Loving Life

Hola!

I really need to update this thing more often because everytime I go to blog I have like 100 things that I can talk about. I am still in the process of getting internet in my apartment so it has been difficult to be able to update this more frequently. We should hopefully be getting it in the next week or so! For now I have been able to use internet from a local network for free but at times it can be very slow so it is not reliable.

Right now I am at work. I had to help teach a class at 9:15-10:15 this morning and unfortunately I have a break all the way till 1:45. One of the teachers I usually work with today had a death in the family so she was not here so now I am just trying to kill sometime! I went to a meeting before with some of the billingual teachers. They were talking so fast in Spanish that after a while I started to space out and I got really tired. My eyes would NOT stay open, I swear to god I almost fell asleep, that would have been embaressing! I am enjoying my job here at the school so far. I feel like they could put me to work more though. Even though my job is simple I am looking for more of a challenge. I will have to talk to the teachers and see what more I can do because when I have these breaks here I should be using my time here at the school wisely!

This past weekend I went to Rota with a few of my roommates to visit another friend that we met at orientation. Rota is a cute little beach town ( It reminded me of Florida). The United States Navy has a base there so we met a lot of Americans. The town is really nice and at first I was very jealous of my friends placement, wishing that I lived there instead of Sevilla. But when I thought about it some more, if I wanted to live in a beach town like that I could just move to Florida. In Sevilla there are a lot more things to do that reflect the Spanish culture. Overall I am very happy living in Sevilla, but living in a beach town for a little while would not be too bad either.

Alice and I ( The Chicago girls) next to the hot dog stand in Rota. Nothing can compare to a Chicago dog!

The weird thing is that Alice and I met here in Spain and it turns out that she lives in Western Springs on Wolf road ( thats like 10 mins from Darien!). We even have some mutual friends back at home. It's unbelievable how small this world is.

Here is a picture of the cutest little street in Rota!

When I went to Rota I happened to go on the weekend of their "Rota Holiday". I had to ask an old man next to me at the parade told me that the town was celebrating and honoring their saint, Maria Luisa ( I believe). It seems like each town has their own Holiday. In Dos Hermanas they have a Fereria and we have school off for one or two days because of it. From my observation the Spaniards really enjoy taking days off, which is fine with me! I have no work tomorrow because it is ¨Fiesta Nacional de Espana" and then I also hvae no work on Monday, and I have no clue why. SO this weekend I have a four day weekend! Some of my roomates and I are talking about taking a trip to Malaga(Another beach town). Hopefully I will be able to maintain my tan with all of these beach town adventures!

On Saturday we took a ferry ride from Rota--> Cadiz for the day. Here is a photo I snapped on the boat trip back.

(This picture was taken in Cadiz)

My friend in Rota is living with another auxillare that is from Ireland. It was fun getting to know her this weekend and learning about her life in Ireland. After talking with her I have decided that I really want to visit Ireland, maybe even over St. Paddy´s day? That would be fun. I love that this experience has led me to not only learn the Spanish culture but other Cultures as well. On my last trip to Huelva I met a girl from Germany and I was able to learn a bit about her home and then this past weekend I met Barbara, my Ireland friend. I have to say that I love the Irish accent and the vocabulary that they use. They just sound so proper, all the time, no matter if they are happy,sad, angry,drunk, you name it!

Last week while I was relaxing in my piso (spanish word for apartment), I heard live music coming from outside. This is what was coming down my street...

Cool right?...

Even though I was cranky that they woke me up from my siesta, I thought it was pretty neat to see that on my own balcony. This is just one example of how Spaniards take pride in their culture and they will do random things such as this to get people out of their houses and listen to the Spanish music. I love that in Sevilla you can always find something cool like this, things like these remind me that I am actually in Spain and that I have put a lot of work into getting here today.

Well that is it for now, more to come soon!
Miss you all!

Besos!
Seniorita Laura

P.S. I have been posting all of my photos that I take on facebook so if you want a better look at all of my trips, take a look at them on there!