Loud Noises and Soft Voices

Crick, crick, crick, crick, crick, crick, crick. Imagine that sound, over and over, louder and louder. This is what we have had to deal with in our house over the last few nights because there is a cricket in the living room. It is no ordinary cricket, it is a cricket with an over-sized larynx that it is not afraid to use. Every morning, Isabel tells us that she could not sleep because of the grillo (cricket) and no matter how hard we try we cannot find it.

Other than the cricket, it has been a good week so far. On Monday, we started our second class. I thought it was going to be a literature class but I must have been mistaken because so far it has just been a continuation of our last class, grammar. Most of it has been review for me, which is nice but also makes it kind of boring.

On Tuesday, I went back to the nursing home as part of my service learning class. The nursing home is called "Hospital de Caridad." It was used as a hospital for a long time before it became a nursing home.  I will be going there every Tuesday to hang out with the guys and possibly help with feeding and dressing as well. For my first day there, I mostly played dominoes with three other guys and one spectator. One of the men kept calling me "joven," (young) every time he addressed me.

The courtyard of "Hosiptal de Caridad"

Like most older people, the men were kind of hard to understand because they spoke very quietly. The difference was that they spoke quietly in a language I am still learning. This made it really hard to understand several of the guys I talked to, but I am hoping to improve. I felt better when I helped push one man in a wheelchair to a store down the street. The owner of the store had to get really close to him and needed him to repeat himself several times to understand what he wanted.

Wednesday night, I went to "encuentro," our worship service. Mark got there ahead of time to practice with the band and he decided it would be funny to hide under the stage and pop out during the first song. What he was not planning on was a guest speaker before the singing started, so he ended up waiting under the stage fro about 30 minutes.

Three Views and a New Friend Too

On Saturday, Mark, Luke and I visited  one of Sevilla's newest attractions, "Las Setas." "Las setas" is actually a nickname which means "mushroom,"and it is appropriate because the giant wooden sculpture looks just like mushrooms from below. The word on the street is that most of the natives do not like las setas because it does not really fit in with the rest of the area that is filled with such rich history. The best part about las setas is that you can enjoy three very different views. 

View One: Ground Level

The first view of the sculpture was from ground level. Although I have already seen the giant "mushrooms" several times, it is still awesome to look at one of the largest wooden sculptures in the world. I am not usually a fan of modern art, but this is definitely an exception for me.

The next view of las setas has nothing to do with the sculpture itself but what the sculpture is actually meant for: the ancient Roman ruins below it. When the ruins were discovered, several artists offered their models for a sculpture that would protect and attract people to the ruins below. 

The ruins were awesome to see and it was hard to imagine just how old they had to be. Most of what we were looking at was in pretty bad shape, but you could still make out some pillars and a bath house too. Also, on one of the floors there was a mosaic design of Medusa, snakes and all. This design was probably my favorite part of the ruins since I am a fan of Greek mythology and it was great to see it actually come to life by seeing actual art honoring this story. 

View Two: The ruins below

The final view of las setas is from the top. The thee of us rode an elevator up and got to see a spectacular view of Sevilla. There were ramps all around the top which made it easy to see the city in all directions. 

View Three: From Atop

In our school program, we also had the opportunity to sign up for "intercambios," which is a program meant to set student up with local Spaniards who are interested in learning English. The people usually call the school if they are interested and are interviewed for safety purposes. For me, my first meeting with my intercambio was today. 

I met Nehemias at Mc Donald's, where we got to know each other. It was kind of like a blind date at first, which was a little weird, but the two of us had a great time learning about each other. Nehemias is the opposite of me in his language skills; he is able to speak English really well but has a hard time understanding whereas I could understand everything he said but could not always respond without making a lot of grammatical mistakes. 

Overall, I was really happy with my experience talking to Nehemias; I was really surprised how easy it was to communicate one on one with someone in a different language. We spoke in Spanish pretty much the whole time, so I will have to give him the opportunity to practice English more the next time we meet. 

Flaminco Dance

This past week was a busy one; between doing homework, working at my internship, and studying for our final grammar test, I was busy most of the week. On Friday, we had a written and oral test for grammar, which means we are finally moving to literature.

On Friday night, we had a guys night since most of the girls went to Portugal for the weekend. Mark, Luke, and I met up with two friends who we met at church. Both of them are from California and are studying in another program here. It is great to have two more guys to hang out with, bringing our total all the way up to five. The two also joined our prayer groups since their program is not Christian but they still wanted the opportunity to worship.

