sevilla, no me ha dejado.

NODO

Puente de Isabel II and the Guadalquivir

Ana Claudio & I at UPO

Mary Alice & I at TCU Friday breakfast

Moats in Plaza de España!!

Elli & I on the Terrace at Doña Maria with La Giralda in the background

It has been almost two weeks since I've blogged!! AH, that is a lifetime in blog years. But that also tells you how busy I've been. So first let me update you on my return to Sevilla.

So super last minute Elli and I decided during our free week before school started. On Tuesday night of that week, I got home from dinner and tried to call Manoli (my host mom and best confidant/teacher/ second mother in Sevilla) to tell her I was coming. I called the old number I had for her from 4 years ago via my Spanish cell and via skype - both said the number was a non-functioning number anymore and the call just didn't go through. This is definitely when I started to get anxious. So in a non-panic state I was thinking, "Manoli just changed her number, my parents got rid of their house 790 number, because we all have cell phones. Maybe she did the same." With anxiety, I was thinking, "Something awful happened." So I emailed the TCU study abroad center after that to get Mary Alice's (our TCU study abroad coordinator) contact info to see if she knew where Manoli was. Because if anyone knew where Manoli would be, it would be her. Mary Alice lives in Sevilla and acted as our coordinator abroad and liaison with TCU to make sure we were alive and safe. While we were abroad she did orientation with us, talked about culture shock/cultural differences, took us out to breakfast on Friday mornings, and took us on TCU outings to Plaza de España/tapas, etc. She keeps tabs on all the host moms and also meets with them periodically to make sure everything is going okay with TCU students in their homes. So I figured she would know where Manoli was. Anyways, so I had to email the coordinator of the TCU study abroad center to get Mary Alice's email address because I no longer have my TCU email account with her info. My TCU email just cut me off one day and they wouldn't let me access it again to get previous contacts. SUCH A BUMMER.

Anyways so Elli and I took the Renfe - high speed train to Sevilla, which is definetly the best way to travel. It takes 2.5 hours to get from Madrid - Sevilla each way on the Renfe train but on the bus which is a lot cheaper it is a miserable 6-7 hour drive with some creepers and not a lot of room. It was funny though because there was definitely a gypsy that sat across from Elli and I on the way to Sevilla. So we got up early AM and left Madrid. We got into town and checked into our airb&b place near La Giralda by noon and ate tapas/lunch at La Bodeguita Antonio Romero by the bull stadium. At lunch, I got a coke and the bartender put a lemon slice in my drink and I just died/was SO HAPPY because it was so nostalgic and Sevillano (they put lemon in all drinks - and I didn't really realize that I even missed that until he did it). After lunch, it was like the start of siesta, and Elli was like, "Do you want to go try to see where Manoli is?" I think she could tell I was anxious. And even though it was seista I didn't care - I just wanted to see her.

So we end up walking to my old piso (apartment) and I can't tell you how much I love Triana and how all the same things that I love about it are still there, so it just made my heart feel at home. We walked up to the outside patio at my apartment building, which now they have a gate in front of which was different but still very much the same. Then we buzzed Manoli's apartment - and a guy answered. I asked him where she was and he said that she didn't live there, and he was super short and hung up. INSANE PANIC MODE BY THIS POINT and trying not cry. So Elli and I wait at the bottom of the portal (entry way) until someone going in, opens the door and we follow behind. Then I check the mail boxes and 3B has Manoli & Antonio's names still on the mailbox. So I was like, "They still live here, I swear!!" Then we run up the stairs to the 3rd floor, and I knock on the door. The rude guy who hung up on us on the intercom answers and I look into the apartment. There was nothing in the apartment and the walls were white washed and the guy looks like he works in construction. BUT it was definitely where I lived 4 years ago. STILL IN PANIC MODE AT THIS POINT. So we talk to this guy and again he says, there is no Manoli here, etc. and then we ask how long he has been in that apartment and he says, "2 weeks." 2 WEEKS. SHE MOVED 2 WEEKS AGO. She lived in that house for like 50 years and she moved 2 weeks ago. Anyways so he's like maybe ask the neighbor where she went because I don't know. So we knock on the next door neighbor's door. And she was like, "Oh, go downstairs to the apartment next door. and ring 2-F, and ask her." So we go out of the apartment and down to the apartment next door. BUT I'M STILL PANICKING BECAUSE WHAT IF SHE DIED 2 WEEKS AGO. We ring 2-F and this lady starts talking to us on the intercom, then she quickly hangs up and Elli and I just look at each other like "I'm never gonna find her." Then 2F lady sticks her head out the window of her terrace and starts yelling down to us. She said Manoli's daughter Rocio lives in 2D and to call her on the intercom and she could tell us where Manoli moved. I had completely forgotten that Rocio lived so close - because we never visited her house, she always just came over to Manoli's. Anyways, we finally talk to Rocio on the intercom and she said Manoli moved 2 weeks ago and she gave us her address and her phone number, but said Manoli was at the beach this weekend. Then she was like, who is this by the way? AND FINALLY MY NERVES CALM BECAUSE I KNOW SHE'S ALIVE AND WELL. I called Manoli on Thursday and I will see her next time I get go to Sevilla and it made me so happy to talk to her.

