my weekend with don paco

ok, so the last weekend of orientation they flew us to sevilla. we all got split up between three hotels. after a layover in mallorca, bus ride, and starving for dinner, my group arrives to the beautiful "Hotel Don Paco". All my carbondale loves should appreciate how much this made me crave some late night quesadilla consumption. Unfortunately, the meals were not so exciting as my wishes for don taco, and included some mystery ice cream that reminded me dangerously of fruit cake.
the program goal seemed to be church overload.i mean, can you really tell the difference between these? yeah, neither can i. and the tours were in spanish. good for me, ok, i understand. but, right about now all i know about these churches is that they are pretty. i think one is supposed to have christopher columbus's tomb. thats pretty cool.

otherwise, if i may say so myself, hotel don paco was a pretty good place to be.
things i learned:

1) naranja is the word for a tasty orange. meanwhile, naranjos are evil oranges that look awesome, but taste so sour your stomach might just turn itself inside out. therefore, while walking around a city with beautiful orange trees planted on the streets, if you begin to cultivate a hunger or thirst for which an orange seems to be the perfect cure, and you just want to reach up and pick one of those naranjo's, STOP. do not pick one, remove the peel, and suck the juices out. your mouth will not be happy.


However, they do come in handy when you go to a botanical garden on your free time that ends up to be a garden of dead plants, and crazy museums. (and we wondered why we were the only people there). juggling cures everything, besides, we had to get our moneys worth out of the place. grant, jeanna, and keith are master jugglers

2) some things about playgrounds. nobody doesn't like a playground. especially one right outside of your hotel. and all spanish playgrounds have mystery equipment. such as a jungle gym with something that looks like a slide. however, it is not. when you try to slide down it, it tilts and does crazy things that make you fall off. thankfully, i am much taller than the children expected to be tricked by this mystery slide and survived with no more than a scratch.
3) champagne is not always classy. (but jemma rocks)

4) flamenco rocks.
ok, so in regards to flamenco. we went to this show that was so awesome. but i couldnt use my flash (and even if i could have, i didnt really have enough batteries) so all my pictures look like this. and after an awesome flamenco show like this everyone is a pro flamenco dancer, and dance offs in the street on the way walking to a club are priority. a big group of us went on to a dance club following the flamenco show, and it was amazing. salsa and american rap, quite a combo. tamara was the champion of the night, and definetly won every dance off she was challenged to.
sevilla (and cordoba and cadiz...we visited them for day trips) was pretty fun, but i'm happy to be home in barcelona.