June 30 - USA

Thursday was a hard day.  Lots of cleaning and final packing in the morning and then class in the afternoon.  The teachers gave me a framed photo of me and all of the teachers (two had not been there when the original photo was taken, but thanks to some fancy cut and paste - they are in my copy of the photo :) and a mug and sweatshirt.  I was alone in class and we did a few exercises, but mostly we just did one last day of conversation practice.  I left with lots of "see you soon"s, but I know that for many of these people I will likely never see them again - and it was a sad set of goodbyes.

After class, I headed home and finished up packing.  Mario stopped by to say a last goodbye.  And Albert and I went out for gelato and a last visit to our bridge.

Friday morning, we caught an 8:30 am Uber to the airport - no airport bus with our years worth of luggage.  It was hard to believe we were really leaving. 

We made a stop in Lisbon, Portugal.... famous for their sardines.  I like this sardine tin chair.

Next stop Newark.  The plane ride was long but uneventful - the lines in immigration and customs in Newark were AWFUL.  Then another line to get our car and finally only 16 hours after leaving our apartment in Sevilla, we were on the road to our hotel.  An hour and a half later we were checked in and heading out for a quick dinner.  Then glorious sleep.  While we were travelling, my teacher sent this photo of my seat in the classroom.  After near perfect attendance for a year, it was weird not to be in class.

Saturday morning, we made our way up to Betty's house in the mountains where we will be until Wednesday morning.  A very peaceful transition back in to US life.  Saturday night we hit the sack early and today we did lots of walking and animal watching and probably too much eating and even a little Spanish practice and tried to check off some small jobs on Betty's list.  Tomorrow and Tuesday, hopefully more of the same.

June 26 - Making a List and Checking it Twice

With only a couple of days left, Albert and I have been checking things off the list of things to do before we leave - and not the fun list like "travel to Barcelona" but the boring list like "clean the oven".

I am also checking off things on the list of foods left in the kitchen.  This morning, I finished off the chocolate, the vanilla extract, and the corn syrup by making fudge and caramel corn.  This evening, I made the dough for snickerdoodles that will chill overnight.  When I bake them tomorrow - that will be my last cooking here in Spain.  We still have things to make sandwiches, yogurt parfaits, fruit, crackers, and eggs.  That should get us through two meals tomorrow and breakfast on Friday - so one restaurant tomorrow .... no more grocery shopping.

Today, I met a friend who is taking a break from classes.  I am trying to catch up with as many people as I can in the city before I leave.  We met for a light taco lunch.

In class today, I said goodbye to a student who I only see on Mondays and Wednesdays and to another whose last day was today.  Good grief - enough with the goodbyes already.   Tonight, lots of kitchen cleaning and I checked in for our Friday morning flights.

Tomorrow a full day of cleaning and a little more packing - we are almost packed.  Then my last class.

June 25 - Last Day of Intercambio

Today in class, during the break - I showed my "slide show" video of photos of students and teachers from school, school functions, and intercambio to the teachers.  It was just under 10 minutes long with a few slides at the end with a message of thanks from me to them.  Turns out I didn't make any grammatical errors (YAY!!!!).  Lots of laughing and remembering and a few tears.  As soon as it ended, they watched it again - more laughing and remembering and more tears. 

After class, I stopped off at the store and then made my way over to my last intercambio.  I brought snacks (peanut butter bars with chocolate topping - using up that peanut butter, the rest of the chocolate chip cookies from yesterday, and the last of the margaritas) - nothing left but crumbs.

I showed the video to my regular partner and the teachers since they appear a number of times in the video - more laughing and remembering and more tears - good grief.  There are a number of people that I only see on Tuesday nights at intercambio so tonight was really goodbye for them.   

There are lots of things I miss about the US, but I will really miss some of the friends I have made here - if tonight is any indication, Thursday night is going to be very difficult.

