First Day in Sevilla!

Hola!

Today is my first full day in Sevilla and I love it already!  It’s beautiful. We are staying at a lovely hotel today and move into our home stays tomorrow. We got our homestay address today and I will be living with a senora and another CIEE student in the Los Remedios neighborhood, it’s across the river from the city center and the University of Seville.

I have an interview in an hour that will determine what level of classes I get to take so that’s a little nerve racking but I’ve made some great new friends (many of which were stuck at the Madrid airport with me for 16 hours) and we are going out before dinner –which is at 8 at the earliest- to explore and hopefully get cell phones so that we can all stay in touch when living at our homestays.

The city is beautiful. Honestly it is the most beautiful and colorful city I have ever seen. The buildings are an eclectic mix of old and new. The streets are narrow and some have sidewalks about a foot wide. I have no clue how to get around yet but we have to figure it out quickly because they gave us a guide today to show us around, but tomorrow after we move into our homestay we have to find our own ways to our meeting location in one of the many plazas around Seville.

Speaking of plazas, we saw some amazing ones today. The most grand of course was the Plaza de Espana. It’s gorgeous and the details in the façade are amazing. My favorite was a on a little side street we walked down (carefully, since it had the 1 foot-wide sidewalk and cars zipping down it). It was just outside a monastery and was simply called La Casa de Pilatas (no clues what Pilatas means…) There were semi-crumbly buildings and grass growing through the cobbles but it was its simple beauty that took my breath away. I’m hoping I can find it again.  I forgot to take a picture of it, but hopefully you will like some of the others J

All-in-all I love this city so far. The only part I have some trouble with is the fact that they keep telling us snacking is an American thing. To be honest my tummy is rumbling a little during the long hours between breakfast at 8am, lunch at 2pm, and a light dinner at 8pm. Tonight we are going to a flamenco concert/performance. It will be exciting to see the dance Andalusia is known for.

Ok, time for my siesta (nap) since I didn’t get to bed until 3 am. Love you all J  Peace