Meeting the family

Saturday morning at ten is when  we were to meet our host families. I was quite anxious the night before.   I have heard multiple times that your host family can really make or break your experience in Seville.We almost missed the meet up because the windows had super intense blinds that appearently block 100% of the sun because I woke up thinking it was about 5 or 6 AM before I checked my clock and realised it was 9:23. Cody and I rushed out of bed and did that super fast getting ready routine that only seems possible when one wakes up at the wrong time. we checked out of the hotel and ate the breakfast at the hotel. I arrived about 5 minutes before 10 but they had started slighty early(wich was a great surprise considering everything else started late) Our family was the first one called and that's when I met Teresa Gonzales, our host Mom. I also met my two new roomates Hunter and Steven. Teresa took us out to the street where there was a taxi driver waiting for us to get in. My roomates had too big of bags so we ended up having to get another taxi. Steven and I got to ride to our new house back with Teresa while hunter rode by him self.

When we got to the apartments we found out that the taxi driver was not actually a taxi driver. It was Manuel, Teresa's Husband. Its very rare for a family to have a car here in seville so we are one of the lucky ones.  We are also the lucky ones because all during orientation we were told up and down about all these rules that we had to follow at all times in order not to offend our host family but because we have our own apartment we can can act how we normally act with out constantly worrying about the social norms here in Spain yet we still get to experience the culture here when we go eat or just hang out in their place.

Just as we were getting settled in Teresa came back down and started talking to us in spanish. They speak no english so communcation can be very tricky. I worked on spanish during my free time at school last semester so I know a little. All I could make out is that in 20 minutes we were going to go  drive somewhere. when she got back we thought we were all ready to go but she kept motioning for us to put clothes in a back pack and bring it with us. For some reason i thought maybe we were going to the

beach so i just packed my swim trunks and a shirt. it turns out our host family has another house in a province of Seville called Cornilla that was about about 30 minutes away and we were taking a weekend trip there. At first I was really bummed because there was a lot of shopping I needed to do and I had made plans with some people I had met and was very excited to get to know some of the other people who came. I ended up being extremely happy we went there instead. We got the chance to really get to know our family and had an amazing time. Teresa is an amazing cook and incorporates many different vegetables and meats into her dishes. I haven't had the same thing twice since I've been here and all of it has been fantastic.

The most interesting we did that weekend was definately asperagus picking. Teresa came into our rooms saying "chicos chicos vamanos" which means boy's lets go. she must have told us the night before but its been so hard to understand whats going on because of the small amount of spanish we know. We had no idea what was going on and just started following Teresa. We walked a solid mile before we got to this random field. We were so confused as to what was going on by then but we were just going with it. We followed her into the field watching her looking at the ground and moving brush away untill we saw her stand up with asparagus in her hands. It finally hit us that what we were doing. We thought it was great!

 We learned all about how and where asparagus grows and which ones are good to pick and which ones aren't. we spent a solid 2 hours picking asparagus that were spread sporadicly through out the field. We must have gotten over 30 pounds of the stuff. we filled two huge bags. Next step was too take our fruits of labor home to seperate and organise. We had three piles. one was for the short and thick shoots with really nice tips. Teresa told us that those kind are "mucho dinero" which is a lot of money. the
other was for huge stalks with good sized tips and the other pile was some sort of edible scrap pile. later that night we came back to seville and Teresa cooked the asparagus for us in the most foreign way imaginable. She had made us asparagus pie. It looked as though cookie monster had eaten Oscar the grouch and thrown it back up only to put into the shape of pie to give to his most hated enemy. After a small amount of hesitation we all tried it and it was actually extremely tasty. definitely something everyone should try.

P.S. (I'm not really sure if P.S. is appropriate for blogging but who knows)

I am sure you all are dying to know, just as I was, the milk here is ok to drink. In fact its AMAZING. It is true that it is served in a box at room temperature but it's still sooo yummy. I have already drank 7 boxes. Its very different than American milk. It taste much sweeter and the regular "whole" milk has almost twice the amount of fat as american whole milk, the partly skimmed milk is roughly the same as whole milk, and skim milk thankfully doesn't exist here. I felt kinda bad because one time I drank all the milk and Teresa was very confused where an entire case of milk could go. I went out and bought a new case and I am sure to keep at least that much in the fridge so I dont upset her anymore. Also if any of you come to Spain some time and wish to know my recommendation of milk the brand Muuu has been an excellent choice so far and receives the highly regarded Ben Stamp of Approval.

While I'm still on my own.

Sorry for the lack of updates I have had little to no acess to internet since Friday. today is the first day I've really  gotten the chace to settle in my Apartment I dont really know where to begin so ill just do my best to recall what went on in as best chronological order as I can.

Cody and I had planned on waking up early Thursday morning to get some of the free continental breakfast at our hostal, we ended up waking up around 1230. After missing breakfast and not having food we decided we would eat at the first restuarant we found. I never did learn the name of the place we ate or what bulding was even responsible for the food we ate but it was all very good. A waiter seated us in nice tables and chairs outside on the street and kindy brought us water. 

I couldnt find a menu and the only thing i understood was que quieren comer? which meant what would y'all like to eat. recalling the word chicken from my attempts to learn spanish before I came here I responded with pollo. with that his face lit up and he knew exactly what to bring me. He brought out the tastiest, juiciest grilled chicken I have ever had in my entire life. It also came with fries that I unfortnately did not get to enjoy because the salt lid was not on  all the way. I'd like to think it was an accident but i cant help but to think someone had left it that way on purpose. He also brought out bread which I was excited for. Except when I got the bill I found out that not only is water not free in Europe neither is the not so complementary bread. The bill or la cuenta ended up being 28 euro's, Lesson learned!

