First 48 Hours in Sevilla

Despite being severely sleep-deprived from the 0 sleep and 24 hours of travel, I was full of enthusiasm as I arrived in Sevilla and got to my host family's house. Meeting my host mom and my roommate over my first proper meal in 24 hours was great. My host mom speaks zero English which will give me a nice challenge and force me to hone my Spanish skills while I am here. Throughout the first 48 hours of my arrival, I have already racked up over 51,000 steps so far. Walkable cities are awesome! We have had a couple of orientations which has given us a chance to meet our classmates for this semester.

Some of the highlights from my stay so far (some of which I have pictured below):

• La Plaza de Espana! Only a 10-minute walk from my place, originally it was built in the 1910's for the World Fair, but I was fan-girling over the palace because it is featured in Star Wars Attack of the Clones. Anakin and Padme filmed here walking around Naboo.

• The Cathedral/Central. My friends and I stayed in the area around the Cathedral for dinner, drinks, and exploring. We checked out a rooftop bar with a prime view of that area. Cannot get enough of the views here!

• La comida!! Although I've only had a couple of meals so far, both the restaurants and my host mom's cooking have been exceptional. I am super big on clean ingredients and unprocessed foods, so the EU and its food restrictions work perfectly with my eating habits. Yesterday I had my first pineapple and beef lasagna for dinner, and that was delicious.

• Probably the coolest moment I've had so far was walking back from Central last night. A couple of us split off from the group and stumbled upon a hole-in-the-wall bar. We decided to stop for a cheap drink before heading back. As we were leaving, a woman came up to us and asked us how we found this place, we learned it is a super local spot and not even listed on Google Maps. With super cheap drinks, and a great atmosphere we will definitely be heading back.