This past weekend
13 November 2006
What a weekend I am trying to just think about where to begin and I think I am going to start with Thursday so here you go!
Thursday was a harder day for me because I had a control (a test) in my grammar class (that class is my toughest class so tests in it are always a little scary) but I feel that I did ok. There was a lot of people missing from classes today because they had left for their vacations early this week so the classes we smaller and quicker (always nice). My roommate had left early that morning for London so I had the room to myself in the afternoon. After my siesta and a quick trip to the internet lab at my school for last minute e-mails, I went to dinner with Vincent and Brian at an english pub they had found, it will be nice to go to this for the big soccer games. We shared a plate of quesadillas (yeah it was great), I am trying to not eat a lot because of my morrocan problem but I splurged and got a tinto verano (not a good idea).
Then we rode a bus to the Sevilla stadium in Nervion (a certain part of town). We had tickets that were 4 rows from the field and the first half we got to see all of sevilla´s goals. Also all the hard core sevilla fans were standing on our right side right behind the goal so the seats were perfect! I had so much fun watching the fans as they had flags, a lot of cheers, and a drum. There were few quiet parts in the game. Sevilla dominated the whole game and ended the game 3-2 yeah!
Friday
No classes! One of the great advantages of going to school at Menedez Pelayo. However, I wasn´t allowed to eat any food all day because my director and my host mom tell me that you need to empty your stomach and then eat little meals to build back up to your normal diet. I had activities to fill up that gap and the first was a meeting I at ten with the volunteer supervisor at ONCE. I got there early (I really thought I would get lost but with my map I did fine) and had an hour to sit on a bench placed around a pretty fountain and work on travel plans for my family, when they visit, and classes for next semester. It was really pretty with the sun shining making it warm but not hot, and not a lot of people.
My interview/introduction session at the ONCE office was good. I was lost at first trying to find his office as I didn´t take the elevator to el primera planta instead of permera pisa (I think) and had to ask for directions again in one of the offices which just happened to be (luckily) right across from his so it was good.
This guy loved talking to me (and need I say correcting me) a whole lot. I got hesitant to talk to him as I kept getting corrected but as I look back it was not really that bad, and I did get to meet one of the elderly men that he works with. I am guessing by this moment you are wondering what ONCE is well it is an organization that works with the blind. They have little buildings (that doesn´t really explain them well they are really small like a portapotty but really nice) all over the city to help the blind with anything, and to sell lottery tickets. The lottery in Sevilla is set up to to give a portion to ONCE every time someone buys a ticket. On a more personal note it also is open to tourists and they don´t take taxes out so it is pretty neat.
I got home to eat and play in the internet lab at the school for a long time, then went to lunch time with my family to sleep, couldn´t eat. I got up to walk around a bit then returned for dinner (my host mom felt bad and gave me a little bit of meat and yogurt).
After dinner I went out to meet with a guy I had met at teatre, the discoteca Ashton and I went dancing at our last free weekend in Sevilla, David (or Davi in castillan). After a lot of messaging on our cell phones and a couple rounds of circling plaza nueva looking for eachother (there is a lot of construction going on in the plaza so we just circled the construction site a couple times and it was obviously like a game of cat and mouse. Finally I saw a guy on the phone and caught up to him!)
He had his car (it was really new, black leather seats, a nice stereo system, and of course it was red and compact) so he drove while I made small talk about his music selection, which was a mixed cd of mainly rap all in English (I never would have guessed how much of their music is the same as the US´s this is kind of a let down to me as I walk to school and a lot of the stores play songs that are what I can hear in the US in english too oh well) which I found kind of funny. He really doesn´t speak any english, I mean besides ¨what is your name¨ ¨where do you come from¨ you know the normal stuff so to hear him listening to this music I had a lot of questions. Which all of them came up with the answer ¨no conozco las palabras solamente el ritmo¨ so I offered to interpret it for him but felt bad as a lot of the songs talked about sex, and used a lot of slang (the he wouldn´t understand as it is a cultural thing) and he would never be able to listen to the song and fully understand it (I think the words really kill most of the songs so maybe I won´t translate it for him)
We (more like he) decided to go to Calle Betis, a street near the river (and my house for that matter) that has a lot of americans normally because it is lined with bars with a really nice discoteca (I have been told as I have been avoiding hanging out with just americans, and lo es un poco caro para mi, 10 euros).
