Donde esta the lightbulb?!

Hello again! I can't believe I have successfuly completed my 5th week in spain! its so crazy! My second week of classes went just fine and nothing too exciting occured, so i'm going to start with the end and tell you about my weekend :)

Frustration Friday:

Friday can literally be split into 2 days for me. The first "day" I went to Carmona, which is this pueblo 30 minutes from Sevilla that is famous for its Roman Necropolis (aka Roman burial and tomb site). It was really neat because the trip was very interactive. We got to climb down a rickety ladder into an old tomb and also climb down into some of the public graves. There were no coffins or skeletons left (those could be found in the museum) but it was still really neat to see gravesites from the 1st century. Here are a few pictures

A view of the city

inside one of the Roman tombs

My friend Brittany climbing down to see the tombs :)

The second half of Friday could be considered only a so so day. I feel like everyone in our program is getting to the point on the "culture shock" curve that they don't want to be in. According to all of our professors and CIEE staff, everyone will experience culture shock, which comes in lots of different forms and is kind of like a rollercoaster ride. During the first month that you get here you're on the top of the hill and loving the ride. However, once classes start, we're told that most of us will have some kind of hatred toward the culture, want to go home, etc (which is considered the downhill fall). Then, in a couple of weeks, we get out of the hole and come to love it again. Well, I haven't really experienced any of the hating Spain and wanting to go home, but last Sunday and this Saturday I have felt like I'm getting no where in the language gap and kind of feel like I'm failing myself and my goals I set for myself. I think this happens because I don't have a set schedule like I do during the weekend. Saturday I got home from Carmona at 4 and didn't leave to go out til 11pm, so that is a long time to just sit there. Anyways, it didn't help when my host sister and her friend came in my room to talk to me and kept laughing and telling me that they couldn't understand what I was saying (which I'm pretty sure they could because I was just askign them how playing outside was). I know that they are just kids and kids can be mean and Laura probably gets tired of always having to talk slow for us, but it still is a real big downer on your mindset of how your Spanish is. So then for the rest of the night I was jsut in a downer mood because even when watching tv, its impossible to understand everything. Sometiems I think I'm doing so good but then I realize that when our teachers and my family speak in Spanish to me, they speak clearly and slower. So while I might say I can understand Spanish, I can't actaully understand real Spanish conversation. Luckily, I went out with Attie and Brittany, my two great friends here and told them what was up. It was a relief to hear that they had each been feeling the same way the past week. Attie told me that she's heard that in a new language setting, its always hard, but one day a Lightbulb will just pop up and you'll be able to understand everything so much better without people having to talk slow to you. (Lightbulb, I'm ready for you anyday now!) After everyone realized that we might jus need some time away from the Spanish world, we decided to have an all American Saturday! 

All-American Saturday:
What does an All-American Saturday consist of you ask? Well it consists of a much needed secret rebellion against the Spanish norms. For example, I wore a tshirt out in public for the first time since i've been here. Also, we ate McDonalds, which was the best thing of my life (Amy, they're caramel sundaes are way better!) and we also saw a movie in English with Spanish subtitles. We saw The Kings Speech, which I've been wanting to see since before I left because (a) I'm going to school for Speech (b) I want to know a King, aka marry a king and (c) I just heard it was awesome! Well the movie was great and if you haven't seen it, I suggest you do. Also, it really made me realize that this experience is already making me a better professional in my major. I feel like now I can relate to people with speech disorders a little bit better because I can understand the frustration of not being able to communicate how you'd like to. Whether its not being able to speak fast enough as what your mind wants to say (my case when speaking Spanish, and the King's case in the movie) or not being understood/not understanding what is being said (my case with Spanish too). I had never thought that this travel abroad experience would benefit me in this way as well. I love the fact that now I can relate to my future patients just a fraction of what they feel everyday. I'm so blessed that I can at least speak one language. I don't know what I would do if I struggled at my first language too.

Senderismo Sunday:
Sunday I got up bright and early and joined our group to go hiking in a province 1 1/2 from Sevilla called Huelva. Our hiking trip was from 9-4 and we hiked 7 miles through the hills/baby mountains (i don't know if you could even call them that although they were called sierras, which means mountain range) It was so nice to be out in the trees and see green all around you! In sevilla, there is very few patches of green. The kids soccer fields are on dirt fields. Anyways, the hiking trip was so much fun. The guides knew so much. Like the leader would just be walking and plucking branches and bushes and then pass it back saying what it was. We got to smell oregano, lavender, speariment, peppermint, and so many other things that i didn't know the translation for lol. We also got to see wild horses, bulls, sheep and so much more! it was really cool. I'll post some pictures and a video of the sheep, which i just thought was the funniest thing of my life!

I ruined my favorite gold nikes because we had to cross this river of mud and couldn't  go around because there was barbwire outlining it!

Great view 

We got to drink out of the mini waterfall!

These berries are great for dying clothes and were used back in the day to  dye their clothes black after their husbands died. But the cool thing about them is that its not permanent, so the dye only stayed in their clothes for a couple of weeks

All the trees were hollowed out like this. The trees were brought here from the north and are still very much alive. They die from the inside out and have been dying for the past like 8 centuries, but are still alive.