La catedral

Friday after our exam my group had an optional tour of la Catedral de Sevilla and it was amazing! This is a picture of one of the entrances...  The architecture is insane!

La Catedral is absolutely huge and I actually ended up seeing Naomi again by complete coincidence!  

Below is a picture of me and Naomi and Cristóbal Colón (Christopher Colombus)!  He is buried there along with his son.  

In la Catedral there is a tower known as "la Giralda" which is 34 stories high and overlooks Sevilla.   From all four sides of the tower, you can see a different part of the city.  It was so cool to see the city from a different point of view!

Yesterday Rebekah and I went shopping with some of the girls in our program.  This month there are "rebajas" (sales) in every single store which means now is a good time to shop!  We were there for at least 6 hours and we only made it into four stores.  Everyone dresses EXTREMELY nice here and i always feel underdressed.  No one ever wears sweatpants or tennis shoes and they are pretty much one year ahead of the U.S. on fashion.  People take clothes VERY seriously here!  We were told that people instantly know you are American if you are wearing a Northface jacket or backpack.  Let me tell you, almost every person in our group has one or the other.

Also, last night we decided to go for churros and chocolate and we were so set on this idea.  We went to this cute little café in Porvenir, right by our apartment.  We were so excited but when we tried to order we found out that Churros are only served at breakfast time!  So sad!!  Instead, the waiter tried to help us pick something else to eat, but really all we wanted was dessert or a tapa (appetizer).  He suggested this 3 cheese thing and we really had no idea what we ordered.  We thought it was going to be something like mozzarella sticks but it was a basket of bread and a cheese dip.  It was actually really disgusting unfortunately.  It was kind of chilly outside and the cheese ended up congealing together. Here is a picture...

I think the waiter could tell that we didn't like it because we barely ate any of it. He brought back the check and ended up giving it to us for free.   We felt really bad though and tried to pretend like we liked it, but it was pretty obvious we didn't.  People can be so nice here!

Also, this song has been stuck in my head for several days...  It is extremely popular here in Spain and everyone always does the little dance that goes with it whenever it plays.  It is in Portuguese (I think) so I'm not exactly sure what they are saying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBMFTDn-X50

¡Olé!

¡Finalmente hoy es viernes!

I just had my first exam for my intensive class and it was muy fácil.  VERY different from midterms in the U.S.!  I somehow get 3 credits for two weeks of class for only 3 hours a day.  Woohooo!  Although, there has been more more homework than I was originally expecting.  I shouldn't complain though!  I'm in SPAIN for crying out load.

A little bit about my week- class, lunch, homework, siesta, exploring the city, dinner, homework.  I'm definitely taking advantage of this whole siesta thing though.  I'm such a nap lover.

Tuesday night we had a tour of our barrios (neighborhoods).  I live in Porvenir, which is about a 10 minute walk from the business school.  Most of the other business students live in Nervión, which is about the same distance from the school, but in the exact opposite direction.  El centro is about a 35-40 minute walk from where I live, but about 20-25 minutes from every one else.  This means I will be spending mucho dinero on taxis here!

This is a link that shows my apartment if you want to see it...  (It is 42 Calle Porvenir on the 4th floor)

http://maps.google.es/maps?q=42+Calle+Porvenir,+Sevilla,+España&client=safari&rls=en&oe=UTF-8&redir_esc=&gs_upl=5855l8986l0l9833l4l4l0l0l0l0l780l1298l5-1.1l2l0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0xd126e9cedc8b4db:0x26be2aa93d095032,Calle+Porvenir,+42,+41013+Sevilla&gl=es&ei=opMiT4jBB8aO8gPdkOjWBw&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQ8gEwAA

Wednesday night our program had a social at a club for all of the intercambios to meet each other.  I didn't get the email with my intercambio's name on it until yesterday, so I haven't met him yet.  His name is Melchor Durán Garcia and I'm hoping to meet him tonight.  We are required to spend at least two hours a week with our intercambios, 1 hour talking in Spanish and 1 hour talking in English.  Did I mention that I saw NAOMI at this social!! She has been my best friend since 2nd grade and although we are both studying in Sevilla this semester, this was the first time I had seen her!  She is in the liberal arts program and lives on the other side of el río, muy lejos de Porvenir.

