Paseo

I’ve never been very good at strolling.

I like to have a purpose, a destination. I don’t often take walks for the sake of talking a walk, without a place in mind to go. But today, a beautiful Sunday in Seville, I couldn’t simply sit inside and study all day. I pulled on my brown boots and black jacket and traversed out the front door of the apartment building. My daily routine takes me left here, down to Asuncion Avenue and then to the bridge. However, today would be different. Right. I was going to turn right at the door, and find out just what was beyond the river bend… I mean, corner.

So I did. My senora had recommended a restaurant that was a block or two away, and I thought I’d find out where it was. It was easy to discover, with its tables commanding the sidewalk and the scent of food in the air. But I just had lunch, so there was no need to stop. I passed the restaurant and the families still finishing their Sunday meal, and continued down the road.

The street curved right, and I followed. It was then that I saw the park, calling to me from across the street. On this nearly-spring, sunny day, who could pass up a walk in the park? I crossed, and found the entrance. As I entered, a small boy chased a ball on to the sidewalk, and threw it back in the field, ready for more play. I followed the path in the park, passing two old men sitting side by side on a green bench. The bench was desperately in need of a new coat of paint, but the men paid no mind and simply enjoyed the sun from their perch.

To my right was a playground. I could hear laughter and screams and chatter, the noise of children. The bright colors of the slides and swings reminded me of all the playgrounds back home. Kids will be kids, and their toys will always be colorful. As I passed the playground, I noticed a presence behind me. A dog. I would say he was average-sized, but my standards may be different than your own. The dog, white and black, followed me for a few steps, then paused while I continued on. A few steps later, I realized he had plodded a few more feet as well. His owner, dosing near the path, awoke and called him back. “¡Hola, hola!” he yelled and whistled. Apparently the dog paid no heed, as the man whistled louder and louder. I was far from the pair by now, the dog no longer interested in me but instead in the field around him. With a quick glance behind me, I saw that the dog had indeed returned to his owner, content in the grass. I smiled to myself and continued on.

The strange thing about walks in this country is that no one looks up. I often raise my head as someone walks by me, ready to smile or nod, but then I remember that I’m not in the States. Here there is no smile or nod, or acknowledgement of any kind. There is rarely eye contact with any passerby. It’s not that the people here are unfriendly or rude, but that kind of greeting is just not custom. In my neighborhood and university at home, eye contact is expected and a greeting is recommended. But here… that’s simply not how they stroll.

I’ve come to the end of the path, lost in my thoughts. I exit the park, thinking I will return to the apartment. But as I pass another entrance to the same park, I change my mind. I need to learn how to take a relaxing Sunday walk, right? I enter the park again, and follow a different path. This one leads me to a covered path, the sunlight shining in through the wood. I rest on a bench for a few minutes. I want to people-watch, but I dare not raise my head to observe. In the US, people-watching is common. Here, not quite. So I listen. The noises of Sunday afternoon are simple: children laughing, adults talking, glasses clinking, dogs barking. I remain on my bench for a few minutes before deciding to walk again. I leave the park with no destination in mind.

I take a right at the exit, headed back in the direction of the apartment building. I pass the same restaurant, the families I saw earlier buttoning up their jackets and pulling on their gloves. Two boys with soccer balls play just past the restaurant, while two girls climb a stone wall behind them. I smile, missing the kids I taught last semester. I approach the apartment building on my left, but decide the weather is still too nice to go back inside.

I pass the closed Chocolateria, and promise myself that one day soon I will go to the Chocolateria for some churros and chocolate. I turn left on Asuncion and listen as people call to each other from their cars and laugh at a distant joke. Two blocks down, I turn left again, on a street I haven’t been down before. There’s a gelato shop, and a store with Cola Cao in the window – that’s where I can buy some before I leave. I turn left again and head back to the road I recognize, knowing I’m nearing the end of my walk.

Once again I come up the apartment building. I check my watch. An hour. I strolled for an hour. Impressed with my ever-increasing strolling skills, I head inside for a glass of water. A Sunday afternoon stroll was exactly what I needed to clear my head and prepare for a full week of classes. I smile to the sun one last time and unlock the gate to the apartment building. Until next week.

