Italica

I apologize because I should have done this post about a week ago, but totally forgot until now. Last Saturday we had our first excursion to the ruins of Italica. Italica was a Roman city founded around 200 BC and is about 9 miles from Seville, and all that is left of it today are the ruins. We are lucky to have Dr. Inglis with us on all of our excursions because he knows anything and everything about history.

When you first arrive at the city you see a huge stadium/ampitheater where they had gladiator fights. We got to see where are the animals would have been, and the fans, and also all the things that the movie Gladiator did incorrectly. It was so amazing to walk on all of this history.

We later moved on into the actual city, where you can see remnants of houses and courtyards. Many of the walls have since been destroyed, but the many of the tile floors are still intact, and are quite beautiful.

It turns out that one of the main reasons Italica is no more is because they were mysteriously dying. It was later found out that they were using lead pipes for plumbing...so they were dying from lead poisoning and didn't even know it.

I am going to add a few pictures to give you a better idea of exactly what we saw

Internship

One of my classes this semester is an internship. Basically I had to go out and find a job. I would work for 70 hours throughout the semester, without pay, at any kind of business in town. I wanted to go to a place where I would be talking a lot, because I know that I would learn so much more that way. My friend Lorraine and I went to an elderly center today. It is run by nuns and we were told that they are always looking for volunteers. They have also had Tech students work their previously. Lorraine speaks Spanish fluently, so it was comforting to have her with me. The nun we spoke to remembered the students that had been there before and helped us make our work schedule. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday we will work 6-8pm; and Saturday and Sunday 10-2pm. If we have an excursion with our class then of course we will not work on the weekend. Both of our school schedules are a lot heavier the last half of the semester so we are going to try to put in as many hours now as possible.

However, we were not aware that we were going to start working today! The nun showed us to this older ladies room and just plopped us in there and left! Now of course Lorraine had no problem with it, because she can speak perfectly, but I on the other hand had some trouble. The 2 ladies that we talked with were very sweet and funny...when I understood them :). Lorraine had to translate a little. And sometimes I would just laugh and smile and nod...and then they caught on and made fun of me for it!! :) But they were very sweet. We then took them to dinner and helped serve some of the people. Unfortunatly they separated me and Lorraine and gave us different tables. I was filling water for my table and then I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do next. The nun walked by me, said something, and then left again. She knew that I didn't speak Spanish very well, but wouldn't give me a chance to figure out what she had said. Five minutes later I am still standing awkwardly at the table not really doing anything and she motions to me to come into the kitchen. She hands me a towel and I start drying the dishes. I guess I wasn't doing what she wanted (which I don't know what that was!) so I got kitchen duty. :( HAHA it wasn't that bad. The ladies in the kitchen were nice. So I will be interested to see what I will be doing next time. I think the hardest part was just understanding them. Older people are definitely harder to understand, but especially when its in another language!!

It is going to be extremely trying and overwhelming, but that is what I need; to just be dropped into the language.

After work, we went to a grocery store for a few things. We ran into our professor while we were there. This is the professor that is doing the internship class, so we told him about how we got a job and everything, and he was very proud of us. We ended up grocery shopping with him and he put me on the spot and made me talk to the cashier. After I talked to her she said, "Estas aprendido?" (Are you learning?) I said, "Si, es evidente?" (Yes, is it evident?) She replied, "Yes." :( HAHA well I did my best!!

Besides missing all of my loved ones, I have been able to mostly adapt to everything here. I do dearly miss Dr. Pepper and 2% milk. As well as air conditioning (although it will be cooling down pretty soon). School is definitely gonna be picking up this week, so my plate is quickly filling up!

First day of class

So today was actually our second day of class...but all the same classes have begun! I had to remind myself that I actually came here to take classes. For a while there, I thought I was just going to be able to explore Spain the whole semester without school or anything! But reality hit yesterday with the start of classes. Honestly it was probably the easiest first day ever. I only had one class yesterday for an hour and a half. It was Advanced Language Skills. We went over the syllabus, bought our books, and started the first lesson. For this first week we are doing a basic review of grammar before we go deeper into more specific parts. This semster I am also taking History of Spain and doing and internship. My history class only meets on Tuesdays, but it is from 5-8. And I have not started the internship or gotten much information on it yet. We have our first meeting about it on Thursday. It seems like I would have a lot of spare time to do homework, but it is amazing how fast the time goes, and what it goes to. I will just have to get better at prioritizing!

