First of the Adventures

What a week. I finally got my assignment for my service class and will be going to a convent that has services for elderly people every week now. It was not my first choice, but it will help me with my Spanish since I'll be forced to talk to people.

I also had my first meeting with my intercambio (a language exchange partner type thing). His name is Israel and he gave me a little tour of the "centro" which is the main drag in Sevilla. By the Catedral and all of the big touristy stuff here. It was fun and I actually carried a conversation in all Spanish since he doesn't speak much English. Very exciting and I definitely think it's going to help. I did realize though that I do not know the colloquial vocab needed for friendly, casual conversation. haha Something I need to work on. I just keep reminding myself that I've only been here for 2 weeks and can't expect to be fluent with the snap of my fingers.

I've started to explore more of Sevilla this week. We have had our Senora make bocadillos for us (sandwiches... but they're definitely Spanish style, that's why I'm going to stick with the Spanish name :D) so we can ride around and have a little picnic. I have a bike pass which makes getting around a lot easier on my foot. There's a station not even a 5 minute walk from my house and then right across the street from my school. They are placed everywhere around the city. An awesome invention that I wish we had in the states!

I also have been branching out of my normal eating comfort zone some more with chipirones (cuttle fish) which I actually really like. It tastes a lot like squid. It looks kind of scary at first though haha. And I've had clams and some crazy kinds of cheese. Not sure what they were because my senora's accent is difficult to understand because she drops the end of pretty much every word she says. When we ask what things are, we usually just end up smiling and nodding :D. We also had our first cooking lesson this past week. Maria Louisa taught us how to make Spanish tortillas which are pretty much a potato omelet of sorts. One of my favorite things!


Your average Spanish dinner. Salad swimming in olive oil and vinegar, stew/soup type stuff with mushed veggies and random types of beans, bread, and fruit for dessert.


Yes, these shrimp had the heads on them. No I didn't eat the whole thing, but it was funny and Miguel and Maria Louisa laughed at us when we asked them how we were supposed to eat it.


These are the chipirones. I'm officially a fan :D

Finally, I went on my first adventure outside of Sevilla today. We took a bus to a little town, Carmona, just outside of Sevilla. It's up on a hill and has an AWESOME view of the countryside. It's one of the most picturesquely Spain places that I've been to so far. Sevilla has it all, but this little town was filled with Spaniards. We didn't see any other foreigners the whole time we were there. It was refreshing! It's amazing how many other English speakers there are here in Sevilla and how much everyone listens to English music that they can't understand. I did however hear a translation of Billy Joel's "Piano Man" today. I was about to sing along and then realized that they were different words haha.

Here are some fun pictures from today:





















It was a perfect day for picture taking especially since almost everything in the city is white. The sky was perfectly blue... gorgeous day! So thankful it didn't rain!!! Lots of fun with some new friends!

love you all!!!