I was supposed to go on an 8 mile hike through the mountains on Sunday but the trip filled up before I was able to sign up.  I'm so sad!  Hopefully there will be more trips like this soon because it sounded really fun.

La matriculación

La matriculación (enrollment) happened today.  Luckily, I was able to get the classes that I wanted except for "Arabs, Bullfighting, and Flamenco" which is at the same time as my Finance class.  Glad that's over!

We started our intensive class today and it was literally the scariest thing ever.  I somehow got placed into the highest Spanish level and I DEFINITELY did not belong there.  It was a struggle fest.

The professor of that class is a whole different story!  He was literally the scariest man ever (at least to me).  He called on me and when I answered the question incorrectly he said "¡quiero morir!" which means "I want to die!" Oopsssss.  Right after me another student answered a question wrong and he said "Somebody shoot me!"  This is definitely not what I am used to.

Although it was horrible, it was also a learning experience at the same time because I now know that I need to keep more up to date with current events and really need to pay attention in finance this semester.  At matriculación me and another girl convinced the staff to let us drop down to Grupo 2, which I think will definitely be a better fit for me.

El primer fin de semana

SO much has happened since my last blog post that I don't even know where to start!

Friday night we went to get tapas with our group, which is a bunch of different kinds of appetizers such as shrimp, fried fish, tortilla española (which is eggs and potatoes in the form of a tortilla), and a variety of other seafoods.  Then our guide Marcos took my group to "the plaza" which is the place where Spanish people go to hang out before they go out to the bars.  It was extremely cold (for Spain at least, definitely not Wisconsin cold) that night so I was happy to move on.  We went to a street called Alfalfa and Rebekah and I talked to a bunch of Spanish people (YAY spanish!) and went home around 2:00 (SUPER early for Spain).

Yesterday we went on a tour of Sevilla.  We walked all over the city and I thought my legs were going to fall off by the end of it.  But it is seriously the most beautiful city I have ever been to (but I really have never been anywhere)!  After our tour we went to go get our móviles and I still haven't figured mine out even though it is the simplest phone on the face of this earth.  I am way too technologically impaired.

My host family is actually super amazing.  Our abuela (now I am calling her abuela rather than madre because she is old enough to be my grandma) is the best cook ever.  So far she has made us homemade pizza, different kinds of stews, cooked vegetables, postres (desserts) and pretty much everything delicious.  I wouldn't be surprised if I gained 20 pounds by the end of the semester (let's hope not!).

Also, last night I had my first discoteca experience!  We went to a club called Buddha and it is 4 stories high and is absolutely huge and filled with people.  It was really fun!  We danced and talked to people all night and Rebekah and I made friends named Pepe and Nacho.  They were so awesome.  Pepe actually works there but that was his night off.  The music there is about 60% American music and 40% Spanish music.  It was funny to watch people try to sing along with the English songs when most of the time they had no idea what they are saying.  We stayed there until like 5:00 in the morning and apparently that is early for Spanish people to go home!  That was probably the latest I have ever been out before.

Today, after we took a nice siesta we walked to El parque de Maria Luisa which is only about 5 minutes from our apartamento.  It is absolutely huge and filled with fountains, flowers, and paths leading all over the place.  La plaza de españa (the picture below) is literally one of the most beautiful places on this Earth!

Tomorrow our intensive Spanish class is starting and then after 2 weeks we start our regular semester.  I will only have class on Mondays and Wednesdays!  But my classes will go from 9:00-4:35 so those days will feel very long.

¡Adios amigos!

Mi familia española

Mi familia española- HAY MUCHO PARA DECIR SOBRE ELLOS.  Rebekah and I live in an apartment with the oldest host family in the program.  Our padre is 87 years old and our madre is 83 years old.  They have been married for 60 years!  At first we were so scared because everyone else in our program got placed into houses and apartments with siblings and younger families and we thought ours would be a snooze.  But they are actually the nicest people ever.  It was extremely awkward at first and it is really difficult to understand what our padre is saying because he talks so fast and with an extremely thick accent.  Our apartment is pretty tiny and EXTREMELY cold (because people don't have central heating in Spain).  Right away we were trying to figure out the Wifi and I accidentally typed in the wrong password and couldn't figure out how to change it.  Of course my padre decided to instantly call the internet service and make me talk on the phone with someone and explain what was wrong in SPANISH.  It was so scary.  But I'm learning so much and it it only day 3!  This is all I have time to write now but hasta mañana!

