Saludos from Madrid!
So the saga begins. It started with a bus ride that seemed to never end. 6 hours to be exact, but it was a helluva lot cheaper that the train. I think I'll splurge and take the train home. So I have been on many buses to the beach and such and never had a problem sleeping. In fact, the drammamine (sp?) normally knocks me out like that. However last night after catching the midnight bus and taking drammamine, I still could not sleep. Perhaps it was the bus was freezing, perhaps it was that the guy behind me thought it was perfectly acceptable to make snorting sounds like he was a hawking a loogie the entire time or perhaps it was that I got stuck in the very first seat and it was too bright (you dont get to pick your seat). Either way, I am wiped out already!
So I get to the bus station and make my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth and whatnot. Ok so you tell me: are we just too pampered in public restrooms in America or are they just gross in Europe? I never knew that asking for soap, seat covers and paper towels was asking that much! Well to be fair, this is the first time that I have seen soap in a public restroom since being here!
Anyway, I make my way to the tourist info stand and ask for a map. The guy says there are none. I walk away tired and frustrated and look at the metro maps for a half a clue as to which line to aim for. I buy a ticket and head down. Still no idea where to go and no map in sight. So I walk farther and spot a city map on the wall. After a good 10 minutes I still cannot locate the street I want so I head upstairs to ask the security guys for help. They eventually figure it out and I miraculously make my way to Plazadora de Jines (or something like that). I am so stoked to finally be at the chocolateria in my guidebook that I take a pic of the street sign. However, despite the fact that my guidebooks say open 24hours and there are signs posted all over the shop that say ¨open all day and night,¨ the shop is closed. Only in Spain.
By now it is 8:30 and I am cold and hungry for those chocolate churros that my guidebooks raved about. I pop into the Starbucks across the street for a decaf (finally found my decaf in Spain!!!) and low and behold am the ONLY one in the salon upstairs hanging out. I took a pic to document this amazing occurence that would never happen in Seattle! Well I may as well be sitting in a freezer because thats how cold it is in Starbucks...so I wonder a bit and then success! I FINALLY get my hot chocolate and churros and se vale la pena, so worth it! They were delicious...and a great start to a fun day in Madrid!
My day included a walking tour of the city, the Prado art museum, the famous Cervantes/Don Quijote de la Mancha monument and now am looking for a place to stay tonight.
The saga continues tomorrow, stay tuned...
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Done with TEFL course and on to searching for work!
Hola!
Como estan ustedes? I'm happy to report that I finished my TEFL course and now have my certification in TESOL. I can't believe how fast the month has flown by! It's crazy how it feels like I've been gone a long time but how at the same time, the course flew by. It was a lot of work and I had a really tough time with the grammar test...long story. However, I made it and I'm done now!
We went out last night to celebrate being done and got a little "weird" as my friend Kyle would say. The Spaniards are night owls and they keep the sangria coming! Some of our spanish students who we taught our practice English lessons to came with us. It was fun to hang out with them and practice my Spanish. One of them and I are going to try to meet up for intercambio (interchange?), where we spend part of the time talking in English and part in Spanish. This way we can help each other learn and have new friends. So I've got a few intercambios lined up now with our English students. This should be good!
What else? I have to say it's bittersweet to be done because some of my classmates will be leaving and I'll miss them a lot! Our little group will shrink but at least some folks are sticking around and my friend Amy will be back in a few weeks so I'm happy about that. It's so nice to be done with homework and studying!
My next steps are to look for jobs and do some traveling. Tomorrow I'm going to head back to the beach for some r & r. Probably we'll go to Cadiz but maybe to Huelva. Then, I'm going to head to Madrid at some point this week to see the amazing things there that I've been wanting to see for so long. It costs a lot more to take the fast train there than the bus, but the bus is like 6 hours. I don't want to spend that much time on a bus! I'll have to check with Rosa and Carlo for advice and look online. Johanna told me about the fast trains so I made take that option. Or maybe I'll fly if that's cheaper? Not sure. I am hoping to meet Maria while there. She's a close friend of Kendal and Kmbris's (friends of mine in Seattle) and it would be awesome to have someone to grab a bit to eat with in the evening. Am waiting to hear back from her.
