Un paseo al centro

"A walk to The Center"

I'm pleased to report that I am already starting to feel a much more settled and comfortable than yesterday. To be perfectly honest, yesterday was extremely overwhelming and I couldn't help but wonder why I wanted to come in the first place. Things are definitely looking up now and I'm remembering all the reasons I wanted to study abroad. A good night's sleep definitely helped my outlook on life. So to start things off, here is the view from my bedroom window! Stephanie and I woke up a little before 11 today after a full night's sleep. There's no air conditioning in the apartment so we keep the windows open all the time. At night the cool air blows into the room. It's perfect for sleeping! Our host mom Miriam talked to us for a little while. One of the things she told us was to make sure we let her know if we ever want anything more to eat...and they feed us plenty! So Elaine, you can stop worrying about me starving.

Stephanie and I then walked down to ICS to meet the Housing Director, Gina and to pick up our cell phones. Gina answered a few of our questions and gave us some ideas to keep us busy for the day. So we went to a couple stores, one of which was called Bazaar Ting Ting. It's similar to a little dollar store but it was run by an Asian couple. It was definitely interesting. Stephanie bought an international calling card there while I just looked around. We came back home to charge our cell phones and Miriam brought lunch home for us. She and her husband own a little restaurant/cafe (they're called bars here) called Bar Cepo (I think). Lunch was very filling, potatoes and some kind of chewy seafood mean (I have no idea what exactly) in some sort of yellow sauce. It was almost the consistency of stew.

After lunch we walked through Maria Luisa park toward the downtown area called The Center. We expected a long walk but it only took about 30 minutes. Here is a picture of a street through the park. There are palm trees everywhere!

This is the Plaza España in the M.L. park. It is a huge semi-circle! The picture only captures about 1/4 of it. It's probably the coolest building we saw today. The Center is really neat. There are lots of stores and cafe's with outdoor seating. Many of the streets are limited to public transportation and pedestrians only which makes it really easy to get around. This is a picture of a typical street in Seville. I'd say this would be a medium sized street.
While this picture is one of the small windy streets. It's really hard to get around in some parts of the city because the streets are like this and they never go straight. It's kind of like a maze; you never really know where you're going to end up. But we figured things out pretty well. You just have to remember the general direction you want to go in and eventually you can find your way.
I have no idea what this building is. We found it when we were wandering around on the tiny windy streets and I thought it looked cool. So I took a picture.
And finally, on our way back home from the Center, Stephanie and I found the University building where I will be taking classes. It is a little farther than ICS from our house but I can probably walk there in 20-25 minutes. I think I can handle that. Especially since I get to walk through the park part of the way.
Tomorrow we have Orientation at ICS which includes a language proficiency test and an academic meeting to go over our schedule. As long as I pass my test I'll get to take classes at the University which don't start until the 28th. So I might have some extra travel time or I can sit in on some classes at ICS. There are only a couple other students signed up for classes at the University so I'm going to see what they're planning to do with this extra time.