The guy sitting next to me smells like crackers.

That's what Liliana leaned over and whispered to me a little ways into the game. Yes, the GAME!

I went to the SEVILLA V BARCELONA futbol (soccer) game yesterday and it was PHENOMENAL! The Sevilla stadium is about a 10 min walk from home. A lot of kids from my neighborhood went. I sat with three of my friends: Liliana, Audrey, and Paige. Liliana knows a decent bit about soccer (she's crazy about some of the players on the Barcelona team and was not-so-secretly routing for them instead of Sevilla) and was very helpful in explaining things to me throughout the game. Overall, I know very little about soccer except for what I have picked up from friends. Still, though, I appreciated going and had a great time. I was not bored AT ALL, which was a new feeling for me at a sporting event. It just goes to show that in my mind soccer definitely, definitely trumps football. It's not even a contest.

Liliana and me waiting for the game to start, making our excited faces.

Barcelona warming up!!

It was actually really interesting to go to a sporting event that wasn't in English. Not because of the announcements or anything like that (they actually don't announce anything except for substitutions), but because of the way fans acted. Even basic noises of suspense were completely different. It was "uy" instead of "oo," "oof" instead of "ugh." Our noises were definitely out of place. Plus, obviously they were screaming things out in Spanish rather than English... the two guys behind us were especially verbose (and I think slightly drunk) and kept screaming things like "hijo de puta" (son of a bitch), "maricon" (queer), and other fantastically inappropriate phrases. Audrey and I thought it was hilarious. But I mean, of course they were saying that--it's not like they were going to shout things in any other language. It wouldn't have been funny at all if it were in English, but somehow these Spaniards behind us screaming profanities through the whole game made the experience just that much more authentic. Even the non-profanities were fun to hear for some reason... like once just before Sevilla tried to score on Barcelona, the guy behind us screamed "está buena!" (it's good!) right before Sevilla missed. I don't know, it all sounds so obvious, but it was immensely enjoyable.

We bought the scarves, but the hats were free! That's me, Audrey, and Paige.

Early into the game this smoke bomb went off in the area for Sevilla club members... they were singing songs the whole time, clapping, banging, and waving their flags. It was great. One of their songs was sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle, which was, well, hilarious.

Liliana and me during halftime.

Overall, in case I haven't stressed this enough, the game was totally fantastic even though Sevilla lost horribly. It was really interesting and fun to experience the atmosphere of Spanish soccer and especially fun to see a team as good as Barcelona (ranked number 1 in Spain) and some of their famous players. It definitely felt epic (ok... the first half, anyway) to see Barcelona playing the local underdog team. My experience last night was absolutely worth the obscene amount of money that I shelled out to go!

Un montón de cosas (A Bunch of Things)

My new favorite phrase is "ya está." It doesn't have a good translation in English, but it literally means "already there" or "there it is." I probably shouldn't bother writing this in the blog because it's so hard to explain well in English, but I thought it was worth mentioning that I am annoying people with my over-usage of "ya está." It's really quite fantastic. I missed having my little phrases that I always say, because I definitely have that in English, and I'm finally starting to create some in Spanish. It's good stuff. Well, ok, "ya está" was already created, but I am embracing it as an emma-ism. It's official. I do like the sentido of it. Yes indeed.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, so Happy Thanksgiving (or, as I call it, T-gives)! The center took us out for the Thanksgiving meal, which was a lot of fun. It wasn't typically American or anything, which I think was better--it was very Spanish. We had a room where we stood, schmoozed, and beverages and ordervs (spelling?) were brought around. The food was Spanish, the presentation was Spanish, everything was Spanish, but I think that's a good thing. An authentic Spanish Thanksgiving (ha, if such a thing exists) is much better than people who are good at making Spanish food trying to mock American food. That normally doesn't turn out so great. But yes, T-gives was overall very enjoyable. We spent 2 hours schmoozing with each other, talking, and laughing. I really love the directors of the program, too, who I spent awhile talking with (something that I could not have done to save my life at the beginning of the program). I'm going to miss them.

All of my classes in the university except for one were canceled this week (um, or people just didn't show up so the professor didn't teach) because of Bolonia, the nickname for the new law that was just passed in Spain. Like I mentioned before, there have been strikes and other things going on in the University because Spain just agreed to this plan, Bolonia (more information at http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proceso_de_Bolonia, but in Spanish), and the students hate it. There are strikes, protests, marches... the main patios in the central university building have been closed off, the main libraries have been shut down (which is funny because now there's really nowhere to work) and there are always policemen and guards lurking the school. There are posters up everywhere about when the next strike is, about challenging the administration, etc. Bolonia was proposed by the EU, and basically what it does is standardize university education in each country so that the degrees in each place line up. In theory it's a good idea, but it means the students have to pay more money and it means that they have to go to more school to get their degree. It's kind of like the US system -- they'd have to go to undergrad and grad to become, say, a pharmacist, whereas now they can do that in just undergrad (ok, that's oversimplified, but it's more or less the idea). Also, Bolonia means the termination of some departments, like Anthropology, so having Anthropology classes has been interesting. Students are feisty about it, obviously. My Cuban Anarchist Anthro professor, the old man who I'm in love with, thinks all the protesting is phenomenal. He kind of just sits back and watches it happen with a smile on his face. I love it. Anyway, all this Bolonia stuff means stuff at the university has been irregular and unreliable, but also very interesting.

