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!