No Turning Back

Your heart is pumping and your mind is going a million miles a minute. How far do I jump? What if it snaps, just this one time? You rethink your decision, should I really be doing this? Yet you want to be bold. The count down begins.. 3... One last breath.. 2... Last chance to turn around.. 1... too late now.. JUMP!

Today was literally unreal. I spent the day on the outskirts of Seville bungee jumping! After about a fourty five minute drive through the middle of no where we arrived to a river and an empty bridge. Some people described the drive as a walk on death row, I saw it as a journey to discovery. We signed up in groups of two to take a jump of fate. My friend James and I were lucky number ten! After seeing twenty of my close new friends go before me I wasn't that nervous until I was getting harnessed in and looking at the small keychain that was holding my whole life onto the bridge. Kimmy was set up with her camera to take a video as others around me took some pictures. As soon as I crossed over the bridge I didn't know what to think. Here I was, about to jump off a bridge in the middle of Spain. It's a lot to wrap your head around at once! So as soon as the countdown began I knew I had no choice but to jump! The second your feet leave the bridge all you see is water, and you feel weightless. I literally forgot the I even had the harness on me. I couldn't help but to scream at the top of my lungs. Before I knew it I was swooping upside down, then sitting upright holding on the rope. Just when I thought the rush was over I swung under the bridge to be level I had jumped from. My stomach dropped to my toes again! James and I swang in perfect unison and just laughed at what we had just done. It's not every day you can say you jumped off of a bridge for the fun of it! It is definitely an experience I will absolutely never forget. The feeling was so free, as cliche as that may sound.

Ready to go!

Life hanging by a string... Literally.

James, my jumping partner!

Getting harnessed up!

Climbing over the fence...

Here we go!!

JUMP!

My "what did I get myself into?!" face

Swinging after the jump!

After the twenty four of us jumped we packed back into the group of cars that had taken us there to a little mom and pop restaurant where we sat outside and enjoyed eachother's company, celebrating what we had just done! 

From there we went to the second biggest solar panel system in Europe! It was definitely interesting to see, but naturally we spent the time taking pictures in the open fields that surrounded the industrial area. On the drive home the driver told us about how they offer horseback riding trips on the beach where we can see Africa from the coast, so I'm definitely going to look into that! 

We were all exhausted from the day in the sun, so once again we took advantage of siesta time! I moved an extra mattress from our room out onto our balcony and read for a while before dozing off. Kimm and I went for a little walk to get a quick bite at a local Chinese restaurant, and then hung out with all of us back at the hostel! A group of us girls sat out on the balcony (my favorite part of the dorm, clearly!) and painted our nails and watched videos from our time in Europe so far. We really are lucky to have such a great group of this trip, and have the chance to do such crazy things... like bungee jumping!

Sunshine and Sangria; Hola Seville

It's becoming a little too typical for me to get behind on my blog! But with all the eating (that's what you're supposed to do in Roma, right?), studying, packing, and sunbathing it's been hard to find time! So before I go telling about my new home, Seville, there's some unfinished business about Rome!
On one of our last nights we went to an AS Roma game! It was such an awesome experience! The stadium was HUGE and with the lights and all the fans it was a site to see! I wish I was able to understand the cheers they were doing and even the national anthem, but it was still really fun!

After, we ventured to the 24 hour bakery! I had my first canoli of Rome; it was everything I hoped for and more!

The next day I spent most of my time studying for finals! I thought one finals "week" was rough... But I've had two! And one more to go! But luckily here in Seville I'm only taking one class. We went out to dinner for a break from studying to an American restaurant to get our fix of cheese burgers and fries, but were left very disappointed. Brenna's and Jill's were still blood red after they served them to us (mooooo!) and Kimm's left her feeling sick. It wasn't good, but we made fun of the situation as were were studying later on that night.

The last day of Rome I had my Italian final (which I totally aced!! At least I think so!) then took one last trip to the Vatican before my Moral Theology of the Marketplace final! After we were so happy to be done Kimm, Bren and I got a bottle of wine and celebrated while packing up our things. It's weird to think the next time we're doing that it will be to pack to go home! But we still have time so I'm not thinking about that quite yet! Then we went out to dinner.. at Tony's of course! We had bread, wine, calamari, chicken parm, AND pasta! I got the dish my mom got our first time there; it was a spicy red sauce, and so delicious! We spent the hour and a half enjoying each others company, reflecting on our time in Rome and our favorite parts. Of course a highlight for me was my mom and Ry visiting, especially the night in Piazza Navona being my favorite place, and the day of exploring by myself. I love the fact that I felt so comfortable in Rome. It definitely took a little while to get to that point though. When I first got to Rome I remember being very uncertain of the city; I was lost in translation with the language and didn't feel the 'pzazz' yet. But it definitely helped that my mom and Ry visited. Showing them around gave me the confidence that I knew a lot more than I had thought, and grown to fall in love with the city. I really hope that I return; I'm sure I will since I threw my coins into the Trevi!

