First days in Spain

Spain. A lot of thoughts and images come to mind. Flamenco, castanets, tapas, friendly people...the list goes on and on. In my first 2 days, not even two full days here, I have already been exposed to all the above.

I chose to study abroad in Spain to improve my Spanish more than anything. I have always been intrigued by the Spanish culture, history, etc, and my dream, in the back of my mind has always been to live here, ever since middle school Spanish class when I watched my first Spanish language video set in Madrid.

In the last couple of weeks I have had a few reservations and the nerves started to set in; the reality was that I was actually going to get on a plane and go live in Seville for 3 1/2 months, a city I had visited before (in 2008), but only for about 5 hours and in 110 degree heat! But even still, I remembered all the wonderful stories my friends had told me about their experiences abroad, in Seville and elsewhere and I remembered what a friend of mine told me the night before I left "This is the opportunity of a lifetime; you only live once."

On the plane I sat down next to a group of students from Madrid who had been vacationing in New York and Boston and I spoke to one of the girls in Spanish with no problem. Then I took it as a good sign when I heard music from the movie "Chariots of Fire," a favorite movie of my family. Then, many hours later, in a half awake/half asleep state, going through customs in Madrid, a very handsome customs agent spoke to me in Spanish and asked me about my studies in Seville and he said 'you're going to study?' and then, 'and to party?' he then told me to have a great time, and I was on my way. I then got lost and a bit confused trying to make my way to my gate and struggled to communicate with a couple of people. It was comforting to hear so many British people speaking English. Might I add that after going to Brazil in May, all of these issues were a breeze by comparison to the ones on that trip. Try navigating through the São Paolo airport, alone (after being separated from the group because I needed to exchange my traveler's checks) and without knowing more than 10 words of Portuguese. I can thank my University of Rio friends, Alexandre and Mariana for teaching me as much as I know of Portuguese--and now I want to learn more!

But, back to Spain, my current home for the semester. I made it to Seville and Kate and Sebastian met me at the airport. We then went to the hotel, Doña Maria and went to a well-known tapas restaurant, Los Coloniales. The waiter was very friendly and said I should come back whenever I want. We walked around the area, Santa Cruz, for a while. Later on, we met an even friendlier waiter. The people in Andalusia, the southern part of Spain, are known for being very friendly. At night we went to a few more tapas restaurants, having a few tapas at each restaurant and then we had dessert at this delicious, old-fashioned pastry shop. The streets in Seville are beautiful, with cobblestones, flowers and they are very pedestrian friendly, besides when mopeds or taxis are also trying to get down these very narrow streets.

We then went across the Guadalquivir river to Triana, another neighborhood, where we went to Casa Anselma, an old bar which has flamenco guitarists who sing and locals who come up and dance flamenco. It was really fun and had a lot of local color. We then walked around Calle Betis, the street by the river which is lined with bars and restaurants and filled with people on a Saturday night. It was a lot of fun and some of the bars even had live music.

Today we ate at Vinería San Telmo, which had very good tapas and among other, more tame and in my opinion more delicious items, we tried Bull's Tail, a specialty in Seville. I was only able to have a teeny bite; the reason I had very little of it was less about the taste and more about the idea of it!

We then went into the Cathedral of Saint Mary, the 3rd largest church i and the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. Originally a mosque from the Moorish period, it was completed in 1507 after the Catholics took over, and it contains Christopher Columbus' tomb, although there is a dispute over whether Seville or the Dominican Republic actually have his remains.

We then walked up to the top of the Giralda which was a minaret which was turned into a bell tower, and has a gorgeous view of all of Seville. The white buildings with flowers and roof top pools, the palm trees and orange trees, the river and so much more beauty are visible from here.

After hanging out at the rooftop pool at our hotel, which faces the Cathedral and has a view of a beautiful sunset, we met up with a girl from my study abroad program and all went out to dinner together at the San Marino Restaurant which has Italian food. Cameron Diaz, Tom Cruise and Madonna have all dined there. The food was great, but the service was so-so. The restaurant had previously been a Turkish bath. After dinner we wandered the streets by the river and discovered that some people play basketball in kayaks on the river. Pretty wild!

Tomorrow I will start orientation for my program. I can't wait. I am so excited for what's to come in these next few months. I miss my wonderful family and friends, but I am so glad that I am able to keep in touch easily with the internet and I am so grateful to have my sister here and my parents visiting in a month. I can't wait to travel around Europe and visit my friends from GW!

Ciao for now. xoxo, Jennie