My name is Megan Jones and I graduated from Mentor High in 2007. I go to Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio and am a junior Economics and Spanish double major. I’m spending Spring 2010 semester in Sevilla, Spain and attending the University of Sevilla. I live with a Spanish family that consists of a husband and wife and their two kids, ages 16 and 21. They also have an extremely talkative cat named Luna. My family, especially my host mom, María, loves to meow back at her…it’s hilarious. I arrived in Sevilla on Saturday, January 23rd. It was extremely rainy and cold, but it was so great to meet my family! They have been doing their best to make me feel at home here. The food is probably one of my favorite aspects of Spain. I’m a vegetarian, so what I eat is a little different that most people. I eat a lot of Spanish tortilla, which is a type of omlet like thing with potatoes in it. It’s really good! i also eat a lot of veggie stews, bread, fruit, etc. My family usually eats lunch around 3pm and dinner around 10pm, which is very different from home.
My first week in Spain was pretty good. The weather was very cold for Sevilla, though and no one has central heat since it never gets this cold. Most people, like my family, keeps space heaters under their table and you put the table cloth on your lap to warm yourself. It usually warms up and is sunny by the time I walk home from school. I’ve been taking a two week intensive Spanish course since I arrive. I just took my final today and handed in a paper on Tuesday. The class was really good to review grammar, which I haven’t really studied since my freshman year of college.
Over the weekend, I went to a small town on Spain’s southern coast called La Linea de la Concepcion. One of my friends, Dave, teaches English there and lives there. My three good friends, Geena, Amber, Ashley and I, took a bus down there and stayed at his apartment. We went to Gibraltar as well, because you can walk there from his house. Gibraltar is a peninsula owned by Britain even though it’s attached to Spain. You have to bring your passport to go there, and it’s like stepping into England. They use pounds instead of Euros and everyone speaks British English. There are even those little red telephone booths, tea shops and ‘bobbies’. We visited the Rock as well on a taxi tour. We went to a viewing point where you can see the coast of Northern Africa and where the Atlantic and Mediterrean seas meet. We also got to see the famous monkeys up there and took pictures with them on our shoulders. It was a great time!
My roommate is arriving today and I’m really excited! Then, we’re going out for tapas (which are like appetizers) with some Spanish friends later!
Hasta Luego!