Rebajas + Ice Cream + "Charisma" = Cure for Exam Stress

So, my Thursday evening was horrible! I had to write a 600 word paper based on surveys that we had to hand out and ask Sevillanos to fill out answering questions about the economy in Spain and how they were going to recover from their heavy holiday spending. Seriously? NO FUN! Those are topics you just don't bring up - especially when you're seen as an "extranjero" (of the worst kind - read as: American). It gets worse though, the next survey deals with the Euro being introduced into Spain (which sucked for most Spainards) and the last one involves our class to take a field-trip to visit the Unemployment office in Sevilla and ask the masses of the unemployed various questions about how long they've been in this "condition" and why and what should be done to aleviate their situation. (After this class is done I'm going to need an intensive- therapy session). I also had the joy of studying for my first (2.5 hour) midterm! ¡Qué bueno! In short, I ended up calling home in frustration and asking my sister if she wanted to either a) do my homework and take my test for me or b) pay for my early return ticket. (She said No... so much for the bonds of sisterhood there... I'm kidding Sam!)

Needless to say, after my exam on Friday morning I went home for a much needed siesta and then met up with a few girls from my program for some "retail-therapy." Here we are standing in front of the fountain of Puerta Jerez:



After walking through Puerta Jerez we heading down la Avenida de la Constitucion and onto the shopping streets of Calle Sierpes and Calle Tetuan. Now, some (my mother) may say I'm often guilty of uniform-dressing. This would be true... Even when in Spain. (Sorry!) Anyways, during "Rebajas" a majority of the inventory is half off so they can move it out for next seasons stuff so seeing as I'll never be given the opportunity to buy these items ever again I bought two things - a black dress with cute little pleated sleeve things (10,00€) and a long black tank top with some sequin stripes (2,00€). I promise that they're cute and while they look like the other black dress and tank top I brought from home they're COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!!! I went shopping in the great stores of Inditex, a large Spanish corporation that can be found on the IBEX 35 (think DOW JONES) and in nearly every paper I wrote in Pilar's Advanced Business Spanish class at Iowa (the corporation has an extremely unique inventory/managerial structure that enables them to take a brand new design and have it produced, distributed, and on the mannequins in less than 2 weeks. The Inditex Corp. owns Zara (think Gap) and Massimo Dutti (Banana Republic) and Pull & Bear (think um, a younger-hip-ish store that I really don't shop in... maybe the Buckle?) and Oysho (think Victoria Secret but younger... like Pink) and u, like 4 other stores (Those are just the ones I went in.) So I mean ultimately I was just furthering my educational experiencing by making a purchase at a store I had been studying for the last two years --- right???

After the shopping extravaganza we stopped at a café across the street from the BEAUTIFUL cathedral (La Catedral) where I had the MOST delicious ice cream: Philadelphia Cream Cheese with Blueberries... Can you say, ¡Mmmmmmm! (that's Spansih for: Yummmmm.) I'm for sure going to buy Laura Hauser her very own PCCB ice cream cone as my Valentine's present for her when she comes to visit since she LOVES cream cheese :) (Gosh, I'm a good friend!) Post shopping I went back to my casa for dinner and watched online television with my roommate Kendra. We ALMOST tried ordering pizza (since neither of us wanted to put nice enough clothes on to walk to the pizza place) but then realized we probably wouldn’t be able to stay up late enough to even pick up the delivery so we just went to bed.

