Brief Update//Thursday Thirteen

This is going to be short, sweet, and to the point:

Nothing too exciting has been happening here, just a lot of class, homework, and trying to sit in as much sun as possible! :) We have been having beautiful weather the last few days, lots of sun and around 70 degrees!! I hope it keeps up, but it's a little rainy today. I leave for Portugal tonight and I won't be back until super early Tuesday morning, so don't expect any blogs until after that, and I am sure I will have a lot to discuss! I really want to check out the Aquarium there!

Now for a quick and pointless Thursday 13:

*Thirteen things I am looking forward to in March

1. Jonathon and Sharon visit!!!

2. A weekend in Madrid

3. A weekend in Granada

4. A weekend in Morocco

5. A week of traveling with Jonathon and Sharon (places to be announced)

6. A week with J & S in Sevilla

7. Getting my midterms over with

8. Warmer weather

9. Wearing sandals

10. Knowing more spanish?!?! . . . HOPING!

11. Seeing what Semana Santa is all about

12. Trying torrijas (it is a traditional food similar to french toast that is very popular during Semana Santa)

13. Experiencing new places and cultures!!! :)

adios por el fin de semana!

ALWAYS a lot to catch up on!

Another weekend has flown by! I'll do another breakdown for the simplicity of it:

Thursday: Class at 11, good thing too, because Wednesday night I stayed up until 3:30 video chatting with some people from Purdue and doing homework. I went home for lunch and met Mary an hour before class for cafe con leche that I knew I would need to stay awake! After class we walked around a little and due to ridiculous amount of rain, went into a little bar had some papas bravas (my absolute favorite tapa!) and tinto verano. After the rain settled a little we headed home to get ready for the night. We went out in Plaza Alfalfa, probably my favorite place to go on the weekends now, and just had a chill night. The bars were really packed due to the rain, because a lot of times people will be outside of the bars in the streets.

Friday: I slept in and after lunch I met up with some of the girls from the other side of the river because it was such a beautiful day. We sat by the river for a few minutes . . .

. . . and then headed to get some smoothies. After that we shopped around for costumes for the weekend. That night everyone was pretty tired and wanted to reserve their energy for Saturday so most of us stayed in, myself included. It was nice to get a good night sleep!

Saturday: It was a BEAUTIFUL day in Sevilla, so Mary, Delaine, and I decided to meet at 11 and go explore the city. We all had sweaters and jackets on, but not for long! I stayed in the sun as much as possible and even got a sunburn :) We went to Parque Maria Luisa and walked around before heading over to Plaza de Cuba. This plaza is beautiful, but unfortunately parts of it are under construction. It was still gorgeous and I enjoyed walking around.

Cool picture of the bridge in Plaza Espana, I like the reflection in the water!

Delaine and Me

Mary and Me

Finally, we found Plaza de America where you can feed the pigeons . . . they are supposed to sit on your arms and eat from your hands but for some reason they were shy today, I was upset about that to say the least!

Trying to get the pigeons to eat out of my hand

I still had a lot of fun exploring more of Sevilla and spending the entire day in the sun! I was craving a salad that day and of course diet coke (but settled with a coca light), so we sat outside by Plaza de America at a cute cafe.

mmmm . . . so refreshing!

Afterwards, I headed out to get some final things for my 80's costume and met Kirstin and Mary for Yogurtlandia . . . yum. I went home to get ready for the events of the evening!

I got dressed for Carnaval in Cadiz and headed to get some alcohol before boarding our bus at 8pm. It was quite embarrassing to walk through most of Sevilla in my 80's outfit, but oh well! We got to Cadiz and started drinking in the streets checking out everyone's costumes and then headed to the main plaza. Everyone was having a good time just hanging out, meeting new people, and taking pictures.

Much of Bus #1 when we were all still dry and happy!

Some of the girls!

After awhile a few of us really needed to use the restroom, did I mention the fact that all the bars block off their entries so you can still buy drinks from them, but aren't able to enter and use their facilities? This left us with a lot of alleyways, but luckily a group of us found some port-o-potties!

Find us a REAL bathroom, please!

Later, it started getting breezy and I insisted it was an ocean breeze, despite the fact that I knew it meant a storm was rolling in. Spain and it's crazy weather resulted in a group of us walking up and down streets looking for an open place to go sit inside, and after what seemed like forever, we settled on sitting inside a churros tent. Not the best location, but at least we weren't getting rained on anymore. Of course, I chose not to bring my umbrella because I didn't feel like holding it; although, I am not sure it would have been all that helpful, numerous umbrellas snapped in half while others were dropped and lost. Also, my fanny-pack (yes, I wore a fanny-pack! it went with my costume!!!) didn't have room for me to squeeze my raincoat inside, so I was soaking wet. The night turned from fun into miserable, leaving some of us to be jealous of the bums under the dry arches of doors in what looked like extremely dry, warm sleeping bags! You can guess when this next picture was taken:

Nap time in the Churros tent!

