Busy week! Today marks two full weeks that I've been here. And what a difference, too - I feel like I'm starting to master the Spanish ropes. When we were at the art museum, a woman attending the table with informational pamphlets even pointed me toward the ones written in Spanish and not English! It was a small victory (of course, meaning that I immediately went home and told everyone in my house).
So the discoteca was insanely large amounts of fun, though very smokey and tiring. After dancing all night and staying out late we spent a relaxing day in on Sunday, reading and listening to music and napping and doing laundry and whatnot. Sunday evening was the birthday of one of the guys here on the program, who is staying with the mother of my homestay mom (so basically my Spanish grandmother). The whole family went over to their apartment, in all totaling 15 people - the grandparents, their 2 students, my "aunts" and their husbands, their 2 students, their twin sons, and my mom and roommate and I. Suffice to say, my Spanish family is significantly bigger than the fam back home! We had coffee and birthday cake and chatted (quite loudly and excitedly) for a couple hours. I loved the grandparents! The family is an absolute riot. They live in the same apartment building as one of their daughters (the one with twins and 2 homestay sons as well), and they yell across the courtyard at eachother from their open kitchen windows.
Monday we went shopping in the morning, something we had yet to do! New goal: buy some shoes from Pilar Burgos. In the afternoon we went to the Cathedral, which is like the second-largest gothic cathedral in the world or something like that. Whatever its standing, it's absolutely amazing. We climbed the bell tower (37 ramps!) and looked at the view of all of Sevilla. Lots of great carvings and paintings and gold-plated cherubs and petrified alligators (true story!), and one visit was definitely not sufficient to take in its glory.
Tuesday we went to the art museum, which was really amazing. Not exactly my cup of tea in terms of painting - lots of 17th century paintings, mostly religious content, but really fascinating to learn about, and very pertinent to the history and culture of Sevilla. My favorite was a 20-foot tall painting called "death of a torero."
Wednesday was an absolute blast - I went to the market with my mom in the morning, and we made a pit stop at a great coffee bar before running our errands. This market was incredible - huge stands of fruits and vegetables, fresh meat, and nearly-alive seafood. Anecdote: the clams were actually alive, and I jumped when I saw them spitting, which caused my mom to exclaim, "what's wrong?!" and then I had to stammer that the clams surprised me. We bought fresh prawns and I learned how to peel them, watched a butcher clean a 50-lb salmon, and learned how to prepare anchovies in garlic and vinegar. It was a super fun day in the market (and the kitchen), complete with some Norah Jones and good conversation. Definitely one of my favorite days thus far (and we had all the delish seafood for lunch that day!).
Today we went to a flea market uptown, which was interesting - not really something for the tourists to see, but I'm glad we did it anyways. I booked tickets for a trip to Galicia in the end of October, too! And before class, I went to a beautiful open plaza with a fountain near the university with a book and just sat and read and people-watched for a while. I can't wait to find my favorite places and things to do - right now it just seems like there's so much that I can't possibly discover it all! But as I said, it's only been two weeks.
<3
So the discoteca was insanely large amounts of fun, though very smokey and tiring. After dancing all night and staying out late we spent a relaxing day in on Sunday, reading and listening to music and napping and doing laundry and whatnot. Sunday evening was the birthday of one of the guys here on the program, who is staying with the mother of my homestay mom (so basically my Spanish grandmother). The whole family went over to their apartment, in all totaling 15 people - the grandparents, their 2 students, my "aunts" and their husbands, their 2 students, their twin sons, and my mom and roommate and I. Suffice to say, my Spanish family is significantly bigger than the fam back home! We had coffee and birthday cake and chatted (quite loudly and excitedly) for a couple hours. I loved the grandparents! The family is an absolute riot. They live in the same apartment building as one of their daughters (the one with twins and 2 homestay sons as well), and they yell across the courtyard at eachother from their open kitchen windows.
Monday we went shopping in the morning, something we had yet to do! New goal: buy some shoes from Pilar Burgos. In the afternoon we went to the Cathedral, which is like the second-largest gothic cathedral in the world or something like that. Whatever its standing, it's absolutely amazing. We climbed the bell tower (37 ramps!) and looked at the view of all of Sevilla. Lots of great carvings and paintings and gold-plated cherubs and petrified alligators (true story!), and one visit was definitely not sufficient to take in its glory.
Tuesday we went to the art museum, which was really amazing. Not exactly my cup of tea in terms of painting - lots of 17th century paintings, mostly religious content, but really fascinating to learn about, and very pertinent to the history and culture of Sevilla. My favorite was a 20-foot tall painting called "death of a torero."
Wednesday was an absolute blast - I went to the market with my mom in the morning, and we made a pit stop at a great coffee bar before running our errands. This market was incredible - huge stands of fruits and vegetables, fresh meat, and nearly-alive seafood. Anecdote: the clams were actually alive, and I jumped when I saw them spitting, which caused my mom to exclaim, "what's wrong?!" and then I had to stammer that the clams surprised me. We bought fresh prawns and I learned how to peel them, watched a butcher clean a 50-lb salmon, and learned how to prepare anchovies in garlic and vinegar. It was a super fun day in the market (and the kitchen), complete with some Norah Jones and good conversation. Definitely one of my favorite days thus far (and we had all the delish seafood for lunch that day!).
Today we went to a flea market uptown, which was interesting - not really something for the tourists to see, but I'm glad we did it anyways. I booked tickets for a trip to Galicia in the end of October, too! And before class, I went to a beautiful open plaza with a fountain near the university with a book and just sat and read and people-watched for a while. I can't wait to find my favorite places and things to do - right now it just seems like there's so much that I can't possibly discover it all! But as I said, it's only been two weeks.
<3
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