A new home

Our Señora, Maruja Caruanes, arrived around 1:30. She is an elderly woman of about 70, extremely cute and nice, and very put together. Oh yeah, and SHORT. She had a very hard time pronouncing Stacey´s name. Actually, the whole time that we´ve been here, Stacey´s name has been a challenge for the locals--they say "Eh-stacey". It´s cute. We took 2 cabs (luggage purposes) across the river to the Los Remedios barrio. The traffic in Sevilla is crazy, people drive so fast and the laws are really lax. My professor told me that traffic accidents are the top causes of death in Sevilla. I looked at the floor my whole cab ride. We arrived at a standard-looking apartment building. We entered into a poorly maintained garden, and then the lobby which was small and pretty bland. We grabbed the elevator, which is very different than American elevators...you have to open a door, and then the elevator doors open, it´s weird. She lives on the 7th floor. Her apartment is very modest, and yet cute. It reminds me of Jason´s grandma´s place in Chantilly (in terms of decoration). It is very typical grandma-like. Everything is very minimal except for a pretty fancy TV and DVD player. She has a huge balcony which is very nice. Our room seemed very sad and small at first, but once we finished unpacking, it began to look like a home. Now I LOVE our room...even the painting of Virgin Mary and Jesus above our beds (oh man). Our room has a huuuge antique armoir, a round glass table with 2 chairs, 2 desk lamps, a night stand, and lots of shelving. We have so much space, it´s amazing how it all worked out. As we unpacked our Señora cooked lunch which smelled delicious. At 2:30 lunch was ready. Ok, so when I met with Luisa about housing I told her that I was a vegetarian, but that I´m open to eating meat so that I could room with a friend and really learn about Spanish cuisine. That being said, for lunch we had chicken broth with noodles, bread, some sort of red meat, and chorizo sausage...my first real chorizo which was AMAZING. Seriously, it makes eating meat again worth it. Sorry to all my veggie friends, but the vegetarian has left for good for the next 5 months. But yeah, our Señora is an incredible cook! I love her food, and she always makes just enough so we always leaved satisfied but not stuffed. As we ate we watched the news. Oh, and we met our other roommates: María del Mar and Marta, both of whom are masters students. They´re older, around 28, and very professional-looking, friendly, and pretty. María del Mar studies business and Marta studies medicine. They spoke to us very slowly and clearly, thank god, because not only is our Spanish rusty, but we were very nervous still. At the end of the meal we all had a tangerine...so delicious, they´re growing everywhere here. It´s interesting, they peel their fruit with knives, and eat the fruit with forks while Stacey and I used our hands the whole time. Perhaps one day we´ll learn the ways of the knife. After lunch Señora, María, and Marta said a prayer. Awkward. After that they asked if we were Catholic; Stacey´s a Baptist, and they seemed very impressed with my being Jewish. They asked if both of my parents were Jewish and I told them yes and that surprised them, too. We told them that neither of us really practice, and Señora gave us a teasing "Tsk Tsk" comment. She´s cute. After lunch we helped shake out the tablecloth, put napkins away, clear the table, and scrape dishes. She didn´t ask us to, we followed Marta and María´s lead, and she didn´t protest our helping at all. It´s nice to feel incorporated like that right away, makes us feel like a family. Then she did the dishes and cleaned the kitchen as Stacey and I continued to unpack. At around 4 Stacey and I took a long time figuring out a fast route to the program center. It took us a little over a half an hour. Ooooops.