Vaso de poliestireno

I wrote a little bit while I was in Spain, just some observations on life in Seville. :)

Every morning I have class from 9:45 to 12:00. It’s a long time, but fortunately our teacher allows us a thirty minute descanso (break) at 11:00. Usually during this time, my friend Abby and I go to a café and buy café con leche (coffee with milk). It’s exactly what we need to keep us going for last part of class. Most Sevillanos take a descanso in the mid-morning, since they eat breakfast at about 7:00 and don’t eat lunch until about 2:00.

What I noticed immediately after I bought my first cup of coffee was the type of mug they serve it in. Well, it’s not really a mug at all. It’s a thin glass, about 5 inches tall, seated on a saucer. The barista fills half the glass with steaming coffee, then tops it off with cold milk. I prefer to add a large packet of sugar, but that’s just my beginner coffee-drinking way.

At home, I watch my dad and brother drink coffee all the time. They grab a mug out of the cabinet, thick plastic with a large handle. The mugs are usually decorated in some fashion: there’s the Eastern University mug, the chiropractor mug, the NASCAR mug. The males in my house choose their mug according to their mood, and fill it with their caffeinated beverage. But even in coffee shops in the United States, the coffee is served in a mug: at the diners, at the breakfast spots.

And of course there is the other kind of coffee shop. In my area of Pennsylvania, we head to Wawa when we want a cup of coffee, or a sandwich, or a snack, or almost any other kind of food. There are other variations of Wawa across the county: 7-11, Sheetz, Turkey Hill. None of them are as good as Wawa, but that’s another topic for another time…

It’s at these places that you can get coffee to-go. Or perhaps you get your coffee to-go from Dunkin’ Donuts or Starbucks. All class American conveniences. There, the coffee is not served in a thin glass, it’s served in a cardboard cup with a plastic lid – or worse, in a Styrofoam cup. Then we can take our hot drink wherever we go, if we’re in a rush to school or the office or to meet up with friends. Always in a rush, we are.

But here… Styrofoam cups are non-existent. You can’t go to a coffee shop and ask for your café con leche to-go. There’s no lid resting on the side of your saucer, and no handle to take your beverage wherever you go. The coffee comes in its glass, and you sit at the bar and drink it. Often it’s too hot to drink right away, so you must wait. You must make conversation, you must read the newspaper, you must take your time. I’m sorry? Take my time? But I come from a culture of RushRushRush. I don’t… I don’t know how to do that.

Well, you must learn. Here, the coffee comes on the counter, and it stays on the counter. You don’t pay until you’ve finished drinking it, and even then you must wait until the waiter finally sees your waving hand. There is no grab-and-go, no way you can be in a hurry.

Perhaps that’s why I began to drink coffee here. It’s such a part of the culture. Getting a cup of café con leche means entering a coffee shop, sitting down, and waiting. Waiting for your cup, waiting for your sugar, waiting for your coffee to cool, waiting for your change. The waiters are in no rush to serve you (how ironic is their title), and so you take your time.

On Monday morning, a few friends and I are meeting up for café con leche during descanso. We’ll probably go to our favorite place, about a minute’s walk from school, the shop with the picture of a pig on the outside. We’ll order our coffee, we’ll pour our sugar, we’ll wait for the liquid to cool. And while we do all of this, we’ll talk. We’ll learn about each other. We won’t rush around, scrambling to find the time to do everything we need to do. We’ll put our to-do lists on hold, and we’ll just take our time enjoying our mid-morning break.

Sevilla, te echo de menos

Well hello everyone!

I have no idea if anyone's still checking this, but... I thought I'd update it again just to see. :)

I'm back home in Pennsylvania now, working at EAPE at Eastern (it's a sweet job), taking an online class, spending lots of quality time with some awesome people, running, learning how to cook some new foods, etc. etc. etc. ;)

It's been nice to be home... I sure did miss all these people! Of course, I do miss Spain, especially speaking Spanish all the time. It's been crazy since I got home... about 3 weeks ago? I've gone camping (I LOVE camping), spent a weekend at the Jersey shore, and of course played many games of Canasta. And the other day I went geo-caching with some friends. If you've never heard of geo-caching, you should check it out, because it's actually a ton of fun.

I know I left the blog hanging without pictures in the end, so I'm going to post some links to online photo albums so you all can see more pictures. So let's see...

