Shorts from Spain

Short Stories from Spain

The city of Sevilla is very comfortable, beautiful, and active. It has a time of it´s own in so many respects I´m not going to attempt to list them all at the moment. My host family is fantastic and my fellow students here are no less a mixture than those at home, same goes for the sevillanos. ¡Que suerte estar en Sevilla!

el 13 de septiembre 2001 - heeheehee. What fun! The Centre had a fiesta for the intercambios, which most of us went to and spent time at mostly for the free drinks. A group of us girls then went to Haagen-Dazs for ice cream (and as my friends can tell you I would never give teh an opprotunity for ice cream!). After that we kind of started to break up and hop around the city. Flamenco dancing en Calle Betis, then to a bar with Salsa music, to a bar a few doors down and meeting up with other students from the center, then the majority of the students on Calle Betis made their way (By taxi) to Palenke (sp?)... which I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but am EXTREMELY happy I went. Dancing until 4 in the morning with various people (American and Spanish) was so much fun... well except for this one instance but that ended up having a good effect on the outcome of my night so it´s just another thing to mark down as an "experience". (Yes, and thank you Justin for "rescuing me".) Old people should NOT be allowed into places designed for our age group!

el 25 de septiembre - Life sometimes simply sucks. Spain is a beautiful place but beauty doesn´t keep you from being screwed over and your life from being fucked up. Give it time.

Wish I had Bella here... I´d be great to cruise around right now. I really miss that. It´s an American thing I think... you forget how important driving is to you until you can´t drive for a while.

el 27 de septiembre - WAS suppose to go to Grananda. Now I´m going to make the plans myself for two or three weeks. GRR. I hate when people say "no problem" before checking it all out first.

el 29 de septiembre - Día de San Migel & Feria de San Miguel. Life is slowly being better again. Finally went to the "club" Catedral with a mess of students from CCCS and today ... I don´t think I´ve eatten that much since I was 12 at Valcour lodge. Miguel Sr & Miguel Jr (for their saints day) and Pilar (hija)celebrated their birthdays today. wow wow wow. But it´s great to have that many people at the table and visiting, for me it feels like Easter when they´re all there. :-) Going to Feria tonight.

4 de octubre- Finally got my pictures developed (well some anyway).

here´s what I´ve scanned from the pictures from the Center´s trip to Trujillo
They look a lot better in person, and I don´t have photo shop here to lighten them up.
(damn person here who scanned them scanned them darker than the photos are. so if someone from home wants to copy them and lighten them up for me [hint hint])

el 5 de octubre- Yet again have I been invited then disintvited on trips. GRR. Other than that I´m having fun. Spent last night from 11pm to roughly 4am at La Reja drinking and dancing with my "friends" fom school. Not sure if they´re friends or aquaintances, as only time can tell, but it was fun. The only bad part is that it´s a club which plays a lot of american "troylet" music - and most of the girls with me agree Spanish dance music is better... but beggars can´t be chosers and Palenke is closed for the rest of my time here. Suppose to go to a Tapas bar tonight... but of course I could just get dropped again.
(addition 8/10/01 - also got "dropped" again for a trip to Portugal and then one to Gilbraltar. Neither intensionally but because people in general forget to THINK AHEAD. I got sick of dealing with the Americans and hung out the rest of the weekend with my intercambio Juan José, who unlike the American guys here actually does what he says he will.)

el 8 de octubre- BETIS ROCKS! Finally got to go to a partido de fúbol last night (sunday night). Juan José should have been studying but because he´s a great guy I was able to talk him into going to Sundays game saturday night/sunday morning. It helped that he´s a true Betis fan through and through and bothered by the fact that I wasn´t parcial one way or the other. Now, yes, I am a Betisian follower. :-D How can I not be? My sevillano friends are and the colors of the team are Green & white accented by gold - the colors of my life more or less. (ELCS,SAGE Colleges, & then; REAL BETIS)

And Betis won 1-0 now tied for first place in the league (as far as I can figure) woo hoo!

el 12 de octubre - Good weekend. Finally went to GIBRALTAR... and it is definitely a world of it´s own. But just as much fun was the night before being out with mostly new sevillano amigos. (Don´t worry, Juan was there) And so we were out (and I was practicing my Spanish) until 5 and I got up to shower, dress and go at 7:30. 2 and a half hours of sleep--- but it was worth it

el 22 de octubre- Not a hell of a lot to say right now. My ties to home are finally where they should be but very strange none the less. Went to Cordoba and when I get my pictures developed I´ll have more to say (and hopefully show). As for my life in Sevilla, got a rose :-D That was probably the highlight of my weekend. It might not have been yellow but it was a nice gesture none the less just done for the hell of it. And when some random sevillano can visit with you about things both spanish and american (baseball, movies and actors) it´s a good conversation and pleasant practice of spanish.
He gets a point for knowing Babe Ruth was a Yankee, negative for sayign Betis is a worse team tham Sevilla, point for the rose, negative for not admitting his age, point for liking Humfrey Bogard as all time favorite actor and thinking Harrison Ford is a great actor... so one point in his favor is a good thing.
SIDE NOTE: Guys, don´t lie about your age. I don´t care how old you are or aren´t... it just makes me wonder what you´re hiding if you won´t admit your age.