Yesterday, after my Anthro of America class was canceled, I went to my teacher's office to talk to her about the commentaries we've had to turn in and that one in class essay we had. She's an old woman and intimidated me when she was in the front of the class, but when I went to see her in her office she absolutely couldn't have been nicer. It was great. Warm, friendly, joking... everything. Turns out I totally missed the point of that in class essay we had, which isn't surprising, but after she read it she smiled and made some jokes about how obsessed I was about the wrong people in my writing. It was good. Then she read one of the take-home essay/commentary things I did and said it was great, so that made me feel good. We talked about language barriers and her failed effort of learning English, and it was all just great. I left thinking about all the progress I'm making, rather than the one in class essay that went horribly, which is not in my nature to do. Talking with her gave me confidence and reinforced that it's okay if I miss some things -- I'm trying and it's obvious and the world doesn't end. And I spent 15/20 min talking to a professor in Spanish! Fluidly! How about that!

Sevilla is getting a metro system. One of the stations is going to be right next to the program center. There are several prensas in between the program center and the to-be metro -- little permanent stands where you can buy magazines, newspapers, candy, etc. Yesterday, one of them fell into the ground. Literally. I guess it was too close to where they were digging for the metro, but the people in the Prensa heard an enormous rumble and got out just in time. The entire stand -- again, it's a pretty permanent building-like structure -- fell through the ground. It's surreal. Today when I came to the center, there was a fence up all around it and all sorts of TV cameras and the whatnot. Weird. I'm glad everyone is okay.

I have started working with my older person through Solidarios, the nonprofit organization I joined! At first I was really worried about it. I got placed with a very nice older woman, Antonia, who has pretty advanced Parkinson's. Dealing with advanced Parkinson's in English is hard enough, and adding Spanish made it nearly impossible. She can't really move her face, so her words all gush together. The first time I went and met her with the person from Solidarios, I was upset and had my doubts. I thought it wasn't going to work and I was bummed that they had put me with someone who was going to be so difficult for a foreigner to deal with. But then I went back by myself (she also lives pretty close to me, which is a huge bonus) and it was great. She smiles when I can't understand her. It's good because it means that she's not the only one who's slow... I have my own problems to deal with! So we work through them together. I helped her rearrange her closet. I really like Antonia a lot... she lives with her daughter, who came home from work as I was leaving, who is also phenomenal. I'm really happy overall with the situation. I don't understand a lot of what Antonia says, but it doesn't even seem to matter. Bonds can form in such simple ways. Also, Grandma: I was wearing the white knit hat that you got for me and Jenny, and Antonia couldn't stop smiling and she kept telling me how cute I looked. Just so you know!

And, last but not least, I had another intercambio this morning that went really well. It was with Fernando, a 24-year-old Pharmacy student. We talked for about 2 hours. We're... different, again, but it was still good. He was really gung-ho about practicing his English, so that was good. Although I will say that my Spanish was better. :o)

Una excursión y más (An Excursion and More)

On Thursday night, Katie and I cooked dinner for Mayte and Fernando. It was a big hit and a lot of fun. We went to the grocery store together after class, bought some ingredients (as it turns out, we bought way, way, way too much), and closed off the kitchen for about an hour while we cooked. It was fun. We made homemade macaroni and cheese and stir fried some veggies. It wasn't the most exciting meal on earth, but Mayte wanted us to make something that's common in America that she didn't know, so we thought mac and cheese with veggies was a good idea. They went really well together, too. We all sat down and ate and had good conversation. It was really nice. Some extended family was in town this weekend, too, and Mayte served up our food to them (like I said, we made a ton). I think this week Katie and I might bake some cookies.

On Friday I had a field trip with my local development class. Liliana and I took bets on how few people would show up (I guessed 17, she guessed 11), but we were pleasantly surprised to find that the entire private tour bus was filled -- there must've been 40ish people there from our class. The field trip was all day. We went to Estepa and Osuna, two cities in Sevilla province. In Estepa, we toured some factories and had several presentations. We went to the local development office in Estepa and had a presentation from them, too. If you've ever had the Spanish Christmas sweet called "Mantecado," chances are it was made in Estepa. Estepa is also well-known for it's Olive Oil company called "Oleoestepa," supposedly some of the best Olive Oil you can buy from Andalucía. After Estepa, we went to the little town of Osuna, where we did a little walking tour and learned about how the local economy is based around the University and the Hospital. It was a really pleasant day. The teacher had planned everything well and it was interesting to see these two places in Sevilla Province that I wouldn't have gone to otherwise.

