back from sevilla

First off, I found this video on Youtube about the town where I'm living in Spain. Enjoy this vid about Cabra:


Sorry, it's narrated in Spanish. ;-)

Anywho, I was in Sevilla for the weekend with 5 other girls to get away and to celebrate my birthday. I'm 23, btw, eek. My mom got married at 23 years old and my grandma had already had 2 kids and number 3 was a bun in the oven by the time she was my age. Dang. I don't see marriage in next few years, though, so I'm going to assume that with each generation that age will get older and older.
Sorry, tangent...Sevilla was great. The morning of my birthday it was pretty miserable, weather-wise, but it cleared up and was gorgeous by the end of the day. We had a lot of fun seeing more of the stuff that we had missed during orientation.

We had a 2-day celebration, basically, since we went out the first night for when I turned 23 at midnight and then the next day when it was more-officially my birthday. It was fun. We hit up the swankier bars, since I enjoy that atmosphere more than a bar filled with ridiculously drunk 19 and 20 year-old Americans here to study abroad.

The Plaza de España was probably my favorite part, as far as sight-seeing goes -- it is the most ostentatious display of architecture that I have ever seen in my LIFE. Walking around the plaza is serious sensory overload, and it makes sense why Seville went into serious debt when it was constructed in 1929. I took approximately 9 billion pictures while in the Plaza because of the amount of stuff, there. It's a huge semicircle loaded with fountains, tall buildings, bridges, a moat, towers, painted tiles and spotted with greenery and horse-drawn carriages.
















For birthday dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant near the center -- it was pretty swanky. They heard us speaking English or just could see that we were American by looking at us, so they mainly spoke English to us, which was fine. I appreciate having menus in English because I don't know all the food vocabulary yet, especially if it's something weird like braised duck with whatever kind of sauce. Jessica, a girl in our group, told the waiter that it was my birthday, so he brought out helado (the ice cream they have here) with "23" candles in it. It was cute. He also sang the Spanish version of happy birthday, which was really funny. He looked like Derek Jeter, it was really weird. We invited him to hang out with us after he was done at work and he actually did call us, but I had no idea how to tell him where to meet us -- I have enough problems with directions in English, let alone my 2nd language. I gave the phone to another Spanish guy who was with us (a friend of Michelle's), and I guess the fact that more guys in the group scared him away because he never showed up, haha. Oh well!

After dinner, we all went back to our hostel to change into our party attire and go back out on the town. We ended up going back out at 12:30 a.m. Yes, people go out here that late in Spain, that's why the entire country takes a siesta for 2-3 hours, daily. We hit up center Sevilla again and got 2 pitchers of sangría and just chatted. The girls asked me what I wanted to do, specifically, and my stipulations for a fun birthday were 1) I didn't want a ridiculous amount of smoke surrounding me, I already got a damn eye infection from that, 2) no dancing, because going to the dancing spots here generally consists of ugly guys coming up and grinding on you without any sort of invitation, 3) not so loud I couldn't talk to anybody. That makes me sound like a grandma, doesn't it? Whatever. I enjoy all those things besides the smoke, sometimes, I just don't want some ugly guy in a loud dance bar grinding on me on my birthday, sorry. So I thought sangría outdoors would be fun, and I think it was. Michelle invited a group of her guy friends, so they showed up, too. It was pretty fun.

Sunday was just more sight-seeing and relaxing by the big bridge where there's a lot of grass and ducks swimming, and the like. I asked several random Spaniards on the street if they would take pictures of me with the girls.

To be honest, in the past 5-ish years, my birthday was completely unmemorable and blah, usually (with the exception of my 21st, probably...). My birthday ALWAYS fell during finals week, so hardly anybody was up for a big party of anything along those lines. But birthday time in Sevilla definitely made up for that, I'd say. :-D

mi escuela

This is where I teach -- it's IES Dionosio Alcalá Galiano. "IES" stands for "Instituto de Educación Secundaria," or Insitute of Secondary Education. I'm going to assume the rest of the school's name is somebody else's actual name, but who knows. The outside of the building is nothing to write home about (ironic, since that's technicially what I'm doing right now, but whatever).

