This week wasn't too eventful, but I definitely turned 21 on Friday. I'm old.
Soooo...
Monday was pretty normal, but that night I went out to eat with Genisis, Isis, and Giulia. We had Indian food, and then we went to Giulia's apartment to watch a Bollywood movie. I've never seen a Bollywood movie, and I have no idea what the title of the movie was, but although it was super freaking long and I felt really restless by the end, it was actually pretty good. I'd probably watch another someday...if I was immobile. I am the worst movie watcher.
Also, I almost didn't see my host mom Monday. I left the house before she got up, she wasn't home during lunch, and then I saw her for like 30 seconds before I walked out of the door to leave for dinner. I don't even think I saw my roommate at all that day. Weird.
Tuesday was pretty good. I decided not to take that 5th class, so I used my free time to go buy a tooth brush. Weird use of free time? Maybe, but I needed to buy a new one. Then I went by the river and read some more of my book, went home for lunch, took a nap, went back to the University for class, and then after class, I met my roommate outside the University to go to an intercambio in Nervión. Intercambio was absolutely not a waste of time even though we definitely spoke English most of the time, but that's because Vanessa and I totally found our media naranjas (orange halves, aka soul mates). We spent the whole time talking to two highly attractive Spanish bomberos (firefighters). We may not have spoken as much Spanish as we wanted, but we definitely spent like two and a half hours talking to Spanish firefighters, which is clearly the most important thing to ever come out of an intercambio. We didn't even like the same bombero, so obviously it was destino (fate).
That night at dinner, we obviously told Toni what happened, and when we told her we met two bomberos, she practically jumped off the sofa, started clapping, and yelled "¡¡¡OOOOIII, LOS BOMBEROS TIENEN EL MEJOR CUERPO DE TODO!!!" Translation: Ohhhh, firefighters have the best body of all!! Obviously, Toni shared our excitement. Actually, I think she was more excited for us than we were. It was freaking hilarious. She chatted on about how much she loves firefighters for the next like 30 minutes. She also told us if we get them to be our boyfriends, we'd all go out for a beer so she could meet them, even though she doesn't like beer? Gosh, my host mom couldn't be any funnier. She ended her little spiel with how she met her husband on the bus when she was like 16. It was the cutest story on the planet, and it sounded like she just took it right out of a movie.
Wednesday was so uneventful that there's nothing even worth writing, but I feel weird just skipping over it without saying anything because I don't want my future self to read this and think that I accidentally skipped something good.
Thursday I also did diddly squat nothing. I went to my classes, read some of my book, went home for lunch, went back to class, went back home...yeah. Let me tell you about my Phonetics class, though. It is a super helpful class. I've only had two classes (or 3??), but I can already tell it's helping. We're learning about how to pronounce vowels, diphthongs, triphthongs, and this thing called a hiatus in English (hiato in Spanish). I found out I'm not too great at telling the difference between diphthongs and hiatuses. A diphthong is when there are two vowels that make one syllable, and a hiatus is when there are two vowels that are pronounce separately (The "ia" in hiato is actually a diphthong, while a hiatus is like the "oe" in poeta). When explained, it sounds easy enough, but when I have to circle the hiatuses and underline the diphthongs in a word bank, I get kinda lost quickly. It's actually harder than you'd think, but definitely not as hard as if I were learning English. I feel so bad for people learning to speak English as a second language, because uf, it seems difficult. Look at the difference between vowels here:
Vowels in Spanish (this is a chart of where vowels are in your mouth when you say them; the left is the front)
The vowel chart for English. Those poor, poor English learners. What even are those symbols??
Friday was my birthday! Like I wrote earlier, I turned 21. I went to Málaga for the day with Genisis, Isis, and Vanessa. Genisis and Isis got me a vegan birthday cake from the vegan bakery, so we carried it to a park when we got to Málaga and ate it for breakfast. #noshame
This used to say "Feliz cumpleaños" but it suffered a little during transportation, so it ended up saying "feliz mpleaños." No pasa nada. It tasted amazing. It's a vegan black forest cake, aka "selva negra."
Me and my first vegan birthday cake :D
The aftermath...
R.I.P.
