Around Sevilla!

I went on a walk/photo exploration the other day and came up with the beauties for you.

This is the road just a block away from my apartment. It's a pretty big road for Sevilla for inside the city (the highways get bigger).

McDonalds is EVERYWHERRRREEEEEEE!

This is from the bridge closest to my apartment. The Rio Guadalquivir runs north to south right through the center of town. The building is El Torre del Oro (The Tower of Gold).

This is just a random corner in the city, but this is what most of the buildings look like in the center. So old + so fabulous! Usually the first floors of buildings are restaurants or bars or cafes and the upper floors are apartments, like Korea.

This is Plaza de España. It's a half moon shape so I couldn't get it all in one photo but it is ABSOLUTELY breathtaking. There is a moat around the front that has little rowboats you can rent to float around in and the structure and details of the architecture are just phenomenal.

These horse and buggies for hire are everywhere in the city! I haven't been on one yet, but I think it's on the agenda for the near future!

We had our third potluck about a month ago. At the first potluck there were a lot of people, a lot of food and not a lot to drink. At the second potluck, there were a lot of people, a lot to drink and not enough food. At the third, as you can see, there was plenty to eat, plenty to drink, and not enough people to consume it. Only our girlfriends came and girls are so much better at bringing food to potlucks then boys!

We're shooting for the 4th on Saturday with a barbecue. We're hoping to finally strike the right balance. :-)

Spanish Apartment!

April's super active in Sevilla, so I promise I'll have tons to tell you about in the coming weeks. This week is like any other, but the week after is Semana Santa (Holy Week), two weeks after that is La Feria, and the week after that my sister comes to visit!

For now, though, here are some photos of my apartment.

Our other roommate, Edward, moved out at the end of March and I took his room. So, now I'm not the weird 20 something sharing a room anymore! yea!

Here's a pic of my desk. I made the vase from a knock-off Nutella jar that I emptied in like 6 days:

Here's mi cama:
And my second bed which poses as a sofa:

And my balcony access!

Here's the bathroom... separate shower... heck yea!

Living room leading to the balcony:

ENORMOUS BALCONY:

Kitchen:

Lodel's room:
We bought flamenca dresses last week. They were pretty expensive. We want to wear them everyday. Photos coming soon...

Bullet Points (with Pictures).

The frequency of my blogging in Spain has been atrocious compared toKorea and for that, I am deeply, deeply sorry. It's been just over 5 weeks since I went to Paris and I have nothing to show for it here.

To keep from being overwhelmed, I will bullet point:

- Our apartment is amazing and the balcony is the biggest in the area (pics to follow).

- We've hosted 2 potluck dinners with an international guest list that would make Rick Steves jealous.

Potluck #1

- Laura and I took a day trip to Córdoba with two British boys that work with her. We visited the Mezquita (mosque/cathedral... google it) and stumbled upon a medieval festival that

was amazing.

Photos all by Laura. From left: Medieval festival pig roast, exterior Mezquita, interior Mezquita

- I went to Africa (well, Morocco) with the British boys I had only known for 2 weeks on a whim one Friday night at about 2 am. I know, this is the stuff they make horror movies from... but I survived and have a lot of pretty pictures to show you!

- I've filled up my schedule with work at an academy and private lessons and am making ends meet sufficiently.

- My Spanish is improving poco a poco (little by little).

- I began Spanish lessons with a friend of mine this week so hopefully my Spanish will begin to improve more quickly.

- On that note, I met a couple of Spanish friends for drinks the other night. They speak about as much English as I do Spanish, but we're all twenty-something females with one thing on our minds: boys (er... men, now, I guess). With proper body language and really slow speech, we can usually communicate adequately. This particular visit, though, included drawings on napkins (hilarious). We can now all say the names of both genders' anatomy in medical terms and street terms. Whew.

- I survived the 45-50 degree (F) winter with no heat, and now it's sunny and in the high sixties every day. Hey, February in southern Spain! Nice to meet you!

- My academy is closed on Fridays and Monday is a regional holiday, so I'm staring at 4 full days of freedom. You'll get lots of pictures of the city as a result.

- It is really easy to be really lazy in Sevilla. I really like it.

That is all for now. More pictures to come.

el viaje corto a Paris!

I arrived in Paris on Sunday, January 16th in the afternoon around 2 pm. I flew on Ryanair, which is an extremely low-cost airline in Europe so the airport I flew into was about an hour outside of the city. I took a bus into the city, and then took the metro to a stop near my hostel. It was probably the easiest time I've had finding where I'm sleeping upon arrival in a new city.

