Friday, September 5th
We took a walking tour through the city to our school, which is pretty close to the center of town. The school is a three story building squeezed into a narrow street called Calle Harinas. It is an older building and is completely charming, with a court yard and decorative tiles up the walls and all over the floor.I was entirely charmed by my surroundings until it was time to take the Spanish placement test to assess our skills, and I am afraid the grammar was a little brutal on my poor rusty little brain. Not to mention I realized when the time was up that there were 2 pages I left entirely blank on accident! Oh well... I suppose everyone has to start somewhere, and I hope someone who graded my paper secretly got a laugh at something ridiculous that I unknowingly wrote.
Then it was on to our houses. My room mate and I took a taxi to our house and arrived laden with suitcases. Our taxi driver pointed out a big barbed wire fence that enclosed a Franco Era prison.
We took a walking tour through the city to our school, which is pretty close to the center of town. The school is a three story building squeezed into a narrow street called Calle Harinas. It is an older building and is completely charming, with a court yard and decorative tiles up the walls and all over the floor.I was entirely charmed by my surroundings until it was time to take the Spanish placement test to assess our skills, and I am afraid the grammar was a little brutal on my poor rusty little brain. Not to mention I realized when the time was up that there were 2 pages I left entirely blank on accident! Oh well... I suppose everyone has to start somewhere, and I hope someone who graded my paper secretly got a laugh at something ridiculous that I unknowingly wrote.
Then it was on to our houses. My room mate and I took a taxi to our house and arrived laden with suitcases. Our taxi driver pointed out a big barbed wire fence that enclosed a Franco Era prison.
Our family consists of a host mother, my room mate and me. I admit that I understood barely anything for the first 2 or three meals we ate together, but Saturday night I actually spoke to her and joined in the conversation some, so already I feel as though I am improving little by little. My room mate speaks spanish fairly well, and so she does the majority of the talking to our mother, and then I join in when I can.
Saturday, September 6th.
Today we went to the Christopher Columbus museum and watched a video that none of my friends or I understood about Christopher Columbus discovering the new world. Except for the part when the actor repeatedly screamed "Land... Land... Land... Land!!!" Then we went outside and saw three wooden ships that were replicas of the nina, the pinta, and the santa maria. They were full sized ships floating in a big pond. The pond was surrounded by grass huts with replicas of naked people with bowl cuts standing around holding spears and cooking fish.
Saturday, September 6th.
Today we went to the Christopher Columbus museum and watched a video that none of my friends or I understood about Christopher Columbus discovering the new world. Except for the part when the actor repeatedly screamed "Land... Land... Land... Land!!!" Then we went outside and saw three wooden ships that were replicas of the nina, the pinta, and the santa maria. They were full sized ships floating in a big pond. The pond was surrounded by grass huts with replicas of naked people with bowl cuts standing around holding spears and cooking fish.
This is me cooking with the natives.
Among other things... please note the fantastic bowl cuts.
Then we toured a monastery that was filled to the brim with artifacts and paintings of Christopher Columbus and all his pals. I saw Cortez's sword in a glass case as well. It was really neat, and the paintings were so large and beautiful, but I wish i had understood more of the tour. Then we went to the beach where it was a little rainy and cloudy and hijacked shells.
Sunday, September 7th
Today we finally unpacked our bags and got to relax. It was really wonderful. Tonight my room mate and I along with Sophie and her room mate went walking in our barrio, which is a nieghborhood. Our is called Nervion. We passed by a bunch of really beautiful apartments and also by a sand park. It looked really nasty and we couldn´t figure out what it could possibly be for except a place for peopel to take their animals to go to the bathroom.
Then we passed a huge wall with graffiti of a guy with worms coming out of his eye sockets... I´ll have to post a picture later.
We went to an little Chinese shop that was like the dollar store but better... and worse at the same time. Lets just say there were these scary gnome statues with lights built into them. And I bought a foam lilly pad with frogs on it for the beginnings of a hat for a haloween costume.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Now that I am NOT in the United States, I have finally heard that song that has caused such a stir. We were in a copy shop buying a photocopied book which I suppose is legal because our teacher told us to go there. Anyhow, ¨I kissed a girl and i liked it¨was playing on the radio and i think my life was better before that song ever had the possibility of replaying itself in my head.
Class was wonderful. I actually understood the things my teacher was saying and i made a list of the things i didn´t understand. And now it is really hot in the computer room and I can write no more... I´ll have to finish catching everyone up later.
P.S. Madonna is coming to Sevilla soon!
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