Global Discussion

We had a global discussion in my ethics class today, which means that we had a debate with Spanish students about ethical issues, and then went out to have drinks with them. Yes, our school paid for us to go get beer or sangria with Spanish students. It was actually a lot of fun to chat with some of the Spanish students from the university and learn more about Sevilla from their point of view! (and learn where the best and cheapest tapas restaurants and bars are...)

In my photo class today our professor separated us into groups and took us out on a little venture into el centro. Class field trip! He helped us try to figure out what we want to do for our projects, and it was semi-helpful. I've got an idea and once it become more concrete I'll definitely share my photos on this blog! 

Had a great three person workout this morning! Hopefully the numbers will start to grow since the weather is getting nicer!

Sending Smiles From Sevilla,

Rebecca

After the morning workout I used Virginia's Sandwichera and treated myself to a warm banana peanut butter sandwich. Yummmm.

Then Virginia made me some artichoke hearts with red peppers and garlic. Yummm, again.

For dinner, she prepared a new type of pasta. Not really sure how to describe it. It was called Pasta Bachamel, kind of like mac and cheese but not the same. I really liked it though!

Take a Hike...and a fall

I ventured off on another CIEE sponsored "Hike" today. Again, I was little disappointed as the picture of the event showed a beautiful scenic lake that I imagined we would be hiking up and around. However, there was no water whatsoever. It was pretty though, there were some cool rock structures that we got to see! Virginia packed me leftovers from the Tortilla Espanola which was a fabulous lunch!

Before the hike some CIEE students were playing frisbee and as a huge fan of frisbee I jumped in the circle and asked to join. I've played frisbee before, I even brought one with to Sevilla, so I was excited to get a disc back in my hand. Mind you, I knew none of the kids in this circle. Well, someone threw the frisbee my way, a little over my head and I basically made the biggest fool of myself, fell over backwards, my backpack fell over my head I and completely missed the disc. I'm a pro at embarrassing myself, but usually it's around people I know, so this situation was a little extra embarrassing/ awkward. I then proceeded to throw the frisbee to someone else, and it was probably the most awful toss of my frisbee playing career. Rough start to the hike but then I told my friend Troy about it and laughing it over made it much better.

After the hike, the the same kids were playing frisbee again. I decided to attempt to redeem myself after the morning's fiasco. I got in my groove and was tossing it around like I knew how. After striking out many times in my days of playing softball, I know that the most important part of the game is stepping back up to the plate...a fun metaphor for life :) Yeah, super cheezy, I know.

Sending Smiles From Sevilla,

Rebecca

Pictures from the "Hike"

Dinner: Grilled Cheese with peppers in it, salad and potato chips. Very American.

A Wandering Day

I fell asleep watching White Chicks last night, so here is a summary of my day, through pictures.

Sending Smiles From Sevilla,

Rebecca

Had a little sniffle in the morning so Virginia made me fresh squeezed OJ

Wandered Around Sevilla and found Heaven. The Pictures explain everything.

        

Wandered some more and found Plaza de Hercules. 

Wandered some more and found this pretty bridge.

Pictures while wandering

Some attempted artsy pics for my photography class:

     

Dinner: Amazing Tortilla Espanola with onions, peppers and zucchini in it, chicken nuggets, cheese, and olives (tried the olives, did not like them) 

Feliz Dia del San Valentin

One of my favorite days of the year, Valentine's Day! No, I don't have a boyfriend that showers me with roses and chocolate but hey who says I can't shower myself with gelato? Valentine's Day is the perfect excuse to get bars of chocolate, cups of gelato and glasses of wine (not that I need an excuse, but hey, I'll use this day as one). So, today I did all of that.

I always bake for my friends on Valentine's day so this morning I decided to get up semi-early and bake cookies! Since I couldn't find all of the ingredients, I ended up buying a box mix. Virginia was curious about how to make them so I showed her as I went along and added the ingredients (box mix and egg) to the bowl. If I understood her right, I don't think she has ever had chocolate chip cookies before...I was in shock. Well, she really liked the ones that I made, and so did Francisco! Success! I wrapped up the rest and brought them with to my tour of the cathedral.

I went on a tour of the cathedral en el centro with CIEE. It was absolutely breathtaking. It's the third largest cathedral in the world and I seriously could not get over how amazing it was. Also, Christopher Columbus is buried there! long with a bunch of other people, it's basically a cemetery in addition to a cathedral. The big tower that is attached to the cathedral is called la Girlada, and it is so beautiful as well. After our tour we went to the top of la Giralda for an amazing view of Sevilla. It's 43 levels up, but no stairs. It's all ramps! Why is it 43 ramps you may ask? Well, apparently back in the day the had their horses take them up to the top. Pretty lazy if ya ask me, the climb wasn't that bad! I learned about la catedral y la Giralda in my Spanish history class back in Madison so it was really cool to finally go inside and see them!

