When people ask where I’m from, I tell them I’m “East Coast born, but Kansas City raised”. My birthplace is very near and dear to me but my hometown, Kansas City, has my heart and soul. Since living there, this is the longest I’ve ever been away from KC in my life.

We spent a weekend in Sevilla. It’s the fourth largest city in Spain, and for good reason. It’s home to some real history and some iconic imagery. One of those iconic images being La Giralda, a giant tower attached to the Caterdral de Santa María.

It might look familiar because there’s an exact replica of it on the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City.

Sevilla and Kansas City are Sister Cities for cultural exchange. The Plaza was built to mirror the architecture in Sevilla. There’s an ‘Avenue de Kansas City’ in Sevilla. Just from that alone, Sevilla looked more like home to me. Not to mention there were three Starbucks’ within walking distance from our hotel.

I got homesick for the first time in Sevilla. Seeing more “American” restaurants and buildings that looked more familiar to me really made me think of summer days on the Plaza sitting in front of the fountains and listening to the city bustle. Sevilla had all of those same qualities.

What really got me was climbing to the top of La Giralda and overlooking the city. One of my favorite things at home is going to the World War I Memorial in DTKC and looking out into downtown. A wave of homesickness hit me hard when I looked out into Sevilla. The top of the cities don’t look alike in any way, but it felt like a familiar moment I’ve had at home.

But I think it was a good moment to have. I wasn’t homesick because I was unhappy or because things were so foreign, it was because things were so similar. Of the forms of homesickness to have, I think a nostalgic one might be the best of them all.