Leaving Sevilla and going to Italia

First of all I am sorry for the lack of posting recently but I’ve got a ton of news so buckle up and enjoy.

Studying for my finals was great fun and all but you can imagine how I felt studying in a library while the weather was the best it’s been in the past 6 months. I was studying marketing strategies and product life cycles while the summer sun was shining and more of Sevilla was waiting to be discovered. I’m sure I did great on my tests but it was so difficult to stay focused while my last 2 weeks of being in Spain were quickly fading.

On the Friday after finals week the international office of the university took everyone to a theme park called “Isla Magica” for a day of fun and a farewell reception. We spent the day walking around the park in our bathing suits and sandals, riding roller coasters and water rides to cool off, taking pictures with all of our friends and saying goodbye to those who were heading back to the states after the reception.

We were given free tapas which included Spanish tortilla, jamón sandwiches and of course cervezas.  We sat with our friends and talked about all the best times we had while we were in Spain and talked about how we would all stay in touch and maybe see each other again some time. After some really drawn out goodbyes we had to leave the park and walk back to the apartment.

The last night in the apartment was a depressing one to tell you the truth. This foriegn place was where I lived for 6 months of my life and although the apartment had some faults it was still my “home” for the whole time. The day before Kelsey and I did an intense cleaning of the entire apartment (because the owner would be coming over in the morning and checking to see if we had kept the place clean enough to return our 1 months deposit). We packed away all our luggage, cleaned everything in sight and made the place look like new. As I said before, this place was my home and Kelsey and I had added our own little flare to it. When we had to pack everything away the apartment lost all of it’s style.

On Saturday May 19th, Kelsey and I left Sevilla and started our Italian vacation. We had our friends over for breakfast (pancakes, eggs, bacon, fruit, and mimosas) 

then we cleaned up the kitchen, got the deposit money from the apartment owner and started for the train station. Kelsey, Ally and I walked with Chuck and Jodi to the street outside and said our final goodbyes before we caught a taxi to the train station. Hopefully I can see Chuck when I go see Kelsey at App State (he also goes to App) and maybe I’ll see Jodi the next time I go to Canada, but I know I'll see Ally again when we both go back to UF.

We got to the Sevilla train station with plenty of time before our train left because we had some business to do. When Kelsey, Ally and I planned our Italy trip a few weeks ago we knew the 3 of us would be taking a train from Sevilla to Madrid together so we bought our tickets together. For the train we wanted if you buy a “mesa” (table) you get a great discount on tickets. A normal ticket costs 80 euros and if we bought the mesa (which seats 4) we would pay a discounted price of about 42 euros per person. The only problem with this deal is that we didn’t want 4 tickets because there were only 3 of us. The man selling us the tickets said the discount is only available if you purchase all 4 tickets at once, then we could sell the 4th ticket that we wouldn't be using. So back to present time when we are about to leave for Madrid, we have 4 tickets in hand and need to sell one. This process was very similar to selling a football ticket at the University of Florida. I approached strangers with a ticket, asked them if they were going to Madrid (which most of them were not) and usually walked away awkwardly still stuck with my ticket. If we didn't sell this ticket then the 3 of us would have paid around 60 euros to cover the price of 4 tickets but luckily we found a buyer.

I was taking a break from trying to sell our ticket and gave Kelsey and Ally a shot at it. Maybe somebody would be more likely to sit with 2 cute girls on a train to Madrid rather than a 6'2" American guy who was asking them about where they were going. Anyways it worked. Kelsey and Ally found a Spanish guy named Jose who actually lived in Madrid and was in line to buy a ticket home. He told the girls that he would love to buy the ticket because we were selling it for less than the 80 euros that he would have to pay at the counter. We met up at our seats on the train and were speaking a mix of Spanish and English the whole time. We got on the topic of idomatic expressions and if they translate from Spanish to English. Ally actually had a book of expressions and Jose went through the book and showed us which ones are actually used in daily conversation.

The English expression "when pigs fly" is translated to "when frogs grow hair" in Spanish. We had a lot of fun going through the book and laughing at why we say some of the things we do.

Eventually our train reached the Madrid station and our time with the first Jose was up and our time with the second Jose was began.

      

Here is a breif explanation of who Jose is and how we got to know him.

Jose is a Spanish student who normally lives in Granada, Spain. He did a semester abroad at the University of Florida during the spring, just as we were doing our semester in Spain. By some chance he actually found Ally's friends through the UF housing website and lived with Ally's best friends during the spring semester. Her friends told Ally all about Jose and they would talk about how their study abroad experiences were going all the time. We planned our trip to Italy with him and Ally talked with him more and more. Since Jose's semester at UF ended earlier than ours in Spain, he came back to Granada and invited Ally to visit him in Granada. Ally took a train to Granada to officially "meet" Jose for the very first time. They had skyped a lot before but 2 weeks before we were leaving for Italy, Ally got to see Jose in person. She came back after the weekend with hilarious stories about him and his family, communication troubles and how we are going to have so much fun with him on our trip. We were ecstatic to meet him in Madrid when our train arrived.

Jose was waitng for us as we walked through the Madrid train station. He is a very smart guy who has an amazing capability to adapt to the situation at hand. Even though he only studied the language for 2 years; his English is amazing, he has the inner compass of a military grade GPS and he is just great to be around.

So our trip began with making it from the Madrid train station to the Madrid airport. After packing up our entire apartment, our luggage is extremely heavy. Every people mover (moving sidewalk, whatever you call the things in airports that move you around without you actually having to walk) was a godsend. At every chance we got we would drop our bags and catch our breath. We eventually made it to the RyanAir check in counter, checked some bags, got through security and boarded the plane. After a few minutes of settling in and talking about what was next on the schedule, the plane started to put us all to sleep.

Now I've taken my fair share of trains, buses and planes in the past 6 months but no matter what I do I cannot keep my head upright when I try to fall asleep while I'm sitting. If I don't have a wndow seat then I have to sit straight up and my head always falls forward when I drift off to sleep. Now the hilarious thing (especially to everyone watching me try to sleep) is when I wake up when my head drops down and it immediately snaps back up. What usually happens is that I'm so exhausted from the traveling that I don't even wake up when my head is bouncing up and down.

Anyways, I didn't sleep that well on the flight to Rome but we had to keep moving. We got all our luggage off the plane and took the metro from the airport to a bus pick up area then took a bus to our hotel. After a pizza dinner in a restaurant close to the hotel we planned the next day and fianlly went to bed.

OK, now the real fun starts. Right now Jose, Ally, Kelsey and I are on vacation in Italy! We have already purchased train tickets to Florence, Venice, Milan and Amalfi with places to stay for 2 nights in each city. Unfortunately Ally and Jose are going back to Madrid after Milan while Kelsey and I will be continuing to Amalfi for the rest of the trip. After a few days in Amalfi we will take a train back to Rome, stay a night in the same hotel as the first night in Rome, then catch our flight back to USA the next morning (May 31). 

Our first full day in Rome was great to say the least. Jose has the Tripadvisor.com application on his phone with recommendations, user comments, schedules, prices and everything we need to know about Italy and all the cities we are visiting.

I've got a lot to write about but not enough time right now so I'll leave you at this and try to update later about our amazing trip through Italy later. Adios!