La Semana Primera

Hola Familia y Amigos!

I decided to start this blog so you guys can hear the crazy stuff that is happening to me day by day.  This week has been pretty insane- probably the most uncomfortable yet exciting week ever.  I am currently in mi apartamento con mi companera del cuarto, se llama Kirsten.  Kirsten es de la Univeridad de Michigan and is incredibly pleasant.  I like her very much!

Let me back up and explain what has been happening the past few days.  When Steph and I got to Sevilla, we took a taxi to Hotel Becquer (where we stayed until today).  Everyone on the program stayed there- students from U of M, Cornell, and U Penn.  There are 28 of us.  At first it was overwhelming to get to know them all but after a few days, we realized that we all are here for the same purpose and have the same feelings about this adventure. 

Everyday for the first three weeks we have classes in the Center (el centro) from 3-7 pm.  Grammar, Culture, and a Discussion class.  Totalmente en Espanol.  This language is pretty hard to grasp- especially because there are so many "figures of speech" that a native English speaker wouldn't get.  But I'm understanding as time goes on. 

When me and Kirsten met our host mother for the first time today, she seemed like the sweetest woman ever.  She met us in the hotel lobby and said something along the lines of "We are family now."  Definitely a nice way to start the immersion process.  Matilde (or Mati, which is what we call her) and her husband Luiqui (he told us that he has 4 names and that LUIQUI is a mix of them all) put all of me and Kirsten's stuff in their small white Hyundai car and we drove ten minutes to their apartment. It's a big apartment near "La Facultad de Ciensias del Trabajo" where I'll be studying this semester (It's the equivalent to ILR at Cornell). 


The apartment is one level and me and Kirsten have our own bathroom.  Besides the fact that Mati told me to lose weight and that Kirsten has a large forehead, we got along pretty well.  She cooked us macaroni and ham for lunch and we taught each other how to say our names.  Samantha was easy to teach- Luiqui said "Samantha es una bruja"- meaning Samantha is a witch-- and then I wiggled my nose.  He was referring to the character Samantha from Bewitched.  We all laughed.  When it was time to learn Kirsten's name, they couldn't make the "KIR" sound to save their lives.  I had to write down "KIRSTEN" on a napkin and put an accent over the I to show them how to say it.  They just decided to call her Juanita (her last name is Johnson).


We had class from 3-7 today and after, I bought slippers to wear in the house.  Mati doesn't like it when people wear shoes and only socks are a big no-no (cause they smell!).  We ate chicken with mushrooms and a salad.  Mati told me that the best way to put oil and vinegar on a salad is to start with salt, then pepper, then vinegar, and then to top it off with oil.  That's the secret- oil needs to be the last thing you put on your food because it's so heavy. 



After dinner, Mati and Luiqui just talked AT me and Kirsten for a while about the king, Juan Carlos, and the president of Spain.  They were having an intense debate about politics that we kind of understood.  My head is spinning.  Must sleep.

Hasta luego,
Sama