La Vida Sevillana

After four days in España, I'm just beginning to get used to living here. Speaking is becoming easier little by little, making me feel pretty confident that my goal of improving my speaking abilities will definitely be met. That being said, most of us get laughed at for clearly being American on a regular basis, but that's all part of the experience, and I try to take it in stride. (Today at lunch we had a waiter who laughed at us pretty much the entire time we were there.) Most of the time I'm laughing at myself anyway, so it's not a big deal. Once I've been speaking in Spanish for a while, it's harder to switch back into English, which I take as a great thing but makes it somewhat difficult to communicate at times. I find myself slipping into Spanish when I want to be speaking (or more often typing) in English and vice versa. It's an interesting experience, and one I anticipate will continue throughout my time in Sevilla.

I went with a group of friends to buy móviles (cell phones) a few days ago, and it was certainly an ordeal. It took about two hours and much use of both our less-than-perfect Spanish and the less-than-perfect English of the very kind man who was helping us in the store for us to get things set. I think in comparison with some other companies and plans that are out there we could've gotten a better deal, but most of us have phones from the same service, so it's relatively cheap to call each other. The phones are comically old and dated, but I kind of like them for that reason. And there's a Bejeweled game on it, so that's really all that matters to me.

We started our classes at the program center for our cultural seminar yesterday. There's a culture/history class and a language class, and they're both somewhat intensive. We have class three hours a day, four days a week for the next three weeks. Strangely, the language class seems to be what will be more fun. We'll be learning language skills that will actually be useful in everyday conversation, which is clearly where we need the most help. The culture and history are pretty basic and therefore un poco aburrido (a bit boring), but necessary. I'm sure these weeks are going to fly by and before we know it we'll be taking classes at the Universidad de Sevilla.

It's still strange for me to think about the time difference between here and home. It's hard to imagine that when it's 11 PM here my dad is just coming home from work. I'm pretty much over my (much lamented) jet lag now, although I seem to still be on the US eating schedule. I get hungry at around 6 PM but our dinner here isn't until 8:30. The adjustment to la vida española is strange, but going well. Tomorrow we get put with our families, so it's going to be a big day! Wish me luck!