.::last day in sevilla::.

haha!! look what *iiiiii* found!!

i want to kick wachovia’s ass. i really effing do. who knows how much money i’ve spent calling them *INTERNATIONALLY* trying to access my own damn money in my own damn checking account. i am really effing pissed off right now…. yesterday, i was, once again, unable to get money out of an ATM. i really don’t understand why i should have to call wachovia every other day to confirm that yes, i am jamila meah, YES, i am in spain like i told you a month ago, two weeks ago, four days ago… and to please let me get to my own money. it’s ridiculous. i should send them my phone bill. or something. i had to spend almost and hour talking to people yesterday but finally my money is mine again. this kills me.

on a better note… spain is still beautiful and i can use my debit card to pay for stuff if for any reason i can’t get cash again. it’s just frustrating. yesterday was another lovely day… after i walked to plaza de espana (which was kind of a let-down after going all the way there) and went to the museo de belles artes i went to class. i feel better about learning spanish every day… i feel like i’m learning a lot… but at the same time it’s very frustrating not to have a lot of vocabulary. knowing how to make basic sentences is great but if you don’t know the word you want to use, you’re using a dictionary constantly. *sigh* practice, practice, practice. i’m still by far catching on the quickest which makes it, again, frustrating to have to move so slowly. oh well. i guess i just need to hire someone to speak to me only in español, then maybe i’ll be able to pick it up.

.::he said it well… i’m having a better time than most can dream::.

so i’m pretty sure the guy who’s house i’m living in used to be a matador, a) because i’m living in his study and there are certificates about “toros” everywhere, pictures of people (probably him) in a bullfighting ring, all kinds of books and even an encyclopedia set on bulls and bullfighting, and b) because there are all kinds of bull (and other animal heads) on the walls:

hello, friend!!

one strange thing i’ve noticed at my school…. and among the people there (students and teachers) in general: there’s a lot of re-wearing of clothes. sure i’ve only been there two days, but i think that makes it more noticeable! i saw one of my teachers with exactly the same top she had on yesterday. i wouldn’t even have noticed, but it was bright yellow. bright yellow. trust me on this one, homegirl… you’re gonna notice a bright yellow top two days in a row. then in my next class? rocio, another teacher, who’s really cool and always says “mmhmm?” as an interjection, when we would normally say “okay?” when talking… she was wearing the very same skirt she had on yesterday. different shirt, same skirt. a very noticeable thing, again, because a) it is a skirt, b) it still had chalk on it from the chalkboard from yesterday, c) it’s an odd type of skirt, black sweatpants material with some sort of strange fold-over tying mechanism that i don’t quite understand. like a yoga skirt. but i like it. so much that i noticed it again today. annnnd to top it off, my favorite little teacher so far, davide, who is also very cool but looks kinda funny, had on the same pants as yesteray. pants are very forgiving; i myself wear the same pants a lot day after day (is that gross?? i don’t think so; as long as they are clean… ish…) i guess i just noticed them because they had some really recognizable pockets and i was noticing everyone else wear the same clothes today. perhaps tomorrow i should wear the same sundress i wore today and see if anyone notices. hehehe.

.::ich liebe españa!::.

learning español seems easy but i am gonna be sad i only did one week of classes… it’s so easy that i could pick it up really fast if i were here longer… *SIGH* i don’t even know how much i’ll get to use it next week in my travels to madrid & barcelona. i really hope i’m motivated enough to put effort into learning at home… i need to find classes i can take there that i can do after work, or something, so i can keep up practice. or find people to talk with. i feel like this is a language i can stick with, and that i’ll probably use forever. one of the teachers today asked me if español was an official language in the US (or, the EEUU as they call it…?) yet. i laughed, but it was kind of sad too… that’s probably where we’re headed, eh? in that case, glad i’m learning it finally. now it’s off for more wine & tapas… i could certainly get used to this..! hopefully tomorrow i’ll wake up with the sun and do some exploring of sevilla & actually take pictures before class. stay tuned, darlings…

¡hasta luego!
james

.::wake me up, tell me everything::.

'cool isn't one way street.' i don't know what that means, but apparently people wear it on shirts here.

sup, homies. well, i survived my first “real” day in sevilla. class has been good so far! it’s really frustrating that monday was a holiday, so really i’m only getting four days of class instead of five. also, we were led to believe that 15 lessons a week would be full days, speaking español the whole time… but no. i guess it translates to 25 hours, because we were split into morning and afternoon groups and (thank god!) i’m in the afternoon one. i have my “cultural” lesson from 1330-1430, and then our actual language lessons are from 1430-1615 and 1645-1830. either way, we got gipped out of monday’s lessons, so i doubt i’ll carry much away from this, but i’m really glad i did it. lemme tell ya something, my beginner beginner class has only four people in it– me and three peeps from the netherlands. that part’s pretty awesome because they all speak english… but, like with any beginner class, it’s going pretty slowly overall. apparently, my poquito italiano and the spanish i’ve picked up at work and other random places is a huge help, because i’m catching on a lot quicker than they are. ok ok maybe it’s also because of those few weeks i tried that spanish class at perimeter last summer… which i subsequently dropped out of, because the pace was too slow… hmmm. maybe i should have b.s’d my way in the the second-level beginner class with that british kid, sandy… it’s kind of bad, but i like knowing a little bit more and catching on quick. that way i don’t feel as dumb. but i bet i’d learn a lot more if i had to work at it. huh.

.::first day of school!::.

well today is my first day of class… we just had our little placement test and orientation. level 1, baby!! i am wanting to learn some español, yes, but… i hate this kind of stuff. i can’t understand anything and i feel dumb dumb dumb. *sigh* at least i’m in super beginner class so they know i don’t know anything. ugh. i finally got the password for the wifi here… that explains the super-long post recounting the last day or so.

it was hard to get up today. it was still pretty dark outside at 8 when i left! kind of a weird feeling. i went and got a cafe con leche at the same place i did yesterday– no churros this time por favor-- and, um, hello james!! it’s only 1,10€. i’ve been tipping 50 cents for coffee. wowie. gotta change that up. also had a piece of cheese and some OJ before leaving the house. hopefully that’ll hold me over til i can get lunch… i still don’t know how class is gonna work or what the schedule is…