My Intercambio is awesome!

Today I met with my intercambio. Intercambio is a program to help students studying abroad with their spanish and the local you are paired with, with their English. I had been praying to get someone that I really clicked with and wanted to hang out as much as we could, well my prayers worked! I was so nervous before meeting with her today and for a few minutes I thought she was not going to show. I had that nervous feeling of every girl walking my way was going to be her, so my I would get nervous energy and then the person would keep walking on. haha. Take a deep breath and then anticipate the next being my intercambio and being shot down again. Oh well, finally I saw her walking up and for sure knew it was her! Almudena is her name and she is awesome! Right away, we got along. Beso on each cheek and straight to talking. It was easy and comfortable. I just can not even express how happy I am that we got along so well! I so badly wanted a perfect fit to actually make a local spanish amiga and improve my Espanol at the same time. We went for a cafe con leche, that she paid for, I insisted but settled with "I got the next one". We sat and talked for about two hours at the cafe. Our families, friends, school, and so many other random topics. We even got on the topic that breast feeding burns 500 calories a day alone. HAHa, I don't know how I explained that in spanish but I did, must be getting better ;) She has a serious boyfriend of 6 years, Loca!

She seems very confidant and is so easy to talk to, and we can't even speak the same language, that's saying something! After a lot of good convo at the cafe we made our way down to the Rio and sat and talked for another hour. It was so funny because we tried to play a joke on a group on Americana's next to us at the river (not a mean way at all, just silly) I think me and Almudena we not exactly on the same page but it turned out really funny anyway and both couldn't stop laughing. Ahhhhhh, what a great day! She told me her friends wanted to meet me, which is awesome because I would love to meet them! They were laughing when they read my e-mails to Almudena about when and where we were going to meet and such. I attempted to write in spanish and I knew it wasn't correct but also my point was definitely getting through. She was teasing me a bit but it became more funny because Rachel and I had laughs when we read her e-mails. It is so funny the way we each put our words together in each others languages. You can understand what they are trying to say but it is written correctly. Here is an excerpt from our e-mails:


Almudena:

I live in Seville every days but weekend I go to Marchena. Marchena is my town.

On morning tuesdays I go to english class and on afternoon I go to university class from 15:00 to 19:00

wendesdays I has got free day. Cuando tu quieras quedamos. ¿Donde podríamos quedar? donde tu quieras.

debemos concretar la cita ok??

Besosss 

 
My reply:       

Estoy libre de 2:30 - 5:30 en miercoles. Quieres conocer en Cafe India cerca de Cathedral a las 2:30? Mi espanol es no muy bien, espero que podamos ayudarte cada otro. I am very excited to meet you! Hope Wednesday works :) 

Ah, this will be funny to look back on. Well it was a wonderful day and we are meeting for lunch tomorrow! Yay! so I know she liked me too! ;)

And to top off a great day Rachel and I went out for a tapa and cerveza and sat by the Rio an took in the beautiful view overlooking all the street lights reflecting off the water, ahhhh, I just love it here!
To make things even better we had our cena con la familia and it was full of laughs. We talked about going out in the states and old men always buying me and my friends drinks at the bars. HAHA, it led to some fun conversation and more laughing of course. Obviously discussing this with my guapo host hermano, Marcos, made it so much better. Yup, I have a crush on my host brother...so easy on the eyes. To bad he is 36, but hey age is just a number right? hehe. Apparently in Spain being called "Gordita" is a good thing, well at least when it is referred to your piernas (legs). We also talked about this tonight because Rita grabbed my legs this morning, "Ahh, que guapa, gordita!" I said, "gordita! Rita! Por que? Gorda es malo!" She insisted it was good, but still the thought of being told any part of your body is something close to gorda (fat) even with the "ita" (tiny) at the end, doesn't sound good. Anyway, we had laughs all around about this tonight as well, as I made many jokes about it with Rita tonight. Such a great day and night for me! Gracias Dios para mi vida!


Met with Almudena again today. Once again it was great! It is like we have been friends forever. We had great conversation today it even got to a deeper and more personal level. It is interesting because when we are talking about more serious things the language barrier makes it more difficult to really express ourselves but still we both understand the significance of what we are saying. We have the same humor and are both very patient with each other. We are meeting again on Tuesday to go to Plaza de Espana. I can't wait! I feel extremely better about my spanish this week compared to the past month of frustration I was feeling. There was a definite learning curve. Now, everything should start getting easier little by little, I hope. :)

4 cities and 4 weekends later...

