First day at the homestay...

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Sevilla is 7 hours southwest of Madrid. We took a bus and left the hotel around 10 this morning, got to our families around 6:30pm. I met my family, a woman in her 50's name Paola, an older man in his upper 50's named Jose, a 14 year old boy named Sergio, and a 10 year old girl name Claudia. We had to roll our luggage a few blocks and I ran straight into a pole when I was talking with my host mom. It was pretty embarrassing but it seems to be happening a lot on this trip...

When we first came to the house the family showed us around and let us unpack in our room for a while. Its pretty small, but bigger than the UW dorms in Madison. We have a large armoire for us to share, lots of hooks on the walls for hanging coats, purses, and scarves, a desk and 2 chairs to share, and one window that looks out onto a small courtyard where they hang their laundry.

They all seem very nice, the kids were definitely afraid of us at first and it was kind of awkward. The parents disappeared for a while and we weren't sure where they went but then they came home and fed us. We had tortilla espanola, salad, and bread and cheese for dinner. I'm not sure if everyone knows about their meals but they eat a small breakfast, fruit and toast, a big lunch (biggest meal of the day, like our dinner) between 2 and 3pm, and a small dinner around 9-10pm. My roommate and I gave our family our gifts and they seemed to really like them. I brought them a Wisconsin shaped cutting board, a picture book about places in Wisconsin, a candle and chocolates from Van de Walles. Then we watched the Sevilla vs. Madrid Soccer game with Jose and Sergio for a little bit.

I start my class orientation tomorrow all day with the ISA students going to the University of Sevilla with me. I'll update you more on my classes once they're figure out.

It should be about 70 degrees here tomorrow afternoon, but their mornings and evenings are pretty cold, drop like 20 degrees. All of the girls in my program packed way more clothes/ accessories than I did, guess I'm just going to have to buy a bunch 😊 Spain has a two month long sale, going on during January and February, where all of the stores have everything marked down. They don't do sales throughout the year, just during these two months. So i plan to go shopping this weekend 😊

Love,

Haley

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