Tuesday we woke up to a buffet breakfast at the hotel... some of the food that was offered included eggs, different varieties of meat, bread, and cheeses, fried rice, french fries, fruit salad, juice, and coffee! Most of the food was pretty good but a lot of it I wasn't used to... the meat tastes much different and the milk is a lot thicker (especially if you're a skim milk lover!). After breakfast we took a walk through Sevilla on our way to the university. The Spanish leader of our 9-person group, Daniel, explained to us what everything was. He is my first real Spanish friend and he is hilarious!! We finally arrived at the university, which used to be a tobacco factory centuries ago and still has signs guarding it that read "Fabrica real de tabaco." We went inside and had about 4 hours of orientation. The school is so beautiful and half of it is outside. One problem: there are no drinking fountains. We had a small break and decided to go to a coffee shop across the street. I ordered "cafe con leche"... my first purchase en Espana. Later our group met at the CIEE study center (where half of my classes are)... which is IMPOSSIBLE to find. The streets here are so tiny and surrounded tall buildings... it is one big confusing maze. Everything looks identical so its super easy to get lost. BUT it is sooo pretty. For some reason they have pharmacies everywhere.. I started taking pictures of them for Krista but after I realized there were a million of them I stopped :) Later in the night we went on a scavenger hunt around Sevilla. We got placed into groups of 8 or 9 people and had a list of clues about a location... we had to ask Sevillanos (locals) for help. They are all so sweet. One older man helped us figure out our clues for a half hour! It was a really great exercise for us to see the city, but I need to walk around by myself soon so I can start to figure out where things are. Later we went to a flamenco show and got tapas. The flamenco show was absolutely amazing... nothing like I expected.
Yesterday we woke up, had breakfast at the hotel again, and got picked up by our host families. My friend Natalia and I have the cutest senora ever!!! She is short, sweet, and her name is Pepi. We live in the part of the city called "Triana" and it is about a half hour walk to the university. The walk is BEAUTIFUL though. Anyway... Natalia and I both have our own rooms in the apartment which is great. It is very small; there is 3 bedrooms (mine, Natalia's, and my senora's), a tiny tiny bathroom, a kitchen, and a tiny living room/dining room. Outside of my window is a park with stray cats that are very cute. Our senora made us lunch (paella- a rice dish with chicken), and salad. Bread is served with every meal. Her son came over to eat with us and he knows a little bit of english so if we ever don't understand something he is able to help. Pepi's husband died of cancer when he was in his 30s, so she has raised her 3 kids on her own. She has about 8 grandchildren and she said they visit often so I'm very excited to meet them. It's kind of hard to understand her sometimes because she talks SO fast, but we understand her for the most part. After getting settled in, we walked to the CIEE center to have our oral exams that place us in an intensive grammar course that we will be taking for two weeks. I think it went well... afterwards we had tapas at a bar and then went to a different bar closer to our house. I talked to some Spanish boys there and it's kind of funny, because I can understand their Spanish better than I can when they try to speak English. A lot of the Spanish guys I've met (that aren't a part of the program) are pretty sketchy but I like to talk to them for a little bit so I can improve my Spanish... but, don't worry mom, I always slowly back out of the conversation if things start getting creepy :) There are over 200 people in our program so I definitely don't know everyone but I have made a lot of good friends that are really fun.
I go on an excursion to Italica (roman ruins) tomorrow. It's about 20 minutes from Sevilla. I'm pretty excited for that. Hopefully my thoughts didn't blur together too much in this blog! I have to run some errands and get back to my apartment for lunch by 2, so I will write more later (if I can find a place with wifi!) Oh, and I will try to post some pictures on here soon... I haven't really taken much yet because I keep forgetting to bring my camera places!
Miss you all,
Emily
Picture #1: "Fabrica real de Tabacos"... the signs outside of the University of Sevilla
Picture #2: Tiny streets!
Picture #3-4: My bedroom
Picture #5: Our living room/dining room
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