Ola amigos!

hey peoples!

hope you´re all well! before I get going please excuse any typos or weird punctuation this keyboard is spanish.

So clearly i´m in Spain! very exciting, in seville at the moment and absolutely loving it. currently sitting in an internet cafe across the road from the cathedral (a stunner).. so gorgeous.

But first things first..

Got to London ok - yes, managed to get on the plane (despite numerous airport tears) and got there alive and well although had a very painful trip. first we sat at sydney airport for 1 1/2 hours before taking off, then when we almost got to singapore (we were 1km above ground, descending into the airport) they diverted due to lightning and went to KL instead, where we sat on the plane for another hour (not allowed off) before flying back to Singapore! painful, took about 12 hours just to get there i think after all the delays. then had the lovely leg to london to follow..anyway got there ok. Kimmie met me at the airport which was lovely.

despite the flight i wasn´t feeling too bad / tired so after we went back to their place to dump stuff / shower, etc, we went to a pub on carnaby st for roast beef lunch + pints (served by 2 aussie guys - welcome to the UK!) so had a good catch up with Kim. nuals was away for the weekend so saw her later that night, and she took monday off sick so we got to hang out + catch up too before i left that afternoon. all good!

being back in london was really weird.. it never really hit me that i was leaving Australia and that London was my new home .. i thought it would hit when i got there but it was all so familiar that it just made things even more strange! The girls live in willesden which is a tube stop up from where i used to live, and walking down regent + oxford sts was just like before, except the gap i worked at is gone, replaced by new shops w. apartments upstairs. but good news is i still love london so i know i´ll have a great time when i get back and settle down.

i´ll need to start looking for a place to live when i get back (can stay with the girls for a bit so no major urgency which is good) and sort out a job. for those of you that don´t know (actually most of you) i have an interview at Fallon! (sony bravia bouncing balls ad agency) on the day after we get back from portugal. very excited!! a job there would be absolutely amazing but can´t get my hopes up we´ll see what happens. at any rate hopefully i´ll get a job soon and be able to settle down and not worry so much about spending pounds (and converting them to aussie dollars and having a heart attack)

anyway moving right along - had one night in london before heading to seville, got in last night. got a bus to the major train station nearby then a taxi.. when the driver dropped me off near my street i thought i was in some random little shrunken part of town - the street was literally about 1 1/2 metres wide! he couldn´t drive down it. but anyway that´s the area i´m in - it´s the old jewish quarter and all the streets are tiny and there´s a million and ten of them, it´s a maze. so gorgeous though! anyway went for a quick wander + dinner late last night, and have been out for about 11 hours already today! (thus the internet cafe stop, need to rest!!)

this email is getting long already so won´t go into details but seville in general is absolutely gorgeous, have seen heaps and taken about 100 photos already today, and i haven´t even been into the cathedral / bullring, etc. yet (no bull fights unfortunately, they start in 2 weeks. a bit too early). the people are all lovely except more than any other european city i´ve been to - they hardly speak english! at all. i expected them to at least know the basics (i.e. counting to 10, etc.) given it´s a touristy city but generally not. i wanted juice with my lunch but the lady and i couldn´t understand each other, so i started naming fruits in italian hoping one would click. we eventually both understood arancia (orange) at which point she offered me fanta, and then when i shook my head finally realised i meant juice. it was quite entertaining.

anyway i´m getting along fine, they appreciate you at least trying to speak spanish so i get by. lots of ´grazias´and apologetic smiles go a long way! oh and i got called a ´guapissima´! very impressed, i thought ´guapa´ (something along the lines of ´attractive girl/woman´ i think) was pretty good, but apparently i´m better than that :) hilarious.

anyway i should really leave it at that, this is getting epic. in short spain is gorgeous and i´m loving it. Bel´s wedding is on friday, we´re meeting up here tomorrow for tapas so will catch up beforehand. sorry i won´t do any personal replies today peoples (gotta run) but thanks so much for your emails. i´m thinking of you all (and have seen a few of you here and in london actually, very strange.. john, i saw you at age 83. seriously it was freaky this guy was a future you). anyway! luv u all miss u all, speak soon!

x

Jas