That is my schedule. A bit hard to read, probably, especially since it's in Spanish...haha. Well, it shows Lunes through Viernes, which is Monday through Friday. Anything that has an "x" or words in a box is an hour that I will br occupied with one of the following: music class, meetings, conversation hours, English class, Social Studies class, or Art class. Want to know how many hours I work per week? Twelve. I'm not sure if I mentioned that before, but it's true. I make a lot of money, for the amount of hours I work, if we want to be honest. 700 euro a month for 12 hours of work = 58.33 euros per hour. Obviously I plug in more hours than that outside of the school itself, but yikes. That is cushy. I think more people should be aware of this opportunity and sieze it! Looks great on a resume to work long-term in a foreign country, you get to broaden your horizons and all those cliché phrases, and it's a chance to solidify Spanish language. It really is pretty incredible.
I'm just really happy that I like my town and the people, especially the Americans here. Obviously I'm hanging out with Americans more than anybody else, even though that's somewhat lame seeing how I'm living here. I'm trying to get involved with the local choir and riding horses -- I have some leads and I'm going to pursue those, so that will help with social life with locals.

Speaking of locals -- and this is insane -- today I got interviewed by the local news station. I was just downstairs in the cafeteria eating a bocadillo (little sandwhich thing), and then the director guy walks up to me and tells me the whole thing -- in Spanish, claro. OK, so then the big camera and boom equipment come down to the cafeteria to get footage of me freakin' EATING...lovely. And for those who know me, I don't hide my emotions as far as my facial expressions are concerned. There was some awkward lip pursing and looking to the side with a half-smile, in those moments. Then I was swooped aside 10 minutes after I had been blindsided with the news I would be on TV for my interview. They told me I'd be with the director and one of the English teachers for my interview, which I was, but the purpose of having the English teacher was so she would translate what I would say in English. Sigh. Well, she ended up saying to the reporter, off-the-cuff, that I speak Spanish. Damnit. So of course the reporter is all excited, since hardly anyone living in Cabra understands English, so they just decided to fire away the questions in Spanish. I'm comfortable using Spanish, but it's a bit nervewracking to know that tens of thousands of people are going to be judging my accent, pronunciation and grammar. Luckily, the questions weren't anything that challenging for me to answer: have you been to Spain before, what is your job like, how has your experience been in Cabra, what are the differences between the United States and Spain. That last question made me raise an eyebrow and want to say "what are the similarities???" I just said that the history is richer in Spain and everything is bigger in America, and rambled about some junk and kept thinking in my head, "don't screw up feminine and masculine adjectives, conjugate your verbs correctly, don't use vocabulary that Spaniards don't use, speak with a lisp so they understand you," YIKES. Funny that I can do all that junk at once, but I can't do something like, say, math, to save my life. Or figure out a map. Or a ton of other things...haha.

My Spanish TV debut will air for WEEKS, so it's only a matter of time before I get stopped or pointed at in the street. What am I saying, that ALREADY happens. Spaniards are very open about straight up staring at people in the street, giving piropos in the street to strangers, having no personal space, whatever. VERY different cultural norms here as far as American standards go. All part of the experience, right? Pretty much. Anyway, I'm off to sleep. Adiós.

things going on, weekend, etc.

This weekend a group of friends and I are planning on going to Cádiz. Keyword: planning. Ugh. The planning is pretty hectic, and I wouldn't be planning a destination party in the first place, but when I brought up my birthday to people, everybody mentioned taking a trip. I don't flatter myself into thinking it's just because of my birthday, I know people want to travel. I just think it's a ton of work setting this up! I was just working with Emily, who is also in my town, to set up the hostel or hotel accommodations and we were trying to figure out the transportation to get there and how to get around the city of Cádiz, itself. Takes a lot of work. And I always get nervous when I'm about to make a phone call to a hostel in Spanish, but it turns out to be pretty easy. It's just weird to know I'm going to communicate with someone in a foreign language with something that's hard for me to navigate using my first language. Plus, I have a weird phobia about calling people I've never met, on the phone, which is ironic since I've done so many phone interviews, being a journalist and whatnot...

So yeah, a group of girls and I are hopefully going to Cádiz this weekend. Originally, my roommate Claire suggested Lagos, Portugal, as our destination. Well, it's taking a ton of work to figure out the logistics and getting to and from Portugal, so I said hey, why don't we just cut our losses and go to a place in Spain? Cheaper, easier to figure out, still fun, and Portugal ain't goin' nowhere. Ugh. So that's what we're working on. I'm hoping it will work. So far, we definitely have on board the following people: me, Claire, Becca, Michelle, Emily, Lauren, and probably Jessica. Carole can't come because her sister will be in town, Kim can't come because she has a wedding, and Cassie decided not to come because she doesn't know the group of friends that well and because she only just settled down in her apartment and just met Spaniards who invited her to a party this weekend and wants to get to know them. She said she felt really guilty, since we got along really well at orientation, but whatever. No pase nada, as the Spaniards say all the time, which means "it's no big deal," more or less. I'll see Cassie in the near future. Doesn't mean I can't be bummed, though. Booooo.

