Like I said, these are all really random, but they all have to do with Sevilla ..my favorite place in Europe :)
1. Fact 1: Every time I come home from traveling from a city in Europe, I fall more and more in love with Sevilla.
I have a theory: Our teachers here and advisors back at home warned us about culture shock. When you first get to the city you love everything about it, but then once actual classes and exams start, you start to get tired of the food, city, people, host families, etc, but then soon, you come back out of the rut and are more in love with it (kind of like a roller coaster). Well anyways, I think I followed that pretty well, but not really the first part.
When I first got here, I really really liked Sevilla. I mean whats not to love? The weather is great, the architecture is great, and my family is awesome. However, I was tentative. I was tentative about living in a new city, getting lost, being scared walking home at night, not knowing how things worked or where things were. I followed the "rut" part to a tee with frustration with food, city, people etc. The culture shock rut was not an every day thing for me. It was just a some of the days thing (like when I wrote about my "All-American Saturday" and when I was sick with the flu). I still get days where I get annoyed with the food we eat. When that happens, I just head to McDonalds to get over my frustration. Anyways, I'm proud to say that I am officially on the third leg of the culture shock roller coaster :).
I just love everything about the city.
- After traveling to big cities such as Paris, Madrid, and Barcelona, it is so refreshing to come home and feel safe in Sevilla. When I first got here, Sevilla was the biggest city I had ever lived in by myself. However, it is a relief to get on the metro or walk through the touristy parts of the city without having to clutch my bag to my chest in fear of pickpocketers. (YES, its a big deal here. I saw someone right next to me in the Madrid metro get pickpocketed..they took him to the police. My roommate, Annie got pickpocketed in Barcelona). I finally feel safe and at home here.
- Another thing I love is the family oriented atmosphere. I don't know how to exactly describe it, but its just a heartwarming feeling that you get seeing sooo many older people being walked up and down the street by their grandkids or children. The ancianos (old ppl) hold on to the younger people's arms and just go for walks. There is one neighbor of mine that I am particularly fond of. I see him every day morning and night walking his 90 year old grandpa up and down the street. This would be cute just for the fact, but it doesn't help the cuteness that the grandpa literally is the slowest person I have ever seen. He kind of shuffles but in a very slow shuffling way. Although he's slow, it never fails that I see that pair slowly making their way down the street day in and day out. Also, I see a lot of grandparents pushing their grandchildren along the sidewalks. I don't think there is such a thing as babysitters here, unless you're part of the family. Also, I've never heard of a family member living in a different city, everyone lives in the same apartment building or right by each other.
- My teacher for my 2 week intensive course had this saying comparing Spanairds to Americans. I forget the exactly saying, but I got the jist of it. Basically she said that Spanairds work so they can have fun and Americans have to work at having fun (or something like that). Although I love to have fun in America, there is just something in Sevilla that makes that statement true. No matter what day of the week it is, if you go out to get a drink at a bar, you will see families sitting outside having a drink up until midnight or later. That's just their culture and I think its pretty cool that the Spanairds are ALWAYS socializing at cafes and bars. Especially now that its warm, the outdoor seating areas (which are at every bar/cafe) are absolutely filled with people. Sometimes I wonder when they work!
- Everyone is so nice here. Even though its like the 3rd or 4th biggest city in Spain, you really feel like you're in a small town where everyone knows everyone. Just little things that people do like holding the metro for you if your coming down the stairs, or if your backpack is open telling you that it is because "no quiero que alguien te robe" (i don't want someone to rob you), or letting you go ahead of them in the food market line because you have less stuff then them. One of my favorite neighbors lives right across the hall from us. He's probably like 70 years old and I swear I run into him once a day. I don't exactly remember how we met, but everyday I see him and everyday he says "buenas joven" like hi there little one. Its so cute!
- I still am in love with the sites in the city. I'll post some pictures. I took some more touristy pictures of things I hadn't taken a picture of.
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| My walk from the CIEE building to the University everyday |
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| The really cool trees in this one park |
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| Sitting at my favorite cafe working on homework and looking at one of my favorite buildings in Sevilla. |
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| View of Los Remedios y Triana (2 neighborhoods) across the river. Everyone comes to the river to tan, exercise, botellon, etc |
Fact 2: Although I love love love the city, I still LOATHE the piropos.