Things are well here in general. I feel much better than I was feeling last week and am excited to see more of Spain soon. For now I'm staying at Rosa's. She gave me some advice this morning and it seems it might be hard to find a place to rent month to month. I will be here for Sept and then we'll see where I go after that. My friend Carrie will be in Granada as of tomorrow, so I'll probably venture over there to see her. Also, Kyle and I may head up to Barcelona because he wants to visit his friend there and I want to do the things that I ran out of time for before (and Meg, I'll head back to Stoke!). Ryanair, I hate you but I love you for being cheap. Lastly but not leastly, Megan and Brian will hopefully come here to see me soon or I'll go back to Germany to see them! Not sure when, but I am REALLY excited to see them after so long!
That's it for now. I'm missing home a lot but am also really excited to be here and see more of Spain. It's kind of a weird feeling. I won't lie, I miss a special someone back home a lot. And as pathetic as it is, I miss my kitty! After hearing that Catita (my 6 year old cousin) wanted to talk to her favorite auntie (me!) yesterday when she was sad from being bullied at her camp, I am missing my family a bit. Had good talks with my parents and Auntie Debbie a few days ago so that was really nice. Everyone seems to be doing fine. Mom is busy getting ready to start teaching full time!
Sorry that got long! That's it for now. I posted pics on facebook yesterday so check them out if you would like. Be well everyone!
<3, Ashley
Como estan ustedes? I'm happy to report that I finished my TEFL course and now have my certification in TESOL. I can't believe how fast the month has flown by! It's crazy how it feels like I've been gone a long time but how at the same time, the course flew by. It was a lot of work and I had a really tough time with the grammar test...long story. However, I made it and I'm done now!
We went out last night to celebrate being done and got a little "weird" as my friend Kyle would say. The Spaniards are night owls and they keep the sangria coming! Some of our spanish students who we taught our practice English lessons to came with us. It was fun to hang out with them and practice my Spanish. One of them and I are going to try to meet up for intercambio (interchange?), where we spend part of the time talking in English and part in Spanish. This way we can help each other learn and have new friends. So I've got a few intercambios lined up now with our English students. This should be good!
What else? I have to say it's bittersweet to be done because some of my classmates will be leaving and I'll miss them a lot! Our little group will shrink but at least some folks are sticking around and my friend Amy will be back in a few weeks so I'm happy about that. It's so nice to be done with homework and studying!
My next steps are to look for jobs and do some traveling. Tomorrow I'm going to head back to the beach for some r & r. Probably we'll go to Cadiz but maybe to Huelva. Then, I'm going to head to Madrid at some point this week to see the amazing things there that I've been wanting to see for so long. It costs a lot more to take the fast train there than the bus, but the bus is like 6 hours. I don't want to spend that much time on a bus! I'll have to check with Rosa and Carlo for advice and look online. Johanna told me about the fast trains so I made take that option. Or maybe I'll fly if that's cheaper? Not sure. I am hoping to meet Maria while there. She's a close friend of Kendal and Kmbris's (friends of mine in Seattle) and it would be awesome to have someone to grab a bit to eat with in the evening. Am waiting to hear back from her.
Things are well here in general. I feel much better than I was feeling last week and am excited to see more of Spain soon. For now I'm staying at Rosa's. She gave me some advice this morning and it seems it might be hard to find a place to rent month to month. I will be here for Sept and then we'll see where I go after that. My friend Carrie will be in Granada as of tomorrow, so I'll probably venture over there to see her. Also, Kyle and I may head up to Barcelona because he wants to visit his friend there and I want to do the things that I ran out of time for before (and Meg, I'll head back to Stoke!). Ryanair, I hate you but I love you for being cheap. Lastly but not leastly, Megan and Brian will hopefully come here to see me soon or I'll go back to Germany to see them! Not sure when, but I am REALLY excited to see them after so long!
That's it for now. I'm missing home a lot but am also really excited to be here and see more of Spain. It's kind of a weird feeling. I won't lie, I miss a special someone back home a lot. And as pathetic as it is, I miss my kitty! After hearing that Catita (my 6 year old cousin) wanted to talk to her favorite auntie (me!) yesterday when she was sad from being bullied at her camp, I am missing my family a bit. Had good talks with my parents and Auntie Debbie a few days ago so that was really nice. Everyone seems to be doing fine. Mom is busy getting ready to start teaching full time!
