...and I would walk 500 more

Oh man, Wednesday. My last day of class, therefore the new Friday. Woke up around 9:30, made peanut butter toast, and was out the door and at the center in time for my 11-12:30 lit. It was alright, we started talking about the book. She seemed kind of cross with us because not everybody had finished the book, but she had told us not to worry about it and go at our own pace for our level. This class she started to kind of rub me the wrong way. She seemed to pressure us a little too much to participate when a lot of us needed some review in terms of reading comprehension before we could dive into the book´s details. The Penn and Cornell girls were kind of sucking up, answering every question, etc. It´s funny, the class started to get this sort of unsaid rivalry between Michigan and Penn/Cornell. I mean, they all sat together on one side of the room, and we sat on the other. It´s really interesting to see how friendships have panned out...the Michigan people don´t really intermix with the Cornell and Penn kids. Only a few hang out with us, but that´s about it. I don´t know, we´re just pretty different in a lot of ways; the best I can describe it would be to say the Michigan kids, generally, are more laid back. Of course, that´s a generalization, but it pretty much seems to be the case. Everyone´s very nice, though, don´t get me wrong, just not the sort of people to whom I naturally flock. So class was weird, who knows. I was happy when it was over. Then it was the weekend, haha. I went and talked to Eva about my class conflict. She told me that of course I can´t take both at once and that I´d have to choose. She told me to allow myself to check out the film class next week, and if I like it then I should drop the lit. class, and that it´s OK not to take any classes in the center. I have a hunch that I´m going to drop the lit. class, which is kind of saddening because it is a good class and I´ve already started doing work for it. Also, I went two weeks of class for nothing...well, they don´t really count, actually, hehe. I guess that it´s kind of for the best because the lit. class would be a lot of outside work while University classes are pretty much low-keyed until the end of the semester. But, oh man, that´d be insane to only take classes at the University. I mean, I´d be a full-fledged Spanish student! Wow, now that´s what I really call language immersion. I guess that it will be a really awesome, risky, scary, effective, enlightening experience. It´s going to be a wild semester, man. After hanging around the center for a bit Stacey and I walked home for lunch. Lunch was quite filling: some sort of cut up meat swimming in a heavy tomato sauce, and homemade oil&vinegar cole slaw, then homemade fresh-squeezed OJ for dessert again! I was so full and quite satisfied. After lunch Stacey had made an intense to-do list for herself for that afternoon, involving many errands, and I decided to accompany her since it was a beautiful day and I wanted to take a walk. First, we checked out a hotel in los Remedios that her dad had booked for the end of Feb. We got to see a room and all, and it was a really nice place, nice rooms, nice workers, etc. Mom&Daddy: if you want to stay close to my apt. in June, that´d be a very good option. Then we went to the Vodafone store in la Plaza de Cuba so I could recharge my phone minutes and ask about the minutes stipulations, because although I barely talk on the phone, my minutes run out way too fast. Also, Stacey calls home/her boyfriend every day and has 15min conversations or more, and her minutes run out maybe every 3 weeks, when mine is every week and a half! It´s just not cool. Like I´ve said, technology hates me here. The guy at Vodafone was really nice and helpful, and told me that perhaps it could be all of the text messages that I send. With my cell phone card, I can choose a promotion deal thing, and he let me change my promotion to 50% off text messaging. Sweet, let´s hope that that helps me. He also gave me a booklet with more info. We then crossed the river and stopped by the center so Stacey could turn in some paperwork to Luisa, who ended up not being there. Then we walked along the river to get to a bus station to buy tickets to Cádiz for the weekend. It was hot right next to the river, it was 20 degrees (upper sixties), but the sun is so strong here, especially reflecting off of the water. We got to the bus station where we were taunted by some creepy old man. I´m getting really sick of the men here, and this was no help at all. We went into the bus station and found out that tickets to Cádize are sold in the other bus station which was on the opposite side of town. Ah well, we decided to then buy our tickets the next day. Then we walked into the centerish area of town by the Museum to check out a budget hotel in which Stacey´s boyfriend is considering staying. We found it, it´s pretty nice, in an older area of town where the streets are teeeeeny, it´s kind of fun. Oh! We also found the brewery here, which is