Cosas interesantes

So many of the things that I find funny or "unusual" here are usually nuances so I`m just going to list some of them:

• When people go shopping (older women for groceries), they have these rolly shopping bags/carts, which are kind of funny, but obviously practical since they´re walking pretty far and stopping at a bunch of places
• The only heat we have in our piso (apartment) is in the kitchen under the table so when we sit down for our meals, we plug the "table" in (its attached in the center of the middle) and use the table cloth as a blanket to keep the heat on us. so now whenever i sit down at the table (even when i don't want the heat), I automatically use the tablecloth as a blanket.
• In a lot of places, there are signs that say not to throw the toilet paper in the toilet. in fact, in many places, there isn;t any toilet paper at all for women. at the fútbol stadium, they didn;t even have a toilet paper holder. they're not even frontin'.
• It's very unusual to get food without a bebida or refresco. There;s always beer or café or soda. always.
• There's pretty much no censorship on t.v. During daytime television, I saw breasts and heard people shouting curses. Fina (my host mom) tells me it's because Socialists are in power. :)
• And yea, people smoke here everywhere--even if it says no smoking. many times when I leave my classes, I walk out into hallways that smell like someone was smoking right there because they probably were. They're trying to pass a law to change this, but I don't think it will really work because there's a much greater sense of "lawless-ness" here. I don't know quite how to explain it but there just aren't as many consequences(?) for doing things "illegal" or "incorrect" here because it just doesn't seem that important. I'm not quite sure how to describe it.
  

FOTOS!

vale vale vale

FOTOS are up on facebook from the past couple of weeks including: my trip to Ronda, el partido de fútbol entre España y Inglaterra, a day in el parque María Luisa, Plaza de España en Sevilla, y claro, CARNAVAL.

random photos

three of these are from Madrid and the one in the bottom left is the cathedral in Toledo.

there´s got to be a better way to do this but until then...

Language differences

Since I've been writing a lot in Spanish, now when I write in English, I feel very awkward. I'll end up inverting sentences or using passive voice a lot. Since grammatical structures are different, it changes how I think. When listening to Spanish, at times I'm trying to translate the words or phrases but it's difficult because of colloquial phrases and also because direct translations don't make sense with different grammatical structures. I'm currently in a language limbo in which I lack a mastery of both languages. Weird.

CARNAVAL en Cádiz

WOW. Carnaval was absolutely crazy. There were thousands and THOUSANDS of people in Cádiz since it's such a huge celebration. A bunch of people from ISA all went with Discover Sevilla, which is pretty much a travel agency aimed at foreign students. So we went with them, arrived after ten, which even though it was early the streets were PACKED. Carnaval is pretty much a huge botellon, which is like a big street party. So it was really just people packed in streets, dressed up ridiculously, lots of drinking, food, music, and just loud, fun socializing. Everyone was dressed up--EVERYONE and some costumes were really crazy--lots of crossdressers, pirates, chickens, cows (I didnt really understand the whole farm animal thing), sailors, doctors, hippies, and Where's Waldo.

We met a bunch of girls and a guy who were all dressed up as Where's Waldo and were from Barcelona and ended up talking to them for a while. It was really funny because I was speaking Spanish with them and if I didnt understand something, they'd turn to each other to try to explain it in either Spanish or English. It's funny though because everyone wants to try and speak English with you because they're trying to practice their skills and we're trying to speak Spanish to practice. It was pretty funny. When they asked how long I'd been here for--5 weeks, they said they were surprised since my Spanish was really good. Ha ha. We ended up talking to a bunch of other people and it was great since we got to speak in Spanish with people from Cordoba, Cadiz, Barcelona, Sevilla, y mas.

What fun. I think I might come back next year...

First 5 weeks

So far I've been pretty bad about blogging. As in about 5 weeks without... But here it goes. I've been in Sevilla for about 4 weeks now (the first one was spent traveling around Madrid, El Escorial, and Toledo--my favorite). When I arrived in Sevilla, I spent 2 weeks doing intensive grammar and conversation courses. Then I started my classes at Universidad de Sevilla two weeks ago and now have a set schedule of four classes (all in Spanish): European Art History 20th century, Hispanoamerican Poetry, Contemporary Spanish Cinema, and Contemporary History of Spain. It's all pretty interesting so far. Just learning things in a different language is cool in itself because at times you can't recount information back--you understand words but haven't yet internalized them to use them yourself. I've been keeping a notebook full of words/phrases that I either want to know or that I read/heard, which is helping but it's still quite difficult to internalize a word after one encounter. Many times, it's only after several times that I remember it, which is fine but slow! It's really exciting though to realize that I can have a conversation with people at times or understand more. Some days, it's impossible though. Slow but steady...

Anyways, since being here, I've also visited Ronda, a beautiful, naturally fortified city about 1.5 hours from Sevilla. Ronda's known for having one of the oldest bullfighting arenas. Tamara, one of the women who works at ISA (my study abroad program) explained the process of the bullfight, Pedro Romero (the greatest bullfighter), and a bunch of other cultural issues regarding el corrido de toros. There's also a really beautiful, huge bridge that divides the older and newer parts of the city.

I'm going to Carnaval in Cádiz, which is really Mardi Gras aquí. So that will be fun!! I definitely want to return to Cádiz when the weather is warm since it's known for its beautiful beaches.

Other travel plans:
-March 13-15: Lisboa, Portugal (with ISA)

-March 27-29: Córdoba y Granada
we`re going with ISA but staying an extra night in Granada at a hostel so I can see Kate, my friend from home

-April 3-8: Marruecos (Morroco- w/ ISA)
i'm sooooo excited about this one!-riding camels, sleeping in the desert, etc...

-April 17-18: Barcelona
i'm looking forward to seeing some Gaudi

-April 24-28: BUDAPEST
this one came out of nowhere but i'm soooo excited. we'll return in time to enjoy most of the FERIA, which is just a weeklong party in sevilla of everything sevillana

¡ME ENCANTA ESPAÑA!