Hola, Sevilla!

---

Saturday, June 5th:
You know, I have to admit that I found that I was quite sad to leave Madrid. Well, sad & relieved. It was a strange sensation. On one hand, I feel like I was really getting to know the city and it wasn't as scary as I first had thought it would be. On the other hand, I had spent four days running myself down like crazy to try to do as much as I could so, I was exhausted. I had Madrid-ed myself out! I think that it'll be nice to return there at the end of my trip, though. Not exactly a coming home (Hello, Valencia!), but you know... More like: Viva la reina del metro del Madrid!

As for the trip to Sevilla, there isn't much to say. I sat next to some youngish guy, who didn't say anything to me. This was handy because all I wanted to do was sleep, which I did. It's about a 2 & 1/2 hour trip and I think that I slept through about 2 hours of it, heh.

When we got to Sevilla, I dragged my ridiculously heavy luggage through the nearly empty train station to find a taxi. It, actually, didn't cost much to get to the apartment, but the guy made a big deal about how no one knew how to get there. He kept calling people on his little radio and they were calling back to say they didn't know where it was. :/ (Or that's what I assumed they were saying. The accent here is really, really hard to understand!) Anyway, he finally just got on his GPS (um, hello!) and then, found the apartment really easily.

The woman that owns the apartment opened the door for me, showed me around, and kinda gave me the rules. Apparently, her male friend is living here, too, as well as a Korean girl that goes to the school with me. I got to meet the guy, who is from Granada, and has an even harder accent to understand. Uff, it was really difficult!

After a while, she quit trying to talk to me. I don't know, maybe she wanted/expected someone with better Spanish skills. :/ He talked to me quite a bit, though. I just couldn't understand him and she had to intervene a few times, which clearly aggravated her. Uff. I don't know, did she not understand what it meant to rent a room to people going to a language school? :/

Oh, whatever. Anyway, I went shopping for groceries, which as an adventure. It didn't occur to me how hard it would be when there are so many words you don't understand. At one point, I even had to text Laura and ask her about the milk. haha. Oh! Also!! The store closest to us charges you for every plastic bag you use! .05 Euros! I don't know what that is in American coinage, but I was intrigued and shocked. They're pretty durable, though, so I've kept them to take back from now on.


Sunday, June 6th
I woke up late and, Jesus, it was SO HOT in the house! I ended up sitting on the couch in the living room with Luis & Natalia, but I think that we all fell asleep. :/ Finally, at about 6 pm (I think), I decided to venture out in hopes that it would be cooler with the sun sinking. (Also, I needed to search for the school because I didn't want to get lost and be superlate on my first day of class.)

On my hunt for the school, I did get lost (of course!), but a nice couple showed me back to the street I needed. I had to go up, down, around, and back track a little more, but I eventually found the school. It's pretty simple, but you know how it is when you're on streets that you've never been on before.

With the school found, I headed to Plaza Nueva, which I consider the center of the city, but I don't know if it really is. (Probably not.) There's so much there and the Cathedral is pretty impressive. I didn't walk a whole lot in the area, though. It was getting close to 9 o'clock and considering the walk from the apartment to this part of the city is a 20 minute walk, I wanted to get back before it got dark. Funny thing, though, is that it doesn't get dark until about 10 pm! TEN PM! AND the sun still rises at about 6 or 7 AM. This seems impossible somehow, yet that's life for me, now. I hope that all the sun & this constant weariness doesn't age me. :/ (Priorities!)

♥
Courtney

---