Weekend Wanderlust

again.  But, it is not without good reason! 

I’ve spent most of this week a little (a lot) under the weather, and I’m only now recovering.  The hours upon hours of extra sleep were extremely helpful though, and aside from a little sniffle, I’m totally back to normal.  Currently, I’m sun bathing in Plaza Nueva and taking advantage of free WiFi & sunny 65 degree weather — it’s wonderful.

This past week in a nutshell:

Toured Cordoba & saw La Mezquita (so amazing), saw a spanish movie in a spanish movie theater (Primos - it was cute), had my first spanish exam, met my intercambio/speaking partner, slept off my sickness, and yesterday I went to Zahara de la sierra (I don’t think that spelling’s correct) which is one of the “white towns” in Spain.   

Overall, incredible week with two fantastic trips! This past Saturday I spent most of the day planning excursions for the rest of the semester and here’s what I’ve come up with (in weekend order starting with Feb 26th):

Morocco, Cadiz, Frankfurt, Valencia, Granada, Madrid, Sevilla, BECCA ARRIVES, Alicante, Semana Santa in Sevilla, Portugal, Feria in Sevilla.  

I’m very, very excited for all of these trips and cannot wait to share pictures! Any suggestions or “must-sees” in any of these locations? Let me know! Until then, I’ll be soaking up sun and trying to get some color on my pale american skin! 

xoxo

I’m writing this on Wednesday February 9^th – time is absolutely flying by, and I can’t believe I haven’t sat down to write all about my first week of school until now!

To begin, Sunday night was (obviously) the Super Bowl!! Woo hoo GO PACK GO!

Being that I’m 6-hours ahead in a soccer-crazed nation, I wasn’t getting my hopes up about seeing it.  However, someone’s host brother did a little research and found a nice Irish Pub/American Sports Bar hybrid that would be showing the big game.  Naturally, almost all of my new friends from this program and just about every other American student in Sevilla ended up at this bar for beer specials and Spanish attempts at hot dogs, nachos, and wings.  The bar itself was very interesting. The front (a mere 40-minute walk to Nervion) was understated, and from the outside it looked like it might be a small hole in the wall type joint.  Upon entering, it was a split level bar with loft style upper levels running around the perimeter, and if you were to look down, you could see straight down to an open air (ish) bar on the bottom floor.  They had a large screen projector running the pre-game shows when we arrived, so we got as comfy as the still bar stools would allow and enjoyed each other’s company until kick-off.  The game was great, but I enjoyed meeting Spaniards who actually took time out of their Sunday nights (Monday morning, really, because the game started at 12:30 AM) to watch American Football.  We found out that Spanish people like to place bets on sports, even NFL games, so most of them were there for that reason.  My friends Natalie and Abby and I met a Spaniard who genuinely liked/followed the NFL, and who tried to convince us that rugby was basically the same sport.  I’m not sure he had a whole lot of knowledge about the football, but he sure was enthusiastic about it.

Another part about the night that will be important a little later is that we (very) briefly met a guy named Toba.  He looks as though he has not showered for an extended period of time, wears coke bottle classes with black frames only on the top half of the eyeglasses, has miniature dreadlocks/curls, and dresses very much like a hipster with faded tees and ripped jeans.  He is apparently a little older than the average aged student in my program, but he is the number one party/club promoter in Seville.  So, we said hello, shook hands and that was that for Sunday.  The game ended and we walked the 40-minutes back home and finally made it to bed by 5 AM.

School began at 8:15 AM on Monday morning; so needless to say, I was expecting to be very tired.  The fact that I was full of energy and woke right up on Monday morning is a testament to how excited I was for the first day of school in Sevilla. Y lass went very well o today.  I like my professor very much, and I think her teaching style will make the intensive period go by very quickly.  Class begins at 9 AM every day and we get a 30 minute reak from 11 to 11:30 before beginning again until 12:45  I never thought I would like that type of schedule, but it actually seems to be working out rather niely.  The morning portion of the class is dedicated to grammar and incorporating new vocab into situations that are acted out by members of the class.  Participation is a huge part of the grade, so I’m re-learning how to actively participate in class.  It’s going okay so far, I suppose!  After our break (where I have gone to get espresso for the past two days) we have a more informal lesson about the Spanish culture and colloquial language.  This shorter part of lass is definitely my favorite, not because of the length but because looking for the certain keys that my teacher show us has make listening to Concha SO MUCH EASIER.  Even from the first few days of class, I feel like my comprehension and even a little it of my conversational abilities have improved.  Such a relief!

