May 30, 2011

May 30, 2011

Today was a very full day! It's actually a holiday here today so we didn't have school. It was the day of San Fernando. I don't even know exactly what he did, but he was alive sometime around the 1300s (I think) and they still have his body perfectly preserved. Unfortunately, they only display the body once a year, on this day, from 8-11. Liliana thought it would be on display all day, so we went at one, so we missed it. So that was unfortunate. Earlier, though, we had to take a placement test at the school. I was actually really surprised because I got put in a class with a girl in our group that is basically fluent in Spanish, so I'm a little nervous that I won't have a clue what's going on, but I will give it my best effort and move down if absolutely necessary.  I was also surprised because Adelay and Briana, who were both placed in the class above me in Salamanca, are now in the class below me. I guess that means I am improving! 

So after our test, as I mentioned, we went to the cathedral to see San Fernando's body. But they were having a mass inside and said we would be able to come back at one and see the body. But when we came back, we were actually informed that they no longer had it on display. So we just wandering around and we ran into this girl that said she heard us speaking English so she asked us where we were from. We talked with her for a while and she told us where all the good restaurants and bakeries and heladerias (ice cream places) are! She also told us that she is a certified Zumba instructor in the states, so when she got here, she starred teaching at a gym here. Because the gym is closed for the holiday, she told us that she are her friends were going to do Zumba in the Plaza de España at eight. I have been missing Zumba, so I told her that I would try my hardest to come, at least for a little while. After she left, we all just meandered back to our apartments for lunch. 

When we returned to our apartment, the girl from London that is also living in our apartment was here. I forgot her name, but she is really nice! She goes to our same school and has already been here for a month. She also speaks Spanish really well, so that's nice because she can help us to understand words we don't know. 

So we had lunch, which was alfredo pasta with chicken and a yummy tomato and green pepper salad. It tasted similar to bruschetta and was really yummy. Mercedes had her sister over and he sister is quite hard to understand! But we did our best!

After lunch, I read for a while and then took a thirty minute nap. At 4, we met up with our group at Real Alcazar, which is a very old palace that the sultans lived in! It was massive and absolutely gorgeous! It had a lot of Arabic influence so it was really colorful and very ornate. The gardens were perhaps the biggest gardens I have ever seen. It was honestly like central park! They also had this labyrinth thing of hedged that you can go through, so Alan and I found a stick and ran through yelling quotes from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It was hilarous and so fun! 

We left the palace around 7 and walked over to Plaza de España. The plaza is huge!!! There is a little river thing where you can rent row boats and they had bike rentals and... surry rentals! I don't know if they are really called surries, but when I went to Montana/Canada with Kenz a few years ago, we rented one in Waterton, so I was so excited to see them here! So we walked around the plaza and took pictures, and then we ran into the girl we had met earlier. She said her friends were on their way with the speakers so we had to stay for a little while! So they showed up and set up the sleakers in the middle of the plaza and started doing Zumba! We danced a couple of songs with them, but everyone was staring at us and taking pictures, so we didn't stay long. It was way fun though! And I can now say that I have done Zumba in the biggest plaza in Sevilla! 

After Zumba, we walked home for dinner. On the way, I found myself just thinking of random memories from home and it made me miss my family and my friends so much! But I am still so grateful for this opportunity that I have to be here in Spain. For dinner, Mercedes made us tortilla Española, which I love, and we had a little salad to go with it. It was yummy. She is really easy to talk to and so nice, so I'm very relieved! 

At 10:30, we met up with our group again. It's Megan's birthday today so we went and got ice cream and sang happy birthday to her! So now it's almost 12:30 and we start school tomorrow so I must get to bed! Good night!