Drama en Sevilla

The sun is here!! It seems that the downpours have passed and that spring is coming. Although the Sevillans say that there is no spring; winter turns into summer in an instant. Either way, I thoroughly took advantage of the sunshine today by taking a long walk on deserted streets (all stores except cafés are closed on Sundays) and ate my lunch and did my homework on the terrace/roof of mi casa. My host mom was gone this weekend taking care of her grandchildren, so I was able to relax and eat at my leisure. She was so nice and made sure to leave me premade meals for both lunches and dinner. She seemed surprised today that I'd done my own dishes while she was gone! haha She obviously doesn't know Dad...

Rewinding a bit, on Friday, we had our first field trip to Itálica where we saw the Roman amphiteater as well as various Roman mosaics and other architecture. After having read about all the details and styles of Roman architecture, it was rewarding to be able to identify and understand what we were seeing. I definitely did not have that luxury (or interest) in Rome! Unfortunately, our professor had to cut the trip short because she had a family emergency...I think her father was in the emergency room, so I was amazed that she led us on the tour at all!
That night, Roger let all of us come over and cook dinner together. A few of the girls bought all the ingredients for a Mexican fiesta and we had about every kind of Mexican food you can imagine, including Margaritas. Our professor José and his wife Ana joined us too, and we all had a great time. We actually knew José and Ana before class started, because they were in Madrid with our group too. They are definitely my favorite adults in Spain and a lot of fun (Ana took a tequila shot with the boys!) We are now thinking of having a different themed dinner at Roger's apartment each weekend, trading off the cooking responsibilities. It's a nice change from our regular dinners at our homestays.

Saturday, after sleeping in until noon, my friend Claire and I tried to go to the biggest monument in Seville, the Cathedral. Unfortunately, it was closed due to some event, so we have to go back next weekend. I did at least get to take photos of the outside and the plaza area around the Cathedral. Saturday night was a major fútbol event, because the 2 Sevilla teams were playing each other (Sevilla vs. Betis). A couple of my friends live near the stadium, so we went to a bar in that area, which of course, was PACKED. On the walk there, guys were yelling in the streets, and apparently, fights between fans of rival teams are pretty common. Interesting enough, not only was the bar full of young people like me, but also families and children. One family was with their little baby, who surprisingly, was smiling and laughing almost the whole time! Mind you, this is at midnight. Serious cultural differences.

This evening I had my first meeting with my "intercambio", the conversation partner the school matched me up with. We met at a café to talk for a bit, and I was surprised when I walked up to find a 35 year old man! I had imagined that my intercambio would be another young student, but I guess they match you up with anyone who is learning English. After overcoming my initial shock, I had a pretty good time. We only talked in Spanish because he seemed very nervous to try to speak in English. He said that he's only been studying English for a few months and has an easier time writing and reading than speaking. I guess that's why he wanted an intercambio! His name is Carlos and he is actually a very nice guy and the hour we spent talking was great for me to practice my conversational Spanish. I learned that he was previously working in finances (where, I couldn't understand), but that he is currently unemployed and living at home (not too uncommon at this point in time). I haven't decided yet whether I want to get a new intercambio, one closer to my age, or if I should just stick with Carlos. It's not that he's weird in any way, I just thought it would be fun to meet someone who could take me out with their friends, etc. Open to suggestions!

I also had a long chat with my host mom tonight about her ex-husband and her daughter's ex-husband. She explained to me that she divorced her husband after 36 years of marriage, just 3 years ago. He was very angry and controlling and she said she finally wanted out once her daughters had moved out of the house. Her daughter (the one who has the grandchildren she was taking care of) divorced her husband 2 years ago because she found out via messages on the computer that her husband of 11 years, a policeman, was cheating on her with a colleague at work. Manoli (my hostmom) told me that all men are equal and that all are egoistic and only care about themselves...not sure that I agree with that, but it was interesting to hear her stories. From what I gathered from her story, Manoli's husband now lives with his awful, ugly, young girlfriend on the same street as us and is a lazy drunk. He also took over the restaurant that her family had owned (located directly below us) and she does not approve of what he's done. She said she refuses to talk to him, despite his proximity, and that her daughters feel the same way. This was all news to me, so I was pretty enthralled while she was telling me her history. If she had been speaking in English, I probably would have learned even more, but I was just happy to have her open up to me like that. She's obviously had a tough life and I'm impressed that she ended things with her awful husband after such a long time of enduring it.

Enough said for tonight. Tomorrow back to school!
Besos, Theresa

ps. please comment so I know that someone else besides Dad still reads these :)