Jabberwalking

Notes of February: not many problems adapting, got into the Spanish groove, rained pretty much the whole time, but besides that no nasty winter weather at all, and lots of fun experiences. Continue downward for things that stood out in February…

We started classes at the center—the Intensive Period classes, which are all basically just Spanish vocabulary and grammar classes to refresh all the material before the more content-heavy classes (like literature and anthropology).

I had my first linguistic complement in the taxi on the way to meeting my host family for the first time. I was asking the taxi driver about the city as we drove at death-defying speeds through the ridiculously narrow streets, when he told me “You speak Spanish very well!” Point 1 on the chalkboard.

I met my host mother, who’s name is Maria Jose, but everyone calls her Pepi (it makes sense in Spanish). She’s a very nice woman, with a wry sense of humor and a very strong Andalucian accent. She’s maybe in her 60s or so, and enjoys wearing light blue eyeliner and lots and lots of rings and bracelets all stacked on each other. Communication went pretty well the first day, and since then, it’s been pretty much dandy! Also, after a few weeks, she told me that I was speaking Spanish well! Point 2 on the chalkboard.
Here’s a pic of my new room here, and my new roommate:

And here’s the cool view outside our window:

Some friends and I got totally lost in the town center amongst the senseless, narrow streets. We were supposed to find the CC-CS center on our own, and ended up getting completely lost. A street can start in an easterly direction, then go absolutely north, and you can’t even tell when you’re on it. You could call the Centro of Sevilla the Kendall Hall of downtown areas. I’m pretty sure there are no right angles.

Despite getting lost, the centro is incredibly awesome. The main street, Avenida de la Constitución, allows only the train to pass through and foot traffic—no cars or buses. In the evenings, when everyone goes out, the street is flooded with people and all sorts of silly types. I’m working on a list of the characters I’ve seen, and will hopefully get some pictures. Here’s a sample–the Peruvian pipe players who dress in Native American garb and play such classics as “My Heart Will Go On,” “Chiquitita,” “Fernando,” and “Land Down Under”:

Avenida de la Constitución also happens to pass right alongside the Catedral. So, to get to school, I get to walk next to the world’s third largest cathedral in the world. Win. All along the street and in the centro in general there are restaurants, bars, and pastry shops. They stud every corner, and I’ve been having a hard time just choosing a place to try. They all look so good!
The cento also includes Plaza Nueva, where there are always people walking and chatting, kids playing, and skateboarders and bikers doing fun tricks. Also in the plaza, a bunch of individual merchants set up their tents and sell scarves, pashimas, jewelry, hats, and other things (like Hookah and picture frames and candy), and sell them for great prices. 2 scarves for 5 euro… deal!

Enough on the centro, more on my first month in Spain…

I had my first Spanish-restaurant meal at a place called Sevillanas. Jenny, Christy, Alicia, and I went and ordered the favorite local drink—tinto de verano. Basically it’s red wine with either lemon soda or orange soda. And it’s wonderful. Though the locals tend to drink it mainly in the summer, we still enjoyed it, and we felt better about it than ordering the stereotypical sangria (which, however, is amazing anyway). We also ordered some paella mixta and pollo con salsa (chicken with sauce). The Spaniards don’t like to be very specific with their food… the sauce is whatever they feel like making, but they never describe it (white wine sauce, garlic sauce, etc.); just… “sauce.” Sometimes when I ask my host mom what’s in the dinner she says “carne,” which means… “meat.” Right. Very specific. It was a nice meal, and our waitress was super friendly. She had no problems working with our minimal Spanish, and had a great sense of humor.

Had my first run-in with possible crime… at Sevillanas, some rascally young fellers were lingering behind our table (we were seated outside next to the street), and were kind of whispering and laughing quietly. Christy and I had our backs to them, and immediately felt suspicious. We tried to casually move our purses onto our laps more securely, and were feeling so tense with the boys just lingering behind us. Then, our fabulous waitress came to our table, took our plates, and with a suspicious look towards the boys, left this note on our table:

It says: “Watch your purses, with the boys behind you.”
We were so on it! And thank you, amazing waitress for looking out for us extranjeras (foreigners)! The boys moseyed along, and we finally breathed a little easier. Close but no cigar, hombres.

More in the next post!

… that I am up to no good. Just kidding. I do not in fact own a Marauder’s map. But what I DO solemnly swear is to post the blog entries I have been writing in Microsoft Word for the past month and a half.

I’ll try to post as many as I can now, but I have class early tomorrow and will have to get some shut-eye. And, immediately after, I am catching a flight to Brussels! Christy and I will be spending a day and a half in Brussels, a day in Luxembourg, and about four days in Paris starting tomorrow, thus I will be digitally and physically MIA for a week.

But seriously. Blogs WILL happen. They MUST!

And so to begin, observe the next entry…