Another fun thing: Kim is going to give me Dutch lessons! She is the girl who lives here in Cabra and is from Zelem, Belgium. Like I mentioned once before, I have a bunch of Belgian relatives, and I'm definitely planning on meeting up with them in Belgium at some point while I'm living my expatriate life here in Spain. This time when I visit, which will be my third time in Belgium, I want to be able to do more than just count from one to ten in Dutch and say "that's good" and "thank you." Blah. I know that mostly all Belgians speak English, but I want to impress my relatives when I visit. Also, and I am def tootin' my own horn here, by I'm really quick at picking up languages. I know I will feel overwhelmed learning Dutch, though, since it isn't in the Romance language family a la Spanish and Italian. Bleh. I will enjoy the classes with Kim, though, because she seems like a fun girl and I want to get to know her better, especially since I'll probably be taking a train back to Belgium with her, at some point, while I'm here.

OK, subject change time (I know, abrupt...whatever): there are still a bunch of things I miss, from home. Not to be Debbie Downer, but every once in a while I get really bummed out and just stare at a wall for about 15 minutes and daydream about the things I miss, which include my college life, which is still a recent memory. College life is completely different from working-in-Spain life. Another thing I miss is riding horses. I feel like there's a huge void in my life that can only be filled by feeling the wind rush faster while on the back of a horse. There's nothing like the feeling of riding, for me, I just have a sense of contentment and freedom that nothing else brings, including writing, which I obviously love to do. I'm looking for a place to ride, still, and I'm determined to find one! And I'm determined to work really hard, too, so eventually I'll have enough money in order to finance my equestrian endeavours in the future, since it's the most expensive sport on earth, most likely.
Other things I miss? Food. The food is good here, but I would kill for a bagel....or, to add to the list: In 'N Out burger/fries/milkshake, Golden Spoon, Panera, soy milk, Whole Foods, Lean Cuisine, microwaveable cuisine in general, ahhhhhh I'm going to cry. I miss my bed. I miss my CATS. Oh my God, I'm going through total withdrawal from my cats. I am a crazy cat lady a la the character Angela in The Office, and I freely admit it. And, I miss THE OFFICE! And Law & Order SVU!!! And American TV in general. I miss the shower from my house. I miss CARPET! Every home in Spain has cold, cold COLD tile floors and I'm beginning to hate it.

Most of all, I miss the accessiblity of my friends and family and being within 3 hours of the time zone stuff of my friends, too.

OK, there are more things, but I don't want to sound ungrateful. I just have reached the end of what people call the honeymoon phase of living in a new country and I'm starting to realize the things I really miss from home.

Now I'm going to go to bed because as usual, I stayed up too late and have far too few hours to sleep. Sucks to be an insomniac, I guess. OK, buenas noches.

back from my weekend trip

Random observation of the day: whenever I see people speaking foreign languages to animals, I want to say "no, no! They don't understand ___, what are you doing?!" Reminds me of Anchorman when Ron Burgundy tells his dog to speak in English...

So I'm back from Málaga. We had a helluva time trying to get the whole getting-back-to-Cabra thing figured out, too. We ended up missing our train by literally 30 seconds -- we watched it pulling away from the terminal (?) and some colorful phrases were spouted by yours truly as it happened. Whattaya gonna do, I guess? So we walked over in an attempt to exchange or return it, but there would be a 20% markup on the ticket price to exchange it and the next train we could catch would be 5 hours later. Eek. We ended up walking across the street to the bus station, even though I'm pretty sure Claire and Becca didn't really want to walk over there, but I basically decided whatever, what do we have to lose in the potentially 5 hours we would be waiting? We walked over and eventually found out that a bus was going to be leaving in half an hour and it would be direct to Cabra -- well, there were a few stops, but we wouldn't have to change buses. Sweeeeet. We barely made it on THAT bus, too, because we found out about it 5 minutes before it departed. We were a bit annoyed about losing the money on the train ticket and having to shell out money for a bus on top of it, but w/e, it worked out.

Anyway...woops on that tangent, but I needed to vent. The weekend was awesome. In fact, I couldn't figure out why I was all bummed out, a little while ago, but I think it's just because all the exciting stuff came to an end and reality set in about how I have so much junk to do, still. So many papers to file, STILL, not to mention stuff to get together for my jay oh bee (job). Also, I feel like I've expended more mental - and sometimes physical -energy since I've been in Spain that I have in a long time. The language alone can be taxing and sometimes I just freeze and can't speak a single sentence in Spanish if I'm too stressed. Overall, though, I've felt really pleased with how well I feel I'm doing understanding and speaking Spanish, here.

