Sanlúcar de Guadiana

One of the things on my "to do" list when I decided to study abroad in Spain was to see the countryside. Up until a couple weekends ago I had not picnicked in rolling hills or been woken up at 5 a.m. to the sound of goats. This is typical when you travel to a new country that has touristy cities that you "have to see at least once." For this reason, Jenny, Dede and I spontaneously decided to rent a car and drive to Sanlúcar de Guadiana on our last free weekend in Sevilla. This tiny village is located right on the border of Spain and Portugal. When I say it is tiny, I mean that it puts Kinston to shame. There were three cafés (but more like huts) and two supermarkets (but more like dark rooms filled with everything you would need to survive). The main and only tourist attraction was a zipline that crossed over the river to Portugal.

We stayed in an adorable little bungalow, cooked some amazing meals, packed a lovely picnic for the hills and cuddled in one big bed. Streets were bare by 8 p.m. and we saw the same people at the same café each morning for coffee. Of course, we did the zipline and *~*travelled in time*~* (there is a 1 hour difference between Spain and Portugal)! On Sunday, we took advantage of traveling with our own car and drove to Aracena, a beautiful town in the Parque de Natural Sierra just north of Sevilla. Although it was rainy and cold, we frolicked on more hills and had ourselves a fun little time. That weekend was perfect and is ranked as my #2 favorite weekend while abroad. #1 is my birthday weekend.

On the ferry back to Spain! View of Sanlúcar de Guadiana

Phones didn't work as we were so close to the Portugal border. We reverted to a printed map... like on PAPER :o

Our epic picnic filled with book-reading, bocadillo-eating and napping

Morocco

This past weekend we visited Tangiers, Chefchaoen, Meknes and Fez... all in three days! It was quite a hectic weekend starting with the 8 1/2 hours of travel time on Friday. It was a lot of travel for such a short weekend and I would say that if I had to do it all over again, I would give myself more time or not go at all.

I'm not sure how to even begin explaining my feelings about Morocco. Maybe that's because I didn't have much of a chance to feel anything. I was with thirty other students, which is just too big of a group to maneuver through the narrow streets of the medina. We were also with local tour guides, which was helpful but I still felt like I saw what they wanted me to see: leather and ceramics factories, handmade tapestries and the doors to the king's castle in Fez. Of course, these are important, classic sights in Morocco but I know there is much more to the country that I didn't get to experience due to time and company.

With that being said, I would not necessarily recommend going alone. The streets are incredibly confusing (one of our students got lost and left behind) and it felt a bit unsafe at nighttime as I did not see a single policeman the entire weekend. Also, the main cities and villages are located so far apart that it seems necessary to have a car if you want to hit the hot spots. So it is hard to say how to travel to Morocco. All in all, I AM glad that I went and I can now say that I have been to Africa (since mom and dad won't take us to Kenya).

Creating a mosaic! I always wondered how this was done

They said it's good luck to touch the doors to the king's palace

Final thoughts

Three months is too short. María is just now starting to call me "hija" (daughter) and I have been frequenting a couple of cafés making me a ... local?! (go to La Cacharrería and Red House if you're ever in Sevilla!) Nevertheless, three months is longer than one and I am beyond grateful that I was able to spend that time riding bikes with good friends, reading by the river, eating María's bomb food, meeting a ton of really cool people and falling in love with a new city (don't worry Vancouver, you're still my #1).

I have less than one week left! I am busy getting ready for finals, shopping for Christmas presents and figuring out how I am going to get all this stuff back to the States. Speaking of the States...

I am surprisingly excited to go back to New York! As cliché as it sounds, I have discovered another side to me. Another side that doesn't feel guilty about staying in and wearing my fuzzy, awesome bathrobe all night and that gets really excited about buying a new book and is overly conscious about screen time and more importantly, will do something about it like turning off all devices for a period of time. I am going to try really hard to keep this mindset in a place like Manhattan.

I have a great set of classes for this upcoming semester, I am currently searching for an internship for the summer, I will be signing a lease to my first apartment super soon and we have a killer wedding to plan!! All in all, I have a LOT to look forward to.

Blogging has been a really interesting experience and it has made me realize that I want to start keeping a personal journal again. It has also made me realize that at some point... you just have to click "Post"! Thanks all for reading and enjoy the upcoming holidays!