I checked my e-mail after I checked-in and has received one from my Korean family saying that they would be in their hotel room any time after 5. It was about 4, they are about an hour's walk away and the weather was beautiful, so I decided to stroll through the streets of Paris on my way to meet them.

Their hotel was about 2 blocks from the Arc de Triomphe. The Arc literally sits in the middle of a huge roundabout and the modernity of the cars zooming around contrasted with the antiquity of the arc seemed like such a contradiction.

I met the Kwan's in their hotel room and we enjoyed some fruit, and then went to Leon's, which is a chain restaurant in Paris that is famous for it's mussels. We ordered 3 different pots of mussels and they came with unlimited french fries - hilarious, really.

The next day, I met them at the Louvre. We didn't go inside because Eunyoung, the mother, had been before and the thought of putzing around a HUGE art museum with a 10 and a 12 year old kind of made us both want to pull our hair out. I'll just have to see the Mona Lisa on another visit!

From there, we hopped on a bus to go to the Catedrale Notre Dame, but ended up at the Eiffel Tower! It was super foggy that day but still beautiful.

We ate lunch near the tower and then walked back to their hotel to rest and warm up a bit. After, we went shopping at a huge department store near the Louvre and then went on a mission to find a Korean restaurant that they had read about it one of their guides. On the way, we had to cross the river and caught an amazing view of the cathedral at night.

The Korean meal was so delicious! It was funny because the waiter brought me a menu in French, but I was much more comfortable reading the Korean one!

The next day, I met the Kwans at Notre Dame. It was so beautiful!

Inside, Hyejune signed the guest book for all of us... haha!

Then, we found a nearby Creperia for a lunch of crepes. I ordered a quiche, but Hyejune and Jaehyun both order a crepe with egg and cheese. Doesn't it look awesome?

After lunch, we took a rainy boat ride on the Seine. The views were spectacular. I got a clear-day view of the Eiffel Tower!

Eunyoung + Jaehyun and the tower:

The Catedrale Notre Dame:

Then, we walked through a market. What I loved about Paris was the sense that it is still a village. You buy meat at a butcher shop, cheese at a fromegerie, fruit at a fruit stand, etc. At this particular fruit stand I saw this little girl with her grandma and had to take a picture. Look how fancy her coat and pink pants are!

Then, for our last outing together, we went to enjoy some ice cream at Haagen Dazs. It was so nice to see them but so sad to say good-bye. Here I am with whole family:

It was a great trip! I've decided that I can't go back to Paris until I have lots of money to spend because everything is just sooooo fancy and I want to be so fancy with it!

Tengo Un Trabajo!

I made it to Paris and back... have lots of pictures to share when I finally get them uploaded!

I'll save that for another day when motivation exists.

I had an interview last Thursday evening for a job in Sevilla Este at an English after-school academy. She gave me the job on the spot even though I couldn't really speak to her in Spanish at all. Part of the interview, though, she had me plan a quick lesson and give a ten minute class as if she was the student. I had to teach "present perfect" to her. I felt pretty confident after that. She said her only worry was that I don't speak any Spanish.. how were the children to learn?

Listen, lady. I just spent a year with 3 year-old Koreans whom I taught to read (more or less) and I don't speak a word of Korean. In fact, I think it's better if the students are forced to speak English because they know I won't understand them otherwise. She said: Perfect. The hours are yours.

So that's what they mean when they teach you to sell yourself in an interview... probably should've acquired that skill a little earlier.

Anyways, the job is 2 hours a day, Monday-Thursday so I was on the search for a little supplement as well. I had a meeting tonight with the most precious couple ever. They are both early thirties, recently married and want to do private lessons on the weekends with two of their friends. She's from Colombia, so I could understand her Spanish much better than the usual around here. I loved them. They loved me, I think. Well, they bought me pizza and asked me to start next weekend. I buy pizza for people I love, don't you? Anyway, I think I can stay in Spain... for a little while anyway!

Other than that, I've just been settling in to the schedule of the Spaniards. It's hard to only work two hours a day (from 5pm-7pm, at that) and actually do anything with yourself. You'd think I'd have this blog up to date to the minute and the Spanish language mastered, but I don't. The other thing about being Spanish is that everything is a much slower process. So I sleep late, I cook slowly, I read a lot, I nap. It's such a different world from the am to pm working world of the Koreans. It's also really hard to be productive when it's 45 degrees out and you don't have heat. We could buy a space heater, theoretically, but that's way too much for my proud, eco-friendly, super frugal roommate to handle... so instead, we are going to tough it out. You know, like cavemen.