Outside of La Estepeña, the sweets factory we went into in Estepa. Christmas gift and palm trees. They look oh so grand together.

View down from the top of the hill in Estepa. First come the houses, then come the factories, then come the olive trees.

View from the climb up the hill in Estepa (it's the view of the other side, basically).

This weekend was quiet because I have a decent bit of work to do. I wrote a 5-page paper and have about 20 more pages for other classes to go. I also have some presentations to prepare, which is the most intimidating, but also exciting. Anyway, this weekend was mainly spent working (which was hard, considering the absolutely beautiful weather outside that I hate wasting), but I did discover the Meijer/Target/Wegman's/Walmart equivalent, just a 15 min walk from my apartment building. It's called Alcampo and it is wonderful. It is absolutely enormous and the prices are SO good. I was very pleased with myself for finding it and also felt stupid that I had been paying so much more. After I got back, though, Mayte wasn't too happy because apparently it's in a bad neighborhood and she didn't think I should've walked there myself (oh well, now I know for next time). Alcampo is farther out from the center of the city, which is why I'd never seen it before. I always walk in the opposite direction. But now I have found the grand haven of Cheap Things and my life has been changed for the better.

Like I said earlier, family was visiting Mayte and Fernando this weekend. Their granddaughter, Candela, from Granada (4 years old, I think) was visiting. On Sunday I was in my room doing homework, and I heard Candela start giggling. Then I heard Fernando start giggling. Then Candela started giggling even harder. Then Fernando's giggle got stronger, too. Then I was laughing because I was listening to them giggle together (Fernando really does have one hell of a giggle). It was really cute to listen to.

One last random thing: Almodovar is my new favorite Spanish director. Watch movies by him. They're fantastic. I especially liked Hable con ella (Talk To Her).

Hasta pronto!

Doan-tuh eh-smo-key!

So the title is a bit random, but it´s from teaching Fernando English yesterday. We were doing some excersizes that his computer program has. That´s how he pronounces ´don´t smoke.´ It´s really quite endearing and I thought it was a pretty creative title for the entry. He´s making progress and it´s fun to teach him.

Fernando cutting bacon on the kitchen table. Him and Mayte take great pleasure in offering Katie and me some.

The library system through the university is really poor. I´m used to being stressed, but I´m not used to being stressed about being able to find the materials that I need to write a paper. I knew that Cornell has a great library system--I always talk about it on tour--but I never fully appreciated it. Cornell has all sorts of electronic systems and databases and will even have a book fed ex shipped to you from another university if the book is unavailable on campus (even if it´s just that someone else has checked it out, you can still have your books shipped over!). It really is an incredible system. I will appreciate it much, much more when I go back.

Liliana was trying to take out books yesterday. Most of the books she wanted were in a private room, so the woman had to keep running down to the private room, getting the books Liliana wanted, and running back up. This also makes it impossible for Liliana to browse or look through any other books, which is a key element when writing a term paper, which she has to do. They also use the card catologue system. All of the checking-out process is done completely with pencil and paper. Liliana worked at the Ann Arbor Public Library last year and there was an enormous difference between the two systems. It felt like US libraries 20 years ago or something (right. because we know what libraries were like 20 years ago). Anyway, point is, it´s not a walk in the park to get books to use for class here. Resources to do well can be hard to come by, and that´s frustrating.

Work is also piling on. I´m stressed. Decent bit of reading. Papers and presentations. All in Spanish, mind you, so it takes a decent chunk of time. Giving a presentation in Spanish to a class of Spanairds on an anthropological topic is hard (I chose how our modern notion of progress assumes a sense of linear time and I think I´m going to apply it to the way American University students think about the future). As I already said, finding the books is hard. Knowing what books to find is harder! I would know where to start in an English anthro class, bu Spanish makes it hard. I can do it. Just a bit stressful. Depending on my mood, sometimes I see the presentation as a fun challenge. That´s how I try to see it, anyway.

Katie with the massive amount of chocolate Mayte brought back for us when she went to England about a month ago.

My tutoria for Anthro of America is helping a lot. Yesterday in class I followed everything much better. I wasn´t having problems with the concepts, I just couldn´t categorize the information in terms of different anthropological schools of thought. My time frame was also all messed up. Now that all that stuff is becoming clearer, I´m realizing that the class is actually nothing lke what I thought it would be about. It´s not about civilizations in America, but rather about the different Anthropological theories that have developed in America. It´s kind of a bummer because it makes everything pretty dry, but on the other hand it´s probably good for me to have that background. I just don´t know if it was worth learning that background in Spanish. Oh well.