Back to the trip ~ our reason for going, which I said in the last post, was to get our residency cards, in Córdoba. We had to drop off our información on Friday morning. This is actually just the first step to getting our residency cards -- we will have to go BACK to Córdoba to pick them up and pay 10 euro for them. Blech. I don't even know what we need them for, I guess the Spanish gov't just wants the info on us and the money or whatever. All the stuff I turned in was basically already submitted to the Spanish consulate before we got here, to get our visas - the only new thing was providing them with our Spanish address and contact numbers. By the way, to get these residency cards (and visas, but we already have those), we turned in our applications, certificates from the Junta de Andalucía (they employ us here), copies of our passport, visa, criminal record, medical clearance letter...I think that's it. Talk about a pain in the @(#.
After that, we hung out in Córdoba and met up with our friend Pat. We stayed at his apartment for the night before we left for Málaga to meet up with more people and just chill for a couple days.

When we got to Málaga, we relaxed at Jessica and Alan's apartment -- they were our fabulous hosts for the weekend. Seriously, best hosts ever. That's them on the left of the photo. I'm standing between Luke and Pat. They gave us great food/coffee/wine and made sure we had enough pillows/blankets and knew where we were going -- also, they are just really down to earth and fun.
We all went to the Picasso museum after we chilled at their place. I enjoyed it, I just wished they gave us a guided tour rather than a little pamphlet that didn't even describe all the pieces, because I'm pretty ignorant about art. I took an Renaissance art history course when I studied abroad in Florence, but that's probably the extent of my art knowledge other than what I learned back in elementary school and junior high. When we left the museum, we went back to Jessica and Alan's apartment with groceries we bought to make dinner ourselves. We made salad and noodles and drank tinto verano. Tinto verano is just red wine mixed with fanta and it's fantastic.

By the time midnight came around, we left for botellón. My least favorite part of Málaga, you may ask? Going to the botellón. Botellón is a popular Spanish party, it happens all over Spain. Basically, it's an outdoor party which happens in the street and is BYOB. People just stand around and drink, smoke, and urinate publicly. Not that I'm opposed to some of those things, but bleh (well, not the public relieving of oneself -- gross). I think I would be content to skip botellón the next time my friends here decide to go. Also, we didn't leave for the party until midnight and we stayed until 2:30, and I was feeling spent after a long day traveling.

The most enjoyable thing for me, by far, was spending a day at the beach. It was fantastic. I swam in the Mediterranean, relaxed in the sun + palm trees, drank sangría, and hung out with fun people.















I feel pretty blessed to have met such a chill group of people, I was completely worried about not finding people I would mesh with. The girls in the pic, from right to left: Carole, me, Becca (roommate of mine), Jessica, Claire (another roommate), Lauren...and I don't know the other two girls! Woops. They're roommates of a girl I only just met. OK I'm gonna go to bed. Definitely exhausted. Night night!

More official stuff @#$(%&)#

Yesterday, after I took a massive detour to get to my school because I am an idiot, I got more official paperwork I need to file with the Junta de Andalucía, or in English, The Andalusian Autonomous Government. Yikes. Carlos (bilingual coordinator) showed me an email written by the provincial coordinator of Córdoba, and it had a massive list of all the things we'll need to turn in for our identity cards that foreigners need to carry around, in Spanish. Yiiiiikes. The whole thing appeared to have come out of nowhere, so I flipped out and thought I was going to spontaneously combust from frustration. The cold sweat was already taken care of, though, because I had biked up and down the same hill approximately 3000 times before finally getting to the school.

Anyway, all is well in the world, especially after I found out that ALL language assistants in the Córdoba province as in the same proverbial boat. Right after Carlos showed me that email, I emailed the coordinator of the CIEE program and she, in turn, emailed all the language assistants in the province. Clarified everything but the frustration.
Today, I'm going with Becca and Claire to turn in various papers and photos. We're taking the 3 p.m. bus to Córdoba and staying in a hostel there, tonight. I called about 5 hostels last night from a book that CIEE gave us all about Andalucía which has proven to be a god-send. All of them were full and I was going crazy, but then Hostal Séneca has space, hooray! I spoke in Spanish almost the whole time, on the phone, I felt so proud, jaja. I'm relieved we got a room with just the 3 of us in it, because sharing a room with random strangers freaks me out, slightly.

Tonight will be our only night in Córdoba, at least for now, and then we're off to Málaga Friday morning. We still don't know where we'll be staying, but last night I called a friend of a friend of mine who I just met a couple weeks ago, and she said she'll be on the lookout for us. If she can't find anything, then it will be search-for-a-hostel round #2. Málaga is about one and a half times the size of Córdoba, so hopefully that means the number of accomodations will increase accordingly, but stayed tuned.

