Yes, I know, a lot seems to be based around the old cerveza here in Seville, but I'm a student for one more week so why not ??!
It's been quite a packed few days, our class has changed a bit with more students arriving - namely Ben, who is french and certainly livens things up, Karin, Swiss German but speaks excellent English and Lorraine who is French Canadian.
When we first meet we have to go through the process of asking where are you from, what do you do etc etc - in Spanish obviously ... I was asking Lorraine if sheŽd ever been to England, I received the stock answer, "yes, I visited London" - I then asked her if she'd been anywhere else in England, she says not but she visited Wales once. "Ah !" I say .. "where in Wales ?" expecting Cardiff or Snowdon .... she says "Erddig" - after I'd picked myself off the floor I reply "Erddig - Wrexham ??!!" I managed to explain I'd lived in Wrexham for 10 years - it's a small world really isn't it !
After a week and a half of getting a bit panicky about my progress (or lack of it) with Spanish I've decided to just chill about it. My grammar is appalling because in England we didn't learn grammar so to speak. I've given up writing down that some form is Perfect Present or a Participle or Indicative or, heaven help me, gerundio (????) because I've realised I'm still none the wiser. My understanding has improved massively (and believe me, if you can understand a Sevillian that's impressive) - As long as the person I'm talking to has time to hang about while I'm constructing my sentences I'll be fine !
Friday was Dermot's last day here in Seville so a few of us went out on the town. I wanted to watch the AC Milan v Sevilla game so I met him and Sonja, Ben, Karin, Annali, Melanie and Clementine in a bar to watch the game. As only me, Clementine and Dermot are really into football it was funny seeing the others reaction to the passion of the locals. By the time we left the bar to go down to Plaza El Salvador we were all a bit squiffy - spent most of our time there explaining to Karin the meaning of "OCD", being a Swiss German she is a classic example ! Once in the plaza Sonja (who is probably the most elegant and pleasant mannered woman I have ever met) convinced us to go to a bar she knows down on the river - a cuban bar. Now, I've never been in a cuban bar but on arrival it seemed like any other bar (apart from the fact it only starts to get busy at about 1am). A live band was playing salsa music and EVERYONE was dancing salsa (they all looked bloody professional to me). Being typically English and reserved I'm just standing at the bar observing until Ben insists I dance but I don't have a clue and I'm horrified ! By this point even Dermot has thrown caution to the wind and is trying to salsa with the best of them. I felt completely
uncoordinated and very ungainly when a woman who was sitting at the bar saw my acute shame and anguish and she stands up and starts instructing me in some very basic salsa steps. My initial reaction was "oh god, please leave me alone and let me crawl into a dark corner" but she was so chilled out and made me finish the dance with Ben as she continued to encourage me and correct my steps. After that she sashayed off with her man and proceeded to dance so brilliantly I almost felt proud such a pro had given me a few minutes of her time ! In the end I threw myself into it and cast off my English reserve - why the hell not ?!
By approximately 3am the bar was showing no signs of closing but I just had to get to my bed - I believe it was still going strong at 4am !
I spent most of Saturday asleep - enough said.
On Sunday I had intended to go back to Matalascanas (the proper name of the beach that I couldn't remember before). In the morning I went down to the bus station, asked for a timetable, confirmed there was a bus at 1pm.
Feeling very proud of myself so far I went out and had some breakfast, did my homework (!) and then at 12:45pm went back to the bus station towel and sun tan lotion all packed up. Went to get my ticket to be told that there was no bus at 1pm, the next one was at 3pm ... I waved the timetable under her nose and tried to explain but even my expert Spanish could not decipher a damn word that woman mumbled at me. In the end I gave up and decided to spend the day down by the river. My first experience of solo transport on foreign public transport was a disaster. It can only get better from here !
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