first impressions

So the internet has decided to magically work tonight. I feel like I’m being sneaky right now though. Everyone’s asleep so I’m chilling in the den for a bit. It’s weird being in someone else’s house, especially someone you don’t know. I’m always trying to decide when I need to ask for permission, tell her I’m going out, request this or that. I still haven’t had any laundry done because I’m not sure how often she does it/how much she does at a time. I guess I could just ask, huh?

This is one of the only nights I haven’t gone out since I’ve been in Sevilla. It’s kind of nice just chilling though, especially since I have to get up at 7:50 for my 9:30 class. I’ve definitely been taking advantage of the siesta. I have no idea how I’ve made it through 3 years of college without napping yet when I get here I immediately slip into the habit. I’m loving it too. I kept on resetting my alarm this afternoon. First it was 5, and then 5:30, then 5:45, finally 6 stuck. I laid down around 3:30 (after lunch). After my siesta I decided that I should probably just head to an internet café to get decent service and catch up on some necessary email checking/travel planning/facebooking/etc.

So I’ve gotten a phone here that I put about 5 euros on every so often when I start running out of minutes. I just put money on there today and then tonight, after two 10 minute phone calls, a senorita starts interrupting my conversation telling me I’m almost out of time. Seriously?! Emails, etc. are great but sometimes it’s refreshing hearing a familiar voice. I need to get a new system in place.

Over the last few days I’ve been spending my nights walking around Sevilla, drinking tinto de veranos (a combination of red wine and sort of a lemony fanta sprite-like drink, very popular in Spain), enjoying a few local bars, catching a flamenco show, and just going with the flow. Now that classes have started it’s going to be difficult balancing my school work and my touristy, “I’m on vacation!” tendencies. Luckily the classes seem fairly easy (so far) and the work shouldn’t be too overwhelming. Somehow I managed to be late for class today (my first day of classes) even though I left 20 minutes early. I don’t know what happened but I’m definitely taking control of that situation tomorrow. I love my first teacher. I lo-siento’ed after class and he was totally cool with it, said it was no biggie. This is definitely a generalization but Spaniards have a different approach to time management y sus horarios (which just so happens to fit in perfectly with my recent tardiness). Time is not necessarily of the essence, from what I’ve gathered.

There are so many things that I want to talk about but I’ll try to break it up into multiple posts. Sleep is necessary at the moment.