9/1/2019
I woke up, and looked across the room at my roommate. “Alright, time to get up and go to the school," I thought. Then I realized it was the afternoon, not the morning, and I had just woken up from an over 2 hour siesta. I then also realized that I couldn’t feel my right arm at all. I had fallen asleep with it behind my head, and all the blood had rushed out of it. I tried to lift it, but could not. So I literally grabbed it with my left hand and brought it to the front of my body to get blood flow once again. I was so disoriented and confused as to what was going on.
I feel like this is a decent representation of the past few weeks for me. I left Texas three weeks ago today, spent two weeks visiting friends and family, then flew to Spain with a group of students of whom I’ve never met before to live in Seville for a semester to study Spanish. Now that I’m here, I am trying to figure out how to navigate a new culture, a new roommate, a new group of students, a new school, and a new city. While I’m not as disoriented as I was when I woke up from the siesta, it has been quite a turnaround and adjustment.
I realized I should probably start a blog when my mom texted me yesterday “Hi! Send some details of what’s going on please!” and when my sister texted me the same day “How is Spain?” and I replied that it was good. She responded “Thanks for that. Very descriptive.” I’ve not always been the best communicator about my time abroad (cue laughing from my mom about how understated that was). So, I will try to update this blog once a week with happenings, reflections, etc. for anyone who wants to follow along.
Differences (only to name a few, because there are so many!)
Transportation: People here walk all the time! I have a 36 minute walk to my school, which I still probably still could not find by myself if I tried. I am getting very tired of walking so much and am going to try to rent a bike for the semester.
Weather: It is so so hot here – in the upper 90s. Hours of business are typically around 10-2 and then 5-8:30 because people don’t want to be outside between 2-5 due to the heat. So, when my host mom said she wanted to go shopping in the afternoon, she didn’t mean at 3. She meant at 6:30.
Language: Many of the sayings or vocabulary I learned in Ecuador (Que chevere, mande, etc) are not common here, but they are understood. I don’t use the vosotros tense of verbs, but my host mom uses it all the time so I’ll probably pick that up soon!
Food: Salad here isn’t lettuce with other things – it can be rice, chopped tomatoes, chopped pineapple, and olive oil. Olive oil is really big here. The food is typically cold because it is so hot here. My host mom always wants me to eat lots of food even when I’m full… but I’m sure I’m walking most of it off!
Interactions with people: Yes, I did a Midwest wave at the person who stopped for me to cross the street the other day… whoops. People here don’t smile to people passing by, but if you stop and ask for help (which I have done many times due to my lack of directional skills) the Spaniards are so kind and willing to help.
Religion: Religion is not openly talked about here, which I think may be hard for me because I love to talk about it! There is only one evangelical church within walking distance, so I went to that today. It was very long, and probably had about 40 people there (8 of them were from our program). The people were very welcoming and kind, and many different people from the congregation were included in the service, standing up, reading from the Bible, and sharing about the passage. We sang “Oceans” in Spanish as well as the song “We Worship You”. It reminded me of singing that song half in English and half in Spanish with my friends in Peru.
Desires/Goals
- Get a bike and explore the town
- Travel to see some gorgeous nature, especially mountains
- Find a game store and go play board/card games with Spaniards
- Learn flamenco (traditional dance) and go watch a flamenco performance
- Paddleboard on the river that I cross daily to go to school
Week 1 favorites
Thing to do: talk with my host mom, Pilar. She is so great and corrects my grammar, which is so helpful!
Landmark: The river is gorgeous, wide, and always has boats, kayakers, or paddleboarders.
Activity of the week: Going to Dominos (I know, not very cultural of us), hanging by the river at night, then getting ice cream
Food: Rice soup and rice salad
Favorite new word: mayuscula and minuscula (uppercase and lowercase) It’s so fun – try to say them!
Mini reflections
I like siesta time. I think its healthy to slow down during the day, take some time to rest, recollect, then continue the day. Even if I don’t sleep, laying down and giving your brain a break is rejuvenating.
I realized that I have not really seen grass, or a field, or anything like that, and I miss it.
Air conditioning is not necessary if you learn how to open the windows at night to get a cross breeze and close the blinds properly during the hot time of the day. This saves a lot of energy and money.
I am so pumped for classes and can’t wait to continue learning Spanish. I’m thankful to be here and for another opportunity to be immersed in a Spanish speaking environment.
Finally, it is so cool to compare this experience to my experience two years ago in Ecuador. When I showed up in Ecuador, I couldn’t really understand anything that anyone was saying to me in Spanish. Now, just two years later, I am communicating well, taking an advanced grammar course, and loving speaking and understanding more and more of the language. It’s so cool how different a path I’m on than I was two years ago. Or, rather, I am on the same path, just the path led me to such a different place than I expected to be. This points to one of my favorite verses that is found in Proverbs 16:9 - In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.
If you are still reading this, you must really care about me a lot! Thanks for taking the time to read and understand my experience a little better. Please let me know if there are any questions you would want me to answer on an upcoming blog. Thanks again for your support – I appreciate you.
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