I of course followed through on my Valentine's Day tradition of buying myself ice cream; I went to my favorite gelato place called La abuela. They unfortunately didn't have my favorite flavor, but don't worry, there were about 20 other to choose from!

I wandered around el centro and relaxed in the afternoon. After dinner with Virginia and Francisco I was face timing with my dad and he wished me a happy valentines day and told me to have a glass of baileys on the rocks for him. Baileys has always been my drink of choice ever since my dad introduced it to me. So, after haning up with my dad, I went to a bar with two of my friends and had a glass of Bailey's on the rocks. So, cheers to you padre, happy valentine's day!

Sending Smiles from Sevilla,

Rebecca

Fresh baked cooookies (as Virginia says it!)

La Catedral. So beautiful inside!

La Giralda and the view from the top!

Gelato at La Abuela! MMMM.

Dinner: White Asparagus, Soup, and the potato salad thing. 

Volunteering on the South Side

I love to volunteer, so when I found out that there were opportunities to volunteer in Sevilla I was eager to sign up. Back in Madison, I volunteered bi-weekly as a Girls On the Run coach and in the summer I work at a girls sports camp! I love working with kids and sports! I found out that in Sevilla there was a program where I would be able to volunteer with a kids soccer team, even though I can't play soccer for my life, I wanted to do it! However, the soccer volunteering conflicted with my class schedule, so the coordinator told me I had to choose something else. 

All I really wanted to do was work with kids so I picked out an after-school program in an underprivileged neighborhood. The coordinator told me that a guide would meet me at a bus stop and guide me through my first day. Edu, showed up and we hopped on a bus. I was a little worried when he kept calling people to see where we were going and was asking me questions I didn't know the answer to. I had no idea where we were going, no address, no contact person, I was just following his lead. Well, he really didn't know where we were going. He was asking the bus driver and we finally got off the bus. You could definitely tell the difference between this area of Sevilla, and the neighborhood that I live in. We definitely got off at the wrong stop and we wandered around until we found the school. They opened the gate for us and let us in. Then Edu left me to figure out what I was doing there and told me that I'd have to take the bus back by myself! 

Luckily, the coordinator, Maria del Mar, at the school was such a sweetheart and she brought me in and showed me around. I was expecting to work with kids around the ages of 7-11, but I walked into a room and felt like Hillary Swank when she walked into the high school classroom in the movie Freedom Writers. The "kids" were about 13-17 (middle school to high school age) and they all stared at me when I walked in. Maria introduced me and explained that I was from America and here to help them with their English. I said I was from Chicago and they all thought that was soooo cool because they had seen it in the movies. It was kind of adorable. 

Anyways, I knew right away this would be a challenge. They were sassy, not motivated to learn English, and strictly wanted me to translate words for them. Also, about 5 of the boys told me their names were Manuel...I felt like a vulnerable substitute teacher. Some of the girls were nice and told me that my Spanish was very good and that I had a good accent! Other girls were a little pushy and would yell, "Ven!" (Come!) when they needed help. I don't deal with sass well, so I would go over to them and say "POR FAVOR!" (PLEASE!) If I am going to do one thing at this school, it will be to teach these kids some manners! The kids would continue to ask me what this means, is this a verb or a noun or an adjective, etc.. I used to tutor and I do not put up with kids thinking that they will just get answers from me. I'm a big fan of the process of learning, so I tried to get the kids to come up with the answers themselves. 

I was working with one girl who was 16 and had to translate the play, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde into Spanish. We translated one page together and then I told her she should try to do the next page by herself and then I would check her work when she finished. She got super mad and started rambling in Spanish and a few minutes later she left. Whoops. I'm just trying to teach these kids to be a little independent! 

Honestly, I'm pretty sure middle school kids are the hardest age group to deal with. There were kids "flirting," hitting each other, screaming across the room, whispering secrets and doing who knows what else. I really would have preferred elementary school children, and I can probably still switch to that, but I think I'm going to stick this out for a while and see how it goes.

Once all the kids left I was talking to the two coordinators, Maria and Gema, and they were complimenting me on my Spanish and saying that they are thinking about trying to learn English. Gema is really eager to learn, so I told her that next week if the kids didn't need help I would sit down with her and try to teach her a few things. She was really excited!