On Saturday I woke up at 11, meet a friend of my from the awful flight fiasco who is in a different program based in Sevilla for a café con leche and some good ol' fashion "we love Jesus" conversation. We began our hunt for a church to go to on Sunday morning and ended up not being able to find the place before we had to leave for lunch. (Oh well.) I then had lunch and adventured back out into the city to meet my pillow-hunting-buddy for the grand adventure to IKEA! We had plans to take the 4:30 bus from la Estación de Autobuses de Plaza de Armas - only one slight problem... I had no idea where this bus station was. Believe it or not I was only 2 minutes late! But my 2 minutes of tardiness meant we had to wait another 28 for the next bus. Luckily, my hunter friend (Brett) has already acclimated to the Spanish lifestyle and realized he doesn't have any real schedule so wasn't too upset with the delay... (If only SOMEONE back in the US could adopt such an attitude!) The bus ride to IKEA was great, we were able to see the suburb-like areas of Sevilla and it was absolutely beautiful. Very green, rolling hills, great houses on cliff-like streets... and finally IKEA itself. (Don't worry - I took a picture!) It was a great load of fun running around through the maze of housewares and comparing everything to what we have back in the US. Added bonus: vocab lesson! Plus, I got another pillow :) The rest of Saturday night was spent in my house spending quality with Kendra watching Bones (yay! new favorite show?)

Now onto today (Sunday): I went to a “charismatic” sort of Christian church with a boy I met on my flight to Spain and a girl from his program this morning. We also met two other American students who were there, and I meet a couple of girls on Friday afternoon while eating that delicious ice cream who are Christians and may be interested in church-hunting throughout the next few weeks. So this morning… let me tell you, it was quite the experience. Now, it may have just been a bit weird since I’m Lutheran and well, Lutheran’s aren’t exactly “charismatic.” The first half hour was spent in prayer and everyone in the pews just prayed – whispering, normal-voice talking, a few who were truly yelling out. It was a very powerful and moving experience to have a surround sound system of noise that I couldn’t quite make out but I knew what it meant – it was an entire group of people just crying out to their God. Then there was a good half hour of singing where people were standing and clapping and dancing and praising in a way I have rarely seen. That was followed up by a good hour and half of testimonials and a sermon… all in Español. I would like to say I understood all of it but really, I doubt it. I mean I understood most of it, but put it all together into a cognitive piece of information didn’t quite happen. It makes me VERY worried for when my real classes start!!! But in all it was an enjoyable experience and I’ll definitely come back. My one dislike was that it was so long it made me miss the mass at La Catedral which I’m assuming is going to be absolutely breath-taking to see hundreds of people file in to the third largest cathedral in the world! Hopefully I’ll be able to do that next weekend.

So I made it home around 2, had a cup of espresso with Kendra and plowed through some homework, Skype-d (well sort of… my internet connection leaves a lot to be desired so every couple of minutes the call cuts out and we have to try again… Quite the process!) with Bails and Nel and LP. Wrote this blog post… and now am going to finish writing the paper I have due tomorrow, and maybe call home to the parents to check in!

5 more days of the intensive session! Let the countdown begin :)

Pillows. Intense. Cold.

Well, the Intensive class is Intensive. My pillow is pathetic. And I'm STILL COLD!

Yesterday I started my Intensive Language class "Español por Negocios" aka Business Spanish. Luckily Iowa offers two "business spanish" classes (Business Spanish and Advanced Business Spanish) and I've taken both of them and therefore have a far more extensive knowledge of vocab then I should and appear to be a lot smarter than I actually am. It's three hours of Spanish vocab, Spanish grammar, and Spanish culture - as if living in Spain isn't going to be enough, we have to spend the first two weeks reviewing everything we should have learned in the past and added about 1 bilón (which is actually = 1,000,000,000,000 not 1,000,000,000 like you would think) extra rules and details and conditions and clauses and of course, "el subjuntivo" aka the subjunctive aka death by grammar! Regardless, I know I'm going to both be mocked and at some point will regret saying this but it's really nice to be in classes again - it gives me something to focus on other than how much I miss everyone from home... and I actually have learned something in the week-ish I've been here and it's semi-noticable! ¡Olé!

So um fyi I'm not so much loving the sleeping situation here. First off the hours are pretty much INSANE. It's "normal" to wake up at 8, sleep from oh 1:30/2-ish until 4/5-ish and then stay up until the middle of the night... Now yes I made it through most of sophomore year with little to no sleep every night but I had the all powerful energy supplements of Nel and Bails and the confined area of the Panic Room... Well, not so much in Sevilla, HENCE the great Pillow Hunt. So after class and a quick siesta oh and a meeting to register for my real classes, off I run with a fellow study abroad student to "el Corte Ingles" aka world's most expensive department store ever where we found teeny tiny pillows that would have done nothing to improve my sleep. Our next plan is to somehow find a way to the IKEA that is ONLY 5 miles away. Is that "walk-able"? After shopping for housewares we had some café con leche and a delicious dessert that I had the waiter pick out for me. It was delicious and only 1.50€ and I should have taken a picture of it using the Food mode but I didn't... I'm pretty sure they had more though!

So classes: I will be taking Finanzas Internacionales, Marketing Internacionales, International Negotiation and Conflict Resolution, and US Production and Operations Management. The last class I listed will be taken at the Universidad de Sevilla with spanish students and will require me to stay in Sevilla until the middle of June-ish (if I'm lucky.... technically I'm supposed to stay until the end of July but that is WAY too long.) Now I know, half of your heart is jumping for joy because it means that since I'll be here longer it gives you more time to save up your money so that you can fly out here and visit me... but the other half of your heart is crushed because it actually means that I'll be gone for as long as I initially said I would be which is of course... way too long!

Today during our 15 minute break in the middle of the three hour intensive class I had a tostada = more or less a small loaf of bread cut in half and toasted... Don't fret, they give you both halves for a grand total of 0.60€ ~ $1.00 :) It's delicious and VERY filling. After class I went home, did some homework and then met a few girls to go shopping for "las rebajas." Every January/February and June/July the stores in Spain have what is called "rebajas" or discounts/Victoria Secret's Semi-Annual sale :) Unfortunately I didn't find anything I had to have but I'll keep looking.

Well, now it's midnight and I can go to bed without being made fun of too much... actually, the 10-year-old is still awake... I might have to post-again.

Audrey Hepburn was WRONG?!?!

So in My Fair Lady, Audrey Hepburn said that the rain in Spain falls mainly in the plains. She's wrong. I'm currently in the Mediterranean region, and we've had two days of rain. Not anything too intense, but a pretty regular drizzle - enough to make the chilly-air seem even colder. It also doesn't help that the house is freezing - marble floors and concrete walls don't do too much for insulation. Needless to say I've spent as much time as possible in my bed under all my covers and wearing my sweats.

The weekends seem to be far less exciting than the weeks here in Spain - unless you're willing/able to stay out until 4 or 5 in the morning... which I'm not. On Friday night my small group from orientation had tapas in "Alemeda de Hercules" which was on the complete opposite side of downtown than where we began. It was a great walk through all of the tiny alleys and we ran into a couple of kid's in the CIEE Liberal Arts program from the University of Minnesota. After tapas I came back to my house and just as I was about to get into bed my new roommate Kendra (from UNC -Chapel Hill) asked if I wanted to go downtown with her and her friends from school. Honestly, I didn't want to but I didn't want to seem rude since it was our first night together... so I did. Next thing I know it's already 3am so we came back home and slept... Finally!

The next day was when the ran came and most of the city shuts down around 3 in the afternoon. Sadly I was hoping to get my cell phone on my way to my meeting about the internship program which was at 6, but that didn't happen. So instead I walked around downtown for a couple of hours- WITHOUT GETTING LOST!!! After our session at the CIEE Study Center for the internship program I walked home with a guy from Indiana from my small group and a girl from St. Thomas who was on all of the crazy flights. Unfortunately the girl from St. Thomas broke her foot the day before we left for Spain and is on crutches making the whole walking process a bit difficult. Well, making things even more difficult, she didn't exactly no where she lived - nor did she have the address with her so we more of less walked in circles for a good two hours. It turns out we walked by her house 4 or 5 times earlier that night. At least now I know where she lives so I can be of more help next time but it was a nice night (the rain stopped for awhile and we had fun jumping in/over/around puddles) and it was nice to talk to someone in half english/half spanish :)

Today, was a lot like yesterday... full of napping and huddling in my blankets! I had a meeting this morning about Safety/Security, Fun in Spain, Activities put on by CIEE, and a ton of other various things. After that it was lunch time where my hermanita told a ton of jokes (none of which I understood). I FINALLY understood one and started laughing and she clapped for me :)

Tomorrow I start my Intensive Language classes and will register for my official classes. And now it's back into bed to stay warm!

my first stay in my home stay!

I'm currently sitting in my official bedroom in Sevilla :) My home is located in what I think is a perfect place! It's a good walk onto the business school campus (which is separate from the central campus) but it is only a couple blocks from the central campus, not too far from the Plaza de Espana, less than ten-ish minutes from the CIEE Study Center (aka what will become my second home) and it's somewhat near the river (that I have yet to see but have heard a TON about.) More or less its a pretty central location. It's just on the edge of downtown Sevilla. I have to admit that when we were first brought our hotel I was extremely disappointed. Our hotel was located on the edge of the city - about halfway between downtown and the airport (I think...) and it was a fairly modern place. I expected tiny little streets and alleys and cafes on street corners and cobblestone and brick and statues and churches just surrounding me... Luckily all of that is in downtown which is only a couple of blocks away. My family consists of a woman and her two daughters - one who is twenty and one who is ten... Sound familiar? Quite frankly that is far too much of a coincidence to have been planned by anyone but God so Amen to that :) My "madre" is great and pretends that I speak spanish well enough for her to understand - we both know she's lying and trying to make me feel better but it's the thought that counts. Our conversation during lunch (which was pisto: cooked vegetables mixed with tomato paste) today seemed to go pretty smoothly, but my head is spinning!

I have the results from my language placement test and but am not 100% sure what they mean. I've been advised to NOT take the business writing course (this is a good thing... it means I'm an adequate writer as is.... ha... those of you reading this are shaking your heads is disbelief.) and I'm supposed to take CIEE Artes Liberales y Cursos para Extranjeros.... (Don't worry, I'll talk to one of my peers and/or guías for an exact confirmation of which classes I can take) I'm pretty sure this means I can take classes at the University of Sevilla with Spanish students instead of only with other Americans in the tiny little study center... I'll let you know.

Today we spent the morning on a wild goose hunt. Literally. Our guías left us at the hotel and told us what landmark they would be at and we had to find each of them... It went really well until the end when for some odd reason we weren't supposed to have finished as quickly as we did because our final stop didn't have a guía there and when we called we were told we weren't supposed to be there for another hour. So, instead we walked around the city some more. My feet and legs are dead! Time for una siesta before I have dinner with the study abroad group.

The Long Adventure Over the Sea

After spending more than 24 hours "traveling" I am beyond thrilled to finally be in Sevilla. The trips here was by no means easy. I figured I wouldn't have any problem getting on a plane, flying for hours and hours, and walking through customs... I was wrong.

I have to say that I've never liked flying into/out of Dallas/Ft. Worth. This dislike is now even stronger. After delaying our departure to Madrid a half hour, they delayed it an additional hour and a half and then just decided to give up entirely and canceled our flight. Luckily, there were six other ladies on my flight from Minneapolis who were on the same flight schedule as I was and we magnetically attracted every other college student waiting for the flight from Dallas to Madrid, allowing the sheer power in numbers worked in our advantage. After frantic call home to the parents and a hour on the phone with my travel insurance agent finally brought me to the front desk after standing in line for nearly 2 hours. We were entertained by a true Texan who told us he could help us getting the line moving by yelling "bomb"... we declined. Most everyone who was scheduled on the first flight was re-routed to London on a flight that was scheduled to leave at 7:40pm however, since everyone needed to re-book and luggage needed to be tracked down we didn't take off from Houston until after 9:00pm.

The flight from Dallas was, well, long. I watched the movie "Love Happens" and wanted to learn more about flowers since Jennifer Aniston seemed to enjoy her role as a florist. I was also able to test out my new hot pink travel pillow which worked nicely. The swiss cheese that was provided with our meal was really soft and seemed a lot more like a cream cheese.... so I ate all of it.

Once in London we had a lovely 5 hour lay-over (which passed our initial Sevilla arrival time). We spent the first hour of our time in Heathrow going through security (not customs, just security because "Some countries don't conduct their airport security as seriously as others... In fact, many countries don't even have airports let alone security" - quoted from a lovely British airport employee who took our water bottles and through them away from us. He continued to discuss airport security measures with us while we stood in line for an exceptionally long time.) The rest of the time in Heathrow resulted in the massive swarm of American college students on their way to Spain inadvertently annoying every other person in the airport. The people watching and window shopping at Tiffany & Co., Hermes, and Harrod's was great... as was the food, surprisingly. I have now discovered that putting thick-ish slices of cucumber on a tuna fish salad sandwich is the way to go. (***Bailey Curtin: try this!)

Here's our Group Photo at Heathrow:



The flight from London to Madrid was uneventful but was the first real test of our Spanish speaking abilities as we went through customs without first stopping at any form of baggage to claim to have our luggage inspected... (This probably should have been a red flag.) The Madrid airport's ceiling is beautiful but our layover was too short for any real exploring. I spent most of the time there laying flat on the cold marble floors trying to stretch out from all of the flying/sitting... Here's what I saw:


The flight from Madrid to Sevilla was nice and short (think Cedar Rapids to Minneapolis) and once our plane landed in Sevilla a wave of exciting came through the plane. We were FINALLY at the right airport... only 7 hours late!

After running through the Sevilla airport hoping that we could catch one of the last buses into the city instead of having to trying to fit the 8 of us in the CIEE Business & Society program into taxis, we hit another road block: none of our bags were appearing on the carousel. Suddenly, all of the jokes made previously on the trip about losing our luggage were no longer funny. As we marched over to the customer service desk and began describing each piece of luggage to the clerks a pair of beautiful Españoles wearing stunning CIEE sweaters came into the baggage claim (against securities wishes) and gave us instructions for who to not get taken advantage of as silly American tourists when we used the taxi. It was a true blessing and huge relief to see Maria y Miguel... we were fearful they would have forgotten about us since we were supposed to arrive at 12:50 instead of 21:30. ¡Gracias a Dios!

Stepping out of the airport and into the taxi was wonderful - without our luggage we only needed to take two cars and it was 25 euros (split 4 ways) for each. We made it to our hotel and were greeted by an exhausted program director and hotel concierge who gave us a 5 minute re-cap of what had been said at the orientation sessions that evening and our room keys and promised to track down our luggage by harassing the airport. The 8 of us quickly met our hotel roommates (mine is Michelle from Penn State- there is an overwhelming Big Ten presence on this program) and then ate at the only cheap place still open... McDonald's. (Here's Nikki with her Happy Meal):


The "restaurant" closed at midnight - about 5 minutes after we had sat down with our food (after standing in a ridiculously long line) and we all went to bed for as much sleep as we could get.

We spent this morning (after breakfast at the hotel) touring FCEYE (Economics/Business campus) of the Universidad de Sevilla and in orientation sessions about our classes/options of where we will be taking classes. Afterwards we had true "tapas" with our guide (Sergío):



Now we're waiting to go to the CIEE Study Center for the oral portion of our language placement exams.... Wish me luck!

NEWS TO COME: Where I'm taking classes, who I'll be living with, and a night of flamenco!