Next semester I think I´m only going to take one anthro class (anthro of communication, taught by my favorite teacher ever). I´m not sure why I was so set on taking anthro here when I could be taking Spanish Lit or History classes. I think I thought anthro would be interesting and easier to handle, but I don´t think that´s the case. But that said, my reading skills have also improved a lot, so now I consider a lit class to be much easier than I would have at the beginning of this semester. Ah, progress. Yes indeedy! Or... I hope progress, anyway.

A random tribute to my friend, Oliver, who drew this awhile ago.

I got a scarf in Toledo with Caroline. It´s a popular, fashionable scarf and tons of women (and men) wear them here. I found out yesterday that the scarf has origins among people who support the state of Palestine. Huh. Interesting. So now the question is do I wear my scarf simply because I like it and I don´t think it really represents that anymore, or do I put it in the back of my closet? Really, a ton of people here wear them and I don´t think it can possibly still have that connotation. Then again, origins are origins, and I don´t want to declare myself as siding with anyone based on my clothing. It looks kind of like this: http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d124/jami0821/Arafat_Scarf.jpg but only kind of. And I definitely don´t wear it like that blond girl does. Anyway, I had no idea that getting a scarf that I liked was going to involve such political dilemmas!!

Toledo y otras cosas (Toledo and Other Things)

This past weekend I went to Toledo with Caroline. It was great. The entire city of Toledo is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I have been to other monuments, museums, and neighborhoods that are UNESCO sites, but never an entire city! The architecture was amazing in the old city, situated on a hill, and there were still a lot of very well-preserved old buildings. The architecture was also very different. Toledo is near Madrid, in the center of Spain, which has a very different history from Andalucia, where Sevilla is. It was a great place to go for the weekend (we used the ave, the bullet train from Sevilla to Madrid).

Toledo has a large Jewish history and has two old synagogues. They were very interesting to see. I liked it a lot, but it was also weird. There were a lot of jews between 700-1492, but then they were all expelled. There was a museum attached to one of the synagogues, and the way they wrote the descriptions and the commentary did not sit well with me. I imagine I felt like how Native Americans feel when they go to a Native American museum made by people who aren't Native Americans. The tone of everything was sort of like "hey, look at this old, strange culture that used to live here, but then they left" and it was very obviously from a Catholic perspective. It didn't seem like they consulted Jews about much when making the museum. Caroline and I had both gotten the little audio guides to listen to, but by the end we didn't even bother because we were both kind of disgusted by the way the museum chose to describe and portray the past. Caroline is not Jewish, so it wasn't just me, but we both realized that we've had much more interaction with Jews than most Spaniards who come to view the museum do. It really was made for people who know absolutely nothing, so I guess it makes sense that we found it condescending and uncomfortable.

Toledo was small enough that we saw it very adequately in a weekend. We saw 2 synagogues, the main Cathedral (with plenty of El Grecos and a Caravaggio), a smaller cathedral with an incredible El Greco in the front, and went on a long walk outside of Toledo to get a view of the city on the hill as El Greco painted it back in the day. Toledo is known for marzipan. I'd never had before, but quickly fell in and out of love. All in one weekend. I ate way, way too much. Anyway, Caroline and I also had time to just walk around and take in the curvy, unique side streets and awesome architecture, which was nice. Our Hostel was incredible -- it was basically a hotel. Really great. And now, for a few photos:

Catedral de Toledo by night. Or better said, by dusk.

Caroline with a hunk of marzipan in a window that says "Toledo."

Cool lighting under a mudejar arch in one of the climbs up the hill (let it be known that Caroline and I were both very, very aware that we have lost our Cornell legs this weekend. Those hills were steep)!

The view of Toledo from our long walk.

On the edge of Toledo. Acting, well... like myself.

The old entry to Toledo and a church. This was very close to our hostel.

Caroline has all of the pictures of the two of us, so if she puts up any good ones I may add them to the blog. That's the problem with traveling with just 2 people... it's harder to take photos together!
Overall, though, another good weekend!

In other news, there was a strike at the end of last week and all of my classes were canceled. Well, not really canceled, per se. No one showed up except the foreigners, including the professors, so it was just assumed among the locals that there was no class. The strike/protest/march was taking place at all the major universities in Andalucia. They made a lot of noise and went all over. Their main sign read "school is a right, not a privilege." I'm pretty sure Spain is trying to make them pay about $1,000 more a year to go to university and is also trying to make the process more selective. It was very interesting to see... I can't imagine American culture without overpriced, selective universities. We're trained so differently in some ways.