After we stuffed our faces with cake, we walked around the center. We walked around the cathedral, which was beautiful.
Then we walked up and down Calle Larios:
Calle Larios has lots of shops, kinda like Calle Sierpes or Calle Asunción in Sevilla...but better.
Then we were on the hunt for the house where Picasso was born, when we happened to pass by the church he was baptized in, so obviously we entered, and boy was it beautiful.
Then we found the house we were looking for in the Plaza de Merced, and lucky for us, it was free to enter for students under 26. #score
After that, we decided to walk up to this giant castle looking thing we saw on the way to Picasso's house. We didn't realize we were about to hike up a mountain, but hey, there goes those cake calories from earlier!
Málaga is too beautiful. Also, this is winter. Blooming flowers and green grass. I'm definitely bragging right now. No shame. I'll suffer next winter back in America, though. Karma will come. I'm still going to soak up every once of warmth here, though.
This looked steeper in real life, I promise.
"The Struggling Friends"
The view from halfway up
I really love this photo. It just looks so Spanish.
Just chillin' after climbing halfway up a mountain.
After a good while, we finally made it up to the top, where we found the Castillo de Gibralfaro. It was .60 cents to get in for students, so we definitely went in. After using the bathroom, we climbed to the tip top of the castle and walked around the castle walls, where I tripped and almost fell down a flight of giant old stone stairs. I didn't get hurt, thankfully. My pinky toe felt kind of numb for a while, but it's all good now.
Flags at the top of the Castillo
The view from the top
Málaga
Castle walls
We also found almond trees! I love almonds so much so this was pretty cool.
After climbing back down the mountain (my poor granny knees sure were tired after that. Those years of horse riding left their mark!), we headed out to get lunch at a place I found on Happy Cow (like Yelp! but specifically for vegetarian/vegan places). I was really pleased with our dining experience. I never know what to get when I actually have more than one option on a menu, so I opted for something different. I got empanadillas de maíz, which was the best thing I've ever had in my life. I might be exaggerating, but it seriously was so good. I haven't had corn since America (okay, well I haven't had *good* corn since America. The only corn I eat here is gross canned corn that Toni puts in our already gross salad.) Also, they tasted weirdly familiar, like something I've made before...so it was really nice to have such a familiar "new" food on my birthday!
The restaurant
View of the Alcazaba (I think) from where we ate
The best bread in the entire universe which equally amazing spread made with soy milk and some other stuff that I can't remember.
Birthday lunch! Corn empanadillas, some kind of thing that tasted amazing but I had no idea what was in it or what it was (it was vegan for sure though), rice (which I normally hate but I was hungry so I ate it anyway and it was good), and some other weird stuff that I have no idea what it is, but it was vegan and it was good (it had broccoli...).
After lunch, we just happened to pass by the some Roman ruins, which included this Roman amphitheater.
After that, we decided to make our way over to the beach to end our day, where we ran into a cat. Me being the cat whisperer I am, I just walked toward the cat and it totally ran up to me, meowed, and super wanted to be petted. Here's my new cat friend from Málaga:
And here's me petting him, taken by Genisis. So now I have a cat friend in Bruges, Belgium and a cat friend in Málaga, Spain. I really miss my own cats, though. :( But hey, I got to pet a cat on my birthday in Spain! Cats are seriously my favorite. I'm such a cat lady...
Soo then, we walked through a pretty park to get to the beach.
A fountain in the park
Finally, we made it to the beach, where I tripped once again, because I didn't see a step. I probably have tripped over 1,000 times since being in Spain, no joke. Anyway, the beach was beautiful and that's where we spent our last hour before heading back to the bus station to head back to Sevilla.
At one point, I started to wonder if I could take a picture that would illustrate what it's like to see with glasses (clear through the lens, blurry everywhere else). It's not as dramatic as real life, but I think I kind of got close to what I wanted to do.
Here we all are sitting on the beach! (stolen from Genisis!)
So yeah, then we headed back to the bus station. Stopped at a café on the way there to pass a little bit more time, got on the bus, and rolled on back to Sevilla. While waiting for the bus, I "officially" turned 21 at 19:42 Spain time (1:42pm American east coast time), so I took a screen shot to commemorate the moment:
My phone's battery always dies so quickly when I'm traveling and I really am unsure of why...but today when I did nothing it stayed charged! Weird.
