Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Still going strong

Hola todos!
I don't even know where to start. Things continue to go seamlessly (knock on wood). I think the fact that I never really thought about being here for an entire semester helped. I pushed it out of my mind as a mechanism to fight my nerves--and it worked! I already know I'm going to have a hard time leaving. Yesterday I received an email from IU about teaching in Spain. I think I have to wait a year to apply, however, it's a great sign that I'm thinking of how I can get back here.

The only thing I've had trouble with is getting the lay of the land. I pride myself on being very good with directions, but I'm afraid that doesn't apply here. It's been slightly startling since it never takes me more than a few days to get orientated and I'm so used to always knowing exactly where I'm going. Streets aren't straight for more than a block, seriously. It's an adventure every time I leave the house. My map is glued to my side!

Yesterday we had an assignment to go to the Museo de Bellas Artes (Museum of Fine Art.) Our professor promised us that it would be open no later than 10. I had made plans with a few classmates to go at 10. When we arrived, we were greeted by several other kids from the class and a closed museum. I've come accustomed to this being the spanish way. Many of my classmates were freaking out that the museum was closed. I'm happy to say that I was easily able to shrug it off. I just figured I would go the next day. I like what Spain is bringing out of me. I'm able to be much more relaxed. Since the museum was closed yesterday, we went back this morning to do our assignment. The building itself is gorgeous! The art was pretty as well. Most of the stuff was religious, so I didn't enjoy that too much. The last few rooms, however had several beautiful pieces. One was of women working in the tobacco factory, another of all of these bullfighters and the last one that I really liked was of these three women during La Fería, an important Sevillano festival.

After the museum we went to get a snack, claro (of course!) After snacking I came home to take a nap. What can I say? It was a tough day. That was my first nap of the day...I took another brief one after lunch. I mentioned how tired I was to one of my friends and she thought it might be related to trying to speak and listen to spanish all of the time. As funny as it sounds, it's very tiring. So I'll blame it on that and all of the walking.

We just finished dinner and now we're watching Matchstick men. Things are a lot quieter around here this week. My brothers are at their dad's house. I don't really mind it, because now I can follow the conversation a little bit better. Antonio, my señora's boyfriend, has been here this week as well. I have a feeling this is supposed to be a little secret between the three of us. I have a sneaking suspicion the boys don't know that he practically lives here during the week they spend at their dad's. Antonio is really funny, so I enjoy having him around. Did I mention that my señora's name is Antonia? Isn't that funny? Antonio and Antonia. I sure got a kick out of it.

Tomorrow I have an assignment to go to the university to interview students. The goal of the assignment is to see the different expectations between American and Spanish students. We'll see how it goes. My teacher is a riot. She always picks on the two boys in my class. On our first day of class one of my classmates said he was from Portage, Indiana, but he pronounced it with a spanish accent. Our professor started cracking up and later told us that "Potaje" meant stew. Maybe it would something that you needed to be there for, but she was crying she was laughing so hard. It's a fun class.


Here is the plaza outside of my house. The patio looks out onto this area.

I'm having trouble loading the other photos, so stay tuned.

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