 The five of us went to a small pizza place and shared some really tasty pizza. The owner of the shop was nice too and he loved telling us about a typical Spanish passion, fútbol. There are two fútbol teams here in Sevilla, so there are plenty of opportunities for the Spaniards to debate on which is the better team.  

After the pizza, we went to a flamenco bar where I finally got to see the famous dancing that I have heard about over and over since I got here. The room was packed with people all gathered around a small stage with three people: a singer, a guitar player and, most importantly, a dancer.

The dance was impressive and unique at the same time. The woman did not look like she was enjoying herself since she did not smile at all, but I am guessing it is part of the dance style to look professional. The most impressive part of the dance was that her dance shoes were more like high heels. Despite the uncomfortable shoes, she was able to spin, stomp, and swirl quickly and to the beat of the song too, for the most part.

I had another first on Friday night too; for the first time I witnessed a sleepwalker. Luke, whom I share a room with, warned me that this would happen but it was still a little scary when he woke me up by yelling followed by standing right next to my bed. On the bright side, he spoke in Spanish while he was walking, so his mind is obviously getting used to the new language. 

Weekend in Sevilla

I spent this weekend in Sevilla, but it was still far from a boring one. On Saturday, we went to the Plaza de España, a beautiful building that we visited  during our photo scavenger hunt, but the time was much too brief for such an awesome building.

Unlike our last time there, the fountain was actually on which added a lot of aesthetic appeal. After this, we climbed the stairs and looked at it from below. Like always, there were a lot of people in boats along the moat and others enjoying the designs of the huge building. 

After our trip to the plaza, we went to one of our leader's apartment and watched a movie on her roof, which was great because we could see the cathedral in the distance along with the rest of Sevilla, which provided the perfect atmosphere for a perfect night. 

Sunday, however, was not peaceful due to one thing: the bull fight. It was one of the last fights of the season and although seeing bulls die is definitely not something I thought I would enjoy, I felt like I had to experience it seeing as how I am in Spain. 

The fight started out with a procession with all the matadors along with some dressed-up horses. After this, the bloody battle began. Each bull went through the same stages, each one meant to make it angrier and weaker. 

Plaza de Toros with my new bull shirt

During the first stage, about six men waved pink drapes at them from different spots. When the bull came running at them, hid behind a gate where the bull could not reach them until it went on to its next target. 

Next, a man on a horse entered the ring. He called the bull over and it charged at the horse and usually stabbed it with its horns before the man could get the bull away with his spear. The third bull that we saw actually ended up charging so hard that the horse fell over along with the man on top of it. However, the man got back on his horse (corny, but I had to say it, it was too perfect) and trotted away while the other men redirected the bull. 

After this, it got worse for the bull. Three men with what looked like very large crochet needles took turns calling the bull over and quickly sticking them in the bull before running away as fast as they could. Now the bull was weak enough for one-on-one combat. 

The matador then took out his red drape and wore the bull out by having it continually charge at his drape. Each time, it inches away from running right into the matador but he did not seem to think they were close calls.

Finally, after the bull seemed worn out, he put the final sword in the bull and the horses were called out to drag the body away. 

The most "exciting" part of the night was when bull number four actually sent the first guy he encountered into the air and trampled him a little before getting called over by someone else. It was crazy to see, but the man seemed fine and continued fighting as soon as he stood up. 

In the end, they killed six bulls, something that was disturbing to watch every time. I pretty much walked out of the ring with the feeling I expected, it was sad but I was still glad that I experienced it one time. 

Bingo With the Abuelos

This week went by quickly, mostly because I had a lot of school work to do. On Wednesday, we had our first test already so I was busy studying for that in the begining of the week. I did some of my studying by the river, where I saw a lot of interesting people who distracted me from studying. In Sevilla, people rarely put leashes on their dogs so I got to see a lot of people struggle to pull their dogs apart while walking along the river.

I also got an internship at one of the many tourist agencies. The agency mostly works with students studying abroad and plans trips to nearby cities. They told me that I would have several different tasks, but this week they were busy with a trip to Portugal this upcoming weekend, so I mostly helped them get ready for that.

On Wednesday, I went to the program´s church service again and I was happy to see that there were two new males there. Sunday, we met two other guys from California at our church, and we invited them to the service. They were also interested in some of our other programs, so our numbers are growing slowly.

Thursday afternoon, our group had a service project; we played bingo at a nursing home near our school. All of the residents at the nursing home were guys, so they were mostly interested in all of our girls. One guy in particular wanted an individual picture with every single girl. After that was over, I forced him to take one with me too.

