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Well I moved into my homestay on Saturday afternoon! THEY ARE SO NICE. I love themmm! I have a padre Fernando who is the nicest man alive. He usually cooks for the family and he makes pretty good food. Last night for cena (dinner) he made the family pizza to try "American"! (even though that's Italian...) My hija (sister) Alba is 20 and a photography major. She is out of school for the summer but during the day she works as a photographer. I live in a huge house in the center of the city (1 block from the main shopping avenue ... UH OH) I live on the fourth floor all by myself. All that is on my floor is a laundry room, my room and a roof top deck that looks over the city ... it is beautiful! And the closest house to the dorms where a lot of my friends are living ... perfect to have a big group of girls to walk home together at night. Sevilla is an extremely safe city, the only thing I have to worry about is petty crimes like pick pocketing and getting mugged at night. They say they will never approach
a large group of people so we should be safe if we are together.
I went to Aracena on Sunday. It is a small town about an hour and a half away from Sevilla. We stopped on the way there to see the mines. The mines are in a small town, with a large English population because about for about 50 years in the 20th century, the british owned and ran the mine. The mine is what caused the industrial revolution in Spain since they needed trains and more sophisticated equipment in order to make more profits. The mine contains a lake in the middle of it (the water used to be pumped out, but the mine is no longer in use so there is just a lake in the bottom now) The lake (and the river that it feeds) is very famous because it is the color of red wine! Originally they thought it was because of the clay, but it is actually because it is basically all chemicals from the rocks. Arsenic being one of the main ones ... so no drinking the water! It is really pretty and unbelievable how red the water is!
The town
of Aracena was cute and little. Their main attraction is a cave underneath the castle that is up on a mountain. The cave is cool, huge stalagmites and stalactites. Nothing we don't have in America though. And because it is in the mountains, it was cold and rainy there. Kind of dissapointing ... but included in my tuition so good thing I got my moneys worth! (Dad, aren't you glad you I am getting my moneys worth of my crazy tuition?!)
Today I had my first day of classes. It went well. I am in intermediate spanish. I already have learned most of the grammar in the class, but I could really use a good review! I think this class will be my most productive spanish class ever because of the crazy amount of practice I am getting. Also, we are learning about Spain as well and I think that will be awesome. I wish I had time to learn more about the culture in a class. I have a couple friends in the flamenco class, which would be awesome to learn so much about something that is so Spain!
Speaking of flamenco, I went to my first
flamenco show on saturday night! It is sooo cool! It is a mix of tap dancing and beet boxing. Flamenco contains a singer, a guitar, a person just to clap (but like crazy fast and crazy beats!) and a dancer. It is something I could never explain, but I'm sure if you're curious you can youtube it!
I think that is all for now. I am going to but pictures up on facebook. I will put of few up on my blog too! Miss everyone!!
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