Last weekend was the first one I've completely spent in Sevilla. I spent most the weekend hanging out with my friends Delaney and Steph and their friends who were visiting. One was visiting from Oviedo, where she is studying abroad in Northern Spain and the other two came from Chapel Hill for Spring Break. We did all of the typical touristy things-- walked around the Plaza de Espana, ate cookies by the river, watched flamenco at the Carboneria and ate ice cream at Rayas, which has the best ice cream in Sevilla if not all of Spain.
Us in front of the Oviedo tile at Plaza de Espana. Lucy (the one studying in Oviedo) is happy and the rest of us are sad.
Other than that, it was truthfully a pretty boring weekend. The following week it rained, a lot. By Tuesday I was antsy and so I tried to keep myself busy the rest of the week!
Tuesday I had lunch with my intercambio at the cafeteria at our school. All of us are assigned a Spanish student who we are required to meet with two hours a week. Most of them are tourism students at EUSA who want to learn English. We're supposed to speak half the time in Spanish, half in English. Obviously, some intercambios work out better than others. Mine has been great. Her name is Pitu, which means Smurf in Spanish-- a nickname because she is very, very short. The first two times we met with my friend Sarah and her intercambio, Carmen who is beautiful and super friendly. She invited us to stay with her in her beach house in Cadiz, so hopefully we will do that soon!
Wednesday (Ash Wednesday) was a pretty busy day. After class I went with Delaney and Steph to a Spanish small group/ bible study. We sat around talking (in Spanish) most of the time. I think I'll start going with them regularly because it's a great way to meet Spaniards and I've been wanting Spanish friends!
After that we went to Cien Montaditos and had delicious 1 euro sandwiches. Then I went off to meet Alyssa to study for our exam on Thursday, and ended up getting lost in Santa Cruz for about 20 minutes as I was waiting on her to get there. Getting lost in Santa Cruz, the old part of the city, is always so much fun (even though it was raining.) The streets are narrow and curvy and never end up where you think they will. Every time you walk through you discover something beautiful you never knew existed.
I met with Alyssa over coffee, and we studied (in Spanish) for our Islam exam on Thursday. After we studied for about 2 hours, I went to the Cathedral and attended an Ash Wednesday (Miercoles de Ceniza) service.
I've decided to give up English for Lent. Lately I have been very frustrated at the amount of English we speak. Since we're around other American students all day, it's just so much easier than speaking Spanish! Although my Spanish has definitely improved, it hasn't improved nearly as much as I was hoping or expecting it to. My friend Alyssa and I decided to give up English for Lent, and so far it's been great! Although we still speak in English a lot with other people, we're definitely speaking Spanish a lot more than we have been!
Thursday after class we had lunch with our professor, the creepy one from our Spain and America class, at a Tex-Mex. I've been craving Mexican food, so it was good, but compared to Mexican in the U.S. it was quite disgusting. Afterwards we went again to Rayas for ice cream (there are a million flavors and my goal is to try them all!) Later that night we went to the river and botelloned before heading to Budha for my first ever discoteca experience!
Friday we went to a different (and more authentic) Tex-Mex by the cathedral to watch the Carolina- Miami game. Some other girls from our group were there, and one of them had her parents visiting, who graciously paid for our meal. However, apparently Spain only gets ESPN not ESPN2, so we were only able to catch snippets of the game! So sad!
More on this weekend to come soon!
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