Ok.
Ignore the fact this blog post title sounds like a Harry Potter book.
Our prize for surviving our two-week intensive session CIEE class was getting to go on a weekend trip to the country and…speak more Spanish and do nothing but speak and listen to and learn more Spanish.
Fun!
Really though, I went because I knew it would be good for me but not because I really had the highest of expectations for either really learning a lot or having a good time.
Me+countryside=bad news
Me+countryside+language I don’t know=really bad news
Flash-forward about 48 hours and I honestly think this past weekend will go down as one of my favourites* of the six months I’m here.
Spain and Sevilla are constantly amazing me with the history and the beauty around every corner. But despite my long-standing dislike of anything country, Sierra Huéznar took my breath away and didn’t give it back the entire weekend.
I don’t cry at nature very much ever (except for sunsets) but I almost cried several times while hiking around on Saturday. This resort in the middle of nowhere was filled with some of the most serene and gorgeous views I’ve ever seen.
All of a sudden, it didn’t matter that we were listening to and speaking Spanish all weekend. Or that I’m still insanely insecure about said Spanish skills. It didn’t matter that I would learn a word but have to have it repeated a million times before it cemented into my memory.
What mattered is that I was trying and I was in the most peaceful, beautiful place I’ve ever seen going on hikes, taking part in archery, and wine-tasting, and learning completely random Spanish slang.
It was all-around very therapeutic and emotionally cleansing and all sorts of other pretentious, existential things and I thoroughly am dying to go back.
In addition to having pretentious, existential thoughts about this past weekend, we also took pretentious, existential artsy pictures in abundance.
But I also took a lot of non-pretentious/existential/artsy photos just of the countryside etc. so here are those for your viewing pleasure.
In addition (wow, you guys, this is a pretty crappy excuse for a blog post), I’d just like to dedicate two seconds of this post to my friends here. I was ridiculously overly-worried before leaving that I was basically going to have no friends here for six months (I know. I know. I’m dumb sometimes what can I say).
Sevilla Squad is made up of the most eclectic group of people and yet we we can sit by the river at ridiculous hours of the night/morning and have simultaneously deep and/or deeply disturbing conversations and laugh a lot. It’s kind of one of my favourite** things to do.
And because K-money is lame-sauce and didn’t go out with us to partake in above photo, here we are trying to reenact Titanic in Sierra Huéznar and failing miserably. Blog Buddies for life!
The End (of this completely photo-heavy, long-winded blog post about absolutely nothing).
*My keyboard has taken to autocorrecting words to the British spelling. I don’t know why. I mean, they are my people but calm down there, Mac.
**It also autocorrects “colour” and “realise.” Also fun story this British couple came into a shop while Casey and I were paying for some stuff and they were very lost so this other American girl helped them. Then I asked them where they were from and I don’t remember what they answered, just that apparently they’re driving a motor home and traveling Spain for like six weeks and it sounded rather amazing and I kind of want to be them when I grow up. The End.
Jumping Out of Windows 