Let me just start of by saying how huge this city is!! I don't know what I was expecting but this is bigger than anything I could have imagined. Colleen and I have yet to go a day without getting lost. Today we had an excursion to the reales alcazares where the spanish royal family stays sometimes. It was gigantic! We walked around on our tour with our professor for an hour and a half and still only saw what he said was about 30 percent of it. Afterwards, we ate our bocadillos at a cafe inside the palace grounds (which apparently we weren't allowed to do but luckily we didn't get in trouble until after we had finished eating). Our mom also packed us this juice boxes that were milk and fruit mixed together...I did not try it! After a quick siesta, we bought new notebooks (couldn't find any wideruled and apparently people her prefer to write on graph paper? Very odd). Then we explored a whole new part of our neighborhood, Nervion, and found new stores and restaurants very close to us! The historic district or el centro is still definitely my favorite. The cathedral here is absolutely breathtaking and enormous! I would put up a picture but I've yet to take one that truly does it justice. I think its just something you have to see in person to fully appreciate. Yesterday we slept in late and went to a meeting with some other people on our program to talk about a possible trip this weekend. We're going to rent two cars (22 euros per car for two days!)and drive to Ronda for the day on Saturday, come back here hopefully in time to watch the Sevilla v. Betis game at a bar (Just watching the crowd at this things is so entertaining--everyone yells, chants, and even sings throughout it. Can't wait to go to a game soon--the Sevilla stadium is 5 minutes from our house and our homestay family is big Sevilla fans), and then on Sunday we're going to take a day trip somewhere else too--just haven't figured out where! Our homestay family is apparently going to Portugal this weekend after Luis' basketball game on Saturday morning (Colleen and I are really bummed we won't be able to go). After the meeting a group of us went to explore Los Remedios (a different neighborhood that a lot of students live in--we live in Nervion). It was beautiful there too! You have to cross over the river to get there but it is well worth the trip. Its so hard to wrap my mind around the size of this city--Kevin was right in telling me that I will keep finding new places the whole time I'm here.
Tomorrow is our first day of class. (It was supposed to be yesterday but the program director's wife died suddenly from a heart attack on Sunday so classes were cancelled). We will just be taking one class of culture and language for three weeks and then we'll start our classes at the university (university students are still finishing up their first semester). I've yet to finalize what I'm going to be taking--the Spanish system of finding classes is so disorganized...WAY worse than ConnectCarolina. Just to look up one class, I have to go to the department page, find the class name, make sure its offered this semester, check the teacher's name and then go to a completely different website to see when it's being offered. Then I have to figure out the exam times to make sure it will be before I go back to the US. Not to mention the fact that most classes are full right now and the professors don't post the amount of available seats online. I'm going to try to figure it all out tonight!
My homestay family is doing really well too. I think they come in our rooms sometimes when we're not home because I found my book for school under the sink in the bathroom...although none of them admitted to having taken it. It's a mystery! Also it turns out all 3 of them are going to have their birthdays while we're over here! And Maria is going to have her first communion (which is a HUGE deal here). When I asked if Colleen and I were invited, Luis said of course because we are pretty....not sure what that has to do with being able to go to the communion but we took the compliment anyways! Luis has had a few friends over and each time he tells them that Colleen "knows" Chris Paul and that I "know" Michael Jordan--we just told him that Michael when to our college and the Chris Paul went to Colleen's highschool but he still thinks its fascinating. Maria is my favorite so far. She is so helpful and cute!! She told us how to get to the school supply store and constantly teaches us new words. We help her out some with her english too. Carmen is perhaps the most entertaining of them all. The other night for dinner we had hotdogs and she picks it up and waves it around and says its like a Luis' private parts. Then she hears some music coming from the family room, jumps up, pulls down her pants, and starts dancing while saying "Sori! Sori!". Needless to say this is sure to be an interesting place to live!
I'll post some pictures up soon!! Hasta luego! (or as the lazily say in Sevilla: 'sta luego!)
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