Lisboa

Lun 22 feb (18:20)

This past weekend was the ISA excursion to Lisbon, Portugal. It was so fun! We left Friday morning and returned Sunday evening. We had tours of a fortress, the cathedral, and a panoramic bus tour of the city. And lots of free time. I went to this really cool museum with Julia and Maria. It had a lot of old art from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece... and other areas of the world. I think my favorite item there was an old Bible. Every single page had to have been made by hand—-it was amazing! The three of us also went to the mall-—the biggest mall in Europe! Haha we didn´t actually buy anything except we did get desert—-Julia got ice cream, Maria got a crepe, and I found a fondue place... strawberries, kiwi, and banana with white chocolate. It was pretty much delicious :)

The ISA staff told us that many people compare Lisbon to San Francisco. And I could see the similarities. To get into the city we had to drive over a bridge of very modern architecture (as we were crossing someone on the bus went “The Golden Gate!”), it had a tram, and it was hilly, though not quite as hilly as San Francisco.

Portugal definitely has Spain beat in the bathrooms category. It actually is possible to find public restrooms, AND I only went to one that didn´t have toilet paper. If you ever visit Spain, make sure you always have a travel package of tissues with you, because they are pretty much lacking in the TP department.

It was so weird to not be speaking Spanish all weekend! Spanish and Portuguese are similar enough that two people talking can kind of understand each other, but the ISA staff told us that many many people there speak English, and speaking (slash assuming that everyone understands) Spanish is kind of rude, so to just speak English. A lot of people did know English, but I had one waiter who didn´t know very much and a taxi driver who did speak it at all... I felt so dumb! I learned how to say basics, such as hello, the bill, please, thank you... But it was very limiting. When we returned to Sevilla I turned to Geena and Ashley and said “I´m so excited people speak Spanish here!”

So Sevilla has this, I guess you could call it a bike-rental system, called Sevici. There are these Sevici bike stations located throughout the city, and if you have a membership you can pick one up, ride, and then drop it off at any station you ride to, and if you have the bike for half an hour or less, you´re not charged anything. Pretty spiffy. Well, the other day my Sevici card arrived in the mail, and today I Sevici-ed for the first time. I was pretty excited :)

Last note of the day—-running in shorts and a tank top: The weather is appropriate, but Spanish guys still aren´t ready for that much skin.

Carnaval

Dom 14 feb (22:50)
This weekend was Carnaval in Cádiz. Geena, Amber, Ashley, Megan, and I went together. It was an adventure of a weekend. We didn’t really plan the trip… at all… Most of us bought our bus tickets there only a couple days before, with an “abierto” (open) ticket back. Didn’t book a place to stay either. Just sorta… wung it.
Carnaval is crazy. It’s a huge festival/party in the streets that went on from Saturday morning all through the night. And everyone dresses up. It’s like Halloween—but not just for kids! Geena, Amber, and Ashley were mermaids, Megan was clad in all red leopard-print, and I rocked this “abstract parrot” look (mix-matching clothes, plus a bright pink boa and feather mask. It was pretty hot.) We ended up staying out all night and taking a morning bus home today. Getting out of there was kind of stressful; the bus station was absolutely packed and claustrophobic. Between the five of us we got the last three 7AM tickets back and two of us (Geena and I) had to wait an extra hour for the 8 o’clock bus. It also got really cold. But it turned out all right.
I was absolutely exhausted afterwards. I didn’t get too much sleep on Friday night, and so after being up all night when we got on our bus I pretty much passed out :) I slept the entire ride home, had some breakfast, slept till lunch, and then took another hour nap before finally showering and starting some homework. Today was a good… day of rest.
Ay ay ay… ¡Qué fiestas locas en España!