Calamari!!

Pasta and chicken parm!

We ate the whole thing!!!

Exploring one last time!

I couldn't make it up the stairs after all that food!

After dinner we planned to go to all the 'big spots' late at night so we'd have them all to ourselves like I did on my first night in Rome, but we were literally rolling out of the restaurant! I haven't been that full since being here in Europe! But the food was all so good! We walked back to campus to try to burn some of it off (seeing almost everyone going to the Drunken Ship, but we said we'd rather do a nice dinner instead), but it still resulted in me unbuttoning my pants as I crawled up the stairs of the dorm (the elevator was conveniently broken of course)! We were all put into a food coma, and decided to call it a night.

The next morning we woke up and it was time to leave for Spain! Our trip was actually pretty smooth! Our first flight to Madrid was delayed, but our flight to Seville waited for us since there were 73 of us on the flight! I spent majority of the plane rides sleeping and reading my new English book! Once we arrived to Seville it was dark so it was hard to see the city. But we woke up early the next day to start exploring! I started the day off by sitting out on our balcony (yup, our room has a balcony attached to it!) looking out to the palm trees; is this real life?! We are staying at a hostel, which is more like a hotel. We are given a buffet breakfast Monday through Thursday as well as lunch an dinner! I swear I'm on vacation. We had a quick orientation telling us about some excursions they are bringing on us (like to a bull ranch, bike riding around Seville, and to the movies to name a few!) and some of the ground rules, even though there really aren't any rules at all. Then the group of a us sat outside soaking up the sun! The weather here is amazing. I already got a sunburn from walking around all day! We went on a boat cruise after a walking tour of the area. It's much different than Paris and Rome. Seville is definitely less of a touristy area, and so there aren't as many English speakers. So hopefully I start picking up on some Spanish! Kimm and I wondered on our own after the boat cruise just exploring! We ended up in the Historical Center where we had a tour of today! On our walk we also found a beautiful garden/parkl I know I'll be spending a lot of time there! We also walked along the river where a ton of young people, like our age, were sitting out by the water! It's so relaxed here, so it will be a nice wrap up from the past three months of craziness! We came back to our hostel/dorm/home before going out for burgers down the street. It's weird because of the siesta time here we don't eat until much later! Then we went out to a couple of bars which was a fun first night out! It really is so much cheaper here! A shot of tequila was only a euro and same for a beer! Thank goodness being on a college student on a budget!

Nat and I on the boat cruise!

By the river!

We just stumbled across this place!

I woke up early this morning (my body is on a schedule of waking up at 9:30 for some reason!) and sat outside on our belcony starting to write this blog (so much to catch up on!) before the girls woke up and we went to grab some fruit from the grocery store for breakfast. From there we had our walking tour of some of the city. As we were walking the smell of blooming flowers surrounded us. The tour guide told us how lucky we are because the blooming of the orange trees is only ten days long and we're lucky enough to be here for it! We also learned about a huge week festival later in April for bullfighting season. Seville is known for bull fighting and flamenco dancing, two activities I will definitely take a park of! People from all over the world come here for it! So it's just our luck we'll be able to see all of it! Seville is unlike any place I've been, but I'm really excited to see what it has in store! It's definitely a lot more relaxed and I don't know much about the city itself, so it will give us a chance to just go out and find things on our own, but thankfully we have a ton of trips with the school too.

After the tour we went out for lunch and got paella! It was so delicious! I really like Spanish food so far. It's just so flavorful, which is a nice change after all the rich pasta! It was drizzling all day so we decided to head home (walking through the garden to get there!) to dive into the Spanish culture of siesta and took a nap. Kimm, Bren and I woke up and had a little roomie date in City Center where we stopped for tapas! We split a couple; a chicken salad, spicy sausages, shrimp with a ranch-like sauce, and a falafel burger! Tapas is such a great way to try a bunch of different foods! We explored City Center where it was full of people! Definitely a place I'd love to go out at! But we headed home afterward (it's like a twenty five minute from the center of town back home) because I have a very big day tomorrow.

Paella!! So yummy!

There are a bunch of Starbucks! I couldn't help myself!

Shrimp tapas!

Chicken salad!

Sausage!

Falafel burger!

And ice cream for dessert, of course!

I have a theory; Once I turn twenty (less than two and a half months away!) I'm officially an adult. I'll no longer be a teenager, and therefore have no excuse for any stupid situations I get myself into. So I figure, I have two and a half months to do something crazy that I'll look back on and be like "Oh yeah, I was a teenager so it's okay." So what is there to do? I figured the best thing to do... bungee jumping!! Yup, tomorrow morning I will be waking up to go jump off a bridge in the Seville, Spain!!! You only live once, so might as well! I like to think I'll be more than willing to jump off with my arms open wide, but as time gets closer I'm thinking someone may have to give me a little bit of a push. But it will definitely be an experience! I'll have to write a blog tomorrow to let everyone know that I'm okay!