Today I was reading on the grass under the sun, blue sky, palm trees, and orange trees. Sun, blue skies, palm trees, and orange trees have all become normal aspects of my life. They absolutely should never be normal! I try to continue to be stunned by the scenery here. It is pretty unbelievable.

And, lastly, I had a surprise in class essay-exam thing in Anthro of America last week. That was not fun. We had a prompt that we had to analyze and discuss. The first sentence in the prompt was "The problem with Mexican Anthropology is that it is too ___ and spends too much time focusing on ___." I didn't understand the words in the blanks. I didn't have my dictionary. Yeah. It was not fun. I think I managed to scrape something together, but it wasn't the best. I used context clues in the rest of the prompt as best I could and that's the best I could do. Oh, the joys of being a foreigner.

El martes, 11/11 (Tuesday, 11/11)

Three things happened yesterday that I want to share.

1) Mayte told me that she got her granddaughter Candela, who lives in Granada, a doll. Her granddaughter is 4 years old. The doll is black. Her granddaughter, with no prompting whatsoever, named the doll Obama. "Candela Obama," to be exact. Mayte asked her how she knew about Obama, and she said he's always on the TV. So yes, 4-year-olds in Southern Spain are naming their dolls after the American superhero.

2) Yesterday I ate dinner really late -- way later than normal. I was flipping through channels because what I normally watch wasn't on, and I came across "anatomia de grey." Grey's Anatomy dubbed in Spanish. It was a good time. It also made me realize just how ridiculous the drama is. Sometimes seeing something in another language will do that.

3) I had an intercambio with Natalia, a girl who Luisa knows, last night. It went really well. She's a fashion student (Beth, if you're reading this, holler back, we talked about fashion and shows for awhile) and very, very nice. I'm not sure how much I would like her if we were in the US, but we got along well enough and I'm glad that we'll be spending more time together (once a week on Mondays, if not more). She's 25 and has graduated, so she has a lot more time than me and was very excited to hang out. Her English is good and it was fun speaking in Spanglish for the hour or so. She also has a car, which is a very nice bonus.

That's all for now. Updates after this weekend -- night out on Thursday with Caroline and friends, and this weekend I'm headed to Toledo with Caroline before she flies back to Scotland from Madrid!

Un fin de semana en Londres (A Weekend in London)

I SAW THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND AND PRINCE CHARLES!!!!!!!
No joke! We were headed to Victoria Station on Sunday to get our bus to Stansted Airport. We had to walk by Buckingham Palace again. We weren't allowed to cross the street, so we waited until we were. Turns out we weren't allowed to cross because the Royal Family was heading into the Palace! We watched the queen pass (she waved) and we saw Prince Charles wave, too. None of us saw Harry or William, but one of the guards said he thought it was the whole royal family (although they're not told exactly who, because we tried to ask several guards and none of them knew exactly who had been in the cars). There were a lot of guards and officials and people, too. That procession only takes place once a year (for Remembrance Day) and we just HAPPENED to be in the right place at the right time! And I SAW THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND!!

Other than that, though this weekend was incredible. Really, really unbelievable. Katie and I went to Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace first. I loved Westminster Abbey -- there are all kinds of cool people buried in there (like Newton and Darwin... pretty cool for a church!) and there's even a special corner called the Poets Corner where all kinds of famous English writers are buried. We had sushi for lunch, walked along the water and met up with Caroline, and then ate at a great Bangladeshi/Indian restaurant for dinner. After, we went to a classic pub where I had my first hard cider (which was delicious). The next day Caroline, Katie, and I went to Leicester Square to get cheap tickets for a show (Moustrap!), then went to the National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, Chinatown for lunch, St Paul's Cathedral (Mary Poppins, anyone?), got delicious tea, and went to see the fireworks over the Thames in honor of Guy Fawkes. The fireworks were really picturesque and wonderful. After, we walked over Millennium bridge, went to look at Shakespeare's Globe Theater, saw London Bridge (but of course), and took the tube to our theater to see Mousetrap. Mousetrap has been showing in London for 56 years. It was so British and so fantastic. I highly recommend it. After the show we got fish and chips in a pub, walked around Piccadilly Square, and went back to the hostel. Sunday morning we walked to Victoria Station, SAW THE QUEEN OF ENGLAND, went to Hyde Park, and took an obscene amount of photos in a phone booth (totally my doing). I also had a pasty for lunch, which I really liked.

Oh -- I should probably clarify: Katie and I went to London together on Thursday night (ha, due to the time difference and the complications of flying into Stansted, we didn't get to the hotel until around 3:30am Fri morning, which felt like 4:30am... but after some confusion, coldness, and double-decker bus, we found our way to the hostel). Then, on Friday, my good friend from Cornell who is studying in St Andrews, Caroline, met up with us. We spent the weekend together in London and then all of us flew back to Sevilla yesterday. Caroline is spending this week in Sevilla and Granada, and then this weekend we're taking the train to Toledo.