Luckily, due to the rain our bus left at 4:30 instead of 5:30 in the morning, but you can only imagine how humid and sticky and comfortable a coach bus full of 60 soaking wet 19-21 year olds can be. We gave in and took a taxi from where the bus dropped us off in Sevilla to our houses. I crawled into bed at 7:15 and slept for most of the day.

Sunday: I woke up around 3!! I felt bad, but I needed my sleep! I ate some lunch, did some homework, and then headed to Starbucks with Mary to do even more homework. I never really expected so much work, and it just stinks because my homework takes me so much longer due to everything being in spanish. I had some dinner, took a shower, and now I am going to finish up some work and probably watch some American TV :)

Thanks for reading! Sorry my posts have been so lengthy lately!

Now That I can Upload Pictures....

I wanted to share my 3 favorite pictures from Thursday night! hahaha . . .

This is my new best friend . . .
He is the 9 month old Portuguese Water Dog many of you already know about . . .

It's LOVE! Do you think the US will let me in with a puppy from Spain???

MUCH to say, lo siento

I haven't blogged in a couple days, so of course I have a lot to say. Let's go back to Sunday:

After lunch and some television watching Delaine and I headed out on a lovely afternoon walk. haha It was fun to people watch and check out some markets in Plaza Nueva. And as a bonus, we apparently found Spain's version of Dunkin' Donuts: Duffin Dagels (see pic below). We later ran into some of Delaine's friends at talked with them for a bit before heading home. That night I just stayed in and relaxed.

Monday: I had class at 11 and it was pouring rain, lucky me. After class, I tried shopping around for rain boots, I used to make fun of rain boots, but they are a necessity in Spain this month, but apparently not highly in-style. I could not find a pair of rain boots for the life of me, and the ones I could find were not quite what I had in mind . . . the first pair had a heel on them, rain boots WITH a heel, not ideal! The next pair had fur that folded over the top, being desperate for boots I decided to try them on and figured I could tuck the fur in, but luckily they were too small, because I couldn't imagine owning rain boots with fur on them. Finally I found a normal 'style' of boot, but the design on the other hand, not my thing. There were oranges all over them. I decided to ask the salesperson if they had them in another color and they did! GREY! Being the plain person I am, I was thrilled; however, they were a bit more expensive than I would have liked, but they have already been worth the money, and it has only been two days. After an hour and a half of shopping I headed home for lunch.

I had class again at 5, and before that I bought a sweatshirt that says Universidad de Sevilla on it. Boy, do I feel cool. haha Class was super boring, and I think I will rarely enjoy this class. Hopefully the art becomes more interesting in the near future. After class I headed to Flaherty's with Mary and Delaine to meet with Alfonso, our joint intercambio, if you will (which by the way, there is no phrase similar to 'if you will' in spanish as far as I know. We tried explaining the context of it to Alfonso for a good 5 minutes...which was really hard to do!) Then, it was home for the night.

Tuesday: Class at 9 and on the way it was kind of sunny and fairly warm and then out of NOWHERE it began pouring rain. They have the craziest weather here right now. As a matter of fact, when talking to Francisco at lunch about the weather he told me he likes to call February, 'Febrero Loco' (Crazy February) because of the weather. At least February is almost over so this unpredictable weather will hopefully be over! Then, I headed home to Skype with Jonboy and Sharon, and we were trying to plan our trips over Semana Santa!!!! Dublin and Amsterdam...this should be a great time! I think we have our flights all squared away, now we just have to book them! I had some lunch and again headed out to class at 5. (I am sure getting a routine here lately!) After class I think I just went home. I had some dinner and continued to Skype with Jonathon and Sharon again about our adventures in the near future (29 days until they get here . . . not that I'm counting or anything)! At dinner, Francisco was making fun of me and asked if I lost my arm and where my other arm was, because Spaniards eat with BOTH hands on the table, and I always have my left hand in my lap. Maria was reminding him it was a custom of Americans, and he told her he knows that he was just kidding, and told me that every exchange student they have had stay with them eats the same way. A few of us were planning on going out but due to the sudden torrential down pour, which wasn't much of a surprise to us anymore, we stayed in.

