Spain Tastes Really Good/ Open Eyes

Everything I do here gives me a really good taste in my mouth. It's given me all the more reason to try everything that I'm offered. Which is why I have tried: fried anchovies, speaking no english for a day, cuttlefish balls (Eileen I found them!), climbing a mountain in sandals, a date with a spaniard, flamenco dancing, and riding a camel.

I didn't like all of the things I tried (especially the cuttlefish balls.. I don't know what sort of revelation I was expecting from that) but now at least I can tell my friends and family honestly that I took advantage of every opportunity I could get my hands on. Which, I am proud to say I have.

To my surprise, my greatest gain from trying all these things is the desire to try even more. I've already been inspired to plan a tour of Boston for my brother, who is a Freshman now at my college, Northeastern. Taking him to try new little restaurants in the city or go to free festivals, shows. Boston is about the same size as Sevilla and I can see a direct comparison between the amount of Boston I THOUGHT I knew Freshman year, to my knowledge of Sevilla now. In 4 months I just barely scratched the surface of historical Sevilla and I hope that knowing that kicks my ass into gear to start exploring Boston with aggression, since I have the time to do so.

I'm thinking about the first day I walked through el Centro, gazing in every direction against the blinding sun to soak up the sounds and smells and try not to get lost from the group. The sight of Calle Sierpes coming from el palacio reminded me of Level 1 in Aladdin for Sega Genesis. There aren't dryers so everyone hangs their towels and clothes outside.

I'm hoping that when I get back to the US I can still use my open eyes. The set of eyes that people use when they look at laundry hanging outside dusty streets and see beauty. I'm sure that I've walked past simple beauty like this in my hometown and taken it for granted. I probably do it 10 times a day. Traveling gives you that extra perspective that even Van Gogh and Ghandi only use 50% of the time. I hope that reading this and seeing this picture inspires you to take a little extra time the next time you're walking down a familiar street and appreciate your home the way I get to appreciate my temporary home, Sevilla.

This weekend. Fotos worth 1000 palabras

Sitting in the "jardines"/gardens in the palace of Cordoba

(a day trip we took to a city in the south of Spain)

VIP limo ride to the white sensations party! :) My new co-workers

OK so maybe it wasn't a red carpet...but we killed it with the paparazzi (ie Amanda haha)

Luke & me & champagneeeee. (we will party like this when we get back to boston too,

no worries)

CIEE crew before white sensations (For future reference when I write about them... from L-->R this is: Luke, Dana, Raychelle, Will, Xa (alex), Eileen, Sean, Me, Kylie

post-white sensations.. playing in the skatepark at 6am... where I soon after left my phone

(got it back miraculously)

More of cordoba... take notice to the spoon necklace I just bought! haha

singing the sound of music and prancing around

Day trip to the beach Matalascanas

95 degreeeees. tinto de verano & ice cream

More soon! :)

Siestas give you 2 chances to have a good day.. but if thats true, i usually have 2 good days

Siestas are my new favorite thing. It's going to be a very rough adjustment, not having a daily nap when I'm back in America. For three reasons. 1) I'll obv get tired. 2) In Spain, everyone siestas... so you don't miss anything! Mike Carucci always says that I can't stand not being a part of everything fun. Ugh. He's so right. 3) Most importantly, siestas give you 2 chances to have a good day. Everytime I wake up from siesta I think I slept through class (mainly because I REFUSE to accustom myself to military time. It's stupid.)... but when the panic fades I get to start a new day fresh.

This morning i woke up and i think... i think i know spanish. And then i had a great morning and had a siesta and then woke up and couldn't understand shit. My abuelito told me a phrase that is similar to "take it one day at a time...".. but something to do with the pyramids..i think. i had just woken up from siesta.. lets be real. I had know idea what the hell he was saying. But i said Si, vale. "yes, ok" like i always do. And then he gave me wine. and all was good.

When my tire wears off, before-dinner-time ends up being my favorite time of the day. Today was Semana Santa... a celebration of Catholicism in spain. I used to be catholic but no longer believe in most of what such holidays stand for. But for some reason, when I went with Alejandra to watch her boyfriend Jose in the parade... it made me feel really nostalgic. There's something about tradition. No matter how contemporary, badass and liberal I claim to be... most religious traditions make me feel at home. And I was very happy to be a part of this catholic holiday. So when Jose asked me if I enjoyed Semana Santa even though he knows i'm not religious I said, "Si. Me gusta mucho." And I really meant it. It was the second good day I had that day.

