Alaina Comes To Europe

So as you can tell by my title, Alaina came to visit me in Europe! She came Friday morning right after my final exam ended Thursday night. I ended taking a train to get her in Madrid because she only had an hour to go through customs, security and get to another terminal that was a bus ride away. I'm really glad I was so familiar with Madrid's airport because I knew exactly where she would have to go and that there was NO way she would have time to make her plane to Sevilla. Once I found her with a Sorority sister's sister, I took her back to Sevilla happy as could be to finally see my little baby sister :)
 
It was amazing seeing Alaina after 4 1/2 long months. In the past week, I had been getting very anxious to leave my host family and see my family. In the past month that I had been staying in the apartment, we had been served a steady diet of hotdogs/hamburgers/pizza with tuna/ or chicken nuggets for every meal. Also, our sink had been clogged since I got home from the Prague trip. When I say clogged I literally mean that the water only left through the hole near the faucet. It was made worse when after his shower, David would shave his chest and put on makeup, all the while smoking and depositing the ashes the sink. YUMMMMYYYY.

Although I still missed my parents terribly, a little bit of that anxiety was quelled by seeing Alaina. On Friday, I had a touch of home after what seemed like a lifetime ago. It was also the perfect way to end my stay in Sevilla. I got to walk and tour all throughout Sevilla and once again, really apreciate its beauty, rather than walking to and from class everyday. I made sure Alaina got to see and do some of my favorite things in Sevilla. While some of the activities were touristy (like the catedral and alcazar), I think it is so cool that I was able to show her a different side of Sevilla only someone who lives there would know. I took her to a bar (only identified to locals by its red door in a back alley) called the Carboneria where they have free flamenco shows and a popular drink called agua de Sevilla. (Here's a video of flamenco. I don't think I ever showed you all a video of it :))

I think Alaina also made me realize how much I've learned in Spain. I guess I never really paid attention to how well I speak Spanish because I just do it every day. Whenever I had conversations with the locals/waiters/my family, I just kind of assumed Alaina understood but of course she didn't. I felt pretty cool.

When Alaina and I dropped off our luggage at the Madrid airport on our way to Rome, my new language ability really hit me. A Londoner was in the room with us and very frazzled. Her husband had had a stroke on the plane and she was trying to store her bags and then run off to the airport. Unfortunately the man working only spoke Spanish and she only spoke English. I could tell that they were having difficulties, so I finally asked her if I could help and ended up being their translator. It was so cool!

Alaina and I stayed in Sevilla from Friday until late Sunday night then took my last ever torture 6 hour bus ride to catch a plane in Madrid for Rome the next morning! Leaving Sevilla was very uneventful. I didn't even say goodbye to my family (who I thought were going to drive us to the bus station). I told them what time I was leaving, but I was home an hour before I left and a few minutes after when we were going to leave. I left them a note saying bye, but still haven't heard anything from them on facebook. O well, most everyone from the program was disapointed with their homestay. Most families do it for the money. Its just different then in the US. In America, we'd take them out to eat, include them in our every day activities and would never think of not saying goodbye to someone who had lived with us for 5 months. Also, I was a little frustrated because we spent quite a bit of money on the family buying them thank you gifts and Laura's shirt was too big and she flat out threw a fit yelling that she didn't want it and hated it (in front of me, my sister annndd her mom). Oh well, its over now!

We had gorgeous weather the entire week!

Little Lainy finding a comfy pillow face first in my backpack