The blog of a very hungry vegetarian living in Sevilla Spain. Hungry to learn, teach, discover and just plain hungry.
I am a 23 year- old adventurist, avid runner, skier, and foodie. A recent graduate of Binghamton University where I studied health and human development. I want to travel the world and capture every single moment of it! From New York to Spain, join me on my adventures eating, living and working in Sevilla!
First of all, it has been raining for the past few days. This is the first rain
Sevilla has seen in 7 months. Now I feel much more at home, this dreary weather
reminds me of good ole’ Binghamton, New York.
More importantly after living on Maria’s meal schedule, and her menu of
broth, bread, and three peaches a day, I have finally moved into my new
apartment. First order of business was making a gigantic salad for dinner,
followed by a highly anticipated trip to IKEA to start furnishing my room.
View from my porch looking out at La Catedra
Right next to my apartment there is a huge festival ongoing for the next 6
weeks. The Festival De Las Naciones has food tents from all around the world,
shopping, various performances and dancing every night. This is definitely
going to be very dangerous for me; there is an entire row of stalls dedicated
solely to desserts!
Capping of my week, last night I ran in my first international race, La
Correra Nocturna, a 7-mile night race, which began at 10pm. The race went
throughout the various neighborhoods of Sevilla, culminating in the Olympic
stadium to an immense crowd, cheering, clapping, and blasting Queens “We Are
the Champions.” Although my body took a pounding running through the crowded
cobblestone streets, and dodging other racers, I very quickly forgot about any
pain I was feeling. Water is not provided at the end of the race, but rather as
many cups of Cruzcampo you can hold.
Sportin' my new shorts, tank top and medal from the race
"If
you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the
answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same
place."
The rumors are true; there is in fact a small “Temple” in Sevilla.
By Temple I mean there is a medical office hidden on a small alleyway where
there is a rented space for the few Jewish families living in Sevilla to congregate.
In typical Spanish fashion, the service started 20 minutes
late. I am not quite sure whether I understood more Spanish or Hebrew during
the service, but I do know that we were welcomed to the small congregation with
open arms and I will definitely return in the future.
It came as no surprise to me that I was placed in elementary Spanish II, luckily I am not the only one at this level.
I spent the first 20 minutes of class completely perplexed as to why
my classmate Brie introduced herself and said she loves avacados and
then started to talk about mock trial. Finally I asked what do avocados
have to do with mock trial. Apparently “abogado” means lawyer and we
were never talking about avocados.
Later in class I was asked to read a paragraph in Spanish. I came
upon the name “Paul Jones” however I pronounced it “Paul Ho-nes,” No one
was expecting my terrible pronunciation and we were all tearing up from
laughing so hard.
My teacher is incredibly patient with us, and makes class something to look forward to everyday.
Today I went to the beach near Cadiz. We played Spanish games, swam in
the ocean, drank sangria, and most importantly I caught some shuteye on
the air-conditioned bus.
After thinking I was going to be living with a Señior all week, to my
surprise M. José does not stand for Mr. Jose, but rather Maria Jose.
This morning she arrived at the hotel and brought my roommate Whitney
and I to her home.
Not wanting to offend my Señiora I just keep saying “si.” I have no
idea what she is rapidly saying to me, and apparently I agreed to wear
her “house dress,” a cloth, long sleeved dress with slits exposing my
entire bum.
When I told Maria I am a vegetarian and that I don’t eat fish, she
responded with a slap across my cheek (jokingly I hope) and said “solo
pan y aqua? es come una prisión, no?” (only bread and water its like a
prison, no?) followed by “oh my god your killing me,” over and over
again with much laughter. She turned to Whitney and quietly whispered
“Voy a poner el jamón en el sándwich el lunes" (I am going to put ham
in her sandwich on Monday), but I overheard and much nervous laughter
pursued.
I then had the pleasure of meeting her pequeño amigo (little friend,)
ya know just the pigeon that comes in and out of her kitchen window and
sits on her cabinets while she cooks. Ah, so that explains the coooo
cooooo, coo coo, coooo coo noise I have been hearing from my room.
The rest of the afternoon we all sat in our house dresses (dying of heat)
having your usual conversation about my Señioras breast size followed
by looking out the window so that she could point out all the fat people
walking down street. We finished out our afternoon watching dramatic
Telenovelas (Spanish soap operas) unsure of whether or not we were
allowed to get up.
Orientation has taught me many valuable lessons. Always be weary of what you eat and where you walk!
Everyday during orientation I wake up at 7, eat breakfast at the
hotel, listen to presentations about Spain and
teaching, lunch, siesta, group activities or tours and finally capping
off every night with tapas and a tinto de verano (wine with lemon soda)
or cerveca (small beer.)
The first night at dinner, my tour guide Danny, kindly ordered me a
salad. Excitedly I dove right in. I went immediately for the cashew,
finally some protein! I put my fork in and swallowed it up. After
chewing for a few seconds, I realized this is definitely not a nut. I
investigated the salad and came to realize I had just ingested my very
first piece of seafood I have ever eaten, a small curled up shrimp! No
me gusta nada!
The second night we went to see a flamenco show. Flamenco if you
don’t know is very loud! Apparently the Spanish sun got the best of me
and within 10 minutes I was fast asleep in my chair in the front row.
I also went for my first run in Sevilla this week. After 20 minutes I
was so hot that I stood in front of the sprinklers in the park.
Apparently, humans are lowest on the totem pole in Sevilla. I quickly
learned that motor vehicles, bikes, and horses always have the right of
way.
Although flying from Lisbon to Sevilla I was not quite sure I was
going to survive. I am unaccustomed to flying on a plane so small that
the pilot was also the flight attendant, that certainty made it more
difficult to ask for some peanuts the during flight.
Upon landing I came to find that the weight of my luggage was too
much for my small plane to handle, thus my bags were left in Portugal.
With only the clothes on my back I was put onto a bus…alone! I was
literally on an entire chartered bus, just me, myself and my carry on
bag. Also being that I was the first participant to arrive at the hotel,
I decided to embrace the culture immediately and take a siesta.
Living in Spain, a land without Trader Joes peanut butter, no chobani
yogurt, and not a Wegmans in sight….this is literally a nightmare of
mine that has come true. In Spain being a vegetarian means you will
still eat seafood, chicken and of course, Jamón! Picture My Big fat
Greek Wedding: “what you mean you no eat no meat! Here is some lamb”
Unfortunately for me, my options are limited; there are only so many
tapas of patatas y espinacas a girl can eat.
