Is it sad that my happiest moment so far in Spain was shopping in a store that looked like H&M and smelled of Abercrombie? Today I FINALLY went shopping and it was amazing! The first store we went to was a Spanish one called Stradivarius and I absolutely loved it. The clothes were all so cute, seemed to be of great quality, and weren’t too expensive! I was so happy as I browsed the store and I felt SO at home with the cute clothes, American music, and potent Abercrombie-esque perfume. I know that I’m supposed to be experiencing very Spanish things, but I really needed that retail therapy and realized how much I missed shopping. I was really good though! I only bought 3 things all afternoon and only spent 38 euros. I was pretty proud of myself because Ginny spent almost 150. I cannot wait to get more Spanish clothes. Before I left, I told myself that I would be spending my money on experiences like food and travel rather than commodities… but I think I’m going to buy lots of clothes anyway and just not shop for literally a year once I get back to the States! It’s pretty easy to not shop in State College anyways; I have barely bought any clothes for the past 9 months.

I also did laundry for the first time here. In Spain, we don’t really have dryers. We hang our clothes on clotheslines (often on the roofs of apartment buildings) and I actually had fun because I was singing in the privacy of a rooftop courtyard while securing my clothes to metal lines with clothespins. Since the sun is so strong, my clothes didn’t take long at all to dry, but they did come out a little stiff. I think the stiffness was caused by sunlight (no idea how) because I dried one shirt in my room and it was still soft after it dried.

Location: Sevilla, Spain