Author Archives: ecd5088

The Adjustment Period

This will have been my third attempt to write this post, as something about the blog-format does not mesh well with the wifi (pronounced WEE-FEE) that exists here.  I’ve tried my homestay, my school, the weefee cafe down the street, none of it works well.

But I digress.
Things I’ve successfully mastered after two-and-a-half weeks in Sevilla:
1.  Ordering coffee (Un cafe sin leche para llevar, por favor).  Yes, I know the Spanish don’t order cafe “para llevar” and yes, I realize I look like an American when I walk around with a coffee cup.  But this brings me to number 2;
2.  Being okay with being obviously American.  I could master the accent, wear the right clothes, and not laugh loudly the entire time that I’m hanging out at a Tapas bar with my American friends and the natives here STILL wouldn’t be fooled.  I’m both taller and paler than the average spaniard, I walk faster than the average spaniard, and I refuse to nap.  Also, I apparently eat less than the average spaniard…
3.  Being okay with being yelled at by my host family for not eating enough.  Look, I’m sorry, I don’t know what stereotypes you hold about Americans, but most of us do NOT eat three sandwiches for every meal.  I simply can’t stomach a soup AND a salad AND an entree AND seven pieces of bread.  It’s not happening.  Every time I take what I think is a normal portion size, I get some lecture about how my plate is too empty, and what would my mother think.  My se�ora has even started getting sneaky–last night we had hamburgesas, and she handed me one because she “knew I wouldn’t eat more than that anyways” and I looked inside and it had three layers.  It was a triple layered burger.  “Muy Americano, no?”  No. Well, maybe.  But not in the way that I like to think of myself as American.
4.  Layering.  Because a tank top and a t-shirt and a sweater and a cardigan and a peacoat and a scarf (or two) isn’t only trendy, but necessary, when the day starts at 30 degrees and reaches 70 by the time I’m walking home from class.  I know, I know, life is a constant struggle.
5.  NOT getting lost every time I leave the house.  Okay maybe this is one of those skills, like my spanish level, that’s more of a work-in-progress than anything else. But, I no longer get lost on my morning runs or on my way to class and back, and I’ve decided to count that as I point in my favor.
Things I may never adjust to:
1.  Breakfast for dinner.  For every dinner.  Tortillas, in Espa�a, are basically potato omelets.  Okay, maybe that’s a little derivative, but really it’s very similar and really we eat them all of the time.  And when I tried to explain why this is different than in the states to one of my spanish professors, the response I got seemed a liiiiiittle bit over-dramatic.  “Eggs for breakfast???” Like I had just admitted that when I’m home, every morning I fry up a puppy and eat it out of the skillet.  And when I told my orientation Guia that I was going to get churros con chocolate at three in the afternoon, she told me that it was a breakfast food and only a breakfast food and nothing more.  If I’m eating eggs for dinner, I think I should be allowed to have the spanish-equivilant of a donut for an afternoon snack.  Since I’m apparently not eating enough, anyways.
2.  The being yelled at by randoms on the street.  “Que guapa, chica, ven aqui ven aqui…”  Things I don’t need to hear from every man boy and child when I’m trying to get in a run at 9 in the morning.  Or ever.  Like you’ve never seen a girl wear shorts before. Not that that makes a difference, I’ve seen it happen to older women wearing parkas too.  �Que extra�o�
3.  Napping.  As I mentioned before, that’s never going to happen for me.
4.  Living in someone else’s house.  The people I am living with are absolutely wonderful, and they could not be more hospitable or kind or amazing.  But I’ve still transplanted my big-ten college dorm life into their family home, and it’s a very strange concept.  I don’t know the first thing about living with a thirty-something married couple, let alone a thirty-something couple expecting a child in May.  I’m still so glad I chose a home stay, though, because it has helped my language comprehension an insane amount, and because the food is wonderful (even if I don’t eat enough of it), and it’s really helpful having someone who knows the city living under the same roof as me every time I have a question or need advice or directions anywhere.
5.  Staying out until 6am every weekend.  Much like the napping issue, it’s just not going to happen.
I’ve also begun planning my travels.  Even though Sevilla is a little expensive to travel out of, I’m still excited to see everything and everyone and experience as much as I possibly can.
So far, I’ve booked Rome for the weekend of my birthday, Brussels Bruges and Amsterdam for my first spring break, Morocco for the end of February, Madrid for early April, Barcelona and Paris for spring break numero dos, and Portugal for the beginning of May.  That’s not counting the school-sponsored trips to Cadiz, Italica, Granada, Cordoba, and los Castillos.  I’m hoping to get to Mallorca and Valencia at some point, but I don’t know if I’m going to have time (estudiantes para extranjeros problemas).  It doesn’t look like I’m going to get to see St. Petersburg, Moscow, Budapest, Prague, Berlin, or Turkey, either.  I’ve made some tough choices all around.  I’m also incredibly excited to be going to a number of places (England and Wales, possibly?) with my mother after my program is over.  There is no possible way that I could be more lucky than I am  in this moment.  I love that I have this opportunity, and I just hope that I am able to make the most of it in every way possible for as long as I am here!  I will never be as young, as excited, and as optimistic as I am right now, and I intend to capitalize on this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Hopefully adding some pictures and comments on my travels as they occur.  Until next time.
�Buena suerte, y hasta luego!

