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.