It is a thursday night so the street is pretty packed (no double parking yet but it was definately coming) so when he saw a couple leave a restaurant and go to their car we waited. Then we waited, before I could give him a hard time about it he drove up next to their car and yelled out the window ( a little hard to understand in spanish but it translates to ¨are you going to leave¨) at them. Now these two people one an older man about 58 and the woman who looked a lot younger were liplocked and totally oblivious to their surroundings. After 3 futile attempts he finally got their attention and they left and we parked. (Yeah it seemed a little wierd to me but hey lo es guay).
He bought drinks (a tinto verano for me and an energy drink for him) and we sat in this bar at a tall, small table for about 3 hours. I enjoyed laughing at the music as it had a lot of american songs (probably for the tourists and the sevillans), and making attempts to speak spanish over the music which was really hard at times. All in all it would have been better if he had chosen a place with no music so that I could have actually understood him, and he me.
He dropped me off at the house. And I was glad to be home for about 10 minutes when Media called and she and I walked around Sevilla looking for food, talking about our intercambios that night and finally deciding to eat some churros con chocolate before returning home.The rest of the day I spent in the computer lab at the school, then at home sleeping, and then a little exploration at plaza nueva, dinner(a little ham, water, and yogurt), and then a pill to get rid of my exploding headache and the side effect of sleeping the rest of the night.
Saturday
Not a lot woke up, didn´t feel good, my host mom brought me breakfast in bed (I got up to go to the bathroom then went back to bed. She noticed figured I was feeling horrible so she brought me breakfast in bed (some special toast a little ham on top and for dessert YOGURT). The day was pretty relaxed and I got out to walk a bit but slept a whole bunch, read a lot, and worked on the presentation for Monday in my culture class.
It was 11pm that night that I heard from Mario, the guy that my friend at UW told me to meet. He and his friend Juan met me at the fountain (I brought Media but she ended up leaving immediately because she was cold and tired, I felt a little abandoned but it was better for her) and our trio went to a bodega on Alphalpha to get acquianted. The conversation started our a little uneasy Juan and I talked a lot and Mario was a little quiet. We talked about a wide variety of things and Juan talked a little fast but he was good about repeating things and of course explaining others.
At about 12:30 we went to meet the rest of their friends at Alhambra. Now I was a little lost getting there but the guys knew it even though there was some times when I had to laugh at how lost they acted at times. But we made to the botellon and I met a whole lot of people! A botellon is when a group of people (this is a college age and older activity) bring alcohol, pop, ice cubes, and glasses for a group of friends to drink and talk in the street, or in our case a plaza. There was a lot of students here and we had to send Juan to search for their group of friends and then take us to the circle. I met so many people and I could not even begin to try to name all of them as more just kept showing up and all were nice and welcoming. I got a whole lot of spanish practice! I even talked to a guy that wanted to practice his spanish but only for a little bit.
I would like to describe a couple things about this botellon that really stuck in my mind first some of the people in our group were smoking extended cigarettes ( I watched them add some substance to their cigarettes but none of the people would tell me what it was and then roll tobacco and the other substance into a new paper and then use the yellow part of the previous cigarette to smoke it). They smoked a lot of these ¨special cigarrettes¨and I honestly got tired of the smoke at times.
The other thing was after about an hour of being there a group of gothic looking teens (there was a lot of wierd people around us so that isn´t very descriptive but just so you get a visual) went running through the groups, which caught everyone´s attention, then a fight broke out near us. Juan and Mario started grabbing me and pushing me closer to a building and then away from the fight, one of the girls in the group yelled at Juan to grab the alcohol and he returned with it in his arms. The fight calmed down a little and one girl asked if we should call the police but it got under control (at least everyone calmed down). I wondered why everyone immediately acted so scared about this fight when it was only a few people fighting and Richard had a great explanation. Sevilla´s youth is known for having fights start and they turn into full outright riots without bystanders throwing bottles at the fighters and others. I guess this doesn´t happen in other parts of Spain just Sevilla ( not a great characteristic but hey not everything can be great).
Mario and I left the group when they left for the discoteca. I was cold and really ready for bed as it was 5 am already. It was good I went with Mario because he lived near me and helped me get home faster (it would have taken me longer my way and it was cold).
Sunday
I got up at 9 then 10 when Media called me to go explore Sevilla´s flea market. I was reminded on my walk to plaza duque why I like sunday mornings in Sevilla. As soon as I walked of the apartment I saw the families enjoying breakfast at the little restaurant right next door. I got to plaza museo and there I walked around looking at all the pieces artists of sevilla put up for sale in the morning. I fell in love with some pieces by an artist that paints little boys practicing to be bull fighters and ranchers moving bulls with colorful sunrises in the background.
