Mi familia

Ahora it's Sunday night, which means that I have been living with my host family for five days. It's been really great so far, living with a Spanish family has already helped my Spanish so much and it will continue to get better over the next four months. The household consists of my host mom, María del Mar, and her 17-year-old daughter, also named María del Mar. For simplicity's sake I will from now on refer to my señora as María del Mar and the daughter as María. And if this isn't confusing enough, María del Mar (my señora) has 7 brothers and sisters, and all of their first-born children are named after them. As such, there are 3 Marisas and 4 Antonios in the family. Hopefully I'll never have to keep them all straight!

I also have a roommate, or I guess more of a housemate. Her name is Justyna and she is in my program. I was a little nervous at first to be living with another English speaker because it would make speaking Spanish much more difficult, but so far things have been great. We get along really well. Our señora has a 'no english' rule in the house and we've actually been really good about speaking in Spanish almost all of the time, but it helps so much to have someone who will understand you when you have a problem or when you just really need to have a conversation free of blank stares and stumbling around words you don't know. Everyone here speaks so quickly and has a very heavy Andalusian accent that is almost impossible to understand the first time around. I feel bad having to ask everyone to repeat everything all the time, but I can already tell that I'm getting better at understanding things.

María del Mar has been hosting exchange students for 11 years, ever since her husband died when María was 6 years old. María del Mar needed to find a source of income that would allow her to be home with María and didn't require extensive transportation because she doesn't have a car. Hosting exchange students is the perfect solution, and by now they are pros at it. Justyna and I each have our own rooms which is wonderful, and the house has newly installed wireless internet which is beyond fabulous. We live in an apartment on the 7th floor of a building in 'el centro,' one of the many neighborhoods of Sevilla. The apartment is very small, but it works out well. My room is the perfect size for what I need and the amount of stuff I have (mom, you will be glad to know that I am keeping it very clean).

We live in a great location, very close to the University (15 minutes walking) and the CIEE study center (20 minutes walking). Every day I walk along the river to get to school, and it is breathtakingly beautiful. Each time I walk onto the street I am taken aback by my surroundings, I can't believe I live here! It's unreal. El centro is full of shops, cafés, restaurants, and plazas. Everything I could possibly need is within walking distance or accessible by bus.

My days start with breakfast, which is 2 pieces of toast with strawberry marmalade, freshly made café con leche, and a glass of pineapple grape juice (it sounds weird but I promise it's actually quite good). My host sister goes to school in the morning, she is in her last year before University and is going to be an engineer. Justyna and I do whatever we need to do for our program and our classes, and return to the houst at 2 or 2:30 to eat lunch. Our señora goes out during the day, and leaves our prepared lunches on the kitchen counter for us to heat up when we're hungry. We always have a main dish, some sort of salad and a piece of fruit for dessert. María comes home from school during lunchtime and the three of us eat together. Lunch was really quiet and awkward the first couple of days but that is improving quickly. She is so patient with our terrible Spanish, and is great at describing/explaining words that Justyna and I don't know. Dinner doesn't happen until 8:30 or 9, and typically consists of a main dish and some sort of pastry, flan, or chocolate mousse for dessert. Delicious.

I have liked almost everything I've eaten here so far, lots of soup, eggs and meat. María del Mar is a really good cook, and really good at being a host mom. She makes sure that we always wear our slippers in the house, because it's a commonly held belief that bare feet or stocking feet on the tile floor causes sore throats. We also always need to wear scarves when we go out because its winter and the cold weather will make us sick. I didn't tell her that compared to Minnesota 55 degree days in January is a heat wave :)

She never hesitates to correct our grammer or help us use the right word which is helpful and frustrating at the same time. I'm learning how to eat with my left hand, because it's rude to switch from left to right after cutting up food. The other day I was having a shoe dilemma because I left my boots at home and none of the shoes I have with me are very comfortable except for my birkenstock sandals. It was a little cold out but I thought I would be fine. My señora came in and watched me put my shoes on, then politely told me that I couldn't wear them outside because in Spain it's winter and if I went outside in open shoes 'todo el mundo' would know that I am from the States. With my blonde hair and blue eyes everyone pretty much knows that already, but I didn't argue and changed into flats. Once again, she looked at me and repeated that it is winter, it's COLD in Spain. In the winter people wear socks - tall ones, none of these short athletic socks. Finally, I left the house in socks, flats, jacket, a scarf, and a recommendation from my señora that I buy myself a nice pair of boots.

Everything is going well, I'm getting much more settled in here and starting to feel more at home. Being with a family helps so much, it's nice to have people looking out for you. I miss everyone so much, talk to you all soon!

Hannah