Here is the album from Semana Santa (beginning of April)

These are pictures from our weekend in Portugal

Aaaaaaaand this captures the last week I spent in Sevilla

Well, I'm off to do some reading (wahoo for having time to read!). I'll probably keep updating this... I wrote a bit while I was in Spain, so maybe I'll post some of my thoughts/ramblings (hopefully they won't bore any of you)...

Happy June! Until next time!
Peace & love.

Feria, Portugal, Finals, Pizza?

Hey everyone!

I´ve been trying to update the blog for a couple days, but the server was having some problems. So, unfortunately, I can´t post any pictures right now. I´ll try to post some soon! But I can tell you about the past week here in Sevilla!

Last week was Feria, a week-long fiesta here in Seville (what can I say, the Sevillanos like to throw giant parties!). Everyone gets dressed up to go - a lot of women wear flamenco dresses, and men wear suits. The Feria grounds are right across the street from my apartment - there are over 1000 casetas (sturdy tents), as well as a huge carnival and lots of food stands. Most of the tents are private, which means you need an invite to get in. Fortunately, we had some friends who let us in their tents with them - where we learned Sevillanos! Sevillanos is the traditional type of dance, and it was so much fun learning how to dance from the Sevillanos themselves. :)

After a few days of Feria, we escaped to Portugal for the weekend. We visited Lisboa, Sintra, and Lagos. Lisboa is a nice city - we took an elevator up to the ¨Barrio Alto¨and saw the entire city from way up in the air. Lagos has the most gorgeous beaches I´ve ever been to. The weather was great, and the little town of Lagos was awesome (we found a market where we could buy fruit really cheap, and so we ate our lunches on the beautiful beach).

This past week was my last week of classes... yesterday was the last day. Today I have my first final (for Teaching English as a Foreign Language), and I have two more next week. But this is my last weekend here in Sevilla, so I´m excited just to spend time in my favorite city! (And study for finals... mmm, maybe...)

Well, this time next week I´ll be back in the States... but right now I´m just going to enjoy the last few days of la vida espanola!

Adios! :)

Fiesta, Fiesta

Hola todos!

Well, I'm sorry I'm a bad blog-updater. ;) Things have been pretty crazy around here with papers and exams and presentations. But I don't want to bore you with that stuff... so let's see...

This past Friday I visited a monastery called La Rabida and replications of Christopher Columbus' ships (except, they call him Cristobal Colon here... it's kind of strange how the whole name changes). That was pretty cool, and it got even better when we went to the PLAYA afterward. :)

Tonight is the first night of Feria, and to kick it off, they're going to light up the giant arch that serves as the entrance to the fairgrounds. It's going to be crazy crowded and chaotic, but I think it'll be fun to see!

On Thursday I'm leaving for Portugal for the weekend (to escape the crowds of Feria! hehe). We're headed to Lisboa and Lagos, and I promise to post some pictures when I get back. :) And after Portugal, there's only one week of classes and then finals! Ahh!

Okay, I'm just going to leave you with an old picture now, but it's one of my favorites from Semana Santa. This was after our churros adventure - we stopped a bunch of the musicians from one of the paseos (they were almost all finished by this point in the night) and got our picture with them. Sweeeet!

Hasta luego!

Morocco and Semana Santa

Hola!! It's been so long! A lot has happened since my last post... went to Morocco for 6 days, enjoyed the festivities of Semana Santa for a couple days, and now... back to school and papers and exams.

But first - Morocco. What an incredible experience. It was crazy - we took a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar and BOOM! We were in Africa. Ha ha. :) My favorite part was the time we spent in the Sahara Desert. We rode camels out into the desert and camped out in tents next to this giant dune. When we got to our set-up, we climbed that giant dune to watch the sun set. That night we listened to the Berbers (the natives) play the drums and danced a bit. We slept outside, and I woke up in the middle of the night and looked at the sky - the moon had set, so it was pitch black with only the clear stars to light to night. I really have no words to describe how beautiful it was. The next morning some of us woke up early and climbed the dune again - this time to watch the sunrise over the border of Algeria. It was simply amazing.

And of course, I have to mention the food - Moroccan food is fantastic! I discovered I really like dates (they have them in all kinds of dishes), almonds, and apricots. The most delicious dish was a meal called pastilla - a flaky pastry filled with chicken and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. Mmmm. I'm going to learn how to make it (hopefully!).

