Madrid: the city that doesn't want Lisa to be comfortable

Had to wake up at 9:40 in order to pack, eat, and meet Pepe for a walking tour at 11. Oy. 4 hours of sleep are not fun. I went down for breakfast, still drunk, more than the previous morning, sobered up on some yogurt cereal, tea, fruit, and water, went to pack and wake Stacey up, put my suitcase quickly in Pepe's room to store before checkout, then was out the door for our Madrid walking tour. IT WAS SO COLD OUTSIDE. It was below zero (celcius) which is no fun for two straight hours of walking. It was colder in Madrid than it is in Chicago! That's nuts. We met up with our guide from the Prado, and we walked allll around Madrid. Madrid is actually a really great place, very much what I'd picture Europe to be like. I love all of the old, varied architecture, the abundance of stores and such to see, the choices of cultural activites and food, and the small, quaint streets. I was sad that I didn't have a camera! We saw the palace, the Plaza Mayor (which I loved! It reminded me of "Destinos"), and some awesome cathedrals. One had a really nice priest in it who, without our asking, told us about the architecture and artwork in one of them. Then we went into another cathedral which was built last century and got to see part of a service (it was Sunday, btw). The tour started to grow really long, and I was cold, exhausted, a bit hungover, and hungry. I swear, Madrid does not want me to be comfortable. Shivering, the tour finally ended. A bunch of us scoured the town for some food, it was a big group of us so it was a challenge. I just really wanted some paella. Every place we looked was either too expensive or too meagre of portions to satisfy our hunger. Finally, everyone decided on TGIFridays which I refuuuused to go to if I'm in mothafucking Spain! I wanted paella, dammit, and ain't no one was gonna stop me. So Stacey and I found a place taht specialized in paella. The inside was actually kind of fancy. It was also pretty empty since people eat lunch at 2:30, not 1pm! We ordered a paella mixta (mixed), which took forever. Blah. But it finally came, and it was AMAZING. The shellfish in it was huge, large mussels, whole shrimps, and some other crustaceon which I'm still not sure as to what it is. Let me describe this guy, it was the biggest shellfish on our dish. Now, y'all know that I can/could eat basically anything, but this I refused. I mean, it was like getting a whole boiled lobster, head and all, thrown on your plate. First of all, I didn't know how to begin to cut this thing up, and everytime that I tried I got a glimpse of it's legs, it's pinchers, it's teeth, its eyes, its brains...its everything! I can't handle that. I felt like I was back in science class dissecting an oversized insect ::shudder:: Ahhh, it was terrible. I'll eat anything, as long as I don't have to SEE it in its full form as/before I eat it. Ehhhhhhhh, still gives me the creeps. What is it with my bad food encounters in Madrid? I swear, once again, Madrid does not want me to be comfortable. However, the paella itself was so good, and I was so full afterward. At the meal we definitely stood out because we spoke English the whole time. In fact, basically my whole time in Madrid I was speaking English because it was so easy to do so there. I guess, even though Madrid is a better city in itself, I'm glad that I'm in Sevilla because it REALLY forces the Spanish out of me while Madrid really supports my bad English habits. After lunch we got a bit lost finding the hotel, but we figured it out and were back a bit before 3. We met up with the girls and decided to share some cabs to the train station. The first cab that came was snagged by Stacey, Kelly, Courtney, and Melissa while Jessica, Katie, and I awaited the next cab. None came for what seemed like forever. One came, asked where we were going, we said to the train station, and then the driver wouldn't take us! Then after a bit another came, and the same thing happened. Then no more cabs came by for awhile. Then we looked in our pockets and noticed that between the three of us we only had 7euro which probably wouldn't be enough for a cab there, especially if the driver tried to rip us off for being American (happens a lot here). So we gave up and decided to lug our huge bags up and down stairs and into the crowded Metro. It was hellish, and nervewracking since on the Metro you need to watch your bags at all time. I mean, we not only had bags, but also purses and suitcases. It was difficult to watch our stuff and lug it around comfortably. We had to take 2 Metros to the station which took about 20 min, and it was pretty rough because stairs sucked, the Metro cars themselves were stuffed, and it was unsafe. I told you, Madrid does not want me to be comfortable! Luckily, we got there with time to spare, met up with the rest of the girls who had been there for awhile. Oy vey, that's just my luck. We got on the train, which actually seemed nicer than the last one since all of us on the trip got to share one car with more room. I was so tired and ready to pass out...as was everyone. Stacey and I shared a family seating section with Pepe and Lauren which was fun, Pepe's awesome and Lauren is so energetic and fun to be around. I was ready to sleep when they started playing the movie: Pleasantville!! I was so excited since I hadn't seen that movie since it was in the theatres, probably. I got really sucked into it even though it was in Spanish. Soooo I didn't sleep. At all. Everyone else did, and by the end of the movie most people were waking up. I also got to look out the window as we rode towards Sevilla and was surprised to see how much snow there was! I later found out on the news that night that Spain had gotten more snow than it had in a long time which caused a lot of cities to basically shut down. Crazy! Once Stacey woke up we decided to check out the bar car, which actually looks like a real bar! Sure beats out Amtrak's, no doubt. It was a fun time. We finally got to Sevilla, and it was still raining. Boo. And I was so tired, but excited for Maruja food again! We got a taxi right away, which took us straight home and played really good music, niiiiiiice.
Oh man, it was so good to be back. This apartment really feels like home! It's so unbelievably comforting, and I love Maruja, and Maria, and Marta. They're starting to feel more and more like family! Stacey and I then unpacked, and I did some webshots/blog stuff (you know, the usual for the 20-something of this generation). Then it was dinner time! Yes! Ironically, dinner was a Spanish tortilla, haha! But Maruja's beat out Zahara's by a loooong shot. This was authentic with egg, caramelized onions, and potatoes. Soooo amazing, and it tasted so good to have her food in our stomachs again. We also got an amazing salad which had apples and pomegranates in it which was UNREAL! One of the best salads I've ever eaten. Note to self: put pomegranate in salads more often. For dessert, tangerines! It's great to be back home. After dinner, I took a long hot shower, which actually was pretty unsuccessful. You see, although it wasn't as cold as Madrid, it was pretty damn cold in Sevilla, especially for being indoors. No matter how hot I made the shower, my body just would not heat up. You know when that happens? I could feel my feet tingling from the burning hot water, but I couldn't feel the sensation of heat itself. That's just bad news. I ended up running low on hot water pretty quickly because I kept turning the heat way up. After getting out I pumped up the bathroom's space heater full blast which subsequently warmed me up. I bundled up in multiple layers (think 2 layers of socks, and wearing the hood of my sweatshirt tied around my head!) to bed. Our room was in the 50's that night (my clock has a thermometer) and that's just ridiculous. I went to bed around midnight exhausted from the weekend, lack of sleep, walking, and cold. My bed felt so nice. I love it here!! Mmmm Sevilla is a great home.

I'm not equipped for the Spanish scene

Night 2 out in Madrid...a night sure to be crazy. We had a huuuuuge dorm-eque pregame in Melissa and Katie's room to the point where the hotel personnel had to come tell us to be quiet. Hehe, oh man. Needless to say, the vodka, tequila, and rum was flowing like water and Sven got quite a workout. I ran to grab something from my room really quickly at one point and rammed my arm at full speed into one of the door handles in my room. I'm a huge klutz, especially when drinking, and now there's a pretty ugly welt on my right arm, picture pending. Also, if you've seen how small and fragile my camera is, you'd understand what a bad idea it is to hang onto it in a hotel room packed with people. Usually, when I take pictures, I keep the string wrapped around my wrist because I am so nervous that I will drop it. Well, this was one of the only times that I didn't wrap it around my wrist, someone bumped into me while I was looking at some pics on my LCD screen, and it fell flat on the wood floor. I kind of flipped out. The camera still works perfectly, except it takes pictures that are all black now. So I fucked up the viewfinder. Wonderful. At least the LCD screen and memory card and whatnot are intact, so I could still view my old pictures and upload them...just couldn't take new ones. I talked myself down, with the help of Katie and Melissa, told myself that there was nothing that I could do, I'm on a warranty, and that I'll figure something out. I mean, there are worse things that could happen. I'm alive, I'm in Spain, and I'm happy...I wasn't going to let my technological mishap spoil my night. A really cool surprise: Adam from 2nd Prescott who's in the Granada program came to Madrid for the weekend. I was hanging out in the hotel room, and ta-da, there was Adam! Yay East Quad suprises! It was good to see an old face. So anyhow, after a super fun time in the hotel we left around 1am to hit up Kapital, the infamous club of Madrid which is also the 3rd largest in the world. I wasn't too hot on the idea since I'm usually not big on the clubbing scene, but it had to be done. We taxi'd out there, decided that it was too early and got drinks at a next door, smokey, cramped bar. I ordered a Malibu con pina since it's a pretty tame drink. Then we entered Kapital. It had an 18euro cover which kind of blew, but we got coupons for one free drink upon entering which kind of made it OK I guess... Then we checked our coats and did our thang. Now this is what makes Kapital unique: it's seven floors, and each floor is a different theme (in terms of music and decor). As we left coat check we ran into those sketchy Argentinian guys which gave me that uneasy feeling again. I gathered people to walk with me, then Katie started talking to the really tall one (think almost seven ft.) which made me super nervous. She disappeared as we ventured up to the seventh floor to check it out and work our way down. It took awhile to get up there, but when we did I was glad, the theme was sports...American sports (hehe), and it was very open, chill, with a lot of seating and a fountain. This was more my scene. Then Katie started calling Stacey, over and over, but it was so noisey that it was impossible to hear Katie so Stacey kept yelling, "Seventh floor!" into the phone every time that Katie called. Finally Katie got up there. She told us that the Argentinian guy basically assaulted her, that he had backed her up into the VIP area, which is basically private rooms, and tried kissing her. She kept saying no, and that she has a boyfriend (which she does), but he wouldn't respect her wishes at all. She tried to escape but he was so tall and forceful. Then he tried to put his hand down her pants. Finally she escaped. He said, "Fine, I'll just fine someone else." Ummmmmm, like she cares??? Oh man, I was fuming when I heard this. Katie was flustered, but not as pissed off as I was. I mean, you know me and my drunken rants; if some social issue that concerns me is challenged when I'm drunk, then I go on a rampage. I was ANGRY. The wrath of Lisa was trying to come out...I was honestly about to go downstairs and find him and do something very violent and un-Lisa-like to him. I knew I had a bad feeling about those guys, thank god for my gut telling me to not even show an ounce of interest in their company. But seriously, I felt terrible for Katie, but she's OK for sure. Katie was trying to calm ME down! Everyone kept coaxing me and telling me to just get a drink and chill out. So I used my free drink coupon to get the one and only drink for the night (I paid 18euro to get in, that's all I'll ever spend at a money vacuum like that). We then explored all of the other floors, which kind of sucked, there was a hip-hop floor, something else, who knows, they actually all kind of seemed the same. The ground floor was where all of the dancing was, which was OK, just really crowded and, well, 'clubby.' There were also a lot of Americans, actually there were a lot of Americans in Madrid altogether. Every once in awhile, the ceiling would blast this damp, high pressure air that was loud and weird. That was kind of cool, I guess. We danced on some platforms for a bit. Then Kelly started dancing with some rich guy who kept offering to buy her Porsches and stuff, which was weird, but he ultimately invited all of us back to a VIP area on the ground floor which is basically a platform blocked off by a velvet rope with its own couches and waiters. Not bad. I didn't want to drink anything else, though, and I was growing tired, AND we couldn't find Stacey and Herbie. So Jessica, Katie, and I sat on the couches ready to leave. Finally we found them, Stacey was oh so very drunk, I guess she had been taking some tequila shots (haha, she's a fan now) which was actually quite cute. When Stacey's drunk she doesn't act really drunk, just really happy. It's very cute. Then us four and Herbie got our coats from coat check, another 2 euro, then hopped in cabs to head back to the Principe. We got back around 4:30 which is ridiculous, but normal for Spain. I'm definitely not equipped for this scene. Melissa, Courtney, and Kelly stuck around there and I guess they were basically there all night. I swear, Katie, Jessica, Stacey and I are like the old people in the group who tire easily...but I mean, 4:30am should NOT be considered early by any means! Ohhhhh Spain. Stacey passed out right away, and we hung out and ate chips pretty loudly right on the bed. She was OUT! She was definitely OK, we made sure of it. I mean, when Stacey's sober she sleeps like a rock! A little before 5 I was asleep. What a silly, night, Madrid. A silly night, indeed.