I managed to get on the bus and find my way back to Nervion in time for my Finance class. Which I actually cried in, for the second time this semester, there have only been 4 classes. Don't worry, they were tears from laughing so hard. My teacher asked us what assets are so I literally said some part of a definition straight from our textbook and he proceeded to tell me that I was wrong and that that was a liability. I then circled the text of the definition of an asset which is exactly what I said, he looked at me and knew he was wrong but kept trying to beat around the bush. My friends and I all started laughing and I when someone else starts to laugh, I laugh even harder. Anyways, there is a huge language barrier between us and our teacher, and not just the language, but the strong accent that he possesses. So this made the conversation/ argument even funnier.

This evening I had dinner with Virginia and Paco and then went out with Javier, and 2 other intercambio pairs. We went to a few bars but I was so exhausted from the day that I headed home with a friend around 2:00. Javier is nice, but his English is a bit of a struggle and he has a lot of misconceptions about America that lead to me having to bust the myths that he believes. He's learning and so am I! 

Sending Smiles From Sevilla,

Rebecca

What I learned about in Wine Class today: Young wine vs. Aged wine, and how to tell how old wine is and if it's still good

Lunch: Chicken, Pasta and Peppers

When we got off the bus.... middle of nowhere...slightly sketchy

The gated school which I volunteered and the classroom where I was tutoring

Dinner: Chicken and a Veggie Mix of sautéed zucchini, onions and peppers

WIFI POR FAVOR

As a study abroad student, Wi-Fi is kind of addicting. It's a rarity that we find wi-fi at places other than our homes or places that we have to buy food in order to get the password. Our program was supposed give us the wifi information last week, which they did, but it must have been the wrong information because no one was able to access it. So, they decided to have wi-fi information sessions to help us logon. Well, they gave us the most vague directions to the location where this session is so I aimlessly wandered until I found my friend Becca, then we wandered some more until we eventually found it. They were able to figure out how to get wifi on my laptop, but still couldn't get it to work on my phone. I also need to have access the school webpage, (like Courses@Bus or MyUW). A few days ago I was able to access it but now I'm not...struggling with all of this technology!

Also, they call it WeeFee here.

This morning I had three new smiling faces complete an intense work out with me! It was a blast!

Sending Smiles from Sevilla,

Rebecca

Lunch: Sauteed Broccoli, fried zucchini and chicken croquetas. All great.

After class I got some fantastic tapas with a friend of mine from Madison who is studying abroad here in Sevilla, but in a different program. We shared some delicious foods at a tapas bar! Had the best salad I've had here, it had goat cheese and pear (felt like I was back in America!) and also had some GUAC with banana and rice pattys/ chips (actually good), and patatas bravas (potatoes with ali oli sauce)! YUM. 

"Rebecca, I didn't know you liked squid!"

When I was probably around 10 years old I was out eating dinner with my parents and their friends and right as I'm chewing on what I had no clue was a tentacle my dad's friend says to me, "Rebecca, I didn't know you liked squid!" and that's where my calamari eating days ended. Now, yes it's slightly irrational for me to stop eating calamari because it's squid, but as a 10 year old that sounded like the grossest thing ever, so I spit it out and hadn't touched it ever since. Calamari happens to be my dad's favorite food and I'm pretty sure it kills him that I won't eat it. So, this post is dedicated to you, padre!

My first night out in Sevilla, when I went to get Tapas with my group, I decided to take on the challenge of trying calamari again. I could not even swallow it. That was about a month ago. Today, Virginia made calamari for lunch for myself, Gema, Carlos and Paco. They all told me I had to try it again, so I went for it. I took a little piece and managed to get the whole thing down. It wasn't terrible, but I didn't really enjoy it. I hate to say it, but I think I'm still scarred from my experience 10 years ago and I'm still grossed out by the fact that it's squid...

On a more exciting note, I got my first piece of mail today! Shout out to Gina for being my valentine this year! She knows how much I love this "holiday" and sent me a cute little card with a penguin on it!

More exciting news, my credit card finally worked today! HALLELUJAH

Lastly, I thought that the horror of accounting in my life was over, but today we talked about activos and pasivos (assets and liabilities) in finance and I almost shed a tear.

Sending Smiles From Sevilla,

Rebecca

Thanks Gina! I will most definitely treat myself to loads of gelato! In terms of getting sprinkled with kisses, does the whole "dos besos" thing count?? 

Lunch: The calamari is all the way in the back of the picture, but I did try it! Also had the potato and artichoke soup which I loveeee and some chicken croquetas! 

Dinner: I tried explaining grilled cheese (and my love for it) yesterday to Virginia and today she made me one! It was great! She also made me white asparagus (a little different from the regular type, but still good) and peppers and soup! And a special treat for dessert or strawberries in fresh squeezed orange juice, definitely still my favorite thing I've had here!