So, as soon as I said I'd be updating more frequently, somehow over two weeks passed before I managed another update. Sorry, what can I say, I'm busy doing exciting and interesting things all the time and don't always have time for things like blogs and the internet. (Translation: I'm lazy.) I'll try to make this a good one, even though I'm not sure I have a whole lot to talk about.
The past two weeks have been spent just in Sevilla, and it was lovely. The weather was kind of crappy for a while, rainy and chilly (but chilly for Sevilla would surely be welcome weather in Michigan), but then it got SO nice. The past few days have felt like summer, 70s and sunny, just gorgeous. The problem with that--as if there could ever be one--is that it makes us NEVER want to do homework. On Friday, for instance, Sabriye and I meant to be productive, taking our homework with us to the river, but we just ended up meeting up with friends and sitting on the grass enjoying the weather. I know I've discussed at lengths how madly in love I am with the river, but I can never express it too many times. My friends and I discovered this area a few weeks ago where EVERYBODY hangs out on the weekends. There's a grassy area a little further down from where we usually go where a ton of students and people just sit around and talk. We were noticing how everyone here is just so social. They all just talk to each other for hours on end. As a talkative person myself, I love it! Anyway, it's really difficult to force myself to do anything academic; I've been getting by just doing what is required of me on a day-to-day basis, but that's not accounting for the fact that I have 7 plays to read by the end of April (oops). Hopefully I'll start to get used to the beautiful weather so I won't notice it quite as much and will be able to actually do all my work. Sound far-fetched? Yeah, seems that way to me too. But I'll figure something out, even if it's at the last minute. That's the Michigan Difference.
I had an interesting mixture of cultural experiences this past week: St. Patrick's Day in Spain. Now, I'm pretty sure the celebration of St. Patty's Day in the States doesn't make much sense because it's a lot of non-Irish people celebrating a very Irish holiday, but hey, it's fun, we do the same thing with Cinco de Mayo and Mexicans, whatever. We were under the impression, however, that other countries don't share this custom. You know, the US is a melting pot, we have to represent all of the different cultures within our country, or something. Why would Spanish people celebrate St. Patty's Day? Well, some of them do regardless of reason or lack thereof. I'm sure plenty of the people we saw around the Irish pubs were American, but there were certainly some Spaniards partaking in the festivities as well. There were plenty of people wearing green, though I don't think the pinching is a thing here. Lucky for me, I have basically zero green clothing so I was wearing a sort of teal-that-could-almost-be-considered-green shirt. People also had these great Guinness hats that said "St. Patty's Day 2011" on them. Apparently at Flaherty's, one of the Irish pubs, if you bought a pint of Guinness for 5 euros, you got the hat along with it. I didn't end up doing that, but I'm a little sad because that just would've been an awesome hat to have. Such a great memento! A few of my friends from the program actually went to Dublin for the holiday, which sounds pretty awesome and might be something I have to do at one point in my life.
On a not-really-related note, I can't believe it's already March 21st. I also can't believe that I'm going to have to do actual work pretty soon, after having just explained how terrible I am at getting anything done, cool. I have an exam next week (a midterm of sorts, if it can be said that this is the middle of the term) and another test at the end of the month sometime on a yet-to-be-determined day, and then I have a group paper/presentation due on the 12th, which is really bad timing because the entire week before that I'll be busy doing something much more important--spending time with my momma! She will arrive two weeks from today and I could not be more excited. I'm already planning all of the cool things we need to go see and all of the places I need to take her to eat and scoping out the nicer-looking restaurants that I'll finally have an excuse to go to and making lists for her of all the stuff I need her to bring me from home. I saw two different American families today that were visiting students here and it just made me so excited for my mom to come. Sevilla better be prepared!
Unrelatedly (I told you I don't have that much to talk about I've just been going to class and sitting in the sun and watching Gossip Girl with my roommate okay what's wrong with that), I have my first intercambio set up for this week! Explanation: The intercambio is this program where the university pairs up a native Spanish student who wants to practice speaking a foreign language with a visiting student who speaks that language so they can converse. From what I understand, you speak in Spanish for an hour, then English (or whatever other language) for the next hour so both parties get to practice. Right after getting the list, I got an email from a guy named Carlos who asked if I wanted to meet up on Thursday, so I said sure! I found out today that he's meeting with one of my friends earlier that same day, so I'm asking her to give me a little preview of just how awkward I can expect it to be. Oh well, new experiences, complete immersion, etc. etc. I'm thinking about emailing someone else to get another one, because you can never have too much Spanish practice!
The title is pretty random but refers to the fact that whenever you don't know what an ingredient is in a Spanish dish, there's a good chance it's tuna. Spaniards love their tuna. It was also relevant to dinner the other day.
Speaking of food, random food-related revelation that I made like the first week I was here but this seems like a good time to talk about it because this is the most random post ever: I AM OBSESSED WITH ARROZ CON LECHE. If you don't know (because why would you, I didn't before I came here), it's sort of like Spanish rice pudding, but more rice-y than pudding-y. Our señora makes it with cinnamon and it's one of the most delicious things ever. I told her that too, so now she serves it to us more frequently. We had it for dessert tonight and she acknowledged that I had said it was my favorite. Success! Now all I have to do is learn how to make it for myself because I know I'm going to miss it a lot when I go back to the States.
Well, this post was not that good, just long and random. Or at least not worth a two-week wait. Sorry. I'll try to do better (and sooner) next time. We're going to Ronda for the day on Saturday with the program, so that should give me something to talk about, and will provide exciting new pictures! (Haven't taken any new ones since Carnaval. Sevilla looks the same, just warmer, if temperature can be conveyed via photography.)
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