I have always taken note that this is an important phrase. I dont think it has ever hit me like this before. We started our spanish classes. I am thankful for my time traveling in other Latin American countries. I am comfortable speaking Spanish even though I hardly know anything but the present tense. I was placed in my Spanish class the first day and at that moment had to start relearning everything I had learned from South America. They don´t use that word here, they use this. etc etc etc. It has been a frustrating first week for this reason! I look at people who speak to me in Spanish and my face is blank. My mind is still so slow. I am still processing the first word as they smile because they are finished speaking. Oh my. I am thankful for my classes. Learning what to say and what actually means something very very bad and I should never use that word again!! yikes.
I have been on the search for climbing around the city. There is climbing, but its hard to get to the spots. Or its easy to get there and I don´t understand them when they give me directions! I spent a day down on the docks watching the fish in the water and working on the Spanish homework when the best Spanish homework ever came along, Antonio! He and I talked for quite some time which was great pratcice. We met the next day to fish again and I caught a fish! Now I know some of you would refer to my little fish as bait for soemthing you might catch, but I was so proud!
I bought the most beautiful bike. She was my cariña. It is so easy to bike around this city, and it´s a good idea to do so since places are so spread out. I bought her for a great price and worked out a deal to sell her back to the same lady after my month of living here. For the whole it would have only cost me 15 euros! That´s a steal. I was psyched, I felt so accomplished. Yes! I spoke enough Spanish and understood enough to work out this sweet deal. It was the best THREE HOURS in Sevilla thus far. I took my bike home to the apartment to ask my casa mom if I could put the bike in the extra room that has another bike in it and never gets used. She freaked out and said no way!! She told me to put it on the street, but she and I both knew if I did that my bike would be stolen within 2 hours. There are some serious professional bike thieves out there on the streets. So I did what I knew I needed to and sold the bike back to the shop along with the lock. When she asked if everything was the same, I said yes, except that my heart was a little sadder. haha.
In one month I am moving to a town that is three hours from the beach! Not exactly what I had in mind when I signed up for a year in Spain, so I am getting in as many beach days as I can before I leave for olive country. My friends and I went to Cadiz this weekend (arguably the oldest city in the world). Oh my gosh, it is so beautiful! We didn´t go with any kind of plan, so of course when we got there, all hostels were completely full. We found an apartment to rent for the night, and who knew, but it ended up being cheaper and way nice! Cadiz is part of the Sherry Triangle. We went on a sherry tour to learn about something I had heard about, but did not know the first thing. Sherry only comes from this region!? The grapes can come from other places, but in order for it to be called Sherry it needs to go through the wine processes right here in this small region of southern Spain. Cool. There were a bunch of different Sherrys (sherries?) that we tried. Some were so dry and tasted like sake. Others were so sweet my head was spinning. I bought a bottle of the dry sherry to bring out this winter when I am thinking of the coast :)
We took our siesta on the beach and bought a bottle of wine for sunset. We ate great tapas and enjoyed the beach life! I am enjoying Sevilla so much, but I am not a huge fan of my casa mom and I love to get away from big buildings and concrete streets. What a nice break. I know I spoke too much English this weekend... I´m getting down on myself for that. I have met these great girls from the states and we love eachother so much. It´s hard to force Spanish, even when we say, ok only Spanish for the next 15 minutes, someone always breaks! I am so happy here in Spain! I miss things about the states. But I am truly here, now. I love you mom and dad!! 
I have been on the search for climbing around the city. There is climbing, but its hard to get to the spots. Or its easy to get there and I don´t understand them when they give me directions! I spent a day down on the docks watching the fish in the water and working on the Spanish homework when the best Spanish homework ever came along, Antonio! He and I talked for quite some time which was great pratcice. We met the next day to fish again and I caught a fish! Now I know some of you would refer to my little fish as bait for soemthing you might catch, but I was so proud! 
I bought the most beautiful bike. She was my cariña. It is so easy to bike around this city, and it´s a good idea to do so since places are so spread out. I bought her for a great price and worked out a deal to sell her back to the same lady after my month of living here. For the whole it would have only cost me 15 euros! That´s a steal. I was psyched, I felt so accomplished. Yes! I spoke enough Spanish and understood enough to work out this sweet deal. It was the best THREE HOURS in Sevilla thus far. I took my bike home to the apartment to ask my casa mom if I could put the bike in the extra room that has another bike in it and never gets used. She freaked out and said no way!! She told me to put it on the street, but she and I both knew if I did that my bike would be stolen within 2 hours. There are some serious professional bike thieves out there on the streets. So I did what I knew I needed to and sold the bike back to the shop along with the lock. When she asked if everything was the same, I said yes, except that my heart was a little sadder. haha. 