Being good and cultural in Madrid

Woke up at 9am, still drunk, btw, on Saturday morning for a lovely hotel breakfast which turned out to not live up to the Bécquer´s. Oh well. They had some good lil pastries, and coconut yogurt (finally!) which I ate with my cereal. I don´t trust the milk out here, honestly, and it´s way too thick for my liking, so yogurt is the new milk for me. When I get back to the states I am eating my cereal with yogurt always. Me gusta mucho. I forgot to say that I as we left to go out the previous night we ran into Eva and Pepe returning from dinner, and of course we were all shwasted. Great times. Well, going down to breakfast Stacey and I were definitely still under the influence, and on the way Stacey said, "I hope we don´t run into Eva." Well, we did. And we were required to sit with her because of being part of the group or something. Oh, it was a silly breakfast. Anyways, we went back to sleep for a couple hours, woke up, and left with Jessica, Courtney, Katie, and Melissa for a bit of shopping and Reina Sofía (the contemporary art museum which has Picasso´s infamous "Guernica"). Oh, so Stacey, Jessica, Courtney, Katie, and Melissa are the girls with whom I usually am out, so they have officially reached the status of "the girls." So when I refer to "the girls," you know who it is that I speak of. We walked down the main street close to our hotel and passed one of the main theatres here (think the Cadillac or Chicago theatres), Teatro Lope de Vega, where a huge disco ball was spinning to advertise Mamma Mia. On a whim, we got in line to buy tickets. We all bought the cheapest seats (25€), had a bit of language issues with the lady selling tickets, but it was alllll good. Our tickets were for the 6:00 show, wooooot! We were quite pumped. We then began searching for some cheap, good food, and on the way stopped in an awesome shoe store. Nobody bought anything because everyone has large feet (except me, of course) and Spain typically doesn´t carry large sizes. I guess I fit in well here with my little Spanish feet, eh? We finally found a little eatery called Pans, which is like a Panera minus the soup. It´s cool, they have many different sandwiches on many different kinds of bread. I got a 5 cereal bread (5 grain) with pavo (turkey), lechuga (lettuce), and yogur (yogurt). It was good, and healthy! I´m going to start using plain yogurt instead of mayo from now on...yeah, I´m definitely on a yogurt kick. After fooding it for a bit (oooh rhyme) we hopped on a very crowded Metro to hit up the Reina Sofía (and I was soooo excited).
The Reina Sofía is a very confusing building. We definitely had orientation problems. The first exhibit we saw was some very guerilla-esque contemporary art made in the past two years by Spanish artists. Quite weird, post-modern, and difficult to decipher. I was not a huge fan. We wanted to find the Picasso, Dalí, and Miró, but could not figure it out. Then these sketchy Argentinian guys of around 23ish approached us and told us where to go. They tried striking up convo, but I was immediately struck with a really ugly vibe from them, they definitely did not seem like good news. I seriously think that my Chicago instincts kick in a lot with people around here, because everyone else was being cordial and responding to them. I stood away from the group and refused to make eye contact with them, I didn´t trust them too much in terms of their intentions. Thankfully, however, they guided us to the Picasso exhibited and they went their own separate way. Good, I didn´t feel right about them at all. Then we ended up splitting up, me with Melissa and Courtney, and then Jessica, Katie, and Stacey together. The three of us spent a lot of time on the Picasso, which is a stunning collection. The museum has a lot of his earlier and later work which is very different than the Picasso that typically comes to mind. They also had a lot of sketches, particularly test sketches of parts of "Guernica." Then, we walked into the area where "Guernica" hung. This painting is absolutely stunning. It´s humongous, captivating, and disturbing. We read that the painting was commissioned for the World´s Fair the year that it was produced, can you imagine how disturbing that must have been? The painting is black and white, contrary to Picasso´s masterpieces, and extremely large which also contrasts previous Picasso works. It´s also a very difficult depiction of the Spanish Civil War. It is very disturbing when you look at it in person, there´s death and destruction everywhere, absolutely no triumph or pride. I recommend you look up an image of it if you´ve never seen it before, it´s an amazing work of art that all should see. It was so awesome to see this work in person that has hung on small posters in every single one of my Spanish classes for the past 9 years. It is a very important work in the modern art realm, as well as Spain, and Europe as a whole. Seriously, check it out. After spending a very long time gazing at the magnificent piece, we headed over to the huge Miró collection. I LOVE MIRÓ! His work is fascinating and exciting to look at. His use of color and line exemplifies what I love about modernism...it´s experimental, psychological, simple and yet extremely effective. It´s true genius. It´s really awesome to see his work in person, which I have never seen before. Same with Dalí: his work is crazy and quite haunting. Really taps into the unconscious, which was his goal. I swear, that man was on drugs for sure. It´s trippy stuff. Dalí is so awesome, I love him! Oh man, what a crazy tío (dude). It was really awesome to look at these paintings with Melissa and Courtney because we actually discussed the paintings that we looked at, which I really appreciate. Modern art´s purpose is to delve into the interaction between viewer and painting, and that goal was accomplished. We were not passive viewers like we were at the Prado, we were active viewers which is what is necessary for the appreciation of modernist works. LOVE IT! After that we went into the Surrealist photography room. We saw Man Ray photos, who is one of my favorite photographers of all time. However, their collection was pretty sparse (boo) but still a pleasure to observe. Then we went into a little room that was showing a silent film by a famous Surrealist film maker...I can´t remember his name, but Melissa is a huge fan. The film was so cool, definitely revolutionary in terms of cinematography, acting, and comedic timing. It was great. After that we rushed to the gift shop, which unfortunately kind of sucked (and we were short on time as it was), and headed out to catch a metro back to the theatre.
We walked pretty quickly to the metro, worried that we would be late, and once we got off at our stop we kind of ran. We still got there at about a quarter to six. We took our seats which were allllll the way in the back row of the balcony, haha! It was cool, you could still see the stage very well. Then, a couple more groups of Americans took seats in the rest of the back row...we think that maybe they reserve the nosebleed section for Americans. Hehe. "Mamma Mia" was AWESOME! Everything was in Spanish, the script, the music, everything. Let me tell ya, Abba in Spanish is worth hearing. Such as "Chico ven aquí" ("Take a Chance on Me") or "Para mí, para ti" ("Knowing Me, Knowing You"), etc. etc. It was so fun, we definitely danced it up at the end! Oh, Donna sounded like a man, she had a very deep voice, but I think that that type of voice is considered really beautiful here. I´m just so used to the squeaky voices of the U.K.´s version. Also, the guy who played Sam was like and opera singer. He was great! The show was so fun, and it definitely invigorrated all of us after a tiring day. Half of us there had not even seen it in English, and they loved it! Yayyyy musical theatre!
After the theatre we took Evan´s dinner suggestion and hit up Zahara. This restaurant was quite large and smokey, but their menu was large and had American food which appeased many of the girls. I wanted to stick with the Spanish-esque food, so I got a tortilla de mariscos while everybody else got bacon cheeseburgers and salads. Now, a Spanish tortilla is not what you´d think--it´s an omelette, typically prepared with potatoes and onions. I got one with mariscos (shellfish) which was basically an omelette with shrimp. It was not great, not much flavor. Whatever, though, I´m just experimental like that. Oh man, I missed Maruja´s cooking! After dinner we rushed back to get to the hotel to get ready. We stopped at a convenience store to pick up munchies for later that night since we had learned that places closed early around these parts.
All in all, we packed a lot into a day. We were all so proud of ourselves for really taking advantage of Madrid and being super cultural. We´re totally getting the full experience, it´s so exciting! It was an excellent, excellent, day!!

Night número uno de Madrid

We got all primped up and started drinking in Katie and Melissa´s room with a hella lot of people. It was seriously like being in the dorm again, except this time we didn´t have to keep the door closed. I remembered to bring my Switzerland shot glass, which I have officially named Sven, and he got a whole lotta use. We had a great time haaaaangin in the Príncipe. Melissa had two friends who were on the Madrid abroad program who decided to take us out. I took my first Metro ride (woooot!) and we headed first to Sol, an area where there are a lot of bars and clubs. We went to a small bar where they supposedly have the best hard cider. I got a glass, it was good, but I was already drunk, and sugary drinks make me sick anyways so I gave it to Herbie. Then we walked down to a club/bar, I think that it was called Joy. It was alright, nothing too great, so we left pretty soon. Then we went to a club called Dreams which wasn´t bad. They played pretty good music, and we got a free shot when we walked in. The shots actually tasted like mostly apple juice, maybe a touch of liquor. It was funny. After a bit Stacey bought everyone a tequila shot, and she had never had tequila but I think that her innebriation allowed her to get over her tequila fears. After that we were all acting pretty silly, especially Sam and Maggie who ended up really dancing with each other, and eventually making out. Ahh! Sevilla trip incest! Not really incest, but it´s weird because we´re all kind of like family. It was a silly little drunky thing and a great story to tell, we reflect on that fondly. I have some excellent pictures. At around 3:30am, a bunch of us were a bit tired of that place. It´s funny, there´s a group of us that just don´t dig the whole staying out all night thing like a lot of the others on the trip. It´s cute, we´re like the old ladies/men here. So a bunch of people stuck around and Katie, Stacey, Herbie, and Jessica left. We weren´t that tired, actually, but it is exhausting to stay out and party for so long. We wanted to find a little eatery or something, but nothing was open, so we just watched some Spanish TV in my room for a bit. I dunno, we had a great night, don´t get me wrong, but the Madrid night scene is very different than Madrid. First of all, there are many more Americans, and, from what I´ve observed, it´s not as friendly. I don´t know, very city-like. Sevilla is more like a community while Madrid is a legite city, and we all could definitely feel the difference. Nevertheless, we had a great time and were way excited for our next day!

