I would be lost here Tom

Hola todos.

So my dad visited me a while back. Unlucky Trevor had to visit me when it was raining here (4th time its rained here, Im counting!) and also the coldest I have ever seen it (lowest I saw was 8'C). It has since gone back up to the more comfortable high teens. Despite all this he seemed to enjoy it because he has never been to spain. well he has been to spain probably more than 30 times but never SPAIN.

I'm not going to call the touristy areas of spain (benidorm, costa del sol etc) spain because you can easily go there and speak english all year round. When my dad arrived in spain he said that he would be lost here. Sometimes you need someone else's perspective to see things. He showed me that no one in the area I live (I don't live in the touristy area) speaks english. My dad would frequently say "cold isn't it" or "he (me) speaks good spanish doesnt he?" and just get blank expresions from the spanish. However they did try, with some managing "thank you" and "three" haha. I took my dad for some tapas and got him to try tinto (de verano) for the first time.

It made me feel good that dad said he was proud of me when he heard me speak spanish. Whilst I'm sure he's proud of all us kids I'm guessing for him its easier to be impressed with physical things. I mean getting a PHD or degree may be difficult to comprehend the effort but hearing someone speaking a different language or getting a well paid job is clear.

I end the blog saying that I'm proud of myself living here and using and understanding spanish. Whilst learning a language as an (young) adult was not easy it is definitely one of the best decisions I ever made because I love speaking spanish. This blog may seem a bit big headed but we all need to say things we are proud of now and then and maybe it takes the need of others to point your successes for you to realise them.

Despite all this I'm struggling to get the effort to learn the languages of the countries that I will visit next and in my arrogance wish I could just speak spanish or english to them instead :p.

Next blogs include my trip to my spanish friends village (best day in spain so far), my trips to Barcelona, valencia, sierra nevada, possibly others and xmas in spain! Sorry that I hve made so few but it really takes a lot of effort. Very proud of my friend Nicole who has wrote a blog every day for a year, see nicolespearlsofwisdom.blogspot.com .

¡ EL GORDO !

Hola todos.

It has been a month since my last blog so this one will have to be el gordo. Just pretend each section is a seperate blog in october :p.

Which brings me to welcome you to november! Today (1st nov) is a public holiday here (One of the 12 they have here). So happy día de todos los santos everybody! I don't really understand the link between this 'all saints day' and all the men playing guitars and walking around the street last night but I just went with the flow and went to a halloween party after. The best thing about halloween I saw here is that because they love to roller skate here in sevilla we passed a huge procession of monsters and ghouls on skates whizing past. Why are skates guay and awesome here but in UK lame and unpopular? It was also many of my international course mates first halloween so that was nice, welcome to american influenced europe y'all.

So you may recall I wasn't happy with my flat so after bumbling spanish with my fast speaking landlord I managed to leave my flat without paying until feb and not paying the full month. Consequently when I was in her house this was my first encounter with spanish children as her flat was full of her nietos watching rey león. Sometimes I don't like the spanish accent but on kids it is the best, so cute and the "but why" just sounds so much better on them compared to a whining english child. After leaving said flat I moved in with my Montenegrin and Filipino coursemates. I like it here and all. I do feel like I'm living in a old peoples home due to the large amount of abuelas here but they are nice and even helped us out when we went through phases of having no electricity, hot water and internet at the same time! (we were practically living in a cave, candles and all). Here is me on the balcony and the dreaded washing line that I constantly fear that I will let my pants fall to the patio down below that we can't access!

As well as my 15 course mates I have made friends with the people from my hostel and also people I have met at intercambios (places where you exchange languages) both of these places are where I learn the most spanish as I can ask why the spanish say this and that. I went with these guys to a beatles concert which was funny as the spanish band's english was awful. They played at a festival with foods and events from countries all over the world. I tried some polish, german and cuban drinks and was disappointed not to see a UK stall. I wanted some god damn custard creams and digestive biscuits, is this too much to ask!! Although they did have an english day where apparently marry poppins was meant to turn up. I gave it a miss. Going out here is very much an outdoor activity, there are outside clubs and everyone buys drinks inside at bars and goes outside to drink. This can lead to huge crowds of people drinking in plazas which is actually banned in seville and the consequent piles of rubbish and bottles left behind. I am not exaggerating the mess left behind in these plazas, the first time i saw the rubbish at 4am I had to take a double look. Quick rundown of spanish time that I have observed. Lay in followed by siesta followed by more siesta followed by dinner at 9/10pm predrinks until 2am and club until 5 or later. Here we are with the beatles.

