Dia 8: Setas y Vino

Hola mis amores,

Today has been a fab day. I'm writing this after having a couple copas de vino. Sorry, I'm not sorry.

However, como siempre, voy a describir los eventos del día en una manera cronológica.

If you read my post from Day 7 then you know that I was wired on cafe cafeinado this morning! It was Craytown, USA. I was What's Apping with my friend Sarah from my program (what's app is an app on my phone that allows me to text anyone from any country using only wifi) and we decided to meet each other at la Plaza Nueva at 10am so that we could wander the city and take photos on our fancy cameras. 

Today I wore a maxi skirt and a nice blouse. Maca me dijo "que elegante".  After that, I knew it would be a good day :)

So as planned we met up at the plaza at 10 and started heading towards a very famous landmark in Sevilla called Plaza de Espana. As we were walking there, we passed by a girl that is also in our class and she was surprised that we were walking in the opposite direction because we have class at 11 and she was already headed there. She told us that she thought about exploring but figured she'd get lost and be late to class.... talk about foreshadowing. We press on regardless. We arrive at the Plaza de Espana, and it was beautiful (as expected because I had visited this place last time). Here are some of my artsy pics that I took... the weather wasn't ideal but I did what I could






(#handonhip)



After we were at the Plaza for only ~12 minutes we decided we'd have to leave and that'd we'd come back soon for more photos. Plus, it was one of those days when it was super cloudy but yet super bright at the same time which didn't make for the best pictures anyway. Well, like the super prepared viajera that I am, I pulled out the massive map that ISA had given to each of us so that we could navigate to the office. We decided to be adventurous and take a short cut to save time instead of retracing our steps. I'm sure you can already tell this was not our greatest decision...

So now we are speed walking because the minutes are passing like seconds and finally we get to an intersection where I no longer have any idea where we are with respect to the map. If you've never been to Spain, allow me to inform you that there are no such things as big green street signs like in the US. Spain only has fancy tiled signs on the sides of buildings, which is super beautiful and has way more character than a green sign stuck in the ground. HOWEVER, when you are lost, these stupid tiles are the most useless thing EVER. Not all the streets are labeled on the buildings, only some of them and of course my map also doesn't have every street labeled either. We walk up to a camarero and ask him where a certain street is and he tells us to keep going straight. This was of almost no value because there is no such thing as a "straight road" in Sevilla. Todo es un laberinto. Therefore, when there's a fork in the road, how in the world are we supposed to know what this genius of a camarero thought was the "straight" side of the fork. Lolz. We are now frantically running around the city making all kinds of different turns, walking in circles, asking randos for directions and just looking like the biggest fools ever. Pero recuerdas nuestro dicho "no pasa nada". Por eso, we are laughing the whole time we are lost. And how ironic that I became "La Perdida" after I told the story from Dia 6!

Finally, we stumbled upon the office and stormed up the stairs to our  classroom and OF COURSE as I am trying to sneak into class I run into a glass door and it makes a loud bang so that everyone stops what they're doing and looks at us. Whoopsies. Sin embargo, no pasa nada.

I attended both of my classes, I loved them, now back to the good stuff:

When I got home from class I had to eat alone because my family had already eaten without me because I have class till 3pm and they usually eat lunch at 2. This doesn't sound like a big deal, but it's kind of sad to me. El almuerzo es mucho mas important que la cena and with my schedule I'm never going to be home for lunch on weekdays :( This is the meal when we all sit together and talk about the food and culture and history of Spain and talk about our day and get to know each other better... and I'm going to miss it. Soy una pobrecita. 



Fortunately, there's almost nothing that can change my positive attitude about life right now so it was fine. I used the time to take a selfie of me eating my delicious lunch of sopa de verduras con un pedazo de pan y fresas for dessert. It was quite tasty. I brought my laptop to the table and just blogged about Day 7. It worked out fine because I only had a short descanso in between class and our next activity... however I didn't siesta and I really wanted to. 

It started raining after lunch so I had to change into pants and boots which was not as guapa as my first outfit but it was good enough! Cassie and I walked back to ISA for an excursion to Las Setas. Now when I say we walked, I mean I walked and Cassie practically ran because she was so afraid of being late. If you thought I was anal about school, think again, Cassie is anal about everything and I'm the chill one, it's hilarious. I'm sure many of you are struggling to believe this, because I nor anyone that knows me would ever describe me as chill.