exciting. There´s this website I found called "The 57 things that you must do in Sevilla," and going to the brewery was one of them. Exciting, we muuust return. Oh yeah, and at the hotel, we picked up a packet with info on the Arab bathhouses here...a definite must do, as well. Then we searched for an STA travel agency which is supposedly in that area. Since it was such a nice day we decided to play it by ear and use our own senses and intuition to get us around. Needless to say, we didn´t really know where we were going, but we frequently stumbled upon some familiar, useful places. One of which a Corte Inglés that sells cosmetics and whatnot, which Stacey has been searching for so that she could buy a curling iron, so that was a happy accident. Curling irons were actually pretty expensive, so she decided to think on it. Then we decided to find Reyes Católicos, a main street on which the Bécquer is located, so that Stacey could go to the costume shop there. Well, we got lost. This time pretty lost. BUT we ended up in an awesome area! We found a headshop there that sells nice hookahs for 45€! The smaller ones were then even less expensive. I want to buy one for my apt. next year, but taking it home may be an issue. There were a few other headshops, and we found a restaurante called La casa de té which was a hookah café! I´ve been wanting to find a hookah café here so badly since they´re supposed to be awesome and quite authentic here (due to the strong Arab influence). That was quite an exciting discovery, let me tell ya. There were also a bunch of Middle Eastern/African influenced shops and restaurants, and many a tattoo/piercing parlor. Woooot! Speaking of which, Katie has decided to get her nose pierced this weekend. I am very, very excited for her. Kelly just got her nose pierced this week. Rock on, before, only one other girl from Penn and I had nose piercings. It´s spreading! Then we exited that neighborhood and got a bit more lost. We came upon pretty empty areas with narrow streets, lots of construction, and many stray cats (me gustan). We were, lost, but it was a nice evening, and it was fun. Then, suddenly, we made a turn somewhere and there was Pichardo´s, the store that I visited the day before where I bought my wig and stuff with Jessica! I couldn´t believe it, what luck. That was just a huuuuge coincidence because this shop was a bitch to find, buried in the streets of Sevilla. What´s great about it was now Stacey could buy a nice wig and fake eyelashes (they don´t have such a selection at the store on Reyes Católicos) so it really worked out for the best. And what´s even better was...I knew my way home from there! Stacey bought the same wig as I had, but hers is this awesome shade of blue, and fake eyelashes. Then we walked to la Campana, that amazing bakery, where we coincidentally ran into Courtney who was shopping in the neighborhood while Jessica ran some errands around there. Crazy! We all bought some mini pastries which, of course, were to die for. I got a little cold hazlenut coffee thing that tasted like a mini tiramisu, and a little pastry layered with vanilla and dates with a date resting on top. SO good! I loooove Spanish pastries because they´re very intricate, but not overly sweet and creamy like their American counterparts. We then did a bit of shoe shopping with Courtney, I bought some copper mary janes that have a small platform that I had been eyeing since the day before (but I didn´t have the money, and never thought that I´d find that store again, so happiness was pretty abundant), and they had my size! It´s very rare that shoe stores here will carry your size, stores typically only carry a few sizes of one shoe. Also, it´s hard to guesstimate one´s size since the size system here is different and confusing (I think I wear a 37? Not quite sure). Many shoe stores later we met up with Jessica, and began walking back towards the bridge. My feet were killing me, and my legs were so tired. By the time we reached the bridge it was 7:15...and we still had another 20 minutes more of a walk to our apartment. Therefore, we had been continuously walking for 4 1/2 hours! Wow, my legs were not happy with me. We got back and I was soooo happy to sit. María del Mar came in to use the internet as we got ready for the night and did some reading. Dinner was not bad, a bit disappointing, but not bad. Hot dogs (3 each!) sans buns with ketchup&mustard, potato pureé (out of a box, hehe), and cauliflower cooked in olive oil (actually quite good), theeeen flan cup for dessert! Yay flan cups! Going back to cauliflower, they eat a lot of it here. But you know what they don´t eat (or maybe not even carry)? Broccoli. I mean, what´s so wrong with broccoli? It´s a very delicious vegetable, especially when cooked. I wonder...there must be an explanation. After dinner we did some more quick preparations and then met up with Katie and Melissa in Plaze de Cuba for sushi "tapas". Btw, tapas are typically eaten after dinner at bars and whatnot, so we decided to get sushi as our tapas for