Saturday

I am currently sitting in a cafeteria-like room lined with long tables and blue chairs on either side.  It's 3:00 on a Saturday and about 20 university students are scattered around the room doing whatever homework they have.  I was determined to be semi-productive this morning after going to sleep at 5 and waking up at 2 to eat "breakfast," which really consisted of a spinach-garbanzo bean dish, chicken, and an orange.  Mati is away for the weekend so Duna, her daughter who lives with us (she's about 40), is making our meals.

So after lunch, I packed my backpack without knowing where I really wanted to go, but with one goal in mind: actually do work for the first time this semester.  It's about 70 degrees outside when I left my room which made me automatically smile.

I figured I'd try the Derechos library because it's closest to me.  I walk to the front of the entrance to see that all the doors are locked.  Come on, Sevilla, people must work on Saturdays!  A girl with a Bimba & Lola bag comes by to where I am standing- it's obvious she wants in on the library today, too.  She doesn't have a card to open the gate so I walked around the building and called out to a couple sitting in the courtyard inside of the gates.  "Como puedo entrar la biblotecha?  No tengo una tarjeta!"  They responded, "Afuera (pointing to the gate that I just came from)- necesitas esperar."  It was pretty cryptic advice.  I just wanted them to open the gate!

I go back to the gate and deliver the news to my new friend.  Just then, the gate opened.  Like magic!  (or like the security guard finally saw us).  Another girl came running as we were about to close the gate behind us so I kept it open for her to enter.  I honestly had no idea where I was going once I entered the courtyard.  Is there even a library inside?  Thankfully these two girls seemed to know what they were doing so I followed.  "Hay una bibliotecha adentro?" I asked the girl who I held the gate open for.  "Si, sigame" she said.  We went down a flight of stairs, through a bathroom, and ended up here.  The girl asked me where I was from.  I guess it's pretty obvious with my accent.  She said she lives with 4 American students but they don't take classes at the university.  I don't know what this experience would have been like if I wasn't directly enrolled at the University of Seville.  My spanish would not have been so great and I wouldn't have so many stories.

And so here I sit.  Nothing is making me want to do this tarea, but I must.  I miss my brothers- we had a crazy week together.  They just left yesterday morning.  We walked all around the city, I showed them all of the sights, and we spent some good quality time together.  My favorite was walking with Rico through the center and singing songs like we usually do.  And Adam being like my dad, buying way to much food, cracking jokes, and making me feel like I was at home.  Alison, Adam's girlfriend, also came.  She's the best- equally as funny and crazy as Adam (which is hard to find).

I slept in the hotel they were staying at all week, the Melia Sevilla.  Nothing like a real shower, in comparison to the Mati shower which has constantly changing water temperature.  Rico, Adam, and Alison met Mati and Luiqui.  It was an hysterical sight.  For the first time in my life, my Spanish surpasses Adam and Eric's, and that's saying something!  Mati was so excited to meet them and just rambled on and on in Spanish to them.  Rico said he understood about 50% of what she ways saying.

Mati also gave Rico a key chain light so he can see in the dark.  Adam said that when Mati laughs he just wants to kiss her.  It's true- she's too adorable for words.  Adam brought Mati red wine and a flower to thank her for the bocadillos she made for us when we went to the futbol game on Sunday (Sevilla v. Barcelona- tie score in the end).  It was great to see my two worlds collide.

Rico also met Belen.  Me and her were bbming all week trying to make it work out.  Mati thinks Rico is the most handsome boy ever and kept asking him if he had a girlfriend- "para Belen!" she kept saying.  Having the brothers come all the way from NY to see me made me feel like the luckiest girl in the world.  Everyone on my program who met them loves them, and for good reason.  They gave me just the encouragement I needed to finish out this program by showing me how much progress I have made up to this point.  I could never have done it without you, guys.  I love you so much!

But back to reality.  Or, well, semi-reality.  A girl sitting across from me has a shirt that says "NICE" on it.