Lisa went to Madrid

Woke up at 6:15am on Friday, which didn´t really phase me since I was super pumped for the weekend. We showered, last minute packed, ate, made ourselves some bocadillos for the train, and were out the door by ten to eight. We walked in the pouring rain and dark all the way to Plaza de Cuba to catch a cab. It was miserable, to be honest, because not only was it cold and rainy, but my bag weighed a ton. Y´all know me and my problems with overpacking. By the time we got to the Plaza my arm was burning, blah. Grabbed a cab and were off to the train station. P.S., that was the most traffic that I´ve ever seen in Sevilla...no wonder they have the siesta, they all get up so early! We were there a bit early, so we hit up the Café de Indias there for some tea, chocolate caliente, muffins, and cereal. Funny little cultural story: I ordered a small box of All-Bran there. The guy behind the counter asked me, "¿Para llevar?" ("To go?"), to which I responded "Sí," causing the guy to look around all confused not knowing how to give me cereal to go. Then I told him "Lo lleva en la caja" ("I´ll take it in the box") which left him quite perplexed, but he gave it to me anyways. I swear, the Spanish have not yet embraced the lovely American tradition of finger foods. Like I´ve said, they use cutlery for everything, so eating dry cereal just doesn´t register with them. Ohhh Spain. We then went through a bit of security and were rushed onto the train which really caught me by surprise. I mean, they are adament about leaving on time here! I was seriously running to my car. We took a train called the Ave, which is super fast, therefore only a 2.5 hour trip alllllll the way to Madrid. The train was really nice, kind of like a step up from Amtrak on the inside. Watching the scenery as we rode was pretty cool too, as we travelled north it started to get more mountainous, and we drove through many mountains which was very new and very exciting (yes, I am easily entertained). They showed a movie on the train, Are We There Yet? which is one of those stupid kid comedy-esque movies. It´s starring Ice Cube. I gave it about a 15 minute chance, which was generous, and changed the channel on my headphones. Channel 5 was the English music channel which played AWESOME music...a lot of classic rock and folk, it made me quite happy. I started reading my new book about Buddhism which I´m really enjoying so far. Then I got tired and took my own little early morning siesta for about an hour. Woke up, ate my bocadillo and pear that I had packed for myself, listened to music, and watched the rain slowly fade away as we entered the center of Spain. We detrained around 11:30ish and were immediately taken aback by how cold it was in Madrid. I mean, holy crap! We are spoiled in the south, let me tell you. It was definitely in the 30´s. We grabbed a really sweet tour bus and arrived at our hotel, el Príncipe Pío. We were then split into two groups for touring purposes, and Stacey and I were in the second which meant that we went on our first excursion not for an hour or so. We couldn´t get our rooms yet because they were still being cleaned, so we stowed our luggage in Pepe´s room, and went to grab some lunch. We walked up the main, urban street of Madrid (think Times Square or Michigan Ave.) to find some sustenance. Madrid was much more urban than I had expected...I mean, more Starbucks than Chicago, no joke! Lots of theatres, movie and stage, many stores, restaurants, etc. I like it a lot, the city girl in me really enjoys that scene, I love having options. A small group of us hit up a cute bar/eatery called Nebraska (there are a lot of restaurant/bars in Madrid named after U.S. states) which was quite good. I had this traditional Spanish bruschetta-esque thing, it was bread with olive oil, tomatoe and proiscutto-like ham. Oh, I should mention that not only do they have Starbucks on every corner in Madrid, but a restaurant/store called El Museo de Jamón (the Ham Museum) which kind of weirds me out. It has so much ham hanging all over the place, Spain is crazy about dem pigs, I tell ya. After food, we walked back to the hotel, chilled on some couches before Eva fetched us to go on our first excursion: el Prado.
At around 1:30 we got back on the bus and headed for the Prado. I was so excited because, well, I just love art museums, and this is an important one! The Prado was great. We had a guide who´s an art history professor at la Universidad de Madrid, and he was very nice, very clear, and succinct. I saw my first Velázquez and Goya works in person, ever! I loooooove Velázquez now, he´s probably one of my favorite Renaissance artists, for sure. I saw "Las Meninas," his most famous work, which is AWESOME. He´s a fantastic painter, I really do love his work a lot now. Goya was just silly, I liked his stuff a lot, just not as much as Velázquez. There was also a hell of a lot of religious art (hehe, pun kind of intended) which I can appreciate for what it´s worth, but it grows old after awhile. After our tour of the museum, Stacey, Melissa, Katie, and I explored the parts of the museum that we missed on the tour. One of the artists that we missed was Bosch, who did that famous eden-like crazy painting, "The Garden of Earthly Delights." I mean, judging by the name, you know that I´d like it. You gotta look this painting up, it´s crazy, and so awesome. I bought a small print of it. After wandering the museum for awhile, then hitting up the gift shop, we were damn tired. So much walking, so little sleep, we needed a refreshment. We went to el Café museo across the street and got some wine, pastries, and Coca-Cola Light. The café was really nice, relaxing, and cute. It was a really good break from the day. After chilling for about an hour we taxi´d it back to the Príncipe. We finally settled into our room, which we realized was not as nice as the Bécquer´s rooms. Ohhh the Bécquer. We checked out the shower because, admittedly, one of the things that we had looked forward to doing in Madrid was shaving our legs because it´s really not possible in our shanty shower back in Sevilla. Haha, too much info? Lo and behold the shower is gross, moldy, and had the same detachable showerhead as ours from back home (although at least this one stayed attached)! Dag-nammit. Then Sam walked by and we made plans to find a SuperSol (a grocery chain) to buy some liquor because, well, drinking at bars/clubs in Madrid is way expensive compared to Spain and we were not digging the whole idea of large money expenditure. You know, it´s stressful to figure out where things are in a new city when you still don´t understand directions in your home city. Ugh, well, it took us about 25 min. in the freezing cold to find a SuperSol which wasn´t too far from our hotel. We kept walking into other convenience stores which didn´t have a good selection (Sam was set on the Cuervo). SuperSol was silly, all of the liquor has locks on the top that the cashier has to open for you. How delightfully absurd. Stacey and I bought ourselves some Smirnoff (sticking with an old friend), and headed back to the hotel to realize that there was a pretty substantial liquor store located right next door to the hotel which we absent-mindedly passed before. Ohhhh us. For dinner Katie, Stacey, and I decided to get some tapas. FINALLY I was going to have some tapas! It took us forever to find a place, which was kind of silly. Stacey ordered croquetas (her new favorite food), Katie got calamari, and I decided to be daring and ordered something on the menu which I had no idea what it was. I´m ridiculous. So the food came, and basically my dish was a bowl of oil, fat, maybe blood, bones, some chorizo and morcilla. What?? I tried the pieces of fat, which I initially thought was fish, and rejected it right away. I ate the chorizo, morcillas, and some bread, though. Haha. I later found out that what I had ordered were tripes, which is the stomach of various animals. AHHHH. Ok, I´m sorry, I´ve eaten some weird things in my day, and there is very little that I will avoid, and that is DEFINITELY one of them! Well, so much for my first tapas experience, lol. We got back to the Príncipe around 10 and it was time to get ready for our first night out in Madrid (oh yeah)!

PICTURES! FINALLY!

Thaaaaat's right! I finally put some pictures up. I was going to post them on my blog, but it takes way too much time, and I'm sure that it's pretty obvious that I spend enough time writing these darm things. So yeah, here's a link to my digital photo album:

http://community.webshots.com/user/leesuh223


check 'em out!

Here comes the rain again

It´s funny what a profound effect the weather can have on one´s day. Woke up at 10:30 this morning, made some kick-ass toast (finally!), and was off to the center to meet up for our last day excursion to el Museo de bellas artes (Fine Arts Museum). We got there around noon and found out that we actually were supposed to meet at the museum. Damn language comprehension mishaps. The museum was quite a ways´away, it took about 20 minutes to get there. It was raining, and my pants, which are too long (of course) were soaked at the bottom consequently causing my mesh shoes to soak through. My socks were sopping wet. It was pretty miserable. We finally got the museum. It´s a very nice museum, it´s an old church, I believe. The artwork is all Spanish, with some other various European artists. The works are organized chronologically, and mostly religious depictions. They were very good, very fascinating. I took some pics of some paintings I really loved...my favorite was a picture of the Virgin Mary depicted as a very large, substantial diety with her arms stretched out to her sides so that that cloak she wears looks like a cape. A bunch of men kneel at her sides, they appear smaller and submissive, as if taking cover under Mary´s wing. At her feet lie many different flowers, accented by large, pastel pink roses. It´s quite stunning, and very empowering. Cuz, ya know, all women should be bowed down to like that! Oh yeah. I really enjoyed the museum...you know me and the visual arts. We´re best friends forever. I really enjoyed the 18th and 19th century paintings because they reminded me of Prof. Willette´s class. Then we walked home. It was seriously the worst walk ever. My shoes were so wet that there were puddles in my shoes. I was cold, wet, tired, and starving. It was an hour long walk home! It seemed like we would never make it. Well, we did. I changed asap and rushed to the lunch table. Oh man, after that, lunch was such a religious experience. We had cauliflower-potatoes-caramelized onions au gratin with some sort of ham thing on the side. It was so delicious, we ate so much and so fast. Stacey had 3 helpings! It was amazing. After lunch I ate a lot of chocolate. Note to self: never bring chocolate home, it´s dangerous. Then we got dressed, headed to the center to do some computer stuff. We met up with Katie at the center, to whom I described her silly antics. She was pretty embarrassed and apologetic, we told her not to worry about it and that it happens to the best of us. Around 6pm the three of us left to do some major shopping since, well, we needed some bitchin' outfits for Madrid. Yes, Lisa has a shallow side at times. I bought the most amazing scarf at MaxMara...it was on sale for 30euro, but I just couldn't resist. It's big, bulky, and purple with blue and gold flecks. It's fantastic. Then we spent over an hour at H&M where I spent 43euro on 5 pieces of clothing, not bad! I got some shirts, a vest, a shrug sweater, and a brown corduroy hat (woot woot!). We kept searching for cute, cheap boots, to no avail. Damn Spain and their high quality shoes! We then walked back, which took a bit of time, but it actually turned out to be a pretty nice night. Oh man, my legs and feet were so tired from all of the walking that I did today, and I was so hungry. It's so easy to work up an appetite here with the large amount of walking and large gap between meals...no wonder the Spaniards invented tapas! For dinner we had cooked green beans, which were pretty similar to what we'd have in the states except instead of cooking with butter and salt, they're cooked with olive oil. They were so good, and much healthier than the buttered type. Hey, Mom, start preparing veggies with olive oil from now on! We also had cheeseburgers. I have not eaten a cheeseburger since I can remember. It was quite an experience, and quite delicious...I must admit, one of the main things I missed upon becoming a vegetarian was hamburgers. These burgers had some different spices and such in them which made them quite tastey and unique. After dinner I ate another row of chocolate (I'm never buying chocolate bars again) and watched some Spanish TV and internetted for awhile. Did a whirlwind of packing and was in bed by midnight. I was so majorly pumped for Madrid, I anticipated a weekend of pure, hedonistic, INSANITY!