I actually slept on this bus ride, and at one point I was completely knocked out...until our bus went over this super bumpy part of the road, which woke me up. At first I didn't realize where I was, I wasn't where my glasses so everything was blurry, it was pitch black outside so I couldn't see where we were...so I was super convinced we had run off the road and we were rolling to our death. Turns out we were just going over a really bumpy part of the road...but still. I definitely thought I was going to die on my 21st birthday.
When we got back to Sevilla, we headed to a restaurant that was supposed to be haunted, but it was packed and didn't feel haunted, so we left. Super eventful.
Saturday I had some intense blisters on my feet, so I didn't leave the house. That was a good idea, because today my feet definitely felt better (although still blistery).
Today I went to meet up with Mercedes and we went to a café because it looked like it was going to rain. We spent a lot of time working on pronunciation, which is when I decided I am sooo glad I'm fluent in English/English is my first language because I never would ever want to learn English otherwise. We have too many weird rules and pronunciation is hard for foreigners. It was a lot of fun, though. I really like helping people learn!
Also, I finally reserved a place on Airbnb for when Megan comes to Sevilla. Since she can't stay with me because #1. There's no room #2. I don't think Toni would be the kind of host mom who's up for having random strangers (other than the random strangers that she gets from JYS haha) chill up in her house, we're splitting the price of an apartment on Airbnb. I found a pretty good studio apartment in el centro near the El Corte Inglés, so yay! Less than a month till I finally get to see Megan! :D
I have no significant plans for this upcoming week. I start my internship up again on Friday. Then this weekend the JYS group has a trip to Madrid! Woooo! This time I'll have all the free time since I won't have to do the lil' museum trip things that they do since I did them last time. I'll be free to explore la ciudad. Definitely plan on finding this famous churros place there that people keep talking about...so we'll see how that goes.
So second semester has officially started. Not bad so far, but it's only been a week.
Monday, bright and early at 7:30am, my alarm went off, and I opened my eyes, listened to the beautiful birds sing, hopped out of bed, skipped to the shower, came back to my room, tossed some fairy dust in the air and twirled around a few times and ta-da! I was dressed with perfect hair and make-up with a full stomach, and everything was ready for school.
Just kidding. What really happened was this:
My alarm went off at 7:30am, and my first thought was, "Ughhh why is my alarm going off?!" Then I remembered it was the first day of school, so I groaned and shut my alarm off and sat up with my eyes closed. Five minutes after literally just sitting there trying to convince myself to move, I stumbled to the bathroom, got a shower, got dressed with the first clothes I touched, threw my hair up in a not-so-pretty bun, haphazardly put on a coat of mascara, rushed to shove food into my mouth, frantically ran around my room throwing things in my bag for school, and then somehow made it out of the door only like five minutes later than originally planned.
Genisis, Isis, and I have the same 9am class on Mondays and Wednesdays, so we met up at the esquina (corner) to walk to class together. The walk was surprisingly beautiful, and as we were crossing the windy Bridge of Death, the sunrise was pretty breathtaking.
Okay, it looked way better in real life...
The first class I had was Poesía de Hispanoamérica (Hispanic-American Poetry). It seems like it'll be a good class, but unfortunately I can't gauge that for sure because we have a temporary professor, because the real professor is out on vacation doing research. Right now it's a fun class (probably because our professor is actually a professor of Education Science, so he knows what he's doing when it comes to teaching), so I'm kind of afraid for the real teacher to come back on Wednesday.
After that class, we all had two hours to waste until our next classes at 1pm, so we just went to 100 Montaditos and got café and toast. We also went to the office after we finished our food for a reason I can't really remember, because I just went with Genisis and Isis since I didn't have anything else to do...plus it's always warm in there and there's free wifi, so why not?
