Week 4

          Actual classes started this week, which means actual work begins. Some of my classes are really great and I love some of my professors. Overall I am really excited for this semester. I am realizing that reading in Spanish is way more difficult than I expected and I am really in for a butt whooping this semester.  Luckily though I am getting way better at understanding and speaking and writing in Spanish so everything is heading in the direction of me becoming fluent in Spanish! I will be sure to only keep you all updated on the fun stuff in class and not all of the work I have to do.
          This week we had our second Interest Group meeting! We got to eat jamón and drink different types of wine.  The ham we had was absolutely delicious. I really don't think I am going to be able to go back to plain white bread, packaged deli meat, and everything else here that is so delicious.
          So since I am trying to be fluent CIEE has a program that allows American students to meet with Spanish students and talk with each other. I am going to talk with my intercambio Sara for about 2 hours every week and luckily for me she is majoring in Spanish which is a great benefit for me because she will be able to tell me when my spanish is awful! She also wants to learn to speak English so luckily I get to be the one to help her do that! She is great and even though I only got to talk to her for 2 hours this week I know this semester is going to be a great experience for me and I hope Sara and I can be friends!

          Wednesday there was a party for one of our tour guides that left for the United States! We started off the night by going to El Torre del Oro and fiesta-ing right on the river. Then we went to our favorite club which was empty, like there was the 20 of our group and about 5 other people there... But we probably had on of the most fun nights we've had so far because we all just got to let loose and have a good time, even though we were saying goodbye to a very close friend of ours.  Even though the place was empty we got to dance to our favorite Spanish music and just not care what anyone thought of us.



          On Friday we don't have class so CIEE plans trips and Friday there were two planned that I signed up for. The first was to Carmona and even though it was raining the whole time it was a great experience.  Carmona is a city that the Romans used for defense. We got to go into a palace that has existed for hundreds and even thousands of years. There was a part of the palace that has existed since before Christ walked the earth. Everything was amazing to see and experience this magnificent place.  Between visiting one palace and being in the Cathedral of Carmona we stopped to get some churros con chocolate. I don't think my life would be as complete as it is now if I had never experienced this little taste of heaven. Then later in the day we went to Itálica which is about 15 minutes outside of Sevilla.  It is a city of Romans ruins that has been excavated.  It has the biggest amphitheater in Spain.  We got to step in actual ancient homes with mosaic floors that are still intact! I could not even begin to describe what it felt like to be there. I don't know what order to put these in but here are about 100 pictures of Carmona and Itálica!