Just when you thought the travelling had ended....here I am in Seville, doing a Spanish course for 8 weeks over the summer! Have been here since Monday, sorry for lack of updating, internet issues and general busy-ness have prevented me getting a chance to write on here! Will give you a brief overview of the adventure so far...
Firstly, I should say that I was meant to fly out on Friday the 25th (despite my course not starting til Monday and my accommodation contract not til the Sunday afternoon....stupid Ryanair not flying here at weekends!). While my flight didn't leave Liverpool until 2pm, I had to get there by way of a convoluted taxi/bus journey, not to mention several hours early, thus needing to get up at 7am. However.... at 5.30am on the Friday, I woke up and promptly started violently throwing up from what can only be assumed was food poisoning from the restaurant (Manchester's Café Rouge) we went to the night before :(. I carried on being sick on about an hourly basis until 12pm, by which time I was meant to be at the airport (having survived potentially a 2 hour bus journey due to roadworks). Needless to say I didn't brave the trip; I didn't really fancy ploughing through the coach's sick bags without a familiar face for comfort and possibly making everyone else ill! I'm so glad I didn't make the trip, in the state I was in it probably would've been horrific, and, due to my not being able to check in to my house until the Sunday lunchtime, I was meant to be staying in a studio on the outskirts of the centre for the weekend, on my own, without internet. What a fun weekend that would've been! So instead I rearranged my flight for first thing Monday morning, spent Friday in bed in Manchester watching TV and recovering, then by that evening I felt a lot better, leaving me free to spend the weekend in Milton Keynes with Quinny for our friend's birthday :)
The flight on Monday was at 6.50am, again from Liverpool. Not the most dignified hour..! After a 3am start, I finally arrived in Seville at 12pm, again having to navigate the public transport system in a new and exciting city. I went straight to my language school, where I was greeted with a welcome pack and then took a Spanish language level test straight away (on little sleep and after a journey, this came as a bit of a shock!) but managed to score 100% on the test..! The teacher wanted to put me in the highest group, but as there isn't anyone at the school taking that level yet (C1), I'm in the B2 group for the moment, with 6 other people. The level is perfectly fine as I'm trying to remember all my Spanish at the moment and the other students are largely very good, so it's a good introduction rather than being thrown in the deep end!
I then made my way to my new house round the corner, Calle Viriato 12. I've been finding out that the house has quite a reputation around here; there seems to be no way of knowing for sure how many people live here at any one time; when I moved in it was about 15 people..! Needless to say the place is huge..I was greeted by 2 French students, who were surprised when I could speak to them in French! My room turned out to be on the roof of the house; a gorgeous little room, but I hadn't considered just how hot it would get up there! I had a fan, but it turned out to be bows and arrows against the lightning. The landlady had left me a note saying I could move downstairs when the French guys left a few days later, which I initially wasn't bothered about, but after a night trying to sleep in what must have been about 25 degree heat at least, I quickly reconsidered!
I started school at 9am on Tuesday; the class lasts until 1pm with a break from 10.45 to 11.15. The first half is taught by a Spanish bloke called Jesús (different pronunciation from English..), who made a joke about turning 33 this year (today, in fact!) and it being a bad year to be called Jesus...a lovely guy! His class is a lot of fun. Then after the break Manuela takes over, a very smiley and heavily pregnant Spanish lady who has been really encouraging (as has everyone, to be fair). The first day of class dragged a bit (it's hard to concentrate on Spanish for 4 hours at the same desk!) but it's got better and better ever since, we cover interesting topics and have some really good conversations. My Spanish feels like it's come on leaps and bounds already, and I've only been here just under a week!
I think this is partially down to having to/choosing to speak Spanish to most people in the house as well; off the top of my head there are 4 Dutch girls and one Dutch guy, one Finnish guy and one girl, 2 or 3 Italian blokes, a French guy (but who I usually speak Spanish to as then we can both practise!), a Turkish woman who usually lives in America and there was a Danish girl, Jennifer, who I became close friends with and who left this morning after a 2 week stay. Thus Spanish is largely the common language; a few of my housemates are beginners so I tend to speak English to them but most people choose to use Spanish as it's become habit and is good practice! There are 2 more people arriving tomorrow, I think one is a Finnish girl, not sure about the other. It's expected to get pretty quiet over the summer due to the extreme heat which often drives people away from Seville, especially in August, but the Italian blokes are staying until the 10th August (10 days before I leave on the 20th) and several are staying until the end of July. A few of the Dutch girls are leaving on Wednesday after being here since February, so we had a party in their honour last night, which was AWESOME! We all made a dish each (I cobbled together a sort of chorizo and vegetable pasta salad) and had a big buffet-style banquet on the terrace at night; what made it even better was that we'd decided on a Greek gods and goddesses theme and were all dressed up in 'togas' made from our bedsheets! I was Aphrodite :p (photos do exist, I'll try and get them up somewhere for people to see!) It was truly epic. We drank lots of wine and I retired to bed pretty early, around 4am (most people went on to a club shortly after..! I was sadly too knackered after getting up at 8am for school and having slept 5 hours the night before...it's been a long week! Most people here have jobs or study but often don't seem to get up very early, the house is eerily silent when I'm getting ready for school!) Apparently there was some scandal this morning, when some angry Spanish neighbours approached us around 7.30am after discovering the street full of shattered glass from bottles that my drunk friends had decided to smash up after coming home from the club...more news on those developments later when the landlady comes round for a 'chat'....Never a dull moment!
