WE'RE HERE!

I am finally in Seville! Me and Kayla left Minneapolis this morning (or yesterday morning?), and after some long flights, layovers, and lost luggage, we are starting to feel a little bit at home in our new apartment. Overall, traveling went really well. There were no problems on the U.S. side. Once we got to Portugal, however, we started to feel slightly out of place. We are definitely the minority as blondes, which makes us stick out. It also didn't help that we know NO portugese! We only had an hour long layover, so it was touch and go to get to our plane on time. The customs line was EXTREMELY long, and we knew we would never make our flight if we waited in it. Somehow we pulled some strings and ended up in the "fast lane" and made it onto the plane. The flight to Seville was only 35 minutes, which was a pleasant surprise since we thought it was going to be 2 hours. Once we got to Seville, we realized that two of our suitcases didn't make it onto the same flight that we did... And unfortunately, those suitcases contain about 99% of our clothes! We fumbled through a conversation with a Spanish airport worker, and figured out a way for our bags to be sent to our apartment when they come in. Hopefully we will have them by tomorrow night. In the Seville airport, I felt more out of place than I think I ever have before. It seemed like EVERYONE was staring at us! I'm sure we looked ridiculous dragging our suitcases around, speaking English, and trying to locate the taxis. It was pretty funny trying to figure out what all those people must have been thinking about us. :) The taxi ride was fine besides the fact that the driver realized we were two obviously American teenagers who didn't know anything, and charged us about twice what he should have. After roaming around in the streets for awhile, still feeling ridiculous and like everyone was staring at us, we found our apartment. Ana Franco is so, so sweet and today has been great with her! I'm really excited to get to know her more. She LOVES to talk, so being with her will help our Spanish skills very much. I am very tired and I think my body is pretty confused... But besides that, I feel wonderful about everything so far. I'm looking forward to classes starting on Monday so I can keep working on my Spanish. For now, I will rely on Kayla, my Spanish to English dictionary, and hand motions. :)