My roommates and I have been going back and forth from various stages of exhilaration to being frustrated and annoyed, but overall the experience has been positive, so far. I'd be lying if I said I'm used to the Spanish way of life, 100% yet, but it definitely suits me better than a lot of other Americans. Then again, I've lived in so many states that I'm used to being told that my way of life is weird and I have to change or be shunned, what have you. It's strange, of course, to think that I'm the one who is looking STRANGE, and to everybody else, what they're doing is normal. Ay. Most of the people here are eager to help, though, and I seriously doubt the Americans are like that to foreigners in our country, even though the entire population derived from immigrants.

New venture: I'm trying to get a translation job. I've heard of people doing translation work and they make the most money compared with the people who take up teaching gigs, if their level of Spanish is high enough. I consider myself to have a fairly high comprehension level, so I'm gonna go for it. Booyah! The flyer right there is what I'm working on. Some of the verb conjugations are contradictory with the tú and usted forms...woops. I'll fix it before I post it. It also need my name, number and email contact info, but that will be at the bottom in those tear-off strips that people do sometimes. Let's see how that goes for me. I'm going to go door to door, too, because that seems to work better than just putting ad's up.

OK I'm gonna finish up junk here at "home" -- don't know when I'll have internet access again, but I'll have more than enough pictures to make up for the lack of entries, by the time I get back. Adiós.

workin' hard! hardly workin'!

That's my apartment in videos, below, and narrated by my roommate, Michelle. She is living here for her second year.Those videos were made before the rest of us left the USA, so that's why it's empty/dead.



By the way, CIEE allows you to extend your contract twice, if you choose.

Yesterday was my first day assisting in the class, so that was fun. I went with Monica to the music class filled with 12-ish year old kids. They were a lot of fun, I thought, but Monica told me when the class was over (I had left mid-way through), that they had been kinda bad. Woops. I guess rowdy or something, but who knows. She gave me some pretty funny exasperated looks after I introduced myself, because everyone was going crazy. What can I say, I have that effect on people. Bahaha.
In the class, they're practicing singing "Rock My Soul" - it's a pretty familiar song for me, in fact, I think we did it was a warm up in one or two choruses I've been a part of. My job was to get them to pronounce the words correctly and not just plow on through. The eighth notes are when they just bulldoze through the words without thinking, sometimes. Overall, they seemed really enthusiastic, but who knows. For today, I transcribed something online about Antonio Vivaldi -- it's in English, and a bunch of the words aren't exactly 12-year old 2nd language speaker friendly, so I've making everything present tense. That can be a bit awkward sometimes, e.g. Vivaldi is born in ___, he composes his first concerto in ____, he dies because he jumps off a cliff, or what have you.

Also, I think I'm going to be going to the art class either today or tomorrow. And the day after that, I'm helping out with English classes. Yay! I'm so relieved I won't be needed for the math or science classes. You're talking to a girl who failed Algebra in 8th grade, so I am probably the worst candidate ever for that. I aced it in 9th grade though, woooo! And I got up to precalculus by the time I was done with high school. Don't judge. ;-)

OK I'm gonna get my butt in gear. Later. Oh wait...adiós.

Primer día en la escuela donde estaré

This morning I woke up and got ready for my first day at the school where I'll be a language assistant. It took me awhile to find it, in fact, I ended up having to call a cab, because this school is on the opposite side of Cabra. I was completely confused, but that's easy for me. I have no sense of direction, really, until I've lived somewhere for a long time (sometimes not even then -- I need better short-term memory!).

When I got there, I wasn't sure what kind of impression I would make on the rest of the professors, but they made me feel completely at ease. Every once in awhile I would slip into my Spanglish because I was confused about whether I should speak in English to get them acclimated or if I should acclimate MYSELF to everyone else. What to do, what to do -- ? ¡Combinación, por supuesto! I gave them all my blog URL, so if any of you are reading this, I hope you are enjoying practicing your English! Es oportunidad perfecta, ¿de verdad?

During a break, I went to a bike shop with the P.E. teacher, David. So many people have been offering to take me, but I was not-so-secretly thinking "thanks, but no thanks." This guy seemed like the perfect candidate, though, so off we went in his coche para mirar las biciletas. It took me a long time to figure out what was the best opción, but I finally decided to buy a pink bike for 140 euro. That may sound expensive, but at first they offered me a 660 euro mountain bike! Hell no! I told him look, I'm a foreigner and I just need something to get me from point A to point B, thank you, and it needs to have a bunch of speeds and good brakes so I can get up and down those Ithaca-sized hills!!! I'm really pleased with it, though, and I think that because it's pink it is less likely to be thieved, but we'll see...yikes. I got a lock for it and I also can remove the seat, if need be. I feel like my dad riding a bike, it's fun, though. I just hate it when guys roll down their windows and stare at me. Yes, I'm a foreigner, leave me alone!!!! ¡Ay, por Dios!

