Que Guay!

(How cool)

Que tal?  So we've been pretty much taking Sevilla by storm the last few days.  Numerous tours, eating at numerous restaurants and of course more boring orientation stuff.  We took a three hour tour on Saturday (Gulligan's Island haha) where we saw La Catedral and La Plaza Espana.  Both are soooo pretty and amazing!  At the restaurants, we ordered tapas which are like appetizers in America, but they buy a couple of them and eat them as a meal.  So we've been ordering a few tapas to share among our group.  We also went to a Flamenco show, which was really cool. 

Today, we went to Alcazar, which is a castle by La Catedral where the King and his people lived.  It had numerous different rooms, gardens and courtyards.  The architecture and design was so crazy!

                                   

I've pretty much been waiting for tonight since we got here.  We found an American Sports Bar "Texas Lonestar Saloon" where we'll be watching the Packer game.  Gotta rep our boys, no matter where we are!  Our first day of our Intensive Spanish class is tomorrow at 9am...so considering the game isn't until 10pm here, that would be cause for concern.  Especially since I placed in the highest level (of 6 classes) of Spanish...What the H?  

Well anyway, today and yesterday have been the "coldest days of the year" in Sevilla....and it's 40 degrees here - except 40 degrees does feel exceptionally cold despite the fact it's 0 or less in the US.  We also met our host families yesterday.  My senora's name is Esperanza and she has 2 children - Gemma (33 years) and Manuel (30 years).  Esperanza talks VERY fast and I can only understand little of what she says.  Luckily, Gemma and Manny repeat what she says much slower so I can understand.  Gemma has Twilight pictures in her room and we've  been watching movies I've seen in the US except in Spanish.  Haha, feels good to see things that are familiar (more or less).  Esperanza makes very good food and is either cleaning or cooking whenever I see her.  I'm not sure how to say "left-overs" in Spanish, because I feel bad that she cooks a new meal every lunch/dinner.  Left-overs, por favor!!!  I thought I would be starving to death here since they eat little for breakfast, and very late lunch (3pm) and late dinner (9pm).  But, I haven't felt hungry this entire time...usually when she tells me lunch/dinner is ready, I'm not hungry at all.  Also, Esperanza likes to give me much more food than I want.

We went to a discoteca on Friday night...some are open until 6am!  The shots are 2E but mix drinks are 5E...odd.  We also took a taxi back to the hotel and we're pretty sure the taxi driver drove us around in circles because he knew we were American and most likely didn't know our way around.  The streets are very confusing and I had no clue he did that but others aren't as poor with directions as I am and noticed.  

Well for the next 2 weeks, the only commitment we have is the Spanish course which is 9am-12pm.  I've gotten lost every time I've been trying to get somewhere on my own.  Today was the first time I got back to my apartment without getting lost or having to look at directions - it felt awesome!  I'm feeling pretty caught up with sleep (thanks to a 5 hour "nap" yesterday) Haha so for the next 2 weeks, I plan to get more acquainted with the neighborhood I'm living in so I don't get lost as much and I suppose get more acquainted with Sevilla :)

xoxo