Un Poca Perdida

Mar 9 feb (18:20)
So I signed up to volunteer as a teaching assistant teaching English at the Claret school in Sevilla. I have a class of 3 year olds that I see once every Tuesday for 45 minutes. Last week we had a meeting/orientation at the school, I met la profesora, and met the class briefly. Today was my first day teaching. My class is sooo cute!!! Today they learned how to say “blue shoes,” “yellow hat,” and “red dress.” !!! 3 year old españolitos. They. Are. Adorable :) It lifts my heart. This is going to be a good semester!
On Sunday I really began to feel like a student instead of just a tourist. Geena, Ashley, and I went to Amber’s apartment. First we did an hour of yoga/ballet bar (which was SWEET and yesterday my ass burned like whoa which was awesome) then just sat down and really focused on homework for the rest of the afternoon/evening. It was really nice, both the exercise and the studying. I’ve been trying to peck away at my homework, like usual. But poor Geena. She kiiind of put all of hers off and ended up staying awake until 4 that night (/morning) to finish it! I went to bed before her and got up after her :/ But haha she said she learned. Oh, procrastination :)
Oh, yesterday I went out for a “half an hour” run which turned into an hour-long adventure because I got lost. I kiiind of ended up on some random other side of town. I eventually made it back home because I’m amazing, but, well let’s just say, if ya’ll ever go to Spain, beware that their lack of a grid system for their roads can be tricky :p
That was the first time I got lost in Sevilla yesterday. The second time was when Chris and I were looking for la Plaza del Altozano, the meeting place before playing a game of fútbol ISA had arranged. We missed fútbol, but at least we found the place eventually… so we can go next week :) But, um, I got a lot of excess exercise yesterday.
Buttt the best way to get to know a place is to get lost in it, ¿verdad?

Senderismo

Sáb 6 feb (22:15)
Yesterday UPO arranged for a trip to see las Ruinas Romanas de Italica. Very cool. Roman city thousands of years old, complete with gladiator arena and the works.
Today was an amazing day (and it’s not even over yet, lol). Geena, Ashley, Amber and I got up and caught a 7:30 bus out of Sevilla and rode for about an hour and a half to this little town called el Pedroso. We were planning on a day of hiking. It was absolutely fantastic. El Pedroso is this dinky town. We found a trail on its outskirts and hiked up for a while, then decided we wanted to walk along the Huéznar river. We walked a little over a mile along this highway until we reached the river. We stopped for a picnic lunch then walked along a trail by the river. When the trail ended we just sat on the beach for a while. The others attempted to tan and I took off my shoes and waded in the water, haha. On our way back we climbed up to this set of railroad tracks we found and walked on those until we reached town. Then we kinda chilled until our 6:45 bus arrived.
Omg it really was a beautiful day! Sunny all day long. As we were hiking it even got really warm, so we took off our jackets. It was so nice, so warm! It was just relaxing to get out of the claustrophobia of the city for a day. The open countryside was beautiful and the small-town atmosphere of el Pedroso was nice.
I am so tired right now… but at midnight we’re going out dancing at the club Catedrál. Bring it!

Dom 7 feb (14:30)
Okay, so last night we ended passing out and not going out... What can ya do? :)

Primeras Notas

Dom 24 ene (12:30)

This is going to be an interesting semester.

I don’t know how much I’ll end up writing about in here, but hey, we’ll see.

So I love the ISA Sevilla staff. They are very nice, fun, and approachable. And it’s clear they want the best for us.

Madrid was okay. A bunch of us were saying that’s it’s simply a typical modern European city. To me it was too crowded and touristy and almost claustrophobic-like. Though I did buy some beautiful earrings there. We tried to go to the botanical gardens, but we didn’t get there in time :( Though we did see both El Prado and the Reina Sofía museums. Those were both magnificent. I’m so glad I’m an art student, it makes me appreciate all of that so much more. I also went out one night in Madrid. Haha that was fun :) That night Megan, Geena, Ashley, Amber, and I had dinner at this Italian restaurant (DELICIOUS), told some stories, then went to a bar. That was fun. There were some other international students there, from Stanford.

Toledo is BEAUTIFUL. Hilly, amazing old architecture, lots of history… ahhh :) I went running while we were there, not in the really beautiful part, in the more modern part, but it still was amazing. And I hadn’t run since I had left the States, so I had a lot of pent-up energy :) But yeah. Toledo = amazing.

The drive to Sevilla today was really [long but] cool. We passed through some BEAUTIFUL mountains and scenery. AHH, so amazinggg. About had to change my pants. Okay not really. But kind of.

Unfortunately it was raining in Sevilla when we arrived today… but all the locals kept telling us it NEVER rains here, haha. Anyway, our host couple is simply fantastic. It’s Maribel, and her hombre Diego, but Geena and I can’t figure out if they’re married or not… They act like it, but he “lives independently” according to our ISA housing sheet and I didn’t see him wearing a ring… though maybe that aspect of culture is different here? I don’t know. Probably one day I’ll just be blunt and ask them. But anyway, yeah, they’re great. So amables, and energetic/expressive. We can tell Maribel especially cares about helping us with anything we need, and especially with improving our Spanish. We’re gonna come home with Sevillan accents, lol.