I took about 300 pictures in Morocco, so I don't think I can post them all up here... but I'll put up a couple favorites. :)

After returning from Morocco, it was Semana Santa here! Semana Santa is a week-long holiday leading up to Easter (although they don't really celebrate Easter here). There are all kinds of processions (we called them "paseos") - it's basically a giant fiesta for the city. Thousands of people come to see the processions, so it's crazy-crowded. But it was a ton of fun and Ruth even came to visit from England!

Wellll, I think I'll leave you with some pictures of my favorite week here so far, because I should probably go write a paper or something like that. ;)

Partidos

Holaaaaa!

What a crazy week it's been! School is picking up and I've had lots of exams and presentations in the last two weeks. Right now I'm picking topics for my two final papers, and I need to get started writing them.

BUT! Before I do that... I'm going to Morocco! I'm so excited! I leave on Friday morning and I'll be there for 6 days. Then when I get back to Seville, Semana Santa will have started. Semana Santa is a week-long holiday leading up to Easter. There's lots of parades and festivities, and Ruth is visiting for a couple days! I just have to get through 2 more days of school...

This past weekend we went to the mercado - kind of like a giant flea market, but Spanish! It was a lot of fun and we'll definitely go back there again (we have to get our futbol jerseys!).

Anyway, I'm about to get some cafe con leche, so I'll keep this short and be sure to update you all when I get back from Morocco!

Peace and love. :)

An English Weekend

Why hello there!

I'm at school right now, and it's raining pretty hard outside. Unusual for this time of year, I think. And a sorpresa - the weatherman definitely did not predict this!

But anyway, on to more interesting things... ;)

This past weekend I went to England! I visited my friend Ruth, who is studying at Oxford. It was quite an adventure - first a flight to London, then two bus trips to Oxford. When I arrived in London at midnight, I had missed my bus by 5 minutes, so I had to buy tickets for two new buses. My first bus was fine, and it dropped me off somewhere in London... then when I found my second bus, the driver was taking a nap with the lights off... haha. So I chatted with my new friend Nico until the bus driver woke up (at 2:30 in the morning...). The people I met on the airplanes and buses were very interesting... :)

But anyway, Oxford is a wonderful town! Ruth was a great tour guide and showed me the countryside and gave me a tour of Christ Church, the college of Oxford that she goes to. We also spent a day in London, just seeing all the sights and enjoying the city. AND we made dinner and dessert with Ruth's friends. It was so much fun to be in the kitchen cooking food... my senora cooks all the food for me (and it's always fantastic, I shouldadd). It was a great trip, and I'm so glad I went. :)

Okay, okay, and here are a few pictures from my lovely English weekend: The first one is of the country in Oxford, the second is of Christ Church (with an adorable British child who ran into my shot... haha), the third is the Parliament building in London at sunset, and the fourth is of Ruth and me with Big Ben (our favorite site of the day!).

Cheers!

Granada and Donana

Buenas dias everyone!

This past weekend I went to Granada and Donana (I just love the names of places here... hehe). Granada is a city about 4 hours away from Seville, known for it's ancient palace and for the fact that you can see the Sierra Nevada from any point in the city. Donana is a beach about 1 away from Seville, and we went there to ride horses on the beach. :)

After spending 2 days in Granada, I think I've decided that city is my favorite, of course, favorite AFTER Seville. ;) We went to a teteria (tea house) and had fantastic tea, and visited the Arab markets, which is this network of tiny stores and stalls with incredible stuff inside. It made me really excited to visit Morocco in 3 weeks.

In Donana, we rode horses across the beach (my horse tried to make a beeline for the water - he was such a rebel). And then we spent a couple hours just hanging out on the playa, and we borrowed a soccer (sorry - futbol) ball from some Spanish guys near us and played on the sand. It was a lot of fun, and pretty sweet to see the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

But now I'm back at school - I have a presentation and a test this week. But on Thursday I'm leaving for England for the weekend! I'm visiting my friend Ruth who is studying at Oxford. I'm super excited. :)

Anyway, here are some pictures from the weekend: (In order) Me with Sierra Nevada in the background, the reflection pool at the palace, some cool graffiti in Granada (the graffiti there is more like art), la playa!, and me with Casita.

