Vino de Naranja

Hola todos!  Sorry again for taking 5 years to update... I will get used to this at some point!  It's hard to know what I want to say in my posts.  And it's hard to remember everything at the same time. (yes, I know that's why I should update more... I'm working on it!)  Anyway, second week of classes now.  Not enjoying International Management.  I don't really like how my professor teaches, not sure what it is about it.  He has some interesting things to say, but something about the way he teaches bothers me, haven't quite put my finger on exactly what it is.  International Business is more or less a repeat of what I learn in International Management (give or take some)  The other day we learned how the economy in Spain crashed.  Basically, over here when the money currency changed over to the euro a lot of people had money the government didn't know about and they couldn't trade in these massive amounts of money without raising a red flag to the government.  These people ended up putting all of their money into real estate and when the currency changed over they tried to sell back all of the property which wasn't possible.  Apparently if you drive along the coast there are multiple developments that have been abandoned because they didn't have the money to finish them.  (I'm missing some, but that's more or less the gist of what went down.)  Moving on, photography has been amazing so far!  I've learned how to use my camera without using my flash.  When used correctly you can get a picture that looks basically identical to what you're seeing with your eye.  (you know how sometimes the flash washes out the picture so then you try without a flash but there's not enough light?  yes, well that will never happen to me again!)  This picture is one I took one night of the river that runs through the city.  I'm really proud of it! ;)

On a more social note, I've met some really nice people over here!  Roxy and Alex (the two that have been living with me) are leaving this weekend, which I'm really sad about.  I've loved having them around, it's going to be so different without them!  But, Julie got here yesterday, which is really exciting.  Both of my roommates for the semester are great!  One of my friends Kelsey G. and I have planned a trip to Greece for the end of Febuary.  We are both ridiculously excited for it!  I've always wanted to go to Greece, I feel like a dream is coming true!  We'll see Athens and one of the Islands (we haven't picked which one yet).  Speaking of Kelsey, last night we went to go get a drink together and got lost in El Centro looking for a cute little restaurant to go into.  We finally picked one and they had a sign outside saying "Vine de naranja.)  Being in the city of Orange Trees my automatic reaction is to try it... bad idea!! I took 2 sips and couldn't drink anymore.  It was one of the worst drinks I have ever had.  Wine's should stick to grapes!  Speaking of all of the orange trees here (sorry to reiterate) Kelsey C. and I were walking to get tapas the other day and along the street workers were picking all of the oranges from a line of trees making the air smell full of oranges.  It was great!

I have met a lot of really nice girls so far!  Below is a picture of almost everyone in my group of friends over here. 

L to R: Molly, (random girl we don't know), Kelsey C., Megan, Jessi, Karla and Kelsey C. (the only girl missing is Maura!)

At first I was really worried about making a group of friends because a lot of the people clicked the first day.  Because a lot of them are from the northeast they have mutual friends, which makes an automatic connection. (this was not the case for me!  I think I've only met one other person from Tennessee so far).  Luckily though, I've found a great group of girls to hang out with!  We met up the other day to discuss travel plans and from the looks of it we won't be able to do much traveling together because everyone has various destination plans and different times they plan on doing their traveling, but it's fine.  Like I said before Kelsey G. is going with me to Greece and I believe Maura, Jessi and I are going to plan something for the week of Feria De Abril.  It will all work out in its' own way!  

I'm not sure if I have mentioned this before or not because as a lot of you know I have a horrible memory, but my absolute favorite place in Sevilla (thus far) is Plaza de España.  It's one of those jaw dropping places.  The first two times I went there I had no idea what the history was behind it.  Unfortunately, when I read up on it I was disappointed to find out what it's purpose had been.  It simply was built for a big International festival held in 1929 for all of the Spanish speaking countries.  This is neat and all, but it doesn't have the history I was hoping it had.  Needless to say, I still love the place and have started going there to just hangout and enjoy the sun after classes.  Here's a picture I took the other day!