The Heat and My Feet!!

Sunday - August 31, 2008

My first real journal entry since I've been in Spain will consist of several things: The heat; the pain in my feet; and the heat. I'm kidding, there's more to these last few days than that.
I'll really begin by telling you about my Sra. Se llama Salud Clamente Diaz. Her name is decently ironic. Salud means health and she smokes. Fortunately it doesn't stick to any of my clothes or to the house because there's no carpet, just tile floors. she uses some kind of potpourri or incense when she puts our her cigarette and unless you knew that she smokes you couldn't tell by just living in the house. It's almost impossible to avoid cigarette smoke here.
Anyway. She's really nice and eccentric; she crochets and just finished a big pink and red blanket for her daughter, Lola. She also has two grand-children, a boy and a girl, ¡estan lindos!
We walk everywhere, that is my roommate, Dani, and I. I'm pretty sure we walked a good 10 miles today on a Foto Scavenger hunt. Photos to come soon.
I should go back and talk about what's gone on in order.
Wednesday: we all got in to Sevilla around 3:30 p.m. (that's around 8:30 a.m. Central time) and it turned out that our Señoras had been waiting for us since 12:30. we were exhausted and jet-lagged and basically completely out of it. All we did that day was go home with our Sra., eat, unpack, nap, watch t.v. and then go to sleep around 10p.m.
Thursday: we had orientation at Hotel Zenit which was about a 10 minute walk from our Sra.'s apartment. She walked with us, all the time telling us about the stores and how to get back. Orientation consisted of us meeting each other (37 or so Students); Meeting the Professors; taking a placement exam; then getting our Mobils. It turns out there are only 3 guys in the whole group, none of them speak Spanish, and they all live together. The rest of us have been giving them times about what to say. We ended up getting home around 2 or 2:30 just in time for Lunch and a Siesta (which I LOVE, I wish we had them in the US). At 7:30 we went on a walking tour of the area surrounding the school. We went in groups of around 10 with a local who told us about everything we passed. I took A lot of Pictures. After dinner at around 10 Dani and I met up with a group of about 15/20 other students to explore the local night life. Can't say Thursday night was too productive in that area. We found a few good places but ended up going home around 1:30 (definitely early by Sevillan Standards).
Friday: We had to register for classes and take a "class" called Culture 101 where we learned all about local culture; what to expect from our Sra. how to treat the guys who cat call us, grope us, or just make us feel incredibly uncomfortable with their stares. We were also told who to avoid; how to avoid getting served something you don't like multiple times; how to dress; where to shop, and SO SO SO much more. I ended up registering for the Advanced Grammar Class 351, Historia, Arte de España, y Literatura. Plus some extra circulars. For dinner we all met up at this restaurant called Sloppy Joe's (pronounced Slopy Ho-ays). Despite the name it served Pizza. We were split up to meet new people which was good. Especially because there are so many girls I'm pretty sure I'm only ever going to remember half the names. Again, later that night, around 11p.m. we met up for some night life exploration. While waiting we randomly met this guy named Tobe Turbo (of course not his real name) who thought we were UNC students. As it turns out he coordinates tons of parties and trips for students so he showed us around. we ended up at a Discoteca where we danced until 3. I wore the worst shoes ever though and ended up with blisters.
Saturday: We had begun to make plans to go to the beach on Friday, some girls wanted to go at 7:30 or 8. the rest of us decided they were crazy. Dani and I didn't leave until 12 with another girl, Cynthia. the beach is only about an hour away, and it was completely full of tourists and locals. we laid out for about 2 hours or so and then decided that we were going to walk around. Some mis-informed people told us that a bus would be leaving at 4, but it turned out that it was at 5. So we all sat there, waiting. finally when it did come we didn't all get on. 5 of us had to wait for the 6 bus. (I was one of them of course). It wasn't that big of a deal, we got ice-cream. We didn't do anything last night after we got back. we were sunburned and tired so we just sat around.
Today (Sunday): we thought we would be going to chuch with our Sra. but she didn't wake us up (she doesn't like us to use our alarm clock because it scared her in the morning). So we woke up at around 12. we cleaned our room, had lunch, and headed out to meet up with Cynthia and Kristen to do the Foto Scavenger hunt. There were 20 things we had to take pictures of, we got 15 because some were a good hour walk away and we didn't want to hop a bus.

I've been walking everywhere. My feet are always tired and dirty. Today I wore my tennis shoes despite the fact that I would be even more obviously foreign. after 5 hours of walking around they hurt anyway.
Classes start Monday and we have to be there at 8;30 for the service learning class we signed up for. I'm totally excited to finally have a set schedule instead of this mass of time to float around in.