After school, I hit up a fruit store and got some fresh produce and ate lunch. Rice cakes with jam, mushrooms, and a fiber bar thing. Weird combo? Whatever. For breakfast I had my dried fruit and some kind of flake cereal in my strawberry banana yogurt. It was so good. Tonight, I'm not sure what we're doing, but hopefully something cheap. I'm not in the hole or anything, but close. My roommates and I are only paying 90 euro a month a piece for our apartment, which is unheard of, it's SO SO cheap. We're lucky, what can I say? We just went out shopping and I got a pair of brown ankle boots and a purple jacket. I don't like purple so much, but whatever. I have too much blue and neutral colors in my closet.

Tomorrow I wake up at the same time and go to school and meet more of the students. Correction: I haven't met ANY of the students, they just stare at me and think extranjera. Gracias a Dios I'm not blonde, because they get stared at like they have two heads! I'll just have to get used to it.

Also, when I got back to my apartment, I contacted some of my Belgian relatives. Did I mention there is a Belgian girl living in Spain, in our program? It was so nice to meet her, she sounds like my relatives when she speaks English. I almost gave her tres besos because that's what the Belgians do. Hopefully Kim will teach me some Dutch so I won't have to be wide-eyed with raised eyebrows everywhere I go. Luckily, all the Belgians speak about half a dozen languages, so it's not really THAT difficult to get around, I just feel like I impose upon everyone all the time, when I interact with them. They're great, I can't wait to see them -- there's a huge list of people I need to see: Dirk, Marlene, Stephanie, Sven, Sophie, Marie, Victor, Sophie, Eddy, Rita, Sebastiaan, Louis, Annalene, Burt, Lotte, Darlene, Hans, Sylvie, the Schaubroeck family, the Noppe family, the Adam family, etc! Soooo much extended family there, and they're all my Grandma Boberg's cousins descendents. We share the same great-great grandmother. My Belgian relatives emigrated in 1918, I believe, right after World War I. Their plan was to get rich and go back, but uhhh, that didn't happen. Woops. By the way, in the pic, Kim is on the right. I think that was taken in Holland?

Back to my Spanish experience ~ we're about to go out again, but I'm not sure. Probably to get tapas and vino. I'll post more pictures tomorrow, my camera is being testy right now. It's the battery, actually -- I can convert my battery charger, but it's so big that it won't fit in many of the sockets which is so obnoxious. Some of the outlets have extensions, and I have to use those in order to charge it. Ay. I'm going to check if it's charged again and take it with me.

That's all for today, adiós.

Busy busy busy ^ nth

When I was living in SoCal, I felt like I was in a Disney movie every day of my life. Now I feel that way even more than ever with the sun, the balconies, the palm trees and all those good things. It makes me want to run out into the street, Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music style, sometimes. Then something like a guy urinating in public will bring me back down to earth.

Other bad thing that happened? Eye infection. You can see it in the picture, click to blow 'er up. My left eye is swollen and bloodshot, so while I was out on the town with Emily and Becca, we went into the pharmacy so I could get eye drops. In Spain, though, you apparently need a prescription for those. Seriously? Why. Anyway, I was all annoyed that the doctor's office wouldn't be open, but fortunately there was a 24-hour clinic across the street. I walked on over and filled out some forms and handed over my passport. I need to get my official insurance card, which I don't have yet. Ithaca was supposed to make my alumni email address forward everything to my yahoo mail account, and that hasn't been happening consistently, so I lost a couple of the emails from my program about what to do. Luckily, I got in, anyway.

I had to speak Spanish the entire time, but it was fine. It WAS weird, though, to have two doctors hover all over me and poke my eye with a popsicle stick and get interrogated -- do you wear contacts, do you smoke, do you sleep well, do you itch your eyes, do you produce eye discharge, etc. They freakin' douched my eye and kept telling me to open my eye more, but uhhh, isn't it natural to shut your eyes in reaction to getting a fire hose shot at them? Either way, I got my eye drops and I have to use them on my left eye 3 times a day for the next 5+ days. Oy.

