Cold, Rainy, but Beautiful

Today was another orientation, but this time with the director of the program who gave us a more detailed outline of what the program offers so on and so forth.  We had the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted.  Many of the students stayed out late last night and just went back to bed but my roomate and I decided to walk around the city aka get lost in Seville.  It was perfect we just started taking random turns down different streets eventually leading us to this amazing shopping center.  The architecture is a lot better than the clothes and shoes inside.  Although it was cold and rainy, we made the most of what was around us.  We eventually ran into a street that sounded familiar and it was shopping galore (Shown below).  Literally a hundred shops along this one street, granted this street, called Sierpes, stretches across most of Seville and it is a shopper's dream.  Chris and I made it back to our house and ate lunch with our señora, Charo.  She made this unbelievable soup that consisted of potatoes, carrots, beef, and beans.  On the side was bread and more bread.  I think every meal my roommate and I eat has a side of about half a loaf of bread.  Most meals have either bread with cream cheese, bread with jelly, bread with cheese, bread with butter, and the list will probably grow.  Charo says that we are soccer players so we need to be eating lots of carbs, but I guess she doesn't realize soccer hasn't started yet.  After lunch, Chris and I went to this local concrete futsal field, which is where all the locals play at nights.  There was no one there during this time because everyone was napping, have to get used to la siesta.  We kicked the ball around for about an hour then made our way back home in order to get ready for the long night ahead.

Anywhere you go in Seville, you walk.  I have a watch that caculates the number of steps I take in a day and today was a record breaking 12,487 steps.  This record will surely be broken especially when soccer starts up.  Tonight was our welcome to Seville party, that was hosted at a local bar that served tapas (appetizers) and drinks in which SAIIE, the program I am enrolled in, paid for it all.  It was a great opportunity to get to know everyone even more.  I was fortunate enough to talk to the director of the program as wells as his brother, who manages the sports for SAIIE, about traveling and most importantly futbol.  They are really interesting people to know and definitely ones that I want to stay in contact with for the rest of my life.  After the party, all of the students decided to bar hop around Seville and experience the night life a little more.  It was a lot of fun getting to know more of the students. Most of them live in Wisconsin, which is probably why they think I have a southern accent.  I told them I talk like a yankee compared to where I live.  The rain continued to pour down throughout the night but that didn't stop us from taking pictures and experiencing Seville.  Today was a great day and although it is suppose to rain tomorrow as well, nothing is going to dampen the day when Real Madrid comes to play Real Betis.  There will be plenty of pictures trust me.  ¡Nos Vemos!