Loving La Vida Sevillana

Life continues to be amazing in Sevilla! Obviously, opportunities like this to live abroad are fantastic, but, honestly, the first few weeks when I studied in Madrid were pretty rough, and I know a lot of people in that program felt the same way. Because of that, I anticipated enduring another difficult first few weeks before a wonderful rest of my experience, but, instead, it’s just been great from the start!

Wednesday night, I went for tapas with a big group of auxiliares, all of whom I very much enjoyed meeting. As I mentioned already, the next morning, I went with a few of them to get the NIE (foreigner identification number) process started, then returned and took a long nap before meeting up with a group of other auxiliares for another round of tapas (sangría, gazpacho, and montaditos, mmm), in a different part of town called Alfafa. Alfafa reminds me a lot of Madrid: buzzing with activity and filled with lots of shops during the day and great bars and restaurants at night. I wound up there once on a visit to Sevilla and could never figure out where it was (or if it was, in fact, Sevilla), so it was good to rediscover it. One plaza in the area was completely packed with young people botellón-ing, meaning just hanging out, drinking, and having fun. It’s a scene that’s so quintessentially Spanish to me, and I love it. I learned at one bar that manzanilla wine, a favorite in this area, particularly during Feria, is kind of not so good unless made into rebujito (mixed with Sprite-like soda). I also learned (nay, remembered) that drinks are incredibly cheap in Spain and that food is much cheaper in Sevilla than in Madrid. Hooray!

From there, we headed toward another part of town, commenting on how surreal it is that we’re here. We ran into a tango night that happens every Thursday and was crazy adorable. Then, a few other auxiliares joined us and we went to a bar/club where one auxiliar’s roommate was doing an improv jam session. Super cool. I always think that videos really show the atmosphere of a place way more than photos ever can, so, here, have some video!

Today, I met up with an auxiliar for lunch at 100 Montaditos and then shopping. We spent hours trying, with much difficulty, to buy Spanishy sandals (flip flops just aren’t cool here, and the closed-toed shoes I brought are giving me awful blisters), but, of course, stores decide it’s fall even when it’s 90 degrees out. We finally had some success, and then I headed back to my hostel, gathered up my luggage, and moved to my new apartment!

I’ll post photos of the apartment once I get settled in and when I have enough daylight to take good pictures, but it’s great so far, and my roommates seem really awesome. It should me a fabulous year!