Seville

I have finally moved in to my new home in Seville :) I live with a very nice young couple with a three year old daughter! Her name is Talía and she is almost completely bilingual and working towards becoming trilingual! My host mom is actually from Nebraska but has not yet spoken a word of English to me, she is very adamant  that I speak only in Spanish because she understands what it is like to acclimate to a different language and culture. My host father is native to Seville and is working towards becoming a police officer because in Spain, if you work for the government, (police, social work, sanitary services etc), you are guaranteed your job for life! The apartment they have is very small but comfortable, I have my own room with a small patio outside where clothes are hung to dry, (it is so hot in Spain that owning a dryer is a waste of energy and money).

The city of Seville is beautiful and very historic, I walk about 15 minutes to the University and every day I walk by La Giralda and La Catedral, two incredible monuments that have stood for hundreds of years. I feel as though I am in a movie walking down cobblestone streets lined with brightly colored buildings and impossibly small cars. Everywhere I go I still look like a tourist because I can't help it but to gawk at the beautiful scenery; I am trying to blend but pelo rubio (blonde hair) and freckles don't help much.

Assimilating to the language has been a bit of a challenge since the Andalusian accent is so strange, it sounds as though they speak with with a lisp because "c" and "z" are typically not pronounced. To top it off, Sevillanos like to speak direct and to the point, so it is common for people to drop letter and sometimes even entire syllables in order to communicate faster. My house father told me that if you can understand Andalusian Spanish, you can understand any type of Spanish simply because it is so fast and so fluid. I hope he is right because in this past week, I feel like someone hit the reset button on my Spanish skills!

Next week I start my intensive session, which is basically a grammar class condensed into two weeks before the regular semester begins. I am so thankful for the chance to really get used to the language before taking 4-5 classes this semester! Tonight I go to a meeting about extracurricular activities within the university like Flamenco dancing, fútbol and volunteer work; I need all the opportunities I can get to practice my Spanish!