The start of a normal life... kinda... okay, not really...

So, let's begin today's post with a little summary of what I've learned so far about daily life here is Sevilla.

1. Palomas, or Pigeons, do not have enough sense to fly away when a person gets too close to them. The other day I stepped on a pigeon's tail... whoops! I swear the pigeons here have smaller brains than the ones in the US... which I didn't even know was possible! Poor thing!
2. Manners do not apply in everyday situations here. If you say thank you to your waiter, he will give you a weird look or make fun of you. Plus, if you say please or thank you to your friends, expect to be the laughing stock of the group... weird, ya?
3. Safety precautions are unheard of... wearing a helmet while biking... What's a helmet? Or how about seeing kids still in middle school smoking? Did you check the news lately, smoking can kill you. Dios mio.

It just seems so strange to me that a country with similar capitalism principles to the US can have such a different culture in this respect. Aye aye aye :)


So, a bit of an update now on what I've been up to in Spain!!! Crazy to think that I've now been here for be bit over two months! In that time I've actually made a few Spanish friends, believe it or not. One guy, Malik, was passed onto me by a friend for an "intercambio" (which is where you hang out for 2 hours or so and speak half in english, to help them, and half in spanish, to help me). He's pretty awesome; a real free spirit. We've had some very interesting conversations over the differences in the types of relationship here versus in the States and religion and more. Though after I've hung out with him for a few hours my head hurts from thinking so much in Spanish about these crazy topics!
I've also made some triathlon friends! They're really nice and always trying to arrange to hang out. Pepe, one of the directors at the study abroad center, hooked me up, through his brother who happens to be an amazing triathlete, with Felipe who's studying kinesiology (well, the equivalent here) at one of the other local universities. From there I met two of his friends who also do tri, Ali and Rocío. These girls are great and so accommodating.... that is when I actually have TIME to hang out. School's been much more taxing than I had thought it would be.


I'm taking 5 classes here, the minimum to be considered a full time student, but all of the classes are really time consuming! I'm taking classes on Superior Processes of the Mind, Difficulties in Learning and Development (where we actually have to find and diagnose a real, random kid--aka this makes it quite challenging), Thinking and Language, Psychology of Sport and Exercise, and a Spanish Creative Writing class. All very interesting but they all include tons of long, Spanish readings which is quite a drag when I've got a whole city to enjoy. Oh, well! I'll figure it out.


Thankfully, I've also been able to check out some other cities on the weekends to give my mind a bit of a break. With the study abroad group we went and checked out Granada, which was simply gorgeous. The old palace of Queen Isabel is located there, in Al Hambra, and it's perched atop a tall hill overlooking the rest of the city. Truly jaw dropping. The city of Granada has a very strong Arabic influence since it was the last city to fall from the Moorish rule to the catholics so, we tried some authentic Arabic/Moroccan cuisine... DELICIOUS! The couscous was definitely my favorite.
Plus, we had a long weekend the last weekend in February, so, one of the other girls in my program, Kristen, and I decided to head down to the Canary Islands. We flew down to Tenerife (one of the islands) and saw AFRICA on the way. There's a giant volcano in Tenerife, so we took a day trip and climbed to the top... above the clouds. Then the next day we did the opposite and went under the sea to go SCUBA diving! We saw a bunch of sting rays, barrels of tropic fish in every color of the rainbow, we had a spider crab crawl up our arms, AND we got to pet a sea turtle. It was really magical and I cannot wait to go scuba diving again. In fact, I think I've decided to change my career plans and move back to Australia to teach Scuba! ;)


That's a recap of what I've been up to in Spain so far. In the next month and a half I intend to go to Morocco, Belgium (to meet up with my dad!!!), and Portugal. Stay tuned for more adventures! Don't forget to keep in touch and let me know what you guys are up to back home! Miss you all dearly!