the night, therefore forcing us to spend less money on it. We walked to this bar that I had read about online that serves sushi on Tue. and Wed. from 7:30-12. The bar was empty and dead, kind of sketchy, we asked the bartender about the sushi, and he said that it had been years since they had served sushi. Silly website. So we decided to go to Samurai. Samurai was great! Nice atmosphere, good menu, but a bit more pricey than in the states. Our sushi came on a boat! I had a sushi combo which was salmon rolls, and 6 pieces of assorted nigiri (tuna, salmon, whitefish, shrimp). The salmon maki had wasabi in it, which surprised me, but the wasabi was not as strong as I had anticipated. The nigiri was pretty damn good, it was hard to tell whether the fish was really good or not because the sushi rice itself was amaaaazing. It´s stickier than in the U.S., and it was sweet! I mean, like sugary sweet...slightly, but just enought. I need to go back and order just a bowl of sushi rice because it was amaaaaazing. It was quite a satisfying meal, me loooooves sushi. Afterwards we returned to la Plaza de Cuba to meet up with Alyssa to go to Catedral for ladies´night. Melissa whipped out their 57 cent cartons of wine, and we pregamed as we walked. I was wearing my new shoes, so exciting! They´re very comfortable, the heel is pretty little, but my feel are not used to wearing any sort of heels, so my feet (especially after my 4.5 hour walk) were not enjoying the 20 min walk to Catedral. We got there at 12:20, which wasn´t bad (free drinks for girls is served 12-1), and, as per usual, the bar was packed with pushy americanas. We forced our way up through the absurdly crowded bar. I got a vodka tonic and I downed it because I remembered how long it took me to get my second drink the last time that I was there. Then I pushed my way up front again around 12:45, and the bartended there kept ignoring me! She kept serving guys who had definitely not been waiting, but mostly because they had to pay. Ugh. I was getting really impatient because it was cutting it quite close to 1. She ended up not serving me until 1:10, but luckily I still got my drink free! I noticed that men started to pour in around 1 (most likely to take advantage of ladies´night, hehe), which I guess provokes a business strategy. As long as there are free drinks for women, they will stick around. The more women in one place, the more men will come and spend money...especially on women. It makes sense because the last time that I was there after 1 most of the girls left to go get cheap drinks elsewhere. Well, the scene kind of sucked, I don´t enjoy clubby, crowded places, so we all just stood in a corner, drank, and talked. Finally around 1:30 we finished and were out. We went down the street to Alfalfa (much less crowded, thank god) and got chupitos at one of the few bars that were open. We found Kelly there talking to an American guy who has been here for about 2 years speaking English. He seemed pretty cool, we approved. Kelly was wasted because she had just finished celebrating Elena´s 21st which involved major drinking since 5pm. After a bit, Stacey and Katie decided to walk her home (she only lives about 5-10 mins from Alfalfa) while Melissa, Alyssa, and I hung out in Alfalfa and took another chupito. I tried to take a picture of us, and my camera did the same thing that it was doing before I had taken it to Corte Inglés the previous day! WTF?? I don´t understand my luck with technology here...I mean, I just don´t have any! Ugh. I was not a happy camper. Finally Stacey and Katie returned and we decided to walk home. Oh man, the walk was painful. My feet were absolutely killing me at this point, I could feel the blisters building up. I never thought the walk would end...it literally felt like forever. On the way back this car filled with young spanish guys drinking and blasting loud music drives in front of us at an intersection, stops so that we can't cross, we try to walk around the back and they backed up, and then we tried to walk around the front and they moved forward. All the while, they were yelling and whistling at us while trapping us. I had had it, I was not only fed up with the disrespect that I've received from Spanish men, but also drunk, which is never a good combination. I started yelling at them to fuck off in English, then I was screaming "Dejanos!!" (leave us alone) violently. I moved towards their car ready to kick it, or smack one of them, seriously. I was NOT in the mood for any of this shit. Well, finally the bastards drove off, I ranted about Spanish men for awhile, then got over it and worried about the long painful walk back. Fiiiiiiiinally I got back, my feet were quite happy about that, and I passed out around 4 with pained feet. I had walked so much that day. I´m writing this blog post on Thursday, and my legs and feet are still sore. Can´t believe it! Well, at least I got some exercise, I guess. It was an interesting day, a lot happened, and yet not a lot happened. Well, I guess a lot happened to my feet.