After the flight, there were a ton of people in my program on my same flight, so we all moved in a pack to get our luggage. Thankfully, I was not one of the unfortunate travelers to lose my luggage. We then boarded a bus that took us to our hotel for the remainder of the orientation. The streets here are so narrow that the bus had to drop us off a good hike from the actual hotel. So here we all are with our HUGE suitcases in tow trekking through the stone streets of Sevilla. It was not the most pleasant walk (I was tired, I clearly have no muscles to carry these bags more than five feet, and suitcases were getting stuck in the stones) but it was fun to finally FINALLY after all the flights and layovers actually be in Sevilla and on the streets. It still felt like this place wouldn't become my home for the next five months, more like a nice little vacation.
When we got to the hotel we lined up to get our room assignments and orientation materials. The hotel rooms only had one key, despite two people being assigned to it. My roommate was already there so when I knocked she opened up the door. She did not seem thrilled to see me. She was already slightly unpacked, had claimed the desk (with the outlet and mirror), and the main chair. Also, the room has two beds, but it was more like one big bed because they were pushed right next to each other. To sum her up, she was not the most impressive greeter I've ever met. I'd ask her questions about where she's from, her school, being in Sevilla, etc. The responses were dry and with minimal words. Oh well, I guess you won't be friends with everyone you meet.
The food in the hotel was fine, nothing exceptional, but you couldn't order what you wanted, so most of the dishes had some sort of meat. I later found out that this would not be the last of my meat only dishes.
For orientation we were grouped up by last name. My leader's name was Joaquin. Very funny. Basically we just went to meetings about the classes, culture, expectations, etc. On our second day of being in Sevilla our group was again split into smaller groups of four and told that we had to go on a scavenger hunt through the city. I'm personally surprised no one got horribly lost.
We saw a flamenco show at night, which was incredible to actually see. I have never seen someone move their feet so quickly in my life. I'm definitely going to go to another show on my own. For dinner, we had tapas in our groups. A lot of meat tapas but my leader ordered vegetable and chicken ones too (He was concerned I wasn't going to eat.)
The annoying thing about the first two days was that no one had phones yet so it was nearly impossible to meet up with people. And the fact that the cheapest phone ran out in every vodaphone store within walking distance made the wait much longer than it should have been. but oh well! we all have phones now!
Other than that, nothing very eventful those first two days. The first bar I went to here I think was only Americans from my program, so I'm hoping to mingle with some Spaniards soon!
slowly getting there but at least I'm catching you all up.
love
franny
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