Location: Seville, Spain

Tres Dias en Sevilla

Today is the third full day I’ve spent in Sevilla.  I still cannot get over how entirely beautiful this city is.  It’s all cobblestones and orange trees and multi-colored apartments and balconies and amazing architecture.  It feels like everywhere I go I see something else historically amazing, and the natives all walk by like it’s nothing.  I walk really slowly everywhere, looking at absolutely everything.  It’s probably one of the (many) reasons everyone knows immediately that I’m un americano.

I haven’t done anything school-wise yet, but I have had a lot of orientation things to go to.  Mostly touring the city and learning how to use the public transportation.  I can’t seem to go anywhere without getting insanely lost, which is a problem that hopefully I’ll find a way around soon.  I can’t help but be completely and totally confused by most of the roads.  Nothing is parallel to anything in this city.  It’s a bunch of strangely winding alleyways that never seem to follow any understandable pattern.  And the street names are strange.  There’s a Calle Kansas City, the origin of which no one can explain to me.  

Some issues I’m experiencing:  I can’t adjust to the time difference!  For the past three nights I’ve woken up at 3 am and been unable to get back to sleep.  I’m hoping that this will change soon.  I’ve also found that I am not nearly as proficient in spanish as I thought I was.  I can understand most of what is being said, but I don’t always know how to respond, which gets awkward.  I also keep getting flustered when trying to speak to someone other than my host family or los guias, the guides that my program gave us for orientation, because everyone speaks spanish so quickly!  Also, the andalusian accent is so incredibly different than Spanish the way we are taught it in the States, the Spanish of Northern Mexico, that I often have issues following along.  I’ve also become one of those annoying people who turns even the most normal statement into a question, because I’m always so unsure of my grammar and verb usage.  “I am leaving around three o’clock for school” becomes “I leave…about three..to school?” and I know that what I’m saying is wrong, but I get nervous and say it incorrectly anyways.  It’s another thing I need to work on, that I’m sure will slowly start to fix itself over time.
Hopefully next time I report back, it will be with much more confident experiences!

Location: Sevilla, Espana

Preparing for Seville

    My name is Emma Decker, and I am an English and Global and International Studies major with minors in History and Spanish.  I am going to be spending the Spring 2013 semester in Seville, Spain with the CIEE Liberal Arts program, while simultaneously traveling Europe whenever I possibly can.  I cannot even begin to describe how excited I am for the experience!  With a little over a month left before I leave, I figured now would be a good time to begin the blogging process.
    When I land in Madrid in January, before I depart for Seville, it will not be my first experience in Spain.  It will, however, be the first experience I can say I will remember.  I lived in Madrid for a short period of time at a very young age, and some of my first words were in Spanish.  While this is an interesting fun fact to use in annoying ice-breaker games, it is not enough of an “experience” for me to have confidently formed any of my own personal opinions about the Spanish.  The majority of my understanding of the Spanish culture comes from stories told by my parents.
    Coming from a family who has previously lived in Madrid, I’ve been told things for as long as I can remember about what the Spaniards are like.  All of my favorite baby-Emma stories involve one or another of the memories my parents have from Spain.  And they are what contribute to my own pre-conceived notions of the Spanish.
    For example, my parents claim that they would constantly be stopped in the street so that a stranger walking by could tell them how beautiful I was.  “Que bonita!  Bella rubia!”  Additionally, it was commonplace in Spanish restaurants for a waitress or a chef to ask my parents if it was okay to take me back to the kitchen and introduce me to the staff.  I would be gone for fifteen or twenty minutes, and come back with handfuls of food.  Once, another patron in a restaurant asked my mother if she could hold me, and brought me back to her table and passed me around to everyone else in their party.  It was disconcerting to my parents at first, but once they were used to it, it was apparently actually rather convenient for them to be able to eat dinner in peace not have to deal with their fussy infant.  They came to enjoy passing me off to admiring fans.  From stories like this, I have drawn the conclusion that Spaniards, in general, are incredibly friendly and accepting of children.
    I should also mention that my first few months back in the States were pretty rough.  I’d become fairly used to the attention, and I’d grown rather fond of it.  However, riding in a grocery cart waving like a pageant queen is much less fun as a three year old when no one is paying attention.  According to my father, it took a few months before I realized that a child screaming “HELLO!  I’M OVER HERE!!” in public places, which is cute and adorable in Madrid, is considered somewhat less socially acceptable in the United States.
    Beyond that, I don’t really have any idea what I should be expecting from the next few months.  I just hope to enjoy myself and learn a lot.  As long as I come back at the end of the semester fluent in spanish, I will feel like I accomplished something.  The traveling, meeting new people, and having new experiences will all just be additional benefits to what is sure to be an amazing experience overall!!


Location: State College, Pennsylvania