Euphoria started to set in as my food digested and city exploring began. Once again there was no plan. Cody and I began to walk in a random direction.We went through many more narrow corridors and the streets that were bustling with peddlers of various knick knacks and art. The entire atmosphere was electric to say the least. I bought a couple things regalos  (gifts)
 and we were on our way to the to see the rest of the city. We found an amazing cathedral that was impossibly old and ridiculously big as well as many many other unique buildings and structures. One thing I wasnt expecting was the wild varietied and spectacular flora and trees that are here. We saw trees with trunks bigger then a house, trees with purple leaves, hundred year old palm trees, tree that smelt good, trees that smelt bad, trees that grew lemons, trees that grew oranges and most amazingly trees that grew trees.  --------------------------------------------------------------->
We were going to visit the gardens but a huge rain could loomed overhead that had us promptly heading back to our new home on calle Sierpes for the night.

Friday was the day we finally got to meet up with everyone at the hotel fernando III. We check out of the hostal (which really was just a goodbye) and headed towards the hotel. We were clearly the first ones there because they werent really sure what to do with us. We ended up being taken to the hotel across the street called the Rey Alfanzo. It was extrememly odd. (I wish my phone hadn't died) we were taken up an elevator in the lobby and through a corridor up a couple of steps into another elvator where we preceded to  go back down a floor then after that we went through another corridor down a couple mores steps took a couple more turns and we were finaly  there. It made no sense why a hotel would have such a convoluted way to get to a room. We just went with it and enjoyed the spectacle. Eventually the strange trip lost its charm because when we got there the room was so new It hadn't even been prepared to live in yet so we had to keep coming back to check on it.

It was 1230 by the time we were finally all settled in. After not being able to take a shower in the hostal for two days due to the no hot water and low water pressure, the first thing i checked out was the bathroom. I was excited by how nice everything looked and how clean and perfect everything was, that is untill i saw the shower. Then I was in awe. It was all black stone and it had the very biggest shower head I had ever seen in my entire life. My curiosity got the better of me and I had to touch it and see how it worked. I found the handle to turn on the shower, I looked up at the huge shower head to watch the water rain down all over the floor and pulled the handle up. It turns out this was one of those suuuuper fancy showers with not one but two shower heads, the second being the kind that you can move around and aim at your self. It just so happend to be aimed right at the door where i was peaking in and this hotel didnt have a single issuse with water pressure what so ever. I was shocked as well as completely and utterly drenched in a matter of half a second. Cody and I laughed untill our bellies ached at just how rediculous that whole series of events was..Other then that there were no incidents and  we took a nap untill it was time to  go to the group meeting at 5

Cody and I came here to Seville a few days before our study abroad trip was set to begin due to the fact we waited to long to get tickets and these were the only reasonably priced tickets. We had the mindset of we'll just relax and figure out what to do when we get there. We arrived in Seville with no reservation, little Spanish skills, and no clue where to go.

The Taxi from the Airport to the city was interesting. We spent the first 5 minutes trying to figure out if the driver knew where the TTU center in seville was. He had no clue what we were saying and we ended having him take us to the very middle. His driving skills and speed where extremely impressive. It would be no exageration to say we must of passed at least 100 cars during our 8 minute car ride.

We weren't too sure where to go so we decided to see if the Hotel Ferdinand III, the hotel where we meet for study abroad orientation, had any rooms available. After attaining some blisters, and almost loosing my luggage we made it there only to learn that it cost 190 euros a night!! that definitely was not going work. We ended up finding some free wifi and looked online. we found a place called Pension Nuevo Suizo for 40 ueros a night. We couldn't find anything near that great of price so we booked it straight away.

A little nervous because of the price we made our way to our newly booked location. We took a bunch of streets that were insanely narrow and had the coolest colors! (I wish I could have taken pictures but my phone was about dead and we were using it to navigate) It felt like I was in a completely different world. A sense of awe and excitement kept growing as we got closer and closer. the roads eventually widend and stores started popping up. The streets and buildings looked very old and but there were a bunch of super modern looking stores mixed in with a bunch of very antique styled stores. it was unlike anything I've seen in America.

The hostal is absolutely amazing! right when we got in there the people running it made us feel right at home and treated us like family. they offered us free coffee and breakfast, talked about things to do and the other amenities they offer. I was quite impressed. Especially considering how little we payed. A little boy showed us to our room. We climbed three flights of the steepest stairs I've ever seen and suddenly we were on the roof. the whole vibe is fantastic. we basically have this whole huge part of the roof to our selves and all through out the building there are cool little places to relax and enjoy your self.

As for food, Ive only gotten the chance to eat once with all the excitement going on. It was a bar 2 minutes from where I'm staying called Catunambu. I ordered Jabon Iberica. It was a ham sandwich on toasted flat bread. it tasted absolutely AMAZING! the ham was cut from a giant hanging peice of pork leg which was quite surprising but was very delicious

This is my first shot at sharing with you all what I've been doing and experiencing while im here at spain. If there is anything you all would like to hear more (or less) about let me know. message me on facebook with any questions comments or concerns. Thanks for reading!