Los pensamientos sobre mi barrio (Thoughts About my Neighborhood)

Hello from my new apartamento!

We have been stealing some wireless here (the apartment doesn’t have wifi ((wee fee, as it’s pronounced here)) and the connection goes in and out. Hopefully I can finish this entry in time to put it up when I write it!

So yes, I said “we.” I live in an apartment with another girl from the program, Katie. Katie goes to Penn and we get along really well. And, funnily enough, we have a mutual friend who went to high school with me and now goes to Penn. I don’t think I could have gotten assigned a better roommate. She’s a pescetarian, too, so that makes dietary stuff within the family really easy.

Ah, our family. Mayte is our senora—the woman in charge of the house (ok, or apartment in this case). I would say she’s probably in her early 60s. She lives with her husband, Fernando, and one of her sons, Hernando. Hernando is 35. In Spain, the norm is for kids to live in their parents’ house until they establish their own family. Housing here is really expensive, and it makes things easier and cheaper for sons and daughters who are trying to establish themselves.

Mayte is wonderful. When we first left the hotel, I was asking her what she wanted Katie and I to call her. (In Spanish, there are two ways to say “you”—formal and informal.) I asked her using the formal voice, and she stopped, smiled, put her hand on my shoulder and told me that we should always use informal when talking to her. It was just a really nice way to start. Mayte has been having students live in her house for 18 years, so she’s an old pro at this. She helps us with our Spanish and gives us new vocabulary to learn. She’s very friendly. I was expecting to feel a little bit like a boarder in someone else’s house, and I don’t feel that way. Maybe a tiny bit, but I think that’s more because it’s the beginning and Katie and I aren’t fully comfortable moving around the house and things like that yet.

Mayte’s husband, Fernando, is great, too. He’s a joker and just an all-around nice guy. He reminds me a bit of my Grandpa: he likes to do crafts, and he also makes jam and other preserves and has made a good deal of the furniture in this house. What’s interesting, though, is that Katie and I are clearly Mayte’s responsibility and Mayte’s doing. We gave the family some little gifts we had brought from home. The gifts were clearly just for Mayte—Fernando came over to see what the things were and she shooed him away, saying that the gifts were for her. I guess it makes sense… she does the cooking, she does the cleaning, she does our laundry… being here has basically been a visualization of what I’ve learned in my class about the way gender works in Spain (especially southern Spain). My sense is that Mayte doesn’t go out of the house much unless she has to do some shopping.

And, last but not least, Hernando. There’s not much to say about him. If I understood Mayte correctly, she has three other kids. Hernando must be the only one who is not married because he is the only one who lives in the house. Mayte has 2 (3 in a few months) grandkids and she has a room on the other side of the apartment for them. It’s really cute.

The apartment has an interesting layout, but I think it’s probably pretty popular. The living room and dining room is in the center of the apartment. It’s one big room. There is a balcony off the living room. Then there is a hallway on both sides of the living room. Off that hallway on either side of the living room are the bedrooms and bathrooms. The two hallways dead-end at the kitchen, which, if you were looking at a floor plan, is above the living room. The kitchen is small but cute. They just redid the bathroom that we use and it looks like it’s straight out of Ikea. The walls are rainbow tiles, the shower is new and modern looking, the sink is made of angular shapes… it’s a really, really nice bathroom. I’ll take some pictures and upload them sooner rather than later. Our room also feels a bit like living in the Ikea catalogue. It’s a really tiny room for two people, but the use of space is insanely efficient. I feel like the room should go on TLC or something on one of those model shows about how to create space in a small room. There is tons, tons, tons of closet space—we have a lot of extra room. We each have shelves mounted to the wall above our bed for books and whatever else, as well has a place to hang stuff from and a mirror. I took some pictures and I’ll upload them, too, eventually… it won’t work from here right now because the internet connection is too weak.

There are a lot of other kids from the program in our barrio (neighborhood), and I haven’t figured out if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I guess there are advantages and disadvantages. We are about a 25min walk to el centro, which is nice. The walk is interesting. It slowly goes from more of a strip mall, high rise atmosphere back to the picturesque, insanely cute Seville that I’ve written about before. So yes, I do not live in the picturesque, old, touristy part of Seville anymore. I get the feeling that most people in Seville don’t live in the city center, though (I think it’s probably pretty expensive) . I have mixed feelings about living where I live, too. The 25min walk isn’t bad, it’s just not terribly scenic. The advantage to it, though, is that it’s a major road and there are 3 different buses that go from the apartment straight to the university. I’ll also apply for Sevici, which is an awesome service Seville has. It’s like zipcar, only for bikes, and there are a ton, ton, ton of them. There are different stations of bikes all over the city. For 10 Euro a year, you can pick up a bike at one place and leave it at another. Really convenient.

Katie, me, and another girl who lives in our barrio, Amelia, explored a bit of the area today (and we spoke in Spanish the whole time… it felt good). We’re about a 15min walk to the soccer stadium and an indoor mall (complete with movie theater). Unlike when we walk around in downtown Seville, there are no tourists here. I get the feeling that living where I do, although it’s not as scenic, is a much more realistic perspective of what it’s like to live in Sevilla, rather than be the foreigner who is here strictly for tourism. But, to be honest, a part of me does wish I was just in the heart of Seville. It makes things easier and more scenic… but then the other part of me knows that this is more real, this will force me to see more of the city and more diverse parts of the city, so this is better.

Basically, it’s in my nature to question everything that ever happens to me (it’s my curse), but overall I’m really pleased and content with how my housing worked out. Ultimately, it’s the roommate and the family who matter most, and both of those are winners. Katie’s only going to be here for the semester, so at the end of the semester I can reevaluate the situation and decide what I want to do. I think it’s more or less the perfect set up. Oh, and (after we pass the high rises and construction) we pass an insanely beautiful palace to get to class. Not bad, huh?