Monday, June 20, 2011

Sevilla, la ciudad más bonita del mundo

Let me just say...

Sevilla is the most beautiful city in Spain. I am serious! People always talk about the coast, which is so beautiful, but Sevilla is...tan preciosa como nada. That´s right, a little Spanish there for you all to Google-translate. :) When we arrived, we basically pulled into the city after an eight hour bus ride and met our homestay mother, Maribel. She is the cutest thing! She was so nice and let us take a taxi back to our homestay since we had a TON of luggage and she did not think we could carry all (truth). We share a room in the flat, which is about the size of a regular room in the States. It is actually really a great apartment because 1) we are only about 15 minutes away from school walking and 2)we are in the basement of the building, so it generally stays pretty cool where we are even though outside our window its 100 degrees (Fahrenheit, I haven´t quite figured out Celsius yet...). We have the cutest 2 year old girl with us named Blanca (Maribel's daugther, Eva, is her mother who also lives in the house), and she is the smartest 2 year old we have ever seen. ¿En serio? ¡Sí! - she speaks and understands almost everything anyone says. She loves to dance flamenco while we sing and clap for her. Heidi and I are currently teaching her how to count in English, so hopefully she can count and do her ABCs before we leave.  We also have two very cute, nice brothers in our house, Antonio and Miguel. As we spend more time together, it begins to feel more and more normal to be in the house. :)

One of the absolute best things about Europe and Sevilla in particular is that you can walk anywhere. We live in el centro in Sevilla, so we have access to almost everything. The longest we are usually walking is like 50 minutes...yes, I know that no one is going to believe we walk that far in one go, but we are CHANGED WOMEN (or so we are saying)! To all you States people that seems like a long time, but here it goes by so fast because everyone else is walking too. Heidi and I always leave to go out around 11, and I swear, between the time we leave school (8 PM) to the time we go out, the population increases by 5x. So many people are out late...I love it! It's so warm outside anyway, everyone stands in the streets and talks. On Thursdays in Sevilla, there is what is called a botellón, where young people gather in the same plaza to drink Cruzcampo (the beer of choice here) outside, talk, and just...be. The first time we went, there were probably around 250 people in the plaza...and no shortage of cute boys. Hey Prez Obama, this is one law that should get changed back in the States. :)

The driving, however, is terrible. Omaha people, you are so, so lucky, you have no idea. You'd think pedestrians would have the right of way, correct? ¡No, aquí no! If you are in the way of a car, prepare to get squashed. They stop for no one, so you better get on a sidewalk (if there even is a sidewalk). Heidi, being so hotheaded, gives all the drivers dirty looks as they drive by, especially this one that drove into a puddle purposely (or so she says) to splash water all over her (I may or may not have laughed at her...but those of you know know me probably already know the answer). The availabily of taxis is amazing, though. The only time we really take taxis is at night when we are far from home, but it is so fast- there are taxis on literally every corner in el centro. They always seem surprised that the Americans can speak Spanish, or that I am even American...

The food has been surprisingly good, although I think Heidi could do without the fish. We have this really yummy thing called tortilla de patata that is not an actual tortilla like we usually think of it...it's more like a pancake. But it is super delicious. For breakfast, Heidi and I have become obsessed with toasted baguette plus olive oil and salt, SO GOOD! The first morning we were here, our señora Maribel told us to try it, so we did mostly out of politeness, but to our surprise we love it! Basically the only reason we get up before noon is to have this breakfast. We still miss food from the States (if you even say the word Applebee's or steak my mouth starts to water) but it is not as bad as we were thinking it would be. While we don't drink alcohol in our homestay, most people on the streets are drinking beer or sangria with every meal. It's pretty amazing, to be perfectly honest, although my professor said that people in Spain are able to accomplish more because they are always relaxed and that Americans think they get more done but really they are just uptight and cannot get anything done after about 2:30 in the afternoon. True? Not true? Not sure, to be honest. I suppose we will see...

So this has been a really terribly long post, so I will leave it here. :) I know we have so much to say, but it is hard to make time because we are always so busy doing stuff! ¡Amor de Sevilla a nuestra familia y nuestros amigos!

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