roman ruins of Italica.

This week went by so fast. It rained a lot on Monday through Thursday. I was actually going to go by new rain boots but it didn’t rain today. Thankfully, it didn’t rain because UPO took us on a school field trip to the Roman Ruins of Italica. Italica was the first Roman province in Spain and so it’s one of the oldest towns of Spain’s Romanization. It was really neat to go there. Sometimes I forget that I live in a city center, which is so different from living in La Canada or Fort Worth, which are more suburb towns. The city puts you on guard, and there are always people alive and well (even at 4 in the morning), and it’s always so fast paced so it was nice to have a change of pace for the day. We took like three charter buses on a twenty minute bus ride outside of Sevilla to Italica. I didn’t bring the DSLR because I was afraid it might rain and ruin the camera. Italica wasn’t rainy but it was definitely windy. I really hope it doesn’t rain anymore this week in Sevilla because it torrential downpours one minute and then the next it’s totally fine. And it’s not like Texas rain. I love Texas rain. Also, I didn’t bring very good rain boots to fight the puddles either so that’s a problem. It drops like 10 degrees when it rains too so that’s unfortunate.

Thursday was also the last day to add/drop classes, so my class schedule is finally finally done! I am taking four classes, three of which are in Spanish and the other one in English. At first, I was trying to do school for only two days a week instead of four because its an hour commute to school and then an hour back each day but it was just two very long days if I would do that. So I settled for four. I’m taking Spanish Reading and Composition, Intermediate Spanish, Spanish Conversation, and Spanish Civilization and Culture in English. I’m so excited about my classes because it’s a good load and I know that taking three language classes will help my Spanish.

Today was a beautiful day in Sevilla and the sun came out. It was 12 Celsius, which is 60ish degrees, or whatever that transfers into. Exploring the city and starting classes has been a wonderful adventure thus far. On days like today, I walk outside and pinch myself because I can’t actually believe that I’m living here and doing this, and it’s so amazing because it’s actually real.

getting to know sevilla.

My school schedule at UPO is still crazy and hasn’t been figured out yet. I sat in on a bunch of classes on Thursday and tried to get signatures from professors to transfer in the classes. But really I only got on a couple waiting lists and in other classes I’m feeling out how difficult they will be. It’s stressful but there’s not a whole lot to do about it and I know I’ll figure it out sometime next week.

The culture differences have definitely taken some getting used to with different meal times, lifestyle changes, and Spanish ideas/notions of the world. It’s definitely humbling thinking about how little you can live on and still live comfortably. Spaniards think Americans are so wasteful taking hour long showers, unnecessarily doing laundry, and overusing our heating/air conditioning. I’ve continued to take 5 minute showers and wear thick socks and layers to bed, to help myself acclimate to this culture. Also, this Thursday was laundry day. Manoli gave us this blue laundry bag that is probably 24” by 24” inches, which is not a lot of laundry when you think about it. She’s actually really good about laundry and in our house we have a dryer too which is nice (so that laundry comes back to us a few days later, not weeks later, because it is getting dry on a clothes line). She washes our sheets and our towels every Thursday as well, which most families don’t do either.

Anyways, it was really funny because Thursday was laundry day and the other night before dinner Manoli brought out some of our clean clothes. She looked at me with a worried look and picked up my stack of socks and she said, “Valerie tu calcetines sin compañeras!” (your socks don't match) She had been putting all the socks together and realized that most all of my socks have no matching pair. We all just laughed hysterically. I showed her that I was wearing mismatch socks at that very moment too. Then I explained how I always wear calcetines sin compañeras.

We’re not going out every night but we have definitely taking advantage of the fact that Spain is a nightlife country and different cultural practices. Thursday night, we went to a club called Buddha, which is really awesome to go to on Thursday nights. It was a lot of fun and we met some other students studying abroad at UPO with us and also some Semester at Sea kids. We stopped at this pastry stand on the way home and had really yummy churros with chocolate. They were so good!

On Friday, we slept in because UPO doesn’t have class on Fridays for foreign exchange students, so no one had school. After almuerzo (lunch @ 2:30), Ally, Erica, Rachel, and I went walking around taking pictures and really just exploring the city. It was a lot of fun and I was able to take some neat pictures.

(1) This is one of the places we went on our adventure today. El Corte Ingles has tent vendors who sell jewelry, dresses, bags, scarves, wrist bands, and little nick knacks for cheap.
(2) Sevilla is very famous for flamenco dancing. Ally and I saw this statue near El Corte Ingles and we loved it.
(3 & 4) Sevilla has some of the most gorgeous buildings and orange trees.

first day of school.

Yesterday was my first day of school at UPO. I had two classes Reading & Composition in Spanish and English-Spanish Translation in Spanish. I really like my Reading and Composition class and I definitely think it will be good. Merillat and Christine are taking the class with me and I hear good things about our professora. I’m not sure if I’m going to stay in English-Spanish Translation, it was different from what I thought it would be and I think it’s going to be one of my more difficult classes. My Tuesday/Thursday classes are a little more complicated because I am still switching around my schedule and I need signatures to get into the classes. I want to get into Advanced Spanish I (which is more of like a Spanish Grammar class), another Spanish elective, and Spanish Civilization and Culture in English. Hopefully everything works out and I get the schedule & classes that I want.

We are still figuring out how to try to get internet or some kind of wireless rowder/card at our house. I need to set up my wireless at school too but really I need internet most at night or in the early morning before I go to school, when I’m at home. Because of the 9 hour time difference with California and the 7 hour time difference with Texas it makes skyping people at home a little more difficult.

I talked to my mom & dad yesterday on the way to school so that was really good! Matt has a vonage phone which includes international phone calls and my phone receives calls from the US for free so really I can talk to them as long as I want. Now only if Kelsey would have a vonage phone at school too that would be ideal.

I have no school on Fridays so Ally, Erica, Liz, and I are going to explore the city and go walking, or maybe rent bikes. I'm really excited to have the day off so that I can adventure, take pictures, and see more of Sevilla.