Me encanta Sevilla!

Vamos a ver... I've been in Sevilla now for just about a week, and I am quickly getting acclimated to the Spanish lifestyle -- I even find myself arriving at school a few minutes late, but I'm still the first in the classroom.

My classes are going well and I'm starting to speak more Spanish, but I still have a little bit of trouble speaking the right words without having to pause and think for a moment. I am able to understand almost everything people say to me when I'm out, but I sometimes have the "deer in the headlights" thing going on if they speak quickly, which most people seem to do.

Each morning, I walk 3 kilometers to school (and then 3 kilometers home), and have classes from 9.30AM - 4PM, with an hour's worth of breaks during the day, which I spend at various cafes near my school. By the time I head home, I'm pretty fried -- I can't think in English, I can't think in Spanish, but it's great!

Yesterday I visited the Plaza de Toros in Sevilla, and took a tour of the bullfighting ring. We learned about bullfighting in my culture class -- I never knew the matador gets to keep one or both ears of the bull, and sometimes the tail, if he does a really "good job" killing it... what do you do with a bull's ears and tail? Anyway, I was curious to see the Plaza because bullfighting is such a long-standing tradition in Spain, and Sevilla is said to have one of the nicest rings in the country, but I wouldn't want to watch an actual fight. The last of the season occurs this Sunday, el 12 de Octubre. Sunday is a big holiday in Spain because it's the day Columbus is said to have discovered America, so we don't have class on Monday as it's a national holiday. Que bueno.

This morning I had an exam to move to the next level of classes -- I scored around 80%, so it's onward and upward... I forgot what it's like to be a student and nervous about tests, but then I remembered this morning that these grades don't really "count" for anything, other than my own benefit. I did think it was funny, though, when my professor told me I wasn't allowed to use a pencil to take my test -- he wanted me to use a pen. I used my pencil. In Europe, everyone writes with pens, and it's a stereotype in the school that only Americans write with "un lapiz." My classmates were laughing at me during my exchange with the teacher about what I was going to use to write my exam, but I gotta be able to erase!

After classes ended, I walked to the Plaza de Espana, a huge courtyard with a number of Moorish buildings arranged in a half-circle. The plaza was constructed in 1929 when Sevilla hosted the Spanish-American Exhibition. The coolest things about the plaza are the many fountains lining the half-circle on which the buildings sit... each fountain represents a different province in Spain, and on the floor in front of each fountain is a map of that province. Each is intricately tiled with such brilliant colors -- I had the most fun taking photos in the Plaza de Espana.

Tonight I am going for "copas" (direct translation is "cups") with some people from school... my flatmate Sander has gone back to Holland so I'm sorry not to have a roommate to go around with! And tomorrow, I am off to Cadiz and Malaga for the weekend.

I've created a web album for my photos from Sevilla -- you can check it out here, but they aren't yet annotated. Hasta luego!