Discovering Sevilla

"Un viaje es una nueva vida, con un nacimiento, un crecimiento y una muerte, que nos es ofrecida en el interior de la otra. Aprovechémoslo."

Friday night. 22:00. Just finished dinner and took a short nap. The only time when I resort back to English is when I’m really exhausted… and after some shopping at Zara and some other amazing stores with Sam and Jenna, I was exhausted. The fashion here is wonderful. I feel like I could pick out an outfit with my eyes closed and have made a great find. I didn’t buy anything tonight. I’m only going to make purchases when it’s really worth it.

I had my first exam today. After finishing I felt like I had just spilled my entire brain all over my paper. I like feeling challenged. It was an essay test all about the history and culture of Spain. I’m curious to see how I do. It was definitely different from a lot of tests I take at Penn State. I really had to think.

Last night we went to an intercambio party. Intercambios are Spanish students/people who want to meet English students. It definitely felt a little bit like a dating service at first… But I wasn’t really interested in that aspect. The ice breaker game was to go around meeting Spanish people “who have a tattoo” or “who have milked a cow.” I won. 3 passes to the Arabic baths (kind of like a spa) including a massage after : ).

I’m still having issues trying to get the internet. I was going to try and open a Spanish bank account today so that I could pay for the internet, but I didn’t have my passport with me. After running around the city for a while looking for another open bank, we finally just called the internet company. It’s difficult to make important transactions in Spanish. Hopefully we’ll have internet early next week. When I got back to my homestay for lunch… the internet company called 3 more times. The first time they hung up on me. The second time they told me they were coming at 6. But what day? Why? I don’t have my router yet… I just told them they were bothering me… “No me llamas más. Pesado.”

Ana is still really uncomfortable with the idea. Again… it’s not that the internet is necessary. It’s more that being connected to technology is a very American thing. I need technology to get my work done, but I would rather do it at home than outside when I’d rather be meeting people.

Tomorrow I’m going to Córdoba. Should be a lot of fun. I’m excited to see the mezquita and all of the other areas that we learned about in class.

My class took a tour of the Cathedral yesterday. It was breathtaking. The gothic style makes you feel so small. I saw Christopher Columbus’s tomb. I saw the flag San Fernando carried with him during the reconquest of Seville. We climbed to the top of the Giralda and looked out over all of Seville. There are so many moments here when I’m on the verge of tears… This was just another one of those moments