Alright, so we took a walking trip to Las Setas which tranlates to The Mushrooms and it's a giant modern architectural representation of art. I liked it. It reminds me of the architecture in Valencia. Apparently, a lot of Sevillians hate this piece of architecture because it raised their taxes a lot because the architects didn't anticipate it to cost so much. Plus it has no cultural or historical significance so that's not helping the situation either. Personally, I thought it was pretty guay, but I'm effectively a tourist and they said it basically functions as solely a tourist attraction. 

(at the top of Las Setas)

 (I was demanding MJ to take off her glasses. This depicts us perfectly. MJ and I aways talking and Quique always chilling and waiting)

 ( I love them!!!)

 (to me it looks more like a honeycomb than a mushroom)

 (mi ciudad)

 (the whole group... MJ threw an umbrella at me)

 (#besties)


A cool thing that happened when they built this structure was they were going to build a market or something like that underneath it and when they started digging, they discovered Ancient Roman Ruins. Quique said he thinks its awesome that the ruins are underneath Las Setas because its a perfect representation of la ciudad antigua y la ciudad moderna. I agree.

 (las ruinas)

 (naturally this had to happen)

 (when in the roman ruins...)

After our tour I was determined to enjoy my afternoon and not just head home and end up doing nothing... like what ended up happening the previous night. I kept asking all my friends if they wanted to go grab a beer or a glass of wine and everyone was so indecisive that finally I just made the decision (I'm sure Julie won't believe it) and walked over to one of the restaurants in the plaza and sat down and ordered a glass of red wine and some chocolate and churros. Slowly but surely my friends saw I was seated on the terraza and they joined me. The wine and chocolate was quite the lovely pairing. 

(I'm really digging the colors in this picture)

 

(you already know the deal, and if you dont you should by now!)

After this, everyone went back to their houses to work on homework (que asco) and me, Laura and Katherine decided to go in search of a different bar to have a drink. We found a bar in a plaza called Alfalfa that was nearby that was awesome and had lots of character and most importantly it had beer and wine for less than 2 euros each. (I had previously walked through the plaza earlier today when I was lost). We each had a beer and a glass of red wine at this bar and chatted about a bunch of random stuff because I hadn't had the chance to hang out with these chicas yet. Slowly but surely I'm getting to really know everyone in my program and I'm loving everybody!!


(vino!!!)

After our bebidos I was feeling gooooooooood. I got back to my house my 830pm and Maca and Rafael were both in the kitchen preparing dinner and since I was feeling extra happy (I have no idea why) I told them "Sabes que me encanta esta familia". Needless to say, I melted their little hearts :) they responded with "Nos gustas mucha". Which translates to "You and Cassie are legit the best betches we've ever had live in our pimp palace and we love you and you are better at speaking spanish than us and you are super fashionable and beautiful." I know, I know, clearly they were holding back their true emotions but I'm sure they'll really open up to us soon and elaborate on how much and why they love us. When they do, I'll be sure to post about it.

For dinner we had boquerones which are little fish that look like anchovies (they aren't anchovies) and are lightly fried. And that was it. Full bodied fried fish. Rafael loves them. Cassie and I were pretty squrimish about this dinner because they still had faces and tails!!!! AHHH! Also, Rafael eats the espinas (spines) of the fish, aka he just plops the whole fish into his mouth and eats it all. I had Cassie film me as I was explaining to the camera what a boquerone is and tried my first one. I had no intention of eating the espina and tried to bite the meat off of the tiny bone... but I ended up eating the spine on accident!!!!! It was fine, I lived. After that I mastered the art of avoiding the bones and enjoyed some more. They are pretty salty and after a while you can't help but look at their little fishy faces and get freaked out. 


(las espinas O___o)


(this picture looks like she's legit putting a lizard in her mouth... they basically were lizards so its accurate)

