Wow, it has been a seriously insane week.  I’m sure that I share the exhausted post-arrival sentiment of nearly every study abroad student: I’m overwhelmed, amazed, confused, frenzied, [etc, etc] and above all, tired.  I arrived at my homestay last Wednesday night at around 8PM (Seville time).  That means it was about 2PM on the East Coast of the United States, and I had been traveling for over 24 hours.  We were held up by fog when we landed in Portugal, and ended up having our departure to Seville pushed back to 4:30PM instead of 8:30AM.  Luckily there were a number of other people from my program also waiting for the flight to Seville, so we banded together to wait out the weather.

Truly, I don’t know where to begin.  So much has happened and I want to share it all.  I’m finding it difficult to record every single event, or really to record anything at all.  It’s craziness to try to make a comprehensive copy of your life down in a book.  As one of my new friends here reminded me the other day, there comes a point you have to stop writing about your life and just live it.  (Is a #YOLO inappropriate for this meekly Penn State GeoBlogger?  Too late, I guess.)

Anyway, since I’m rambling and want to spend my time here actually TELLING you things about my life in Seville, here are some of the highlights from the week.

Homestay

This is the first thing many of my family and friends were eager to hear about.  CIEE sent me off alone in a taxi to my homestay after my flight landed and I had retrieved my luggage.  We drove for maybe 10 or 15 minutes, during which time I made exhausted small talk with the cab driver (who would later convince me that people in Spain give their cab drivers propinas, or tips.  It is actually unnecessary to do this and now you know how I spent my first 5 Euros in Spain).  I’m surprised I remembered any Spanish at all, to be honest.  I haven’t studied Spanish since high school (besides some sporadic DuoLingo sessions during the fall semester) and by the time we got on the road to the apartment I was running on fumes and very little sleep.  We arrived at the corner where my Spanish parents were to meet me, and they took me to my room.

I ended up with an adorable and extremely accommodating family (they ended up in the CIEE promotional video for my program!).  Fernando and Rosa have been married since 1988, and they have two children: Noelia, 28, and Fernando, 22.  Neither of the kids live at home full time but still have rooms here in the apartment and sleep here some nights.  No one speaks English except Fernando, the son, and he only comes by on the weekends.  So I do my best to understand the parents, who I spend the most time with.  Both adults speak very quickly and in clipped, Andalucian Spanish.  They often drop the “s” on the end of words, and accordingly I have some trouble trying to understand what they are saying.  That “s” is very important in distinguishing between a question and a comment, especially if that question or comment is directed at me, so it causes some awkwardness as I stumble my way through a conversation.  But both parents are eager for me to learn Spanish, and through Fernando’s constant jokes and Rosa’s sincere explanations, hopefully I will start to pick things up soon.  Hopefully.

Vistos

Now I am sure that you all are just dying to see and hear about what I have seen and heard since I have been here.  I feel like I have seen an incredible amount in just 8 days (!).  I will post some pictures here and give a little explanation under each of them.

Alcázar

I’m embarrassed to admit that I had to go back and look up what the significance of this place is, but our tour guide was very quiet and had a thick accent so I didn’t quite get it the first time around.  Alcázar is a (retired) royal palace with gorgeous Moor-inspired architecture.  It was built close to 700 years ago and after various updates and additions still stands today.  The palace is fairly large and has a number of sections, all with architecture similar to what you see above.  Unfortunately posting too many pictures would make this post outrageously long (as it already is), but I hope they give you a little sense of Alcázar’s charm.

La Plaza de España

When you Google “Seville,” this is probably one of the first images you see (minus me smiling like a dweeb).  La Plaza de España was built for a 1922 expo, and it is just breathtaking.  My host parents told me that the arches that run along the front of the building each represent a province of Spain.  Theoretically there should be 50 arches, but I cannot confirm that because I have not counted them.  I’m sure someone would have noticed by this point if they got the number wrong.

El Río Guadalquivir

I’m happy to be able to post this because I just visited today!  After class I went with two friends to get gelato and we ended up walking 3 or 4 miles along the riverfront of the Guadalquivir.  It is just stunning.  My favorite thing about it is that it has walking and biking pathways that extend for miles alongside the water.  It is quiet and peaceful, though never eerie or isolated.  And many of these paths are made of cobblestone (like the one in this picture).

 

Well here is where I’m going to cut it for the night.  It seems like I wrote so much here and at the same time, there are so many things that I have not told you.  Sorry if I jumped around a lot– I’m so happy to be here.  Hopefully as the excitement wanes a little (just to a healthy level) I’ll be able to share some more specific details.  This was fun; and it’s only week one.

 

Location: Seville, Spain