When we brought the bingo sets out, one guy was particularly excited and he went to the table as fast as he could. The rest of the guys did not seem that excited at first, but once we began the first round, several guys migrated from the television to the bingo table.

Sadly, I did not win any rounds of bingo. However, I did get to practice my Spanish a lot with people who did not necessarily know we were learning Spanish and talked at their normal rate instead of slowing down for us. I am planning to return to the nursing home on Monday for my service learning class so hopefully I will be remembered.

Un Fin de Semana Relejante (A Relaxing Weekend)

On Saturday, nearly all 28 of the students in our program bought a bus ticket to Madalascañas, a beach about an hour away. The bus station is only about a ten minute walk from my house, but a little further for most people.

Image from lincolnbrody.wordpress.com

About 100 feet away from the coast of the beach, there was what looked like a huge rock. We spent a lot of the  time climbing up the rock, getting cut by the many barnacles along the way, and jumping from the top of it. When we first got there, it was hard to climb to the top because the tide was low. Therefore, the three men had to help most of the girls who wanted to get up by pulling them. However, when the tide got higher, it was much easier to reach the ledge and pull yourself to the top. 

After we got tired of the rock, we dug a huge hole which ended up being a play area for several Spanish children who were lucky enough to find it. 

When we returned to our house, we told Isabel about our experience with the rock. She informed us that it was actually an upside down watch tower and it was illegal to jump from it, so we will not be doing that again. 

When we got to the dinner table there were about ten pairs of little eyes staring at us because we were having shrimp. The shrimp were huge, and Isabel told us that children always complain and will not eat them because they have eyes. Her response to this is that turkeys and cows have eyes too, and they are still willing to eat those. 

For my run on Sunday morning, I decided I wanted to go to the nearby city. I didn't see any way to get to it except through a field, where I  saw  some trailers, one of which had three dogs. I was pretty far away from these dogs, but they still ended up seeing me. First, they started a deep bark and then I saw them heading toward me so I started going faster. Once they got on the same trail as me I put it into high gear, but these were not exactly dogs you could run away from; they were huge greyhounds.

I kept running and every time I looked back, they were much closer. I looked for a weapon but there was nothing. I panicked and screamed pretty loud, but it was still a manly scream. 

The dogs cornered me and growled but they did not attack. I slowly walked away and they just glared at me. Once I was far enough away, I caught my breath and decided I would not be going that way to run ever again. 

After this intense morning, however, Sunday was peaceful. I went to church where I understood a lot more than last week. It is awesome to see how much my listening skills have improved after only a week; I am looking forward to getting even better though.

Crashing Córdoba

Instead having regular class on Friday, the group took a day trip to Córdoba, a city about two hours northeast of Sevilla.

When we first arrived at the city, the professor gave us headphones and a headset linked to her microphone so we could hear her talking about what we were seeing if we were too far away. If anyone had any doubt about whether or not we were tourists, it was gone after we put these on. 

To begin, we stepped into a strange combination of a building- a mosque with a cathedral in the middle of it. The mosque was built during the Islamic conquest of the area. When the Spanish reclaimed it, they decided to build the cathedral in the middle of it instead of tear it down. This was definitely a good decision because the mosque was breathtaking. 

When we first entered the mosque, it was hard to know where to look first. The room was dimly lit with large red and white striped arches everywhere. There were also designs lining the walls and paintings that had different scenes from the Koran. Our professor told us about all the history behind the beautiful room before we moved on to the cathedral in the middle. 

The arches in the mosque

The cathedral was  well-lit in contrast to the darker mosque. Gold lined the area where the priest spoke and  huge pipes for the organ came out of both sides. Paintings the size of garage doors were in the back, hung up all the way up the enormous wall. There were too many hand-crafted designs to count, especially on the ceiling. There were seats for the clergy that were crafted out of wood along with pews for the congregation to sit. 

After our time in the cathedral/mosque we went to ancient worship center of yet another religion, a Jewish synagogue. Here, we had a very animated tour guide. He said we could ask him any question we wanted as long as it was not about politics. He then added that he only talked about politics if he had a cerveza (beer). 

The guide showed us around both the synagogue and the ancient house that surrounded it. It was not fancy, but it was still great to hear the history behind it. I was able to understand a lot more of this tour because there was not as much background noise and therefore I did not get distracted while translating in my head. This tour ended with the guide playing an old Jewish song on the drum while another man played the violin.