Them lazy Spanish days

Ask me what I did today and I could tell you very little. Woke up at 10:30 this morning, made toast (and I burned it again!), and was out the door for the center. The walk was rough because it was cold, and, despite my 8+ hours of sleep that night, I was super tired, and my butt was sore. That's right, my butt. Don't ask me how, I'm just strange like that. Got a manzana from McDonald's, found the first open chair in the center and sat around for a half hour literally doing nothing but eating my apple and socializing. At 12:30 we had a presentation on culture shock by one of the University psychologists. It was a good presentation, pretty informative but nothing too exciting. The presenter was fun, funny, and clear in his expression--he's a Canadian native, but moved to Spain when he was 6. So he was pretty good at grasping this whole concept of culture/language shock. Whatevs, I'm not too worried, and I'm not homesick, I think that I'll be juuuust fine. After the presentation Stacey and I walked back for lunch, which was soooooo good (of course)! It was the most amazing lentil soup that I've ever had, a very typical salad with oil and vinegar, and a bacalao empanada. The empanadas here, I guess, are different than Latin America's: they're more like quiche. This one was filled with bacalao (cod), egg, raisins, and the crust was dusted with sugar. It sounds pretty unusual, but the mixture of sweetness with fish and egg was quite perfect. For dessert we got a flan cup! Yay! I feel like an excited little kid whenever we get flan cups...I could be in a flan cup commercial, Bill Cosby Jell-o style! After lunch I was still pretty tired, and cold. In fact, we were both tired, and decided to aprovechar la siesta (take advantage of the siesta). Oh wow, did I nap. I don't know why I am so tired. I guess last weekend is catching up with me. Plus, I'm preparing myself for this weekend's trip to Madrid which, I can already tell, is going to be OFF THE HOOK. So I slept for 2 hours, Stacey left for the center after siesta and I stuck around. Took a nice shower (they get better every time), and bummed around the room doing internet stuff next to my window overlooking the streets of Spain as the day turned to night. Sigh. Around 8 I retreated to the living room to warm up and watch some TV. Stacey returned, bearing gifts (chocolate!), and we watched "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" (I´m kind of obsessed now). At 9:30 we had dinner which was, well, kind of a difficult one. It was a very non-Lisa-like dinner. We ate morcillos, which is some sort of traditional beef sausage thing here, which was actually very good but overwhelmingly meaty. Then bacon, but this was soft bacon, not the crunchy bacon we´re used to...very, very greasy. Then a scrambled egg omelet. So basically I had bacon, steak, and eggs. I felt like Jon, honestly. Hehe. It was extremely greasy, and, although tastey, kind of hard to eat. Again, a very anti-Lisa meal. Oh, and with the morcillos, Stacey and I ate the whole thing, and later noticed that Maruja, María, and Marta removed the skin and only ate the insides. Oops, silly Americans. After dinner I ate a lot of my chocolate bar. I had a bad chocolate craving, and that´s bad news.
Our night was quite silly. We met up with Melissa and Katie at Plaza de Cuba, and walked/sipped cartons of wine over to el Club Catedral where girls drink free 12-1am. The club was kind of nice, a bit small, very white (in terms of decór) with bed-like areas to sit upon, and a dance floor. I had 2 free vodka tonics, which weren´t too bad, and got me feeling a bit drunk. I went up for my 3rd, but the bar was so crowded that I didn´t get up to the counter to order until it just hit 1, so I decided that it wasn´t worth paying 5€ for another and ended my drinking. The bar was silly at this point, it was teeming with Americans--I swear, there were maybe 10 Spaniards at the most. It was kind of absurd, I honestly wasn´t really a fan. A lot of other girls on our program were there, so we all met up on the dance floor for some, well, dancing. It was fun, a lot of the girls were pretty drunk and acting really silly, specifically Rachael and Lizzy who were gettin dowwwwwn! Then Katie came up to me, stumbling and slurring her speech. I had no idea that she was that drunk! We grew exhausted by Catedral´s scene, so we decided to go to Alfalfa to get some cheaper drinks and perhaps some food. Katie, Stacey, Melissa, Jessica, Courtney, and I all headed over. Katie was really drunk, I held her up the whole way there. Thank god I decided not to drink anymore because this girl needed some major babysitting. The girls went into a bar to order and Katie was just all over the place. She was walking up to random people, falling into them, asking for marijuana (baaaaad idea), she even knocked over some sketchy guy´s drink whilst asking him for pot. It was a disaster. I was finally able to drag her back inside the bar, and the sketchy guy followed us because he told her that she had to buy him a new drink. She didn´t really understand what was happening. Finally Jessica turned around and asked if I needed help. Told her yes, and she and Stacey came to my aid. We got her to sit, but then she stood back up again and went running around the street again. We got her back, again, and the sketchy guy kept asking her for money for the drink. Stacey thought that he was trying to buy her a drink and kept saying "No," but I stepped in, paid the 1.20€ so that we coould get out of there ASAP. Melissa, Katie´s roommate decided to stick around a bit with Courtney and Jessica, so Stacey (who wasn´t that drunk either) and I walked her home. It was quite an experience because we got kind of lost and ended up taking an hour to walk home. By the time we got Katie to her place, Melissa was already there and in bed! We´re silly. We were in bed by 3, which is early in Spanish time. Hehe, it was actually a really fun night. I love Katie and actually didn´t mind watching out for her. Just wanted to make sure that she was OK, and, ya know, it´s a good story to tell! Twas quite a night, indeed.

Bad karma

Tis a cloudy Tuesday here in Sevilla. The news says that the precipitation is crazy this week in Western Europe. It´s supposed to rain all over Spain tomorrow...but I´m sure that it will stay mainly in the plain.
Oh come on, you know you loved that one.
Aaaaaaaanyways, today has been quite strange, and I blame it on the weather. Bad weather=bad karma. Woke up at 10am to the cleaning lady, which was weird in itself because I think that the cleaning lady thang is pretty rare here. I burned my toast this morning. That kind of sucked. Left for the center at 11:30 just as the cleaning lady came into our room to clean. It was a cold and cloudy walk. Not terrible, however. Got to the center early, so grabbed a manzana from McDonald´s, as per usual, and waited until we left for el Alcazar. We left around noonish and took a short walk to el Alcazar, which is an old palace and the current quarters to the king of Sevilla. We entered into this old, vast garden with small buildings and structures that looked basically ancient. The palace is extremely large and hard to navigate, but the architecture, gardens, and artwork within it is absolutely stunning. Parts of the palace are still in existence since their construction in the 1200´s. Most of it is leftover from when the Arab population was large and in charge over here. Most of Spain´s old structures have a heavy Arab influence since Sevilla was a Muslim nation until San Fernando (I believe) drove them out (a.k.a. massacred) in the 1200´s (I believe, once again). San Fernando´s a hero here, I don´t know how I feel about that one. Anyways, this palace is crazy big and crazy beautiful, I took lots and lots of pictures which I plan on posting asap.
Afterwards we walked back home. My legs were killing me, they were so sore from the Catedral visit yesterday, and walking for 2 more hours in el Alcazar was no help at all. Our lunch was probably my least favorite meal we had because, well, it was pretty standard and American-like. We had spaghetti with cubed ham and a spicy tomato sauce with bread and a piece of pork. The pork was not great. You know, I started eating meat here, but I´m not at the point of my meat-eating where I can eat a big hunk of meat rather than meat within/mixed in something else. Blah. Lunch was also awkward because of the following: when Stacey and I arrived home for lunch we noticed her red suitcase, a.k.a. our food/liquor stash, standing upright against the wall. We figured that the cleaning lady had moved it to vacuum since a lot of our stuff had been moved around. At lunch, Maruja said that she had a storage place for the suitcases under our bed since they obstruct the cleaning of our room. Then she said "You don´t need to keep anything in them, anyways," which to me seemed very suspicious. Then, she commented on Stacey not eating a lot. Since I have a few more years of Spanish on Stacey, I told Maruja that Stacey had a smaller stomach, which she does. Then Maruja asked me if I do too, and I said not really and took a second helping of spaghetti. I think that she was testing us, especially Stacey, which is nerve-wracking since this means that perhaps the cleaning lady showed Maruja the suitcase and its contents. This could have insulted her because it makes her feel like her food is not good enough that Stacey needs to eat other things to satisfy herself. This is definitely not the case--Stacey LOVES her food, but she´s a huuuuuuge snacker and needs little things to hold her over between meals, especially since meals are spaced so far apart. Here´s the other thing that makes me nervous: the one rule that Luisa gave us before moving in was no liquor in the house under any circumstances. There was a half-full bottle of vodka in there. That´s baaaad. Now, Maruja didn´t seem angry, just a little suspicious. She was not being mean to us at all, just sort of conniving, I guess. Stacey didn´t catch on to Maruja´s hints. Later, thankfully, María del Mar showed up and made the meal a bit less awkward for me because I felt like a punished dog. I really felt terrible, we never meant to disrespect her, we love Maruja. After lunch I told Stacey about my suspicions. Now here´s the kicker: I had been keeping a suitcase and a duffel under my bed. The housekeeper had put my duffel inside of my suitcase, and my suitcase was under the bed still and not upright like Stacey´s was. This means that the housekeeper also looked inside my suitcase, saw nothing, and put it back under my bed. I mean, if she moved Stacey´s just for cleaning purposes, shouldn´t she have moved mine as well? Oy vey. Stacey and I really felt like crap at that point and kind of moped about. We wanted to get out of there, and hoped that Maruja wouldn´t tell Luisa. I hid the vodka in my laundry hamper and we took the snacks outside with us to throw out. Ugh, I hope that this doesn´t turn into anything. We just have to be supergood the rest of the time here! Well, we learned our lesson, that´s for sure. We´re really counting on the fact that this has happened before, probably even worse, especially since Maruja has hosted students for awhile now. Oh man.
So we took another cloudy, cold walk back to the center. Stopped at Starbucks (I´m pretty sure that it´s the only place that gives drinks to go) for some tea and hot cocoa, and got to the center around 4. At 4:30 we walked down the street to meet the bus for our bus tour. Now it was really getting cloudy out, bad karma I tell you! It was a double-decker bus, and we got to ride up top! I´ve never gotten to ride on the top of a double-decker bus, and I always wanted to when I was a kid and would see them in Chicago. I was quite pumped, and actually so was everyone else. We got headphones to plug in at our seats and listen to a taped tour. The English channel (haha, pun) was not working at our station (bad karma!). So Stacey and I listened to the tour in Spanish, of which, admittedly, we only caught half. The tour was really fun! It´s so fun to just ride the bus up top, not to mention look at some of the most impressive architecture I´ve ever seen. We went all around Sevilla, and I got to see so many places that I had not seen before...and from the best perspective! Near the end of the trip it began to get quite cold, and I was soooo tired from walking so much and stressing so much. Nevertheless, I had a great time. Then I came to the center and started this blog (they take awhile, as you could have guessed). Once the center closed, Stacey, Katie, Melissa and I walked back to los Remedios together. We had awhile for dinner, so we decided to salir de copas (go for a drink) for a bit. Every bar/cafe we walked into was either too crowded, too smokey, or too limited of a menu, haha. We finally decided on Cadillac, a sports' bar right next door to my building where the always play the futbol games. Stacey and I always talk about how much we want to go there every day when we walk by, and finally we were going! We all got a glass of wine, sat at a table and chatted. It was really fun and chill, and Cadillac is a really good scene/atmosphere. We must return, make it our Cheers! Feeling tipsy, we came back home. Maruja was watching TV, so I joined her hoping to make nice, and also to spend some time with her just she and myself. We watched "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" in Spanish, which was great, and we chatted, which was equally great. I guess everything's alright, then! Then we had dinner which was so delicious, a very Lisa-ish dinner: grilled calamari with garlic parsley sauce and a tomato anchovie salad with some sort of white cheese. Sooooo good! So Lisa-ish, and therefore so perfect. Now my breath reeks of garlic, it's terrible. But it was so good at the time. It was such a cold night, that after dinner I immediately cuddled up next to the TV over the space heater, with my lap top. We've been watching some sort of interview program, think "Inside the Actor's Studio," on which the host interviewed Las Ketchup. They sang "Asereje" accoustically! It's great. And here I am. We were thinking about going out tonight, but we're all so tired and it is way too cold. I'm thinking I may just keep warm, watch some Spanish TV, and call it an early night. This day was full of bad karma, but turned out pretty great. That's Sevilla for ya, it never disappoints!

