Hello all! I'm very excited to begin this new adventure and share the details with you along the way. For those of you who don't know, I am doing a program called CIEE Seville Liberal Arts and staying with a host mom! All my classes will be in Spanish, so hopefully I'll be near fluent before I know it 😉 Easier said than done...
Today is Sunday, the day of rest in Spain. Some of the friends I've made have said that their hosts want to take them to church, etc. I'm lucky my host seems to have the same definition of "day of rest" as I do! No church for us.
Coming in early Wednesday morning, I felt like I somewhat knew what to expect. I stayed with a gorgeous family in Barcelona for two weeks in high school, so I felt I had a general idea of the initial get-to-know-you in a second language proceedings. Much to my surprise, my Spanish was much better than I thought it'd be. My host and I, a somewhere-in-her-sixties single woman, have really hit it off. She has three daughters, though they are all grown now. She gave me a brief orientation of the apartment, which includes two bathrooms, three bedrooms, and a small kitchen. She allows me to use the microwave, but otherwise all cooking (and cleaning) is left to her, per the program guidelines. I get three meals a day from her unless I tell her otherwise, and so far I've loved every meal. It's not a country known for snacking, and between that and walking 10 miles a day, I don't think the carb heavy diet will be a problem for me! I eat a piece of bread with every meal and I already feel as though I've lost weight. I think I'm gonna like it here!
So far the girls I've met and spent time with were in my orientation group, a small group made up of the five of us. The first couple of days we had a guide to take us to orientation, a student who goes to the University of Sevilla. He doesn't speak much English, but we had a very good time getting to know him. The next day he had a test (as my host mom explained to me, in Spain, finals are after breaks so Spanish students have big tests in January) so his girlfriend covered for him. My first two Spanish friends in Sevilla! Alba (the girlfriend) speaks Spanish, French, and a little German, and was very funny. We got along well, and she hopes to hang out with us in the future. We were surprised to learn they're both only 18... I think Spaniards are more mature than Americans.
I just finished lunch with mi "madre española", and now I'm sitting on her little balcony writing. It's small with just enough room for a folding chair, but the view is gorgeous. Tomorrow I'll start my first intensive Spanish class, as my official classes won't start until February. But for now, time to go shopping! Stay tuned to hear how my first week of class goes. Chau!
