I Like To Move It, Move It!

My new room

This week, I moved to a new apartment in the center of the city! I had felt too isolated in my old apartment, so I moved my loads of stuff to a new house very close to all the action of the city. It is a casa Sevillana with three floors and beautiful tiles on the bottom floor. The landlord lives downstairs and there are two pisos of foreign girls on the other floors. I currently live with two very nice girls from France and Germany, but, unfortunately, they are leaving within the month because their programs are finished here. I am terrified that my landlord won't be able to find replacement roommates, but hopefully that will not be the case and I will have new friends. My new room is huge, but quite cold in this weather. It is nice having a lot of space, though. The apartment is not as modern as my old one, but it is very homey, and, besides the dribbling shower, everything works. I am still settling in, but I feel very comfortable here and love the surrounding area and lovely roof.

My new kitchen

My first night sleeping here was the absolute coldest of my life. I had very thin, hair-covered blankets to hide under and no heater. I wore a winter hat, sweatshirt, fleece jacket, two pairs of socks, and used my computer charger as a heater, but I was still freezing. When I took a shower in the morning with almost no water in a freezing bathroom, I've never shivered harder in my life. To top it all off, I got totally lost trying to find my ride to school that morning. Luckily, they waited for me for a long time while I took a bus to meet them, but it was a truly terrible morning. That day, I bought a lovely comforter and a heater, and my nights have been much better since then. I'm still not looking forward to my freezing 6:30 am wake ups, but at least I have figured out where to meet my carpool.

My new living room

This week, I also joined a gym! I'm very excited about it and have been loving working out. Despite all the walking I do here, I really missed a good turn on the elliptical, and I'm looking forward to going to classes this week. Plus, I seem to know a ton of people who belong to the gym so it is social hour too. The place is teeming with American study abroad students - I'm pretty sure Spanish is the second language there.

Carmona

On Friday, Rebecca and I did a lovely day trip to Carmona, a town about an hour outside of Sevilla. It was really gorgeous and relaxing to be out of the city. Plus, it was a warm and sunny day. We climbed around a fortress and saw an amazing view of the city and the countryside. We wandered around the town for a while and saw some tourist sites and churches. The best part of the day was a stroll on the cactus-lined road outside of the city. We found a group of goats hanging out and were just being friendly to them when a huge dog came out of nowhere and barked us out of there. I was preeeeetty scared, but there was a barbed-wire fence so we survived. We hiked up a giant hill and had a long and relaxing lunch at the top. I had delicious scrambled eggs with cod and prawns, and we shared a chestnut pudding for dessert. It was so nice just looking out at the campo and enjoying the day with nothing else to do. Then we stepped into a very famous hotel there and wished we could stay the night. It reminded me a lot of Morocco. Before going home, we went to explore the Roman necropolis, but it was unimpressive. Overall, it was great town to visit and nice to do some mini-traveling.

View from the hill in Carmona

Friday night was party night! It was the last day of exams for my Erasmus friends, so they were excited to celebrate. We hung out at their house for a long time, and I met some awesome Spanish guys who were picking on me for most of the night. Then we went out to dance at Buddha. I had a wonderful time breaking it down, but the music wasn't amazing, so it could have been even better. Everyone was so fun to dance with, so we stayed there until 5 am.

Me, Carlos, Rebecca, Anna, and Clair

On Sunday evening, I went outside of my comfort zone and did an intercambio with a random person. I emailed this guy that I found on a website, and we decided to meet in the Alameda. I was very nervous beforehand that we wouldn't have things to talk about or that it would be awkward, but it went very well. He was very cute (bonus!) and really friendly and talkative. Unfortunately, English dominated the conversation. We started out talking in Spanish, and I felt quite comfortable speaking, but then he switched to English. He was very good at speaking and wants to be an English teacher. But the conversation was good and we talked for two hours. Hopefully we will meet again soon, and I will insist that we speak more Spanish. I have also been emailing many other people to set up intercambios, so I should be practicing more soon.

Cabras en Carmona