Last day in Sevilla.

We woke up early for our oral test with Dr. Stratton on Monday. The oral test was basically we went in to the classroom at individual times and spoke with him about our time in Spain… in Spanish. It was pretty easy and very quick. After our test, Angie and I went and printed off some of our tickets and other information we need to travel around with.

When Katie and Shaina were done we all decided we would do one last shopping-spree in Sevilla (with is smart- because everywhere else we go in Europe is going to be crazy expensive). We walked around to some shops over by the cathedral. No one bought much- Ang and I just a dress or too to go travel around in after Madrid.

After shopping we decided to go grab lunch together at Colonialist. It was good, except the kitchen was not open so you couldn’t exactly get a “meal.” So we had very cheap little tapas instead. After that we headed over to starbucks. I thought a cup of coffee would be necessary to help us stay awake the rest of the day! No siesta on our last day in Sevilla! At starbucks I struck up a conversation with three girls in line behind me. They were asking how to order a coffee in Spanish. It is pretty obvious you have not been in Spain very long at all if you do not know how to order a coffee. So I taught them: “café con leche/americano/solo, por favor.” Knowing that they must have been new to the city, I asked them how long they had been in Sevilla. It was their second day. I told them that today was our last and gave them a little talk like my South Carolina friend had given me on his last day/my first week in Sevilla.

They asked what all they should do while they were here… Now that’s a loaded question… Do it ALL, everything you can think of! So I gave them a list of everything they “had” to do (an “Amy’s favorite things” list)…

Go to Plaza de Espana at night. Have a Picnic in Maria Luisa park. Even if you don’t like museums- go to as many as you have time for. Flamenco dance in the most random places even if you look stupid. Experience a Discotech. Go take a picture in the sunflowers in the countryside. Go to Cien every Wednesday. Go to Alfalfas. Go to Calle Betis. Go to Long Island and experience the Texas-once. Have a bottle of champagne on the steps of the Toro de Oro. Walk up and down the river at night. Buy a fan. Ride on the back of a Vespa. Visit the Cathedral in Granada. Go to a bullfight. Marvel at the Sevilla Cathedral at night- for hours. Get in the fountain. If you miss nachos- go to Phoenix. Experience a Flamenco dance. Soak in the culture. Write everything down. Pretend you are from England and use an accent. Dress like a Spaniard. Visit Lagos. Make your own bucket list and don’t make any excuses for not accomplishing everything……

I could have gone on for hours telling them about everything they had to do and see… but they wont understand anything I tell them and how truly amazing everything is until they step-up and experience it for themselves (so I just gave them the basics). They have no idea what is in store for them.

After starbucks Angie and I headed back toward our home. We stopped near Nervion Plaza to run a few more errands. We went into Corte de Ingles (a huge store) and as we were leaving we saw a man talking to an older lady. The man was in a motorized wheelchair and we both made eye contact with him so we both gave him a big friendly smile… I will forever rethink who I smile at from now on… not really, but this man apparently took the smile in someway we did not intend (like a “hey follow me for miles” kind of way!

We left the store and the man in the motorized wheelchair followed right behind us. At first I wasn’t sure if he was “following” us or just heading in the same direction so I took a weird route to the direction we were going. He was undoubtedly following us. So we both started power walking. And he sped us motorized chair up as well. We were extremely uncomfortable so we both started running. The man sped up. We ran into a mall that was on our right and hid out in a store for a while. We shopped around for a good 45 mins before we left.

As we were leaving we joked around about what if the man was sitting outside waiting for us… We walked outside, looked around.. no man. We started heading back toward our house. With in the first few seconds of our walk I turned around and the man was right behind us! So we started running again! It was the WEIRDEST things! Thank goodness we lost him at a red light! But we continued to run the rest of the way home just incase!

When we got home we were dying from the heat and from our little work out! We both drank about a liter of water and then finished packing! We got cleaned up for the night and then went to meet up with Katie, Maggie, Shaina, and Chelsea. We all met at Cien (one last time) and had a little appetizer before heading to dinner at levies. 

After levies we met a few other people from our class at the Irish Pub by the Cathedral. We laughed about all the funny things that have happened on this trip. We went through each thing that we had crossed off our bucket list and re-lived all the amazing stories. We only had too more things to cross off: Get in the fountain by the Cathedral and write our names somewhere. Before we could go accomplish these last two things we had to make a NEW bucket list for our week in Madrid (of course)! We spent a good while constructing the PERFECT list with the help of our “almost” professor Austin. I’ll just say it should be a very eventful, interesting, and fun time in Madrid!

After that it was time to go cross off the last two things on the Sevilla bucket list. First- the fountain. We took the most amazingly awesome/funny pictures in the fountain by the Cathedral! It was so much fun- possibly the most fun thing we have done. We pretended to be statues in the fountain and then we danced in the street and showed off our Flamenco skills. Second- we wrote our names in a secret place somewhere in-between the Cathedral and the Alcazar gardens!

The last thing I wanted to do before we left Sevilla was just hang out by the Cathedral at night…and ohhhh did we hang out by the Cathedral. It was the perfect goodbye to an amazing city that I will miss greatly! We literally stood in awe of the Cathedral for at least two hours before we even thought about heading home.  We just talked about how amazing this experience has been for all of us and how it had changed our lives for the better… Words really can’t express those few hours. I think for once this trip we were all speechless (and that is saying something with this group). Tears were shed and we said a long goodbye to the Cathedral and to our home the past 6 weeks- Sevilla, Spain.