I've been kept busy the past week, mostly with school and seeing the sights with Jennifer - as she was only here for a short time she had a lot to cram into her visit, which I welcomed! Seville is such a labyrinthine city, it's best navigated by foot as it's quite compact, but the roads are so windy and look so similar that I still have no idea where I am half the time, and carry a map everywhere! We went to the stunning Cathedral and climbed its tower (which made me jealous of the people with rooftop swimming pools!), went for some gorgeous handmade sweets (my new favourite shop!), drank vino con naranja (supposedly red wine with what we thought was orange juice, but tasted more like a strong orange liqueur - deadly at 4pm!) and browsed some of the ludicrously cheap shops. We also went to the flamenco museum the other night, to have a look round and see a performance - I'm actually in love with flamenco now! It was stunning, and I managed to get myself a handheld fan which is an absolute necessity in these temperatures. We went for drinks on Wednesday night with our school - they do a night every Wednesday called 'Happy Miércoles' (Wednesday in Spanish) to get everyone together and socialise. The drink of the season here is 'tinto de verano' ('summer red wine') which is half red wine, half lemonade, with ice - ultimate refreshment for around €1,50! The following night it was my coursemate Rony's 21st birthday (a lovely chatty Israeli girl who is really good at languages) and we went to a tapas bar for dinner (DELICIOUS and so cheap!!) followed by going to a famous local bar, which is huge inside and allows you to bring your own instruments and play to each other. Rony's friends brought a Spanish guitar, and one of them played flamenco tunes while the other sang. They were fantastic, up there with the professionals! It was a perfect, relaxed evening, just like evenings in Seville should be. Needless to say, I love it here!!
Today I'm pretty much making the most of having the day to myself and no classes to attend, largely by having a lie in (as much as possible due to the heat!) and bumming around sunbathing and reading. I might go and explore the town in a bit, though I have to say I still feel more comfortable with someone else with me who knows the way home! Seville does have a metro, but it has about 4 stops and I haven't yet found one that is very near here.. may look into that. The Finnish girls are on about getting the bus to the coast tomorrow, which I'm very up for - cooling water and a sea breeze sound good to me! Other than that I'm enjoying relaxing after a long and eventful first week; as the Dutch girls told me last night, I've certainly 'landed with my nose in the butter' (been very lucky)!! Vicki (my coursemate from Manchester) and her boyfriend arrive on Friday for the night and Saturday, so we're gonna go out for a meal and spend Saturday doing the Brit tourist thing - am really looking forward to it, am nowhere near finished exploring the city yet! Quinny comes to visit on the 16th for 10 days, which will be awesome :D we hope to go to the coast for the weekend or something, there are so many things I want to show him!
Had a bit of a scare last night just before the toga party, when my phone ran out of credit and I tried to top up but my bank card was declined, whereas it normally works fine and is perfectly in date - it wouldn't let me do it online either. Luckily KT was online and mum wired me some money to put on my phone as a temporary measure - I couldn't even ring the bank to inquire, or even have them ring me as it costs me money to receive calls too! I tried to forget about it (quite successfully) for the night and then mercifully managed to sort it out this morning - turns out the fraud company were just being extra cautious as I was using it from another country (even though I didn't have that happen to me at all last year while I was touring Europe..). Oh well, crisis averted! Even so, I have some euros in cash here, so it wouldn't have been the end of the world, but it's always good to know you have access to some money if you need it! Never mind, panic over! :)
Love to all and let me know if/when you plan on visiting - please do, it's such an amazing city and I'd love to share it with you!
Keep in touch!! Ooo, my address is:
Nicola Tomlinson
C/ Viriato 12
41003 Sevilla
SPAIN
I'm pretty sure I can get post here (we have a letterbox but I don't have a key, maybe the landlady gets it out for us..?!) but yeah, if you fancy writing, feel free! I'll try and be on Skype most evenings but the internet is still a bit capricious at times, will keep in touch as best I can, probably mostly via here so keep your eyes peeled!
Loads of love :) xxxxxxxxxxxxx