el 29 de octubre - Going to Grananda! ladadadadada :-) I don´t leave til Thursday night but just the thought and knowing I have a ticket is making this week not so terrible. My first calss Monday (today) has been canceled because the profesora is sick. Sorry Ana, it´s our class´fault, but I´m happy we don´t have class :-) talked to my best friend, got a postcard from Grandma and my first class has been cancelled. There can be Good Mondays after all!

el 21 de nov 2001- Hey, been a long time without an update. Hven´t gone on any big trips around Europe so I doubt the rest of what´s been going on interests many people. Been chillin out weekends here in Sevilla with various people from the center, Juan José, other sevillanos, or a mix of the forementioned. Been to the alcazar here in Sevilla and will try to go back this weekend to get some pictures, and have to get more shots of the Catedral también. Really, this catedral is so amazing and such an interestign mix of times and cultures.
Yes, I´ve done a few (I consider minor) things in the past month people will say I regret, but I don´t (so stop worrying about it Anthony!) and if all else fails I think I have finally achieved a majority of what I set out to do when I came here... the important stuff : practicing Spanish, absorbing some culture, meeting new people, learning a hell about myself - finding what is really important, and finally having to chose if I´m going to be my own person or not. These things are (obviously) not purely academic but my philosophy has always been that no large amount of time, no large trip, is worth the hastle if all you get out of it is something you can get at home.

Now, more then ever, I appreciate having that sentiment.
It will be the things left undone, not that I have done, that I will wish were different. Everything that happens adds to who you are, adds to your experience... and hopefully the combination keeps you from making choices that do permenant damamge later on.

26 de Noviembre - This weekend went by extremely fast... can´t imagine what would´ve helped make that go so fast. Anyway, Thursday night met Winn, Conal, Rachel, Ben, Ben´s sister Kate, & Clif at the Carboneria at midnight. They had already been there awhile by the time I made it through the laborynth that is Bario Santa Cruz. Agua de Sevilla... after a few glasses it doesn´t matter too much whether you like it or not.

So, after at least 5 vasos de Agua de Sevilla we left slightly after 3am. I never went home. No, no I didn´t go home with a guy I stayed at Winn´s since she forgot she´s lactose intolerant and mix the creme in Agau de Sevilla with that much alcohol... yeah. Went home at 10am, showered, dressed, got my desert and went to the center´s Thanksgiving dinner. Yes, the Thanksgiving lunch was the day after thanksgiving. Well, they had wine there. 6pm came around and the last 5 of us students literally got kicked out. (I think I have been kicked out cause I´m here til closing WAY too much.) So, what do we do? go home to grab stuff then go straight back out to San Salvador to... (what else) drink some more. early night. midnight for me... others...???

That brings me to Saturday. After only 4 hours of sleep Thursday night I slept til 3pm Saturday so my body wouldn´t kill me. Got up, ate lunch, made a few calls, watched a movie on TV and reread a sweet email from aj then went to Triana where we hopped around to a few tea shops on Calle Pureza. I think they are the coolest places I´ve been to in this city. I love good tea and they had an atmosphere too. Then I met up with Juan José at 11 and went out with that group... back to Nervión. Had to explain to each individual that I didn´t care to drink that night but other than that it was great. Talked forever with Luis about random stuff. Mostly movies. Speaking of movies watched the Curse of the Jade Scorpion Sunday evening. It was cute. and I´m not a Woody Allen fan.
... and now it´s Monday.... back to class... with two tests this week....
pray for me!

el 11 de diciembre- HAPPY ANNIVERSARY GRUM & POPPY!
Went to Granada this weekend. I´ll post pictures in January when I get back to college. Granada was absolutely gorgeous,the Alhambra magnificent and the Generalife... all I can say is I understand why Washington Irving went there and wrote it´s stunning. Definitely if one comes to Spain for s visit they should go to Granada and make reservations for Alhambra.
First of three FINAL EXAMS Friday (three days-less than 53 hours) WISH ME LUCK, keep your fingers crossed etc.

The COUNTDOWN IS HERE - LESS THAN A WEEK! Then I get my hugs back, my guy back, tales from my family and the comforts and norms of the states!

el 14 de diciembre - FINALS SUCK, one down two more to go... and a week to the day I am home, with my family, my guy, and HUGS. Grammar exam ran me over, but I´ll bounce back. Tonight I´m going out (for the last time :( ) with Juan José since his actual birthday (Sunday) is a bad day for both of us. And tomorrow evening there´s a huge group going out for dinner, primarily cause Amanda F.(see Trujillo photos) leaves monday to travel since she´s done with finals after tomorrow. Wish I was done with finals, my stomach won´t calm down til I am.

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