I have definitely begun to miss American food already. Not to say that the food here isn't good, because it is, but I would do anything for a nacho belle grande from Taco Bell right now!! However, yesterday was my first experience with squid. Lola made a type of stew with potatoes, onions, tomatoes, and squid. The stew wasn't actually that bad because all of the flavors and textures ran together. But on our salad we had some fried squid. it looked like onion rings, but was actually part of the tentacle of the squid. I have been trying to have an open mind about everything here, so I tried it. If it had had any flavor at all, it might not have been too bad...but it didn't. So it felt like I was chewing slimy rubber. I swallowed, but didn't eat any more of it. But other than that, I have not been traumatized yet by any of the food here.

It remains to be about 105 degrees everyday. So we try to stay inside as much as possible. Even though sometimes its better to be outside in the heat with a slight breeze than inside with no air conditioning. But the weather is perfect in the mornings for the walk to school, and then at about 9 pm around the time of the sunset, the weather is perfect.

After this first week of school, I hope to be completely organized here at home as well as with school and scheduling everything. And it won't be too long before I start to plan my trips to other countries! I can't wait!

The meeting of the family

So today was the big day that we were to meet out families. I was super nervous and excited at the same time. I came down from my hotel room and my host dad was already there waiting. Mariono is such a cute older man and he had a huge smile on his face when he met me and my roommate Lena. When we greeted him we got to kisses on the cheek. It was great! We piled our stuff into his car, and then took a taxi to his apartment. We were both so excited about what was happening that we didn't pay attention to wear we were going....this will come back to bite us later. So we get to his apartment in Ronda de Capachinos. We live on the 5th floor. But its really the 6th floor because they have a 0 floor or I guess ground floor. All of the housing here is the same. Everyone lives in apartment style housing on top of each other. We meet Lola, our house mom, as soon as we get there. She is also very cute and greets us with kisses. Her house is so lovely. You wouldn't believe the view that we have from out balcony!!! She takes very good care of her humble aboad. Me and Lena share a room with 2 twin size beds. We have a set of shelves each and share an armoire. We also share a bathroom that has lots of shelving space as well. I will definitely be very comfortable here!!

We decided to unpack a little before lunch. We finished around 1 and needed to buy a few things like shampoo and more hangers. So we know there is a chino store (basically a dollar store) right by the school. And we needed to figure out how to get to the school anyway. We looked at a map before we left...but for some reason we thought that we were masters of it and left it upstairs. So we are walking and walking and cant find Recaredo street which is the street the school is on. So we asked someone and finally found the school and chino store, grab a few things and leave. It's about 1:45 and Lola said lunch would be about 2 or 2:30. So we think that gives us enough time to get back. We know that Recaredo turns into our street Ronda de Capachinos so we are pretty confident that we will find out house. We get to Ronda and we are feeling pretty good so far since we arent lost yet. But now we are thinking...what does our building look like? I think its yellow? This is wear we wonder WHY we weren't paying attention when we are in the cab. So we mistake 2 yellow apartments for ours. We walk up and down Ronda de Capachinos and don't recognize anything. We ask about 3 people where we are....and they have never heard of our plaza. We actually live in Plaza Jose del Castillo Diaz, which is just off of Ronda de Capachinos. So finally its 2:30 already and we are hot and exhausted and completely lost and late for lunch! Lunch is the most important meal of the day, and it's very disrespectful to be late or to not show up at all. So we decide we better get a cab. Well the cab driver doesn't even know where we live. So now we are up a creek. I decide I better call Maya. She is the assitant director of the program and lives here in Seville. I called Maya so she can try to figure out what happened and where we are. She tells me that we are very close and that she will call me back while she works out directions. So she calls back 10 minutes later and says Mariono is coming to get us.We were so embarrased! We were late for lunch and had to have him take us home, and only for a few hangers and shampoo! But we got back ok and they totally understood and gave us better directions for next time. HOPEFULLY this will be the last time I get lost. (knock on wood).

