Hannah en España

  Entry 4     Classes I think it's super interesting, but you may find this part boring as it is going to be an academic/historical spiel, feel free to skip to the weekend label if you just want to see my travel/activities! My Spanish classes were really interesting this week as we looked at aspects of the Andalusian accent and colloquial terms. Basically, most things that can be shortened are and I don't mean only abbreviated. They cut the "s" and the "d" out of a LOT of words, as well as dropping the last letter of nouns and verbs alike. In Spain they also say the "ch" sound as "sh", but other parts of the accent are specific to the region of Andalusia and are not heard in northern Spain. The very stereotypical Spanish accent with a sort of "th" lisp on the "c" and "s" sounds is not actually common in Sevilla. Of all of the cities in Spain, Sevilla is actually the most similar to Latin American countries in...

Entry 3     This Week Classes were good this week, except for Friday when we had online classes to make up for a holiday in May and my microphone would not work. I went to the Catedral de Sevilla (which is the largest gothic cathedral in the world!) on Wednesday after classes. You feel absolutely tiny inside with all the crazy high ceilings and just the grandness of everything. The Cathedral (pictured right) is of course gorgeous, and the details everywhere are honestly overwhelming, like you could spend days there and never notice everything. I adored the stained-glass windows, and the imagery captured in them, but my friend was most excited about the Tomb of Christoper Columbus which is lofted by several statues carrying it.     This Weekend On Friday afternoon, very shortly after my classes ended, I had to rush downtown to meet the girls for our first BlaBlaCar.  BlaBlaCar is a service that pairs you with a driver that is going in the same direction as you, s...

Entry 2     1st Week of Classes I had my first week of classes last week, though only a half week. Monday was a Spanish writing quiz and "tour" that was grievously shortened because of rain while Tuesday was the actual orientation where I was given my schedule and a welcome presentation. After the presentation, there was a tapas and sangria mingling event for the international students to meet each other and yet I met 2 more people from NAU and a couple of girls from New Mexico. The program mostly consists of Americans and Germans, and then smaller groups or individuals from various other countries. I may be too short for the German students to see me. The tapas event was fun, but it feels so weird to drink at school and it never stops being a little funny to me that it is completely normal here and you can buy a drink in the cafeteria.  I had my first classes on Wednesday and Thursday, so it was a short week. Wednesday ended up being my two classes in English, a Spanish ...