Sorry that got long! That's it for now. I posted pics on facebook yesterday so check them out if you would like. Be well everyone!
<3, Ashley
Monday, August 22, 2011
Tests are no fun, but we're almost done!
Hola,
Well it's been a crazy week or so since I last wrote. My course ends this Friday and I can speak for all of us when I say that it couldn't come sooner. We've been working hard and now are studying like mad for our phonology exam tomorrow and grammar exam on Wednesday. Just passing is fine with me. We need 65% to pass. Grammar is a bit dry but I find phonology to be pretty interesting stuff. I understand most everything we've been taught but am worried about memorizing it all.
Last week was especially draining and to be honest, I was in a foul mood for a few days. We were all so stressed and tense. One day we came back to Rosa's for lunch and were all pretty much silent during lunch except for a bit of venting about how bad of a day we all had. Our instructors have been pretty hard on us in terms of not communicating well and just being kind of rude to us at times. We feel that one of them is not happy with her job and creates tension in the classroom.
But anyway, we're almost through! Our practice lessons for the Spaniards have been successful. We've had to teach reading, listening, and basic conversation. I volunteered to go first because I wanted to get them out of the way. We rotated daily on who taught but my lesson was the very first one. What was I thinking? I got so nervous!
After my course ends, I'll move to a different room in Rosa's house for the month of September while I try to find housing and a JOB. My new roommate at Rosa's will be a girl from Austria I think. She's a medical student or something. There are other girls coming for the TEFL class from other European countries as well. I'm hoping to make some more friends this way. Still have not quite figured out the best way to meet Spaniards but will get there eventually. It's likely that I'll teach private lessons and maybe in a language academy for a few hours per week. As an American, it's harder to get work, but possible.
What else? I miss Seattle a lot but love Spain! Seville really is lovely, and the weather is hot! I went back to the Catedral (cathedral) yesterday and climbed the Giralda (bell tower). It was a cool view of the city from way up there though I do admit that my fear of heights kicked in...lol. I felt like I needed to go somewhere religious since it's been so long since I went to church and since friends from church have some rough stuff going on. The catedral is gorgeous and used to be a mosque so it's got a unique history. For example, the walk up the bell tower is ramps instead of stairs because when it was a mosque, horses carried men up there to ring the bells 5 times a day when it was time to call everyone to prayer. 34 ramps later, I arrived. Also, the tomb of Cristobol Colon (aka Christopher Columbus) is there!
I think that's it for now. Back to studying!
Well it's been a crazy week or so since I last wrote. My course ends this Friday and I can speak for all of us when I say that it couldn't come sooner. We've been working hard and now are studying like mad for our phonology exam tomorrow and grammar exam on Wednesday. Just passing is fine with me. We need 65% to pass. Grammar is a bit dry but I find phonology to be pretty interesting stuff. I understand most everything we've been taught but am worried about memorizing it all.
Last week was especially draining and to be honest, I was in a foul mood for a few days. We were all so stressed and tense. One day we came back to Rosa's for lunch and were all pretty much silent during lunch except for a bit of venting about how bad of a day we all had. Our instructors have been pretty hard on us in terms of not communicating well and just being kind of rude to us at times. We feel that one of them is not happy with her job and creates tension in the classroom.
But anyway, we're almost through! Our practice lessons for the Spaniards have been successful. We've had to teach reading, listening, and basic conversation. I volunteered to go first because I wanted to get them out of the way. We rotated daily on who taught but my lesson was the very first one. What was I thinking? I got so nervous!
After my course ends, I'll move to a different room in Rosa's house for the month of September while I try to find housing and a JOB. My new roommate at Rosa's will be a girl from Austria I think. She's a medical student or something. There are other girls coming for the TEFL class from other European countries as well. I'm hoping to make some more friends this way. Still have not quite figured out the best way to meet Spaniards but will get there eventually. It's likely that I'll teach private lessons and maybe in a language academy for a few hours per week. As an American, it's harder to get work, but possible.
