¡Hola!

Hello everyone!

Unfortunately, I haven´t had time to write anything in this blog since arriving in Spain, but I now have internet at the center where I am studying in Seville, The Center for Cross-Cultural Study, or el centro norteamericano, as it is referred to here.

The first part of my trip was fairly uneventful; I traveled from Atlanta to Frankfurt, Germany, leaving on September 3rd and arriving on the 4th. I was able to sleep on the plane and so the time seemed to pass rather quickly. Another Berry student studying in Spain, Saxon, was on the plane, so that also helped matters. From Frankfurt I traveled to Barcelona and after a short wait, and meeting up with another friend, Chelsea, I boarded the plane to Seville. Unfortunately, while in the air the flight attendants informed us that for some reason the airport in Sevilla had closed and we were being rerouted to Jerez, which is on the southern coast. After landing there, we received our luggage rather quickly, but then waited nearly two and a half hours for a bus to arrive to take us to Seville. We were somewhat frustrated, but it did give us a chance to use Spanish to attempt to figure out the situation. Finally, we arrived to spend the night in the Hotel de Plaza Armas, though we missed the initial orientation. I chatted a bit with my new roommate, Rachel (in the first picture), and then headed to bed.

The next day we had a walking tour of Seville and also took a placement exam (with written and oral parts) to ensure we were placed in the right courses. I can´t say that I was happy to take a test my first day in Spain, but I managed to get through it. Following an introduction to the Center, Rachel and I took a taxi to Barrio (neighborhood) Nervión to move into our new home.

We live with a woman named Loli (short for Dolores) who is extremely welcoming. She doesn´t speak English (which is great for practicing our Spanish) and talks a lot, and very fast. Gratefully, she was very clear that we should let her know if we need anything or don´t like anything that she cooks, which definitely has not been a problem for me. Loli is a wonderful cook and we´ve already had tortilla española (similar to a fritatta) and lots of delicious vegetable dishes. There is always fresh fruit for dessert, so I couldn´t be happier with the food.

Our home is small, but in a cute and cozy way. Rachel and I share a room with matching beds, bedspreads, and side tables (mesitas de noche in Spanish). We each have our own wardrobe and share a bathroom just between the two of us, so there is plenty of room for all of our stuff. Rachel brought a gnome (a gift from home) to take pictures with while she travels and we have since named him Wilheim. He resides on our table (picture 3) with a collection of shells from the beach of Mazagón where we went for our first weekend. We also have a terrace above the house which has a great view of the neighborhood.

An exciting aspect of our location is that my friend Chelsea from Berry is roommates with a friend of Rachel´s from Whitworth University (in Washington state) and they live with a friend of Loli´s, Rosario. We live just a few short blocks from them, which is great because we travel a bit to get to the Center and it´s nice to have company. The fourth picture is of the four of us this last weekend.

Classes started yesterday and have been pretty good up to this point. For the first three weeks I have Advanced Spanish Grammar from 9 to 12:45 Monday through Friday, a Sevillanas dance course from 4-5 on Monday and Wednesday, and Cultural Realities of Spain at 4 on Tuesdays. After the first three weeks, I will be done with the grammar course and add three others: Art History of Spain, Present Day Spanish Usage, and Spanish Society (which I am substituting for Spanish American Literature due to a problem with tranferring credit to Berry). For the most part, I have been able to understand my courses and have been able to get through conversations with native speakers in the city.

I hope to keep up with this blog and keep everyone interested informed as to how things are going in Seville. E-mails are definitely welcome, but I figured I would use this to give out the majority of the events to everyone all at once. If you would like it, my e-mail is: sophieanne11@hotmail.com. Also, since I don´t have everyone´s e-mail, feel free to pass on the link to anyone interested that I might have missed. The link to the blog is: http://sophie-in-spain.blogspot.com/

Thanks for reading!