Those Monos

Hey all!

This past weekend we took a day trip to Gibraltar. It was fantastic! The water there is gorgeous, and it was fun to be able to say we went out of the country for the day (Gibraltar is technically part of Great Britain... which also means everyone spoke English!). Instead of telling you all about it though, I´m going to post a bunch of pictures so you can see for yourself!

We took a pit stop during the 2 1/2 hour trip, and got something to eat (second breakfast, anyone?). I know, I can´t write a post without mentioning food. ;)

Here we are in Gibraltar (it was really windy!). If you look really closely at the background, you can see some mountains. That´s Africa!

The water was just so pretty there. :)



This is me in the cave of stalactites that we visited.

Finally... here´s a picture of a monkey in a tree. The monos look really cute but... they´re vicious! One of them stole my friend Cristina´s sandwich right out of her bag, climbed up a building, and ate it!

All in all, it was a great trip, and a gorgeous day. Well, I hope you all are having a great week!

March!

Hola amigos!

Happy March! Yesterday it smelled like spring here… that’s a good smell!

Yesterday was also quite an interesting day. I met up with some other American students for breakfast at a restaurant called VIPS. And we had REAL breakfast! Here, breakfast is the smallest meal, and every morning I have a mug of Cola-Cao and two pieces of toast with marmalade. And that’s okay (the marmalade is delicious!) but yesterday morning we had PANCAKES. They were fantastic. After going out for a very American breakfast, we went to our Spanish church, where we spent two hours singing Spanish songs and listening to a Spanish sermon. After church, I went home for lunch, where I spoke a lot of Spanish with my senora. Then it was time for siesta (a great part of the day), and my senora wanted to watch a movie/take a nap. So, she turned on Canal Sur (her favorite channel) and we watched… an old Western movie, dubbed into Spanish. It was hilarious. We both enjoyed making fun of how corny it was. So there I was, an American, watching an American movie, dubbed into Spanish, with my Spanish senora. Quite the collision of cultures!

I find that happens a lot here… the collision of Spain and the United States. In the stores and restaurants, they play mostly American music. My intercambio’s favorite music includes U2, Johnny Cash, and Coldplay. And most of the movies on television are American movies dubbed into Spanish (like my favorite Western), and there are a lot of American shows dubbed into Spanish too (like House, Gilmore Girls, The Simpsons). AND most of the movies in the theaters are American movies – right now The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is huge, and Pink Panther just opened up this past weekend. But the Spanish people say they like American entertainment better – I guess I never realized what an influence American programs had in Europe, but I think America just puts a bigger emphasis on entertainment (and puts more money into it). Anyway, it’s interesting how much of America infiltrates Spanish life.

Alright, and the picture of the day is... from when my friends and I went out for tapas (kind of like appetizers) and dancing last weekend. :) It was a lot of fun, and hilarious to watch the Spanish people sing along with the American songs. Yay dancing!

New Classes

Hola amigos!

Yesterday started a new round of classes. These classes will last until the end of the semester, until mid-May. I'm taking three new classes, along with one that continues from the start of the semester (Cultural Realities of Spain). My new classes seem really interesting - I have Spanish Civilization, Spanish-American Literature, and Teaching English as a Foreign Language. I think I'm most excited about the Teaching English class because we get to help in the English classes here at CCCS! So I could be helping in a kids' English class here, which would be awesome. :)

So the days are definitely starting to get busier, and I can't believe I've been here for almost a month. Part of me feels like I've been here for so much longer... but then part of me feels like this still isn't real.

I'm getting excited for Feria too, although it's not for another two months. Ha ha. Feria is a giant festival here in Sevilla, and it's supposed to be really incredible. But the reason I'm getting excited about it is because I live across the street from where all the festivities will be, so every day when I walk to school I see the men building the huge structures. And the other day they put up an enormous banner over the front of the tallest structure, with lots of designs and flags. It's cool to see it all come together.

Oh! And here's a picture of these fun sculptures that are next to the Cathedral in the heart of Sevilla. There is just so much to see in the city...

Estudiar, Estudiar

Hola!