Erg. Here comes my ranting. Ok, so piropos are like those guys that you pass on the street that holler at you and say gross things. I'm sure if you're a girl this has happened to you once or twice in your life. However, you do not know how bad it can be until you visit Spain. My women's writer class teacher (who can be considered a feminist) says its because during Franco's dictatorship women had no rights and couldn't even walk outside without a man. For these gross, low life men who say things and make rude gestures, its like they think they still are better than women and that women shouldn't be out on the street flaunting it and that they have the right to say whatever they like. Well sorry piropos, you are WRONG. Usually I listen to my ipod on my walk to class. However, yesterday my Ipod was dead. Yesterday it was hotter than 90 degrees. Yesterday I wore shorts and a tank top (which sticks out compared to the Spanairds wearing jeans, boots, and jackets). And yesterday just in ONE 40 min walk to the university I got called out at at least 5 times. I'm used to the staring. That doesn't bother me. But the lip smacking, slurping (which are they two worst), trying to grab hands, and calling out guapa guapa ven ven is just infuriating. Who do these aholes think they are being able to degrade girls like this? It's awful and they should have their larynx (or sound box for non SLP majors lol) cut out for even thinking about saying it. ERG I just get so mad. All the American girls in this program hate it. We've all talked about it. They have no idea how degrading it is. erg erg erg. They should be punished.
Fact 3: My host family is pretty amazing.
- Celia: Seriously, Celia is one of the hardest working women I have ever met. I really admire her for everything she does. She is a single mom with 3 jobs and takes care of 4 kids (2 of her own and me and Annie). She owns a store at a local mall called Funky Fish. She works for this website where she must constantly be updating the weather, local news, going-ons, etc, and she just got a new job working for the government of Andalucia. I really don't know how she does it. On top of that she must cook all of us food every day, wash our clothes, etc. It's crazy how she keeps up with everything. Also, the other night we were talking and she was telling us about this 3 part exam that she's been taking for the last year and a half. Its some kind of government job that is really serious. She said last year for the 2nd exam she would wake up every morning at 4am just to study. She was the 30th highest scorer out of like 1,000 applicants. Thats pretty awesome.
- Juan Lou: is Celia's boyfriend of like 5 years I think. He is seriously the nicest nicest guy ever! He knows a little bit of English so will try and talk to us in English sometimes, which is fun. He's just a great great guy.
- David: (pronounced : dabeed...all the Vs are pronounced Bs). David is amazing. He's closer to Annie and I's age and we love talking to him about pop culture and music and tv shows. He's huge huge huge into dancing and just produced a music video. I'll post the link here and if you go to the 42 second mark, David comes in, in the middle wearing leopard (his favorite). David is just such a sweetheart. I love him! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v
=BvtxBpUfWU8&hd=1 - Laura: I probably talk to Laura the most out of any one in the family. She's 11 years old and is always coming in our room to play and chit chat and just see what we're up to. Yesterday when I was watching her play outside, she really reminded me of myself when I was younger. (First off, I want to comment on where they play. The family lives in an apartment complex with lots of other buildings all around. In the middle is a dirt area where grass would normally be. Well, day in and day out tons of kids come "bajo" to play with their mom's and baby siblings watching them on benches.) Anyways, Laura is always playing soccer. Like I told you, not many girls play soccer here. She is on an all boys team here. When watching her play with all the boys yesterday and talk back and yell that the goal wasn't "vale" she really reminded me and St. Lawrence school days when Caitlin and I would be the only girls running around on the cement parking lot playing soccer with the boys and not taking anyone's crap. Oooo the memories.
Last Wednesday was our last group meeting for my interest group. We had a famous cook come to the CIEE palace and cook some tapas for us. We got to peel the potatoes for the tortillas and spread the salmorejo on the pan. It was really cool seeing her cook for us and the food was really good!
Friday Annie and I went to the river to lay out for the day. I finished an entire Sandra Brown book, but was very stupid about the sun. There is no humidity here so you don't feel as hot. I was out in the sun without sunscreen for around 4hours. You can guess how that turned up. Don't worry I bought some sunscreen after the fact. A small bottle for 13 euro. Ridiculous, but the Spanairds with their olive skin don't burn, so it's not used too much. Laura had no idea what happened to my shoulders when she saw me haha.
Sunday was really fun. Annie and I headed to the outskirts of el Centro to go visit this animal market that happens every Sunday. I was really in the mood for petting some animals. Unfortunately, it started raining on our way. We asked some guy once we got closer and he said that its an open market so they closed it. Boo. Instead, we headed to this Mercado de Artesania which is brand new. Inside are little tents with goodies and jewelry from so many countries. Outside on the deck (but luckily covered) is a stage and bunches of tents with food from around the world. They even had Mexican which sounds so good right now! I'm going to have to stop back again and get some chips and dip or something. Here are some pictures to show you what I'm talking about.
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| Russian Art |
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| idk if you can see it, but there is an Obama figurine in the back. |
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| had to take this for mom and Grandpa |
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| yummmyyy |
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| Greek and Australian food! (They don't have steak here! I said bistec to Laura the other day and she didn't know what it was!) |
Hasta Luego,
Lauren
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