New things

Hola a todos!

Things are still going well in general and my trip continues to be about new things...I'm discovering new routes to my destinations, making new friends, and learning new Spanish vocab. Speaking of new things: my new room! It is a little messy, but hey...

I can already tell that my Spanish is improving. Another this I have noticed that amazes me is how fast my attitude about it can change, though. One second I will be feeling proud and confident that I successfully conjugated an irregular verb, and then next upset and embarrassed because I couldn't understand what people are saying. I guess you could say it is a love/hate relationship, but all good relationships need time to grow, right?

Anyway, a little bit about what I have been up to since I last posted...
On Friday I went with my orientation group to a place outside of the city called Itálica. I didn't really know what it was before I went but it is actually the first Roman settlement on the Iberian peninsula! It was the settlement for only the very richest of the Romans, though. Since I enjoy history this was a very interesting place to me. The original stone roads still exist and we walked on them! Also, they have uncovered mosaics that were on the floors of the houses and they are spectacular. I took a lot of pictures but I will only bore you with a few:

A mosaic of Roman gods representing the days of the week and part of the ruins:

the amphitheater where they would have gladiator fights! the hole in the middle is where they kept the animals (it had a cover on it when they fought)


Me standing in the arena in front of one of the doors that led in the inner hallways where the gladiators would wait to fight. My hair looks horrid because it was really humid that day haha



more ruins
In other news, we have actually started classes! For the next 2 weeks we have an intensive session of a grammar class for 3 hours every day. Our first class was today and it was not as scary as I thought it would be! I like my professora a lot and the people are very nice. It is a small class so there is a lot of participation though ugh. It is also crazy because we have our midterm this Friday and our final next Friday! You can imagine how much work is crammed in between there...we have 2 oral presentations and 3 papers!!!!!! Ay, Dios! Also, my class is from 6-9 at night. I do not like the class time AT ALL. I just do not know what to do with myself for the whole day. Thankfully, now we have homework to occupy my time. And I have this.....
Yes, ladies and gentlemen..that would be Twilight in Spanish (Mommy you can stop rolling your eyes now). Today I bought it at a librería. It is perfect because I love it and I have already read it so it is not so hard to understand the Spanish. I am already leaning so many new words from it (and rediscovering my love for Edward)!!

One last interesting thing (Dad, this is for you): Sunday evening, when my friends and I were walking around the city we came upon a huuuge procession of some religious sort. There was a crowd of people, some carrying crosses, and lots of banging of drums. It was a very strange sight to see. It was just another way in which the intense Catholic-ness of the city was very obvious. As my host father said: Sevilla is a city with a lot of churches and a lot of bars. This is definitely true to what I have seen.

Well, that is what's new in my neck of the world...
¡Hasta luego!