¡Bienvenidos a España!

First picture of the trip...just before boarding in the Philadelphia airport 

¡Hola chicos! I don't know if that's the right way to say hey to everyone yet, it's just my first day in Sevilla, but HEY its my first day in Sevilla! I arrived today at 1 pm after a flight yesterday from Charlotte at 2:45, from Philadelphia at 6:25, and from Madrid at 11:50 the next morning. There were people on the same program as me all the way from Charlotte, and we picked more people up along the way as the flights progressed. Once we were all in Sevilla we just looked like a huge pack of lost puppies wandering around the airport with WAY too much luggage in toe. Mary Carr, my roommate for the semester, sat beside me on our 6 1/2 flight to Madrid and we've been navigating Spain together since we landed. We took a taxi to our hotel together and talked to our cab driver all about how he's lived in Sevilla his entire life and has never been outside of Spain. He told us Sevilla is the best anyways so there was no need to go elsewhere. 

Come to think of it now, I didn't get his name- something I'm sad about because I made it my goal yesterday morning to really remember names right from the start of the trip. It was the first little reading I read from a daily devotional book my grandfather gave me before I left. I'm not very religious, and especially since college I've really put religious thoughts on the back-burner, but he said he would love to know that we had that special connection of reading the same thing every day even from 3,000 miles apart. He really is the coolest. So the first reading was about remembering names in order to make each and every person feel as important as they should, and I really liked that idea so I'm working on it now! And what better time than when I'm meeting 30 new people in one day?

So. Back to Spain. Paid the cab driver, checked into the hotel, grabbed a map, and set out to explore. Needless to say because pictures explain themselves, but it is gorgeous here. It also happens to be 60 degrees and there's not a cloud in the sky.

looking petite in our petite room in Hotel Alcazar

en los jardines de Reales Alcazares

la Plaza de Espana

en el Parque de Maria Luisa

We stopped at one of many cafes to sit down for some much needed wifi and I could call mom and dad for the first time since I arrived. After that we headed back to the hotel and relaxed until dinner at 8. Our dinner was pretty standard- as in pretty American. I think they didn't want to scare anybody with traditional Spanish food on the first night, but let me tell you the plate they prepared for the vegetarians of the group looked a whole lot more appetizing than my plain chicken and french fries (stuffed eggplant, mushrooms and roasted red peppers?!?...that is my cuisine.) Anyway, I am exhausted. I think I've experienced every possible emotion at some point today. I go from being somewhat relaxed and like I could really be care-free here, to coming to the realization over and over again that I'm finally here, that I'm an ocean away from home, and that I'm here for 6 months! What I'm doing right now is taking a deep breath every time one of those freak-out waves washes over me and thinking about just one thing. Whatever that one thing is- the ice cream flavor I might want to try, the nail polish color I might want to paint my nails later, the trip I might want to plan... but just not letting the big stuff throw me for a loop no matter what. It's just day one. But I think its definitely time to put day one to bed now (since its really been like 4 days in my mind). Tomorrow I move in to my senora's!