Damn, the Catholics got the goods

Monday, woooot! Woke up too early after a long-ass weekend...9am. Maruja was up pre-preparing our lunch (which smelled delicious) and told me that it was laundry day. YES! We had been wondering about laundry but were too shy to ask her. We got ready, ate some toast, handed over our laundry (which made me nervous because the washing machine is rough and she washes whites and colors together) and were out the door by 10. It was cold this morning. And by cold I mean below 55 degrees. We got to the center by about 10:20, where I frantically scrambled to gather all of the information I needed about class scheduling since my schedule appointment with Eva was at 11:30. Our meeting was brief and pretty easy since all classes will work for my Spanish major, I'm mostly trying to take as many 400 level classes as possible. It looks like after this program, in order to complete my Spanish major I'll only have to complete 2 or 3 more classes...senior year will be a breeze! We can only take a sum total of 5 classes, with a maximum of 2 in the program center and a minimum of 3 at the University of Seville. Classes begin in February, and for the first week we'll be testing classes out, so we pick 7-9 potential classes to attend, and we check out workload, how well we understand the prof., etc. I'm looking at taking all literature and art history courses. Haha, I'm a crazy lil RC/Spanish girl. After my interview I did some internetting in the downtime before our first Sevilla excursion of the week: a la Catedral de Giralda. We all gathered around noon and embarked on the 5 minute-ish walk to the tallest point and most famous monument in Sevilla.
The Catedral is simply stunning...it's one of the most magnificent places I've visited. It's humongous and beautifully ornate. Again, it's the oldest place that I've ever seen, and been inside. Pepe took us on a tour of all of the many rooms, tombs, courtyards, halls, etc. etc. etc. It's so beautiful on the inside, it's unexplainable. You walk through the halls and you can feel history in there. I mean, kings and rulers and priests have walked those halls for hundreds and hundreds of years. It's an unreal sensation to be present to its luscious history. Catholics got it good, I tell ya. I mean, being Jewish is cool and all, but it's kind of a bland religion. We get to wear hats, and black, and grow beards, but no cool gold hats, robes, stained glass windows, shrines, hymns, and cathedrals. Whatever, we're the chosen people, so we got that on dem Catholics. Booyah! At the end of the tour we walked up the bell tower which is 40 floors up, and you walk the whoooooole thing. It doesn't have stairs, it's a ramp, and it's the original floor that was there since the cathedral was erected. It was so crazy to walk up there and watch Sevilla grow smaller and smaller and smaller just as many priests did before addressing crowds. Wow. At the top, you get the best panoramic view of Sevilla, which looks like a cute, yet vast European village from there. Now that I know that my apartment gets wireless, I can post pictures of it all, which I plan to do because I have taken many. We were all kind of lost in our own little worlds, that we lost track of time. Stacey approached me at 2:10, we were going to be late for lunch! Despite our sore legs, we briskly walked down the entire tower and power walked like mad back home to arrive 10 min late for lunch. Luckily Maruja is so understanding. We ate right away, what seemed like a Spanish matzo ball soup--chicken broth with potatos and some sort of balls of spices, green onion, and ham. We then finished with salad (again, weird) of green olives, tomatoes, and egg. Not bad, my friend, not bad. We topped it off with an orange, of course. We then got ourselves together and were right out the door again to get some internet time before our next excursion. As we walked down our street, there was the same bum that tried to trip me the previous week, sorting beligerantly through the same garbage heap at the same time of day. We froze, and turned a corner to take a different street. Now I know his "hours" so I can avoid him easily. Oy. On our new route, we passed a dance studio that teaches flamenco which was a stroke of luck since we've been continuously searching for a flamenco studio! It was closed for siesta, but we kept it in mind. As we walked to class we stopped at a bakery to taste some Spanish pastries (p.s. my spelling sucks now because Spanish is really starting to take over my vocabulary, speech, and mental processes), Stacey got a lemon elephant ear-looking thing and I got some sort of layered almond nut thing. Who knows, but they were both delicious. I love the desserts in Spain because they're sweet, but not overly sweet like in the states. We're excessive about everything, I've learned. At the center we took care of some more computer-associated things, and then were off to la Universidad de Sevilla. The University is huuuuuuge (70,000 students) and is located in different buildings all over Sevilla. The main building is located just blocks from the center and contains not only administration, but the linguistics, literature, history/geography, and law departments. The main building is unbelievable...I mean, I can't believe that this is where I'll be going to school for the next 5 months. It's an old tobacco factory that was built in the 17th century, I believe, It's big and white with detailed moldings and inscriptions. The building, inside, contains many courtyards with fountains and whatnot. It's truly awe-inspiring. The tour was kind of weird, we were all very tired, and it was hard to hear Pepe over the echoes of students in the halls. All I caught was that the building is very confusing and disorganized in terms of room placement, and that you can use any department's library. All's I know is I gotta head to the University this week and find out where all my classes are located. I mean, god forbid I should get lost finding my classes the first day of the semester...being the foreign student who walks in late and whatnot. Now THAT'S embarrassment to the extreme. During the tour I talked to Courtney who also went on an "outting" with a Spanish guy. She told me that he was a horrendous kisser too! Now this is a sad, sad statistic. What am I going to do with myself if all Spanish men failures at the art of kissing? Oh man. Hehe, once again, all together now, OHHHH, SPAIN!
After our silly little tour I returned to the center for a bit more class research time and internet. I love internet, I don't know how people lived without it sometimes. I think I cried tears of joy when my wireless card picked up a clear signal here. Yep, yep I did. Stacey and I left the center as it closed at 7. We walked by a Cuban bar that's literally right next store to the center because I decided that I needed a mojito, stat. We were the only ones there, actually, people's schedules are weird here, so we sat and I drank a surprisingly strong mojito. But oh, did it taste good. I was surprisingly close to a drunken state by the end of the drink, so I was able to battle the cold no problem on the walk back. We stopped in some really awesome shops on the way home, one of which is a furniture store that has this handmade wall hanging that I've been eyeing ever since we got here...aaaaand it's 73 euro. Boo. We also stopped by the flamenco studio, there was a class going on, and we listened in and watched through the window. It sounds soooo fun, I want to take it soooo badly it's not even funny! Oh, and I also want to take a wine tasting class. Have I mentioned that? Well if not, they offer them once a week and I am so game. We got home, and discovered the internet which borderlines in importance Columbus' discovery of the americas. We did email stuff and looked up tickets to Cirque du Soleil, which is here till the end of Feb. I wanna go, I wanna go! It's expensive, and yet kinda worth it. Maruja brought most of our laundry back, and it was all in one piece, thank goodness. Then dinner was served: noodle soup and grilled fish right off the bone. Soooo good! The fish here, I swear, is to die for. One funny thing that they do here: they use mayonnaise as a dipping sauce like Americans use tartar sauce. Trying to assimilate, Stacey and I ate our fish with mayo. Silly Spain. For dessert we got those flan pudding cups again! The states needs to get some of those. Flan anytime anyplace is heaven to me. After dinner Stacey, Marta, Maria del Mar, and I watched C.S.I. Miami (in Spanish!). You know, I've never watched it in English, but damn, that's a good show! I loved it in Spanish, and just imagine how much more I'll appreciate it in English when I can understand every word. Hehe. My tiredness began to really sink in. I had been very tired all day, I call it "perma-tired". I had to shower, though, so I did. It was nice. I've figured out good strategies as to how to use the terrible shower here and walk away satisfied. Needless to say, I've mastered the art of one-handed showering. Now it is about 1am and I have been online for almost 2 hours. This is why having internet access is now bad news. Oh well, it's worth it, no? I think so. So that's my Monday, nothing too exciting, nothing too boring, but always a joy!