Tomorrow I'm going to the school to get my lesson plan solidified and say hi to the prof's again. I was told to show up between 10:30 a.m. and noon and definitely before 2 p.m., hahaha, I love Spain. Before that, I have to put more money on my phone, get a bike, go to the cop shop to see about getting my visa extension, find some more stuff to put on my white walls so it looks less like a loony bin, etc. Oh and I have to buy some food and do laundry. It'll definitely take me more than just tomorrow to get all that stuff in, seeing how I'll have to commute and figure out the lay of the land along with all of that stuff, above, and I have about the worst sense of direction known to man. When I get lost, I'm planning to walk up to people and ask where the @#(% I am. People don't even care if you approach them in the street, so hooray for that.

Right now I'm getting super tired. Red wine is the best sleep aid probably ever, too. Obviously I'm not getting wasty face, but un vaso de vino por las noches = good stuff.

OK time to faceplant in the pillows, night!

In Cabra :-D

Yesterday we got to Cabra in the afternoon. The night before we had our last dinner with the full group and it was a great time. We all went out to a restaurant and got drinks and tapas. Unfortunately we were all under the impression that we would be fed at a table and get full plates and that didn't happen. The drinks were coming out way faster than the tapas, too, so a bunch of people were getting tipsy without even trying. Woops. The food and the drinks were great and everybody was looking attractive...what's up with everybody in Spain being good looking, even the Americans here?


Maybe I'm just thinking we're all gorgeous because of the piropos (compliments) that strangers give you in the street. It honestly makes me pretty uncomfortable when I hear "oye, qué guapa eres, me gusta" x_x Also, the staring. People stare here all the time and don't understand if you're offended. Oh, and strangers will touch you. My background on my dad's side is pretty hands-off Swedes and Belgians, so it's a bit of a change for me. My mom's side, however, is Italian and the Italians are even more touchy feely than Spaniards. What I really enjoy about the Spanish guys is that they aren't NEARLY as aggressive as the outrageously sexually-charged Italians who think all the regazze americane sono facile. Non mi piacciono questi uomini.

So, Cabra. So far I really enjoy my apartment, my roommates, the people - it's all gravy. I met my bilingual coordinator yesterday with one of my roommates, at his apartment, and he's great. I called him up first and we decided to meet in the parque. I had no idea whether he'd give me dos besos upon arrival, but he did. Everyone kisses everyone here. If you back away when someone enters your nonexistent personal bubble, they'll think you're rude. Can't be shy in Spain, that's for sure. But people here really know how to live, I'd say -- I feel really accepted pretty quickly once I speak to people here. Also it's been a confidence boost to hear that I can understand everything they say and speak almost as well.

Yesterday night after getting mostly unpacked and walking around the city with roommates (oh and after the meet and greet with my bilingual coordinator), we got ready to sign our lease with the landlords. Their apartment is gorgeous, so many of the apartments here are well-appointed and designed. Every time you walk through the door they want to get you a drink and give you the best seat and all those things. We signed the lease and got the key code to access the internet and they told me where I can buy a bike. I have to buy a bike because my school is about half an hour away, walking. Also, I'll be working mostly early in the mornings and I'll be too tired to get up early enough to get there in time. What can I say, I'm lazy. That's why Spain suits me so well, because this is a country of people who appreciate the value of sleep! ¡Viva la siesta!



Post lease-signing, we went to Emily's apartment for dinner. She cooked us some paella and had bread and drinks. I brought a bottle of blush rioja wine and chocolate for the group. So cheap, too. Let me tell you, this is the perfect city as far as money goes, because this lady here has champagne taste and beer money and here I can go hog wild. Once dinner was over and we chatted a while, I called my bilingual coordinator (Carlos), and they told me where to meet them. Meeting half a dozen Spaniards is incredibly nerve wracking and all the moreso when you are jet lagged beyond belief. I may not have mentioned it, but I stayed up ALL night the night before, with Claire, because she was really distressed about being placed in a town all by herself and was pretty panicked. My calming presence coupled with my wit and charm apparently did the trick. Hardy de hardy har. But honestly, I'm really happy she ended up getting a spot in our apartment because she's such a genuine girl and lots of fun, too. She has a chance of ending up teaching with me, because there are supposed to be two language assistants in every school, but one of the girls quit already. If that happens, Claire won't be commuting to Iznájar every day and will transfer to my school. Big change ~ Iznájar is super small. Also, she is assigned to a kindergarten (*cough*glorifiedbabysitter*cough*), and I'm in a middle/high school. It's possible that I'll be teaching kids up to 18 years old. Good. Lord. I really have to sharpen my skills on grammar and all that jazz.