Me and my friend, Caroline, in the phone booth.

Me and Katie. And phone booth.

This picture is subtle, but if you look closely, Katie is trying to strangle me. I love this one.

Double decker buses outside of Victoria Station!

Me, Caroline, and Katie outside of Buckingham Palace on the day WE SAW THE QUEEN!!!! (I'm not going to get tired of talking about that.)

Katie screwing up the "London Bridge" picture with her bag. But that's ok. It's still good.

Outside of St. Paul's being, well... ridiculous.

Me at St. Paul's. It's the second biggest Cathedral in the world! (Sevilla is third.)

My dear friends at Trafalgar Square after finishing the glorious National Gallery Museum.

I loved seeing this. It was phenomenal.

I love this photo... Caroline trying to push Katie over, yet framed beautifully with Big Ben in the background.

Katie acting silly in front of Westminster Abbey.

The first time we saw Big Ben! It was great. I was really excited.

St. James Park, outside of Buckingham Palace.

St James park and acting ridiculous. It seems to be a theme of this blog.

WE SAW FALL!!! This was the first morning there and Katie and I were so excited... we stayed near Russell Square, where there were piles of leaves... it turns out the leaves were pretty wet.

I'm not sure what else to say. Traveling with Katie and Caroline was wonderful. We are all the same type of traveler. We got a lot done, made lists, and saw everything we wanted to see without being frantic about it. We outlined the general things we wanted to do each day and the order in which we should do them, but we left the outline of each day pretty lose so that we could enjoy ourselves and make changes as we went along. We just always had some idea of what we were doing and where we were going next, which was good. We also planned our meals... we ate sushi, Indian food, Chinese food, and fish and chips. It was marvelous. Anyway, point is: we traveled well together and we all really enjoyed ourselves. Katie and Caroline had never met before, but they got along really well.

We only used the tube one day. Other than that, we walked! The tube was really clean and fun to try. I got a 'mind the gap' t-shirt. I couldn't resist (they say 'mind the gap!' instead of 'watch your step' when getting on and off the subway). It's interesting that the tube was more of a middle/upper class way to travel (4 pounds is the cheapest ticket you can get, which is about 7 dollars!), whereas in the US it's definitely not. So we took the tube 4 times total (got a pass), but other than that we walked everywhere. We were quite sore.

If you'd like to see more pictures, here's everything I put on facebook for my friends to see:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2239490&l=4ebe3&id=430682

Ok, I'm meeting Caroline soon. I couldn't have had a better weekend and everything is great, but I'm definitely getting behind on homework!

Sí, podemos. Sí, hicimos. (Yes We Can. Yes We Did.)

I went to bed at 3:30am on Tuesday night (well, morning) when Obama had won Pennsylvania. I woke up at 7:30am and Obama had won the election. I could banter on about this and how I'm feeling--it's actually quite tempting--but I'll save you because it's all pretty predictable. I will say, though, that people here are equally excited and happy. Obama has steadily been the focus of all news and people here--students and young ones included--are very well informed. My friend from Belgium in one of my classes was telling me how he lives with a bunch of Europeans, and they all stayed up to watch the elections, and when Obama won they were all crying with happiness together.

Yeah, and how many students in the US even know who the president/prime minister/head figure of Belgium is? Anyone? Any of my friends reading this? Maybe the history buffs. Being in Spain really showed me to what extent the US is a world superpower and how much we affect the lives of people all over the globe. Helen, my translator from China, sent me an email yesterday also congratulating me about Obama, and she lives in a pretty isolated place.

Yesterday I took the bus home. There were 2 other American boys on the bus. A man on the bus heard them talking in English and said "American? Yes? ...Obama! (except it was more like 'Oberna!') He black, you know? Black! Black president! Big change!" The American boy just said "sí" over and over again. (I'm pretty sure, based on other contextual clues, that he was not the biggest Obama fan.) And I sat there laughing to myself like a crazy person, but what else is new.

One last thing before I move on: I feel patriotic for the first time in my life. It is a totally alien feeling for me. I like it. I could get used to it.

In other, less exciting news, I had my first tutoria at the beginning of the week. El centro arranges little tutoring sections for you if you're having trouble with one of your classes, free of charge. I wouldn't say I'm having trouble with Anthro of America, per se -- I'd just like to be more on top of the material than I am now. I met with my teacher, Patty, who just finished her Anthro studies at the University. I like her a lot. She had some great tips for me (like which 2 or 3 books I should really read out of the list we have that's over 100) and was very easy to talk to. It will help me with Anthro, of course, but it will also help my Spanish. That's one more hour a week where I absolutely have to be talking in Spanish.

