Blog 3: Lo Siento, No Hablo Español (I'm sorry, I don't speak Spanish)

Lo Siento, No Hablo Español ( I’m sorry, I don’t speak Spanish)

Mi familia en España y mi compañera de cuarto (My family in Spain and my roommate)
Such wonderful people!

I’m in my pretty little casa with my compañera de cuarto (roommate) after going our first shopping adventure.  This is a necessary shopping trip since I only brought ONE carry-on to Spain. I’ll put up ‘spoiler pictures’ of what I bought just to give you guys a little idea of what Spanish fashion is like but I’ll talk about the experience next time. I already mentioned I really hate shopping, but I was excited for shopping in Sevilla because right now there are awesome sales! In many stores the entire store is 50% off even 70%!). I’m a notorious bargain hunter so this is totally my kind of deal. Plus who doesn’t get excited about shopping in Europe? Nadie (no one). Also I’ll talk about the crazy night-life in Sevilla in the next blog too. So shopping and night-life next time. ¿Vale? (Ok?) That should be fun to write! =D

           

Ok I’m getting a little ahead of myself. So I’m staying with a host family in Sevilla. This is one the scariest parts (for me anyways) of studying abroad because to be honest my Spanish is not that great. And somehow I have to communicate with my host family with the vocab of a three year old. But the really cool thing about my home in Spain is that they have a small guest house across an outdoor patio so my roommate and I have some privacy. Houses in Sevilla are not huge mansions like some American homes, they're muy pequeño (very small) but the house I live in feels very European. The room my roommate and I share is the cutest little pink room (already decorated) with tiled floor painted with intricate Mediterranean looking patterns. And I’m not going to lie…when I first met my host family I was super nervous. They know a little English but not too much so they speak in Spanish to me. Most times I can get the gist of what their saying, but speaking back is muy dificil (difficult). My roommate knows Spanish much better than me so she has been great about translating when I don’t understand. (May I just say how much I love my roommate!) But my family is really wonderful. They have a daughter and a son around my age and are very understanding about my horrible Spanish. We just had a big lunch during siesta. Siesta is when everything closes and everyone goes home for lunch and maybe a nap from 2:00-4:00pm. America take notes. All of us talked for a few hours (me using sign language as a means of communication at times like when I didn’t know the word for 'rainbow'(arcos iris)). I think it’s going to be hard and awkward at times but I'm not going to freak out and get discouraged. Learning a language is tough and there’s going to have to be some ‘learning pains’ in order to master it.

            Finally I just have to say that Sevilla is an incredibly beautiful city. Every building looks so ancient and picture worthy. And there’s so much greenery here as well (I literally live steps away from el Parque de María Luisa which I already know I will be jogging in) so Sevilla doesn’t feel like an urban jungle. (I’ll put up more pictures next time) My roommate and I saw the Plaza de España which was where the pictures were taken in previous blog.Those are definitely the most grand government buildings I’ve ever seen.  I've been to Paris and London (much bigger and more well known than Sevilla). But in my opinon Sevilla rivals even Paris as far as beauty. The views are so breathtaking my roommate and I went a little camera happy for over an hour. I just feel so blessed to be living in what is one of the most gorgeous cities I’ve ever seen!