At the time of writing this, this will be nearly the end of my third day in Seville - so I thought it was about time to start writing my blog, as I promised I would. It's nothing too serious, just something to give everyone an insight into how my year abroad is going.
So I left Liverpool airport at 6 am on Wednesday the 24th September, heading to a city that I've never visited to teach English in a school as a language assistant. Not very much worth talking about happened until I arrived in Malaga airport. From Malaga airport I had to take the train into the bigger, main station in Malaga and get a connecting train to Seville. I found the station and my train without much of an issue - buying my ticket was when my Spanish was first tested. I went up to the counter and asked the man if he spoke English, to which he replied no. So I bought my ticket in Spanish and he told me where to go etc. then he started laughing and said "But you can speak very good Spanish". It's amazing how much confidence a little comment like that gives you but as I approached my train I had a big smile on my face.
The Spanish trains put English trains to shame also. It makes Merseyrail look like a joke of the train world. Actually, no, Northern Rail. With their stupid purple, dirty trains. Mr Northern Rail should pop over to Spain to see how it should be done! These trains were immaculately clean, and bright white (not stupid purple) and very very organised and efficient. It left precisely on the minute and arrived at Sevilla San Bernado precisely when it should have. It also had little monitors all over the place, telling me where I was in Spain, next stations and other information such as the speed and weather and things. All in all, it wasn't a bad 2 and half hours!
At 13:06 (precisely) I arrived in Seville. The person who looks after me at the instituto where I will be working had arranged to meet me at the station to show me around and make sure I could find my hostel okay. Yes, I am staying in a hostel - but it's actually incredible! Nicer than some hotels! For starters I have to scan my finger to get into my room! There is a movie lounge which is basically a room filled with huge sofas and cushions and its just generally really nice! Anyway, I was met by Santiago at the train station who showed me to the hostel. Santiago cannot speak any English at all, so this was one very awkward journey, it was only 5 minutes! It was also the first time I had heard the Andalusian accent, or Andaluz. It's completely different to any Spanish I've heard before and very hard to understand. I think he realised by the blank stare on my face that I was having trouble understanding him, so he said he would try to speak castellano with me - which made it slightly easier.. but not that much. There is a phrase that they use here to describe andaluz which is "Los andaluces se comen las palabras" which means "Andalucians eat words" - most of the key sounds in Spanish are just.. not there. You kind of have to guess. I find it very difficult. But apparently if you can understand Andalucian Spanish then every other Spanish accent is easy!
Santiago showed me to the hostel and asked if I wanted to meet up with the other English teachers at the instituto, so I of course agreed and he said he would meet me at 8. I think between about 4 o'clock and 7:30 I just slept.
8 o'clock came and I walked with Santiago for around 10 minutes, I thought we were going to the school to meet the others but no.. he took me to a bar! So we went into the oldest bar in Seville, a tiny 17th Century place (with original flooring!) and he bought me a beer. The others arrived and I think there were 7 of us, they were all incredibly nice and very very welcoming. But they refused to speak English to me, which is good.. but also threw me in at the deep end a little bit. I haven't properly spoken Spanish in a while so to be talking to 6 other people at the same time about myself and where I'm from etc etc, is a daunting task.
They insisted that I try some of the local dishes, so we ordered some tapas. They ordered this one dish that they said was like Fish and Chips to Brits, a very typical Andalusian dish. Well it looked like a plate of green mush, they told me it was mainly Spinach and chickpeas with a few other things that I didn't really understand. So all six of them stared at me as I shoveled this green mush into my mouth - all was very tense when I ate it and they asked "Did you like it?!" I, of course, said "Mmmmm, yes, very nice". It was absolutely disgusting. Needless to say I didn't have any more, no matter how much they told me to. Maybe they thought I was just being polite. They also ordered this plate of huge chunks of chorizo. I thought ah yes! I know chorizo! So I was offered the plate and I took one and took a big bite. Then I realised I had made a rather large mistake. Instead of being greeted with paprika and sausage, it was rubber. They then explained the big wax seal surrounding it isn't edible and I should have removed it first. Now I look like an idiot, great.
They kept buying me beers and more tapas came, I had learnt all about the architecture of Seville and other things. When they asked for the bill. I felt relieved, I couldn't wait to just go back and sleep. I had been up since 2 am so (although I did have a little siesta) I was pretty tired. One of the teachers turned to me and said now we go to another bar and have more tapas. I laughed because I thought he was joking. He wasn't.
The next day I got to explore Seville properly. The city is absolutely incredible, so vibrant and full of life, all the time. It really is an incredible place. The buildings and the architecture are seriously impressive too. I am seriously lucky to be in a place like this, it really is an incredible city!
I haven't really done anything else that's worth writing about, other than boring admin stuff and flat hunting - which I really don't want to talk about because I might get so annoyed I throw my laptop out the window.
I know I have only been here three days but I already feel like my Spanish is improving, from having to speak it all the time. Maybe I'm just getting more confident or remembering more, I'm not sure.
Anyway, this was an incredibly long post so I'll leave it there for now!
Thanks for reading,
David
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