Monday night Jamie and I stayed in because we were exhausted from our weekend festivities, but we went out last night (Tuesday) and it was SO much fun!  After our classes were over, we attempted to make travel plans for the rest of our semester.  So despite the fact that only the two program-sponsored trips to Cordoba and Portugal are confirmed, we have scheduled trips to something like 11 cities between now and May 19^th.  Just talking about all of the possibilities, festivals to attend, museums to visit, and friends to see has got me EVEN MORE excited to travel!!

In an attempt to try to be a least a little bit healthy, I went for a run (ok, ok… a shuffling jog) around Sevilla and it was beautiful.  I was comfortable running around in my t-shirt and shorts.  It’s so fantastic here.  After my run, my mind and soul felt much more energized, which was excellent timing for finding out that a bar in Triana serves free Sangria a los mujeres entre 11:00 PM and 12:30 PM.  For dinner, we ate some of Concha’s “famous croquettas” which are sue sort of fried doughy thing that we both thought were delicious!! We totally housed them and the rest of our dinner, and then started on our way to the bar for free sangria.  Friends from our program kept pouring in, and the night ended up being a blast.  Yes, the bar was largely American, a habit that I do not wish to continue, but we met several different Spanish guys who insisted on practicing their English on us while we practiced our Spanish on them.  It was rather bizarre having a successful conversation in 2 languages, but it was very reward to hear the correct answers, knowing that something about my Spanish must have bee relatively correct feels good

I think that’s it for now – I’m falling asleep at the computer and I still have Salsa class oh no!

Updates soon!!

These are now memories that I’m piecing together with very little sleep over the past few nights, but here’s a try:

Madrid a Sevilla: The 7-hour flight was a total breeze.  Practically empty, we all got to spread out over entire rows of seats to relax and (attempt) to sleep.  I guess my adrenaline was pumping because I slept for less than an hour during that entire flight.  In the HUGE Madrid airport our group of weary students wandered a bit, took a few wrong turns, but eventually found the bus to take us to another terminal for our short flight to Sevilla.  The bus ride ended up being almost ten minutes, and it was only from terminal 1 to 4, so I’m not sure how big that makes the airport? Massive, I’m guessing. 

The terminal was beautiful with huge glass ceilings, and the layout was kind of reminiscent of an old-fashioned train station (open air, main walkway, etc.) with a modern take on color.  We needed to print out boarding passes, but several of us struggled with the self-service kiosks (not even because of the language barrier, but because our confirmation numbers were wrong!).  Everywhere we asked for help we tried to use our limited Spanish, but the Spaniards just kind of shook their heads no and answered in perfect English.  A little embarrassing, but whatever.  Once we made it to the gate, we made a few new friends from our program and enjoyed our first Spanish wine… at 9 AM.  It was a much needed drink, it turns out, because our flight was delayed almost an hour (making it a four hour wait including layover time), then we spent another hour seated on the plane while waiting for runway traffic to clear.  I found a way to sleep for almost 2 hours total during our 2^nd flight experience – thank goodness.  Arriving in Sevilla was simple.  The representatives from our program met us outside of the world’s smallest baggage claim and lead a train of students and twice as many suitcases to a big tour bus.   Literally the first things we saw upon leaving the airport are some pseudo-palm trees that line the sidewalk and the feeling of warm air and even warmer sunshine!  We threw our bags into a storage van/truck and nearly filled it to capacity, then drove almost 20 minutes to our hotel. 

The hotel was gorgeous! We immediately sat down for lunch (Spanish-ized hamburger helper, French fries, and fried meat of some kind – how American) and had a few hours to rest/shower before orientation began.  I then met my roommate, Jamie, and we both used the down time to relax and recover from the anxiety/excitement packed flights and arrival.

Orientation was basic, so I won’t go into detail.  Afterwards, at dinner, we decided we wanted to go out on the town and make our first night memorable.  We had heard of some wild clubs in Sevilla, but because we were all so jet lagged, we decided maybe an authentic bar would be more our speed.  The hotel concierge gave us some recommendations, but her first recommendation pointed us in the direction of an area called Alameda – so, we went with it.  We took a small (maybe hour long?) nap and quickly got ready to leave by 11, which we figured would be semi-acceptable in this culture that starts everything so late.  Venturing around was fun & we settled on a bar with bright techno-esque lights coming from the inside.  It was one of the few bars that was actually open that early – most Spaniards don’t even think of going out until midnight or later, I guess.  After a few rounds of celebratory shots with new friends, a few of us wandered over to a smaller, more crowded bar across the plaza.  It turned out to be a great decision because we met tons of locals who chatted us up about Sevilla, things to do around this area, etc.  We all decided it might have actually been the most Spanish we have ever spoken continuously, so definitely good practice!! I mostly stayed with two new friends: Erin & Jay who also go to a small PA school and are very good at Spanish.  We didn’t make it back to the hotel until around 3:30, which was when the bar really got started.