My next class was Mitos Literarios (Literary Myths). I have a super nice professor, and the class syllabus sounds really interesting. I think this is going to be my favorite class (well, one of my favorites). This is what our syllabus says we're going to cover:
-Introducción genérica al concepto de mito literario: motivo, argumento y arquetipo
-La bruja casamentera: Celestina
-El pícaro: Lazarillo de Tormes
-El caballero andante: don Quijote de la Mancha (I had a whole class on him last semester, so that'll be easy but also super interesting because even though I hated that class with my entire being, I really did enjoy don Quijote)
-El seductor: Don Juan Tenorio
-La femme fatale: Carmen la Cigarrera
I'm super ready for this class. Bring on all the Spanish literary myths!
This is Celestina, the first one we'll be learning about! Creepy...
That's it for my classes on Mondays (and Wednesdays). So after my 1-3 class, I went home for lunch, took a siesta, and then went for a walk with Genisis and Isis. Then it started drizzling, so we headed home where I spent the rest of the evening doing nothing (actually, I just really don't remember what I did).
Tuesday, I got to wake up at a more reasonable hour of 9:30am and left the house at 10:30am. My first class of the day was escritura creativa (creative writing). I'm really excited for this class because I definitely think it will help me improve my Spanish grammar and writing, which I feel isn't too strong. It will also just be nice to have a fun class where I can be creative!
After that, I had a class called Literatura y la ciudad: El caso de Sevilla. I'm super super conflicted, because at first I totally only signed up for that class because we have to sign up for five classes (but only have to take four), but after that one class, I was almost convinced that I should take it. It sounded like it would be super interesting, and now I really want to take it. But you see, I'm conflicted because:
#1. I don't have to take it.
#2. I don't want to take five classes, because last semester I had five classes and I was drowning.
#3. Although I had five classes last semester and was drowning, I also had a billion internship hours last semester which I think was the main contributor to my stress because it left me with no free time and also no sleep time. Also, I'm not sure if that's exactly it or if five classes was actually too much for me to handle.
#4. I got B's in all of my classes with my crazy schedule last semester, so it probably wasn't too much to handle...and this semester won't be so crazy so I should be able to do the same or better...
#5. It's at such a crappy time (1pm-3pm). I hate 1pm-3pm classes, especially since I have another class at 5pm. So I walk for 30 minutes to get home, then I'm only home for an hour, then I go 30 minutes back to the University. I mean I could just ask for a bocadillo (sandwich) for lunch and stay at school, but honestly Toni always seems so distressed when she has to make me a bocadillo because apparently vegan bocadillos are super intense and make her brain gears go into overload, and she can only spit out two types of bocadillos: one with mushrooms or one with a tortilla española (the vegan version ;) ). I don't even know what to suggest to her because I never eat sandwiches back in the States. Plus, bocadillos for lunch are lame and sad in a country when lunch is supposed to be the main meal of the day. Also I just hate all that walking back and forth.
So yeah. Still not sure if I'm going to take the class. I probably will end up taking it because the interestingness of it trumps the other things, but I still can't say for sure. I probably won't decide 100% until next Tuesday when it's time to go to class.
After that class, I went home and ate lunch, and then headed back to school for my class at 5pm: fonética y fonología españolas. I sat down and was ready for class to start when some guy came in and told us that class was cancelled.
Class was cancelled because our professor actually had the flu...soo sucks for the professor, but good for me. (She was doing a lot better by our next class! :) )
So with my newfound two hours of free time, I went to Starbucks (I promise I wouldn't go there if I could just find another place that has soy milk/almond milk/etc.) and bought a soy latte and read my book, Si decido quedarme, (If I decide to stay...) to pass the time until 7pm. At 7, Vanessa, Genisis, and Isis and I went to an intercambio in Nervión. I'd never been to this intercambio before, and I really liked it. We met a really cool group of Spaniards who helped us learn some new phrases, and of course we taught them some stuff in English, too.
Wednesday was basically just a repeat of Monday, except that night I went to a improv show in Triana with Vanessa, Genisis, Isis, and Vincent. We got there a little late, so our seats weren't the best, but it was still really funny and good. I understood more than expected, but there was one skit I didn't understand at all. It turns out I didn't understand because it was about this lady Juana la Loca, who I've never heard of before (and if I had heard of her, I didn't remember...). Still not sure who she is, so I guess later I'll Google her and figure out who she is.
