Aventuras en Sevila

Hola.  I last wrote before I had my interview.  It was fun and I ended up being interviewed by the professor, Antonio, who I am going to have for the first two weeks of classes (for the intensive two week language program).  Before my interview I was talking with mi guia Antonio (same name as professor) and Jaime, the Director of the program.  Jaime was explaining to me that Antonio is a “satiro” and during my interview I should ask professor Antonio what that means.  They were laughing and really enjoying talking about “satiros.”  I got a definition and basically think it means a “peeping tom.”  My entire interview basically consisted about talking about satiros.  Muy interesante…now my professor thinks I am a bit crazy.

For most of the activities we are in our group of 10 people with our guia Antonio.  He is so funny and we all really enjoy him.  He is going to be in the US from October through March(ish) for work with CIEE.  He told us that he needed to practice two words with us: “bitch” and “beach.”  He can never quite say them correctly; he kept saying “okay, how is this?  I will need my swim suit for the bitch.”  He also considers himself to be a “macho iberico.”  I think this is Spain’s equivalent of “pimp.”  He also was going on about something and I thought he said that he was a tiger, but apparently he said nothing of the sort…needless to say, I get made fun of a lot here! Jeje, all in good fun.

Anyways, after the entrevista, our groups walked the city a bit and went out for tapas.  Soooo delicious!  We were in the centro and the streets are beautiful.  At times you forget you are outdoors because the streets are very narrow (I think everyone has almost been hit by a car) and you almost can’t even tell that you are outdoors, but then you come across a gorgeous plaza with lots of bars and outdoor eating space.  For dinner we had sangria, tortilla Espanola (eggs, potatoes, cebollas, it was SO good), pork in a whiskey sauce, croquetas (reminded me of mozzarella sticks, Matthew will love them), and a few other things.

Despues de comer, the three groups met up for a flamenco show.  It was great—there was a guitar player, singer, and two dancers, it also was about 100 degrees inside, so in spite of the great dancing and guitar playing, each minute seemed to drag on FOREVER! 

After the flamenco, we went back to the hotel.  I went out to a bar to have a drink with three other kids.  I tried tinto de verano for the first time.  It is vino rojo with Fanta limon.  It is pretty good and I am pretty sure it has close to zero alcohol content, so it is a good drink for me!  I was with three other kids, Makaela from Oregon, Jake from Davidson, and Luis from Pace.  They are really good at Spanish and were really helpful.  We try to speak Spanish most all of the time, por supuesto, even if we are only with Americans.  The four of us went back to the hotel around 2 AM, muy temprano for here.

The next morning consisted of breakfast in the hotel, check out, and then sesiones informativas obligatorias at FCEYE. (Side note, FCEYE, the business school, was built a long time ago as a jail, it never was used as a jail, just a school, but you can definitely tell it was designed as a jail.)  We learned about intercambios (where we are partnered with a Spaniard and get help with our Spanish in exchange for helping them with their English), security, and other school stuff.  One of the speakers mentioned how the “typical girl from Wisconsin, with blonde hair and blue eyes, is so easy to pick out of a crowd here.”  Jeje.  She then knowingly smiled at me and I mentioned that she even got the state right.  We then walked back to the hotel to meet our host families.

Anyways, we got to the hotel and my family had left to move their car.  I guess they were parked in 30 min parking, and we were running late, so they went around the block and came back.  I was greeted by Marga. She is 21 years old and lives with her mom.  She just finished her studies and is a physiotherapist; she has a small room in the apartment for her work.  I have a room on the second floor of the apartment with two beds in it.  It is possible that I might have a Spanish roommate, but probably not.  The apartment has fuunctioning, fast internet. Yay!

I unpacked and then met my senora.  She came home from work and we talked and ate a DELICOUSSSSS lunch of soup followed by a bunch of meats that had been used to flavor the soup.  And watermelon for dessert.  I then had to meet up with my group for more activities.