The day that Spanish was Greek to me

Woke up late on Sunday, and to my alarm, not to mention. Yep, I went to bed so late the previous night that I needed an alarm clock to get me up at 1pm. Stacey and I got ready slowly and bummed around our room lazily talking a lot of English until el almuerzo (lunch) at 2:30. Lunch was what seemed like a cornmeal cream soup, and bocadillos (sandwiches) with a bunch of meats and sausages in them, most of them fatty, and an orange for dessert. The food was good, but not my favorite meal, per se. We barely spoke at lunch, we were being very, very lazy. Bad! Then we decided to get off our asses, and despite it being siesta on a Sunday, we would try to do some shopping and run errands and whatnot. As we crossed the bridge we saw Melissa and Katie walking not too far ahead of us. We met up, and took a nice walk towards the main shopping area (the weather was beautiful). On the way we did a lot of window shopping, stopped at Burger King so Katie and Melissa could get their Coca-Cola Light fix, and just took in the Sevilla sights (e.g. lots of nice architecture, dog poo on the streets that nobody cleans up, and PDA...ohhhh Sevilla). We decided to do some internetting and hit up the café next to the University. Thank god it was open! I was also out of minutes on my phone, and I was able to recharge them at the internet café. ¡Que suerte! (what luck!). Then everyone was a bit hungry so we stopped at McDonalds (wow, we´re bad) for snacks. Katie and Stacey got fries and ice cream while Melissa got gazpacho and I got a manzana (apple). Yeah, we like the rare Spanish MickeyD´s items. Then we parted ways for the night. Oh yeah, and while we walked all day we spoke barely a word of Spanish. Walking home Stacey and I got a bit lost in Los Remedios, but we´re both so chill and laid back that it didn´t phase us. We did a lot of window shopping and I found my next "Lisa purse" in the process. Must buy. Also, tights are really big here. That´s right, tights. Girls wear them all the freaking time, all different colors and patterns with boots of all sorts, gauchos, capris, and skirts. It´s crazy and yet really cute, very Lisa-ish, if ya ask me. I gotta get on this. I´m bringing tights to the states next year. You here that, Nicole? Tights will be big in ´07. We got home finally, thanks to Stacey who knows directions a thousand times better than I, in time for dinner. When we walked through the first gate, two women were talking and walking their dog. The dog was definitely trying to do his business on our building´s property, so the women tried to call the dog back. Then they heard us speaking English and stopped calling the dog. They said, "Son ingleses, no nos pueden entender..." (They´re English, they don´t understand us). Wow, I really feel like a foreigner sometimes. It´s my fault with my gosh darn laziness. We had another quiet, lazy dinner, we ate we had a soup made from a fish broth with spices and onion, and grilled ham n cheese bocadillos. Actually not too bad.
We then made plans to go out with Miguel and Marcos again. We met up with them at the Plaza de Cuba around 11 and took a loooong walk around Sevilla. My spanish was so unbelievably rusty that communication with them kind of blew. It was cold, too. And, ya know, there´s only so much you can talk about, especially when your vocab´s reduced so much. I saw the whole façade of la Catedral Giralda for the first time, and it´s so beautiful. It´s the oldest building I´ve ever seen! Stacey asked Miguel if we could go to services at the cathedral ("¿Podemos ir a servicios?"), forgetting that "servicios" actually means "bathroom" in Spanish. So, Miguel thought that Stacey was asking to use a bathroom in the Cathedral. So we walked to a café, and we thought that we were going to have a drink or something, but Miguel showed her the way to the bathroom. Then Stacey realized her error, but being the ignorant foreigner, we went with the flow. Stacey walked into the bathroom, stood there for a few minutes, and then walked out. LOL. So funny. Ohhhhhh Spanish. Then we sat on benches in la Plaza Nueva, Stacey with Miguel and me with Marcos. We sat there talking for awhile, meanwhile I found out how bad of a kisser Marcos is. Yeah, it was gross. Needless to say I was completely turned off henceforth. Marcos, you out! Yeah, he failed that test. So after Marcos basically tried to eat my face, I got kind of distant and tired. Turns out that on the other bench Stacey dropped the boyfriend bomb so then Miguel grew kind of distant. Needless to say, we learned that night how lame these boys are. We finally decided to walk home around 1am. The walk home was long and kind of blah. When we got back they said that they would call us to hang out on Tuesday. I´m kind of hoping that they don´t, and we´re assuming that they won´t because I gave some pretty strong signals, and it´s obvious that Miguel wasn´t interested in Stacey´s friendship, per se. Also, perhaps Marcos will assume that I have a boyfriend too and not call. That´d make my job a lot easier ; ). Oh man, I´m terrible. But what can I say? I´m a young single girl on the prowl in Europe! That´s just how I roll.
We went to bed around 2ish laughing about how ridiculous the night was, and how ridiculous our day was with our Spanish shortcomings. Ay dios mío.

My phone number

OK, so I´m just making this a separate blog entry. I have a cell phone here. It has a number. It costs a lot to call it, but if you love me so much that you´re willing to make the financial sacrifice, here is the number:

country code 034 - 664 - 487 - 382

or else you can email me lisajf@umich.edu, and email me if you try to call me and it doesn´t work because i´m kind of an idiot about technology at times. OK, bye.

I ain´t no V.I.P.

Saturday night was quite interesting. So we arrived at our little American botellón, socialized for awhile. Then, yet another drunk as fuck bum stumbles towards us. He picks up Rachael and Lizzy´s bottle of licorice rum, then a cup and holds it up waiting for us to pour him a drink. Ummmmmm. Stacey grabbed the rum and said no. He kept standing there staring at her creepily. The mace was in my pocket, I grasped it with my finger on the trigger ready to fire at any moment. Suddenly he slammed the plastic cup down hard on the bottle that Stacey was holding and called her a puta, and stormed off. Then, he got to the bridge and continued to yell obscenities at us. So creepy, once again. I would have showed no mercy with my trusty pepper spray, thank the lord for it. Now everyone here wants to get some, which is una buena idea. A Sevillano had told Courtney days earlier that there was a discoteca called Antique that was supposedly the best bar in Sevilla. We all cabbed it there, and arrived around 1ish, which was early as our driver told us that people don´t arrive until much later. Very true, we got there and it was basically deserted. It´s huge and quite fancy--the few people that were there were very dressed up. I, on the other hand, was clad in the typical Lisa attire: jeans, t-shirt, plain sweater, scarf, and my Bob Marley hat. Definitely appropriate for your typical little bar, but not Antique. I got a gin & tonic which was really expensive, but was basically all gin and no tonic so I guess that the price works. We sat on the side drinking awkwardly...empty clubs are awkward...as people slowly started to arrive. However, the people were all, well, older. Middle aged, and dancing to Black Eyed Peas and Kanye! So funny. Then, suddenly it´s as if the doors vomited people, and the club was packed with posh, scantilly clad people dancing to American dance music. I felt so out of place, it was hilarious, and of course I reveled in it and danced my little heart out with the ladays. It started to get really crowded, and the people were kind of cold there, and I definitely wasn´t digging it, but they played some funny music (think Ace of Base) that kind of made it worth it. Also, Courtney found some dude who she was making out with a lot, a photographer was walking around taking pictures that you could buy, and they got a picture of themselves kissing each other! Oh, the things that happen in Spain. By 3 we were all pretty sick of the place, so we decided to leave. Way too fancy shmancy (that´s for you, Nicole) for me, I prefer the more chill environment. I later found out that Antique is the nicest, scene-iest bar in Sevilla, and it´s where all of the rich celebrity-type go, e.g. the fútbol players. I ain´t no V.I.P.! Definitely not my scene.
After cabbing it back, Stacey, Melissa, and I decided that we weren´t tired. I sent a text to Marcos to see what he was up to. He and Miguel met up with us at the Plaza de Cuba next to the bridge, and we walked down Betiz to see what was up. We ended up just aimlessly walking, we witnessed a knife fight broken up by the cops on Betiz in front of a bar, so that was interesting...We all walked Melissa home, then walked towards our place. We made plans to hang out with them the next night, perhaps grab tapas. We ended up not getting home until 5:45am, by the way! We must have been walking pretty slow...? Time flies so quickly here since everything starts so late. Marcos told me that people usually stay out all night. Can you imagine? And you know what? At 5:45am I wasn´t even that tired, I could have gone all night! I can´t believe it, the Spanish life is a crazy life. But I was proud of myself for making it all weekend...I´m definitely not the type to be out all hours of the night every night...but I did it! Furthermore, it was a successful first true weekend in Sevilla.

