y un, dos, tres, cuatro...

y un, dos, tres, cuartro...that, my friends, is what has been going through my head non stop for the past couple of days. The reason for this would be that on Monday, Sarah (my host "mom") and I had our first Sevillanas dancing lesson. Sevillanas is a type of flamenco dancing that is very popular here and is danced at the world famous Feria in Sevilla in April. And yes, you read that right, I am taking dance lessons. Feel free to laugh. It is definitely quite comical. Luckily, though, our teacher comes to the apartment to teach us (less public embarrassment). Unluckily, though, there is not much space in the apartment, so I am constantly hitting into things. On Monday we learned the steps to the first dance (there are 4 dances total) and next time we are going to add the arms, which are no doubt the hardest part. You have to be constantly moving your wrists while the arms stay still and perfectly curved. ummm yea. So far, I can do the steps, but I am far from looking good while doing them. But it is a beautiful dance and I am excited to be learning such an important part of Sevilla's unique culture. Here is a video I found that will give you an idea of what I'm doing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6EN901C1Bk&feature=related

the quality isn't great, but I am pretty sure they are actually doing the first dance that I learned (but a more complicated version of it)

While I am learning and becoming more connected with some distinctly Spanish traditions I am still holding tight to some important American ones. On Sunday night, at 10:30 pm, I headed to Flaherty's (an Irish pub) with some friends to watch the Super Bowl. Since we got there at 10:30 (2 hours before kick-off) we got great seats, an all you can eat buffet of wonderfully disgusting yet comforting American food and 2 free drinks for 12 euros...not badddd. When the game finally started at 12:30 the bar was absolutely packed with people. It was certainly an interesting experience owing to the fact that since about half of my program is from Penn State there were some very devoted Steelers fans there, but also some veryyyyy devoted eagles fans (i.e. anti-steelers fans). This caused some minor tiffs but I kept quiet and watched the game. And what an intense one it was! I was planning on leaving at halftime (since it was 2:30 am ) but it was so close I absolutely couldn't! I finally got home around 5 am, exhausted but happy for my steelers :) The downside of the evening was that we watched the game on BBC sports, so we did not get to see any of American commericials. I was super bummed because I love the special super bowl ads! If anyone has any favorites, let me know and I will youtube them!

Yesterday I went to el Museo de Bellas Artes for my class and I liked it a lot. It was pretty small but the building is beautiful and one room is an old convent chapel and the ceiling was amazingggggg. I think I stood in that room just staring up at the ceiling for at least 10 minutes. I couldn't even look at the art that was on the walls because the ceiling was so impressive. I am so so so sorry though because I forgot my camera :( Other than the amazing room, the little museum had some very nice works of art. Of course, there were about 1,000 paintings of the virgin and Jesus and angels. One of the paintings I saw was called "José y la mujer de Potifar". I got really excited because it was a painting of Joseph and Potiphar's wife. This Joseph didn't look like Donny Osmond though haha. Overall, I really enjoyed my visit as it was a good way for me to gear up for my art history class that I will be taking during the semester: Masterpieces of Famous Spanish Painters which starts next week. eep. My "intensive session" class has definitely lived up to its name but at least I am learning a lot.

This coming weekend I am going with a group from my program to the nearby city of Grenada (I think it is about a 3 hour drive from here). I am very excited to visit a new city and especially to see La Alhambra! It is supposedly breathtaking. I am crossing my fingers for good weather since it has been raining a lot the past week ew. I promise I will take lots of pictures. Speaking of pictures, unfortunately I do not think I have any news ones to share :( Sorry I am lame. ok, well now that I have talked your ears off ( or would it be typed your eyes off??) I will say hasta luego!

xoxo