My name is Julia Ramirez and I am a Junior majoring in Psychology and minoring in Spanish at Penn State. Currently, I am studying abroad in Seville, Spain (Sevilla in Spanish) for the semester. There are a lot of study abroad programs in Sevilla, but I chose to do the CIEE Liberal Arts Program. I can’t believe that I have already been here for three weeks!
I arrived in Sevilla on January 17 and was greeted by a group of CIEE guides at the airport. I was surrounded by other students from all over the U.S. who were also in my program. We all took a bus to our hotel where we would be staying for the first couple of days for orientation to get acquainted with the city, have information sessions, and be introduced to our homestay families. All meals were included for orientation week which was definitely nice.
Everyone in our program was broken up into 23 groups according to our last name. There were about 20 of us per group and each group was assigned one CIEE guide. My guide was named Rafa – who is 19 years old and studies at the Universidad de Sevilla (University of Seville where I will be taking classes). Rafa took us on tours all over the city and pointed out all of the major landmarks, good stores to shop at, major streets, the University, and the CIEE study center. He took us out to eat tapas (Spanish equivalent of American appetizers except SO much better!) and answered all of our questions that we had.
I was picked up by my se�ora at the hotel on Wednesday but the CIEE orientation activities continued throughout the week until Sunday. My Se�ora is super nice. She is about 65 and has a husband and a 26 year old daughter who also live at the apartment with me. I have my own room and share the bathroom with her daughter. One interesting thing about life in Spain is that it is normal for kids live with their parents until their early thirties – so different from American lifestyle!
I love my homestay so far. My se�ora makes me all of my meals and does my laundry for me. Another difference with Spanish culture is the timing of the meals, which has taken me a little while to get used to. Breakfast is REALLY small here, usually just a piece of toast and a cup of coffee. No omlets, pancakes or french toast like I was used to eating every weekend in Redifer. People here eat lunch at around 2:30- from about 2 to 5 everything closes! Grocery stores, retail stores, banks, etc! The idea is that you eat a really big lunch and then take a “siesta” (which is a nap in English.) Stores open back up around 5 and the day continues. Dinner is also a pretty small meal. Usually I have soup and grilled cheese or mashed potatoes and ham. Dinner is served at around 10 pm at my homestay. I have learned to eat a lot at lunch so that I won’t be hungry for the rest of the day! It is not normal to “snack” here. Everyone here eats their 3 meals a day (lunch being the biggest) and nothing else in between. I was used to snacking at home, so this took some getting used to.
I took one 3 credit course for the first two weeks that I was here at the CIEE study center. It was an intensive advanced Spanish grammar course (counts as Spanish 497 at PSU). I loved my teacher. He definitely made the three intense daily hours of Spanish go by really fast. I felt like I have learned so much Spanish just after being here for three weeks!
My regular classes start tomorrow. I am taking four classes: two at the University of Seville, which are with American and Spanish students, as well as two classes at the CIEE study center (on the right) which are only with Americans. I won’t have classes on Fridays for the rest of the semester, whoch may allow me to do some traveling. It takes me about twenty five minutes to walk to CIEE and fifteen minutes to walk to the University of Seville. I really like my schedule and am looking forward to taking classes with Spanish students. All of my classes are taught in Spanish, which actually has not been as hard as it sounds. The teachers are really understanding and patient. I really hope I become fluent by the time I leave here.
Sevilla is a BEAUTIFUL city. There are orange trees everywhere and all of the buildings are so pretty to look at. The cathedral (show at right) and Plaza de Espa�a are my two favorite spots in the city so far. Everyday that I walk to class, I admire all of the buildings, fountains, and sights that I pass. I think to myself how fortunate I am to be studying in Sevilla – with 60 degree weather in the winter. Whenever I have free time, I always go out exploring – sometimes I get lost on purpose just to get to know the city a little better.
The nightlife here is crazy. No one goes out until around 2 AM and people stay out until six in the morning! That took some getting used to. At Penn State, I would be getting ready to make my way home at 2 AM. I have been making an effort to go to places that aren’t full of Americans. There are a lot of bars and clubs here that all of the Americans always go to. I have found a lot of cool Spanish bars and discotecas (clubs) that have a good mix of Spaniards and Americans. I definitely need to watch how many euros I spend here. Whenever I’m out I always think that 1 euro is 1 dollar but it’s not! The exchange rate for the dollar now is horrible now!
Oh and one more thing – here all of the women dress so nicely. So I can never wear sweatpants, sweatshirts, tee shirts, uggs or yoga pants like I did almost everyday at Penn State. If I do, I will be stared at as I walk down the street.
That’s all for now, I will blog more soon!
Here are some more pictures from my first couple of weeks in Seville: