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.