finding myself, by Discovering The World :)

So, I’ve been home for almost 3 weeks now and I haven’t even finished my blog. I keep forgetting about it now that my life at home consists of laying on the couch all day!

Just going to back up to the last few nights in Europe. I seriously get shocks through my stomach every single time I think about it. I miss everyone and everything so much. We basically spent our last 48 hours, crying, laughing, reminiscing, and taking a billion pictures. I don’t think I could ever surround myself with more wonderful people. All 72 of my new and amazing friends have brought me back to life. There is not one thing I would ever take back from the past three and a half months. I love who I have become and I could never thank everyone enough for the impact they have made on my life. 

I will never find the words to describe this last night that we were all together. All I know is that within three and a half months, I fell in love with each and every one of these amazing people. These were some of the happiest times of my life and I will never forget any of it. I was so lucky to have this experience and be able to share it with people who will always be so special to me for the rest of my life. 

There would be no better way to end my blog than with this video. My friend Patricia spent the last day going around interviewing everyone about their experience abroad to put together this video for us. Made me cry of course but 100% worth watching. Just click the link to watch!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZAyR254LEg 

Thank you so much to everyone who kept up with my blog and followed me through my adventures throughout Europe. I love you all :)

Ok soooooo….. first things first, I AM HHHHOOOOOMMMMEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!! My last week in Seville was so busy that I wasn’t able to finish my blogging so I have to back up to our last weekend in Europe, which we spent in Lagos, Portugal.

We had been waiting for our trip to Portugal since we were in Paris. I remember the night that we booked it, everyone was really unsure if they wanted to do it or not. It started off with 10 people and we ended up as a group of 55. The weekend was even better than we thought it would be. We left Seville Friday morning and got to Lagos around 1. Our first activity planned was a boat cruise with unlimited sangria. (Yes, it was as perfect as it sounds!) In the middle of the cruise, we all got onto smaller boats to ride through caves! I was freaked out at first because I usually get really sea sick but I think my excitement helped make me feel okay, and maybe also the amount of sangria that was in my system..

After our sailboat cruise, we all needed a nap before our first night out. The guys who coordinated our whole weekend basically planned our night for us. We got in free to some club and had drink specials. Our group always has a great time with each other no matter what but we have the most fun when there’s dancing and good music :)

Saturday, we went to see the caves we sailed through Friday but we got the view from the top of them instead, then we went to spend the day on the beach. We had a short beach day because the rain came in very quickly and hard, but it was so beautiful and so nice to just relax with all of our friends for our last weekend together. 

Our last activity planned was to go to “the end of the world” to see the sunset. It was a cliff on the coast of the island where we all sat, sang, and cried. I think it was then that I realized how much I seriously fell in love with all of the people I met and how real the entire semester was and most importantly, how much I’m going to miss them.

“La Feria” is one of the biggest festivals held in Seville throughout the entire year. We were lucky enough to be here while it was going on. There are two parts to the festival. One side being over a thousand tents set up for dancing and eating, most of them private, and the other side was a giant carnival! For everyone from home, it was like expo times a million. There were rides and the spanish zeppoles, CHURROS! La Feria began last Monday at midnight, starting with what we all called “the light show”. There were hundreds of lights hanging over the entire carnival and a huge structure thing that all lit up right at 12. It’s the tradition that lets everyone know La Feria has officially started. It’s really amazing that we were able to be here to experience it and be a part of  something so important to the culture here in Seville.

The beautiful view from the top of the ferris wheel!

One of the main traditions for La Feria is for the women to dress in Flamenco outfits, which we didn’t have so we did the best we could. We got a little fancy and put flowers in our hair! We still definitely stood out but I thought we all looked pretty cute. After the midnight light show, we walked to the other side to the carnival, which was more our scene. First stop was to the churros then to the rides! It probably would have made more sense to do it the opposite way so my stomach didn’t feel so full on the rides that were flipping me upside down! We stayed the first night until about 3 am and it was still PACKED when we left. It’s so crazy how everything happens so late around here. The girls and I joke about how we’re going to be nocturnal when we get home, but that’s really how it is here!

Thankfully La Feria is a week long event so we were all anxious to go back the next day because of all the fun we had the night before. Everything looked so different in the day time. Everyone was still in their Flamenco outfits but we decided to dress more casual for the rides. (I immediately regretted my decision of wearing a dress the first night. I couldn’t go on a lot of the rides unless I wanted to face the embarrassment of people seeing parts of my bod that should never be shown in public!!) We went from roller coasters for kids to the biggest ride there to bumper cars. I’d have to say that the bumper cars might have been my favorite. I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard, even though I’m pretty sure I got whip lash!

The last night of La Feria is celebrated by a firework show at midnight this passed Sunday. We were all exhausted because we had just gotten back from Portugal (that will be my next post), but of course we went anyway. They were some of the coolest fireworks I’ve ever seen. Each one was different and every time we saw a new one, all you could hear was “oooooh, ahhhhh”. It was literally just like the movies. I feel like my life these passed four months have been a movie. I can’t say it enough how lucky I am that I was able to be in Seville this week :)