Okay, since I have been terrible with keeping this updated this week, I will try to make this one good. Just to clarify- this is the first week that we have tests and I have 2 big tests. One was today and I have another tomorrow (Thursday). But after I get that test out of the way, it’s the weekend!! I have to run errands today. I need to exchange some Euros for DIRHAM because I leave for MOROCCO tomorrow!!! I have to run to the grocery store and get some food for the first part of the trip because we take a bus and a ferry, and we will be doing that for most of Friday. Oh, and for those of you who know how much of a morning person I am… (If you don’t know…I HATE mornings…) our bus leaves at 5:15 am! But I think it will be work it. More details on that when I get back…
Last Wednesday, after dance class a few friends and I went to this bar that a couple of the guys had previously been to. We went because one of them told us that they had tried orange wine (not grape wine…) there and that we should try it. For any of you that haven’t tried it, it basically tastes like orange-flavored children’s cough syrup. Buying it by the bottle was cheaper, so we just decided to buy the bottle and drink it in the streets. In Seville, that is called a “Botellón” (when people gather and drink in the streets; for instance- on popular streets, some people congregate in the street but bring their own drinks from the grocery store, basically the cheap way to get drunk, and also, if you buy a drink at one of the bars on the street, you are allowed to bring it outside and drink all along the street.) Granted, we were a bit early for the Botellón, but oh well. That night, Hannah and I met some Scottish friends of ours at Flaherty’s (the Irish Pub) that is somewhat close to my house. We made some other friends that night, most of whom spoke English- go figure.
Thursday I didn’t do much after my one morning class. I walked home, took a 2 hour siesta. Then I had lunch and went shopping with Hannah. When we were leaving H&M it started pouring down rain! It was the first time that it had actually rained. Normally when it rains, it lasts about 10 minutes and it is a very light sprinkle. Naturally, I was quite unprepared for the rain, so I had a buy an umbrella. Later that evening, I met up with some students at the Tex-Mex bar. It was fun because I got to talk to some of the people in my program that I haven’t really met yet. We then walked to Flaherty’s and stayed there ‘till the wee hours of the morning. Just to clarify- it sounds like I keep going to the Americanized places, but I promise I don’t. And when I go to those places, I still find people to speak Spanish with and such.
Friday I slept through my alarm and woke up 30 minutes before the group bus left for our trip. I raced to pack, get ready, and walk to the bus station. Luckily we were on “Spanish time” and the bus took off 15 minutes late. The trip is one of the included trips in the program. This trip was to Mérida, Cáceres, and Trujillo. We spent the day in Mérida. We saw Roman ruins and the museum of Roman art. The museum was amazing! The sculptures are practically flawless. You can see wrinkles and every vein on the arms of these sculptures. They are all anatomically correct- and this was done hundreds of years ago!
We then took our bus to Cáceres. We had some free time after we checked into the hotel, to nap and shower or explore the city for a bit. Pretty much all of us napped. I napped and took a really long, hot shower (sooo nice compared to my hand-held shower head in my casa!) We stayed in a pretty nice hotel (for free because it was included!!!), which was cool. We then visited the old city of Cáceres. The site we visited is the original town of Cáceres, and all of the new parts of the town have been built around this old city. But the Ciudad Antigua (old city) has a wall around it and is relatively unchanged. After we saw that, we had a full 4 course meal in the hotel and then went out for the night. As a side note- I pretty much always have to say that I am a vegetarian when we go on trips and such because the main course is almost always ham or some very meaty thing. So my main course at the restaurant (which was everyone else’s 2nd course) was a creamed asparagus-type dish. I think it had scrambled eggs in it too, but if it did, I couldn’t tell because it was green. Anywho, it was good, and for dessert we had arroz con leche (rice with milk). That dessert is pretty common in Andalusia, I think. After that, Hannah (who was my roommate on the trip) and I went with some people to a disco/bar and left pretty early because we were exhausted! And our beds in the hotel were pretty inviting!!
We woke up, had breakfast in the hotel and then bussed to Trujillo for a brief tour of the city, Palace of the Dukes of San Carlos, and a castle. The city is pretty small, and there isn’t much to it, but nonetheless it was fun to see, and the castle and palace were cool too. The castle had an amazing view of the town and countryside! But, it started raining during the outdoor part of trip, so we kind of rushed the second part of the tour and had lunch and got back on the bus to head home.
Saturday night, when we got back, a group of us went to a free concert under one of the bridges. It was a hard rock concert, so not my favorite but it was interesting because it was in Spanish (of course). A few of us bought some boxed wine for less that a Euro and brought that to the concert. After the concert we walked to Plaza Alfalfa to go to the bars and meet up with some friends we had met that live in Seville and they took us to Alameda de Hercules, which is a park/plaza/street with good night life (more for the locals). So that night I spoke a lot of Spanish, which was good.
Sunday, I woke up at noon, studied a bit (I know, weird, studying…just kidding mom and dad…), had lunch (lentil soup and lasagna) and then walked to Starbucks to meet Hannah and study more. There, we met a woman who was travel alone from New York and we talked to her for a bit. And then we met 2 guys from Seville and talked to them for a bit too, in Spanish, which by the way is still getting better!!
There was a bullfight Sunday night but after thinking for a bit about what happens at a bullfight, I decided that it’s not really my thing. I didn’t really want to pay 21 Euro to sit for 2 hours with my hands over my eyes. So, Hannah and some other people went without me. But, Hannah took some videos of the fight and it going to put them online, so when I find out the site address, I will post it- so if any of you want to see it, you will be able to. She said it was really interesting though.
I finally got my class schedule straightened out and I am in the same classes that I was in to begin with (so much wasted time!!!). But I really like my dance class. My current events class is interesting and not too hard. My usage and expression class is awesome. I really like my teacher. He’s hilarious and shows us music videos from MTV Latino every morning and finds material to teach in the videos, so it keeps thing interesting. The class is also very relevant and helpful for living here. I hate my literature classes, but in order to get credit for my minor, I have to take them. I don’t really like Lit. classes much in general but when it takes forever to read a few pages, 2 classes of that is a bit much, but oh well. What is is. And it’s hard to read really old-school Spanish when you don’t even know modern Spanish that well. But, enough complaining…overall my classes are good, and I am obviously learning, so that’s good too.
I learned what a bidet is today. We have one in our bathroom at the house and I never have seen one before. Haha, my host mom was having a hard time explaining, so she attempted a partial demonstration- is a little awkward, but pretty funny.
Now for a few random thoughts…
Women here are so classy. Even older women wear heels, and dresses, and lots of jewelry. They just have a look about them, very poised- very different from the U.S. The culture here is so rich and beautiful. I really like the European way of life and the richness of the Spanish culture.
Foods…Sara, my host mom, made a very good spinach and garbanzo bean dish. It’s common here. It’s basically just cooked spinach with garbanzos and garlic. It’s one of my favorites. She also makes us homemade veggie pizza and grilled cheese. We get a pretty good variety and a good mix of American and Spanish foods. I don’t eat the breakfasts here because hot chocolate (packets mixed in milk- even in the cafés) and muffins, pastries, or toast are common. So I have plain yogurt. Sara also makes pureed vegetable soups, like pureed carrot soup, or pureed zucchini soup, or gazpacho (it’s pureed in Seville, versus in the U.S. where it’s more of a chunky veggie soup). She also makes fish croquettes. Dessert is always fruit, mostly melon. We have cooked veggies and omelets too. They use a lot of olive oil, and rarely butter.
Okay, enough from me. I have to go study!
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