saying goodbye to sevilla

I have been doing excellent shopping. Definitely excellent, definitely not frivolous.

Entrants for the Alternative Miss World 2009, why wasn't I informed about this?

Things I'm really really going to miss about Spain & beautiful Sevillitaa:
1. Waving at the little old man who always tells me 'buenos dias' from his doorstep in the mornings. He just stands there with his hands behind his back, surveying the world. I hope that one day I am as regal and tranquil and adorable, but I'm pretty all those words are the opposite of brassy, cheap, chaotic and irritating, so I might have a long way to go.

2. Plaza Salvador (for creamy, drippy Mama Goye deliciousness by day & cotching with various international lovelies on the sweaty steps with a litrona of beer by night)

3. The river and it's twinkly lights.
4.Cycling over the bridges and staring out at the silver sunshine on the water.

5. Pervy grocer offering me free ( & vitamin rich) goods, just for being forgeign & female apparently?

6. Shop shop shopping on Calle Sierpes; Blanco, Stradivarius, Bershka and Casa del Libro, the perfect bookshop to get lost in.

7. Heat! and the beautiful view across little white rooftops from our terrace & night.

8. My lovely flatties Clemence & Simone, such beautiful girls & such talented chefs, must steal some recipes before I jet back to domestic english doom. Really lucked out with this double bed and sunshiney room, made all the better by these two excellent girls. (but no more international boning through the wall at 4am thanks)

9. Studying in the most beautiful building. I feel like I'm walking into the opera Carmen every time I step through the big tabaco factory archway, and smell the musty deliciousness of El Rectorado. Plus I love the fact that all my professors seem to float along above my head in some glorious gilded sphere of academia. One which I will never penetrate but always gaze at with envy & scribble furious notes in an attempt to capture some of their captivating, magical eloquence & other-worldy wisdom.

10. Hearing Spanish every day, there's something delectable in the soft, tongue-between-the-teeth Ds and something brilliantly simple in the brevity and clarity of the way people speak, no apologies, no fussy politeness and no prisoners taken. It's the way forward imo.