The next morning we woke up a mere 10 minutes before we were due for breakfast at 8:30.  We grabbed a quick bite before starting on a mini-tour of Sevilla, guided by our soon-to-be professors.  About 6 different groups took winding lazy routes to our school, which is about 20 minutes away if you’re taking the most direct route.  Once we arrived at school, we took our placement test (not fun) and went to a few info sessions about logging into our program’s computers etc.  The Center consists of 2 connecting buildings that were formerly mansions/residences located in the center of Sevilla.  The walls are fully decorated with hand painted tiles all the way up to the ceiling.  There are two atriums, an outside patio, and several classrooms on each of the 4 floors.

Shortly after our introduction to the center, we got our luggage from the hotel & caught taxis to our homestays.  Jamie and I were obviously very nervous, but our Senora, Concha, is wonderful.  Ever since we met her we’ve been reminding ourselves how lucky we are.  Concha has never hosted students before this semester, so all of our furniture, our towels, our mattresses and even the apartment she lives in are less than 2 months old.  The apartment (a 4 floor walk up – ouch) is located right in the center of Sevilla – close to tons of shopping, the major sites, shopping, night life, and our school.  To top that off, Concha is a chef!  So, every single one of the 21 meals per week we are promised happen to be DELICIOUS.  Jackpot.

Later in the afternoon, we returned to our Center for a brief activities fair where we learned about some things to do while in Sevilla – join a gym, kayak the Guadalvivir, and more.  The one thing that caught our fancy was a company that promised free sangria at 11 that night, followed by a bar crawl.  Obviously that idea was the one that stuck the most!

Jamie and I decided we needed a nap before another late night out, so we passed out until a little after 10 PM and were obviously running behind.  We got a little lost on our way to meet the group for sangria, and as we got there just before midnight, they announced that the sangria was gone and they were leaving.  So, we walked back to the very plaza where we were lost a matter of minutes beforehand called Plaza Alfalfa.  It’s a small area packed with tiny bars and crowds spilling into the streets.  We sampled a variety of different drinks, met some new friends and stayed for quite some time.  At one point, I was outside with some other friends when the police arrived and swept everyone either into the bars or out of the street.  Unfortunately for us, the bars weren’t letting anyone else in so we toured the neighborhood and took a few laps, hoping that the police would leave and that the parties could start back up.  The police stayed for the better part of an hour, so we took a cab to a club where other friends of ours were going called Abril.  It was in a neighborhood called Nervion where the majority of my friends from the program are living, and about a 50-minute walk from where I’m staying.  The line for the club ended up being rather long, so we took our time and went to a few bars in/around the same area, finally ending up in a casual pizza shop/late night bar where we chatted for a few hours, then decided to head home.  Mind you, it’s about 4:30 AM at this point.  The group split a cab and we all ended up at home around 5 AM, planning to wake up around 9 the next morning for our mandatory bus tour.

Jamie arrived home a few minutes before me, and apparently she was struggling with the key to our apartment… fumbling for the light outside the door, she accidentally rang the doorbell and woke Concha up – woops! It was definitely even funnier to talk about the next day, and it’s safe to say Concha thinks we’re crazy.

That being said, we overslept our alarms and jolted awake at 10.  We got ready as fast as we could, but didn’t end up leaving our house until about 10:45, when the tour meeting place was a 40-minute walk away.  A little tired and a little unsure, we caught a taxi to our supposed meeting place, and after frantically running (literally, running) around for a few minutes, we realized the busses had left without us.  Apparently there were only a few people on the bus, because we found ourselves standing with about 10-12 other people from our program that had either gotten lost or suffered the same morning we had and overslept.  We decided to do a self-guided tour of Sevilla since paying for a 17 Euro bus tour when we had just missed a free one sounded rather silly.  Starting with Plaza de Espana (AMAZING), we took tons of pictures and wandered around for a few hours.  We wound up right at the Universidad de Sevilla and snapped a few quick pictures before sitting down for an afternoon coffee/tapas break at a street café.  Jamie and I found our way home through the most beautiful (and most visited) parts of town and took a much needed 4 hour nap.

