Not having class makes me completely lose track of the days...and now it's a whole different year? Yikes! It seems almost impossible that it's 2015.
One of the last things I did in 2014 was get a haircut. I was soo nervous for two reasons:
1. I would have to describe what I want in Spanish, and my hair salon vocab is practically non-existent (well it's better now)
2. My last haircut was horrendous and I figured since I was speaking in Spanish this time, my hair could only turn out awful due to lack of communication
Well, that was a backwards experience. Yes, the communication in the salon was kept to a minimum, but my haircut was on point. How is it that in America, where I can communicate perfectly, the hairdresser screws up my hair, but here in Spain where I had to use vocab that I Googled 30 minutes before getting to the salon, where I almost forgot out to say "layers" and had to use my hands to help get across what I was trying to say, and where I'm not even fluent in the language, my hair comes out wonderfully? I don't understand it, but I'm not going to argue with it. I'm just gonna have to find Spanish speaking hairdressers back in the States, hahaha. No but really, look at this:
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| That's some nice hair. |
Also, let me tell you all about my interesting New Year's Eve. On New Year's Eve, my friends' host mom let them invite me to their New Year's Eve dinner. Before I begin, I want to say I really had a good time and it was super cool getting to see how they celebrate New Year's Eve in Spain...but that night was quite the patience tester.
Soo, on Wednesday, I got dressed up and moseyed my way down San Vicente de Paúl, took a left on Ronda de Triana, and about five minutes later I was waving at Isis who was going to show me up to where her and Genisis live. I had already met all of their host family except for their host dad and their host grandparents, so when I got there I greeted everyone with dos besos and made small talk (ugh) with their family. At one point, Isis and Genisis left me alone with their host grandpa, Javier, who (while very nice) has a very thick accent Andalusian accent. He was talking to me about the weather (of course, the most typical small talk known to man), but I could only catch about 75% of what he was saying. While that sounds pretty decent, the important parts of the conversation were included in the 25% that I didn't understand, such as questions he was asking me. Once I finally understood a question, I took that and ran with it. I started talking about how the weather here was different than Virginia and that lasted me until Isis and Genisis came back and saved me from the small talk nightmare.
The actual dinner wasn't too bad. Genisis made me a yummy tofu dish since her host mom had no idea what to feed me. All in all, though, the dinner was quite the learning experience.
Anyone who has known me for even five minutes knows that:
1. I am quiet.
1.5. I am an introvert.
That being said, I didn't say much at dinner. I didn't say much because I didn't think there was anything for me to say. I'm more content listening to the conversation. In group situations, I don't typically speak up unless someone directly addresses me or unless I really feel like I have something important to share. However, lil' ol' Granny (the host dad's mom) thought I wasn't speaking because I didn't know/understand Spanish. I mean, seriously, even if they were talking in English, I still wouldn't have chimed in. The granny asked me something, and I didn't hear all of what she had said because I didn't realize she was speaking to me for the first half of the question, so when I asked her to repeat, she proceeded to turn to Isis and said, "Ohh, pobrecitaaa, ella no puede entender nada que he dicho. *clucks her tongue* Ella está sentando allí con ni idea de qué está pasando..." Translation: Ohh, poor thing, she can't understand anything that I've said. *clucks tongue* She's sitting there with no idea of what's going on." My reaction was something like this:
I do not like people assuming I do not understand them. Mostly, I don't like people talking about me when 1. I can in fact understand them and 2. When I'm right there. I literally sat right across from her. I was trying to tell her that I just didn't hear the question, but Isis and Genisis jumped in before me to explain to her that I actually do understand Spanish, but lil' ol' Granny didn't seem to listen or care. The granny ignored me for the rest of the dinner...not making eye contact with me once. She literally would look at Javier on my left, skip over me, and look at Genisis on my right.
It's very rare when I just straight up don't like someone without getting to know them with concrete reasons to not like them, but I did not like her. I can usually get along with just about everyone. I have been told that I have a "neutral personality," but if you're going to not even give me a chance to understand you and then just ignore me for the rest of the time we're together, that's going to get on my nerves and my "neutral personality" will become a sassy personality.
And then, the whole freaking time at dinner, about 90% of the dinner table conversation was about vegetarianism and veganism and the big question of "Why do you do that????" Don't get me wrong, I really like Genisis' and Isis' host family a lot, but good lord...the ignorance and lack of respect was getting on my last nerves. I got asked several times about cheese, eggs, and other stuff. I didn't go into detail about it. I spent most of the time just listening to Isis and Genisis defending their points (they're vegetarians btw). They were being completely respectful about it, but their family was just like, "But animals are to eat. Animals taste good. I think you're wrong. I don't care if I'm eating a dead animal -- me da igual. You wan't some of my lamb or shrimp or crab??" My face during the dinner went through several levels of "unimpressed." I'll illustrate these levels with some nice hand selected gifs:
Level 1: The Unimpressed Emotionless Staredown Face
Level 2: The "Yes, please go on telling me about how you need to eat animals to survive" Face
Level 3: The "Did that tontería (nonsense) really just come out of your mouth" Face
Level 4: The "I'm listening, and I think you're wrong, but I'm not going to say anything" Face
Level 5: The "Well they're never gonna change their mind so I'll just tune out" Face
In the whole time I've been in Spain, I have never encountered someone who gave up talking to me on the first interaction. Seriously, every time I don't understand someone, they literally just repeat themselves, which is what I prefer. Sometimes I just need to hear something twice, and I expected that from the lil' granny too, but nope. She just assumed I had no idea what was going on and refused to talk to me for the rest of the time.
