thought the dementors were about to escape and get me it was so awesome. There was this incredible long brick bridge that led out to the fort/prison where the waves crashed over the rocks surrounding it and onto the bridge we were walking on. I can’t even describe how breathtaking it was. That darn prison was so beautiful. How ironic that something so pretty could be used for such a sad thing. It made me want to conjur up something illegal to do so that I could live in it. And of course it was at my favorite place that my camera would choose to die. I nabbed some photos quick fast of the heavenly place before we began SPRINTING back across the city to make it to the bus station for our 3 PM ride home. The sprint was HUH-LAR-IOUS. Just picture a ton of tourists, loaded down with luggage, and absolutely clueless running as if their lives depended on it across a very tranquil city. Awesome memories. We made it to the bus, elated over our awesome day, only for me to freak out with joy even more. Right as our bus pulls out of the station, what else would come on the radio other than my favorite song EVAHHH – Viva la Vida by Coldplay. Bahhhhhh.

What a GREAT GREAT GREAT day. Slash week. Slash life. THANK YOU LORD. I know this blog was never ending, but gosh, I just had to get it all out! Now, tonight we are headed to a massive futbol game to watch in person at the stadium – my first ever!!!! I’m so pumped. Hallelujah!!! Real Betís is the team we will be cheering for. So, here we go, Betís. I. LOVE. SPAIN. And you for reading this insanely long thing. Amen!