What else? I miss Seattle a lot but love Spain! Seville really is lovely, and the weather is hot! I went back to the Catedral (cathedral) yesterday and climbed the Giralda (bell tower). It was a cool view of the city from way up there though I do admit that my fear of heights kicked in...lol. I felt like I needed to go somewhere religious since it's been so long since I went to church and since friends from church have some rough stuff going on. The catedral is gorgeous and used to be a mosque so it's got a unique history. For example, the walk up the bell tower is ramps instead of stairs because when it was a mosque, horses carried men up there to ring the bells 5 times a day when it was time to call everyone to prayer. 34 ramps later, I arrived. Also, the tomb of Cristobol Colon (aka Christopher Columbus) is there!
I think that's it for now. Back to studying!
Monday, August 15, 2011
Thank God for "chinos"...
Hola!
So you're probably about that title. Well, "chinos" are little or sometimes rather large shops run by Chinese people. They are open when nothing else is open...today for instance is a bank holiday and nothing here is open-except for the chinos. It may seem a bit racist but they are all literally run by Chinese people and everyone just refers to these shops as chinos. Chinos are everything shops. You can get anything from school supplies to undies to cleaning products, to food to toys...and the list goes on. My roommate found a fabulous type of nail polish that comes out a thin part on the top of the bottle instead of with a brush...it's great for french tips! Anyway, chinos are awesome and I had a funny experience in one the other day.
On Sunday, I needed a few things and being Spain, no normal grocery store would is open on Sunday. In fact pretty much nothing is open on Sundays. So I took a walk and looked for a chino. I headed down a street near home and saw that the one I normally hit up was closed because it was technically still siesta time (the Spanish like their meal/nap time anywhere from 3-6ish). So I kept walking and found another chino on a side street that was kinda hidden. I headed in and grabbed one of the supplies that I needed and a little girl who was playing with the toys nearby started talking to me. She asked if I needed this and that and when I said I needed hand soap, she took off running. Before long, I heard her yell, "aqui!" which means "here!". So I followed her voice a few aisles over and saw the bars of soap. I grabbed a vanilla one and made to head for the front of the shop to pay. The little girl grabbed it out of my hand and placed another one in my hand instead. She told me to smell it "huelele". She said it smelled better than the one I had before! So she and I smell some soaps and she helps me pick the best one. Then she asks if I speak English. I say yes and she asks my name, in flawless English. She says"my name is Susanna". I was floored! This girl could not have been more than 7 years old and here she is speaking perfect English, Spanish (of course), and I'm pretty sure she was speaking in Chinese with her mother (the owner of the shop).
I got such a kick out of having this little girl be my personal shopper and take an interest in talking to me! It made me miss working with children. They really are hilarious and unpredictable sometimes. Anyway, I thought I'd share that story with you all.
On another note, I received a nice compliment from my teacher today. I had taught my second practice lesson to Spanish students and we were going over feed back for all the lessons taught today. My teacher re-emphasized the importance of giving clear directions and acting them out since our students do not understand English well. She said, "Ashley is the best in the class at doing this". I really appreciated the compliment! I think one of the reasons I quit teaching is because I just began to feel like I was such a bad teacher that I just sort of gave up. Now I realize that maybe I'm not so bad after all. And, I actually am finding that I really like it! I told my teacher that I want to work on having a strong presence and speaking loudly to my class and she said I already have both! It's amazing how positive feedback can work! In the past I received lots of negative feedback but not as much positive a lot of the time and ultimately, I think it got to me. Perhaps I should work on handling criticism more.
Well that's it for now. We have a ton of work this so I should get to it. More later. Hope everyone is well and enjoying the last bit of summer!
Besitos y Abrazos,
Ashlita
So you're probably about that title. Well, "chinos" are little or sometimes rather large shops run by Chinese people. They are open when nothing else is open...today for instance is a bank holiday and nothing here is open-except for the chinos. It may seem a bit racist but they are all literally run by Chinese people and everyone just refers to these shops as chinos. Chinos are everything shops. You can get anything from school supplies to undies to cleaning products, to food to toys...and the list goes on. My roommate found a fabulous type of nail polish that comes out a thin part on the top of the bottle instead of with a brush...it's great for french tips! Anyway, chinos are awesome and I had a funny experience in one the other day.
