Less Jet Lag, More Adventures

---

5-23
I’m trying to remember to not write in Spanish…or Spanglish…though I’m pretty sure some of you could fake your way through it.

#1: My earplugs work very well. They block out everything that could possibly wake me up in my jet-lagged state. Including my alarm clock. Luckily, I have a cool roommate who poked me a few times…

#2: When you are referring to the weather being hot or yourself being temperature hot, don’t use “caliente”…Bonus: My class got a good laugh when the profesora explained why not to…

#3: One thing I wish I brought with me is Sudafed. My allergies whacked me upside the head after walking around Sevilla last night… When our professors asked how we were this morning, I said, “Tengo un terremoto en mi cabeza!” (I have an earthquake in my head!)

My am classes are divided into writing, grammar and speaking. I have learned that it is very difficult to see how well you do with grammar when you can’t remember or don’t know the words in a sentence. That may have been the most intense hour I have experienced in a long time. The Spanish in Andalucia speak REALLY fast. Speaking was a bit easier and the profesora is a little easier to understand, which helped (though I like them both). We did not have writing today but I suspect that won’t be as hard as grammar…I hope. Nevertheless, I’m growing accustomed to existing in Spanish. Tonight’s homework is to ask our hosts about the Siesta. Actually, it’s Siesta time right now (and we’re going to explore in lieu of napping). Perhaps tomorrow I’ll take advantage. My body is still wondering why it gets light in the middle of the night and why I want to go to bed so early.

Exploring included ice cream at the heladeria, chocolate at the tienda next to the movie theater…they’re showing Pirates 3-D! Want to see it in Spanish! We also stopped in a pharmacy. It was very small and I didn’t actually talk to the guy in there except when he helped me use this awesome blood pressure machine. You stand on it, place your finger on a biometric scanner (saves info so you can go online to view your progress!), measures weight, height, BP & pulse AND it prints out a little slip for you with the stats and the website to go view your history! I thought that was about the coolest thing ever and it was FREE! Doesn’t take much to excite me. In fact, I attribute my increased heart rate to the excitement of such an awesome find.

We visited La Plaza de España and the University today. AMAZING. GORGEOUS. Lots of history and GREAT for taking pictures of. My brain is used up from that excursion. Tour in Spanish and we were supposed to fill out a worksheet with answers to questions. I had a hard enough time following what Macarena was saying! It was ok though. The park was really pretty too that we walked through on the way there. Afterward, Katie (my roommate) and I walked with our professors to a book fair. We found a couple books (I found a Pony Club book in Spanish…I’m not ready to wrangle the big stuff yet). Then we decided we had to find the metro before it got dark. I knew we passed the Cathedral again on the way there but remembering where we caught the metro yesterday when I thought I was brain dead was a much more difficult task. I did surprise myself with how much my brain retained and between the two of us, we eventually did find the metro…and then eventually made our way back to our apartment…which I’m still not exactly sure how to get to. We usually follow the guys but we were on our own today.

Tomorrow we have classes in the am and pm. Yay! Another place we have to figure out how to get to! Our classes in Dos Hermanas are easy to get to and we’re hoping we can remember AND figure out how to get to the station on time in the morning. Keep in mind if we ask for directions, they’re in Spanish. Not sure whether that helps me or confuses me more! Not used to the lingo yet. Our afternoon class should be in walking distance…which direction I need to figure out. There is so much construction here—which is good and bad. Good because we sometimes know when we are where we shouldn’t be, but it’s very dusty! There are also orange trees which you would probably imagine would smell good—but they don’t. They smell very bitter…however, that’s how I know I’m on the right street, lol. The other thing I like are the lights…they chirp like birds so you honestly don’t have to pay attention to the little person who literally “walks” on the crossing sign. Just wait for it to start chirping! The slower it gets, the faster you move!

Breakfast: toast w/jam

Lunch: spaghetti with sausage and egg pieces, cucumber/tomato/black olives (yum!), banana, apple, green olives

Dinner: Something with ground meat, rice, carrot soup (that was what we had yesterday—sooo good!), pear, picos de pan (bread sticks) and banana nectar (reallllly good…kinda reminds me of gerber baby bananas).

I've added some photos to photobucket as I know not everyone has FB and until I figure out if the pics are actually uploading on my blog, I want to share them somehow! This should be the link. If for some reason it doesn't work, knock off the "?location=Europe+2011" and then just look for the Europe 2011 folder.
http://smg.photobucket.com/upload/albums/sunnyskate/?location=Europe+2011

---

Comments

[Michele]

Loving the pictures on FB.....sounds like you're already having a ton of fun and you've only been there for a day!! hehe Good luck with classes and you'll be a pro in no time :)

[Sunnyskate]

Fun = yes
Sorry I never figured out how to check the comments until today when I received a message! It's a lot of fun and this week is decidedly easier in Spanish...though at the same time I can see how much I don't know!!!