After that whole ordeal, we did lots of fun things in Sevilla with Elli's spanish friends (whom she was abroad with only a year ago). On Wednesday night, we went to dinner at El Rinconcillo (the oldest restaurant in Sevilla) then we went to the terrace bar at Hotel Doña Maria - which was an awesome view of La Giralda at night that I had never seen/been to before. Thursday - Elli went to the Texas Tech Campus in Sevilla and I went to UPO. I literally stalked Ana Claudio and she was like so surprised to see me she literally jumped. I was SO HAPPY to see her too. Ana Claudio was one of the best professors I had in college, if not my very favorite. She is just one of the most amazing teachers ever because she is engaging, and constantly challenges you, and encourages you to be the best version of yourself in school and in life. She was another one of my best confidants/ friends/ mentors in Sevilla four years ago. We have really stayed in touch since and I will write her to update her every now and then. She also wrote my Spanish recommendation letters for the Fulbright and other programs last fall. But of course because my TCU account shut down, I didn't have Ana Claudio's email address either and she didn't even know I was gonna be in Madrid this year. She was so excited to see me though!! After the trek out to UPO, I met up with Elli in Nervion at her host mom, Margarita's house, where we had lunch. We went and met up later for watermelon mojitos with some of Elli's friends & intercambio at the kiosko by the river (closer to plaza de cuba). Elli and I went to dinner and had roquefort dulce at Coloniales.

We went to Buddah on Thursday night with Elli's friends. And Friday morning we went to TCU Friday morning breakfast with Mary Alice. It was good to see her and fun to talk with some super fresh abroad students, and there was also a recent TCU grad there with his TEFL teaching English in Sevilla (oh I can dream!). I was telling Mary Alice about the Manoli story and she was like that is just so Spanish, which is very true. After breakfast, we explored on Friday in Parque Maria Luisa and Plaza de España - which was crazy because they have water in the moat now!!! That night, we went up to Alameda and went to this awesome tapas restaurant that Juandi recommended called Casa Ricardo which was amazing and cheap. Very Spanish. It was so funny because they don't have menus and the guy just recites from memory what's on the menu for that night. We met up with Anne Sivley - who also is in BEDA but studied abroad in Sevilla a few years ago, and her Spanish friends and we went to Robotica for mojitos. My other friend, Clara - who was my intercambio (exchange partner) when I was in Sevilla was not in Sevilla that week but she will be back in October for a class - so I might head back to see her and Manoli in October. We left Sevilla on Saturday afternoon leaving with such happy hearts. All in all it was such a good trip, it was so nice to see Ana and be in some of my favorite places. I love Sevilla and my heart will always be there but I think that being in Madrid will be really good for me. I'm already getting to know Madrid and while it's so much bigger it's a different kind of adventure. :) I know I will be back soon to see Manoli - and I am sure I will take to visit as well. Sevilla, no me ha dejado.

More to come on my apartment, starting my first 2 weeks at school, simple struggles, being sick, and by Madrid bucketlist!!