As I write this, I probably should be studying. I have a final exam tomorrow for my grammar class. I can't believe the intensive period is over already! That means I've been here for 3 weeks. Monday begins the continuation period, and I'll be taking new classes. I'm really excited for that to start (especially since I don't have class until 10:15!).

Oh! And I found a church. It's about a 15 minute walk from my apartment, in the barrio (neighborhood) of Triana (I live in Los Remedios). The service is at 11:00, because Spaniards don't really believe the morning exists. Side note: The first Saturday I was here, I told my senora I was going to wake up at 8:00 or 9:00, and she just looked at me like I had three heads. Then she said, “That's very early.” So I slept until 10:00, and I was still the first person awake. Anyway! The service is 2 hours long (longer than services in the US), but it was great. It's a really small church, with about 50 people, but the room was small too, so people were overflowing into the lobby. There were a couple other students from my program there, as well as American students from other programs in the city. After the service, the members of the church invited us to stay for a big lunch they were having (ahh, just like at home) and for a presentation about all the countries represented in the church. Apparently there are a lot of immigrants in Seville, because I met people from Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Peru, Argentina, Chile, England, and France. And that was an excellent start to the week. :)

I’ll leave you with my favorite pictures from my trip this past weekend to Jerez and Arcos de la Frontera. The first one is the view from the lookout on the mountain where the puebla blanca (white village) is built. All the buildings in the village are painted white. The second one… well, I think you can figure it out.

Que tenga un buen dia!

La Comida

Buenas tardes!


It's Friday afternoon here, and it's 70 degree outside. Yay! :) I had classes this morning, and then lunch with my senora and her two daughters. They talk SO fast, it's so hard to understand them. But it's a lot of fun to figure out what they're saying.


Speaking of lunch, I haven't really told you about the food here... well, it's wonderful. My senora makes lots of soup, which are always good. There's this vegetable dish that is basically just vegetables in olive oil, and it's very good. For salads, the only dressing is olive oil as well, but that's fine by me. :) And there there are the sandwiches that we have for dinner sometimes: giant, fresh bread that crackles when you bite into it (you know, the kind with the really good crust...) with ham or chicken or this fantastic spread (my senora told me the name of it but I don't know the translation to English, or if there is one). At meals, most Spanish people just drink water, which I think is great.

Possibly the best thing I've had so far is a churro. Yum. It makes me hungry just to think about them. ;) They are covered in sugar and sometimes you dip them in chocolate. I wish you could all come visit and we'd get churros. Also good was this pastel (pastry) that I had the other morning. A friend and I went out during our morning descanso (break) and went to a pasteleria (shop where they sell pastries) and I bought this flaky, semi-eclair pastry. It was filled with chocolate. It was fabulous. :) Some mornings we get cafe con leche (coffee with milk), which I've started to enjoy... I never drank coffee before coming here.

But the most interesting food-related experience I've had so far is the mercado (market). This morning my grammar class went to the market in Triana, and it was great! There are stalls for all kinds of food: pescaderia for fish, carniceria for meat, frutera for fruit, etc. Our professor bought this fruit called chirimoya for us to try (it was really sweet and kind of soft). That market is definitely a place I want to go back to.

So as you can see, I'm eating well here. :) There's lots of stellar food to try, and my senora is a really good cook. Here are two pictures from the mercado this morning; doesn't that food just beg you to reach out and try it?

Cordoba

Hola amigos!

Today is a beautiful day in Sevilla - sunny and 61 degrees! :)

This Saturday I took a day trip to Cordoba, about an hour and a half away from Seville. It was through CCCS (my school), so there was a bunch of students as well as one professor. The city was precioso (my new favorite Spanish word)! We saw the palace (alcazar), the synagogue, and the mosque-turned-cathedral. I put some pictures at the end of this post (I took about 100, but unfortunately I can only upload 5).

Tomorrow I have my first test. Eeek! So tonight I'll be studying a lot. Yesterday I took a walk to a nearby park (Parque de los Principes), so maybe I'll go study there for a while. Anyway, I'm off to lunch (we eat lunch at 2:30)! Adios!

Pictures! In order: me standing on the towers at Alcazar, the beautiful streets of Cordoba, the tower outside of the cathedral, inside the cathedral (those arches are hundreds of years ago, but still standing!), the gardens (jardines) at the palace - Alcazar de los Reyes Cristianos.