Danget! I have fallen behind on my blogging time. Typical me. Ugh, ok here goes trying to re-cap.

After Morocco, we went to Jerez for a day trip. It is a little town about an hour train ride from Seville. A group of about 10 chicas went and it was one of the most fun days I have had in Spain! Feel like I bonded and got to know a few of the girls much better that day! It was great girl time. We made no plans ahead of time and were spontaneous the whole day. Jerez is known for its wineries. They make a sherry wine, so we knew wine tasting was on our list. First stop however, was a horse show. Dancing horses. It was interesting to see but kind of made me sad. I don’t know if it is normal for horses to foam from the mouth but all of them were, and it made me sad. The girls said it is from the metal piece in their mouth. Honestly, could of done with out the horse show, but we already paid so we made the best of it. The rest of the day was spent tasting sherry wine at Sandeman Winery, hopping from restaurant to restaurant for drinks and running around the town being silly. 

The Sandeman Winery was really neat. We got a tour and a little history, which was short and sweet, so we didn’t get bored before our sherry tasting begun. Then the tasting followed the tour and woooo weeee, that sherry is stiff. We had a jolly ole time drinking 3 different types from old to very young, bitter to very sweet. I think we all left feeling a little tipsy. We found a nice patio 

afterwards and enjoyed a glass of non-sherry wine, easier to take down. It was so nice to sit and relax and chat with the girls. Brittani and I had a good talk about our future plans and possibly working together someday, ahh the possibilities. Ha ha, can’t wait to see what really happens. Anyways, we then moved on for comida! As we had all worked up an appetite from all that wine. Enjoyed some delicious tapas, more laughs, and more wine. We explored the town a little me, more like running around and taking random pictures, that we all just thought was so fun to do at the time, then returned to the train station. When we arrived, we learned our train was sold out and had to wait 2 hours for the next, so off to the next restaurant for drinks. After two hours we were tired and ready to go. Returned home and sure did sleep well that night!

What next, What next? Oh yeah! I went to Bilbao and San Sebastian with Becca, Leah, and Daryne! Honestly, Bilbao is nothing special, very modern and industrial looking with not anything too exciting to do. The hillsides surrounding the city are beautiful and the people are very nice, especially our hostel desk worker Edarto! He was so nice and loved me! He is an older guy, well like 40, and thought I was a loca chica, in a good way of course J He was sad to see me go, I told him I would come back to visit. So we stayed in Bilbao Thursday night and Saturday, but Friday we were in San Sebastian.  Oh San Sebastian, how I love you! It is so beautiful, right on the coast, beautiful views, lots to do, and fun nightlife. We went to their aquarium, the beach, had an awesome lunch, and found the cutest little jewelry shop the first day we were there. Packed day and so much fun. We made friends with the desk workers at our hostel and had drinks with them before we all went out. Had a blast on the town, feeling good and dancing all night! Pigged out on some fruit when we got back to our hostel, ha-ha, it was all we had. Wish that was always all I had after a night out, much healthier decision. Woke up the next day hurting a bit, but pushed through and we all hiked up to the huge statue of Jesus overlooking the town and the ocean. Oh my gosh! So incredibly beautiful, all the way up the hike you could stop for a whole new view and it was perfect. The weather was amazing, I could have sat there all day looking at the town and ocean below. I would love to go visit again when the weather is always perfect and learn how to surf! Someday. We returned to Bilbao later Saturday because we wanted to be sure to see the Guggenheim Museum.  There are only 5 in the world, I think, so we thought we should take advantage of being so close to one. Welp, nothing special if you ask me. I am sorry, but it is very hard for me to appreciate modern art. I feel like I could do half of what was in that Museum. There we some cool aspects of it, but overall not mu cup of tea. I like intricate art, something you look at and just now how difficult it would be to do it. The rest of the night was really low key. Tried the pinxos, which are northern Spain’s tapas. They have all kinds of little sandwiches or little fancy snacks sitting at the bar and choose one and pay right there. Then go to the next bar and do the same. It is pretty cool and they were pretty good too. Went out that night for a bit with some Barcelona boys we met but came back early for bed. Next day traveled back to Seville! Home sweet home! I really do miss it even when I am gone for 3 days.