It's not really that bad, it's just hard to get out from underneath the blankets and put my little piggies down on cold marble floors. Speaking of the floors, this apartment is fantastic! There are two bedrooms, a kitchen, a dining/living room and a balcony that makes all of our neighbors envious. Laura and I share a room and Edward, a Londonaire that took the TEFL class with Laura, lives in the other room. We get along pretty well.

I promise pictures will come soon. I've got a couple more meetings for private lessons this week and really need to get some other computer work done, but in Spanish time... they will come soon!

Goals for Spain, or rather... the absence of them.

I'm sitting in the airport in Madrid, just watched the sun come up, waiting for my connecting flight to Sevilla.

I have an interview tonight at Blue School, where Laura works, and hopefully a couple of teaching hours a week comes from it. I'm really looking forward to hanging out with little Spaniards and helping them with their English.

Sevilla's population is at about 1 million (I don't know if that's the whole province or just the city). It's a sizable place in terms of population, but at some point when they built a cathedral in the middle of the city, they also enacted a law that said no building could be built higher than the bell tower at the church (about 5-6 stories). Sevilla, then, boasts lots of opportunities as any big city would but has a small euro-town charm that makes you want to stay forever... or at least come back, in my case. Jury's out on the forever.

There's a small river that cuts right through the center of town and is dotted with restaurants and bars and restaurant/bars. A night owl like me will fit right in, as the Spanish culture loves to stay out and/or up late and sleep late. It's 3:30 am my time right now so I think that qualifies.

When I moved to Korea, I didn't know what to expect but I did have some goals in terms of personal growth. I really wanted to adapt an attitude of, "why the hell not?" and I think I succeeded pretty well. I am, in fact, moving to Spain without a job. I mean, why not?

Spanish goals are harder to put to words. I don't really know how long I'll be here so I can only say that I want to embrace the language as much as possible. However, the more I teach English, the longer I stay but the less hours a day that are focused on Spanish. I would like to do some traveling along the Mediterranean, but again... depends on how much teaching I can get in. I wouldn't be opposed to a Spanish boyfriend, but that's not really in my control. As I'm writing this I'm processing what I'm really saying and that is that I don't have any real set goals. I'm just going to take it as it comes, develop meaningful relationships with the people around me, eat paella, drink tinto and try to learn the flamenco. Because, why the hell not?

1.11.11: New Year, New Adventure

Hello, again!

I'm firing up the blog again for another round of an international living experience. This time, SPAIN! I leave in just under 48 hours (hopefully... it's snowing like CRAZY in Indiana right now!) and couldn't be more nervous or excited. I updated the layout and design of the blog in anticipation. What do you think?

Immersing myself in the Spanish language has been a dream of mine for quite some time. Well, probably only a couple of years. For whatever reason, when I had the opportunity to learn it in both high school and college, I just did what I could to get the grade I wanted and not much else. I'm majorly regretting that attitude, but am looking forward to making up for it.

I had my heart set on South America, Peru or Ecuador specifically, when I thought about where I wanted this Spanish language immersion to take place, but when I visited Sevilla this past summer, I knew that I was headed back to Europe. My old roommate, Laura, moved back to Sevilla at the beginning of November and had some luck finding some teaching jobs and I thought, why not? I knew I wanted to be at home through the holidays, but now that I have been, my waistline is really regretting that decision! It was so nice to be around family and friends for an extended period of time, though.

I arrive in Sevilla on Friday morning and am really looking forward to the climate change. It's rainy there, but in the 60s most of the time and I'm getting warmer just thinking about it.

When I e-mailed my Korean Mama to let her know that I was headed to Spain, she congratulated me and let me know that they were visiting Paris for a week in the middle of January and asked if there was any way I could come meet them. My first thought was: No way! I have to find a job in Spain or I'm not going to be able to stay very long! Then I realized that the odds of seeing them again were low and the opportunity to go to Paris doesn't happen everyday, so I found a cheap flight that leaves Sevilla on Sunday and returns on the following Wednesday! Sometimes my life is too much for me to handle.

In the next week or so, I hope to update the heck out of this blog with pictures and updates on my move, my new life, my trip to Paris and, hopefully, my new job! Stay tuned...