The blonde Hilary, who’s in Sevilla wrote this:

Today was the first day of classes!! this is what my schedule look like – Mon and Wed

1030-1150: international marketing (in English)
1200-120: Spanish civilization and culture (all in Spanish)
130-250: Spanish phonetics and phonology (all in Spanish)

Tues and Thurs
12-120: Spanish contemporary literature (all in Spanish)
130-250: Spanish for business (all in Spanish)

So that’s what I have for classes. Today we obviously had the ones for Mon and Wed and I like them all and I like all of my professors. They won’t be all that much work I’m hoping, but I think they will all be a lot of information at once. I’m finding that i know a ton more Spanish that I thought i did. Speaking it is harder than listening and understanding, but when I sit through three straight hours of Spanish lectures, my brain actually hurts from processing that much Spanish at once. On the class placement test i placed as advanced 1 (the highest level is advanced 2 which is mostly only native speakers) so i was really happy about that.

Other than classes, I’m getting what they call an ‘intercambio’, which is a student at the University from Sevilla who wants to learn English and they help teach me Spanish. You meet up as much as you want and do whatever you want and talk as much as possible and learn from each other. It’s a great way to meet locals and use vocabulary that you might not ordinarily use. I’m also planning on doing intramural beach volleyball, Tai Chi and yoga, and joining a program that helps teach English to elementary school kids (all offered for free by my university). I’m finding that when i keep myself busy I don’t feel like I’m in another country at all. but when I’m sitting in my tiny museum of a home where I can’t touch anything and feel unwelcome and uncomfortable I don’t want to be here at all. I know that when i get a new family I will be so much happier. i wouldn’t be so obsessed with getting a new family other than the fact that I listen to the other kids in the program rave about how great their families are all day, so i know that what I’m experiencing is not the norm.

Going out at night is probably my favorite part of the day so far. The nightlife here is so much fun and so crazy. Lunch is eaten between 2 and 3, followed by a siesta resting period, and dinner is not till 9. After that everyone gets ready and is out until so so late. We usually get home around 3 or 4 and all the bars are still open and the locals are out for much longer. Us gringos are not totally used to doing things so late. Luckily, i got over jet lag in like 2 days by staying up so late.

The other kids on the trip are really nice, I’ve made a good group of friends and when we go out at night there are a solid 20 of us that you can expect to be there every time. There are a few from Umass that remind me of my friends from there, even though we didn’t know each other until we got to Spain.

This city is so beautiful. When i walk around with a camera i want to take a picture of every single thing because it all should be on a post card. We have the biggest cathedral in Spain, apparently you can fit every person from the Dominican Republic in it haha but don’t quote me on that. And guess whose crypt we saw there in that cathedral? Christopher Colombus! haha they did a DNA test on his living relatives and it actually was him in there.

So I’m at an internet cafe right now for email and stuff, but I can’t upload the hundreds of pictures that I’ve taken because they don’t all fit on my thumb drives and I’m too lazy to save them as another type of file or whatever i need to do.

i can’t wait to get into the full swing of classes and get into the rhythm of being here more.

Hope all is well with you and everyone else at home.

hasta luego

hil

Blogmeister’s note: No, I didn’t ask for permission to post this and I hope yet another Hilary is not mad at me. I did edit out the paragraphs where Hil said she’d joined the Basque Separatists.