Sickness and Soccer in Spain

I've been pretty lucky when it comes to illnesses this winter, so naturally now that I'm in Spain where it's above 50 degrees Fahrenheit every day, I get a cold. It's probably just because I'm in a new environment and my body isn't used to it, but that doesn't make it any less frustrating. I'm not terribly sick, just a runny nose and a cough, but it makes it pretty hard to concentrate in class when all you want to do is sleep. So the natural choice is to then come home from class and sleep for an hour and a half, which I did. I'm hoping I can just sleep it off and won't need actual medicine, but this may entail an exciting first trip to the farmacía (exactly what you probably think it is).

Over the weekend, my friends and I went out on the town to celebrate the birthday of a girl in our program. We had a lot of fun; Sevilla has great night life and we've met some cool people. Quite a few have actually been from the States, which is never as exciting, but some of my friends have had encounters with native Sevillanos. Saturday, we met some promoters from Discover Seville, which allowed us to get into some places where we otherwise would've had to wait in Cedar-Point-length lines. We're starting to learn where to go in the city and getting around on our own. We do, however, have a long way to go in that regard. On Saturday, we walked around literally all afternoon, most of that time taken to find the soccer stadium of Real Betis, one of the two soccer (football? fútbol?) teams in Sevilla. The other is Sevilla (of course). They're in different divisions, so it's a tiny bit like the White Sox and Cubs in Chicago: they're in different leagues, but the same city. It's different in that I'm pretty sure Betis is a worse team because they're Second Division while Sevilla is in La Liga, which is the First Division. My roommate is a huge soccer fan, I'll have her explain it to me sometime. The important part of this story is that we're going to see them play Barcelona, which I just heard her say is "probably the best club football team in the world," so there you go. Usually the tickets are really expensive, and we got ours for 40 euros. That may not seem like a great price, but considering we get to see Barcelona, it's a big deal. Plus, as my dad said, American football games are expensive too, so sometimes you have to make sacrifices. I'm sure it will be a ton of fun and really exciting, especially considering Spain is still coming down from the high of their World Cup win over the summer. Here's hoping I learn a thing or two about fútbol and perhaps find a new sports interest! And despite getting lost, Sevilla is a beautiful city (as you can see above), and the weather has been wonderful--from what I hear, unseasonably so. Whenever my feet are killing me from walking, I just remember that it could be a lot worse. (Looking at you and your 23 degrees, Ann Arbor.)

This week is going to be really busy, with the game, going to the Baños Árabes (Arab Baths), which to my understanding are spa-like and similar to the Turkish Baths, going to see some flamenco, and culminating in a weekend in Madrid. Stay tuned for more about those excursions!