Vale, its very possible that you have forgotten that I have a house brother because I've literally only interacted with him dos very short veces. PERO! Está noche tuvimos el placer de hablar con él! ¿Qué suerte, no? Now its adorable because just like my parents are always begging me to speak Spanish with anyone and everyone who can, his parents do the same to him with English. Por eso, hablabamos con él en Inglés y usamos Español cuando él no entendió... claramente porque somos mejores hablantes que él. Well this is where it got supes hilare because Maca and Rafael always tell us about how he's very smart, he doesn't drink alcohol, he's always studying, he doesn't have time for a girl friend y blah blah blah porque estan orgullos, como todos padres en el mundo. Pero, I wasn't buying this and REMINDER they don't speak a lick of English. So I took advantage of the situation and began my inquisition. I asked him a couple normal questions to get him loose and ready for my real punches. It went like this (btw his spanish accent when he speaks english is hella presh):
Me: You're participating in the walk of Rocio?
Carlos: Yes
Me: Are you going to drink alcohol?
Carlos: No
Me: Oh, you don't drink alcohol?
Carlos: Yes (as in yes, he doesn't drink alcohol)
Me: Are you lying?
Carlos: Yes
Me: JAJAJAJAJAJAJAJAJ
Me: Do you have a girlfriend? 
Carlos: No
Me: Are you lying?
Carlos: Yes
Me: JAJAJAJAAJ

And then Maca came into the room because she wanted to know why we were laughing so much. Clearly we couldn't ruin her perfect vision of her son so Cassie made up a quick lie about something stupid that I don't even remember.

Needless to say, I loved my conversation with Carlos. 

After dinner Cassie and I decided to buy tickets for an EDM concert that is happening this weekend in Sevilla que se llama Territorios Sevilla 2013. Obvi it's not going to be ULTRA, ya lo sé. Sin embargo, vamos a divertirnos.

I was almost convinced again that no one else wanted to go out because everyone was saying they were too tired BUT Laura and Katherine pulled through and said to meet outside the ISA office and theyn we'd go to some bars. We were shocked to find the city kind of dead. It was only 1145pm and we had been told a million time that everyone stays out super late in Sevilla but bars were closing and there weren't that many people in the street. We scooted into a bar that was still open and were the only people in the whole place other than the bartender. No pasa nada. We sat there and chatted with the bartender. Laura is Cuban and lives in Miami so she's fluent in Spanish and was doing most of the talking. I was just chillin and enjoying my beer. Speaking of beer. All the bars I've been to so far have one beer and one beer only. Either Mahao or Cruzcampo. Since we are in Andalucia (the region in the south of spain) all anyone has in Sevilla is Cruzcampo. It's basically Spain's version of Heineken because its owned by them.  I'm a beer girl, don't get me wrong, but DAMN can I get a little variety??? 

We had two beers at this place and then a promoter from a nearby discoteca (this is a hilarious word I know, next time I go to a discoteca I'm wearing sequined bell bottoms) gave us promo tickets where you could get into the club and get a drink for 3 euros as long as you arrived before 130am. Since nothing else was popping, we hopped over to Mamba which was a 30 second walk from the bar. It was moderatley dead when we got there and they were blaring a hilarious playlist of Americans songs like "Can't Touch This" etc. But we already paid so you better believe we went and got our drink and posted up to people watch. Slowly but surely, people start moseying into the club and then they lift up this divider that opens up the room to be twice its size and reveals a dance floor. Two guys that were pretty legit at dancing go out and start doing little fancy feet moves that I don't really know how to describe. A little time passes and Laura and Katherine have come to the conclusion that we are at a gay bar. Shwhatever.  When in Spain. 


(at the gayyyyy bar gayyyy bar gay bar.... this is a song reference)

Eventually we shimmied out to the dance floor and are occupying a small corner just doing the typical holding a drink and talking to your friends kind of swaying. Sorry folks, there was no choreographed routines. Within 60 seconds, one of the guys that was legit at dancing came up to Katherine and started talking to her. And then he kissed her. HOLD UP! Not that kind of kiss you crazy people! The double cheek kiss business. After she kissed him, then Laura and I had to follow suit. Doesn't slamming the side of your face onto a stranger at a bar just sound like paradise? Anywho, he starts dancing with her and its hilarious. Then he proceeds to one by one dance with each of us. We were cracking up. When in doubt boys, always go for the silly and fun dancing before you try to bust out sexy moves because rarely are they actually sexy and more just creepy. This guy knew that rule. HOWEVER, his sidekick that came up to us shortly after him DID NOT. Lolz. We each danced with that goon for like 30 seconds. 

Since I had to get up at 630am the next day to leave the house by 730am to go to the Camino del Rocio mass with Cassie, I decided staying out till 2am was good enough for me. I left the chicas at the bar and headed home. 

And that's all folks!!!!

Hasta luego,
Raquel

WebRep

currentVote

noRating

noWeight