A week for "break"...

     In between sessions, we had a week break to travel around.  I hopped the train back to Madrid.  When I arrived I began to search for my hostel…and after about an hour of getting lost, found an old lady who was heading in the same direction and walked that way with her.  I spoke to her in my terrible Spanish the whole way there (which was another half hour or so).  I was so grateful to finally be at my hostel and ready to meet Katie (a fellow King’s student traveling to Madrid and Barcelona before joining me in Seville for session II) in the morning.  I spent two days with Katie in Madrid and we visited the Palacio Real, Plaza Mayor, Teatro Real, the Prado Museum, etc.  On Sunday we did a free walking tour offered by my hostel.  It was amazing and we learned that students get discounts at the theater.  So Sunday night we bought tickets for ,60!! We saw Swan Lake ballet for sixty cents in the Royal Theater!  We could hardly believe we were there.  This was probably my favorite experience of the week.
     Monday, I went to Toledo for a few hours and really just wandered around looking at all the old buildings (a lot of things are closed on Mondays) because I could not find a map anywhere.  Luckily, I found an open free museum to spend a few hours in, which was really nice.  Then I headed back to Madrid.  I spent Tuesday in the Parque Buen Retiro in Madrid just relaxing from the few days of nonstop walking.   That evening I took an overnight train to Paris.  Because all the regular seats were booked up, I had reserved a bed in a sleeper car.  The extra money was definately worth the experience!  Also in my car were two girls from Madrid who were traveling to Paris for a few days, and I actually bumped into them again at the Louvre!  
     In Paris, I met up with two friends I had made in Seville at the train station and we began our tour of Paris.  We passed by Notre Dame and saw some other churches before stopping in a supermarket for some bread and jam for breakfast.  After eating outside Notre Dame, we ventured inside to view the famous cathedral.  From there we kept on walking towards the Eiffel Tower, stopping to see other sites along the way.  Honestly, from first glimpse, I was slightly disappointed in the Eiffel Tower because I expected it to be much bigger.  When we got to the park, I was still disappointed.   Then as we started to approach the Tower from the far end of the park I realized that we were walking and walking and how far away it really was.  After going up to just the second floor, my disappointment had turned into satisfaction.  The Tower is definately impressive and magnificant.  
     After more walking and sightseeing, we went to meet our couchsurfing host, Juan, a Chilean native who now lived in Paris to learn French.  This was another interesting experience of this adventure.  He lived in the tiniest apartment I had ever seen with his brother.  His cousin and her friend were visiting and staying for 2 months, his sister was switching apartments and moving half of her stuff there, and there was another couchsurfer spending the week there.  It was crowded but cozy.  In the closet-sized kitchen, my one friend cooked dinner for everyone.    The next morning we started out very early to spend some time at the Louvre (where I saw my traincar-mates!), the Sacre-Coeur, and Moulin Rouge before I caught my overnight train back to Spain (this time I had a reclining seat, which was not as wonderful as the bed I had two nights previous).
   My train arrived at 9am the following morning in Barcelona and I had five hours to switch stations to catch my train back to Sevilla.  So, to kill some time, I got on top of a tourist bus (because Barcelona is a HUGE city) and viewed the city that way.  Then back onto the train.  To give you an idea of how hot it is in Sevilla all the time: when I left Barcelona (at 3:30pm) it was 33 degrees…when I arrived in Sevilla at almost 10pm, the temperature was 36 degrees (body temperature is 37!). 
     The next morning I woke up early to get on a bus to Matalascanas (a beach) and meet up with my intercambio, Elia (intercambios are speaking partners).  We spent two days on the beach and I got to try all sorts of different Spanish seafood.  It was crazy to still be “traveling” but at least it was really relaxing on the beach!
     Then Monday began the next session of classes already!  I’m taking intermediate Spanish I.  Class is great!! Last semester the content of my class was really interesting, and this semester my professor and the other students make the class really fun, so the 4 hours seem to fly by!
    I’m “living” in Sevilla, but always traveling.  Last weekend we went to Ronda and this weekend we’re going to Malaga and Grenada.  Currently, I’m working on planning the 10 days I have to travel at the end of classes.  So far the plan is to go to Nice, France and then Zaragosa before flying out of Madrid. 

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