Friday morning turned out to be one of my favorite days spent in this city so far, I believe - not that I'm keeping score. We didn’t stay out very late on Thursday night, so it was easy to get up in the morning and begin exploring, which is the easiest way to stumble upon things that will exceed your expectations and surprise you.

After our usual breakfast of bread and jam, we went to walk around the Parka Maria Luisa, which is in front of the Plaza de Espana and stretches out over several blocks. The trees themselves are beautiful, but after you begin walking you stumble upon fountains, terraces, ponds, bridges, gazebos, lion statues, giant hedges, walkways, trellises, it really is one of the most gorgeous places I’ve ever seen.

The park ends at the Plaza de America, which is so much cooler than anything I’ve seen in America. The Plaza has three big museums in it, and we wanted to check their operating hours. The museums themselves look like palaces, and in the middle of the plaza is a place just full of birds.

The gardens/park really made me appreciate being in Spain. The park was just gorgeous and well maintained and it seemed like so much effort went into it. Speaking of putting effort into things, the rest of the day was spent touring the Cathedral and Giralda (the big cathedral tower).

The tour for the cathedral is not that expensive, but we get in for free because we’re technically residents of Sevilla (That's a really awesome sentence to say).

The Cathedral is the 3^rd largest gothic cathedral in the world, behind St. Peter and St. Paul according to surface area, but as far as volume goes - its the biggest. It is just magnificent inside. The detail given to everything from the outside architecture to the tiniest carving on the altar is just amazing.

The carvings on the gold altar depict Jesus’s life, and this carving was the artists’ life work.

Also in the Cathedral is the tomb of Christopher Columbus where they believe they have his remains.

The cathedral tower has 34 “flights” of a steep inclined ramp to get to the top, so make sure you wear comfortable shoes when you go. It wasn’t that much of a struggle, but I didn’t even consider the fact that the tower wouldn’t have an elevator, which makes me sound really American, I realize.

At the top of the tower is a full and gorgeous view of the city. Standing up there really made me realize I was in Spain, the houses just looked like quintessential Spanish houses, and you could see far out into the countryside, with a lot of notable landmarks in between.

It’s starting to warm up a bit in the day here, which is really really welcome. We’ve been having various stews for lunch because it’s been “cold” outside, so today we finally got something different. We had a roasted chicken/potato combination in a cast iron skillet, covered in olive oil and lemon juice (at least those were the ingredients I heard as she was rattling off how she made it). It was really delicious. The rest of the afternoon was spent in typical Spanish fashion – siestas and café con leches.

I could get used to this kind of day

Que?!

Tuesday night we had orientation at “Old Pablo U” as my Dad has begun to affectionately call it…possibly because he can’t say the name in Spanish.

The school system over here is a LOT different than the US. Per usual, they are so much more laid back about everything. Rather than having the option to arrange all of my classes online, if I want to add/drop a class I have to show up in person and get the professor to sign a piece of paper, and I have about two weeks to do it, so its essentially just shopping for classes the first week of school.

My given schedule turned out okay, but I’m still moving a lot around anyways. I’m keeping Intermediate Spanish II, Contemporary Spanish Politics, Spanish Art History, buuuut I’m moving the time for Spanish Art History because I’m dropping the Spanish film class I wanted to take in order to fit in US-European Relations. I’m dropping all together my History of Spain class, because the time is ridiculous and it would only be an elective credit anyways. Follow all of that? Yeah, me neither. But I’m in Spain, so I don’t need to worry…apparently.

If my schedule DOES work out, it would mean I would have no classes on Monday or Friday. I…wouldn’t even know what to do with myself.

After orientation, the University held a banquet in the dining hall with the professors and students. Sangria, cerveza (beer), and soft drinks were just laid out for the taking, with waitresses walking around topping off all of the glasses. People also came around with platters of delicious tapas. It’s a bit of a culture shock to see kegs of beer at a school function provided by the school.

I have one (three hour) class Wednesday, Contemporary Spanish Politics, and my professor was the quintessential stereotype of an English-speaking Spanish scholar. His name is Xavier and he speaks with a slight Spanish accent and occasionally messes up English in the cute “I don’t understand prepositions” kind of way. He said he did all of his graduate work in the US, at a school called “Yale” and “Georgetown,” if we knew where that was. He also said he wanted to get the Prince or the Spanish consol to come speak to our class, because he’s “kind of friends” with everyone. He said he would show us pictures? The majority of our class time was spent on a speed date, no lie. He said it’s a good way to get to know people and he usually has at least 2 couples come out of his class every year. All of our reading is on a CD ROM, and his office hours are his cell phone. He promised us dinner after the final exam.

I sat talking to Ana, for a long time after lunch. Sadly, “talking” still consists of me trying to follow and saying “si” every time I want to show I’m still alive. I can follow the context really well when I grasp what the topic is, but I always struggle when there’s a change of topic – I don’t notice it for a while.