Geena is like, the best roommate I could ever hope for. We got along great (as I had predicted) super fast. And we’re already super close, though I guess that happens when you spend three days with someone essentially nonstop. And on the matter of Spanish, at least in pronunciation, we’re pretty equal. I know more than her grammatically, simply because I’ve taken the language almost 5 years longer than her, lol, and today after we talked/walked with Diego for a bit, she was all, “Your Spanish is really good!” :) But we both have pretty strong American accents when we speak Spanish :-D so we’ll be let’s-get-this-fucking-Spanish-accent-down buddies.

I like Sevilla. I’m sure I’ll fall in love with it in no time :) I’m still kinda secretly afraid of big cities, and public transportation… but I’ll adapt.

I’m super excited for this semester. I was really nervous and self-conscious about my Spanish abilities, but now I’m not worried about it, I can already tell I’m going to be SO much stronger when I leave. It’s frustrating when Maribel corrects me (I need to work on rolling my Rs…), but I like getting my ass kicked, ¿verdad?

(23:20)

Today ISA gave us a (very) brief tour of the city center. We met at Plaza Nueva and they showed us some things and made sure we knew where the ISA office was. Afterwards I went running in the park María Luisa (SO gorgeous) with Julia. That was great. I love running :) And Julia is a good running partner.

Then came back, showered, had lunch (Maribel’s paella = YUM), and explored Nervión (our neighborhood). Just walked around and saw what’s around. Since it’s Sunday nothing is open, which was kind of sad, but oh well. Then took the metro into a more central part of town and explored some more, getting lost and then finding my way again and again. It was great :) At 6 I went with Geena, Megan, Ashley, and Amber to mass at la Catedrál. Muy interesante. Then we walked along the Guadaquivir river. By then it was dark, but with the city lights on, the area by the river was beautiful. We all started talking about how Sevilla was such a great and beautiful city and how we definitely made the right choice on where to study.

Talked with my family tonight finally! I’m not homesick but I just needed a touch of home, ya? I think tomorrow I’m going to buy a cell phone through ISA, and Geena’s planning on getting one of the internet USBs.

When I was walking through Nervión today I didn’t see any good [internet] cafes where I’d be able to chill con mi computadora :( There are some down in the center of the city… ay ay ay…

Vamos a ver. Hasta mañana.

P.S. Teehe everyone says vale here :)

Mié 27 ene (20:30)

Kind of a bipolar day :/ I was sick all last night/this morning. I barfed a lot, it was really attractive. Don’t know exactly why, I don’t think it was anything I ate necessarily, I think it might just be one of those stupid 24-hour bugs. But I feel better now (don’t worry about me!), though I feel like I could pass out for the night and that would be okay. I think I might do that actually. Pass out early and then I can wake up early, visit the ISA office, go to la Universidad de Pablo de Olavide early to set up my wireless there, maybe buy my Historia del cine textbook, chill out. I really like that class so far. We’re gonna watch and analyze a lot of Spanish movies. Right up my ally, ¿no? Haha today was our first day of classes and that was the only class I attended. I have three more in the morning/early afternoon but unfortunately I felt it best not to go due to the million (approx) summersaults in my stomach. Great first impression, I know.

So Pablo (my university’s nickname, not a person) gave me 5 classes (=15 credits) when I only wanted 4 (=12 credits). But this week is the drop/add/try-out period. So I’m gonna go to all my classes and then next Thursday or Friday I’ll decide which one I want to drop. Not gonna lie, kind of excited to take an academic break. I’ll have a life for once maybe :) I’m glad they gave me 5 to start with though, because if I remember correctly I think I put that Historia del cine class on my pre-registration list at #5, but I’m prettttty much in love with it and it’s only the first day. So which other class will I like the least and end up dropping? Español de negocios, Español-inglés/inglés-español traducción, International Marketing (probably not gonna drop this one, it’s my only one in English and I have a feeling I may need it for a descanso de español :/ ), or Latinoamérica actual: prensa y cine? Eh, vamos a ver.

So I don’t understand something. Spaniards are all about saving energy because utilities are like barftastically expensive here, so they yell at you to turn off the lights and take the world’s shortest showers and the like. But Maribel leaves the TV on like… all day. Yesterday it was even on when she was in the kitchen and no one was watching it. I really can’t stand people who watch TV all day… it’s just not a lifestyle I have… But like, TVs eat up electricity. I'm also not a fan of hypocrites. No entiendo. Oh well.

