First, I love Sevilla, Spain, Europe, it's a beautiful and wonderful place.
Second, everything here is so inefficient it drives me insane. As someone who had her days planned out by the hour, it's really frustrating when things take longer than they should.
I have numerous examples of these inefficient experiences and I'll share some of them with you in this post.
1. Customer Service in stores. There is usually one person working at the counter, even though there are at least three cash registers. There is barely anyone willing to help you in the store and it takes forever to check out.
2. My tours with CIEE. We went the most round about ways when getting showed around the city. It was not helpful at all and most definitely a waste of time. Additionally, the day we toured the business school we had to sit around for hours while other people had their Spanish interview. They didn't know what to do with us so we literally just sat in a hallway. We could have slept in an extra 2 hours or done something more productive.
3. Class time. There is no structure to the classes and some days I couldn't even tell you what we accomplished in the three hour time period. Today, my group gave our presentation. It was supposed to be 40 minutes but it lasted over 90 minutes because she kept asking us and the rest of the class questions. The other group that had to present barely had enough time.
4. Restaurants. It takes forever for them to bring you the bill. You usually have to ask them a few times.
5. Tonight. CIEE organized an event for us the American students to meet Spanish students. We were supposed to go to find an "Intercambio" or spanish friend that you meet up with once a week to work on your spanish with. It was at 10:00 PM and when we got to the hotel that the event was at, we had to wait in line for over 90 minutes. We were literally standing outside waiting for that long. Once we got inside they wouldn't let us into the room where everyone was mingling until more people left. Once they finally let us in it was basically all American students and very few Spanish students. It was nearing midnight and we were so frustrated that we left the hotel and headed back home.
If you can't tell, I'm a little on edge right now. There is nothing that frustrates me more than wasting time, especially when I have an essay due Friday along with an exam on Friday.
Positive things that happened today: I caved again. This time I caved by going to TGIFs and getting guacamole and chips. Someone told me I sounded fluent, I don't believe it, but I'll take the complement. My brother Paco came over for dinner and we discussed American music!
Sending Smiles from Sevilla,
Rebecca
TGIF. I missed guacamole so much.
Dinner: Chicken, pasta, a cold potato salad type thing (not bad, but not amazing)
Even though the night was a bust, a least we got a selfie with La Giralda
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