A Bit of Miscellaneous News...

• I tried to pay for dinner with a Mexican peso.  Uhhh, why was that in my purse??
• My grammar teacher frequently says in English “I’m going to cry” if we make a “silly” mistakes in Spanish.  After one particularly big student blunder, he moaned “Give me a salad full of anthrax”
• My English writing has more and more mistakes now-- rechecking is essential.  A sample of writing to Maddi Frick:

                                                      

I go home the 19 of December. Whoa so weird, I really have spent a lot of time in a Spanish speaking country. I make so many more errores in English now... errors** and I am GOING** home DECEMBER** 19th (19 of December, so much of a Spanish influence right there)

  

            That's pretty bad. I’m skeered to read  over my past blogs...  

•  On the same note,  It’s weird for me to say my cellphone number in English. In my mind, I hear seis-zero-tres-seis-tres-zero-zero-cinco-dos 
• This really has nothing to do with Spain... Read on if you care.  I was going to google "why doesn’t the blogger video uploader work".  In this order, the Google pull down listed this:

Why doesn’t he call me

Why doesn’t he like me

Why doesn’t teller talk

Why doesn’t alcohol freeze

Why doesn’t he love me

Why doesn’t anyone like me

           Is there something wrong here?

• An old man serenaded me in the park, told me I was beautiful, and then tried to kiss me on the lips.  That's when I left. 
• I bought a ring in Mexico that has the Lord's Prayer in Spanish.  Whenever I wear it and am waiting around, I practice reciting it.  Today, I went to Mass and was so excited to be able to recite at least one of the million prayers along with the Spaniards.
• And finally, I must comment on the nasty rat-tail dreads are in style here.  The worst is seeing a a balding dude with short hair on the sides and three dreads in the back.  I’m all for dreads, but draw the line somewhere!
• There are two things that I did not give justice to in my past blogs:  the Siesta and the Cathedral.  Both of them I love and both of them are in my life almost daily.

The Siesta:

I am going to bet that I am physically healthier because of this cultural ritual.  While not every Spanaird actually sleeps during the siesta, everyone takes time out of the day to relax.  Really seriously, the majority of stores close and the majority of people disappear.   There are less people on the street at 4 PM than at 4 AM (Trust me, I’ve walked the street during both times :) )  All of the students love the siesta and talk about how great it is to be encouraged to take a nap EVERY day.  We joke about marathon siestas.  While I’ve only slept a 4 hour siesta, I’ve heard of a 6 hour siesta.  Of course, that kind of siesta isn’t what my busy Spanish mom is taking.  But, a 2 hour siesta is common for the Spaniards of my age who stay out until 6 AM on the weekends (Thursday is the weekend too.  And sometimes Wednesday, Tuesday, and Monday are too!).

The Cathedral:

I’m not exaggerating about how much I love the Cathedral.  The more that I look at it, the more that I love it.   It has surpassed the park as being my favorite place in Sevilla. I love to think about the history of it because it speaks a lot of the power and wealth of the Catholic church.  While, there are some parts that have damage, I think that only adds character to it. I’ve already mentioned that it gets even better at night.  That’s when  se me cae la baba (my mouth drops).  The lights create shadows and it gives me the feeling that it’s glowing. What’s more is that there are always horse drawn carriages sitting in front of it (The title picture is in front of it).   I’m so happy and so lucky that I will be walking by it every school day for the next 9 weeks :)