As I write this post, it is crazy to think that I’ve been in Seville for less than four days. I’ve never done so much in that amount of time in my entire life. I’ve decided that filling you all in on my first day would be more beneficial than describing every day since my arrival so… here we go! Tuesday night I departed from Newark airport with my new friend Marni and we shared a lovely 6-hour flight filled with a solid hour and a half of uncomfortable turbulence and zero hours of sleep. Landed in Lisbon, Portugal in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Spent about three more hours in the airport before our departure for Seville on a plane no bigger than a school bus, which was definitely an experience. We came out of the plane and no sooner than getting our luggage did Spanish hit Marni and I right in the face.

We were greeted by our new Spanish guides and program coordinator of CIEE speaking only in Spanish which was overwhelming at first and then kind of cool when I didn’t actually sh*t the bed and was able to speak back to them. Shortly after I was given some things for orientation I was placed in a cab alone with nothing from America but my luggage.

On my way to my new home for the next 4 months, I sat in silence with a million thoughts racing through my mind. This wasn’t ideal because I made the mistake of thinking that riding shotgun was the right call – it’s not the write call in America, why would it be the right call in Spain Dan? But, there was a light at the end of the tunnel on this cab ride. An elderly woman was on the side of the road kneeling down and looked like she was in serious pain. The first thing that popped in my mind was “Oh my God, these crazy Sevillanos will run me over the moment I step off the sidewalk!” The taxi driver could clearly see my thoughts written all over my face and said something along the lines of “Esa mujer esta enferma” which means that that woman is sick, confirming that my fear of deadly Sevillen drivers was as silly as it sounds as I write this now. Thought this was an important tale to tell because it was the first time, and most likely not the last, a complete stranger was going out of his way to be kind to an overwhelmed American student. I mean, sure, the people from my program (which is called CIEE by the way if I haven’t already mentioned it) were very kind to me too but I kind of paid for that kindness. This guy had no obligation to do anything else than drive me to my homestay and maybe help me get a bag out of the car. Loved that.

Ok, now let me try to speed up things a bit. So I arrived at my new home running words and sentences through my head about what my first conversation with my new host parents would be like. Unfortunately, it was a bit anti-climatic because it turned out that CIEE sent me to my homestay a little earlier than I was supposed to arrive. Luckily, my new host-dad Carlos arrived at the house about five minutes after I got there and I was in, it was real. Carlos is a doctor and left work briefly to let me in.

The house is beautiful – four floors and I basically have a floor to myself on the fourth floor, equipped with an awesome bedroom and bathroom. After getting settled in with unpacking I needed to take a little bit of a nap while my host parents were out. I awoke to the wonderful smells of Paloma’s (host-mom) cooking and I introduced myself and enjoyed a delicious meal similar to a hamburger with out the bread.

After my meal and some small talk with Paloma, she walked me to my groups meeting point called La Iglesia de San Roman which was super nice of her since I was a bit nervous that I would get forever lost in the streets of Seville. Met my awesome group and group leader Pablo and we were off to orientation at the CIEE Center. After a brief orientation about our program we were off for tapas (small plates) for dinner at a really cool outside bar/caf�. Got to know my group better and couldn’t be happier with such an awesome crew. We went out for a few drinks after but called it a night pretty early because we were all pretty beat. 

I want to apologize for any grammar or spelling errors in this blog. As most of us in my group are finding out, our English knowledge deteriorates as our Spanish knowledge improves. I’ll fill you guys in on my first week of classes next week. Sending love to my family and friends and thanks for reading!

Location: Seville, Spain