Woops on that tangent. Anyway, going out ~ I met up with them at 11:30 and we walked to a bar. For the first 10 minutes I was kind of in shell shock, but then I had a flashback to orientation when they said that you HAVE to make a big effort at the very beginning because you can't randomly decide you want to befriend them after a month because they'll think you're out of your mind. Makes sense. So anyway, I really pushed myself and somehow used my reserve energy to make it work. They were a lot of fun. Really young, too, which is crazy ~ mostly in their 30s. The director/principal guy is probably in his 60s, but who knows. Carlos is in his 40s and speaks British English when we actually speak English. In the group last night we were speaking Spanish 95% of the time. I kept telling them I thought it was silly that I would speak Spanish to a group of Spaniards I'd never seen in my life and they couldn't speak English to one American girl? (oigame, estaba hablando español con vosotros todo de la noche y ¿no podeís hablar inglés con una americana sola?) They thought it was funny. A few of them did actually speak English to me to practice it. They had better get used to it, because we've been told that we're supposed to speak English, exclusively, in the school.

I start working, officially, on Tuesday. I'll be going to the school at 10:30 to just check it out, on Monday and make a lesson plan and solidify my knowledge of the names of the professors and where everything is and all of that. We'll see how that goes for me. Stay tuned.

Último día de orientación (last day of orientation)

We have reached the end, my friend. Well, almost -- tomorrow morning we all disperse from Sevilla to our respective cities, pueblos and pueblititos. Pueblo = town. And pueblito or pueblitito is a ridiculously small town. I mean, one girl told me her town has 2500 people in it. Seriously, that's a town? My high school had more people than that. Then again, my grandma lives in Cambridge, Illinois, and the sign when you enter that town has said "pop 2100" for as long as I can remember.

My pueblo, by the way, has 21K people. I'd say that's a pretty cozy little town, but at least it has stop lights. It has more than double the people that Sarah Palin's town, Wasilla, has where she was mayor before she was elected as governor, so what does that say? I'm glad I get along with the other girls who will be living in Cabra and they seem completely chill and not catty, crazed chicas who drive me up the wall. Mi opinión is obviously subject to change, but that's my first impresión.

Orientación has been fun. Well, the orientation sessions themselves are sometimes a bit on the boring or tedious side with all the paperwork and such, but I've had a lot of fun meeting people in the program. Also, last night while on the town, I ran into an Australian guy. One of the girls in a group I was hanging out with walked up to him and asked a question in Spanish and he responded "eh, sawry, awy dawnt spake Spaahnish." So after that was over, I was curious why he was there and I really just wanted to hear the accent some more, too, because like all of my double-x chromosed peers, I swoon over a cute accent. And I'm nosy by nature, that's why I studied journalism. :-) He hung out with our group. He was a lot of fun and he gave me book and movie suggestions, which I'm always on the lookout for. Never gonna see Richie again, but whatever! Fun stuff.

Also, yesterday, we broke off into groups before the orientation sessions started to do some field trip like things. My group was off to the cathedral, and let me tell you, it's massive. It's second only to the Vatican in size, I believe. I'm a bit blah about religion, sometimes, but I had a lot of fun taking pictures and walking up to the bell tower to see the incredible view of Seville. Not to mention it gave me ample time to practice my Spanish with our tour guide, Alejandro. Before this trip I hadn't really practiced speaking Spanish with many people other than my Habitat for Humanity trip to El Salvador or the Mexican grooms where I rode horses. Oh and I practiced speaking with professors, which hardly counts. Alejandro speaks Andaluz, a dialect of Spanish, but he was speaking Castellano with us because it's easier to understand for Americans. Castellano, or Castilian Spanish, really isn't that difficult to understand even though it's portrayed to be a different language entirely. It's not. The main difference is the "theta" sound -- they lisp basically everything. Another diferencia is the use of "vosotros," which is the second person informal plural. That's a bit difficult to explain, but basically it just means it's another way to conjugate verbs that isn't used in many Spanish-speaking countries other than Spain. Spain is obviously the mother nation for all Spanish speaking places, so they've retained some of the original elementos while other places have adopted new language rules.

OK I'm off, but before I go, more fotos:

view from the top of the bell tower


la catedral


with Cassie, a new friend

http://www.new.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=33221657&l=9d446&id=13804744

¡tengo fotos, finalmente!

I have pic's up, now!

Check them out here: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2095090&l=0a522&id=13804744 and http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2095089&l=27efc&id=13804744

They're hosted on facebook's server, but that is a public link. Even if you don't have facebook, you can check them out, still.

Here's a preview:



streets of Sevilla


with my roommate at the hotel, Claire, at cocktail hour


one of the tapas ~ it's a mussel in salsa


colleción de postres (desserts)


me and Carter


flamenco dancers