Gooooooood Morning

I feel like I've only been posting about the trips I've been on lately. Maybe that's because I've had something big planned for every weekend/even some whole weeks of March. This weekend (April 12! Already!) is the first time I've been in Sevilla to relax for a weekend and not do anything in so long, and frankly I'm so glad to be here. Unfortunately I've been dealing with a foot injury for the past week (I wasn't even doing Insanity, I just wore some cheap shoes for a day of walking and that did me in...isn't that just my luck) so its good timing that I don't have to go anywhere, I can hopefully just rest my foot back to full function by Wednesday when I have to leave for Budapest. (Listen to me, "have to leave for Budapest," HA). So here's a catch-up entry on things I've been up to whilst in Sevilla over the past couple weeks and haven't had time to write anything down about. 

Last night a lot of our friends went to Portugal for the weekend but MC and I stayed so we bought tickets to the Sevilla/Real Betis futbol game. For all you-Sevillans out there, there are 2 professional futbol teams in Sevilla and the rivalry is pretty intense. Last night was a Betis home game (and since Betis is my host family's team, it was a home game for MC and me too). We got some bocadillos to go, MC put on her fresh new Betis jersey and I chose some neutral colors (but definitely avoiding red), and we headed over to the stadium across town. It was like St. Patrick's Day around the stadium for 2 hours before the game started. Green everywhere. People's faces painted. Crazy outfits. Bars packed to their limits and people spilling out into the streets with drinks in both hands. Traffic was shut down on all the surrounding streets- it was a madhouse. It took us forever to get through the crowd to find our seats, and when we asked around they told us to just keep going down and follow the isle numbers- well I thought they must not understand where my seat actually was because there was no way I was sitting on the lowest level, almost on the field by the goal- but somehow those were our seats?! 

No complaints there. We spent a good half hour before the game just trying to learn the cheers everyone already knew, and joining in wherever we could--oh and also taking pictures with this guy with the flag. The game itself was awesome. To be around 44,000 people that so passionate about this one thing was very cool, and while Betis was down 0-3 through half time, they made a massive comeback and in the last minute brought it up to a tie. 

The video is from the first goal Betis scored, making it just 1-3 well into the second half. So the fact that it ended up as a tie was a pretty big deal. After the game we raced out, trying to beat the crowd, and took the bus back to Nervion since A. I temporarily lost my Sevici bike pass and B. walking with my foot was not an option. Normally I would say no, never, no way to public transportation since biking/walking is easily doable and great exercise but there was just no way I could make that trek. Just standing for those 2 hours was enough to keep me bed-ridden this morning (hence my post right now). 

That was just Friday night; yesterday was just a great day in general. I woke up late and MC had already gone to class. I laid in bed for a while listening to music (whenever I don't have to set an alarm for anything, which is rare, I love to just listen to music on my ipod in bed since I almost always fall asleep right away if I try to do that at night), watching shows like SNL and The Office on Hulu, and after eating a big green apple I did some yoga. After lunch I put on my bathing suit and went downstairs to the patio of our apartment complex and took a nap in the sun/read my history textbook. And then the best part of the afternoon: Cristina left with MC to pick up her camera from the repair store (it's been there for 2 months waiting to be fixed...naturally that will happen if you take your belongings to a Spanish store. You can't expect promptness in return) and I had the place to myself! I raided the kitchen and combined leftover broccoli cheese pasta with the leftover salad from lunch and added some balsamic vinegar, a bunch of pepper and oregano to make a pasta salad snack :). I think C would've fallen over if she saw it but hey, when the cat's away the mice will play.

That being said, Cristina and I have been getting along so well since Semana Santa. When i first got back she was pretty irritated with me because I came home earlier than she expected and didn't have lunch for me so she was all in a flurry about it, and also because I missed all the great pasos of Semana Santa, I didn't and couldn't fully understand her culture. But that was just the Saturday I got back, and being the crazy flip-flop woman that she is, Sunday she was in a great mood and we started to re-bond. I told her I wanted to eat really healthily since I ate so many sweets during the week away, so she cooked me grilled artichokes, onions, zucchini and chicken for lunch one day and told me that I was going to hate it--oh no, Cristina, on the contrary I LOVE YOUR DIET MEALS. They are regular meals, without any weird sauces or too-cheesy cheeses to jazz them up. 

So for the whole week while MC was gone (her family came at the end of Semana Santa and she went to stay with them in el centro and then they went to Austria, so when I got back she was already gone), we ate healthy meals together and had great conversations for lunch and dinner. And I feel like my Spanish notably improved in that week as well. 

Cristina and I making "the face"-- she's doing the best she can. I started the Insanity calendar the Monday after getting home, right from the beginning with the Fit Test (struggles). Kelsey and I said we were going to do it together and text each other every day after we'd finished with it. Now that I'm hurt I'm already a week behind, so I may be starting over again...but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. The main point of this is that on Tuesday I went to do Plyometric Cardio Circuit on the playground (where I always have to do it) and two little kids, like 7 and 3, brother and sister, came down to play. I told their mom I could stop if I was bothering them but she said no, not to worry...and then they proceeded to start doing the exercises with me! First the girl started doing it far away from me and I could see it in my peripherals, so I told her she could come over closer to see the video if she wanted and she JUMPED at the chance. Her little brother joined in soon after, and then it was me and my new friends doing Insanity on the playground in Sevilla, Spain...practicing Spanish with them and asking them what English words they knew the whole time. Its times like this that I just have to take a step back and look at the situation, and then just laugh. It was hilarious and it made the workout go by so much faster. When MC got back she started doing it with me as well, and I'm always happy to have a workout partner!

View from our little porch, photocredit goes to Cristina on this one

This week has been a hodge podge of things. Trying to get back to some normality (Sevilla-style normality, that is), trying to get some actual school work done (like my 20 page philosophy paper, What is Metaphysics? in Spanish), and dealing with real-world stuff back home. I've been so conflicted about how best to spend my summer. I want to get ahead on some things going into senior year so that my academic part of the year can be as least-stressful as possible, but I also would like to make some money this summer to have saved up for the school year and make back some of what I'm spending throughout this semester. To live in Chapel Hill with the amenities that UNC has to offer (like Career Services) and where I have a house I'll already be paying rent for whether I'm there or not, or to live in Charlotte where I was offered a full-time nannying job to make some good money? I've been really struggling over this decision for the past two weeks, and I'm already a wishy-washy person when it comes to making concrete, big decisions. I always try to see the scenario from every angle, but at a certain point you just have to listen to the one voice that you know you can trust and whatever comes of that decision, know you'll make it work. I got a great email from my dad yesterday morning and it gave me some clarity to just make the choice to move into my house in CH on June 10 when my lease starts. I could then go forward to respond to all the people whose plans were hanging in the balance based on my decisions, and that felt so good. It was a great weight off my shoulders to know and to not have my mind drift to the subject every other minute, with the accompanying feeling of being overwhelmed and helpless. Dealing with this stuff is extremely tough from an ocean away, when I am so far away from the mindset of having to actually do any of these things. But now that I've gotten it settled, I want to spend these last two months just being right here. This is my check-in to myself: Don't let it slip by, Maggie, stop thinking too far ahead. Just think about the next day, or even just the next hour. Today MC left for Barcelona and Cristina is out with a friend so I've got some time to myself (to NOT eat the lunch she left me...

...I discreetly put some in the trash to make it look like I ate half) but to just have some me-time, rest, and take in this beautiful place that I'm living in. Check out the weather forecast for the next week: 

I'm gonna go ahead and call this foreshadowing for the great things that are to come