Hola Sevilla!

Greetings from Sevilla! I meant to make a post earlier, but these first few days have been so busy! But, I am very happy that I found an unsecured wireless internet connection that I could borrow from in my apartment. The picture above, by the way, is the cathedral in El Centro that I pass on my way to the Center for Cross-Cultural Study, which is about a 45-min. walk from my apartment. I'm not sure if I will end up taking the bus to school, but so far the walk has been nice (I think it's about 3 miles or so) and it's almost a straight shot down San Fernandez. Anyway, there is so much to say! I'll try to upload as many pictures as possible, but the internet connection is not very good and it is difficult to upload pictures.

Above are two pictures of my room in the apartment. I share it with my roommate Theresa, who is super nice. The room is kind of small, but not too bad. It gets pretty cold... though the temperature is usually in the 60's during the day, there is no central air/ heating, so the tile floor gets cold! During the day, though, we are allowed to plug in the space heater, which kind of looks like a safety hazard (don't worry Dad, I'll be careful). Below is the view from the window next to my bed:

Today, Norah and I took a long run around our area and ended up running through two beautiful parks (complete with paths, palm trees, other trees, fountains, etc.) and a beautiful monument with a fountain in the middle. I want to go back to take pictures of where we were because it was SO beautiful and I cannot believe that I live in such a picturesque place!

Talking about picturesque, the following is of the leg of ham that lives in the kitchen (which is also common in tapas bars and basically everywhere):

Scary, right? It turns out that both me and Theresa are vegetarians, unbeknownst to our host mother. (She gave us chicken and a flavored gravy during our first lunch.) Thankfully, after a long discussion with her about what we CAN eat, she has been making us delicious vegetarian-friendly meals. For lunch today, I had these foods (in order): lentil soup, ensalada (salad), cheese, cheese and candied fruit (called something with "carne," which confused me at first), and fruit. The meal times are different than in the U.S. I'm not exactly sure when breakfast is (I missed it this morning to go running with Norah), but lunch is at 2 and dinner is around 8 or 9.

Here's a picture of Norah and I from last night to prove that we are actually here (though, I admit that you cannot see the background so you can't really tell). There are probably 9 people in the program from Ithaca, which is cool, and it has also been fun making other friends. (Hopefully, we will make Spanish friends soon, too!) There are a lot of really nice kids.

Well, that's all for now. Siesta is almost over, and I'm off to try to find a Spanish SIM card and explore more of my neighborhood (and hopefully take more pictures.. though I don't like looking like a tourist!!)

P.S. El helado es muy bueno aqui!

xoxo Laura