He llegado a Sevilla!!

1 Septiembre 2007

This morning we got our stuff together and drove to the airport in Madrid to catch a flight to Sevilla. As we were walking onto the plane, a lady turned around and asked me, “Are you guys in high school?” (because we were al together and had our lovely nametags on) Disgusted by her suggestion of our status, I grumbled “No, we are in college,” much to her dismay. We then started talking for a bit, and I found out that not only was she America, but from Chicago: a graduate student at U of C in business, who had just started her own company!! Thank you fate! Her company, she described, was a type of networking site for women in business. I mentioned that if she wanted to tap into the undergraduate sector, I would love to help, and she mentioned that if I ever needed any guidance, she would give me her information. Not bad for networking, eh…

Then on the plane, Aleisha and I were sitting next to this girl who was on her way to move to Sevilla permanently because of her amazing study abroad experience. She gave us lots of tips (the best way to learn Spanish is to date a Spanish guy). As we neared Sevilla, I became really nervous about meeting my senora. The anticipation only grew as we got our luggage, then walked out of the secure area into the sea of Spaniard waiting to receive their new American family member. Finally, I was guided to my senora, a cuuuteee little Spanish woman who had her grown son in tow. All of a sudden, I realized I was screwed. I was doing well speaking Spanish with them, but then we actually started tallllking and ……well, it was bad. Her son, Juan, is I think in his latter 20s. He teaches English at a small pueblo about a half hour from Sevilla. He is veeerrryy effeminate, and I’m pretty sure he’s gay. Although, I made my first huge mistake in the car when I told then I was Russian, and he said something about …novia (girlfriend) and habla rusa…(speaks Russian) So I took it to mean his girlfriend speaks Russian. Well, later I asked if his girlfriend lived in Sevilla, and he embarrassingly said he was soltero…single. Good job, Stella. I could tell it was a touchy subject by the look his mom gave him. He likes to blast house techno remixes of popular American songs from his room, and poor senora has to yell at the top of her lungs (“JUANNNNN!!!!) to call him to dinner.
Senora is, like I said, a cute Spanish lady, probably in her 60s. She is very amiable, and has hosted American students for more than 12 years. She also has 3 other daughters, two who are teachers, one works at an airport. One is married with a 3 year old girl who is visiting tomorrow for lunch. Apparently, one comes home for lunch every day, so we’ll see how that goes. Senora is widowed, but has not said anything about her late husband, although I know she has lived in Sevilla for 35 years and before that, in a small pueblo. Unfortunately, Senora cannot cook, unless she’s saving it for her daughter. For lunch, we had soup with garbanzo beans. That’s it. Oh, and this amazing pineapple yogurt which, I’m pretty sure will be my dessert for the next 4 months. For dinner, we had tortilla Espanola and potato chips. (ha!) I’m actually kind of happy because now I know I will lose weight!
The house is very quaint. I’m very lucky to be living in a house because most people live in little apartments called pesos. The front door opens right into the street, and the first floor has a small living room, foyer, and kitchen…also senora’s bedroom. The second floor has 4 bedrooms: Juan’s, mine, and 2 guest bedrooms. I also have a little living room with a TV. My room is tinnnyyy, but quaint. I have a wardrobe for all of my stuff and a little white desk. The best part is a balcony where I can stand and look at the street below as well as all of the little rooftops and antennas in this little barrio of Nervion. I’m leaving to go out in 15 minutes which will be interesting as Jaione, a girl who lived here 2 years ago and is helping out with the program, is taking us out. Having had a 3 hour power siesta today, I did not get a chance to explore the city at all so it will be interesting. From the plane, it is much huger than I remember. OK gotta run.

2 Septiembre 2007

Back track to Madrid:

I said goodbye to mis padres and boarded my flight. The most curious thing happened on the way through the terminal when I got to New York. I ran into an acquaintance from NU at the baggage claim…muy interesante. I finally met the group after being delayed and standing in line forever at Iberia. The Iberia people at the counter tried to deny me a seat because somehow I was responsible for the delay caused by my earlier flight, but after much ado, (and asking whether my luggage would arrive in time to Madrid, to which they laughed) I got my tickets and met my group. It was a bit overwhelming as I sat down next to Natalia and got settled in. For some reason, I thought it was pertinent to buy 4 heavy magazines before leaving Chicago so my bags were super heavy. We waited forever then got on our flight. After a bit of a crafty switcharoo, Natalia and I got to sit next to each other and looked up how to say champagne in Spanish (champan) as that was how we were planning to celebrate our trip. However, we were super tired and settled on the wine (which was free!) and ate our dinner plane food. We both fell asleep and were woken up by “breakfast” three hours later. All in all it was a good flight. My luggage actually arrived on time in Madrid (amazing) and we got on the bus. Our hotel, Hotel Emperador, was in the center of Madrid. After heaving my luggage upstairs, I realized my camera somehow disappeared (I still don’t understand how I could have left in on the bus) . We had a huge lunch in the hotel, complete with this amazing red wine, which, the glasses it was in kept magically refilling themselves. After lunch we were supposed to have a siesta but instead, we went on a bus tour that turned into a siesta because everyone, and I mean everyone, fell asleep. I felt bad because our guide was so amazing but man, jet lag+huge lunch+wine=sleep, no matter where you are.

After dinner, we took a break (btw dinner is at like 9) and were deciding where to go for the evening. A group of us just wandered around the city looking for a place that was open, (people here only begin to go out at like 2) but there was nothing. Somehow we ended up in a gay neighborhood at a Spanish gay bar which was…interesting. Finally though we found a little place and had a drink. The people from my program are all really nice, and we seem to all get along really well. As we were ending the night, I said to Jennifer, ¨Congratulations to a successful first night in Europe!”…not even a second later we were crossing the street and didn´t look both ways…and almost got hit…which at the moment, was quite funny.

The next morning, we were up bright and early to walk around Madrid with our fabulous tour guide Manual. We went to El Prado, one of the most amazing museums en el mundo, and saw paintings by Goya, Velazques, el Greco, Ruebens…basically it was amazing. Afterwards, we went to Reina Sofia and saw some Picasso including the famous Guernica, which shows Picasso´s rendition of the fascist bombing of the little Basque town during WWII. Also we saw lots of Dali, one of my faves…

We were exhausted by lunch and did a short fiesta afterwards. After, we went to the Palacio Real (Royal Palace) which was sooo beautiful. The insides were crazy decorated with all the splendor beyond one´s imagination. Then we just meandered around Madrid with our guide pointing stuff out. Later, Natalia and I went….(of course)…shopping.

That night, we went out with a girl who had done our program a few years ago and spoke fluent Spanish. We had a drink in the Plaza Mayor and then went to a palace turned discotech. It was AWESOME…amid the paintings of stuffy old rich women there was house music playing, people dancing, and general fun.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, I plan to go to El Corte Ingles (this huge store that has EVERYTHING) and buy a camera.