¡Hola!
Today was my second full day in Sevilla! I started off the day going to more CIEE orientations: la diversidad (diversity), las clases (I forgot I have to do school here), and grupos de interés (interest groups). The grupos de interés all sound amazing so it’ll be hard to choose–basically you’re put in a group that meets every week during the semester and in April takes a trip to somewhere nearby. Right now, I’m torn between the wine group that visits Lisbón, Portugal, the group that goes to Morocco to see culture similarities (Sevilla used to be dominated by Christians, Jews and Muslims), and a group that goes to Valencia and the beach. Obviously, my life is super hard right now…
After our orientation sessions, we went back to our casas (homes) to eat lunch at 2:30 p.m. Spaniards eat on a specific schedule of a later breakfast (they aren’t early-risers here), a large lunch from 2:30-3:30 p.m., and dinner at 10 p.m. with no snacking between meals. Amparo made an amazing meal today with vegetarian paella, pan (bread) and jamón y queso (ham and manchego cheese, my absolute favorite). Even though I’ve had the jamón here and I know I love it, I couldn’t get the image of the animal leg I found in my kitchen out of my head…
So yeah as you can imagine that was a little strange to walk into yesterday morning.
Speaking of the food, I have to say everything is pretty cute. Here’s a baby coffee I had yesterday:
Whitney and I also wandered around a grocery store during a break. We thought the junk food was kind of funny, and it’s interesting that they have some of the same food we do! Sadly, though, there’s no peanut butter.
Oh, and I FINALLY got to eat the famous churros here!
Whitney and I also shopped around a little bit today for some Spanish outfits. We noticed it seems to be fashionable to wear English phrases on your clothes. Unfortunately for this shirt, the editing process failed…
I also tried on some popular, incredibly comfortable pants:
At night, my CIEE group met again to explore the city and see la Plaza Nueva.
Later, we got to view the beautiful Las Setas, which my group member immediately exclaimed, “it looks like mushrooms!” (las setas translates to mushrooms, so she was right!). At the top of Las Setas we got to eat tapas and socialize with other CIEE groups. It was interesting because when they built this structure, the city found Roman ruins underneath it. It was closed for the night, but I was able to snap a few pictures from outside. The viewing chamber is also free for people who were born in Sevilla, which is practically everyone who lives here. Spaniards tend never to leave where they are born!