Fútobol and a lot of Ice Cream

Wednesday and Thursday were busy and fun-filled days. After class on Wednesday, we had a program called "Encuentro," a bilingual worship service at the same church I attended on Sunday. Some of the songs were in English, others were in Spanish and some were both. It was nice to worship in our native tongue for a change as well as practice more Spanish.

After "Encuentro," Mark and I went to a play soccer with some guys who invited us a few days before. They claimed that it would be a laid back game, but when we got there it looked like a pretty intense match. There were eight guys, most of whom were native Spaniards.After I joined the game, they slowed  down, but I still managed to embarrass myself quite a few times with my inferior soccer skills. 

Isabel, our Señora, continues to make us laugh daily. During Wednesday's lunch, she took out a jar from the refrigerator and handed it to me. "Un hombre fuerte," she said, (which means " a strong man') and motioned for me to open it. 

Thursday night was exciting as well. We had "Noche de Chicos," (guys night) which was funny because when it was originally planned I am sure they expected more than three guys. For guy's night, Katie, the program director, took us out to eat for ice cream and said we could get any size we wanted. Mark took this very seriously and ordered a huge banana split. 

When we finished the ice cream, we rented a boat and rode it along the river. I took the lazy  man's seat and got to sit while the other guys paddled the boat, which was perfectly fine with me. We had an hour to paddle down the river and back. The only thing that disturbed our peaceful ride was the big tour boats that honked at us and sent some big waves our way. 

When we got in our fill of man time, the girls joined us for going out to dinner with our tour guides from last week. We got a few large plates to share along with our own personal plates. Personally, I went with the swordfish which ended up being a great choice and one of what I am sure to be many experiences with seafood here.

Next, we went out for frozen yogurt. I do not think our tour guide knew that us guys had already went out for ice cream before, but we were not about to turn down free frozen yogurt. I justified my second trip in only a few hours by ordering kiwi as one of the toppings,  a healthy addition to the chocolate sauce and candies that went along with it.

Class Time

Monday and Tuesday were my first two days of class. I am in the intermediate class along with four other students including my roommate, Mark. During the orientation, we had to sign a contract that said we would not speak any English while at the school, forcing us to use Spanish even if we do not know how to say something. Personally, I like this because we learn to work around words that we can not remember or do not know.

Class here reminds me a lot of elementary school because we have the same teacher for both classes in the same classroom. Our teacher's name is Ana Maria, which is easy for me to remember because it is the same name as my cat. 

My classes only last from 10-1:30 every day, giving me more free time than I have had in a very long time. On Monday, I used this time to go to a coffee shop with some other students. The atmosphere in Spain much more relaxed; when people go out for dinner or to the cafe, they typically stay there for a couple hours, talking with one another, instead of leaving once their food is gone. 

I made a friend while running on Tuesday morning. I planned to do a workout, but a few minutes into picking up my pace, I passed another runner. He started asking me questions when I ran past him, so I decided to let him catch up and talk with him instead of continuing my workout. The combination of the man's deep breaths in between words and my lack of knowing Spanish perfectly made it hard to understand him, but it was still exciting to have a running partner for a little while. 

On Tuesday night, after an extra long siesta, I practiced my Spanish with Mark and Luke. We did this by going through most of our Facebook pictures and describing them in Spanish. It ended up being a great way to learn about one another along with using Spanish. 

A Tiny Church and a Huge one

Sunday was my first time at a Spanish church service. Most of the Presbyterian churches in Spain are very small and this one was no different. The church only had one room and it was filled with about 50 people.

We started by singing several songs, most of which were the same songs we have in English. The words were mostly the same with a few changes so they would still rhyme and flow together. I was excited to know exactly what I was singing the whole time instead of guessing. 

After each song, there was a list of 100 songs on the screen. For the first few songs, we went down the list and I was terrified that we were going to sing all 100 of these songs. However, I finally noticed that people were shouting out numbers after every song and giving requests. 

To my pleasure, I could understand most of what the pastor was saying during the sermon as long as I focused completely. The second I stopped trying to translate in my head, I had to wait for the next point to begin.  

Later that day, we were able to go into part of the cathedral. First, we went into a large room that was open to anyone. All around there were figurines in different scenes from Jesus' life. The ceilings were very high, like in all cathedrals, and they had designs everywhere. In the front, there was an altar with Mary sitting on a throne with baby Jesus on her lap.  

After this, we were going to go into the other rooms and outside tower but we did not know that we needed our passports for a $10 discount so we decided to save it for another time. 