Lunch was absolutely delicious. I cannot tell you exactly what it was. There was chicken, and then salad, and then a type of tomato based vegetable thing, and melon for dessert. We asked Lola what kind of melon, and she just said melon. It is a type of melon I don't think we have in the US. Kind of a mix between cantelope and honeydew. I am not a huge fan of either of those melons...but I liked this one.

So after our long adventure in the blistering sun, it was a little over 100 degrees today, we are exhausted. Thankfully we have siesta for about 3 hours everyday, so this comes in very handy.

Tomorrow we have a group excursion to Italica, some ruins here in Spain. We have to meet at a bus stop in the morning, so me and Lena are going to map it out tonight and make sure we can get there!

Seville at a glance

Hey everyone!!! Sorry that I have been a little bit out of touch within the last few days! The internet here is definitely not as convenient as it is in the US. I finally was able to buy an adapter for my computer.

Flying to Spain has actually been one of the easiest things that I have done thus far. Considering it was my worst fear...I am pretty happy about how things went. The flight to London would have been unbearable had it not been for the British Airways staff. I had to sit next to this bigger African man. He had to idea that since he didnt have any carry-ons that it would be ok for him to take up as much room as he wanted, and he smelled bad. So that was a fun 8 hour flight. But British Airways was so nice!! Not only do I just love their accents, but they were just so cheery about everything, it made it easy to forget that I was a bit miserable. My next flight to Madrid was fine as well. The only downside was that I was on the aisle, so I didn't have a window to rest my head on so I could catch a little bit of sleep. In Madrid I was supposed to meet up with Lorraine, another girl from the program, but she had missed one of her flights, so I was left alone again. I bought a small sandwich and coke which ended up being about $9. And the lettuce on the sandwich was brown...but otherwise the flight to Sevilla went well. And luckily (as this was another fear of mine) none of my luggage got lost!! I just had a problem getting it all to the taxi. I guess that happens when you have 4 bags to carry.

The taxi ride was very interesting. Basically in Spain, if you think no one is coming, it is ok to run the red lights. And also, the cars have the right away...ALWAYS. It doesn't matter if you are walking, on a bike, or even on a vespa, the car will run you over to get where its going. And the streets here are about half the size of our streets...if even that. So its definitely a balancing act staying on the curb while the cars drive by.

Since I have arrived I have walked the city numerous times, and have gotten lost...every time. This place is a maze!!! Today we took a group tour of the city, so it was the only time I didn't get lost. :) There are definitely new things to see everyday, and I can't wait to see all of them!!

I am on my way to lunch with the group, then we will go to the school to talk about our classes that we will start on Monday. And if you are wondering, the eating schedule is definitely a lot different. We eat breakfast at a normal time, but lunch is not until 2. Then you have siesta from about 2-5, and then dinner around 9 or 10. And everyone (I mean everyone! Little kids to grandmas) stay up till about midnight or later. They make up their sleep by having siesta.

Anyways, I hope I gave you just a little taste of what I am experiencing. I hope to be able to write in a little more detail from here on out. I meet my host family tomorrow, so I am sure I will have loads to tell you about that!!

Thanks for checking in!

Time is ticking!!

I only have 1 full day left in the US and I am freaking out!!! I got mostly packed today, and will probably just make a few minor adjustments tomorrow...but it is still so surreal that I am leaving on Monday!! I hope that I got to see all of you before I left. But as I quickly noticed, I am a procrastinator with everything, and therefore was not able to do everything I wanted to before I left. And I apologize if this meant not hanging out with you. So as my departure grows nearer, I wanted to leave yall with my address while I am Spain, just in cases you get the urge to send me something :) (which would be greatly appreciated). My address is:

Hannah Fordham
TTU Center in Seville
Recaredo, 44
41003, Sevilla Espana

One week left!!

Hey everyone! I am new at this blog thing...so I don't really know what I am doing, but hopefully I will get all the kinks worked out soon! I have 6 days until I leave for Sevilla. I am super excited, but very very nervous. I know that it is going to be an amazing adventure, but I would still appreciate all your prayers that I will remain safe, have fun, and since I am taking classes...learn something! I am going to at least try to post something once a week if not more often, so check back every once in a while and hopefully i will have new pics and posts for you to check out. Thanks again for all of your support and thoughts and tips and everything!! I love all of yall so much!!