Hoy es lunes.

Good day to all! It's currently 12:10 PM here in Sevilla, and 4:10 AM in cow-town. It still boggles my mind that by the time I'm done my last class (6:50 pm), it still won't even be noon over there. This is the first full official week of classes, which kind of gives purpose to the whole point of being over here.

• Mondays are going to be my long day, I have Econ from 130-250, then a Spanish history class from 4-6:50. It really doesn't give me a lot of time to walk to Lola's for lunch and then head back to school, so I'll have to bring my lunch with me. 
• Tuesdays I have poli sci from 12-120, then Spanish film from 4-650.
• Wednesdays just econ from 130-250
• Thursdays just poli from 12-120

It seems to me as if this program is designed to place less emphasis on school, which is totally fine by me. This is probably the first time in my life where I can sleep in until 10 or 1030, and the weekends are left for exploring!

All the immediate errands I had on my to-do list are more or less taken care of. On Saturday I went downtown with Ally, Jodi and another girl named Kelsey, and we basically walked around for 7 hours going to all the stores we could find. It's a big relief to FINALLY have a coat, and an umbrella. Even a couple long sleeved shirts gave me peace of mind... because no surprise but I think I have a cold. The best part of the day was probably when we went for lunch at McDonald's, with all the other 700 Spanish people that were there. That same evening Ally, Jodi and I hopped on the metro and went over to Kelsey's apartment. She lives with her boyfriend Trevor, and they're both from Florida. There was a pretty eclectic mix of international students there, an Aussie, a couple Germans, us Canadians, and the rest Americans.  FYI: a cheap bottle of wine is about $3.00! We played the American version of "sociables", and before we knew it was 1:00am, so half the group went to a bar, and the rest of us stayed and just chatted for a couple hours.

On Sunday, Ally and I walked over to the local parish for Sunday mass. First off, there is no such thing as dressing up for church here, because the people are dressed up every day anyways! Second, I have a strong suspicion that the birth rate in Spain, or maybe just this area is very high because there's children EVERYWHERE. If you see a man or a woman, there will be a child or two attached to them. I seriously haven't seen this many children in one place before. The mass was nice, but I think it was the children's mass because they were doing all the readings and acted out the sermon. The rest of the day was a stay-at-home day, getting my day-planner sorted out, figuring out what I still need, etc.

A big part of this semester abroad is to get to know myself better, and that is definitely happening. I realize just how much I need to get off my butt and go for a run or do something active. I put on about 3 layers of my workout stuff, and went for a good jog around the neighborhood. I really needed it! Also, I ended up exploring the area a bit more, and saw some pretty nice mansions that are hiding in the outskirts of Montequinto.


Fifth lesson: maybe I'm just really ignorant and everyone else is aware of this, but it SNOWS here in Spain. Quite significantly actually, to the point where they have ski hills and curling teams.