June 24 - Golden Tower

After nearly a year of seeing the Golden Tower from the outside, today we finally went and checked it out from the inside.  There are two small museums with information about the history of the building, some art, a few artifacts, and some models. 

But the real draw are the views from the top.

The two student class today was pretty relaxed.  I am trying to use up all of the ingredients in my kitchen - so today, I brought chocolate chip cookies.

We also had a really nice dinner with our landlords at their house.  So many great seafood dishes!!!!  I brought a few chocolate chip cookies - not much, but at least we weren't empty handed.

Tomorrow regular day and last intercambio.

June 23 - Bike Trip

We packed our sandwiches, filled our water bottles, and coated our bodies in sunscreen - then we headed out to meet our guide for the day who picked us up a couple of blocks from the flat.

We drove the couple of hours to Olvera, a small city that is right at the intersection of Sevilla, Cadiz, and Malaga provinces.  There is a bike/pedestrian path that was developed from a converted rail line.  Interesting fact, although the rail line was built early in the last century - its completion was stalled by the Spanish civil war and was never finished - so although the route is a converted rail line, no train ever used the line.  We picked up mountain bikes at the start of the trail and rode for about 22 km and then turned around and came back.  We made quite a few stops each way (vulture information center, picnic at the turn-around, lots of drink breaks in the many tunnels along the route).  We were on the trail for a little under 6 hours.

When we returned to Olvera, we took the opportunity to walk around the town for a while.  It is a lovely little town which was particularly interesting today because there were lots of people out decorating and building alters for their Corpus Christi procession that was scheduled to happen tonight.  We just looked around and enjoyed the great views before heading back to the car and heading home.

Once home, we cleaned up and decided that it was a perfect night to go out for a quick dinner.  Now we are home again, and I think it will be an early night.  Tomorrow more cleaning, class and dinner with the landlords

June 22 - Another round of Corpus Christi?

Even though the city of Sevilla celebrated Corpus Christi on Thursday and Triana is a neighborhood in Sevilla, Triana will be having their own Corpus Christi procession and celebration tomorrow.  Many Triana residents do not think of themselves as Sevillanos so they often have separate celebrations.  Also, most of Spain (all but three cities) had a normal day on Thursday and celebrate Corpus Christi tomorrow.  With all that said, we will miss it.  We have a bike excursion planned for tomorrow - we leave with a guide in his car with bikes in the morning, ride down to a trail, ride bikes for some hours, and come back in the car arriving in the evening. 

Luckily preparations started today, so when I went out for my walk, I saw some guys starting to build an alter a couple of blocks from our house.  On my way back they were still building and according to Albert, it wasn't finished when he went out for his walk hours later.  So.... unless we get our early in the morning and go check it out - this might be all we see of the Triana Corpus Christi.

I walked along the river for a short time today.

And visited my favorite square.

But mostly, I stayed in and cleaned.  We have the bike trip tomorrow, I have class and we have dinner with the landlords Monday, I have class and intercambio Tuesday,.... I figured we needed to do some cleaning or the end of the week was going to sneak up on us and we would be running around like chickens on Thursday.

June 21 - First Day of Summer

Today is the first day of summer - I love summer - it is by far and away my favorite season (then spring, then fall, and sorry winter does not even make the list).  But even though today marks the first day of summer and the longest day of the year, it also marks the start of the slow decline of sunlight that will continue until the week of Christmas. 

Today also marked another round of goodbyes - this time not because other students are leaving but because in less than a week, I am.  This is the first day of my last week - with each day signaling another "goodbye" with this city that I have loved so much this year. 

I brought the leftovers from last nights picnic to class today and there was very little left by the time class was over.  

After class, I came home and dropped off my stuff before going out for an evening walk.  With beautiful weather, there were lots of people out and about.  I am trying to walk down some of my favorite streets every time I go out for a walk.

I don't really need a t-shirt, but I do like this one that I saw in a store window today.  I also like that it was paired with a pair of shorts covered in pictures of our bridge.

Tomorrow a little cleaning and shopping and some homework.