I met Media and we made our way to through the animal market. We were surrounded by vendors with puppies, rabbits, fish, birds, chinchillas, and even groundhogs! Also there were a lot of families with excited little kids trying to pet every animal. Everything was so cute!
We then walked by the international university (I need to explore that thing it looks really creative architecturally almost Mayan). Then the space center for the canary islands, and on the other side the theme park that is closed down right now. Then down this street with big ponds in the middle and fountains to big tents perfect for concerts. Then through the bushes and trees to a dirt road which ran along the river and GRASS! Yes trees and grass next the river!
We walked down the road to the market and had a great time there. On the way home from the market my host father and mother met up with us and I walked home to have lunch of white fish and plain rice with them and nap time.
At 5 I walked around town with Mario talking about a lot of different things and stopped once for a hot chocolate (that was nice!). When returning home we encountered a parade with a band and people carrying a statue through the streets, just like the virgen of Pilar celebration. Mario didn´t know about that day being a holiday but evidently it was the day to celebrate Mary Magdalene, pretty neat we ran into it.
I got back for fish and rice again with my host family and Ashton, just back from London. Then I got a 20 minute nap, was woken up by Isaiah (always a voice nice to wake up to) and then Ash and I went out to a flamenco bar with three guys she had met an hour before at the fountain near the cathedral, where she was bored and as she told them ¨reflecting¨ actually she didn´t want to be in the house alone.
The flamenco bar was packed with people by the time we left, 12 ( and that was considered early but we had class in the morning). Now these three guys were extremely nice and really good conversation partners as they spoke slow and corrected us in a nice way. Ash and I both decided that we should go out with them again, and they kept saying that they would take us out to the flamenco bar again on a different night so that we could dance and really take part in the flamenco experience. The club they took us to was interesting because it is only known by the locals, and plays the old, real flamenco that hasn´t been transformed for tourists. However, that night was different from the rest as it had a new band there to celebrate the club´s 10 anniversary so all of us decided to go back another weekend.
That was my weekend!
Lauren
What a weekend I am trying to just think about where to begin and I think I am going to start with Thursday so here you go!
Thursday was a harder day for me because I had a control (a test) in my grammar class (that class is my toughest class so tests in it are always a little scary) but I feel that I did ok. There was a lot of people missing from classes today because they had left for their vacations early this week so the classes we smaller and quicker (always nice). My roommate had left early that morning for London so I had the room to myself in the afternoon. After my siesta and a quick trip to the internet lab at my school for last minute e-mails, I went to dinner with Vincent and Brian at an english pub they had found, it will be nice to go to this for the big soccer games. We shared a plate of quesadillas (yeah it was great), I am trying to not eat a lot because of my morrocan problem but I splurged and got a tinto verano (not a good idea).
Then we rode a bus to the Sevilla stadium in Nervion (a certain part of town). We had tickets that were 4 rows from the field and the first half we got to see all of sevilla´s goals. Also all the hard core sevilla fans were standing on our right side right behind the goal so the seats were perfect! I had so much fun watching the fans as they had flags, a lot of cheers, and a drum. There were few quiet parts in the game. Sevilla dominated the whole game and ended the game 3-2 yeah!
Friday
No classes! One of the great advantages of going to school at Menedez Pelayo. However, I wasn´t allowed to eat any food all day because my director and my host mom tell me that you need to empty your stomach and then eat little meals to build back up to your normal diet. I had activities to fill up that gap and the first was a meeting I at ten with the volunteer supervisor at ONCE. I got there early (I really thought I would get lost but with my map I did fine) and had an hour to sit on a bench placed around a pretty fountain and work on travel plans for my family, when they visit, and classes for next semester. It was really pretty with the sun shining making it warm but not hot, and not a lot of people.
My interview/introduction session at the ONCE office was good. I was lost at first trying to find his office as I didn´t take the elevator to el primera planta instead of permera pisa (I think) and had to ask for directions again in one of the offices which just happened to be (luckily) right across from his so it was good.