We weren’t sure if we wanted to go out the same way we had been, or if we should take a more casual relaxing night, so we took our time getting ready and met some other kids from our program down at El Torre del Oro (tower of gold) for botellon, which basically means a public gathering of young people to just drink and casually hang out.  Shortly after, we crossed the river to a neighborhood called Triana and had our first experience with Calle Betis, an infamous party street that runs right along the river.  It was lots of fun – we discovered bars with 1 Euro shots, and had fun hopping from one to the next.  I ended up going home early with a few other girls just because I was completely exhausted from the last few nights, so I arrived back at my apartment by around 3:30 and was asleep by 4:30. 

Today, Jamie and I both slept until almost 3 o’clock, and we’re confident our senora thinks we’re nuts.  But, I feel like today was the first day we really had a breakthrough with her, and we held a few very successful conversations with almost no awkward pauses or repetitions… almost.

After showering and finally getting ready for the day, we made our way outside at the ripe old hour of 5 PM and spent 3 hours or so touring the city, walking by the river, taking pictures, and (of course) stopping for a glass of wine and some very small tapas.  Now, we’re in our room (updating posts, obvi) and waiting until dinner with Concha.  Tonight’s the super bowl & we have plans to go to an American bar called O’Neil’s with some other kids from our program and their host brother + his Spanish friends.  The game doesn’t start until about 12:30 AM here, but it will be well worth it!

Tomorrow’s the first day of classes, so we have to wake up early & be at school by 8:15 to get our schedules and start our 3-weeks of grammar intensive Spanish class to (hopefully) get us up to speed with the language.  I’m looking forward to getting more familiar/refreshing my grammar memory so it won’t be as stilted when talking to Concha or to the people we meet.

More updates later! xoxo

So after the travel document debacle, it seemed like smooth sailing.  I finished my last week at work (I’m going to miss it there!) and managed, as usual, to put off packing as long as possible.  This takes me to last night & my frenzied last minute packing extravaganza.

It took several revisions and a day and a half of on-and-off packing to get it all to fit.  I managed (kind of) to fit everything, I suppose.  My mom convinced me to fit everything into one HUGE suitcase.  Unfortunately that one suitcase ended up being about 12 lbs overweight according to the airport scales.  But hey, a small fee is nothing when I was able to fit those extra shoes & that one jacket right? Maybe.  But only because that means I’ve been walking around with a king-sized travel backpack that feels like it sticks out a good 6 ft behind me at any given point in time.  Traveling is about give and take, I suppose.  I’m okay with it for now I guess! As my little sister put it, I look a bit like a turtle with the pack on.  Whatever.

Last night while packing the power went out – awesome – but it finally got done.  Today, there were lots of last-minute odds & ends to tie up, but I think I managed to get everything done (including 20+ thank you notes because, oh yeah, I turned 21 this week J).

My mind’s a little scattered because I’m still a little overwhelmed by the fact that I’m currently en route to my absolutely dream semester experience, so my thoughts are coming out in short bursts.

The trip to the airport was tough.  Calling and saying goodbye to friends and family is always hard, but the nerves triggered some tears, too.  I managed to keep it all in check until reaching the check-in gate, where I met some new friends & seeing them kept me from crying because obviously they were nervous too! I said my quick (tear-free kind of) goodbyes to my family, and along with the two girls I just met, we smoothly made our way through the security checkpoints and to our gate.  We were just under 2 hours early, and as departure time drew closer we met six other girls from our program and one girl who will be studying in Madrid for the semester.  It was so exciting to meet other people in the same positions, and to hear how anxious/excited they are too. 

Now, I’m sitting comfortably on a nearly empty flight, watching Salt (the movie choices are awesome!) and trying to be proactive by writing up-to-date posts for all of the people who want to follow my progress this semester. 

Our plans now include catching a tram to our correct terminal and having a group drink once we arrive in Madrid.  I tried to order a glass of wine on the flight (being legal, and all) but I felt my $7 would be used wiser elsewhere, AND Spanish wine will taste a lot better than the junk they’ve got on this plane… I’d be willing to bet my $7 on that, for sure!

I’m so excited for orientation and to meet the other students I can hardly stand it! Don’t worry – my second purchase (only to wine, that is) will be postcards to send to all of my wonderful friends and family members.  Looking forward to speaking with all of you soon.  Love, love, love. 

I’m currently [Nope, not actually.  See? Old documents.] sitting in seat 18H of my flight to Madrid, attempting to catch up with everything that has happened in the past few weeks.  Time has been flying by and I’ve neglected to keep this up to date, which I know I’ll regret later – so… here it goes!