Wednesday: I went to my class at 9 and decided to hang around the CIEE building and do homework. Well, that fell through and I headed to get some Cafe con Leche with Rachel and Jasmine. We talked for awhile and headed back to CIEE to actually do some homework this time! The picture below is the inside of the CIEE building where I have my two spanish classes (I still need one of the University, and more of CIEE...it is crazy because it is open in the foyer, it rains into the building!)

I did my homework until Mary got done with her class and then we decided to get some ice cream with Jill when we stumbled across something EVEN BETTER....Yogurtlandia! Almost identical to Pinkberry! I was so pumped, especially because it is like 3 stores away from school! Not a good thing, but I will probably become a regular! We ate our ice cream in Plaza Alfalfa while the weather cooperated and headed home for lunch.

I just ate lunch and it was a pasta with a lot of tuna mixed in. I was disgusted. I tried to eat some, but it just wasn't happening because there was so much tuna....I had to tell them I don't like tuna and I felt so bad, because they asked if I liked it, because there was so much on my plate still haha. Luckily, Maria told me not to worry she doesn't like that pasta either and that's why she had this broccoli casserole thing and told me I could try that next time! I'm glad they weren't mad! I have class at 5 and a lot of homework to do for tomorrow, so that is what my night will be consumed with.

*One more thing about the weather (SORRY!): now it is pouring again, and it only drizzled for approximately 2 minutes earlier today and it was sunny. This drives me nuts because I never know if I should wear my rain boots and rain jacket, and I have to carry my umbrella with me everywhere! grrrr...

Saturday/Sunday

So yesterday my program took us to Cordoba for the day. We got to see the Cathedral there, a temple, a castle, and a lot more! Everything was pretty cool, and I cannot get over how much history is in one place here. My teacher from my culture and civilization class was my guide again, so that was great! After we toured everything we had free time so we walked around looking for somewhere to eat. Unfortunately we stumbled upon an American place and got pizza for lunch. It wasn't even very good haha. Then we walked and shopped around until we headed back home. It was quite an entertaining bus ride...our spanish bus driver provided us with music from is iPod including; several Michael Jackson songs, Gangsta's Paradise, and Earth Wind and Fire. Haha we also were lucky enough to have some of our group members singing along on microphone. Once home I shopped around awhile with no luck. I really need to purchase boots for the rain, and this week looks horrible as far as rainy days goes. I came home and got ready for the night.

I met Delaine and Mary at 11 and we met up with some of the spanish guys we met on Thursday and more of their friends. Also, our friends came over from across the river and we all hung out. It was a blast! Then some of us left to go to a discoteca with our new spanish friends, and the music selection there was also quite entertaining. Songs like the Rolling Stones' (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction, Smashmouth's Allstar, and The Beatles' It's been a Hard Days Night were all part of the night. haha The best part was listening to them sing along, I think it is so weird they know and listen to that music! As morning was approaching we headed home, I unlocked the door to my apartment, walked up the first 3 or 4 stairs and nearly peed in my pants. An older, poor, Spanish lady was sitting on the stairs directly outside my door. I said hola not knowing what else to do as I rapidly unlocked my door, she told me she was freezing and I just ran inside and nearly slammed the door. I was so afraid she was going to try and get in our apartment or something, but then I heard her talking again so I ran to the peephole. Another lady came in and brought her up to her apartment, so I was able to fall asleep worry-free.

I slept in today and woke up to a huge lunch that was delicious. Potatoes, chicken, bread, tomatoes with some dressing on them, and a glass of red wine. The red wine part, not so appealing after a night out drinking. haha Now I am going to get some homework done and just take it easy the rest of the day! :)

weekend fun

So Thursday night was a lot of fun! We drank at the river and met some new friends and decided to go to some bars with them closer by our house. They were really nice and the bar we went to was a blast. We got huge mojitos and made even more new friends at the bar, this time spanish ones!! WOOHOO, mission accomplished! haha However, when at the bar I went to the bathroom, came out, and EVERYONE in the entire bar was gone. I was so confused and scared I was locked in, luckily I was with a friend though, and the bartender was still there and unlocked the door for us to leave. Then we all just stood around outside the bar drinking and talking when I saw the CUTEST Portuguese water dog...he was only 9 months old, and of course I sat on the ground and played with him for like 10 minutes while everyone else made friends. I wanted to steal him, he was adorable!!!

After awhile we headed to some other places and finally at the end of the night we needed to get churros con chocolate! So Mary and Delaine were a couple steps ahead of me and I chose to run up and hook arms with them. Not such a good idea. Mary lost her balance, but at this point neither of us had much balance anyways, and as she fell she pulled me down with her. We tumbled into the middle of the street, and we feel the result today! Good thing we didn't get hit by a car while we were there! We got our churros and headed home. I crawled in to bed and slept like a baby! I slept in reallllly late, but got up in time for lunch...even though it is significantly later here.