Photo Scavenger Hunt

On Saturday, we had a photo scavenger hunt around Seville. We got into groups and received a list of several different locations in Seville. The locations that were farther from the school were worth more points.

A map was a must-have for this competition so I went to a tourism office to get the map. I heard that they disliked Americans there so I was already worried before entering. When I asked the lady for a map of Sevilla, she kept repeating the word “Sevilla” and mocking my accent. After she asked where I was from and I told her she handed me the map and looked down right away, saying nothing else even after I said “gracias.”

After mapping out our route on the very coveted map, my team headed to the first stop, the Plaza de Espana. The building was huge and it was surrounded by a moat where people were renting kayaks. There were mosaics for all the major cities in Spain around the outside and two huge towers on the ends. It is impossible to take a picture of the whole building because it is so wide.

After we took our picture by the plaza, we went to the American Plaza, where there were hundreds of pigeons. A worker there kept on insisting that we buy food and she seemed like she was getting mad that we did not listen, but I did not have any Euros with me so we ignored her. Even without the food, the pigeons were happy to land on my back and go in my hand. 

"Metropol Parasol"

My favorite place that we visited is a huge wooden structure that forms several squares. In English, it is called the "Metropol Parasol," and the construction was just completed in April. 

Overall, we walked for about six hours on Saturday to several awesome places that I will hopefully be able to visit in more depth as the semester continues. Our team was only one picture away from first place, but I was more excited that I now know my way around the city very well and I do not feel too bad that we lost because the team that won took the busses to several of the places instead of walking so they obviously wanted it more. 

Learning the City

On Thursday, I really got to know what it is like to live in Seville. I had my first taste of fish, the most common food in a Spanish diet. The fish was in "la familia de un tiburón," or in the shark family. Isabel began the meal's conversation by telling us all the different names they have for drunk people, which ended up being about six different names.

If there is one custom here that I wish I could follow forever, it would have to be the siesta. Lunch time here is not until 2:30 but after the meal, we have nap time. It is perfect because it is right during the hottest part of the day and also the time when everyone is most tired. Most of the stores even close during the siesta, which lasts until about five.

 On Thursday and Friday I cut my siesta short to go running, but I still felt incredibly well-rested after waking up. Running can get boring in the same area over and over but now I have a whole new city to explore in a completely different country. I now look forward to running every day. Since I am terrible at directions, I am a little afraid of getting lost, but I am slowly learning my way around and venture a little farther from the river by our house every day.

Thursday night, we went on a tour where we saw a lot of Seville's beautiful buildings, sculptures, and fountains. Our tour guide spoke really fast and it was the hardest time I had understanding anyone here yet. However, she still showed us a lot of awesome places that I will definitely visit again. One of the coolest places was the Seville Cathedral, the third largest one in the world. The cathedral is also where Christoper Columbus buried.

On Friday, we signed up for our classes which start on Monday and then we went back to the school at night. We went to the school for pizza, but while we were waiting we did a "speed dating" game where we had to talk to someone different every two minutes. Naturally, I already knew most of the ladies but it was good to talk to them more.

El Primer Día

The view from our terrace

I was very happy with our home when Mark, Luke and I arrived. Our house is like an apartment; it is on the second floor and has a great view into the plaza right below it. There are balconies from all the rooms in the house, so it is easy to look out onto the street. There are two bedrooms for the three of us, so Luke and I are sharing the larger one.

I was expecting my first encounter with Spanish food for lunch, but to my surprise Isabel ordered Chinese food. When it arrived, Isabel started telling us about how the delivery guy kept saying "lapido" instead of "rapido," mocking his accent and laughing. It was a very funny first impression of my host mother.

After lunch, I took a much needed nap that ended up lasting  longer than planned, until about 8:45. Next, we ate dinner at the normal Spanish time of 9:30 and we saw how spoiled Señoras treat their guests. Isabel made our plates for us and insisted on cleaning all of them herself. "You will have to get used to living like little princes and princesses," we were told during orientation.

When we finished eating, Mark and I explored the city a little and walked on the streets near the river. One big difference here is that everyone is still out and about during the night. There were large groups of people everywhere we went and there were even children playing in a playground even though it was almost 11.

Even after I went to bed, I knew there were still a lot of people on the street because I could hear them out the window. At about midnight, I woke up to the sound of a garbage truck emptying the dumpster outside of our house. Along with this, the crosswalks all make a loud, high-pitched beeping sound when you are allowed to cross and there happens to be one right below our bedroom. I will definitely have to become a deeper sleeper this semester.