I love how quickly the school days fly by and how it always feels like the weekend here. Why does it always seem to be the opposite at home? I also have so much more time to sleep here, and I don't feel bad about it. I love sleeping, but at home if I sleep in too late I feel lazy and unproductive. Sleep is encouraged here. The Spanish siesta which everyone always talks about is real (I always thought of it as some type of wonderful myth)! All the stores close from about 4-6 every afternoon and people go home and take naps (well, the smart people do anyways)!
Tuesday was Día de Andalucia, which celebrates the day that Andalucia became an autonomous community (one of the official provinces) in Spain. We didn't have school that day so Lisa and I went to the river all afternoon to hang out. The river is usually always busy, but it was even more so on Tuesday because of the holiday. Sevilla is the capital of Andalucia, so everybody from all the smaller pueblos in the province flocks in to the city to celebrate. My host-mom was in good spirits and even offered to take Laura and I to Cádiz that day or for an entire weekend later in the month. We'll see about that...I'm not entirely sure whether I could handle an entire weekend with my roommate and host mom. It was a nice offer though!
Although school isn't taking up that much room in my life this semester, I do enjoy it while I'm there. Every day when I walk into school I can't believe that I go to school in such a beautiful building. This week the University has an exhibit of really old books in one of the courtyards and a flower show in the other courtyard. There are always non-students coming in to look at the exhibits and see the building. Sometimes it feels less like a university and more like a tourist destination. Or sometimes a high school (but not in a bad way). I don't know why it just hit me this week, but I just realized that there are no dorms or other facilities like most universities have. Of course I knew this, I just didn't really think about it. People have been telling us since we've been here that Spain different than the US in that students stay in their home towns to attend college. If you are from Sevilla, then you go to college in Sevilla and don't think twice about it. Young people here also live with their parents until a much later age, usually into their late 20s.
I should go to sleep, seeing as I have to wake up at 3am! Our flight to Venice leaves tomorrow at 6:30 and buses don't run that early in the morning, so the four of us are going to meet (we live on opposite sides of town) and take a taxi together to the airport so we can split the cost. I'm really excited to see Gabby and finally be able to understand why she is so in love with Venice.
Also, I made this video for an internship I'm applying to. It was my first time trying to make a stop-motion video and it was a lot of fun. I might just have to make some more...
