Vale Vale

It is now day four in my journey across the pond. Yesterday I moved in with my host family. I live with a husband and wife in their apartment in the neighborhood Los Remedios. Their names are Manuela and Manolo, but I call them Tita and Tito. My room is the perfect size for just me. I have a bed, book shelf with drawers for my clothes, armware, desk and nightstand. Not to mention I am living the life with my own bathroom (only a toilet and sink). Here los banos are aseos, going to the bathroom the first night was difficult when they had no idea what I was talking about. I can tell that my Spanish is really going to improve around them. I can understand almost 95% of what Tita says, but when Tito talks it is the first time that I have never been so lost. He has a very very thick Andulcian accent. When I arrived the first thing he asked is if I had a boyfriend. I told him no but kiddingly that I was looking for a Spanish boyfriend. Not a good idea apparently. I got a 20 minute lecture about how I shouldn’t go dating Spanish men. Last time I talk to him about that subject. Tita is hilarious always hugging and kissing me, in a way reminds me of Fabolia. I have never eaten so much food in my life. Here, Lunch is the biggest and most important meal. We eat every day at 2:30 exactly. Tito and Tita’s 2 nephews and their mother come over every day for lunch. These kids are hilarious. One is 9 and the other 12. For Christmas they got an iPod touch and a organizador (not a computadora). They love American music especially Miley Cyrus and Michael Jackson. They were singing it’s the climb and doing the moon walk. The 9 year old is in choir and put on a show for us with his choir music while dancing. A potential boy for Singers I think. Lunch is usually a three course meal. Yesterday we ate pasta then chicken then fruit. Each serving was enough to make an entire meal. Of course I can’t eat it all and Tita kept asking me why I don’t like to eat and if everything is ok when in reality I have probably eaten more these past 4 days than in 2 weeks in the states. I’m also living with a girl Mackie who goes to UT. It’s been really nice having another person to be in the apartment with.

2 nights ago we went to tapas and Flamenco. I haven’t quite gotten the grasp of Spanish going out time. In Spanish terms my going home at 2 and 3 is really quite lame. We went to Flamenco at 8 PM ate tapas at 10 PM. After that we went to walk around it is really dead at night in the city right now because all the students at the University have finals next week so are studying all the time.

Yesterday we stayed at the house a long time and talked with Tito and Tita. Here electricity bills must be very high because you never leave on a light anywhere and open windows instead of using the lights in the house. Yesterday we pretty much sat in the dark while we sat in the living room. It is great here that family and meals really mean something. Eating isn’t just to fill up on food, it is a time to talk, get to know each other and really just keep each other company.

I bought my movile (cell phone) yesterday! Only 19 euros and really complicated to buy in Spanish. But, we got it all figured out and I have the cell service called Vodafone.

Last night we went out to 2 bars. The first was a place where you could drink outside in a beautiful plaza that was next to a huge church. You could get a cerveza for 1 euro!

Today we had a session over our trips that we will be taking to Cordoba, Aracena, Granada and Cadiz over the semester. I can’t wait to go, but definitely need to explore Sevilla Before! After I sat on the bridge that overlooks the river with a friend. Now we just finished lunch and it is 5:15! We started at 2:30…shows you how long these lunches are!

Tomorrow we are going to Italica, a city that was founded in 205 AC, que guay!

Class starts on Monday so hopefully life will finally get into a routine.

Hasta luego!

Elena

Finally in Sevilla!

I have finally arrived in Sevilla after an extremely long day of traveling. Sevilla was well worth my wait. It is what I have imagined in my mind as a Spanish town. The streets are overflowing with Spanish language, orange trees and shoe shops; the perfect trio.

My flights started early yesterday morning in Denver which flew into Chicago. My terminal in Chicago had so many people in my program. A lot of people are from Wisconsin and already know each other which was a little intimidating I must admit. I sat by a few girls who are now in my hall in the orientation hotel. The flight from to Chicago to Madrid was 8 hours and incredibly long because of my inability to fall asleep. The Madrid airport is one of the most confusing and enormous airports I have ever been in. We had to go from terminal U to terminal H which involved us going up and down floors and on trains all telling us it would take 26 minutes for our flight to Sevilla in 20 minutes. We sprinted with all our carry ons mumbling “perdon, lo siento” to everyone we bumped into. The flight from Madrid to Sevilla was nice and fast. We picked up our luggage and found the CIEE orientation leaders waiting for us with a sign to take us on a bus to the hotel.

We are staying at Hotel Becquer, which is beautiful. My window looks out to a garden and the other window opens up to the streets. We sat out there today with perfect weather and Spanish music playing in the background. Later a friend and I decided to take a walk. 1. Sevilla streets are mazes with nooks, dead ends, and narrow streets 2. The streets are beautiful. The people are beautiful and talk beautifully. Not to mention the men dress extremely well. Also, every dresses as if it is 10 degrees colder than it actually is. Men and women were dressed in scarves, gloves and overcoats- it was 60 degrees outside.

The city is picturesque and breathtaking. I can tell that it will make me stop and smell the oranges, something that I usually am in too much of a rush to do. You can feel the Spanish culture and language which is easy to want to catch on to. I’ve started picking up on some of the slang, “vale” and “va” after everything as if you are saying “yeah,ok”, and saying hasta luego not adios.

It is weird starting to talk in Spanish all of the time. The orientation leaders are awesome and of course force you to talk in Spanish at anything CIEE. Some girls and I have taken it up even while it’s just us, swearing we will be fluent by the time we leave. I’m a lot more confident in my Spanish than I thought.

I have changed my name to Elena. It is way easier for the Spanish to say than Elaine and I feel more Spanish.

We start orientation tonight and tomorrow is the big day of seeing the city. We even get to go to flamenco show and tapas tomorrow night.

Only more adventures to come!

Muchos besitos de Sevilla y hasta luego!

Elena