Thursday was also a repeat of Tuesday, except I skipped the class that's making me feel conflicted so I could see what life would be like if I didn't have the class. It was only ten past 1 and I was already at a loss with what I should do with my time, so I just almost went to class late, but then decided against it. I ended up sitting by the river on a bench in the sun reading my book about an hour ("read" = people watched, river watched, day dreamed, read a few pages) until my fingers were congelados (or as my host mom would say, cogelao), aka frozen.
On the way home, I was on this little street called Calle Maestro Arrieta, which is like 30 seconds from my house. I never usually see too many people on the street because it's just kind of like a super small residential alleyway street, but this time, there was this old lady headed in my direction and she was hardcore staring me down. Now let me tell you, she looks like just any run of the mill typical Spanish old lady. She's not gitano (gypsy), she was pretty well dressed, and her hair was done really well. So...at first I thought she was looking at someone behind me, so I tried to casually look behind me to see if there was anyone there, but there wasn't. Then I thought I had something in my hair or on my face, so I checked as best as I could, but nope...nothing there. By that time, I was getting pretty close to the old lady, and she said to me:
(Conversation translated from Spanish except for the last line):
Old lady: I'm looking at you. You know why? Me: No.... Old lady: You look just like this muchachita (girl) I saw yesterday. She was walking exactly where you were, and...*starts speaking unintelligible Spanish*...oh, the pobrecita (poor thing), they just left her right there, you know? So, when you cross the street, you have to be careful, okay? Crossing the street is dangerous and you should only cross when the light's green. ¿Vale? (Okay?) Me: Oh, yeah, pobrecita, I can't believe it...well I gott- Old lady: POR DIOS (Oh my God), la pobrecitaaa. This street can be dangerous, you see all these cars? It's easy to get lost...
*Side note: All of the cars are parked, it's a one-way street, there's never traffic, and there's not even crosswalks with lights on the street because it's small and that would be unnecessary*
Me: *thinking that I either have no idea what this lady is saying which is why it's not seeming to make sense or that this lady actually ISN'T making sense* Yeah, well I have to leave...adios! (Bye!) Old lady: *spots random man on street* OYE, I'm telling this girl about the muchachita I saw yesterday! You remember the muchachita? Random guy: Yeah, the muchachita...*walks away* Me: Haha okay well bye! Old lady: Oh wait! You're a foreigner aren't you? Me: (in English) YEAH ACTUALLY I DON'T SPEAK SPANISH BYE. *walks away quickly as she's still trying to talk to me*
That old lady was WEIRD. As soon as I got home I told Toni about what happened, and when I told her the street I was on, Toni gave me a dead-on description of this lady. Then Toni informed me she's media loca (half crazy), she lives on that street, and she stops everyone she sees to tell them weird crap. So that was interesting...
Anyway, so after lunch I went back to the University for my phonetics class, which wasn't cancelled this time. I think phonetics will be my most boring (but probably most beneficial to my spoken Spanish) class. On one hand, I'm not looking forward to it, but on the other hand, I'm excited to learn!
That night when I was eating dinner with Toni and Vanessa, Vanessa and I were talking about how Spanish numbers are difficult, specifically the number 500. Spanish numbers, like English numbers, follow a pattern. We have a super simple pattern for counting in hundreds: the number and then the word "hundred." For example, one hundred, two hundred, three hundred, four hundred, five hundred, etc. Theirs is a little different. They have cien (100), doscientos (200), trescientos (300), cuatrocientos (400), and wait for it: quinientos (500). The word for 100 is different, but not so hard to remember, but quinientos?? What is that!! Why can't it just be cincocientos and follow the pattern like the rest of the numbers? So we explained that to Toni, and she got such a kick out of it. She seriously laughed for 5 minutes, and then she called someone and told them what we said. It was hilarious. Then we told her we were going to change the Spanish language to say "cincocientos" instead of "quinientos" and at first she was like, "Oh yeah? No one will understand you!" and then I told her that since I'm going to be a Spanish teacher teaching Spanish to students who don't know anything, what I say is "lo que hay." (what I say is just what there is). She also got a huge kick out of that.