The culture here is different but still don't think I've experienced the "culture shock". Everyone is so chatty here you can't be at the bus stop (buses cost 0.60€) without the little old lady discussing where the bus is, knowing full well where the bus is as she gets the bus every single day. The best example of this is a woman I heard shouting over a packed bus "oiga! how is your nephew with his broken leg) or the woman opposite our flat shouting over the dreaded washing line "chico! que tal!". I think this roots from the fact most Spaniards are from small towns and work in the city compared to crazy urban areas like urban, with the population density seen here for comparison (http://goo.gl/YbxZ1z). I won't mention their openness about sex but instead show said vending machine in the centre...

Their limits do not end at being open and chatty, they also swear like crazy and I think some of the swear words are not even swear words at all. As I've heard things like this mother fucking rain and what does that bitch think she is doing with the recipients not blinking an eyelid. I soon learned that this aggressiveness that is not really aggressiveness at all,is needed here in everyday life. The bank clerk wants to close but you need to pay that bill, tell them that they have to do it now and do not take no for an answer. This bank scenerio happened many times and even with the government here, I had to get my id card and they wouldn't accept the documents I had and this went on for 10 minutes or so with me saying that there is nothing I can do to please you and that I wasn't going to leave until they gave me it, all of sudden they can give me the ID card, hmm how strange. I won't even mention my bank situation as it annoys me too much, except I hated santander in UK and I hate it even more over here, and consequently have gone with BBVA.

I enjoyed listening to Spanish radio before coming out her but I think I'm enjoying the Portuguese singing brazil music more whilst here. Google Sertanejo for more info.

I am enjoying my course here in seville uni but it has definitely made me realise how good exeter uni is as the info and facilities of this 2nd in spain uni do not compare to exe. A great example is on my course they stated the assesment was 30% "other" without stating what this "other" is. . . I'm hoping it is to demonstrate your best english accent, as this is the only way I may come up trumps. Once arriving people could tell my british accent when talking spanish but the other night I asked a Spaniard what she thought my accent was and she went from irish to russian so yay. I don't really know if my spanish is improving but I guess from having successful conversations with spainards (something I would have had trouble doing before) it must be better.

I haven't had a lot of tapas to be honest but I like the jámon (smoked ham) here and other things. But miss the the availability of things like basmati rice, curry sauce, fajitas and pita bread (yes I can't find these here at the cheap prices we have in the UK!). However chicken is insanely cheap so my diets mainly consist of this and the HUGE peppers they have here. Of course most stuff is cheaper here.

Octopus, other fish and hanging ham. 

It has only very recently (last 2 days) just got cold. But this cold (15 deg) is only really during the morning and night, during the day it is still hot (I saw the sign saying 29' yesterday) and people still wear sunglasses, But I've heard they wear sunglasses all through winter. It has rained 3 times since being here. My dark skinned brother even said it was too hot for him when he visited me in mid october. It was nice having david here to speak rapid english to and to confuse people when I the pale ginger one spoke the better spanish.

We went to cadiz also which I want to rename Cat island as there was so many cats there. A bit of sunbathing and swimming in the sea was nice, but as for the city I most definitely prefer seville as cadiz seemed to ancient and touristy. O and the train there was the best train I've ever been on, beats FGW, SW, southern and virgin hands down!



The sign that it is getting colder means one thing... NAVIDAD! I haven't seen any signs of Christmas here but I'm excited for it this year which makes a change. It won't be long before they have that feliz navidad song on loop in corte ingles and pull and bear. I see at the many lottery stalls (they love a bit of lottery over here) that there is a big lottery draw at christmas and the lottery tickets are really expensive, from what I understood from the man no one buys one ticket but families, friends or coworkers pitch in to buy one ticket which is in excess of 200€. And if you think this purchasing of tickets is happening now you can see how popular it is and this along with the vast prize fund it is called "el gordo", The big one.
A bit like this post.

Ciao. Miss and love you all.