Dia 5: Conocemos Nuestra Familia

¡Que tal tíos!

Today has been the best day ever regardless of the fact that we spent 90% of it in a bus because I MET MY HOST FAMILY!!! OH EM GEEEE I love them so much already! We live in downtown Sevilla which is really unique because it's so expensive to live in this region. They live in a flat on the 3rd floor of an apartment building and its really nice. Our program leaders kept telling us about how people live much simpler in Espana and that they don't have dryers for their clothes, they just hang things to dry outside and that they don't have air conditioning and that their houses are super pequeno and its likely everyone shares the same bathroom. Well if that is the case for everyone else in my study abroad program then mi familia must be royalty because we have air conditioning (window units in some of the rooms, but its better than none!) and Cassie and I have our own bathrooms and the house is decorated soooo beautifully. Not that any of this truly matters. Honestly, I would love Macarena, Rafael and Carlos the same even if they didn't have all these awesome amenities because they are all very kind and accommodating to us.

They've had study abroad students stay in their house before and for the past 4 months they had two girls. They asked those girls to leave behind a note for each of us in English to calm our nerves and give us tips about living in Spain. The note basically consisted of saying "you have the best parents with the best location possible" and "eat everything they make because they are incredible cooks". It has been 5 hours and I already agree completely with both statements. 

People from Sevilla tend to speak extremely fast compared to other spaniards but Maca and Rafael remember to speak mas despacio con nosotros and it makes everything a lot easier. They LITERALLY don't speak English so everything we say to them has to be in Spanish which can be slightly challenging at times. It's a work in progress and every now and then I get a little frustrated because I'm a perfectionist and I occasionally make stupid mistakes. However, they have both told us several times already that we speak very well and they are surprised and impressed at how well we are able to understand them!! WOOWOO!!
Their son's name is Carlos and he speaks super duper fast and swallows half of his words so listening to him speak with his parents is funny because we basically understand nothing. Surprisingly, the second Cassie and I even spoke one sentence in Spanish he quickly told us that we spoke very well. I am very much enjoying all of this encouragement.

Maca gave us a little tour of the city around 6pm where she showed us the ISA building that we would have classes in and some other key landmarks nearby. Our flat happens to be located next to ALL the amazing and barato (cheap) clothing and shoe stores... which shall be both a blessing and a curse. I will need to have lots of self restraint when they sell ADORABLE tacones y cuñas (heels and wedges) for only 10 euros not even a block from where I live. Needless to say I love everything about the location of my homestay.

Now onto the food!!! OH MY THE FOOD!!! THE FOOOOOOOD. Damn. Rafael and Maca both love to cook and it shows. The house was smelling AMAZING by 7pm which was a huge tease because we didn't eat until 9pm (9-10pm is typical dinner time for Spaniards). Dinner consisted of spanish tortilla, a salad with tuna and fresh bread for dinner. Everything was amazing. Now in Spain, a tortilla is not the same thing as it is in the US. Tortilla here is basically like a quiche which patatas, cebolla y huevos (potatoes, onion and egg). It is delicious. I already asked them if they would teach me how to cook authentic meals and they said yes :)

After dinner we went into la sala (the living room) and watched a movie together. It was a movie with Pierce Brosnin and Susan Sarandon called "El Mejor" which translates to "The Greatest". This was an American movie dubbed with spanish speakers which was pretty weird to watch in the beginning because you are reading their lips but hearing different words that don't match up. Sometimes, when the conversation was really fast, I had to look away from the screen so I could focus on just the words. The movie was actually quite good and I'd recommend it to you all of you guys (to watch in English). I'd say I understood 70% of the film. There were times when the actors were crying and talking at the same time which is nearly impossible for me to understand at this point and other times that they were talking about things that I have no spanish vocabulary knowledge about and so I'd just watch the actions to try and figure out what was happening. Every now and then Maca and Rafael would ask if we were understanding the movie and when we didn't they'd explain it to us... like I said they are the best.

 (a view of my bedroom when you're standing in the hall way)

 (the lovely view on our balcony to the left)

 (the lovely view on our balcony to the right)

 (the view of my room when I'm standing on the balcony)

(sitting very formally next to our balcony like a classy batch)

(fancy pants formal dining)

(la sala where we watched El Mejor)

Overall, it was quite the amazing evening.

Now that I'm with my host family I am going to start a list of the new words I learn each day:

- enchufe: plug (I knew this word before, but had forgotten it)

- cuñas: wedge heels

- percha: hanger (for clothes)

- descalzo: barefoot (I learned this one because spaniards don't usually go barefoot around the house because they think they will get sick. Rafael told us that as soon as he goes barefoot for even 4 hours, he gets a sore throat. he's adorable)

Tomorrow we have a tour of the city of Sevilla with our group, a written and oral placement test for our spanish classes and then a welcome dinner!

Para siempre, please feel free to leave comments! (I think you have to have a gmail account to do so)

Hasta Luego,

Raquel

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