I have arrived!!! I'm in Seville!!!
I realize that I didn't do anything to close my time in Peru. But it's ok because I know that I'm not done with Peru so it was more of a hasta luego and less of a chau....
I got here 3 days ago and the 7 hour difference has killed me. Of course I didn't get a good nights sleep before I left so I was exhausted when I got here...And we went from the airport to the hotel for orientation. There has been a lot of orientation which I will not bore you with. I will say that I'm getting more excited as I get more relaxed. Not that I wasn't excited before I got here but I'm starting to adjust and I think that this semester will be more awesome than I really could have hoped. It's a big statement but I tried to come open minded and with not alot of expectations. Atleast with the program itself.
Orientation has be really great. I'm trying not to compare this to Peru but as far as orientation this is so much more organized and interactive. It's because there are 90 in my program and 1,500 with CIEE plus they've been here for 20 years so they have no choice. We have guides, mine is Marta, who are our age and go to the same school that we'll be going to. They take us everywhere we need to go and we can talk to them about everything. We've been going to different restaurants and parts of the city and it's been really interesting. In the restaurants Marta tells us what's good or her favorite. She lives kind of outside of the city where most of us live but she knows everything and it's been really helpful.
The city itself is beautiful. More than I could have imagined. There are palm trees everywhere and everything is so...old. Like in a good-antique-historic way. The city is so organized and clean and even though it's cold the skies are blue and the sun is shining. The air is...crisp. Like I can breathe! I was so surprised. At first I couldn't figure it out but there's no smog. We got 2 maps and transportation is so easy. Not to keep comparing everything to Peru but it's definitely easier to get around Seville. We got two maps of the city: one of the streets and one of the buses. The streets are really curvy and narrow like alleys but the maps are great! There are buses with actual routes and no cobradors. There are underground and above ground metros. There are even bike rentals and bike lanes. You get a ticket for walking in them. I've been lost twice already but thanks to maps, I figured out where I was going and got to where I needed to be in no time.
There's been alot of academic talk and this semester I actually will have work to do, that will get done because these classes pertain to my major. One thing that I've been surprised about is that alot of the people in my group aren't as advanced as I thought they would be. I know that I have a bit of an edge because I was "immersed" last year but it's still surprising that some people look at me like I'm super advanced. I guess I did improve alot in Peru and just wasn't giving myself credit for that. I definitely understand more than I thought but I haven't run into a true-speed talking Sevillano. I got into one of the higher levels of Spanish so I don't have to take a spanish class during regular classes but I think that I will anyway. My main goal is really just to improve and increase fluidity. I want to be almost fluid and really conversational. I plan on taking advantage of every opportunity to learn about the city. Everything has been in Spanish so far and I'm actually doing great. Just need to speak spanish more...poco a poco I guess.
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