I walked to the designated meeting point.  I was a bit nervous to venture into the streets of Sevilla for the first time by myself, but it was super easy to find.  Antonio arrived by bici and our group headed off.  We walked to the metro and took it to the CIEE center en el centro.  The metro is two years old (brand new!!) and incredibly nice.

We walked around the streets (alone the way I got a cell phone for calling within Spain), just exploring for a while, and then got some tapas and tinto de verano.  We had a leisurely dinner and then headed to the Plaza San Salvador.  Everyone just stands around drinking beer or tinto de verano and talks.  Ben, a kid from Indiana U, and I found in ice cream shop in the plaza, so naturally, I got a cone.  Pretty good…it was a flavor with cheese (cream cheese like) and nuts.  At midnight you can’t drink in the plaza anymore, so everyone heads out.  Our guides then took us to a different calle with a bunch of bars.  The inside of the bars were packed, to the max!  You basically order a drink and then go outside to drink and talk.  We found some good mojitos here.  I talked to a lot of the students in my program…one from WI, a few from the east coast, and also talked a lot with the guides.  I decided Antonio possibly had a few too many cervezas when he asked (in English) if he could be a cheetah instead of a tiger, and then started saying “rawr rawr” a lot.   He then thought he had confused his words, and starting asking for bananas because he thought cheetah meant “monkey.” Jeje, it was quite hilarious.  

I left around 1:45 (again, sooo early!) with Kirsti, from Indiana.  We split a taxi; it dropped her off first and we had a bit of trouble finding her building.  The taxi driver had no clue either.  Then I got dropped off…this is when the comedy of errors occurred…

My complex contains one building and to get from the outside to the inside it requires two, possibly three (if a certain gate is locked), keys.  This was the second time I’d been there and the first time I was going in alone.  I tried getting into the building and NONE of my keys worked.  Two service workers came to help me and they couldn’t get any of my keys to work, so they used one of theirs.  I got in and went to the seventh floor.  I couldn’t find my apartment.  I am in apartment C and there was literally every letter of the alphabet BUT C.  So I went back downstairs, but needed a functioning key to leave the building too!  (I later found out that there is a button on the wall you can push to get out too, but at the time I had no idea.)  I stood inside trying to use my non-working keys, but of course, they failed again.  The two service men returned and let me out.

Next, the three of us walked to a different entrance.  Although it is one building, there are parts that you can only access from certain entrances.  However, my keys didn’t work at this entrance either.  I decided to call Marga, but could barely understand a word that she said.  The service men talked with her, and it turns out, the lock is just very hard to work.  After about 10 minutes, we were able to open the door.  I thanked them for their help and went into the building.  Once I got to my floor EVERYTHING was pitch black.  I used my 10 euro phone to try and find my way to my apartment.  Finally found it.  Struggled for 5 minutes with the next lock (again a difficult one), when my senora heard me and opened it.  She had been up watching Nadal. 

I talked with her for a while and got a glass of water.  Somehow I accidentally dropped my phone (still in my hand from when I was using it as a flashlight), and spilled water all over myself (I was wearing a white dress) and the kitchen.  At this point, I was laughing at myself…I made it home after 45 minutes of trying to open doors only to find myself standing in a white dress, now pretty soaked, in a puddle in the kitchen.  It was quite the adventure.  I then went to bed.

I slept until noon, had breakfast, showered, organized stuff, had lunch (amazing soup followed by steak smothered in garlic—amazzzzing!).  I have just spent a half hour writing this, and after am meeting up with Denise, from Carnegie Mellon, to walk around/explore.  Later we will go to “Sevilla por bici,” and explore the street by bicycle.

Everything here is great!  The family is so nice, and all the people are too, that it just doesn’t seem like reality, I expected a few problems at least.  I guess I am just going to end up on “Captured Abroad” and that will even it all out!

XOXO, Jane