Speaking of which, Fernando and I have started having English classes twice a week. We have an official schedule. And although you wouldn't immediately think so, teaching English actually makes me use my Spanish more. I have to explain the concepts of English to him in Spanish. It's good. I like spending time with him and it's obvious that he really appreciates that I take the time to do it. He's very studious and serious about learning, and it's good for him because he doesn't have much going on otherwise. He has a bunch of BBC English DVDs that he practices with in between our classes.

I figured out how to get my computer working with the wireless that the university provides in some of its buildings, which is great! The service is good and I could probably find a pretty quiet hall or area to Skype in. I should also be able to get there on Saturdays, whereas the center is normally closed... Now that I can use internet in the public library and the university buildings, I can spend less time in the center, which I think is a good thing.

I'm in love with my Anthro of Contemporary Societies professor (joking -- he's 70+, Angie's height, and has enormous white hair). No, in all seriousness, he's been a great teacher and is very approachable. He's given me some good stuff to read in Spanish for my 'time' topic. I stayed after class to talk to him on Tuesday, which of course got us talking about the elections. Turns out his relatives are from Cuba and he's an Anarchist. It was a fun conversation. He was really friendly and we bonded over both having issues with Bush's America. No doubt on Monday he'll call upon us to share stuff about how things are going in the US in class.

My Development class is a joke, but in an amusing sort of way. For example, yesterday the professor said: "So, when we're evaluating a territory, what's the first thing we ask? Wait, no, nevermind, the first thing we ask is 'where's the bar?' Ok. So what's the second thing we ask?" And later, when he was talking about population distribution and the number of people in each age group, he said "ok, so then you get married at 25... wait, no we're in Spain, so when you get married at 30... wait, no, that's still too early. 35! When you get married at 35... and then start working when you get married... no, well, wait... maybe at 40..." And the thing is, both of his jokes weren't really meant to be jokes. People laughed, of course, but they were kind of true. People here--the professor included--would need to know where the bar was and people here don't get married and get real work till much later, either. So yes. This is what we learned in class yesterday.

I'm going to do volunteer work through an organization called Solidarios. They have various ways you can volunteer in Sevilla, and I decided I'm going to do their program where you spend 3 hours a week with an older person who lives alone and is lonely. I'm looking forward to really getting started--so far I just had the orientation. Some of the other ways you can volunteer involves working with a group of students (like Katie spends a few hours a week at night walking the streets with a group of students and offering hot coffee and conversation to homeless people), and that might've been a good way to make friends. Oh well. Having it just be me one-on-one with someone will force my Spanish to develop a lot more, I think.

There have been 2 cockroaches in the kitchen in the past 3 days. Not a good sign. They're also ENORMOUS. I was the one that found both of them. Or rather, they found me. The first time I was in the kitchen doing homework. I was reading a book for my Franco class that has a scene with a cockroach in the kitchen. A few minutes later, I looked up from my book, and there was a beast of a cockroach scurrying by my feet (WEIRD). I managed to trap it with a jar and Fernando dealt with it the next morning. Yesterday, though, the cockroach kept scurrying off. Fernando and Mayte got down on their hands and knees and were crawling around the kitchen looking under the the drawers and appliances for it. Every so often Mayte would see it and scream "Ay, madre de dios, Fernando, aqui esta!" and then Fernando would quickly shuffle over with his flashlight looking for it and spraying stuff with it. We kept losing it, but finally we saw it running across the wall near the ceiling. Mayte let out a scream--cockroaches really are enormous--and Fernando started trying to stab it with a broom. It didn't work, so he left and brought in a ladder. I couldn't help but laugh. Mayte was laughing too. I guess you just need to imagine a 70-year-old man on his hands and knees with his butt up in the air looking around the kitchen while his wife screams profanities in Spanish. It was, um, fun? We never ended up finding it... they sprayed some stuff. Maybe that will work.

And now I'm off -- LONDON TONIGHT!

¿Estaría orgullosa de ser de los Estados Unidos? ¡¿Qué?! (I Could Be Proud to Be From the US? What?!)

Being proud to be a United States citizen is a pretty foreign concept to me. I mean, ok, that's not entirely true -- I've definitely had my moments of pride -- but the election tomorrow has made me think about how I have lived the majority of my "adult" life with Bush as president. From 13 on, he has been my president. And to be honest, I can't remember much about Clinton or other presidents before that. So the idea that it is very possible -- very possible -- that in 2 days I could actually love who's coming into office and the changes he's going to make feels... well, foreign. And weird. And wonderful. Maybe the day after tomorrow I can tell people here that I'm from the US and feel proud about it, rather than bowing my head apologetically and promising that I voted for Obama. The idea of being proud when I say I'm from the US is so strange... it's not something I ever anticipated happening. I know Obama has been running for awhile and all of that, but the reality of what could happen tomorrow is finally hitting me. And the change that it would produce (ha, change, like that's not an overused word in the campaign) is extra-emphasized because, well, I am in a foreign place and am, to a degree, representing my country, whether I like it or not. And maybe I can be proud to do so. I'm getting excited just writing this. I didn't let myself get excited about the prospect of Obama as president before, but now I will. I can feel it. It's so close.

