First Days in Sevillla

Well I´m not sure how often I´m going to be able to e-mail everyone, so instead of having to hear everything second hand through my mom, you can now just check my blog if you interested in what´s going on in Sevilla. Or maybe noone else is really interested and it´ll just be my mom reading it haha. Either way, I´ve decided to write one.

So first I thought I´d update you anxiously awaiting masses out there about what´s been going on so far. I was supposed to leave KC on Sunday, Jan 17 and get to Sevilla on Monday. There was a pretty thick fog in the morning though so Continental decided to cancel all their flights for the day. I´ll be damned though if it wasn´t perfectly clear skies as we were driving home from MCI, but what can ya do. The next day I tried again and finally got on a plane. And after 26 hours of waiting, I finally arrived in Sevilla.

I´m here with a program called CIEE. It´s been really well organized so far and overall I´ve been pretty impressed by it. I caught a cab from the airport and met a CIEE rep at our hotel. That night, we got to see a private flamenco show and then went out for some tapas (sort of small appetizer-ish plates you share with the other people at your table). Sevilla is in the south of Spain and in the state of Andalusia, kind of the heart of Spanish culture. Because of that, things like flamenco, tapas, bull fights, etc are all really big here.

The next morning our host families came to pick us up. I´m living with a lady named Concepción (Concha) in an area of Sevilla called Triana. She has 3 kids, but they´re all grown up and moved out, so it´s just the two of us living in her apartment. She´s a really nice lady, a great cook, and does all my laundry. No complaints here. The only down side is she´s kinda old and tends to ramble alot and not really answer my questions when I ask her something. Or maybe she is answering them but I am just tuning her out because the answer is lost in the middle of a 10 minute story about a commercial we just watched.

As far as class goes, for the first two weeks I´ve only got one grammer class from 3-6 Monday-Friday. My real classes will start in about a week, but until then life´s pretty sweet. I´ve got a lot of time to sleep in late, check out the city, and go out at night. We´ve been going out quite a bit and it´s crazy how late people stay out here. Whereas the bars in Columbia close at 1:00, here that´s really when people start going out. One of the clubs called Buddah doesn´t close until 8 or 9 in the morning. Needless to say, I´ve been taking a pillow and sleepingbag out with me most nights.

That´s about it for now. I´m going to be posting some pics soon and have a lot to write about still so check back soon.