Monday, February 3 // Lunes, 3 de febrero
ENGLISH
Buenos dÃas mis readers! Welcome back to your regularly scheduled programming. This morning was very exciting and nerve wrecking because it was our first day of school at SAIIE!
I woke up and pressed snooze, obviously, then quickly got ready and ate my usual breakfast of tea and toast - I literally poured my remaining tea into my water bottle and threw a muffin into my backpack for later, as I knew I would be hungry before lunch at 2:30 when my last class ended. Talia and I took a gorgeous first day of school picture and then rushed out the door. We arrived to class exactly at 8:30 when it was supposed to start, and both of the front rows were full so I sat in the last row by myself. While I was sad and disappointed, it did not last long because my professor offered me an empty seat in the front row that I had apparently overlooked. What fab luck - I was next to one of my friends, Charissa!
My first class was Tercera Año Composición y Conversación (third year Spanish composition and conversation). The professor is Virginia, who taught the little conversation classes we had last week. She is very nice, caring, and I like her style a lot, which makes class warm and inviting.
In between classes, a few friends and I went to a coffee shop because the two hour lecture and syllabus summary nearly put us to sleep - it was interesting, don't get me wrong, but I wasn't used to waking up early and paying my best attention, but I will get there soon. I had a café con leche, which is the typical coffee with milk and sugar. We were also in need of school supplies, so we stopped at a shop that sells just about anything you'd need, called a Bazar Alimentación (food bazar) - they are all around the city. I bought two folders for one euro because I think we will be getting packets of paper for a few classes. I swear the paper is taller here than at home. Weird.
My second, and last, class of the day was Mujeres en la Literatura Española (Women in Spanish Literature). The professor was new to me and seemed very nice - the first thing I noticed about her was her bright magenta lipstick, which made me like her automatically. [[ Sidebar: I've noticed that lots of women here are very bold in the lipstick department, which I love to see. ]] She read through the syllabus and I listened as I lounged in the sun that flooded the room. The class seems to be interesting, with different units surrounding different eras of feminine literature and some focusing on specific authors/poets.
After class I had lunch at home with Rosario and Talia, which was an awesome potato stew and a romaine lettuce salad with anchovies (I am a fish eating expert at this point)! The lettuce was really bitter while the balsamic was sweet, which was an interesting balance, according to Talia. I agreed.
Later in the day, Talia and I ventured across the river for the first time on foot because the baroque church that we were going to visit (free on Mondays!) was closed before we could get there. There is a neighborhood called Triana that is famously hardworking and known for ceramics, so we checked out the area with the intention of journaling. Obviously we didn't get to journal, because each time we explore, there is too much to watch.
However, I bought a really cute photo card and wrote a thank-you note for Rosario, our host señora, for giving us an amazing first week. The card had a photo of the pathway on top of Las Setas, so I wrote "thank you for showing us the path of the Sevillano" on the front. I thought it was pretty cute. We gave it to her at dinner along with my gifts from the United States (old fashioned mix and WI cookie cutter and candle). She loved them and said that we could light the candle and drink for her and Talia's birthdays, which are the same month!
Back in Triana earlier in the day, we went into Lefties for some clothes for Talia, which is basically a discounted version of Zara - Zara is, in my opinion, the most popular store in the city... maybe the country? Not sure. We also stopped to try some Argentinian empanadas and said we had to come back to the neighborhood another time because it was bustling with people and it was only a Monday!
If you are itching for more content from me and you haven't already done so, check out my travel instagram, @pov_liv_eisenhauer. I post every day, sometimes multiple times per day. While I share a lot of photos here on my blog, some of the best ones are posted on Instagram too. As usual, thanks for reading!
Row 1: Isabel II Bridge to Triana
Row 2: First day of school pic & coffee break
Row 3-4: Some dandy yellow buildings in both my neighborhood and Triana
Row 5: Skyline from the Isabel II Bridge & empanadas