On Sunday, I needed a few things and being Spain, no normal grocery store would is open on Sunday. In fact pretty much nothing is open on Sundays. So I took a walk and looked for a chino. I headed down a street near home and saw that the one I normally hit up was closed because it was technically still siesta time (the Spanish like their meal/nap time anywhere from 3-6ish). So I kept walking and found another chino on a side street that was kinda hidden. I headed in and grabbed one of the supplies that I needed and a little girl who was playing with the toys nearby started talking to me. She asked if I needed this and that and when I said I needed hand soap, she took off running. Before long, I heard her yell, "aqui!" which means "here!". So I followed her voice a few aisles over and saw the bars of soap. I grabbed a vanilla one and made to head for the front of the shop to pay. The little girl grabbed it out of my hand and placed another one in my hand instead. She told me to smell it "huelele". She said it smelled better than the one I had before! So she and I smell some soaps and she helps me pick the best one. Then she asks if I speak English. I say yes and she asks my name, in flawless English. She says"my name is Susanna". I was floored! This girl could not have been more than 7 years old and here she is speaking perfect English, Spanish (of course), and I'm pretty sure she was speaking in Chinese with her mother (the owner of the shop).
I got such a kick out of having this little girl be my personal shopper and take an interest in talking to me! It made me miss working with children. They really are hilarious and unpredictable sometimes. Anyway, I thought I'd share that story with you all.
On another note, I received a nice compliment from my teacher today. I had taught my second practice lesson to Spanish students and we were going over feed back for all the lessons taught today. My teacher re-emphasized the importance of giving clear directions and acting them out since our students do not understand English well. She said, "Ashley is the best in the class at doing this". I really appreciated the compliment! I think one of the reasons I quit teaching is because I just began to feel like I was such a bad teacher that I just sort of gave up. Now I realize that maybe I'm not so bad after all. And, I actually am finding that I really like it! I told my teacher that I want to work on having a strong presence and speaking loudly to my class and she said I already have both! It's amazing how positive feedback can work! In the past I received lots of negative feedback but not as much positive a lot of the time and ultimately, I think it got to me. Perhaps I should work on handling criticism more.
Well that's it for now. We have a ton of work this so I should get to it. More later. Hope everyone is well and enjoying the last bit of summer!
Besitos y Abrazos,
Ashlita
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Grammar is threatening to ruin my life but my Spanish students are the best!
Hola!
I can't believe we are nearly done with week 2. Just 2 days more and then I'm going to go back to the beach, probably in Cadiz again. We cover a lot in just one day. This week, we've had grammar lessons, phonology lessons, and done our practice lessons each day. The students come from 10:30-1:30 for lessons in reading, writing, and basic conversation. I taught my basic lesson yesterday. Someone decided she should volunteer to go first and get it over with but then got really nervous! Oh well, overall it went well and my teacher was not overly hard on me when we did the feedback part.
It's funny because I was very intimidated to teach adults but they were so sweet! Most of our students are Spaniards but some are Russian. It was interesting to teach folks whose English is very limited but it was a lot of fun too. I enjoyed helping the students to learn and getting to know them. Tomorrow we get assigned students to give private lessons to, so we'll see how that goes. It should be fun to work with someone one on one. I hear that giving private lessons is the best way for Americans to find work here.
We're learning foreign languages each Friday so that we can understand what it is like for our students. I'm in the Swedish group since I already know Spanish. Joanna (one of our instructors) is Swedish so she teaches us her native language. It's really hard for me to pronounce but the actual language structure is not much different from English so far. Being a language geek, I love learning Swedish!
So grammar...ugh. We do grammar at 2:30 each day and it is getting harder and harder. I know my parts of speech pretty well so that part was a breeze. But now we're doing something called aspects as well as tenses and imperatives and...the list goes on. I know grammar in Spanish better than in English, or so it seems. Is that pathetic or what? It's tough to do grammar at 2:30 when we've already had 5.5 hours of school and are tired and hungry. Phonology seems a bit easier but I'm still nervous about it. During week 4 we have grammar and phonology exams. I'm terrible with tests so am a bit worried about those but trying to not worry too much. We only need 65% to pass which doesn't seem like that much.