Part of the family

Let me just start off this entry by saying that it is January 23rd and therefore ONE MONTH UNTIL MY 21st BIRTHDAY! Oh yeah, feels good. That being said, let me talk about Saturday. Stacey and I went to bed around 4:45 Friday night, subsequently causing us to sleep absurdly late Saturday. We woke up around 13:30 (1:30 pm) and got ready to the decadent smells of lunch cooking. At around 2 we the doorbell rang and in pranced 4 angelic little girls dressed in plaid skirts, sweaters, and bows, followed by a man and a woman pushing a sleeping baby girl in a stroller. Family! It turns out that it was one of Maruja´s (our Señora) sons (she has 2) and his wife, Fátima with their five little daughters! It´s very typical for families to spend a day during the weekend with a grandparent. Fátima helped Maruja cook while Juan smoked like a chimney...lunch smelled so good, we couldn´t wait! The girls watched cartoons and the baby slept. Then Maruja and Fátima brought out croquetas and fish (on the bone and everything) for the girls to eat at the kids´table in front of the tv. It was kind of awkward for Stacey and me because not only were we hanging out with a family that we had met for the first time, but they also spoke a different language. I felt like a creepy observor hovering over every conversation, haha. The adults then sat down for lunch, which was kind of awkward also. We didn´t speak as much, mostly Maruja, Juan, Fátima, and Marta caught up. I mostly observed the little girls playing, they´re so awesome! Lunch was huuuuuuge yet so amazing. We started with a hearty vegetable soup which filled me up by itself, then the main course was a mixture of peas, chorizo (me gusta mucho), spices, beans, and egg. The portions were gigantuan and Stacey and I struggled to finish...but it was soooooooooooo delicious. After dinner everyone took a little siesta on the couch around the heater. We watched The Fugitive in Spanish, shared a bar of chocolate (which Juan cut with a knife, I tell ya, they use silverware for everything), and basically relaxed. Stacey and I decided that this was an opportune time to give Maruja her gifts, we presented them in front of the whole family. We gave her a UofM mug and coffee table picture book, and then a Chicago and a Michigan coffee table picture book. She loved them, and loved the photography. She really enjoyed seeing the pictures of the autumn leaves and the snow, yay! The little girls loved the books, too--they looked at them forever! The girls and I began to bond a little bit, one of them even came and sat on my lap. Then we went into one of the spare bedrooms to play. The oldest one, also named Fátima, found some children´s books and read them to me while the others went through old photos. Then we went into Stacey and my room and played dress-up with my jewelry, shoes, purse, lip gloss, and cell phones. They had so much fun with my earrings, specifically; they were so fascinated by the size of them, and they kept changing and changing their earrings. It was so silly. One of the girls, the 6-year-old, really enjoyed my digital camera and took a copious amount of pictures. Actually, most of her pictures turned out pretty well and kind of arty...I bet I could sell some of them, no joke. I´ll show y´all when I get back, they´re great. The girls were very excited and energetic, yet well-behaved and careful with my things without my even asking! Then they helped me put everything away and we sang some songs, they knew one English song ("Good morning teacher") and I sang the one Spanish kid song that I knew, "Veo veo" (yeeeeah Tatiana). Then they told us the English words that they knew: teacher, pencil sharpener, caterpillar, hello, etc. Aw. They helped Stacey and me with our Spanish, too. We had a lot of fun! It made me feel like one of the family! The girls are Fátima (7), Lourdes (6), Isabel (5), and Emilia (3). They´re great, and they made the time fly by. The whole family left around 6ish, and Stacey and I were pooped...it was like babysitting! It was a great time, I felt like closer to Maruja now that I had bonded with part of her family. Stacey and I then needed some spunk, so we went to the closest Café India (it´s like an Espresso Royale, except with food and liquor...and a lot of smoke) to get some tea and chocolate caliente. This place has a huge tea menu which makes me a happy little Lisa, and I ordered a delicious black tea called "Happy Day" which had a lot of fruit and flower accents in it. Stacey got a chocolate dulce, which was hot chocolate with condensed milk and cream. OK, this was amazing: it came in a really small cup due to its richness, but just imagine the melted chocolate that I had the day before, except mixed with heavy cream. It was amazing, like drinking a melted swiss chocolate, very milky and smooth and sweet. I get chills thinking about its decadence. After our drinks and some standard "how do we pay here?" confusion (oh the life of the foreigner), we headed back. We made a quick stop at Plus, the grocery store, for another 4€ bottle of vodka to stow away in our room. We snuck it back in the house and hid it in the suitcase with the snack stash. Oh man, we´re kind of bad and yet so great. We ate dinner with Maruja, which was really quite simple, just leftovers (which was fine by me, the food is so good anyways). She actually made us hot dogs too, without the bun...three hot dogs, to be precise. I can barely eat one hot dog! Needless to say, I was sooooo stuffed after that dinner. Oh, and the mustard (mostaza) here tastes slightly different than in the states. Carazay. After dinner we got ready to meet up with the girls for another botellón, and we took secret shots in the room out of my handy dandy shot glass from Switzerland. Woot. It was a great day in which I had been completely immersed in the Spanish language and culture, which is kind of exhausting for us foreigners. It was time to let loose.

Evan was right...

So it´s my first Friday night in Spain. A bunch of us girls met up at the bridge to have our own little "botellón" (a drinking party on the street). Stacey and I brought the vodka, and Melissa and Katie had .57€ cartons of wine, haha. We drank and schmoozed for awhile, and discussed the night´s plan of action. We decided to hit up the bars on la calle Betiz which was extremely close to our current location. We finished the drinks and were off. A lot of the bars on Betiz cater to the foreign population, so most have English or American names. We went to a bar called Big Ben which was pretty crowded but chill and played really great music--a lot of classic rock and good 90´s alternative. We immediately stood out as Americans because the first song playing when we walked in was "Sweet Home Alabama" and we were singing along with it quite loudly. Upon arriving at Big Ben I was pretty good and drunk, so I ordered a CruzCampo (the beer served everywhere here). Stacey and I ended up talking to these two guys, one was American just out of the military and the other was a Brazilian basketball player. Yeah, random. The basketball player bought me another beer (so I spent 3€ on drinks that night!) which was nice, but I was very aware of my drunk status and took a polite sip and put it aside and forgot about it. Is that bitchy? Hehe, well, I wasn´t digging this guy too much anyways. Wow, that is bitchy. Oh, me. Stacey and I also started noticing all of our friends talking to random spanish guys all throughout the bar. Let me tell ya, it´s much, much easier to meet guys here because they just come right up to you and talk. They don´t hesitate one bit. It makes our job a little easier, ya know? ; ) So anyways, Katie, who has a boyfriend is flirting with one guy to my left, and Melissa is making out with this guy´s friend at the bar to my right, and it´s just craziness. The two of them ended up leaving with them which worried Stacey and me a bit...it turns out that they were just walking them out.
At around 2 or 3am I got a tap on my shoulder. A Spanish guy told me that his friend really wanted to talk to me, so I was just like, OK, where is this mystery person? He returned with his friend, a tall, handsome Spanish guy, followed by his friend who had long hair pulled back in a ponytail and headband. The first one was the friend that wanted to talk to me, and the other one talked to Stacey. The five of us chatted for awhile, but I was pretty much only talking with the one, who´s name is Marcos. He just turned 20 and is an architecture student at the University of Sevilla, as is his friend. He´s super nice, super chill, and a swimmer. Haha, thought I´d throw that one in there. No, but he´s a really good guy. And Stacey, despite her boyfriend status, was cliquing with his friend, Miguel. The third friend just kind of stood in the background like a third wheel. Aw. Around 4ish we decided that it was time to leave, and the guys offered to walk us home. Typically I´d say that we were fine on our own, but these are genuine people and we both got a good feeling from them, not a creepy "I want to get in your pants" feeling. So they walked us back, Stacey with Miguel, me with Marcos, and the other friend alone. Aw again. We got back safely, exchanged numbers, and made plans to hang out again. Well, Evan, you were right about the Spanish amante thing. And it didn´t take long...

I like chocolate

So I wake up the next day around 11:30ish. Stacey had pressed the snooze alarm a million times, consequently skipping her last class that morning. She woke up when I did and told me that she had woken up at first with a bad headache (therefore the previous night was a success) so she chose sleep over class. Ha. I got ready and walked to the center to use the internet and do some class research. I realized that I haven´t described what the Michigan-Cornell-Penn center is like. It´s actually a second floor apartment converted into two offices, a small library, a computer/work room, and a classroom. It´s very small and cute, nothing like I expected. Me gusta. Anyhoo, after internetting for awhile I walked home for lunch. Lunch is always the best meal here because it is the main meal, and I learned that yes, they do only pray after lunch. Good to know. Lunch was delicious and extremely filling--it´s so hard to finish meals here since the portions are considerably large, and it´s insulting not to finish your meal. Oy. We had huge servings of paella with mariscos (shellfish) which was soooo delicious, and then salad (yeah, weird order) which was like cole slaw except with oil and vinegar (they loooove olive oil here) instead of mayonnaise. It also had raisins, nuts, and carrots in it, not bad. For dessert we had pudding cups (aw, cute) except they were flan! Flan in a cup whenever you want, can you imagine? I wish they had that in the states because flan is my friend, and I wish that it could be an easily accesible friend. Heh. After lunch Stacey and I walked to the center, and were almost attacked my a drunk, crazy bum. It was really scary; he was trying to trip me and then would hiss at us. We walked really fast in time to get to a main, populated street. Yeah, really scary. From now on I carry my mace EVERYWHERE. In Ann Arbor and Chicago the bums are pretty harmless, but here they´re mentally insane. Ugh. When we arrived at the center I told Pepe about it and he gave me advice about what to do in the future if that were to happen again. He also seemed distressed by it and was really apologetic. That´s life, though, ya know? I´m alive and well, and I know what to do next time. Anyhoo, I had my last class, we talked about food and read recipes out of food magazines and whatnot. Kind of silly. We got out early and went to a nearby café with the other afternoon class. I had my first chocolate caliente which is, well, literally hot chocolate. I mean, it´s like drinking out of a fondue pot, no joke. Yeah, I like chocolate.
I then met up with Stacey at a nearby internet café and did my thang there for awhile. Then we walked home for dinner. We bought a 4€ bottle of vodka and a cheap six pack of fanta to pre-game for the night, and Stacey, who is a huge snacker, bought herself cookies and chips to stash in the room. That´s right, now we have a liquor/snack stash in Stacey´s suitcase under her bed, haha. It IS like high school! Dinner was great, of course, we had grilled eggplant (I swear, my Señora can read my mind) and shrimp swimming in olive oil and garlic (the Spaniards like their garlic). We then, of course, had manderinas (tangerines) and naranjas (oranges)...I swear, there is no way that I will have a vitamin C deficiency here due to the abundance of citrus I will consume. After dinner we did our little incognito pouring of vodka into the bottles, grabbed some fantas, and met up with some of the girls in our program at the bridge.

Ain´t no party like the Sevilla party (first night out)!

Twas a crisp and foggy Thursday night. Stacey and I dolled up and were out the door by midnight. We met up with Katie and Melissa across the bridge and the games began. I took my first swig of vodka and began to warm up...oh man, it´s been too long. I started to feel the liquor right away which was fine by me, honestly. We walked around the quiet streets of Sevilla looking for our destination: Alfalfa. As we walked, we passed so many historical, beautiful buildings, and among such stunning architecture one thought continued to cross my mind: I´m drunk among the ancient work of masters, and that´s just strange. I mean, these are buildings that I´ve seen in textbooks, they have rich, architectural and religious histories and here I am stumbling around drunk as shit. It´s quite an ironic situation, if ya ask me. It was really fun walking there with Katie and Melissa, I like them a lot and seem like girls with whom I´ll be spending a lot of time while I´m here...and hopefully back in Ann Arbor! We arrived at Alfalfa.
Now, I thought that Alfalfa was a bar. I was wrong. It´s a street party between bars. You choose a bar, get a drink, and then go outside and schmooze. It´s kind of like a fancy house party at UofM. Actually, it´s like combining the bar and a house party into one. Not bad. We met up with a lot of people from our program there. I went up to one of the bars to buy Stacey and me a drink. I wanted a gin&tonic, but I didn´t know which gin to choose. This creepy middle-aged man told me which one to choose...and then said that it´s an aphrodisiac. Ugh. Got the hell out of that area asap, fo sho. It´s weird here, they give you a glass with the gin in it, and a separate bottle of tonic water, and you add the tonic yourself. Carazy. Then we went outside, met some guys from our programs´ "brothers" from their host family, who were really nice and chill. Then we went across the street to check out the other bar. It was kind of blah and smokey (everyone smokes here!) so we went back outside. Random side note, here are some trends I´ve noticed in Sevilla: 1) smoking 2) fur (yeah, the real stuff) and 3) Burberry. All three are negatives in my book. Ohhhhh Sevilla. Anyhoo, so on the street again, Stacey and I started talking to this group of Spanish guys, all from different areas of the country. Ya know, it´s funny how fluent my Spanish is when I´m drunk. These guys were...interesting. OK, they were kind of sketchy, but it was fun to test out my Spanish skills truly. It was fun when they would try their English, they knew some slang, like, "Wow," and "Motherfucker". Hehe. I talked to one who seemed like the most chill, he is learning English in his university, and he spoke English to me and I spoke Spanish to him. It was a really fun/interesting intercambio (exchange). One of them also bought me a drink, so I only spent 8 euro that night, and that´s because I bought Stacey a drink. So it´s very easy to conserve money, even on nights out. So yeah, my night was me, drinks, a street, and a whole lotta Spanish. I socialized with more Spaniards than Americans. Wow! That´s awesome, I really am becoming immersed, study abroad frickin rocks.
We left Alfalfa around 3. It´s crazy, people here don´t really start their nights until 1 or 2am, so going home at 3 was relatively early. We found our way home, which was a sorpresa. We were all pretty wasted, not gonna lie. Stacey and I walked Katie home because she was alone since Melissa decided to stay and come home by herself in a cab. We learned that they live close to us! Melissa got back right as we approached their apartment, so it was perfect. Then Stacey and I surprisingly found our way back from there. We got home around 4, and let me tell you, entering a pitch black, small apartment (light is really expensive, so lights are NEVER left on) while under the influence. Stacey passed out right away, I washed up and was in bed by around 4:30. I had an amazing time. My first night out in Spain was a success, I had a ton of fun and got to really work my Spanish. I´ll be fluent in the end, I promise! ¡ME ENCANTA ESPAÑA!

