The past couple of days..

Much has happened over the past couple of days. The young CIEE guides took us out on the town Saturday night and showed us around. It was a late night for all of us, which probably wasn't the best idea before going to Córdoba early the next day. It was definitely worth it though because the guides were a lot of fun and we met some people who work for Discover Sevilla, a company that leads tours through Portugal, Africa, and other countries that are close. All of their employees are young and really nice.

Sunday, Córdoba was amazing. We got to go and see the Mosque where the Catholics built a cathedral inside. It was interesting to see the contrasts in the architecture (look at my Facebook pictures to see). However, we all quickly learned that our Spanish sack lunches called "bocadillos", are not very good. Mine had a type of dried ham and cheese with huge tomatoes. Not very good after sitting in my backpack all day long...

When we finally returned to Sevilla, we are all exhausted from a long day of walking. My señora served me dinner that night and I learned the hard way that if you don't eat all the food she makes, you will get fussed at. She served me a big piece of salmon, a HUGE plate of spinach, lots of bread and of course, fruit. I was not able to eat it all (I did actually try to eat as much spinach as I could) but I don't think anyone in the world could eat as much spinach as what was on my plate. Shortly after giving it to her to clean off, she fussed at me and said she hates throwing food away because its wasteful and that I don't eat very much blah blah blah.. this just goes to show you that their culture does not like to waste anything. They don't turn the AC on because it would be a waste of air, so they just open the windows. And also, they never throw away food.

The food here has been alright, but its going to take some getting used to. The eat a ton of bread and carbs. If you like vegetables, then you are not in luck. Thankfully, Monday night, she made me the best meal of my trip so far. A salad with avocados and corn and then a piece of pan fried chicken breast. I also got to watch basketball during dinner.. She scored some major points when she said she likes basketball. Oh yeah, every family and homestay sits in front of the TV for every meal and watches TV. My señora really likes the Simpsons too, kind off weird.

Anyways, that's all for now but I will have more as the week goes on.

First Days in Sevilla

Well after about 10 hours of traveling and flying, I finally made it to the hotel in downtown Sevilla. It is pretty much a 5 star hotel which is nice for now since I doubt I will have air conditioning in my homestay. For now, we are just kind of getting oriented with the staff and other CIEE students. All of the CIEE staff are about 25 or so, so they aren't much older.

Thursday night we had a cocktail meet and greet thing. It was kind of telling about the Spanish culture... They drink a lot. They were serving Sangria, beer, and other wines. If you didn't have a drink in your hand, the staff was confused and would offer to get you something. Probably because they've been drinking since they were 12... After the cocktail party, a couple of us went walking around to get dinner and drinks. We ate at a small pizza place and had a beer. It was pretty inexpensive which was nice. 5 euros for pizza and a beer.

The club soccer team in Sevilla won their conference last night, so everyone was going crazy. People were walking in the streets waving flags and had red painted faces. Also all the Vespas and cars would drive around and honk constantly and scream out the window. We went to bed pretty early Thursday night so we could start getting on schedule time wise.

Right now (Friday morning), we ate a big breakfast buffet and then had oral interviews. We were all pretty nervous because its hard to understand what the hell people are saying here because of their accents. However, the interviews went well. It was easy because they just asked about you and where you're from, why you're studying in Spain, etc. Now I am just sitting around till we have another couple of activities in about an hour.

That's all for now..