One last thought-I know that around the world Americans are not so popular but I didn't think that would come into play with my classmates. It has. We are 3 Americans, 3 English, 1 Dutch, and 1 South African. I've tried to make friends with everyone and enjoy the chance to meet people from around the world. However a few of my classmates are prone to making rude and offensive comments about Americans. It's really getting on my nerves. I have heard about animosity towards Americans in Europe but didn't feel worried about it coming in. I know it's not personal but it is really frustrating.
That may be it for now. I've got lots of work to do and some errands to run. I'm looking forward to the beach this weekend. Cadiz is a bit cooler than Sevilla which is really nice because it's been about 95-100 here every day! I am finally used to the heat though and don't mind it so much. Hope it's sunny back in Seattle!
Cuidense,
Ashlita
I can't believe we are nearly done with week 2. Just 2 days more and then I'm going to go back to the beach, probably in Cadiz again. We cover a lot in just one day. This week, we've had grammar lessons, phonology lessons, and done our practice lessons each day. The students come from 10:30-1:30 for lessons in reading, writing, and basic conversation. I taught my basic lesson yesterday. Someone decided she should volunteer to go first and get it over with but then got really nervous! Oh well, overall it went well and my teacher was not overly hard on me when we did the feedback part.
It's funny because I was very intimidated to teach adults but they were so sweet! Most of our students are Spaniards but some are Russian. It was interesting to teach folks whose English is very limited but it was a lot of fun too. I enjoyed helping the students to learn and getting to know them. Tomorrow we get assigned students to give private lessons to, so we'll see how that goes. It should be fun to work with someone one on one. I hear that giving private lessons is the best way for Americans to find work here.
We're learning foreign languages each Friday so that we can understand what it is like for our students. I'm in the Swedish group since I already know Spanish. Joanna (one of our instructors) is Swedish so she teaches us her native language. It's really hard for me to pronounce but the actual language structure is not much different from English so far. Being a language geek, I love learning Swedish!
So grammar...ugh. We do grammar at 2:30 each day and it is getting harder and harder. I know my parts of speech pretty well so that part was a breeze. But now we're doing something called aspects as well as tenses and imperatives and...the list goes on. I know grammar in Spanish better than in English, or so it seems. Is that pathetic or what? It's tough to do grammar at 2:30 when we've already had 5.5 hours of school and are tired and hungry. Phonology seems a bit easier but I'm still nervous about it. During week 4 we have grammar and phonology exams. I'm terrible with tests so am a bit worried about those but trying to not worry too much. We only need 65% to pass which doesn't seem like that much.
One last thought-I know that around the world Americans are not so popular but I didn't think that would come into play with my classmates. It has. We are 3 Americans, 3 English, 1 Dutch, and 1 South African. I've tried to make friends with everyone and enjoy the chance to meet people from around the world. However a few of my classmates are prone to making rude and offensive comments about Americans. It's really getting on my nerves. I have heard about animosity towards Americans in Europe but didn't feel worried about it coming in. I know it's not personal but it is really frustrating.
That may be it for now. I've got lots of work to do and some errands to run. I'm looking forward to the beach this weekend. Cadiz is a bit cooler than Sevilla which is really nice because it's been about 95-100 here every day! I am finally used to the heat though and don't mind it so much. Hope it's sunny back in Seattle!
Cuidense,
Ashlita
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Sevilla rocks!
Saludos!
So things are going pretty well so far. By last night I was physically and emotionally exhausted and then stayed out all night, till about 4 which is not my style but the Spaniards are night owls. Dinnertime is at 9 or 10 normally! Needless to say, we slept in till like 12:30 today when Rosa woke us up so the cleaning lady could change our sheets.
I have no idea where to start! This was a very full week. Class has been good so far. I am learning a lot about effective ways to teaching language and I wish I'd learned it a long time ago because it would have helped me when I taught Spanish. I am considering doing ELL when I get home so this training is awesome for that possibility. We're in class from 9-3:30, just like elementary school!
So I typical day is like this: 9-3:30 class, 4:00 lunch, 5-6 siesta or hw. Then Siesta time is taken very seriously here so most shops (even grocery stores and pharmacies) are closed from about 3-6. I sometimes take a nap but generally not. I don't sleep well at night if I sleep during the day. However, after one of Rosa and Carlo's lunches, I get such a food coma! And the 90 degree weather is making us all tired out.
