Homestays

 I´m through orientation! Now comes the hard part. I am now in my homestay with another girl Alex. Shes from Georgia and we are getting along so well. At first I was a little bummed to have a roommate. I knew I would not force myself to speak Spanish if I had someone to speak English to. Once I met my casa mom and her son, I could not be more happy to have a roommate!! I think the largest woman in Sevilla is my casa mom... she has a deep fryer in her kitchen and serves chocolate cake for breakfast. Alex and I call her the collector! We feel like those foster kids that are taken in to work and the family recieves money... its kinda like that. We don´t work for her, but she is certainly taking in our good money and trying her damnest not to ever have conversations with us! Haha... at least it gets us out on the streets to practice our spanish??

   After my first week in the city I was ready to GET OUT! I am so used to mountains, to seeing sunrises and sunsets, and that that is just a lot harder to do with buildings all around! I made three great friends during orientation: Kate, Kerry, and Jessica. The four of us have been a force to be reckoned with, all psyched to practice Spanish and do anything fun we hear about. We went to the closest beaches from the city our first weekend here. The area is called Matalascañas and it was so nice to play in the water and soak in some sun. I slept on the beach when the girls went to get some food. They returned to tell me it was the grossest food they´d ever eaten! I guess I should not have been surprised when tow of them missed our first day of school that Monday! yikes.

orientation

  How nice! The first week we are here we can pretty much have our hand held as we underdstand the city and learn the many differences between Spain and the U.S. Did you know it is rude to take your shoes off in the house here? Besides little things like that, the time adjustments just about killed me. Here you spend your mornings working, starting around 9 or 9:30 of course. At 1pm or 2pm siesta begins and ends at 5pm. I didn´t believe it until I saw it, even in a big city like Seville, every store is closed. The streets and plazas are almost deserted! This is excellent naptime, since you are expected to stay up anywhere from midnight to 3am on a normal evening. If you come home before 5am on the weekends, you´re a loser! My casa mom actually laughed at me because I came home at 2am the first night I stayed with her. whaaat??
   Seville is so beautiful. I have never seen architecture like this in my whole life. So old, so well made and well kept. I am happy for this oreintation so I can understand and appreciate what I am looking at. There is a river running through the city, I am so tempted to jump in everyday, but I have sworn to my new Spanish friends that I will never do it. I guess its pretty gross. I have walked this city from top to bottom, purposefully getting extremely lost in the tiny, winding streets. There is still so much I have not seen and I am so thankful I have a whole month in the city!!

   The people I have met through my program are so nice. Some are placed in beautiful cities along the Mediterranean. My first thought is oh darn, some people get all the luck. But I am happy to be placed in a non-touristy town. I am here to learn Spanish, and I know if I lived along the beach it would be too easy to speak English and make friends wth other tourists, and that is not one of my goals for the next year of my life! 

sin titulo

Hi everyone!
      Im in Spain!!! I felt I coudn´t start a blog until  I came up with a name for my blog... everyone kept telling me all these cool names they had. Everyone is so creative and here I am... not sure how to even start a blog. Two years ago I went to Argentina with my best friend Sarah. She was the spanish speaker, I was along for the ride. I struggled so much throughout my time there.. but I did pick up some words along the way. I remember Sarah and I were in an art museum in Argentina, and I stared at a piece of art for so so long. I loved it, I wanted it, I wanted to meet the artist and ask questions. When I looked to see what the piece had been named I saw ´sin titulo´. I said to myself, wow, without title, how powerful. It makes sense to name your piece without title. That way everyone can interpret in their own way! I moved on, happy as a clam, and as I continued to walk around I noticed more and more pieces with the title: Sin Titulo.... I don´t think I have ever felt stupidity like I did in that moment. I was in a quiet art musem and all I could do was laugh out loud.