Monday, September 26

            Today has been a day of much excitement for me. I got my grammar test back from Friday and the review of it went really well. There were a few silly mistakes, and I now understand all of the errors I made, which is good. We dove right into the material for our next test, and I was a little overwhelmed with the quick pace of class today, but I’m sure things will smooth out throughout the week…the always do.

            I had enough time to finish all of my daily work and talk with a professor about my composition for Friday before lunch, so I was really excited to have the whole afternoon to work on planning for fall break and studying. I talked with my parents about Italy for quite a while and then spent a few hours looking for flights, and my final plans are to go to first spend three days in Rome and then fly to Venice for the last three days of my time there. I was hoping to get to a few more sights, but those two cities were definitely my top priorities, so I’m really excited to get to see them, and other travel is not out of the question…this is just the skeleton of my plan.

            Things worked together really nicely, and I’m thrilled to get to see Emily in Portugal for the first few days of my break and then to spend the rest seeing Italy. I sort of let planning for my trip take up my whole afternoon, so there wasn’t much time for studying, but I guess it was worth it for me. I still have a few days before my next test, so I’m not too worried about it.

            This evening was also my first meeting with Raquel, my intercambio. We met at my school because it’s the easiest landmark for me near the center of the city and spent the evening getting to know Sevilla a little better. She took me to her favorite frozen yogurt place and we went the top of “Las Setas,” a really cool architectural structure built over the top of some Roman ruins found in the middle of the city. From there we could see most of Sevilla, and it was beautiful seeing all of the churches and landmarks lit up for the night. It was really fun getting to know her, practicing my Spanish, and getting more familiar with Sevilla.

            I got home just as Rosa was making dinner, so I sat down with Corinne for that and then got ready for bed. I’m amazed by how quickly the days fly past me, and I’m excited to see what tomorrow will hold. Until then, buenas noches J