Adventures and Addresses

(Written 9/1)

You should all be jealous. (Especially you Haverfordians who will be eating DC food all semester!) I am currently sitting in my very own bedroom in Sevilla, looking out over my courtyard and smelling the delicious food my Señora is currently cooking. Ok so the courtyard is two floors down, but there is a balcony across from my room and a roof you can go out on above that (Katie Simon). I’m also about 3 blocks from my program’s office, where my classes will be for the next three weeks. And (here’s the killer) even closer to a gelato place! I’m not sure if this is a blessing or a curse, but I am sure that I will be having plenty of gelato during the next 3 ½ months.

My room:

The balcony:

View from the balcony:

A bit more background:
After 3 flights over the course of 12 hours, I finally stepped off the plane in Sevilla. My group and I were soon ushered over to meet our Señoras (host moms). My Señora, Carmen, is an older single woman with a HUGE house and many nieces and nephews (whose pictures are literally everywhere). I also have a sort of “sister” from the program—her name is Alix. This, in fact, is one of the craziest coincidences, as she was the first person I met from the program, and we ended up next to each other on the long flight from New York to Madrid. In case you didn’t catch it before, we each have our own bedrooms. This is because the house (which is just for Carmen) has 5 bedrooms and 7 beds. It’s pretty much the best thing ever.


Now for your entertaining story of the day:
No one ever gave me the address of my house (yup, you can see what’s coming). Carmen brought us to the office for orientation this afternoon and assumed we could find our way back. I thought this to be true. I said to myself, “I paid attention to landmarks. I can make it home. Besides, there is literally only one turn between the office and my homestay.” Meet me, the girl with the worst sense of direction ever. After walking for a long time “on my way home,” I realized I actually had no idea where I was going. Since one group had stayed at the office for a “tour,” I decided to go back and see if someone would give me my homestay address. Enter hero of the day: Madeleine. Luckily, I ran into her, and luckily, she had a phone with the director’s phone number in it. I got the address, and the two of us managed to find my homestay. Hoo-Ray! (This is not actually that big of an accomplishment, as I basically live 3 blocks from the office. But it was impressive at the time.) Confident I could now make my way back home (albeit with a map in hand), I set out to get a cell phone. Although this mission has yet to be accomplished, I did find other people from the program, and together we found gelato! Indeed, this was my major victory of the day:

Spanish words of the day: pepino = cucumber (part of dinner); almeja = clam (part of lunch, though not for me….This is more of a shout-out to my homeland of MA—or, if you believe Brandon Robilotti, ME).

peace,
elizabeth