You may have guessed already, but since you know I’m on an international flight this very second it’s quite obvious that my passport/visa situation checked out okay.  Not to bore anyone with details, but here’s the general overview:

I drove up to Philadelphia (the State Department on Chestnut St.) where I underwent an unexpectedly rigorous security check, then moved quickly into an office to report my passport/visa stolen and to get a new passport in one shot.  After a friendly, light conversation with the representative I was dealing with, he promised me a brand new passport in a matter of hours (and for half of the price I was expecting to pay… a whopping $195).  I drove back to work for a few hours, and then made the quick trip up to Philly again to pick up my passport at lunch.  Easy!

Later that evening, my dad & I looked up some NJ transit times and glued our eyes to the weather channel because, you guessed it, there was a terrible storm in the forecast that was due to hit exactly when I needed to be in NYC to get my new visa from the consulate.  Once we found train times, the trip seemed simple enough: drive to NJ, catch the train (way cheaper that way), get the new visa, get the heck out of the city before the huge storm hits. 

As planned, I woke up at 5:30, was ready to go by 6 AM and was mentally prepared to go through this day by myself without a hitch.  It was around this same time that I looked out the window and saw the several inches of snow/ice on my car, the driveway, and everywhere.  Immediately I thought, “of course the roads will be plowed; they always are”.  Unfortunately, I was wrong.  I dug my car out, crunched the snow down in my driveway, & made it off my street at a modest crawl.  The main roads were still a disaster, and my expected 1 hr 15 min drive to NJ turned into a nearly 2 hr ordeal, complete with accidents, freezing rain, hail, and 30 mph on I-95.  Not ideal, but I survived!  This was my first solo experience with NJ Transit, so I was a little nervous finding the station and train all by myself, but it worked out relatively smoothly.  Despite the delay in reaching the station, I lucked into catching the express to Penn Station.  With the ridiculous amounts of snow and ice, there was a point during that ride when the train was at a dead stop, but we still made decent time. In the city by 9:45, I walked an extremely snowy (but beautiful) 26 blocks to the Spanish Consulate.  At the security desk I told them my name and started to explain that I didn’t have an official appointment, but as soon as I mentioned my name they let me right through.  I guess that’s what millions of annoying, nervous, and question filled emails to a consulate representative will get for you, huh? My visa was printed and in my brand new passport in less than 10 minutes (for FREE, thank you very much).  Trudging back to Penn Station seemed to take half the time it did to go the opposite direction, but it was still nice to tour 5^th avenue & pass beautiful storefronts.  Too bad I didn’t have more time to dally around, because as much as it was a pain to get to New York, it was quite nice being there in the heart of winter.  Not too cold, either.

I literally walked into Penn Station and right onto a train home.  No complaints there!   The commute from southern NJ back home wasn’t the most pleasant either, conditions wise, but I made it to NYC & back by 2:30pm.  Not bad!

It was a rather exhausting day, but I managed to avoid a serious Snowpocalypse (number 5 million, it felt like).  And here I am, typing into a Word doc on the plane.  Ta-da!

I’m sitting in Starbucks on Avenida de la Constitucion en Sevilla, Espana, and I FINALLY have wireless.  Now, I’m going to post 4 new entries that I’ve kept in Word docs for the past week or so.  Here you go! xoxo

Well, people — I got my replacement passport today.

Woke up super early to get to Philly, waited in line for a bit, got my passport! Easy peasy.

Tomorrow’s going to be the interesting part… I’m leaving my house at 6 AM & driving to NJ to catch a train to the city.  Then, if all goes according to plan, I’ll be in NYC, have a visa & be on my way home before lunch.  Fingers crossed for me, k?

My biggest fear is that the weather will (negatively) impact travel plans.  The snow tomorrow is supposed to be pretty brutal, but from what I’m reading it won’t be too bad until the early evening commute.  That means around 5ish, I think?  So, I should be TOTALLY in the clear.  It’s just a matter of the time frame in the consulate.  I’ve been corresponding with a woman from the consulate & she told me I don’t need an appointment, only to show up.  A little worrisome.  Since I’m getting there right at 9 when they open, I’m don’t foresee a huge issue, but only time will tell.  This whole ordeal is a “huge issue” in itself, so whatever.

I’m just so excited by the idea that this headache will be over tomorrow night that nothing can really damper my mood.  I think.  We’ll see!

So, until tomorrow (probably during my 1.5 hr train ride back to southern NJ) that’s all I’ve got! Wish me luck!!! 

xoxo