Exploring Más Todos los Días

It's crazy what happens when you don't write down what you did in a day! I didn't blog yesterday and I just had to sit and really think what it was that I did. I can't believe I haven't been here a week yet! 

So two days ago MC and I attempted our first run. We ran with the mindset of finding some locations that we would later want to be able to walk to (i.e. a Phone House because we still don't have working Sevilla phones and can't meet up with people once we leave the house, the mall in our neighborhood, el centro y el plaza nuevo, and the running path along the river). It was Saturday though, so everyone was out on the streets, and we ended up having to run/walk, but we were out for over 2 hours. It was really helpful to get to know more about my surroundings so I think I'm going to try to do that every time I run. The only thing is they have pretty hard sidewalks made of slick bricks and lots of their roads are cobblestone or something other than asphalt, so I already felt myself getting shin splints. As much as I like the idea of not joining a gym while I'm here, I might just have to bite the bullet and do it. After we finished our run (and I wish I had my camera to take pictures of everything we saw but I'm sure I'll go to all these places again) we did some ab exercises on the playground of our apartment complex because its got a softer (and warmer) floor than anything inside. I'm sure it would have been a pretty funny sight for anyone who looked out their window onto the courtyard and playground to see 2 silly white girls holding planks and doing bicycles by the jungle gym (and in the middle of siesta no less). By the time we had gotten back home almost everyone had cleared off the streets--they really do abide by siesta its so cool.

I had this chat with Cristina about living to work versus living to live and working when you have to. She obviously said that was the mindset of the Spanish and the Americans who live to work can't see what's really important. I think I'll remember that when I'm doing my homework... 

Saturday night we just went to get ice cream with Chloe and Emily, two girls on our program that live in the apartment right next to us. I made a list that I'll keep adding to of things UNC could do to improve the program, and one of them would be to tell us where everyone else is living by marking it on the map that they gave us on the first day; it would have been muy helpful to know we had people literally the building next to us when we were trying to find the school for the first time and when we wanted to meet up with others. Anyways, at the heladería, all 4 of us wanted to try samples of flavors because we had no idea what the names of some of the flavors meant, but I guess its not as common to sample here because the lady was extremely perturbed with us for asking (the first person who asked wasn't well received, but with each subsequent request for a sample she wanted less and less to do with us). I felt bad by the time she got around to me so I didn't ask for a sample, and it was pretty busy in the store so I just didn't get anything. MC got a waffle with nutella ice cream on top though and it was soOoOo very good. All four of us sat outside for an hour talking about possible trips we might want to take/people watched the groups and couples on their way out. Again, so much PDA. We were also wearing sweatpants and sweatshirts out because we hadn't really planned on leaving, and boy did we get some stares. I'll try to dress up for school but they can't make me change out of my pjs for a midnight ice cream run.

Yesterday morning MC and I did the same thing where we ran to find out more of our surroundings. We ran down to the river and along it for a while, then over a bridge and saw a beautiful view of the sun rising over Sevilla (again, sorry I don't run with my camera), and walked back home. We got lost on the way home thinking we were heading in the right direction, but taking too many turns down little streets and ending up right back where we started, but it was a gorgeous morning so it was no problem just being outside. When we got back home Jairo, Cristina's oldest son (I think?) and his little 3-year-old son David were over. SO CUTE. David loves superheroes, and even though he was too shy to tell me which one was his favorite, I can already feel the bond coming on. 

For lunch Cristina made us paella and salmorejo...my favorite lunch thus far I think. Dad: you should be so proud of yourself because your salmorejo is exactly the same as Cristina's, aka the real deal. Jam and hard boiled eggs on top and everything. David (like 2 feet tall) ate literally as big of a plate of paella as me, 2 kiwis, a pear (a perita, as Cristina calls it because she adds ita" to almost every word), and an apple.  I was amazed, but they seemed to think it was pretty normal. Last night at dinner Cristina showed us more pictures of her family. They all seem so sweet and you can tell how much she loves them and how proud of them she is when she shows us photos (of which she has mmmmmaaaaaaannnnyyyyy). 

I'll have to go back to journal about Itálica and more of my day yesterday because its the first day of school and I don't want to be late!