Jenny's family... new friends... and Sevilla FÚTBOL!!!!

This has been a whirlwind week! Where to begin....

Last Thursday afternoon, Jenny's parents came to visit for her 21st birthday (Feb 1)!!! They were awesome! AND they brought me stuff from home!! I now have more clothes and snacks!!! HOORAY!!!!! Best present ever! OH and even better, they invited me to take a shower at their hotel!!!! (You don't even understand how amazingly life-changing that was)

While with Jenny's parents, we walked around the city, did touristy things and had a lot of fun! Her parents are hilarious (I see where she gets it from haha!) When we went to the Giralda and other places I didn't bring my camera... so when we go with the school I'll put up pictures, but let me tell you... the Giralda is the most beautiful cathedral I've ever seen. It definitely rivals the Mezquita of Córdoba. Anyway, that's for a later time....

While with Jenny's parents, we went to Los Arcos to meet up with Lina and she brought along her friend Miguel. Lina is from Peru and speaks Spanish with all the syllables and slow-er than Sevillans... Miguel on the other hand- born and raised Sevillan- he is IMPOSSIBLE to understand!! He doesn't use any "s" sounds, shortens most of the words, lisps, and speaks ridiculously fast. He knows some English, so if I'm staring at him like um... what???? he can speak slower and usually when I still can't decipher what he's saying, he'll translate it for me. Haha!!! Sevillans... I'm getting used to understanding this accent, so I'm confident that once I can understand these people at full speed, I'll be able to for the rest of the Spanish speaking countries!!!! Hopefully...

Anyway, so school is going well- there is a LOT of work to do!! We always have LOTS of homework.
This is an example of my week:

Lunes: 8:30-10:30 conversation; 12:30-13:30 grammar; 13:30-14:30 Sevillianas- rest of the day is free!!
Martes: classes are same; 16:00-19:00 internship at kids school; 20:00-21:30 Spanish tutors
Miercoles: classes are same; sometimes I go to my internship otherwise free!
Jueves: classes are same; 13:30-14:30 Sevillianas; 16:00-19:00 internship
Viernes: classes are same and then FREEDOM!!

SO basically, I really don't have all that much free time- which is a little sad. I make time to run 3-4 times a week and I walk to school, so I'm getting plenty of exercise. Good thing because we eat SO MUCH FOOD!!!!

Each day during my 2.5 hour break between classes, I do my homework for grammar that I never do the night before and then I go to D'arthe, the coffee shop right around the corner from the school. Basically, the people that work there know me by name and know what I get! We are now friends. It's pretty great. They get onto us if we speak English in there, it's pretty funny!

So now on to the most important part of this blog: FÚTBOL!!!! I have been missing out my entire life. This sport is amazing!! (sorry Dad, definitely better than Golf.)

Some of my girlfriends and I decided to buy tickets to see Sevilla vs. Valencia last Sunday night. This is the last decent or affordable game played here, so we hopped on it and bought the tickets. We also bought Sevilla bufandas (scarves) to fit in with the Sevilla fans (it could be dangerous if you are for the other team...) So we get to the stadium which is like a 5 min walk from my house and it is PACKED with people!! We get to the entrance and take the stairs (yes, stairs, don't think there are elevators or escalaters in these staduims!) up to the TOP level and then MORE stairs to the 2nd to highest row.

I thought I was in death valley and about to fall off onto the field. Of course we are sitting next to a slew of Sevillan guys about our age, so they are obviously staring at us. They ended up being so much fun to sit with!! One guy "Rafy" spoke decent English and was telling us what to say, do, and what everything meant.

Rafy and Katie and me at the game!!
In the beginning of the game, they play the anthem of Sevilla FC and halfway through they cut the music and the crowd (40,000ish) sing ACAPELLA in good time and then the music comes back on a little later and they finish singing the song, it's so awesome!! I got it on video, I'm so excited!!
It was so much fun! Sevilla won the game! So now, I am a Sevilla fan for life!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJ796uXclr0 that is a link to the anthem of the Sevilla FC- it's such an awesome song!! AND it will give you a taste of the Spanish accent!

We went to a coffee shop to celebrate and got cake and ice cream after her parents left! It was great!


Tomorrow morning we have to be at the Hotel Sevilla Center at 7am to get on a bus to Granada... 7am!!! MUY TEMPRANO!! I'm so excited and I can't wait to tell you all about it!

Love,
Merick :)