So some notes about the Spanish culture: They say “Vale” all the time. Haha. It means essentially “okay.” But it’s SO common. Mariajesus (one of the ISA staff) says it lol with almost every breath (she said so herself she says it too much, haha), kind of like the word “like” in English. Okay, algo más—the personal space is much much much much much smaller. We get super close and touch each other when talking, and sharing besos (two “kisses” on the cheeks) is the proper way of greeting someone (for girl-girl or guy-girl). Guys hugging is also more common. I like it, it feels more personal. Spaniards are less personal however with strangers. In the US sometimes we smile at or say hi to strangers or passerby. That doesn’t happen here. People just look straight ahead. You’re kind of weird if you smile at someone you don’t know. AND, when walking, people don’t do that awkward oh-my-god-I’ll-go-to-the-left-no-the-right-omg-we-almost-ran-into-each-other thing. They just slip past each other. I love that.

The only real complaint I have so far is that because they’re so concerned about saving water and what-not, Spaniards try to do limited laundry. But my towel in the bathroom needs to be washed, it’s starting to smell… And Maribel has been using the same towel for the dishes, and when I dry them I feel like I’m making them dirtier than before…

Oh, so Geena and I found out Maribel and Diego’s situation. No they’re not married, but they’ve been novios for 19 years. !!! Sheeit.

A lot of the ISA students are talking about planning a bunch of trips while we’re here. And why not, because travel within Europe is apparently very easy and usually relatively cheap. We have a lot of time for travel, too. We don’t have class on Fridays, so every weekend is a 3-day weekend. We have one 4-day weekend. And we have two whole weeks off, one for Semana Santa and the other for Feria de Abril. I really want to go back to Paris (in fact, I refuse to return home until I do so) Sierra Nevada, and Barcelona. It’d be amazing to go to Italy, or Ireland, or England… but all that travel is gonna add up, I’m not really planning on spending a million euro this semester. And instead I think I may just focus on traveling within Spain. I really just need to sit down and plan where I’m going when.

But who knowsss?

Vié 29 ene (21:30)

Today we had a tour of la Catedrál and the Alcázar. I took a million pictures (approx) so make sure to facestalk me when I eventually post them :)

La Catedrál is the largest gothic cathedral in Spain and the third in Europe. I LOVE European architecture, especially their cathedrals. It was simply amazing. We saw the inside, which was gorgeous, and then also climbed to the top of its Giralda tower. From there we had an amazing view of the city of Sevilla.

The Alcázar is the royal palace here where the king and his peeps stay when he’s in town. Absolutely. Amazingly. Beautiful. Essentially it’s a Spanish-architecture palace surrounded by a huge garden. There are fountains, orange trees everywhere, and even a mini hedge maze! Let me tell you, if someone told me I had to live there, I would not be complaining :p

Oh, and there’s this place near the ISA office called Yogurtlandia—basically, I’m in love. That’s it. Frozen yogurt and a million topping and sauce options… Today, I had yogurt with cocao sauce, naranja topping, and candy-coated chocolate chips. Mmmmmmm. Um, yeah, pretty much my fave.

Sab 30 ene (20:50)

This morning I found a really nice 5(ish) mile route to run. I went down Avenida Eduardo then past María Luisa to the river, along the river for a bit, then made a loop and went back. Oh my gosh the Guadalquivir is so pretty. And today was just a classic beautiful day, the sun was out and it was warmmm. The rest of the day was spent just walking, enjoying the weather and the city, and shopping. AND I tried churros con chocolate for the first time. Needless to say, good day :)

So the other night we did this thing arranged through ISA called Salir Con Españoles. We basically just hung out with locals. They took us to this really nice but cheap tapas place where we just ate and talked. I love speaking Spanish with locals; it’s such a challenge, but it’s a fun adventure! And they always have interesting things to say. When I was talking with one of the girls, she said that my Spanish was good. OMG you have no idea how much that really really really really really really really really really reallllllly meant to me :) I’ve been taking Spanish since I was 13 and I feel retarded here. Anyway, after that we went to a bar and chilled and talked some more. It was a really fun night! I have an intercamio (Spanish and English students are paired up together to help each other) through Pablo; my partner has already emailed me back and I’m just super exited to eventually meet him and get to speak a lot.

Dom 31 ene (17:15)

I was out last night until FIVE in the morning!!! Nightlife here is crazy :)