Hi everyone! So let’s see…I’m trying to remember everything that happened since I left off. I’ll just give you an overview of the important stuff. So I live in a neighborhood called Triana, where a lot of other students live. It’s pretty and historical and I like it a lot, it makes for a scenic walk in my opinion, I especially like crossing the bridge over the Guadalaquivir River. I really like walking in Seville, especially when a lot of people are out….in the mornings, before lunch when the parents are bringing their kids home from school, in the evenings. The people here live their lives in front of each other….it’s so cool. Kids are everywhere with their parents, you see a lot of strollers. I’ve seen four or five people out and about pushing people in wheelchairs, too, which makes me really happy. Everyone’s apartment is so small that no one has company there, they always meet up in public. Most restaurants have tables outside and so it’s not even in the privacy of the indoors…they’re on the sideways as everyone is passing by. I love it. Oh a lot of people have dogs too so that is fun to see, although I saw an article that said Triana and another neighborhood have the most dog poop on the streets – 28,000 kilos weekly. Lol I guess I need to be careful! Oh and the weather is really nice Hiromi, it’s a little annoying because it’s normally cold at night and in the morning, but you have to carry around your coat in the afternoon because its pretty warm and sunny. It’s beautiful though and I love it!

And yes, I walk! I thought I was going to have to pay like $150 this semester for monthly bus passes but I don’t need to!! (I talked to one girl who has to take two buses everyday!) That is definitely a gift from God. And it’s not far, just a twenty or so minute walk to the center. That is still more walking than I am used to though – a lot of times I have to go out there before and after lunch so I’m walking about an hour and a half a day, if not more because often I need to go other places, too. It’s great exercise! My body has had to take some time to get used to it though because it is tiring….I have been pretty exhausted by the time bedtime rolls around. That’s also because a lot of times I have a big dinner which makes me sleepy and by the time where done eating and watch TV for a little bit it’s normally after 11. Getting used to the late meals (we eat lunch at like 2:30-3:00 here) has also been interesting. I’m glad I have my granola bars! I told my host mother that sometimes we could be eating at about the same time as you guys even with the time difference! Lol.

The first Saturday night we were here some girls wanted to go out so we decided to see if we could find something to do. I’ve found a good group of people that is a little more reserved like me so I felt confident we wouldn’t go anyway too crazy. So we met at 11:15 pm – early for Spaniards! So not many people were out yet. Eventually, we found a little café-bar and went in. Most of us got something to drink and it was fun. A little more smoky than we are used to but everywhere is like that. I ended up asking the waiter about a pina-colada flavored beverage to see if it had alcohol. He said no so that’s what another girl and I ordered. When we got it we thought it tasted a little funny…so we had some other girls taste it and most of them thought it didn’t have alcohol. I wasn’t sure though and I thought I started feeling a little funny (could have just been paranoia) so I stopped drinking it. I was like I don’t know guys…so they took a picture of me with my doubtful drink hehe. I think it was probably a good thing I didn’t finish it because when we got the bill my drink (and the other girl’s) cost way more than it was supposed to. Apparently he assumed that I wanted alcohol and decided to put it in there for me. Unfortunately, I am not good at arguing with café managers in Spanish so I ended up having to pay half of the more expensive price. I got home and my “mom” told me I should have been more firm and I should have had to pay anything. I’ll know for next time! She said I should have said I had an allergy to alcohol and they could have killed me lol.

Wow, I think these stories would be so much better and actually pretty funny if I could actually tell them to you…. Why don’t you just take a moment to laugh right now, imagining how funny it would be if I was there in real life hehe.

We tried to go to church the next morning with Mary Alice but we missed the bus so we didn’t end up going (long story). I came back and told Magdalena (my host mom) that I didn’t go to church so she asked if I wanted to go with her. I said sure. She is so sweet, she literally took me by the hand and led me on a little tour. She showed me the oldest church in Sevilla which is actually not “La Catedral” but another smaller one in Triana. The inside is beautiful. It has a famous virgin there – kinda like a shrine – and other statues of Jesus and more virgins that were really pretty. She showed me another church that was literally like a little hole in the wall that had another virgin that was pretty breathtaking. Then we actually went to mass at a different church. I had never been to a catholic church in English, much less in Spanish, so I was a little lost. But it was interesting; I’m glad I went. These “virgins” are very important to Magdalena and I’m sure many others. Apparently there is one for each town who watches over it and they pray to them. She was showing me the prayer to the virgin here earlier today. I told her that I don’t pray to Mary, only Jesus (of course she has a prayer to him too). It’s just very interesting…I can’t wrap my mind around praying to Mary, or even doing the little cross when you see the statue. I want to learn more about it because it’s such a big deal here… But I also desire to see Magdalena put here hope in the saving power of Christ and Him only, so y’all can pray for her and for me to know how to love her and share with her if God wills it!

Monday class started. We had to be at the center at 8:15 am to find out our schedules. Right now we are just starting an intensive period, where you only have one language class for three weeks to help facilitate quicker learning. I am in an advanced grammar class that meets at night—5:15-9:15, with a thirty minute break. The time is kinda annoying but actually not bad. The morning classes start at 8:45 so if I had one of those I would have to get of up pretty early to have my quiet time, eat breakfast (toast and hot chocolate – which Magdalena insists on making for me every morning) and then walk all the way there. And if I didn’t have class in the afternoon I would probably just fall asleep anyway. So it’s nice because I can sleep in a little and then get some stuff done in the morning. And I like the class a lot. My professor is really nice and it’s a really small class. We just have a lot of discussion and readings and vocabulary and of course, grammar. I like that it’s advanced because he tells us all the nit-picky rules that I didn’t know like how to know whether a word needs an accent mark or not. I’ve already written a short paper and done a presentation on a newspaper article! Y’all can pray though because spending four hours a night with the same group of people five nights in a row is a little crazy. There is one person in particular who is somewhat harder to handle and gets on people’s nerves so y’all can pray that she maybe decides to talk a little less and/or God gives everyone (including the professor) a spirit of kindness and patience.

We’ve also started our one hour classes already. I have a cultural realities class at 1:00 on Mondays which seems pretty easy but hopefully it will be beneficial. And I’ve also started my dance class! That one meets Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4. It’s fun, we “Sevillanas” which are dances that are similar to flamenco. I am getting better at the feet, but the arms and hands are a little difficult.

Well if you’re still with me at this point, I’m impressed! So I’ll give you a break and post the rest later J Sorry it’s so long!