Getting acquainted with my new friend, Sevilla

So I´ve been here for two days now. So much and yet so little has happened. I woke up at around 9:30 on Sunday pretty congested, which could only mean one thing (dun dun dunnnn): I´m getting sick. Yup, I´ve been fighting a head cold the past two days which has been more of a nuisance than a burden. It´s all good, just gotta keep taking care of myself. Luckily, the Spanish pace is much slower than the U.S. so relaxation has been pretty attainable. We had our first breakfast buffet at the Becquer which was delicious. There´s a great variety of fresh foods, cereals, fruits, toast, etc. etc. etc. It felt good to eat a wholesome, balanced meal for once. My body was, and has been extremely confused in the mornings because it still feels like its around 4am. Oy. We then has an absurdly long info meeting with Eva, Luisa, and Pepe which gave us vital info pertaining to rules, safety, orientation, and schedules. After two hours of what seemed like a millennium, Stacie and I headed back to the room for a siesta. It was a nice siesta. I again passed out. We slept for 2 hours and kept hitting snooze until somebody knocked on the door to grab lunch. So, at 4pm a group of UofM girls walked around the city, crossed the bridge, explored, took in some sights. I freakin love this place, it´s pretty damn gorgeous and exciting. I´m so grateful for this experience. We then explored a bit more to see if we could find the UMich-Cornell-Penn center...to no avail. But we did find a cute little eatery. We ordered the menú del día, and I had my first paella ever! Me gusta. We were then served fried whitebait which looked like fried whole minnows. I thought they were alright (well, I´m not a picky eater in the least) while everyone else was pretty disgusted by the meal. Hehe, I´m weird. For dessert I got pineapple, which was probably canned in some sort of syrup. Ohhh well. We then started to head back. It was wet and gross out. Jessica, Stacie and I kept searching for info on Flamenco lessons without success. We arrived back at the hotel and picked up an internet cord. I hooked up my laptop, yayyyy! I emailed, blogged, facebooked, ya know, the works. Then dinner at 8 which was crazy. The main course was veal lasagna...I can´t eat a baby cow, I´m sorry. So I requested a vegetarian meal, but the guy said he couldn´t get me one since I didn´t request it yesterday. Distraught, I waited for the lasagna thinking I could try to eat around it. To my surprise, he brought a vegetarian meal for me! It was hard boiled eggs in tomato sauce...kinda boring, but I wasn´t very hungry anyways. I decided to stay in that night because I didn´t want to get sick, so a bunch of us decided to go to the hotel´s adjacent cafe for a glass of wine. But it was closed. So we spent 10 min. trying to find a bar close enough that was open. We stumbled upon a german bar across the street where we all had a glass of wine each. I had a healthful glass of red wine, which actually made me feel pretty nice and subdued my lingering cold a bit. We left the bar around 12:15 and called it a night.
Today is our first day of interviews and classes. My interview´s at noon and my class isn´t until 3. However, I decided to wake up with the morning group at 9:30 so I could eat breakfast and go with a larger group to the center...and then use the internet here like whoa. It´s foggy and yucky out, and my cold´s still there. In my free time today I plan on buying a phone, phone card, and something for this cold. Blech. Well, today´s going to be pretty busy; my interview´s at 12, then we have a group lunch at 2, then composition class 4-7, then dinner at 7:30. Yeah, that seems pretty chill to y`all, but that´s high-paced for the spanish life. Mwa ha ha. The class that I have today is one that I have this whole week: it´s in the center, taught by the directors. It´s a composition class to polish our Spanish skills before entering the University of Sevilla in 2 weeks. I definitely need some of that, I´m not too confident in my Spanish right now. Oh man, all you UofMers are gonna kill me, but I can´t believe I´m going to class! I feel like I´m on vacation here, and it´s been nearly a month since I´ve attended a class of any sort. Insanity. Tonight I´m plan on staying in completely...no wine tonight...after dinner, I ain´t leaving my room. To fight this cold, I need to have one 9-10 hour night of sleep. I´ve abused my body way too much this week.
OK, so my entries have been pretty detailed. I thought I´d really describe what the first days are like. But from now on I promise more simplified blogs that will not rob you of your time. Yay Spain! Oh, and wish me luck on my interview, it´s for placement. Woo woo!