Unfortunately, after I left the table, I went back into my room and I just felt COLD, like chilled to the bone. I was about to pull the space heater into bed with me. I just felt sick. I can’t describe what kind of sick it was in English, so it would have been pointless to try to explain in Spanish, so I just laid there.I had some toast and an apple for dinner and Ana was really understanding, I tried to explain about “mi estomago” and she finished my sentence with “esta un poco loco?” Si.

Tapas Time

For those of you that are lacking in the geography department, Sevilla is in the southern part of Spain called Andalucia, which is also the warmest part of Spain in the summers. It gets HOT here, and unlike the South, it’s a dry kind of heat. We won’t need jackets by the end of February, according to Antonio. But, while it’s usually around 50 degrees outside in “winter,” it’s cold; don’t be fooled. All of the houses and all of the streets are made for hot weather, so in the winter they are iceboxes. Every room is made out of tile and stone walls, and the streets are narrow for drafts and to keep the sun out.

We’re lucky enough to have a space heater in our room that we turn on after dinner so it’s warm by the time we go to sleep, but when I go to the bathroom, I dread it. It’s freezing. I wear a jacket to every meal and would never walk around barefoot (even if it was culturally acceptable, which it isn’t.)

Oh well, I’m sure I’ll appreciate it come April.

Monday night we went out to celebrate Sydney’s birthday. We had tapas for the first time at Levies. “Tapas” literally means "to cover," and I've heard a lot of different explanations for the origin. I think in class we learned the word comes from when the king would be served small dishes that were covered. Regardless, now they’re served with drinks at bars all over Spain and it's a way to encourage conversation and meeting with friends. I’m sure I’ll be adventurous in my selection over the next four months.

Tonight, the table shared a pitcher of tinto de verano and three of us shared a plate of paella and a plate curry chicken that was delicious, I could have easily eaten a plate of that by myself.

When we come in every day from being out we are always greeted with what I think is “Hola cariños,” it took me a while to figure out exactly what was being said but I think that’s the Spanish version of “Sweet” or "love." I couldn’t be happier with my host family living experience so far, even if I do need four pairs of socks to go into the bathroom.

Flamenco y Plazas

Our first weekend in Sevilla provided some much needed rest, but we were also able to go out and experience some culture, too. Friday night we went to see a Flamenco show at a Flamenco bar, and if that wasn't Spanish enough, we had "tintos de verano," a typical Spanish drink made from wine.

On Saturday we stumbled upon the Plaza de Espana, which kind of can't be described adequately. It just looks like it belongs on a postcard, and every time you turn a corner it opens up and becomes even more impressive. It's huge!

Most of the city closes on Sundays, but I walked around just before nightfall, and I think these are my favorite pictures so far, everything just looks so gorgeous at night.

Today we had our placement test for our language classes and got to see the University, I don't really have an impression of it yet but I'm looking forward to beginning classes on Wednesday, I'm starting to forget there's a "study" part to this study abroad.

Hola!

I'm here! My traveling went really, really well. So well, in fact, I was the only student to arrive on time. When I got to the airport, instead of meeting with a group of students, it was just me and our director, Elisa. We were supposed to have a short orientation and then take taxis to our homes, but since I was the only one there, she drove me to my host family’s apartment herself.

My senora is named Ana, she lives with her husband Antonio in Los Remedios, which is an upper middle class district right next to downtown Sevilla. Ana is wonderful and very well spoken and expressive, which helps, because they also don’t speak any English. So when I got here by myself, fresh off the plane, it was quite a shock to be dropped into such an environment with no one else. I’ve realized that what’s really important about being so immersed in a language is following ALL of the conversation, the expressions, mannerisms, inflections – you can usually tell what’s being discussed by the rhythm of the conversation and the tone so you can respond accordingly. My listening has gotten soo much better, and my speaking is improving as my confidence level is increasing. The table that we eat at is in the living room, and so the television will be on and we watch and usually discuss about the news or the program that’s on. Antonio likes to ask if I understand what’s going on in a program and he likes to teach me about the people on TV. He’s also corrected my grammar, which is incredibly helpful.

Our first morning we met at the Plaza de Cuba in order to have orientation, we walked around the big parts of Sevilla to take pictures and learn about the history. I think my favorite part about the city is the orange trees everywhere, and the fact that you can turn down any road and find yourself in a beautiful, narrow alleyway where the buildings are so tall you can’t see the skyline anymore. It’s very easy to get lost, which we did the first day in the barrios de Santa Cruz, but getting lost here doesn't really matter, it's encouraged.

After exploring in the mornings we always return to our casas around 2:30 for lunch. Fruit is served at every meal, as well as lots and lots of bread – like big chunks of white baguette. Breakfast in the morning is usually just bread and jam with fruit as well. Every meal is something new, we've had pastas, soups, rice, and even fried pork and french fries. Dinner is usually around 8:30 but apparently it can be as late as 10:00.

I'll post pictures soon, hopefully. Adios!