Missed you today, Mom.

Hasta luego.

Even in Spain, mi amigos love Hat Fashion Shows!

These past 24 hours have been FANTASTIC!

Summary.

Last night I started my new job! Thats right Alex Prounis. You can suck it because I, indeed, got a job in spain.... so its at a bar that could only be compared to the beautiful authentic boston bar we all know and love... Our House. Ok so its a shitty little bar called El Duende. But still, I love it. Pumped. All my friends came and there is another american girl (ironically from Long Island as well) starting named Sarah so it wont be so bad.

Today was the first day that I wasn't dying in class due to lack of sleep... although i rarely get more than 5 hours of solid sleep... with the siesta, I think I'm really getting a good rhythm (the word I always use in hangman. No vowels. Love it.) down.

AND I didn't get lost on my way to and from class today!

Today I walked in the door a little earlier (because i usually get lost for an hour) than usual.. and Alejandra was blasting my new favorite spanish group El Barrio. Ahh que guapisimo! She taught me how to dance flamenco.. the sexy club kind.. not the "pure" kind, as she calls it.

Oh and then me, Abuela, Alejandra, her boyfriend Jose, and Gordita (my puppy) did a hat fashion show with all of my hats. I told them that hat fashion shows are kind of a custom of my own that im teaching them. Come on. We all know I love hats. These are some pictures. Nick... the hat you got me is Alejandra's fav. I told her she could borrow it. (I explained that these types of hats are best for fancy weddings and horseraces... she thinks americans are weird... when i think about it like that .. ha i think she kind of has a point)

Gotta go, lunch is being served. 1st course. Tomatoes with garlic and salt. In the US, I dont even like tomatoes or salt but here... i love everything I eat. For some reason... it tastes gourmet when I'm eating it in this gorgeous little city.

Me encanta.

Oh.. PS- my abuelita used to be a famous model here. But now she's 72 and she hates pictures... but I got one. Here they are... mis abuelitos favoritos! Shhhh.

Did I do something wrong?

I keep thinking... all the people I know that have studied in other countries with families who speak another language.. they come to a point where they've offended their family without meaning to. Different cultures and different languages especially make it very difficult to understand what is considered "strange" to do and what is simply not acceptable.

My family is super laid back so... i started to think I was never going to have a moment like this. Well, indirectly, i'm pretty sure I indirectly got my host sister in trouble. Up until this point i thought I was so great at understanding spanish... but when a Sevillano is yelling... its an entirely different language in itself.

So here goes. I woke up from my siesta and really had to pee (i drink way too much tinto de verano). My hostsister Alejandra was in the shower, but we have another bathroom in my abuelitos bedroom. Abuela was staring at me struggling with the decision at the door and when i turned to go to my room (i think she thought i was going to her room with the other bathroom..i think) she started rapidfire yelling at alejandra. From what I gathered, she was mad that Alejandra was showering in the middle of the day because if for any reason i needed the bathroom, id HAVE to use the other one... which she is embarrassed of because its "old and dirty".. which it really isn't. Later I asked Alejandra... what the hell did you do? Is she mad at me? To which she always responds (Alejandra is very sarcastic & has a "boca sucia"/dirty mouth)... "No es nada Jessi. Cono! Es una puta!"... which literally translated means "Jess, its nothing. Cunt. Shes a fucking bitch." I apologize for the language in the blog... shes the one with the mouth. not me. haha

Si no ha visto Sevilla, no ha visto maravilla...

Heyy! (hola)

I am here and have internet and have finally gotten around to making this blog. Its almost 6pm here and that means i'm at least 3 hours overdue for my daily siesta (nap). But i have things to do (homework, unpacking, this blog, drinking the glass of wine my host mom just refilled for me) Sighhh... life here is so rough. ;)
So... I will summarize for you the amazingness that has been packed in the past 5 days since I started mi viaje (my journey) :)

DAY 1
arrived in spain after a 10 hour layover in england (went into the london to find a cafe at 10pm but had to settle for a mcDonalds... not proud of that being my official first meal in europe), a 2 hour layover in madrid and my final flight to seville. I met everyone in my program (awesome) and had my first spanish meal... which was.. interesting. some sort of cold couscous and fish with cold pea soup on top... and a vanilla flan. weird. Later, went for tapas with some people for dinner (tapas are the traditional style of food in andalucia, the region i'm in. It's a small taste of a meal). DELICIOUS. My friend Eileen and I split 6 tapas haha everything traditional that we couldnt understand. im not sure really of anything i ate, but it might have been some of the most delicious food ive ever had. Wine party in the hotel in Xa & tiff's room and then to bed for the first time in 36 hours.