This guy loved talking to me (and need I say correcting me) a whole lot. I got hesitant to talk to him as I kept getting corrected but as I look back it was not really that bad, and I did get to meet one of the elderly men that he works with. I am guessing by this moment you are wondering what ONCE is well it is an organization that works with the blind. They have little buildings (that doesn´t really explain them well they are really small like a portapotty but really nice) all over the city to help the blind with anything, and to sell lottery tickets. The lottery in Sevilla is set up to to give a portion to ONCE every time someone buys a ticket. On a more personal note it also is open to tourists and they don´t take taxes out so it is pretty neat.
I got home to eat and play in the internet lab at the school for a long time, then went to lunch time with my family to sleep, couldn´t eat. I got up to walk around a bit then returned for dinner (my host mom felt bad and gave me a little bit of meat and yogurt).
After dinner I went out to meet with a guy I had met at teatre, the discoteca Ashton and I went dancing at our last free weekend in Sevilla, David (or Davi in castillan). After a lot of messaging on our cell phones and a couple rounds of circling plaza nueva looking for eachother (there is a lot of construction going on in the plaza so we just circled the construction site a couple times and it was obviously like a game of cat and mouse. Finally I saw a guy on the phone and caught up to him!)
He had his car (it was really new, black leather seats, a nice stereo system, and of course it was red and compact) so he drove while I made small talk about his music selection, which was a mixed cd of mainly rap all in English (I never would have guessed how much of their music is the same as the US´s this is kind of a let down to me as I walk to school and a lot of the stores play songs that are what I can hear in the US in english too oh well) which I found kind of funny. He really doesn´t speak any english, I mean besides ¨what is your name¨ ¨where do you come from¨ you know the normal stuff so to hear him listening to this music I had a lot of questions. Which all of them came up with the answer ¨no conozco las palabras solamente el ritmo¨ so I offered to interpret it for him but felt bad as a lot of the songs talked about sex, and used a lot of slang (the he wouldn´t understand as it is a cultural thing) and he would never be able to listen to the song and fully understand it (I think the words really kill most of the songs so maybe I won´t translate it for him)
We (more like he) decided to go to Calle Betis, a street near the river (and my house for that matter) that has a lot of americans normally because it is lined with bars with a really nice discoteca (I have been told as I have been avoiding hanging out with just americans, and lo es un poco caro para mi, 10 euros).
It is a thursday night so the street is pretty packed (no double parking yet but it was definately coming) so when he saw a couple leave a restaurant and go to their car we waited. Then we waited, before I could give him a hard time about it he drove up next to their car and yelled out the window ( a little hard to understand in spanish but it translates to ¨are you going to leave¨) at them. Now these two people one an older man about 58 and the woman who looked a lot younger were liplocked and totally oblivious to their surroundings. After 3 futile attempts he finally got their attention and they left and we parked. (Yeah it seemed a little wierd to me but hey lo es guay).
He bought drinks (a tinto verano for me and an energy drink for him) and we sat in this bar at a tall, small table for about 3 hours. I enjoyed laughing at the music as it had a lot of american songs (probably for the tourists and the sevillans), and making attempts to speak spanish over the music which was really hard at times. All in all it would have been better if he had chosen a place with no music so that I could have actually understood him, and he me.
He dropped me off at the house. And I was glad to be home for about 10 minutes when Media called and she and I walked around Sevilla looking for food, talking about our intercambios that night and finally deciding to eat some churros con chocolate before returning home.The rest of the day I spent in the computer lab at the school, then at home sleeping, and then a little exploration at plaza nueva, dinner(a little ham, water, and yogurt), and then a pill to get rid of my exploding headache and the side effect of sleeping the rest of the night.
Saturday
Not a lot woke up, didn´t feel good, my host mom brought me breakfast in bed (I got up to go to the bathroom then went back to bed. She noticed figured I was feeling horrible so she brought me breakfast in bed (some special toast a little ham on top and for dessert YOGURT). The day was pretty relaxed and I got out to walk a bit but slept a whole bunch, read a lot, and worked on the presentation for Monday in my culture class.
It was 11pm that night that I heard from Mario, the guy that my friend at UW told me to meet. He and his friend Juan met me at the fountain (I brought Media but she ended up leaving immediately because she was cold and tired, I felt a little abandoned but it was better for her) and our trio went to a bodega on Alphalpha to get acquianted. The conversation started our a little uneasy Juan and I talked a lot and Mario was a little quiet. We talked about a wide variety of things and Juan talked a little fast but he was good about repeating things and of course explaining others.
