¡Bienvenidos a España!
Hey Everyone! This is the first time I’ve had internet since my voyage to España, so I’ve got a lot to spill.
The trip over was definitely an experience. Our travel group left the States on Tuesday, May 12 at 2:45 and didn’t arrive to our hotel in Sevilla until Wednesday at 18:00 (over here, they use military time—muy difícil comprender). Surprisingly, only one bag in our group was lost in the shuffle from Greensboro to Philadelphia to London to Madrid. Andrew handled it just fine, and it gave us our first experience having to use Spanish as our only means of communication.
Our first night in Sevilla was spent exploring the city and the program treated us to our first “authentic” meal in our first “authentic” Spanish restaurant. The chicken, fries, and ice cream wasn’t exactly the meal we were expecting. Even though there was some disappointment from the food, the restaurant itself was anything but. It was located smack in the middle of a maze of tall, connected buildings that were an assortment of apartments, restaurants, and hotels. It looked straight out of Disney World.
The next day was moving day. Everyone got to move in with their new señoras, or “moms” for the next six weeks, in groups of 2 or 3. I got lucky in that one of my best friends, Angel, came on the program with me, and we were able to request to live together. Our señora, Lola, is one of the sweetest women you could imagine. She’s 61 and lives alone, with the exception of one other study abroad student who is in the spring semester program. We were shocked when we found out that her other student, Anna, is actually a girl in our sorority back at UNC. It really is a small world. Anna was not there though and just got back today from her weekend visit to Paris.
Some more about Lola though… Her daughter lives with her husband and 16-month-old son, Gonzálo, two floors below us. Lola cares for Gonzálo during most of the day, so we get to play with him a lot, especially before and after meals. Speaking of meals, I have to RAVE about Lola’s cooking. Spain’s eating style/schedule is very different from mine back at home. Here, breakfast is very small and consists of toast and jam. Lunch isn’t until much later, 2:30 usually, and is huge. Dinner is served at 9:30 and is supposedly small, but that hasn’t been the case so far. Lola loves to feed. An important vocabulary that we’ve had to pick up is “Estoy llena” (I’m full). Otherwise, I think that woman would feed you all day.
Learning Spanish has been muy interesante. I already feel more comfortable carrying on conversation and my listening skills have improved a lot. Meals with Lola are great for my Spanish because she corrects me when I make mistakes and is very patient when I’m trying to come up with what I want to say.
Over the last few days, we’ve definitely relaxed. Friday was spent getting oriented at our new school. Of course Angel and I arrived a fashionable 30 minutes late due to setting the clock to the completely wrong time. Good thing in Spain, late is okay!
Still not over exhaustion and jet-lag, we decided to take it easy and find a nice wine bar to crash at for the night. The place we found was amazing! For 6 people, our total came to around 16 euros. Not too bad. And the location was very near the river; where again, we found an amazing place….la churrería (Churro Stand)!
For our first weekend, the program planned a trip to Itálica and la playa (the beach). We had to go early since, in Spain, everything completely shuts down from 2-5 during the Siesta (basically nap time for the Spaniards), and trust me, these people take their Siestas very seriously. I’m blaming the earliness for my lack of pictures from anything before this point. It’s a typical Traci story in that when I was filling up my water bottle to take with me on the bus, I forgot to screw on the cap, so its entire contents spilled onto everything in my purse, including my camera. Even though I couldn’t document the trip through pictures, I really enjoyed seeing the ruins of an old Gladiator coliseum and old Roman homes in Itálica. The four hours of beach time was great, too. I’m definitely still burned, but it was worth it. Walking back to the bus, we found this great Gelato stand that had whole doughnuts in one of the flavors. Sooo good is all I have to say.
And yes, I am actually taking classes while here too. I have two a day, but they’re pass/fail, so no need to really stress about that.
It’s so hard to believe that I’m here, and I keep having to remind myself that I’m actually studying abroad in Spain…LOCO! I hope everything is going great back in the States. I love and miss you all, Adiós!