Day 2
Breakfast, tour of sevilla, flamenco extravaganza, more tapas. So far i haven't had to pay for anything. pretty sweet. The flamenco was live traditional spanish guitar, then spanish singing, then spanish dance. It's popular in all of spain but most popular in sevilla. Too bad i'm not trained in singing like a goat or I definitely would've auditioned. Went to a bar with some friends and then to a club with Alex & Kylie. We didn't get back until 5:30 am, which is pretty much the standard lifestyle in spain. Dancing is kind of ridiculous in spain because no one cares what they look like, hilarious. But atleast there's no cover charge!

Day 3
Did a scavenger hunt through sevilla on 3 hours of sleep and then met my host family!!! They are some of the most genuine (kev, that adjective is for you) people i've ever met. Sweet, welcoming, funny, great cooks, interesting... just one problem.... they literally dont speak 1 word of english. AHHH. Fortunately, I understand more than the average american in my program but unfortunately... i can speak very little. That has yet to stop me from staying up almost everyday with mi Abuelita (she wants me to call her grandma.. not sure why ha but shes cute so i added "ita" which means, my little grandma) who used to be a famous model in spain, Abuelito (who wakes up every morning a half hour before me to make me breakfast and pack me a "bocadilla"/sandwich and then draw me a handwritten map to school or wherever i need to go. adorable), my host sister, their niece, Alejandra who is 20 and always cursing and seeing in the shower, hilarious) and alejandra's puppy, my favorite living being in spain, bonita gordita (little fat one)

Day 4
Went to the beach with Eileen and Lauren and met tons of americanos studying in spain. It was like a scene out of entourage, as eileen described it. 25 euros for the bus their (ew i just wrote their....haven't even thought in english in about 6 hours so bear with me) there* and back, free bocadillas, beer, a cocktail and tinto de verano (my fav drink here-->red wine with lemonlime soda and ice)
We drank, danced and swam in the water from 10am to 9pm. Ahhhh sevilla
I came back at 10:30 and my host mom had the best dinner waiting, with which she taunted me.... explaining that alejandra had told her i was a singer and she wasn't going to let me eat it until i sang for the family. Needless to say, i had my first debut concert... in english unfortunately.. but they loved it nonetheless. My host mom started crying and said that even though i may not be great at speaking spanish... "la idioma de musica es universal" :)

Day 5
I've been getting very little sleep so far so my abuelito let me sleep in a little late and i got lost on my way to class so i was late for the first day. :-\ (I know Dowski.. I would) But it was fine because my profesor is great. A hilarious man named Luis. ***he told me today that all those years i've been saying: "Que paso? and then responding to that phrase with "nada mucho"... which i thought was what's up/ nothing much.. i was actually saying.. "salutations!" and then responding with "I swim a lot." Nice*** Naturally all our classes are in spanish, and not just spanish, but sevillan spanish.. Alejandra describes it as comiendo las palabras... eating your words. Everything is abbreviated, which in America, you all know i would LOVE but... it makes it reallly difficult.
Finished class. Bought chips ahoy cookies (the entire package was burnt.. i kid u not. what the hell? its chips ahoy! lol waste of a 1.90euro) Explored a little. Got casually lost on my way home...abuelito likes to say i'm enjoying taking the long way everywhere.. haha which he could not be more right about.
Getting lost in Sevilla is like getting lost at a carnival.. its not really possible because its tiny and you're not looking for anything specific, its all fun. (Failed simile?.. i told you my english is suffering! even my english thoughts, i swear it makes sense in spanish)

Anyway... I won't say I miss home yet, but I do wish you guys could be here experiencing this with me because, as the phrase explains in this blog title... "If you haven't seen sevilla, you haven't seen anything marvelous."

Hasta luego! (see you later :))

PS- that last picture of that building? Yeah.. thats my school. Kind of makes northeasterns campus look like a little kids drawing.