Dia 7: Mi primer dia de clase

Heyyyyy Macarena!

Jumping ahead to dinner, I finally had the gumption to ask my house mom if she had ever heard of the song "Macarena" and she laughed and said yes of course. She told me that the song was really popular in Spain in '93 and that was the same year she got married so everyone was going crazy at her wedding and requested it to be played like 5 times. My next plan is have a video of us doing the dance together. I will wait until she loves me a little bit more before I try this haha

Sidenote: I always write these blogs one day late so at this exact moment it is 9:45am of Day 8 and I AM AMPED on cafe desayuno cafeinado. Usually they give us decaf coffee, but we asked for caffeinated and man I can feel it freaking pumping through my veins and into my agile fingers as I type like a maniac right now. My energy right now is insaaaaane. 

Okay thats enough... deep breaths. I got this... Vale (damn, I'm so spanish)

Today was amazing as always. I got up with Cassie to have breakfast with her this morning and we had our usual toast with peach and strawberry jam and cafe desayuno DEScafeinado. She leaves because she has a 9am class and I don't have one till 11am so I just mosey around the house doing my thang. Today I wore high waisted snake print shorts. I'm sooo #fashionforward it should be illegal. On the real, I'm just reveling in wearing nice clothes all the time because I'm so accustomed to dressing like crap to class in the US.

My first class of the day is El Cuento Hispanoamericano. This is my class with the professor from UF who came on the trip with us. His name is Reynaldo Jimenez and he's adorable. He's super technically challenged when it comes to using computers and does the whole slamming of the mouse and deep breaths whenever something doesn't work and he never understands the concept of a screensaver so when he walks away from the computer and the screen is "asleep" he panics... its presh. Class was fine. Nothing too incredible to talk about. Our first story is one I already read in a previous class so that made my life a lot easier. After this class I had my spanish culture class with a professor from Sevilla and her name is Vicky. She is super mega guay. We spent probably an hour each introducing ourselves to her and the class (there's about 18 of us in this class). Then the next hour we read viñetas (comics) that related to different political and social things. It was relaxed and fun. I know I will love this class the most.

Then, I walked home.Which let me tell you: I LOVE WALKING HOME! It's the same route everyday and it doesn't get old. The buildings never seize to amaze me and there are always tantas personas caminando por la calle. 'Tis truly a wonderful experiencia which is why I snapped some pics so I could share them with you :)

(this one is clearly #filtered bc I posted it on my IG bc I'm super hipster)

(the plaza Salvador that we went to last night)

When I got to my house, mi familia cariñosa estaba esperando para mi. I love them. We ate estofado de ternera which is muy parecido a goulash. It was lovely. I rated it as an 8. Obvio, we had pan y al final del almuerzo tuvo gazpacho. Mi familia doesn't really eat dulces o postres, en vez de eso prefiere gazpacho. A mi me gusta MUCHISIMO gazpacho y claro lo comí. 

(estofado de ternera... I will admit that these two photos are not super beautiful but the dishes tasted beautiful so that's all that matters)

(gazpacho!!!)

During lunch Rafael told us about how there is a large pilgrimage that happens called Camina de Rocío which is a giant parade that lasts for 7 days where spaniards walk from Sevilla to a town called Rocío that no one lives in and solely exists for this festival. The word "rocío" means to pray by means of singing rather than speaking. For this reason, todo el mundo in the parade is singing prayers the whole time. The distance from here to Rocío is ~100 kilometers and they WALK the whole thing. Parents, children, teenagers, whoever wants to participate. Not surprisingly, they told us there is a lot of vino involved on the walk. They also said that the procession begins with everyone inside of a church (I can't remember which one) and there is a figurine of the Virgin Mary in this church. Well during the parade men carry this figurine the whole time. They said it takes ~20 men to carry it because shes sitting on top of a table and so they are all holding onto the legs of the table. Apparently, it's a super huge honor to A) touch the figurine and B) carry the figure so people se vuelvan locas para llevarla y tocarla. Rafael showed us a video. You can find stuff on Youtube if you type in Camina de Rocío. Everyone wears traditional clothes and it looks awesome. Rafael told us that he and Carlos are going to participate in the first day of the parade on horseback instead of walking. 

Since Cassie and I can't participate in a 24+ hour adventure in a parade because we have class they told us we could to go la Iglesia de Salvador with them on Thursday because after the mass, everyone goes and starts walking towards Rocío to join all the other people. They said by the last day of the procession there will be 1 million people walking. QUE LOCURA! They told us we can take pictures during the mass. So don't worry, I shall be sharing my experience contigo.

Also, you wouldn't believe how much Rafael knows about the history of Sevilla and of all of Spain. Maca called him an encyclopedia and she's right. I feel so lucky to live with someone who has such a full understanding of their culture and history. I am fascinated by everything he tells us. He's the bomb.

After lunch, Cassie and I went into our rooms for our siesta. I took a HEFTY siesta and so did Cassie. It was needed after a long day of classes. 

When I woke up I worked on some tarea and I'm not saying a single sentence more about it because who the hell wants to read about my homework? NADIE. 

I started coordinating with my friends about what we wanted to do that night because one of the girls in my program has friends who live in Sevilla and they told her all the college kids go out on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. AKA: party time! Well wifi is not super fuerte in everyone's casas and my friends weren't iMessaging me back. I was starting to get nervous that nothing was going to happen.

Well then we had dinner around 915pm but before dinner we could hear Rafael fighting with Carlos but clearly we weren't going to intervene. Then we sat down at dinner and Rafael promptly looks at us and says (in spanish) "Carlos is not eating with us because I am mad at him". He then proceeds to explain how Carlos wants to participate in the whole week of Camina de Rocío by himself with his friends. This involves missing a lot of school and sleeping on the ground in the countryside. Needless to say Maca and Rafael weren't having this and like most parents they were asking us for validation that our parents would never let us do something like that when we were 17... and we agreed. Ohh teenagers, gotta love them... haha I'm super mature, so I can say this ;)

Now Rafael said that neither of them would be participating in the camina, which I'm sure made Carlos oh so happy. It was cute, even after 10 minutes into dinner Rafael said "Tengo calor del rabia" (he was hot with anger) after his little spat with Carlos. Finally, everyone was tranquilo and we continued our normal chat about Spain's history and culture. We found out that Rafael used to work at a flour and bread company that his family owned. We told him he was "El Jefe de Pan" and asked if that's why we eat so much pan for each meal. He told us it was just customary in Spain. Let me tell you, there are three main food groups in Spain (this will clearly be a generalization because all I know is what my host parents cook): pan, patatas y más pan. En serio, I am eating so much pan its loco. There is even pan in gazpacho. Estoy llena de pan. 

For dinner we had ensaladilla which is basically a combo of potato salad and tuna salad. The main ingredients are huevos, atun, mayonnaise, patatas... and I'm sure there was some pan in there too. It was pretty good. 

Well after dinner I tried to text my friends and they didn't respond which was sad because I was so excited to go out. We were supposed to go to Calle Betis which is a street lined with clubs and bars. The night ended anticlimactically and I just went to bed by 1230am. :(

Bonus points that no one cares about: I did all my homework before I went to bed. 

Tomorrow I'm going to try to meet up with a friend and walk around the city taking my artsy/hipster pics before my 11am class.

Here's my vocab list from today:
estuche: pencil pouch (Carlos's backpack was next to the dining room table)
sosa: not salty
insipida: flavorless
when your cheeks blush: ponerse como un tomate

Hasta Luego,
Raquel

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