Para presumir, hay que sufrir

In case anyone was wondering, I actually typed half of this post two days ago, but my computer decided to overheat and shut itself down, so I lost all of my work. Naturally. But now that I have another opportunity to write, I’m ready to give this a try.

A few days ago, while wandering around El Centro on calle Sierpes (the downtown shopping district), I noticed a woman suddenly scoop up all of the items she was selling, into the sheet they had been displayed on, sling the make-shift sack over her shoulder, and look suspiciously at the other street vendors. In no more than 2 seconds, she took off in the other direction.  Suddenly, a man followed suit and took off after her…Through their mischievous looks, I thought that they were stealing the goods.  I rationed quickly thereafter, however, when I saw the same people on the next street over, that they were competitors trying to seek out the best location to maximize their profits and one moved, the others assumed that they should as well…

I spilled olive oil on my dress.  Because I didn’t notice it right away and then my host mom wasn’t around, I didn’t do anything about it. I hoped for the best, but expected the worst. I believed that it might have been too late to recover.  The next night, while I was eating dinner, my host mom brought out the dress and asked me what had happened. She said that while doing laundry, she noticed a spot. Then, she noticed a second spot farther down. She couldn’t understand how I could be so sloppy!  Of course she was kidding.  I laughed and said that I didn’t know what had happened and had to explain that this was actually quite common for me. She said that she would try to remove the stain, since she hadn’t ironed yet, but didn’t sound very optimistic…The following morning, she held up the dress and showed me that she had gotten the stains out! (At this moment, my host mom reminded me of a house elf in Harry Potter because she’s always working so hard around the house and then she randomly gets excited about things she’s done. Also, I’m reading Harry Potter, and while I’m engrossed in the books, I tend to relate my life events to theirs. Not that I’m a geek or anything…).  I have no idea how she did it. I’m pretty sure my real mom couldn’t have gotten it out, and I know I couldn’t have! ...Dawn?

After 5 long weeks, I finally received my SEVici card in the mail! I completed an application online, printed it out, and mailed it to the correct department in the city.  This card, valid for 1 complete year, cost me approximately 13€.  This card allows me to use the city-wide bike rental system as a means of public transportation.  There are stations located throughout the city, where you check out a bike for 30 minutes at a time and drop it off at any station you want to.  It’s wonderful! I got it the other day and I have already used it about 8 times!  I think every big school in America should have this system!

I got my hair cut. I now have bangs and layers.  My older host sister likes it and one of my intercambios told me that it’s very española. Score! haha  


There are two 15 year-old French students staying at my house for a few days. They are a 5 day study trip to Sevilla and stay with a host family just to sleep, shower, and eat breakfast and dinner. They are sweet girls. They speak very little Spanish and slightly more English. I am sometimes called into the room to try to speak to them in English and then translate it into Spanish for my host mom. It's quite interesting.