Rosa and Carlo are our landlords. They are the warmest, kindest people ever. We have lunch at their house each day...it's called half board I guess since we just have the one meal. We could have done breakfast as well but most of us wanted to sleep in as late as possible so we just grab a quick bite downstairs in our little apartment instead. We have a small kitchen and a few rooms. Amy and I are in one and then the guys are in the other. Our other 3 classmates are in other homes around town. We have people from the US, England, South Africa, and Holland in our class! It's been interesting to compare cultures and sayings. We always joke about the things we say differently. Rosa and Carlo make the most delicious meals. We always have tinto verano (summer wine, which is like wine and sprite combined-so it's less strong and you can drink more, according to Rosa!), cheese, bread with olive oil, sea salt, and tomatoes, some sort of main dish, and a dessert with alcohol. I'm loving those meals! I feel like this sweet couple is more like my host family than landlords. They go out of their way to make us comfortable. Our laundry gets done, rooms cleaned, and Rosa even greets me with a hug and a kiss! I'll miss them a lot when I leave. They're the best!
What else? I went to the soccer ("not soccer, football" as my new friend Matt would say) stadium and get some cool stuff in their team store. I also took some pics of the stadium. I'm hoping to go to a game when the season starts. Gelato shops are everywhere so there's no shortage of ice cream in my diet! I went shopping in el centro last night and got some summer dresses. That's the other thing-since shops close for la siesta, they open later at night and stay open till 10 or 11 sometimes.
Tomorrow a few of us are going to Cadiz to the beach! I'm so excited to see a new town and just relax on the beach. It's about an hour bus ride we think. Maybe a little longer. I found the bus station today to buy us some tickets and also explored town some more. Next on my list is to see some flamenco dancing! I'll probably skip the bull fight, not really my thing.
I don't have any pics uploaded onto my computer yet but I'll try to post some soon. I have so much hw that it's a bit tough to find time to blog. We never get to bed before 1 and still there's always more to do! It's not hard, just tedious and time consuming. I'll report back soon on what's new here. Basically, Sevilla is a lovely little city (around 700,000 I think) and I'm enjoying being here.
Rosa and Carlo are our landlords. They are the warmest, kindest people ever. We have lunch at their house each day...it's called half board I guess since we just have the one meal. We could have done breakfast as well but most of us wanted to sleep in as late as possible so we just grab a quick bite downstairs in our little apartment instead. We have a small kitchen and a few rooms. Amy and I are in one and then the guys are in the other. Our other 3 classmates are in other homes around town. We have people from the US, England, South Africa, and Holland in our class! It's been interesting to compare cultures and sayings. We always joke about the things we say differently. Rosa and Carlo make the most delicious meals. We always have tinto verano (summer wine, which is like wine and sprite combined-so it's less strong and you can drink more, according to Rosa!), cheese, bread with olive oil, sea salt, and tomatoes, some sort of main dish, and a dessert with alcohol. I'm loving those meals! I feel like this sweet couple is more like my host family than landlords. They go out of their way to make us comfortable. Our laundry gets done, rooms cleaned, and Rosa even greets me with a hug and a kiss! I'll miss them a lot when I leave. They're the best!
What else? I went to the soccer ("not soccer, football" as my new friend Matt would say) stadium and get some cool stuff in their team store. I also took some pics of the stadium. I'm hoping to go to a game when the season starts. Gelato shops are everywhere so there's no shortage of ice cream in my diet! I went shopping in el centro last night and got some summer dresses. That's the other thing-since shops close for la siesta, they open later at night and stay open till 10 or 11 sometimes.
Tomorrow a few of us are going to Cadiz to the beach! I'm so excited to see a new town and just relax on the beach. It's about an hour bus ride we think. Maybe a little longer. I found the bus station today to buy us some tickets and also explored town some more. Next on my list is to see some flamenco dancing! I'll probably skip the bull fight, not really my thing.
I don't have any pics uploaded onto my computer yet but I'll try to post some soon. I have so much hw that it's a bit tough to find time to blog. We never get to bed before 1 and still there's always more to do! It's not hard, just tedious and time consuming. I'll report back soon on what's new here. Basically, Sevilla is a lovely little city (around 700,000 I think) and I'm enjoying being here.
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