First Week

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Hi All-
I´m just getting into a routine so far. It has almost been my first week here in Spain. I have downloaded my photos onto kodak.com for those who are in my circle. I promise to post here soon. Finding a room for a single traveler is difficult. Either you can stay in a hostel (alburgue juvenil), which I did for one night. They were full for the rest of the time, so if you go during the summer book ahead. I then walked from pension to pension which is listed as a hostel (inexpensive hotel) and found one for the going rate, score=own bathroom, cool! I have luck with CouchSurfing.com for my other cities that I will be traveling to, but no luck in Sevilla. Pobresita!
Let me give you a run down thus far--I only have 30 minutes of internet time left.
Markets are different here. We´re so used to going to one store for everything, literally. Here you go to the grocery story, bakery, farmacy etc if you need something. I have truly thought about which store to go to for what item. I bought scissors here, what a blessing! I know that it sounds funny, but you try opening up a package of lunch meat with your teeth and see how fast you run to the € store.
My favorite part so far is asking for directions. The first night, I was asking for directions so that I could walk to the youth hostel. TIP: when someone tells you to take a taxi, hale a taxi and take it! After an hour of walking in the dark, about midnight, dwindling number of people to plead for directions, I finally haled a taxi and within 7 minutes or so, dragged myself to the check in counter. Lesson learned. Spend money when it´s dark and/or you´re tired. Second tip: ask for directions, if you have no idea to what they are saying, smile, say *vale*, go in the general direction that they had pointed to, and find someone else along the way. I have perfectly no problem getting lost--as long as I´m on planet Earth, I´m doing o.k.
Another funny story: I was trying to find a museum today and I asked of group of grandmothers on the bus which was the stop for the Museo Bellas Artes. They quickly divided into three camps- the first third said that the next stop would be best and I would only have to walk east to reach the museum, the second third said that the stop after was better because I would only have to go south, the last third said that it didn´t matter whether I took the next stop or the one after because they were equal distant. This is going on while everyone is talking (debating) at the same time with the accompaning hand gestures. When the first debated stop came up, I was literally pushed out of the bus. I guess it was to my benefit. with their *help*, I was at least going in the right direction. Times ticking down folks, hope you get some chuckles on my behalf.
One more thing, keyboards have *extra* keys and other symbols are in different places. Everytime that I want to , I hit the ç key. Annoying, so if you see ç somewhere, I´m sure that I meant .
If you respond, please be kind. This is my first true posting, and I promise to be more entertaining soon! Gotta Go! Su Amiga, Chris

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