I hung out today at home and took it easy then left to do some shopping, grab some cafe con leche, and see a movie since it was cold rainy. The shopping was a failure and I still can't find the perfect pair of boots I have been looking for since November. A group of us went to see Invictus at a theater that plays movies in their original format with spanish subtitles. I LOVED IT! I recommend it to all, and I thought it was great. The story was so cool and moving--even better because it is true. I came home watched some TV with Maria and Francisco and now I'm about to go to sleep. I go with my group to Cordoba tomorrow! I hope it's fun!!!

So earlier today I wrote a blog, decided it was extremely boring and deleted it. Then, I had lunch and realized I could write a novel solely about that, but let me go in chronological order and tell you about last night/this morning before my lunch novel.

Last night I went to the intercambio at Flaherty's with Mary and Delaine. For those of you wondering, intercambio allows us to meet Spaniards that are learning english, thus we can practice our spanish with them and they can practice their english with us to help improve our conversational skills. Well, only one spanish person, my two friends, and I showed up for it, but that's okay because we all talked and it was helpful! Other than the fact that when I am with other people I tend to sit back and listen rather than talk, because I get embarrassed, but I tried a little!! Then I came home chatted a little with mi madre and went to bed. This morning I had class at 11 with Oscar and it was fine, we did an activity that was pretty entertaining. Then I headed home for LUNCH...read on. haha

So I am starving by lunch time because I don't really like breakfast and lunch is late here, and as I approach the table I become quite discouraged. There is a huge bowl of paella with mass amounts of seafood, probably still swimming amongst my rice. EW. There were seashells, actual SHELLS that I used to pick up on the beach in Florida when I was little amongst my food as well. I forced down a forkful of rice and tried to swallow without tasting; fail. However, the rice wasn't that bad, it was just trying to avoid the seashells and tentacles and squid legs amongst it. Luckily, like with every meal I had a hunk of bread to eat. Also, Maria made what seemed like zucchini, and it was just deep fried, kind of like tempura at Tsukasa (yum). It was really good though, and I just told myself it was zucchini because I enjoyed it, and if I thought about it being anything else I wouldn't have been able to eat it. haha Anyways, I don't like paella, I never will, and I hope it is never served to me again...but I think it will be. Plus, when Maria asked if I liked it I had to say yes, I would feel so bad saying no! HOW RUDE!

Anyways, then I had class at 5 but a few of us went early to walk around and we got some cafe con leche and sat in the SUN :) it was sooooo warm and amazing. I can't wait for it to warm up around here all the time, it is beautiful and so fun to walk through the streets when it's warm out!!!! And I can't wait for the beaches! WOO! Class was with Angel and it was culture and civiliation....I LOVE my professor and the class is actually pretty interesting, especially for a 'history' class! We even took a mini field trip today to the center of town and saw three pillars still standing from a temple from when the Romans ruled in Spain! SO NEAT! On the way home from class we picked up some major necessities: Cruz Campo (the main beer here), Vino Tinto (red wine), and Fanta Limon (lemon fanta to mix with the red wine to create TINTO VERANO!...my fav!)...tonight we will be drinking 'down by the river' haha sounds classy! And then heading to some bars in hopes of making SPANISH AMIGOS!!!! Maybe tonight will be more successful! And I get to sleep in tomorrow :)

Now for a laugh for all you readers: On my way to class today I was ATTACKED by a grasshopper on some serious steroids. This bug was HUGE and DISGUSTING! I'm just walking along and all of a sudden this thing the size of my shoe...ok maybe a little smaller...flew up and stuck to my jeans. I legitimately screamed and tried hitting it off my leg without actually touching it (because that's gross) but that didn't work so I had to use my hand after like 10 seconds of flailing about and yelling 'get this thing off me' it finally flew away. As I looked up after my flare-up I noticed an American student and an older Spanish man walking towards me in laughter. I was so embarassed and repeated lo siento and i'm sorry both in english and spanish to the passerbys....so awkward, but it makes for a funny story!

