Orientation? No. Spain boot camp

Well today we left our orientation in Sevilla for lovely Huelva.  It was nice to finally be getting to my destination city.  This last 5 days in Sevilla have been INTENSE!!  People keep asking me if i'm enjoying Spain. So here is the thing,  I would probably love it here if our orientation hadn't been like a literal boot camp.  We were up at 7 for breakfast and class started at 9.  We would be going constantly with speakers and classes and activities usually until around 11 or midnight.  Now not everything was just sitting at lectures, we got to go out and have tapas, go on walking tours of the city and see a flamenco show.  Most people would enjoy that, and normally I would have if I wasn't so exhausted.  We have had no time to adjust to the time or rest in any sort of way.  The most free time we had was no more than 45 minutes.  It was very tiring!  All the information was very helpful and I know it will be useful in the next few months but it was very much an overload and a lot to absorb in a short period of time.

On a happier note we made it to Huelva today!  Myself and 4 other girls took the train and hour and 20 minutes down to Huelva.  We had our 2 suit cases and back packs with us and it is not customary here for employees to offer to help you.  So had a nice chain going, passing our heavy luggage up the stairs onto the train.  Then when we got to Huelva a taxi driver at the train station said our luggage wouldn't fit in his taxi and that our hotel was really close and we could just walk.  So not really knowing how to disagree we started off to the hotel.  It was only about a 10 minute walk, which in any other situation would be NBD  but with all our luggage it was awful!  The side walks are about 3 inches wide so we had to walk single file and ask 2 different people how to get there because we didn't know exactly where we were.  So we finally make it there and the receptionist tells us that only 2 of us are in that hotel and the other 2 of us are in a different hotel!  Why o why we aren't all staying together is beyond me.  Se myself and my roommate had to trekk another like 10 minutes to our hotel.  We get there and are just dripping sweat and have blisters all on our hands from lugging around suit cases that are literally bigger than me.  Needless to say if we ever see that taxi driver again Minnesota nice might be forgotten.

But our first day in Huelva has been great.  We walked around a bit, got some lunch, met with some contacts that the other girls know.  We had a lovely dinner of a great bottle of wine, tapas and dessert.  It was such a great way to spend our first night.  The other girls from my program in Huelva are so great and we are all getting along really well.  Although we probably won't live together I hope we still hang out.  We are all looking desperately for places to live, so I will have to keep you updated on that.  For now i'm safely in Huelva and ready to stop living out of a suit case.  My brothers skyped me tonight and was a high light.  I'm missing everyone at home and hope you are all enjoying fall. Still summer weather here.  I'm hoping to go to the beach soon.

Besos
Katie