Mi Caminata en Nervión (My Walk through Nervión)

Hey everyone! I hope you've all been doing well.

Tuesday, September 11th

Yesterday (Tuesday) was September 11th. And it felt really weird to be all the way over here. A lot of my friends here said that they saw some special news reports (here, in Spanish!) about 9/11 on TV. I thought it was kind of cool that they acknowledge that all the way over here. 

Since I didn't have to be at school until 5:30p yesterday, I decided to go for a walk and explore a new part of the city. I've explored most of El Centro so far, so I went farther east towards Nervión, which is just another area of town. And man, it was way different than El Centro, with it's narrow, cobblestones streets and cute (and small) buildings. I felt like I was almost back in the US, there were billboards and big streets with high rises.

Shopping in  Nervión

Street in  Nervión

Part of my motivation for going to Nervión was also to find el estadio del fútbol (soccer stadium) because I have friends coming this weekend from Finland who are going to go to un partido (a game) with me! I was able to find the stadium. And I'm super excited for the game this weekend and for my friends to be here :)

I also saw Nervión Plaza while I was there, which was pretty much a big mall. It looked exactly like our malls, and some of the stores even had names in English. Being in Nervión made me glad that I decided to live in El Centro. While Nervión is more modern, which has a ton of benefits too, I feel like I'm living in a more authentic Spanish neighborhood, and I like that a lot.

After seeing Nervión, I walked back to El Centro and bought some lunch.

Una ensalada de salmón - it was really good, it had smoked salmon and shrimp in it.

Croquetas de pollo - as you can see, croquetas are these little balls filled with whatever you'd like, I chose to have pollo (chicken)

Got un helado (ice cream) on my walk back to the apartment!

After that, I went back to mi piso (my apartment) for a little while before heading to school. At 5:30p, we had orientation and a reception. It went well, many of the people from the Centro Internacional of the University spoke and welcomed us to Sevilla. They also told us who to go to if we needed help with things like finances and getting around Sevilla. It was very helpful. After that we had a reception (where they served us alcohol, I was shocked!) and then I went back to my apartment.

After that, I went to a Welcome Party put on by We Love Spain (the same people who gave us that tour/tea on Monday). It was at el Rio Grande which is in Triana and is located right next to the river. It was awesome! It was an outdoor club (una discoteca) and there were a lot of students there, both Americans and from other countries. It was really weird - they played American clubbing music in the club. Haha, we're in Spain and listening to American clubbing music, es loco, no?

We Love Spain also paid for free sangría for us at the club. Cheers to that!

The view from the club. To the left is el Torre de Oro.

I met a guy from Sevilla in the club, he only spoke Spanish and we wound up talking for a few hours. And when we were talking, it was sometimes very difficult if I didn't know how to say something in Spanish, since he didn't speak English. But he was very helpful and understanding. It was cool :) He also answered some of my questions about when to use certain words in Spanish, I learned a lot! And it was a lot of practice with speaking, which can't hurt. Even though I'm sure I made tons and tons of mistakes, that's how you learn right?

Wednesday, September 12

Today was the first day of real classes for me. My first class was at 9A, so I got on the metro to get there. When I was getting off the metro, there were some people who looked like professors getting off at the same stop as me. I figured they were just professors at the university, until one of them stopped me and asked me to show them to El Centro de Biología, which is on campus. I thought I knew where it was but I wasn't totally sure, but I had a map so I hoped I could figure it out. So I started walking with the professors in the direction of the building. There were 5 of them, all following me to this building. They were from Pamplona, which is in the nothern part of Spain, and they were here today for a biology conference. They only spoke Spanish, and I was able to make small talk with them while we walked. It felt so cool! To be able to just "chat" in Spanish. Loco! The building was across campus too, so it was a pretty long walk. Eventually I got them to it, and they were all very thankful :D I can't really put into words why it was so cool for me, but it really was a great way to start my day.

After that I made my way over to my classes. My first one was Conversational Spanish, which is taught completely in Spanish. There were 9 people in my class. I think the class is going to be perfect for me. The professor seems to have a very practical way of teaching it, where we don't get a lot of homework or anything, but we're expected to come to class and actually speak. He said that we can't be afraid to make mistakes because that's how you learn. So he's not going to teach us grammar and make us do written assignments at home or anything, but he just wants us to speak. I'm really excited for that class, I think it's going to be exactly what I need to improve my Spanish speaking skills. Plus I'm taking a grammar course this semester too, so I think that'll supplement this class perfectly.

Immediately after that class, I had History of Spain, which is taught in English. The professor seemed nice and I think the class will be good. The professor lectured a bit today, and I learned a lot just from that short lecture. I'm excited for that one too!

Whenever I take the metro to school, I have to walk 1.5 miles each way from my apartment to the metro station. It's a long walk, and I've realized I don't really enjoy it. It's on a busy road (the road that separates Nervión and El Centro). So today I decided that, when coming home on the metro, I would get off at a different stop so that my walk home would be through the historic part of El Centro. And I realized I enjoyed the walk way more. It takes me right by la catedral and it's a much prettier section of town. I think I found my new route to school :)

While I was walking, I saw/heard some guys playing instruments in a plaza (it's la Plaza de San Francisco, which I talked about in a previous post). They were very good, and I wound up having lunch near there so I could listen to them more while I ate.

Chicos playing in a plaza

This is where I ate lunch today, which is called Bodega Gongora Bares. This is very typical of restaurants in El Centro, where the tables line the streets. The guy in the red shirt and black pants is one of the servers. 

La ensalada de la casa - the house salad. It was delicious! It had normal salad stuff, plus tuna and shrimp and some weird vegetable thing (that long thing on top, I asked my server what it was, but I forget it's name. I just remember that he said it was una verdura, which is vegetable). I had that with un tinto de verano, which has become my new favorite drink here. 

Another shot of the restaurant, in the other direction.

My entree was el guiso del día, which is like the daily special. It had pork, mushrooms, potatoes. Very very good! I think I'll definitely come back to this place.  

I've had a great last few days. I feel like I'm finally finding my niche here (I think school helped a lot with that). Also, speaking Spanish is getting easier and easier, and I'm able to make small talk much more easily. I can't believe it's only been 5 days since I got here!

I also met both of my roommates. One is named Patricia and she is from Spain and speaks only a little English. The other is Marcela, and she actually goes to my university in Florida, but I had never met her before. Marcela is fluent in Spanish and English. I think I'll get to speak Spanish almost all the time with them. :)

Tonight I plan on staying in and catching up on missed sleep from last night. But that's all for now, talk to you soon.