When I go out with my American friends, we will no longer have to say we're from Canada! Can you imagine how good that will feel?!

On the note of Obama, a week ago my Anthro of Contemporary Societies professor started class by looking at me, Kristin, and Audrey, and asking us to talk about Obama and what people in the US are thinking. Um. Shoot. That's the kind of question where I'd have no idea what to say in response no matter what language I was trying to talk in! In the US, I would make up some kind of fluffy answer because it's just too hard to answer such a general question like that gracefully when put on the spot. So, as you can imagine, in Spanish it was even more difficult. Talking on the spot in class is often something I do in English without really paying full attention to the words coming out of my mouth. The skill of talking in Spanish without thinking about it hasn't developed for me yet, unfortunately. So our responses in our Anthro class were really no good. Kristin talked about how it's a really strong movement among young people, hope, change, etc, and I tried to tie it into what we had learned in class (we had learned that societies progress by putting their hopes and values into the future, not into the present), but I think I failed at that explanation miserably. Our professor, a tiny old man with big white hair who smiles with his eyes, seemed happy enough with what we had said, though. The other kids in the class (maybe 15, max) were mostly smiling. At us or with us, I'm not sure.

Two days ago when Katie and I were eating dinner, the main news station we watch showed the "Yes We Can" Obama song versus the "No You Can't" McCain one. It was fun to watch, especially with the Spanish subtitles.

My Nana (grandmother) called me a few days ago and had some good words of wisdom about electing someone into office. She said "even if it were Micky mouse, we'd be better off than we are now." I liked it. Unless Bush put on a Micky Mouse outfit and got reelected. Then there'd be some problems. (Is "there'd" grammatically correct?)

Moving away from Obama and on to more random things...
1) I spent about a week trying to find greeting cards. Turns out that people here actually care about the environment (I know, what a concept) and they aren't really big into wasting paper for no particular reason. I searched all the stores I could think of. Finally I found some greeting cards in the main department store that has everything here, but they were Hallmark, each made for a very specific occasion (baptism was a popular one) and each way more expensive than the US. I also only buy recycled cards to kind of feel sort of good about the environment, and that was even harder to find. The lack of cards was really interesting. It makes total sense, but it was interesting nonetheless. (I should also add that paper generally -- even paper for school and the office -- is much more expensive here than in the US. The equivalent of a 5-star 1-subject binder would be about 5 euro here, which is roughly 8 dollars.)
2) It has been in the high 50s. The Spanish are breaking out their Uggs. No joke. No more needs to bee said on this matter.
3) I went a store similar to Best Buy the other day and it looks like iPod only sells the shuffle and the nano here. It's not the nano that we have in the US, either -- it doesn't play movies and it much smaller. I looked at the wall of all the mp3s that the store had, and all of them were smaller. There wasn't one thing of any brand that played movies or did anything other than play music. Everything was small. And there were a lot of mp3s on that wall! Lauren, I thought of you -- this answers your question about the popularity of iPods here.
4) I went to the outlet malls this weekend. It was good. They're far away, but there's a free bus, and I figured out where it stops, what times, etc. It's not a normal bus, so that took a bit of research, but I did it! Figuring out the bus schedule always makes me feel good. Not sure why. It just does. The outlet mall was good -- they call it "Factory" -- and I got a few things. I'm glad I explored it. It also makes me even less inclined to spend money in the cutsie pedestrian shopping district in downtown Sevilla.
5) Mayte and Fernando came back yesterday. It was really great to have them in the house again. Mayte even brought Katie and I gifts from London! We each got a funky hair towel thing, a bracelet, and we got an enormous Toblerone (seriously, huge) bar to share between us. It's dark chocolate. I'm very happy. I also asked Mayte if it would be okay if I stayed with her next semester. She was really, really happy. After last night, it's so obvious to me that I made the right decision in staying. Fernando was happy to see us, too, and went immediately into cracking jokes left and right.

Obama, Obama, Obama, Obama, Obama... a news channel here claims to be having live coverage of the election starting at midnight here tomorrow. Katie and I might be hitting that up.

That's all for now, I think. I made a list of things I wanted to write in this entry so I wouldn't forget anything. I think it went well.
Mike, what do you say... was I "dork neurotic"? :o)