After dinner, I went to a salsa club with Vanessa, Genisis and Isis. I really didn't want to go because I don't like dancing nor do I even know how to dance salsa, but I said I'd go with them if only to people watch. So, we went and it wasn't the worst thing in the world, but I don't plan on going back. I found a really nice song I like from the club, so that's something good that came out of the experience.
This is the song. The song in the club was the bachata mix, but this is the normal version.
Oh, and as usual, I left something behind there when we left (my scarf). We were walking down the street headed for the churros stand at the Puente de Triana when the wind blew and I was thinking, "Man my neck is cold, what the heck..." and then I realized my scarf was still at the club. I obviously went back to get it since we hadn't even gotten like two minutes away from the club, and it was fine...just buried underneath some coats which is why I forgot it (out of sight, out of mind!). What is that, the 3rd time I left something behind in Spain? 3rd? 4th? I don't remember at this point! How am I so forgetful?? Anyway, I had a warm neck all the way to the churros stand, which is all that matters. So, then we had good ol' 2am churros before heading back home to acostarnos (to go to bed).
Took this screenshot off of Google maps...that little stand is where we like to get churros. Obviously this wasn't taken at 2am, though.
Like last semester, there's no class on Friday. Usually, I would have my internship all day on Fridays, but the internship doesn't begin until tomorrow. So I spent my morning sleeping, but I still got up at a reasonable hour to go to Café & Té with Genisis and Vincent to creep on an intercambio that Isis had.
BUT, on the way there, I had another "almost dead guy" incident, though. Why do these things always happen to me?? This time, I'm pretty sure they guy was dead because it didn't look like he was breathing...and some guys were beside him calling an ambulance. We didn't stick around to see what happened, but there was a crowd growing. Oh, Spaniards, always creeping...and always dying on the street?
Anway, Isis had an intercambio with some random guy who only wanted to meet one-on-one, and since that seemed sketchy, we were there to be her back up crew. At Café & Té, I got tostada which came with orange juice, and I've never had orange juice in Spain because I hate orange juice in America. It's so gross and bitter and just yuck...but since it came with my toast and since I was thirsty, I figured I'd just drink some to wash down the toast. Well, let me tell you something: orange juice in Spain is quite possibly the best orange juice in the entire world. I've never tasted such an amazing beverage. I almost cried. I also drank Genisis' orange juice too, because she didn't want it (her loss). The best part of this discovery? When I got home, I told Toni how much I love orange juice here, and the next day she bought me orange juice to have with my breakfast.
Oh, and Isis didn't die at her intercambio, so that's good, too.
Friday night, we went out to get sushi/maki, which was a lot of fun and super tasty.
Saturday morning, I met up with Genisis and Isis and we met Giulia, the JYS program director, to go to the vegan bakery. I was supposed to meet on the corner near my apartment with Genisis and Isis at 11:45, but somehow I lost major track of time and didn't leave the house until 11:47...I thought they'd be at the corner waiting for me, but they definitely weren't. So I called them and they were ALSO running late, so I felt super bad because Giulia was supposed to meet us at a different corner at 12:00, but the corner she'd be at was like 15/20 minutes away, so we met her late. Oops :/ Obviously we've been in Spain for too long (everyone's always late here). It was okay, though, and we had coffee and an assortment of things from the bakery. Super yummy, except for the strawberry cake. That was gross, which was disappointing because I love strawberry cake. My strawberry cake is better, just saying.
Then, today, Sunday, I went to meet with Mercedes again. We talked for like two hours in the park about all kinds of stuff. I learned some new vocab, like, "qué rollo" which you can use when you don't like something. I also learned that "vaca" doesn't just mean cow, but it can mean like that rack that goes on top of cars. Never knew that one! Also, she's from Málaga, and I'm going to Málaga on Friday for my birthday, so she told me some places that I should see while I'm there. I can't wait!
On my way home, I had to stop by a chino store to buy tape for my fichas (cards with your picture and basic information on it for the professors at the University), and on the way to the chino, I saw a Semana Santa ensayo (practice)! I stopped and watched the guys walk a little bit. It was really interesting to see. It looks like it takes a lot of hard work and practice to carry so much weight!
This next week will probably go by really slow since my birthday is on Friday...but I really like my new schedule, so this will probably be a good week regardless! :)