I also haven't encountered anyone, not just in Spain but in the States as well, so insistent that meat is so vital to life and that if you don't eat meat you'll get sick and die/if you don't eat meat then it makes you some weird freak. Not even my dad was that annoying about it, and I thought he hit like the top of the top of annoying. I think it's worse when there's just a table of 6 people all with the same opinion that meat = life -- which is quite the opposite. Meat is actually death, and eating it can contribute to a shorter lifespan...just saying.
Now don't get me wrong, I respect others' choice to eat meat. Yes, I think it's wrong, but they have the choice to do that just like I have the choice not to. It's not the fact that they're meat eaters that gets on my nerves, it's the lack of mutual respect. I don't sit there questioning why they're eating meat, throwing all kinds of facts at them about how bad meat is for them and how veggies are way better. I literally just sat there and ate my food, and somehow the existence of a vegan or vegetarian is enough to provoke the unnecessary avalanche of questions and comments. I know this is just one of the many times in my life that this will happen, so I really need to just learn to be less bothered by this kind of stuff. It's just extremely annoying that I try to be respectful of others but they don't have the same respect.
And honestly, I feel like I'm pretty good at shutting down any possibly avalanches of questions, but Genisis and Isis were more quick to explain themselves which kept the conversation fueled, while if I sense that I'm with really non-understanding people, I go straight for the, "I'm not going to discuss this with you" response. I think it's better to just not discuss that kind of stuff until I really have a good grasp of how I think the person will react, and if I think they're not going to react well, I simply avoid it.
Anyway, before I go on even more of a vegan rant, I'll move on. After dinner, we all picked out 12 grapes out and each put them on our own cute lil' baby plate to consume when the clock struck 12AM. In Spain, everyone watches the clock in Madrid on TV (or wherever they happen to be if they're not at home watching it being broadcast on the news) just like we watch the clock in NYC. However, in Spain, the clock in Madrid chimes, and with each chime, you eat a grape. You eat one grape for each month, and the grape is supposed to represent good luck. It's harder that it sounds, but I got all my grapes down (even if towards the end I slightly resembled a chipmunk). It was actually really fun. :)
This is everyone after we got all of our grapes down and were celebrating the first few minutes of 2015:
So yeah, my NYE was pretty interesting. Overall, I enjoyed it a lot, and I'm so glad I went. Annoyances aside, they have a wonderful host family!
The rest of my first week of 2015? Ehhh...not too eventful.
On New Year's Day I walked all the way to Nervión with Calee to help her find the house that she's going to be tutoring at. It was really fun to catch up with Calee and to explore a part of Sevilla that we both hadn't been to before. The directions she had took us through all these little backroads and made things kinda confusing, but on our way back we just stuck with the main roads and found a much easier route. All in all it was pretty successful.
Yesterday I got to witness Aitana, my host mom's 7/8 month old (not completely sure how old she is) granddaughter, try her first yogurt. Her face was sooo adorable! I love watching babies try foods for the first time because their expressions are always so priceless. Also, Aitana seems to like me. She always smiles/giggles at me for no reason haha. Maybe she just thinks I look funny, who knows. But when she was eating her yogurt, she was watching me the whole time, and in between bites she'd kinda reach toward me and giggle, and my host mom was like, "Aww she likes Americans!" Lol, because a 7/8 month old is able to sense that I'm American.
Also, yesterday, I went to a new restaurant with Isis, Genisis, and Calee that I haven't been to yet with vegan options called Habanita. It's a cuban restaurant with lots of vegan and vegetarian options (which are clearly labeled on the menu). The food was soo good, and I think this place is my new favorite here in Sevilla. I got falafel w/ coconut sauce and it was tasty, and the falafel was nice and moist, unlike the other falafel that I've had here. It was also pretty nice to have all the JYS SBC girls spending time together.
Another random thing: I just want to comment on how nice the weather has been here lately. Look at all of that sun! I tok a walk today along the river and I had to take off my jacket at one point because I was getting pretty toasty walking in the sun.
Also these warm temperatures are niiiice. I'm not looking forward to going back to a Virginia winter next year. Good thing my host mom is knitting me a scarf ;D
Lastly, I just want to write the typical "New Year's" blah-de-blah junk. I don't really have any "New Year's Resolutions," because I feel like if you want to do something, you shouldn't wait until the new year to start. This is just going to be an eventful year, and I hope that I can continue to grow as a person as much as I have towards the end of 2014. Almost half of 2015 will be spent in Spain for me, and then the other half will be me starting my senior year at Sweet Briar. I can't believe I'm going to be a senior! It feels like everything's coming to a close and while on one hand I don't like that feeling at all, on the other hand I love knowing I still have lots of adventures lying ahead of me!
