Mi Llegada (My Arrival)

Hello everyone!

As you might know, I'm writing this blog to tell about my study abroad experience in Sevilla for Fall 2012. I'll be attending la Universidad Pablo de Olavide and studying Spanish language, history and culture.

My first flight was from Miami to Madrid (8 hour flight). We were served two meals on board. 

Dinner - chicken, salad, potatoes, green beans, carrots, mushrooms - delicioso! And of course - vino.

Free newspapers on the plane. En español!

Sunset on the plane. Also (check this, Aaron) - notice the 2 engines on the wing (both wings!). The plane was HUGE. Like... 50 rows, 8 seats in each row. The biggest plane I've ever been on.

Breakfast the morning of the flight, which felt like 1A to me. We had a sandwich with chicken and cheese, an orange-cranberry muffin, some yogurt bite things, and a piece of chocolate. 

The plane was nice. I slept about 2 hours total. I sat next to a nice man named Manuel who only spoke Spanish and who talked to me about life in Spain and sports etc. He lives in Santiago, which is in northern Spain. He thought I was latina, and was surprised when I told him that I was from the US and had never visited Spain before. He said I spoke Spanish very well ('fantastico!'). Talk about confidence boost haha.

 So I left arrived here yesterday at about 2P (my time). I am 6 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time in the USA, just so you know. So I arrived at about 8A EST. I took a taxi from the airport to my apartment, and then waited outside for about 30 minutes for my landlords to arrive. When they got here, we went up to the apartment, signed papers, swapped keys, etc. and then I was here all by myself.

Oh - interesting point - people here don't really speak English. At least.. none of the people I've been talking to do. So my landlords, the taxi driver, and all of the people I'll talk about later - none of them speak English. It's cool because it means I don't have to make myself speak Spanish - it's necessary! Otherwise I wouldn't be able to talk to anyone. And THAT would make for a lonely 4 months...

Anyway - so I was at my apartment and was exhausted/jetlagged - only slept 2 hours on the plane the night before. But I had the hopes that I would fix my jetlag, so I decided to not go to sleep like I wanted to, but instead to go buy a prepaid phone. I walked to Vodafone, which is right down the street. It's really cool... I feel like everything is "right down the street" here. I think I chose a really good spot to live.

My lunch at a little pub. Some chicken sandwich thing. Pretty good!

Well.. when I got to Vodafone, I realized I had completely forgotten about la siesta - which is where stores close from about 2-4pm. Like.. everyone goes home and takes naps - it's awesome! But it means that Vodafone was closed for another hour and a half. So I walked across the street and had lunch at some little pub thing.

View of the street from my balcony.

After that I went for a walk around the area north of my apartment. I hunted for a map of Sevilla, which I failed to find. I also bought some bananas (plátanos) and apples (manzanas) from una frutería (which is a store that just sells fruits, very fresh!). And then I went home, stayed up for a little longer, and then fell asleep at 9p. I woke up at 1A and wasn't able to go back to sleep, so I skyped with Mom and Russ (shout out!), skyped with Lauren and Patrick ('notha shout out!) and then talked to some friends on Facebook (shout outs to Travis and Alec) until I fell asleep at 7A.

Sunset from my balcony.

My balcony.

A typical street in el Centro in Sevilla.

I woke up to my alarm at 11A this morning, and really really wanted to just stay in bed and sleep. But I decided to get up anyway. So I showered, ate a banana for breakfast, and went out for the day.

Today I decided to take a walk to El Corte Ingles (literally means "The English Cut"). It's southwest of my apartment (yesterday I explored north of my apartment), so I figured it would be good to explore a new area. And from what I've read online, El Corte Ingles has everything and more that you could possibly need, like a Walmart. So I thought it would be good to know how to get there. 

Another street, more people.