At about 12:30 we went to meet the rest of their friends at Alhambra. Now I was a little lost getting there but the guys knew it even though there was some times when I had to laugh at how lost they acted at times. But we made to the botellon and I met a whole lot of people! A botellon is when a group of people (this is a college age and older activity) bring alcohol, pop, ice cubes, and glasses for a group of friends to drink and talk in the street, or in our case a plaza. There was a lot of students here and we had to send Juan to search for their group of friends and then take us to the circle. I met so many people and I could not even begin to try to name all of them as more just kept showing up and all were nice and welcoming. I got a whole lot of spanish practice! I even talked to a guy that wanted to practice his spanish but only for a little bit.
I would like to describe a couple things about this botellon that really stuck in my mind first some of the people in our group were smoking extended cigarettes ( I watched them add some substance to their cigarettes but none of the people would tell me what it was and then roll tobacco and the other substance into a new paper and then use the yellow part of the previous cigarette to smoke it). They smoked a lot of these ¨special cigarrettes¨and I honestly got tired of the smoke at times.
The other thing was after about an hour of being there a group of gothic looking teens (there was a lot of wierd people around us so that isn´t very descriptive but just so you get a visual) went running through the groups, which caught everyone´s attention, then a fight broke out near us. Juan and Mario started grabbing me and pushing me closer to a building and then away from the fight, one of the girls in the group yelled at Juan to grab the alcohol and he returned with it in his arms. The fight calmed down a little and one girl asked if we should call the police but it got under control (at least everyone calmed down). I wondered why everyone immediately acted so scared about this fight when it was only a few people fighting and Richard had a great explanation. Sevilla´s youth is known for having fights start and they turn into full outright riots without bystanders throwing bottles at the fighters and others. I guess this doesn´t happen in other parts of Spain just Sevilla ( not a great characteristic but hey not everything can be great).
Mario and I left the group when they left for the discoteca. I was cold and really ready for bed as it was 5 am already. It was good I went with Mario because he lived near me and helped me get home faster (it would have taken me longer my way and it was cold).
Sunday
I got up at 9 then 10 when Media called me to go explore Sevilla´s flea market. I was reminded on my walk to plaza duque why I like sunday mornings in Sevilla. As soon as I walked of the apartment I saw the families enjoying breakfast at the little restaurant right next door. I got to plaza museo and there I walked around looking at all the pieces artists of sevilla put up for sale in the morning. I fell in love with some pieces by an artist that paints little boys practicing to be bull fighters and ranchers moving bulls with colorful sunrises in the background.
I met Media and we made our way to through the animal market. We were surrounded by vendors with puppies, rabbits, fish, birds, chinchillas, and even groundhogs! Also there were a lot of families with excited little kids trying to pet every animal. Everything was so cute!
We then walked by the international university (I need to explore that thing it looks really creative architecturally almost Mayan). Then the space center for the canary islands, and on the other side the theme park that is closed down right now. Then down this street with big ponds in the middle and fountains to big tents perfect for concerts. Then through the bushes and trees to a dirt road which ran along the river and GRASS! Yes trees and grass next the river!
We walked down the road to the market and had a great time there. On the way home from the market my host father and mother met up with us and I walked home to have lunch of white fish and plain rice with them and nap time.
At 5 I walked around town with Mario talking about a lot of different things and stopped once for a hot chocolate (that was nice!). When returning home we encountered a parade with a band and people carrying a statue through the streets, just like the virgen of Pilar celebration. Mario didn´t know about that day being a holiday but evidently it was the day to celebrate Mary Magdalene, pretty neat we ran into it.
I got back for fish and rice again with my host family and Ashton, just back from London. Then I got a 20 minute nap, was woken up by Isaiah (always a voice nice to wake up to) and then Ash and I went out to a flamenco bar with three guys she had met an hour before at the fountain near the cathedral, where she was bored and as she told them ¨reflecting¨ actually she didn´t want to be in the house alone.
The flamenco bar was packed with people by the time we left, 12 ( and that was considered early but we had class in the morning). Now these three guys were extremely nice and really good conversation partners as they spoke slow and corrected us in a nice way. Ash and I both decided that we should go out with them again, and they kept saying that they would take us out to the flamenco bar again on a different night so that we could dance and really take part in the flamenco experience. The club they took us to was interesting because it is only known by the locals, and plays the old, real flamenco that hasn´t been transformed for tourists. However, that night was different from the rest as it had a new band there to celebrate the club´s 10 anniversary so all of us decided to go back another weekend.
That was my weekend!
Lauren
posted by Lauren Westling @ 4:14 AM
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