I traveled 26hrs before I made it to Seville. All was smooth, no problems. Ironically, on all my flights I sat next to other girls who were going to study abroad in Spain for the semester. However, on the final leg of the trip from Madrid to Sevilla I was sitting next to a young Spanish girl. I was trying to eavesdrop on her conversation that kept switching between Spanish and English with her sister. I wanted to be brave and ask them where they were from etc. but I was kinda struggling to stay awake. All the sudden, I woke up startled by the flight attendant to put up my seat for landing. I’m sure my reaction was priceless as the Spanish girl was quietly chuckling at the American mess sitting next to her. Before I knew it, she started talking to me in English asking me a bunch of questions and proceeded to tell me she was just returning from a year in Alabama. (ALABAMA!!! WHAT!!!) Her dad had been transferred there for work. Her and her sisters went to a public high school and did not know any English when they arrived. I was impressed with her ability to speak the language and that she had learned English in the South all within one years time. She insisted we become facebook friends so she could help me with whatever I needed while adjusting to life in Seville. The end of the story is meeting Araceli was a blessing in disguise. She made me more confident this next year would be okay and there were nice people out there who wanted to help you and appreciated what you were doing in their country. We are now friends, and her family has hired me to play/interact with her younger sister to keep up her English skills. And of course, her family has friends that also want my native English tongue spoken to their children. More on this later.
After arriving in Seville, I had 3 weeks of orientation with my program, CIEE. The program consists of 100 Americans of all different Spanish language skills, degrees and ages (20-35). Oh, and there are maybe 15 males total, hahaha. All 100 of us are assigned to different bilingual schools in different provinces of Andalucía. Throughout orientation we received information about how to find an apartment, how to set up a bank account, how to be an effective language and culture assistant, took Spanish classes and lived with homestay families. I’m not going to lie, these first 3 weeks were extremely difficult, more so than I anticipated. I realized I have never truly been homesick before. Between the jetlag, the different foods/eating schedule, not clicking with the people in my program, the HOT HOT HOT weather, the busy schedule, speaking Spanish etc., it was no wonder I was having a hard time. As time passed and I got to know the city and the people in my program better I got more comfortable.
Staying with a homestay family is always interesting. You never know if you're going to get the crazy, widowed lady or the family with 3 screaming young children. Luckily, I lived with a relatively normal family with 2 daughters, 19 (Beatriz) and 22 (Maria Angeles) years old. Their apartment was very nice, rather large and constantly full with their family and about 4 students. I had never really interacted with a Spanish father, but Antonio offered a rather accurate represenation of the stereotype. Antonio was a good family man, hard working and a good cook. He liked to ensure he was always right and if you didn't agree with him or you didn't understand him the first time he would just repeat it slower and louder. This was especially difficult when he was trying to be sarcastic and well, things get lost in translation and then it just wasn't funny. I grew to adore the mother, Asuncion. She took a particular interest in your life and would do anything for you. She also loved learning new English words. In terms of the daughters, we never really hit it off. I think they continuosly have students living in their home which I imagine would be frustrating after awhile. Over the 3 weeks, I had some wonderful, traditional Spanish dishes but also had my fair share of stomach churning foods saturated in olive oil. The Spanish use olive oil for anything and everything. The lettuce in a salad would be swimming in olive oil and vinegar, the green peppers would be dripping with oil, would you like some potatoes with your oil? While I appreciated and enjoyed my time at the homestay I was ready to move into my own apartment.
Speaking of apartment, ya, that was an experience. There were many factors I had to consider when looking at apartments. Location. Price. Live with Spainards or Americans? Trusting these random people you might live with. After too much drama and inner turmoil, I decided it would be best to do my own thing and find a place looking for a roomate. I spent lots of time calling Spanish people on the phone, walking the streets of Seville looking for signs and feeling out the neighboorhoods, seeing different apartments and getting frustrated (Mandy, frustrated!? Never.) First there was the Korean, then there were 2 Spanish women, then there was nobody but then there was Ruben. Ruben is a native from the area and is currently a graduate student working towards a doctorate in journalism. The apartment is on the 8th floor and is a bit outside the "city center" by about 25mins walking. There are three bedrooms, bathroom, kitchen and cozy living room. Something just clicked when I walked in, so I went for it. Plus Ruben wants his housemates to be like family, so I'm excited to get to know him and have a Spanish amigo. One of my favorite things about my apartment, I get to see the sunset every night at 8pm and it's stunning!
No comments:
Post a Comment