The walk to the store was approx. 0.7 miles, so I headed out using the Google Map I had printed out with directions on how to get to El Corte Ingles. Unfortunately, the map didn't have all of the street names on it, and the route I had to take was very winding, so I quickly got lost. The streets (los calles) are not well marked here, and my insufficient google map didn't help. However, I wasn't worried or panicked, because it was a beautiful day, there were a lot of people around, and I could always take a taxi back home if I needed to (and I have a phone). So I continued to walk, and asked a few people "Dónde está el Corte Inglés?" and listened to their instructions as best as I could. Izquierda is "left" and derecha is "right" (glad I knew that, otherwise I never would have found it).

I had a nice long walk on the way to the store. I found this really cool plaza (la Plaza de la Encarnación). It has a big one-story building, and on top of it is some cool architecture and an area to walk around on. I took a video of the area inside the building and the top of the building, but you can see a picture of the architecture and the building on the left, here. It was a bit of a shock when I was walking on these narrow one-way streets to suddenly see this big architecture ahead of me. Really pretty plaza. Inside the building was like a food market, with vendors for fish, vegetables, meat, fruits, etc (see picture below). They also had a cafe. I also took a video of that, which I will upload in my next post.

A fruit vendor inside the building in la Plaza de la Encarnacion

I found palm trees on my walk! I'm in Florida :)

After that, I continued to walk and ask for directions and I finally found el Corte Ingles! I was very excited when I saw a building with that name on it, and I felt very accomplished that I had found my way. I expected it to be like Walmart-quality, but it was much nicer. Like an upscale mall. El Corte Ingles was located in a plaza, and there were several buildings around the plaza that were all part of El Corte Ingles. One was 4 levels, and had purses/accessories, womens clothing, mens clothing, and childrens clothing. Another had an office supply level, a book store, a video game store, and a store for techy stuff, like cameras and laptop stuff. I bought a big map of Sevilla, in addition to a small one (so I don't look like a tourist with my HUGE map). After that, I explored the area inside the plaza as well. Around the edges of the plaza were buildings (including El Corte Ingles). On the inside was a grassy area, and street vendors selling jewelry, skirts, purses, etc. I looked around those for a while, and bought a new purse, a scarf, and a bracelet. I'm starting to look like a local already!

Paella - my lunch today! 

The plaza that I was in (it's name is la Plaza Duque de la Victoria) also had some restaurants in it, so I decided to eat in one of those - I was starving! I ate paella, which is Spanish rice (see picture on right). It was delicious! My favorite meal that I've had so far in Spain! It was delicious rice with veggies and clams and some other seafood in it. I paired it with red wine (tinto), of course (like mother like daughter, right Mom?). The guy who is just through the doorway was my server, he was really nice and helpful. 

Chocolate mousse for dessert.

That didn't last long. Delicious!

The restaurant I ate in. Notice the meat hanging on the wall. At least it's fresh, right?

My check at the restaurant.

(I know some of the above pictures are small. Just so you know, you can click on the photos to see a larger view!)

 Something I have noticed is that a lot of people ride scooters here. Russ/Mike - don't a few of them look familiar? A lot of them look like the Honda Reflex we ride! I checked and they don't say "Reflex" on them, but they must be a similar model, because they look exactly the same to me.

After I had lunch, I basically just walked home. I took a different route (using my handy dandy map) and got to see some new sites.

A church I saw on my walk home.  The white sign on the building says "Santa Angela de la Cruz" And THAT white sign on the side of the building is how street names are marked. So the street that runs next to the church is Calle Santa Angela de la Cruz. Quite different from how we mark our streets in the US. The church itself is called "Convento de Santa Inés"

More people.

 I think that'll be all for now. I hope you enjoyed my very lengthy post. I know some of the pictures are a little "off", I've been trying to take photos today without being too obvious, especially when I'm taking pictures of people. I don't want some person to start yelling at me (especially since I won't understand them :P) I'll get better and more comfortable soon, I'm sure.

I'm going to write another post right after this one with all of the videos I took today :) talk to you soon.