The next weekend we stayed in Seville, which was much needed. I love being here! Friday we went on a hike about an hour and a half outside of Seville. It was such a great day. I had great conversation with one of our ISA directors, Elisa, but everyone calls her Elli. She is so sweet and was very helpful and patient with my Spanish. We spoke in Español the whole time, she made me feel so much better about it! The hike was a great work out and so much fun, goofing around with the girls and just enjoying nature. I had so much energy when we returned to Seville I went and worked out more. I don’t know why, that is not too normal for me, unfortunately I wish it were, I would be in a lot better shape.  Afterwards I showered and went back to the river and ordered a café con leche and wrote in my journal for almost two hours. It was much needed and so nice to just sit and write. The waiter, Daniel, was very nice and talked with me for a bit. I have been back since then and turns out he is from Venezuela, which makes sense because he is easier to understand than Sevillanos are. In Seville they speak very fast and cut off the end of all their words. For example, ‘mas o menos” is ‘ma o meno’ plus the fast pace makes it very difficult to understand. Which is probably another reason my Spanish is not where I want it to be right now. L Sad day.

Any way back to my weekend, I stayed by the river a little longer and just prayed. It is such an amazing view along the river you cannot help but thank God for all your blessings if you are looking over it. Much needed “me & God” time. J

Went out that Friday night with the sisters, Becca, and Tess. Had so much fun at a little bar close to our casas. Made friends with the waiters and got some free drinks and snacks, they were really nice and not creepy like a lot of men are here. Later we went out to Club Abril. Danced all night long, it got so hot that I went in with curled hair and came out with straight! Proof of a night well done! Love dancing the night away. The rest of the weekend was laid back. A lot of time at the rio. Love the rio! We rented a pedal boat for an hour and soaked up the sun and relaxed after with some delicious lemon-aid. 

We also had such a great lunch with our padres on Saturday. Saw a whole other side of Juan. Him and Rita were being silly with each other, it was really cute, had a lot of laughs. Discussed our favorite chocolates and Juan would not share his hot chocolate, it was so funny, Rita would try and steal some but he was very protective. Ha ha, so cute! Rita wanted to me to show Juan pictures of my family so we did that for a while. She loves seeing Sammi and Josie, as do I so that was nice to share my beautiful little nieces with them. It was just great bonding time, loved it!

On Sunday, Rachel and I had an adventure trying to find this little school I am volunteering at every Monday morning. It is in a poorer part of town in Macarena District. It is seriously a whole other world compared to the area we live in. Most the people are from Chile or Guatemala so they are much darker, where Spaniards are fairer skinned. Well we finally found the school, which put me at ease because I am horribly directionally challenged. We realized we weren’t going to make it back in time for mass close to our casa so we found one on the way back. Which wasn’t hard, there is a Catholic church on every corner. It was a much smaller church than we had been too before, but we liked the cozier feel. Since we obviously cannot follow mass very well since it is in Spanish and fast paced, Rachel and I look up the readings ahead of time so hopefully we catch a few words here and there.

The practice trip to my volunteer school proved successful Monday morning, I even got there 15 minutes early! It went really well too. The other lady who I am doing it with doesn’t speak English but is very nice and speaks slowly so I can understand. What we are doing is taking  kids who do not get showers at home. We pull them from class and give them showers and new clothes for the week. They get this every Monday and Wednesday for the most part but sometimes only once a week. It was hard to see them so dirty, I am not use to seeing children like this. It was a very humbling experience. They were all sweet and seemed happy but they are just kids and don’t really know any better because this is all they know. Some were older 10 and 12 years old. They were sisters and both beautiful. I had to comb their hair with a special comb to get out lice, very sad, they can’t even help that they have it. They knew more about the realization of their life because they were a little older. It was hard to see that they knew the situation they were in and can't really do much about it. I told them how pretty they were and tried my best to be silly and make them smile but it is hard with the language barrier. I am excited to go every week, I hope I can build a little relationship with them all, make them feel special and beautiful. Very grateful for everything I have. This just opened my eyes even more to all the blessings in my life.