Spanglish

I made it!!! Traveling was not very fun though.  I only slept for an hour and a half on the 8 hour flight regardless of my Advil PM.  The girl behind me kept hitting my chair and waking me up and after that I just couldn't fall asleep.  They also told us not to take naps, but I surprisingly feel pretty awake (maybe because I drink drank some super strong café about an hour ago).  I have a feeling I'm going to crash pretty soon.

So here I am, just blogging away, waiting for dinner and a little bit of orientation tonight.

As soon as we got to our hotel, CIEE workers tried to make us feel comfortable and engage us in conversation but everyone was super nervous and only responded with nods, smiles, and copious amounts of "sí's." The language and the accent is DEFINITELY going to take some getting used to and there has been some serious spanglish going on.

I also took a shower in the dark in the hotel room because no one could figure out how to use the lights.  Finally someone told us that you have to put your room key in this strange little thing to turn on lights.  I still don't get it.  Silly Americans!

After that we had a lunch filled with salad, chicken, fries and a delicious postre which I thought was very pretty! It is pineapple and ice cream...

Sevilla is SUCH a beautiful city.  They say that most students don't fall in love with the city right away, but it is absolutely amazing, and I'm pretty sure I already have.  There are palm trees and orange trees everywhere and it is in the 60's and sunny.  Some of the girls on my trip and I took a stroll during siesta time (~2:00 PM-5:00 PM) and although all of the shops were closed, were we able to get a feel of what the city is like.  The architecture is so different from what I am used to, but it makes the city have so much character.

Tomorrow we have interviews in Spanish with our Professors to make sure that we are placed in the correct language level for our classes.  I.AM.SCARED.  I will fill you in on how that goes but for now I am off to get ready for dinner.

Adios amigos y ¡qué tengan un buen día!

Haciendo las maletas

I leave TOMORROW!!!  Is this real life?

I feel like I have been packing for foreverrrrrr.  My biggest dilemma so far has been whether or not to bring one checked suitcase or two (life is hard, right?).

I have a whole lot of traveling to do tomorrow and the weather channel is predicting snow and freezing rain.  Hopefully my flight isn't delayed!  I'm leaving Madison at 8:00 AM to drive to Brookfield to meet Rebekah (a UW-Madison student who I will be living in a host family with) then driving to Chicago.  We have a flight from Chicago to Madrid and then another one from Madrid to Sevilla.  This is going to be very interesting because I have barely ever traveled anywhere by plane, so I'm in for a treat.  Did I mention that I have never been away from Madison for more than 10 days at a time in my entire life?  And that I have never left the U.S.?  And here I am going to Sevilla for 4 months.  Crazy!

I have been listening to a lot of Shakira today, hoping that my Spanish skills will magically improve (I don't think it worked).  Today I will leave you with a nice song by Don Omar that was very popular in Spain last year...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zp1TbLFPp8&ob=av2e

En los EEUU

¡Hola amigos y bienvenidos a mi blog!  Here I will share with you my adventures in Sevilla, Spain and surrounding cities and countries.  First I would like to share with you a poem by Federico García Lorca that has been stuck in my head for the past month...


Canción del jinete

Córdoba.
Lejana y sola.
Jaca negra, luna grande,
y aceitunas en mi alforja.
Aunque sepa los caminos
yo nunca llegaré a Córdoba.
Por el llano, por el viento,
jaca negra, luna roja.
La muerte me está mirando
desde las torres de Córdoba.
¡Ay qué camino tan largo!
¡Ay mi jaca valerosa!
¡Ay, que la muerte me espera,
antes de llegar a Córdoba!
Córdoba.
Lejana y sola.

I was forced to memorize this poem sophomore year of high school and ever since I found out that my program will be taking us to Córdoba, I have not been able to stop reciting it.

Anyways, this blog will hopefully serve as a way of keeping you all updated on all the bullfighting and flamenco dancing i will be doing along with all the fiestas y siestas.

More to come soon!