And the language immersion begins

So yesterday, Thursday, was my first full day of immersion in the Spanish language and culture. I woke up in my new home quite refreshed after a good nine hours, made some pan tostada con mantequilla (toast with butter/margarine) in a type of toaster that I´ve never seen nor used before, and then showered. That was an experience. You see, the shower is a detachable shower head, and, well, the piece on the wall that you hang the shower head is broken. So, in a house with no heat on a 60 degree morning, this was pretty interesting. I´d do the soaping/shampooing thing with the shower head on the ground facing upwards like a fountain so as to keep my feet in hot water so at least I wasn´t completely freezing to death. Then, I had to lift the shower head and rinse off. This whole process takes quite awhile and hot water goes fast. Needless to say, it was the worst shower that I´ve ever taken, but I can get used to it...it´s truly a humbling experience. After washing up, I was off to the program center to use the internet, research classes at the University, and then attend orientation class. It was so beautiful outside, it was in the sixties and sunny! Walking the 20 mins to class is quite pleasing. When I got to the center there was a presentation for the department of filología (languages and literature) and historia which gave recommendations about which courses to choose, which to avoid, etc. etc. OK, a little bit of background before I continue: like I´ve said, this whole week we´ve had conversation/culture orientation classes once a day. The program´s participants are divided alphabetically into 3 groups of students which have class at a different time each day with a different professor. So, I´m in the afternoon group and my profesor is Juan. Stacey´s in the morning class and her profesor is Jorge, who gave the filología presentation. So here we go; Stacey and Jessica are both in that class and had told me that he is really cute. Well, Stacey and Jessica have boyfriends so they definitely understated the magnitude of this man´s beauty. I´m just gonna put it out there: this is the hottest male that I have ever seen in person. I do not lie. He´s freakin beautiful, he´s so beautiful it´s frustrating. He´s 28, a literature teacher, Spanish, rides a motorcycle, is unbelievably hot, and ENGAGED. Bastard. I guess that I´m happy that I wasn´t in his class because there is no way that I would have paid attention. The end.
Anyhoo, continuing. After the presentations I ate lunch along the river with Stacey and Jessica. Our Señora packed us a lunch (so cute) of bocadillos (sandwiches) and a tangerine. Good weather, good food, good people, good times! Then I returned to the center to do my hw--reading an article in the newspaper to summarize for the class. Oh man, it´s such an amazing break from the work I had last semester, I tell ya! I researched classes...I´m probably going to take 2 lit courses, 2 art history courses, and a history of spain. Es posible. As I was researching class, I started to get a bit stressed and hence came the pressure headache. Class went kind of slow that day, most likely due to the headache, but we didn´t get any homework! Yeah, I was craving a party last night, and that just perpetuated that craving...I had not had a real night out in Spain yet! Headache or no headache, I was going out.
I walked home, and on the way stopped at un supermercado (supermarket) to buy some notebooks and pencils. I ran into a couple of my friends, Katie and Melissa, buying cheap vodka and Fanta. Drinks are pretty expensive at bars, but it´s way cheap to buy alcohol at the store (4 euro for a fifth!), so pre-gaming is a must. The only catch: we´re prohibited from bringing liquor into our host family´s homes. So, they had a plan to buy water bottles and put the vodka in them, and drink on the way to the bar (it´s a long walk, anways). Haha, feels like high school. They said that Stacey and I could be in on the deal. Aw yeah! Walked the rest of the way home to nurse my poor, pounding head (I swear my body hates me). At home, Stacey, my temporary farmacia, gave me some ibuprofen. Then dinner. We ate at the table in front of the TV...this family loves TV...therefore I kind of love them too! Dinner, again, was delicious: collared greens sauteed with chic peas, and croquetas (kind of like mozzarella sticks, except with potato and ham inside), and a tangerine for dessert. ¡Qué rico! After dinner, Stacey, María del Mar and I got into a convo about TV. In Spain, they have Simpsons, The O.C. (just started last summer), C.S.I., West Wing (that´s funny), Sex&theCity (El Sexo y Nueva York), and Friends (which is extremely popular). That night was the season finale of the most popular telenovela in Spain, can´t remember the name though. So all of us girls watched it together. I kind of understood most of it, Marta and María helped us out; they´re so awesome! This telenovela was really silly actually, it reminded me a lot of the cheesey, poorly filmed ones that are on Telemundo all the time...also kind of reminded me of Destinos. Haha. Also, this telenovela shows nudity! Full nudity! María told me that since there´s no censorship in Spain, even commercials show nudity. Can you believe it? She was telling me about how in Spain they thought that it was the dumbest thing that the U.S. made such a huge fuss over the Janet Jackson Superbowl boob incident. Haha, it is really absurd when ya think about it. Also, in Spain, there are fewer commercial breaks--this show was an hour and a half long and there may have been 3 commercial breaks altogether. The breaks are really long, though. This is a much better system, I believe, because less interruptions, and on breaks more time to do things like make a phone call and such. Spain, you are a smarty! All in all, it was really great to "hang out" Spanish style. I mean, that was exactly like an evening in the U.S. for me, hanging out and watching our favorite TV drama. It really made me feel more comfortable and at home here. I´m really starting to become immersed in the language!

I´m such an American

So on Wednesday we eventually got to the center. I had class, which was fine. We learned idioms and words for STDs and alcohol and drugs which is useful(ish). Hehe. My presentation was fine, no biggy. After class I called Stacey to see what she was up to, and she was actually on the steps to the Center. Courtney, Jessica´s roommate, and I met up with Jessica and Stacey and grabbed some McDonalds (they wanted ice cream). So here´s my newfound love for McDonalds: in Spain, the menu has two things that America´s doesn´t...apples and beer! Haha. It´s great, though, because the meal schedule is pretty spread out here, and I usually want a light snack, and McDonalds is right next to the Center so I can get a .55 Euro apple quickly between classes. And these are GOOD apples, not your typical glossy, hormone-filled red delicious. These are definitely legite from the tree, and they are delicious. So now I like McDonalds. After the snack, the four of us split up--Courtney and Jessica live in the Nervión barrio which is a 30 minute walk in the opposite direction as us. Yeah, we definitely lucked out with our location. I mean, we get to cross a river everyday! Stacey and I magically found a really good, fast route back home which is on the main street in our barrio for awhile. The main street is really nice, soooo many little cafés, bars, or café-bars, bakeries, bakery-bars, grocery stores...needless to say, they serve liquor almost anywhere. There´s also a Starbucks on the street (yayy wireless internet access) and other posh clothing, accessory, perfume, furniture shops. We live in a really awesome neighborhood, we discovered, it´s really exciting. We got home and watched some TV with Marta and María...they´re so cool! There´s a guy who lives next store who keeps phone stalking María and she´s so annoyed and it´s hilarious. We then ate dinner at 9:30. And dinner was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. Again we had bread, we had salad with a homemade vinaigrette (so good), and a Portuguese dish (can´t remember the name of it). It was like pad thai, but, well, Portuguese? It had rice noodles, scrambled egg, cod, and spices in it. Stacey never really liked fish, and she LOVED this dish! And it definitely had a lot of fish in it. I´m getting hungry thinking about it! For dessert we all had an orange. I love this whole post-dinner citrus thing. I am a big fan. I´m definitely eating really well here, the meals are lighter and more balanced, and I´m also drinking a lot of water. After dinner they didn´t pray, and we wondered if it was because of our disclosure of our religions. If so, it´s very kind of them to respect our religions, but both Stacey and I really don´t mind the quick prayer because religious in important to them and not as important to us. I don´t want them to give up something like that for such a mundane little thing. Well, we´ll have to see if it´s customary to only pray at lunch, since that´s they´re main meal here. After dinner Stacey and I did a bit more unpacking as we heard screaming in the streets...I mean, violent. We decided to investigate, especially sinc we weren´t tired (the late dinners really give you a second wind!). Señora goes to bed right after dinner, so we told Marta and María that we were going out for a bit. They were watching a movie and huddling around the space heater (it´s so cold at night!). We walked the streets of Los Remedios, which are actually kind of dead at night, except for a sports bar close to our apartment. This was the source of the noise--they were watching a soccer (or fútbol) game. I found out the next day that it was actually a pretty big game...Sevilla has 2 fútbol teams, Sevilla and Betis. If you´re from one part of Sevilla you´re a Sevilla fan, and the other a Betis. It´s very much like the Cubs and Sox, but the rivalry is even more fierce here. Well, the game that night was Betis vs. Madrid (the area I live in is a Betis area). Unfortunately, Betis lost. Poo on you, Evan and Rebecca! Stacey and I decided that we´re going to start following fútbol and go to that sports bar. Ha. We wanted something hot to drink after sitting in our cold apartment, the only thing open was Starbucks where we got some chocolate caliente y té de chamomile. It was nice and chill. We discussed vocab and stuff. We went back home around midnight. We had so much trouble figuring out the doors of our apartment building...so many random buzzers and buttons that we don´t understand. We´re such Americans! We finally got in and stayed up looking through the dictionary for random vocab words that we still don´t know! We´re dorks, I know. Yeah, I definitely felt like a huge American that day: language barriers, McDonalds, Starbucks, not understanding my building, reading maps and getting a bit lost, etc. Soooooo American!
OK, I´m still really behind on blogging, but I gotta get home for lunch. These past few blogs probably took some time to read, anyways, so I´ll have more updates shortly...so much more has happened, just you wait!