I made it!

Hola!
I arrived in Sevilla yesterday morning at 9:45 am (3:45am in Wisconsin). The 8 hour flight was very long and I was only able to sleep for about a half hour. Even though I wasn't feeling the best for most of the flight, it was nice because I was able to sit next to three of my friends. Once we landed in Madrid, we had less than an hour to go through customs and board our next flight. We thankfully made it there with 8 minutes to spare. The flight from Madrid to Sevilla was short and sweet, and because the Sevilla airport is pretty small it was easy to find our luggage. A staff member from CIEE (the name of my program) was at the airport to meet us all and directed us to a bus that brought us to the hotel Becquer. Leaving the hotel, Sevilla looks very dirty and run-down. There were a lot of high rises and garbage on the side of the road. Once we got closer to the center of the city things started looking prettier and closer to the Spain I pictured in my mind. At the hotel we got our orientation materials and got randomly matched with a roommate from the program. There are about 15 CIEE staff members who are around 25 years old and are Spaniards who live in Sevilla. They are all very nice, helpful, and fun to talk to. The hotel has a restaurant on the first floor, and we were served free lunch and dinner yesterday. We had lunch at 1:30, and it included 3 plates of food. The first one was a type of salad tortilla, the second was a big bowl of pasta with a spaghetti type sauce, and the third was a Spanish chocolate cake dessert (i'm not sure what it was called). It was WAY more food than I am used to eating and I felt bad because I wasn't even able to finish half of the food I was given! After lunch we had a much needed siesta (afternoon nap) and returned to the restaurant for dinner at 7:30. They served us 3 dishes at that meal as well: a mushroom rice dish, fish and potatoes, and another postre. It's a good thing I wasn't very hungry, because two of my least favorite foods are mushrooms and fish. I picked out the mushrooms in the rice meal, but couldn't quite bring myself to try the fish yet. After dinner some people went to bed and some went to the bars... I decided to go to bed due to the lovely effects of jet lag, and I'm glad I did because today l feel a lot more energetic and ready to start the long day. Today we're going on a tour of Sevilla (which includes a scavenger hunt), going to the Universidad de Sevilla, getting money to go eat at a tapa bar, and going to a flamenco show! We have to meet in the hotel lobby in 10 minutes, so that's all for now!

Un abrazo,
Emily


Picture #1: View of the Cathedral
Picture#2: Constitution Avenue... so beautiful!