Buena Dia

Good morning all! At least, it's morning here. I got to school a bit early, and I'm waiting for class to begin at 9.

This morning it's clear and cool outside. It's supposed to rain later, but I'm just enjoying this sunshine. So far, I think the walk to school is my favorite part of the day. I leave at about 7:50, when it's still dark outside, and by the time I get to school it's light. I walk down a major street, Calle Asuncion, and I watch as the store owners begin to open shop for the day. There are the usual city sounds: engines revving, brakes squeaking, crosswalk signs beeping, people yelling good morning to each other. I see kids waiting at the bus stops with their parents (here they use tour buses, not big yellow buses like we use). Then I cross the bridge. From there, I see the lights of a city not quite awake, the morning sun glistening on the river below. At the end of the bridge there's always a man handing out newspapers (gratis, for free). I walk along the river and pass the great tower that you can see in the picture. Finally I stroll down a couple streets, tight cobblestone walkways surrounded by yellow and orange buildings. And I'm at school.

The food here is really good so far. My senora makes lots of soup, and I haven't had one that I haven't liked. She also makes tortilla; I can only describe it as a potato/egg, dense omelet. It's delectable. And bread! Fresh bread every day. :) And every morning I have Cola Cao with breakfast; it's similar to hot chocolate but less chocolately and more nutritious.

Yesterday we visited Alcanzar, an ancient palace here in the city. It was built in the 11th century, then added on to in the 13th century. As a result of the two constructions, it has a combination of Muslim and Christian influence in design. I took so many pictures, and I wish I could put them all on here!

This weekend I'm traveling to Cordoba, another city in southern Spain. I'll be sure to take a ton of pictures there too.

Anyway, I better get to class. I have Grammar and Expression this morning, and I have to turn in my first paper. Eeek!

Hope you're all doing great! :)

First Impressions

Well hello there! Thanks for stopping by…

It’s been quite an adventure here in Seville (say it like the Sevillanos do: Say-vee-ah). I guess the journey begins with the flight though, right? And I’m sure you want to know all about my 7 hour flight from JFK to Madrid. Oh, really? Okay, well I sat next to a man from New York, who grew up in Portugal, and speaks English, Portuguese, AND Spanish. Cool, yes? Since our (the 15-20 kids going to study with CCCS who left from JFK) flight from JFK was delayed, we missed our connection to Seville. But! No worries, we were all given tickets for the next flight, which was in an hour (and even with our extra tickets on the flight, each of us still got our own ROW).

But, to the exciting part: Seville. We stayed at this fantastic hotel. Lots of good food there. We explored a bit and had some information meetings for the semester. Then we finally got to go to our houses and meet the families. The CCCS people called a bunch of taxis, we each got in a taxi, and off we were! Okay, it wasn’t that easy; it was really intimidating going out into the city on my own like that. People are really nice though: my taxi driver helped me carry my luggage up to the apartment building, and when I got to the front door, this random guy came running up and not only helped me get all my luggage into the elevator, but met me on my floor and introduced me to the lady I’m living with.

When I walked back to the Center later, I only got lost once and still made it there early! We had a bus tour of the city and got to see lots of cool places that I hope to actually go see and learn about. Our bus driver stopped to let a kitten cross the road (I kid you not – see, they are nice here!).

On Saturday we explored the city on our own though. A couple of us walked around Triana (a neighborhood in Seville) in the morning, and found a great park called Parque de Principles. Yesterday it rained pretty hard (which is unusual for Seville at this time of the year). I hung out at the apartment and chatted with my senora and her daughter (the two people I’m living with). Since they drop the letter “s” in Seville, they pronounce my name as “Chritine”. The apartment is about a 30 minute walk from school (and the internet…), but the walk is pretty; I get to cross a bridge and walk along the river and see all the old buildings.

It’s quite the change from a suburb in Pennsylvania, but I like it a lot. Seville has a thing for the colors yellow and white; so many of the buildings are old-fashioned and painted those two colors. I’ll try to upload some pictures next time.

I think I’ve probably told you more than you wanted to know. :) I’ll try to update again soon. ¡Hasta luego!

Oh, P.S.

I love hearing from you too! My email is cmurrison@yahoo.com and my Skype name is christine.murrison.