I think having so much rain in the past couple weeks has made the warm days be sooo much more enjoyable. Although the news predicted rain all this week, Sevilla keeps pulling through for us; the past couple of days have been sunny, and I didn't even need to wear a jacket today! Over the weekend we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather (in true Spanish fashion) by sitting down by the river and botelloning. It's so fun relaxing with friends and enjoying the beautiful view. Down by the river, we met a couple of people from London who were studying in Sevilla for the week, and they ended up going out to the bars/discotechquas with us that night as well. I'm hoping I'll be able to visit them in London at some point. I also met a UW-Madison student who is studying in London and happens to be in the same program as Krista was. Although he was here for a weekend full of rainy weather, he still said he wishes he would have studied in Sevilla instead of London... looks like you made the wrong choice Krista! (Haha, kidding...).

On Monday I attended a workshop for "Teaching English to Spanish-speakers." It turns out teaching English is MUCH harder than teaching Spanish is. Nevertheless, I received a certificate for completing the class and am able to teach small classes if I want now for some extra money. I think it will be pretty challenging but I might give it a try... it would be awesome to live in Spain for a couple of years and teach English to Spanish speakers, but I guess we'll see how this works out first!

Pepi got robbed this morning! Well, pick-pocketed. Kind of scary because it was on San Jacinto, which is the main street in Triana that we walk to school on everyday and is literally a block from our house. It's kind of crazy because of the 400 people in my program, I haven't heard of anyone getting pick-pocketed except for Natalia (my roommate) and Pepi.... I better not be next! She got 50 euro stolen and she said there were very few people on the streets so she doesn't know how it gotten taken without her seeing. Tricky little bastards!

Well I'm off to Brussels/Amsterdam on Thursday night (where I will be wearing my money belt 24/7). We didn't really plan things out right and are now stuck taking a lot of buses... a bus from Sevilla to Madrid, and two buses to get from Brussels to Amsterdam. It is the extremely cheaper mode of transportation (less than half of what the high speed rail would cost), but it also doesn't allow as much time to explore each city. We've got a pretty good group though, and I think we'll have fun no matter what we're doing (even if that means sitting on a bus for six hours)! Our tentative destinations in Amsterdam are the Anne Frank Museum, the Van Gogh Museum (cannot WAIT for this!), and the Heineken Experience. Not exactly sure what we're going to do in Brussels yet, but I know I'll be looking left and right for the name DeKeyser! (My Grandpa is Belgian).

I think that is all the news I have for now...

Un abrazo,
Emily



Pictures: Enjoying the sun!!