Oh also, my mama got to talk to my senora on skype today! so that was kind of fun that they got to meet virtually!! :)

Back in Sevilla

So I got back to my house and no one was home, but it was fine because I just unpacked and got resettled and then took a nice siesta! Also, when I got home my clean laundry was all laid out on my bed so I put that away and half way through I found a pair of underwear that definitely does not belong to me....awkward! Later that day I had an art class and it was okay, we'll see how it goes, but I am excited because we take a few field trips to museums and gardens. After class a few of us got ice cream and dulces at my new favorite place, that I need to never go to again. haha The bakery items and ice cream are highly addictive and delicious! I went home, had dinner, and called it an early night due to my lack of sleep with flying. I got to sleep in until 10! WOOHOO! Oh, also I brought back some Fannie May candy and peanuts for Maria and Francisco and they LOVED them. Francisco joked that the present was only for him, and then last night after dinner he told Maria that I said I wanted candy, because he wanted her to bring them out so he could eat them. haha I'm glad I can understand some jokes in Spanish, it's hard to be funny or sarcastic in a language you don't know well.

Yesterday I had a grammar class at 11 that was fine and then I came home and had lunch. After lunch I was talking to my mama on skype and I was feeling quite discouraged about my Spanish speaking skills, and was missing home...I was just there, and it is so weird being back here now! Maria brought me cafe in my room so I decided I should go sit in the family room and talk to her and Francisco. Francisco left for a bike ride, but I had one of the longest conversations I ever had with Maria and I was glad I was practicing my spanish! I felt a little better after that, not thinking my spanish was better, but just glad I was practicing. At 4:15 I left with Delaine and we met up with Mary for our class at 5:00. It is a culture and civilization class and I reaaaally like my teacher he is really nice and easy to understand! He was also my guide on our trip to Italica. After class a group of us grabbed a cerveza and proceeded to that bakery I previously discussed for yet another ice cream. I am banning myself from that place! Everyone headed home but Mary, Delaine, and I made plans to meet up at 10. We really wanted to try to meet some Spanish friends and practice our Spanish and find cool bars around our area so we set off on our mission...and failed completely. At least we made the attempt though! And we did find some new bars we liked, but everything was pretty dead last night. I think it was just the area we went to though, because Calle Betis sounds like it always has a lot of people, but the majority of the people are American students; not the people we were looking to meet. After a few bars and a few delicious Tinto Veranos (red wine with lemonade...it's my new favorite!) we headed home.

I had class at 9 this morning with Luis, my teacher from my intensive language session, and I really like him too. He makes class interesting and uses examples we can relate with to help us understand how to use Spanish and I am comprehending things better now than I ever have before. I came home and was sitting in my room when a friend came over with her daughter and then Maria and Francisco's kids came over, etc. The friend speaks english and she is a professor and when she saw me on my computer she told me she would shut my door since I am studying and the kids were playing loudly. I told her it wasn't a problem but she insisted...little did she know I was blogging and chatting on facebook! So here I am blogging away and eating trail mix in my room like a little kid that is hiding candy under their bed or something. It's funny how you feel like you can't have certain things, and it is interesting because multiple other people in my program have had the same experiences with this. Some of my friends' stories are hilarious about hiding food they were eating in their room, or food they didn't want, and it seems that everyone has a similar story about hiding/stashing fruit.

I am just going to continue catching up on homework and e-mails in my (freezing) room until lunch, which will be with approximately 734 people. Maria told me her kids and grandkids and friends are all going to be here for almuerzo, we'll see how that goes. Then I have class at 5 (art) and I might go to an intercambio from 8-10 at Flaherty's--the Irish pub.

Thanks for reading!

Thoughts from the Plane

Well, I am on my fourth trans-Atlantic flight in two weeks as I write this post. Luckily, I have four seats to myself this time; however, I cannot fall asleep regardless of how comfortable I can get. Today, Nonie, my mom, and dad all brought me to the airport AND they all got passes to go to the gate with me! I didn’t even know that was possible anymore, but I was really happy about it…until my departure. It’s funny how it was harder to leave the second time, even though I know what to expect when I get there this time. Maybe it was the suspense that kept me going the first time, but now I know what is there and I know what I am going to miss, and how much I am going to miss everyone. I was clearly upset when I boarded the plane and this nice girl a row over came over and told me she felt awkward doing this, but asked me if I wanted a piece of candy or anything. It was really nice of her, I told her my situation and why I was upset, but declined her offer on candy. Also, is it weird that the first song that began playing on my iPod after hitting shuffle was ‘Home Again’ by Carole King? It was to me.

So, I get in to Sevilla Monday morning. Unfortunately I miss my first class, but I will be able to attend my afternoon class, so I will be sure to blog again after my first day back to Sevilla. Hopefully I can get into a routine quickly and skip the homesick part for the second time, but I don’t know how promising that will be after my previous experience. I just need to believe this is where I am supposed to be, and remember that it is what I chose to do, after all. Well, they finally dimmed the lights so perhaps I can actually fall asleep for a while and skip the whole jet-lag thing!