New York in Spain

I ended up at a bar close to home tonight, se llama Long Island, and given the English name, needless to say it’s in an area frequented by Americans and other extranjeros called Calle Betis. A friend and I decided it would be better to go to a small place and to speak only in Spanish to facilitate meeting and conversing with Spaniards. After ordering, the bartender asked us where we were from; and he said we spoke well. He then helped us with the important bar vocabulary words. Cubata is mixed drink. Chupita is a shot. Pajita or Cañita are words for straw, but pajita is not to be confused with paja, a rude word (shhhh). Oh yeah, and they had 1€ cervecitas and free sangria for ladies after midnight. All the bars have Cruzcampo on tap. It’s very popular in Sevilla, but my señora’s daughter said it’s made in England. Go figure.

All this after a failed attempt at finding an internet café that was open past 11. My señora attributed this to the fact that the weekend goes Thursday through Sunday and no one needs to use the internet late on the weekend when they can go to discotecas. Hopefully sometime this weekend I will experience the famous European discotec, the likes of which are very uncommon in the U.S.

But the highlight of my day, besides the 30-minute walk to and from the study center, was almuerzo con mi señora’s daughter and her two-year-old daughter, all three with the name Ana. You see, I requested to live with a family, and I ended up with a señora, but she has a family that comes over often, so I really got what I wanted. I was told that this toddler was shy, but she was anything but shy, climbing all over the couches, throwing stuffed animals at me for besitas. She called me “Binsy” and it didn’t matter that I couldn’t speak perfectly because she couldn’t speak either. I’m proud to say, however, that my comprehension, accent, and grammar are slightly better than hers.

I’ve only been here 4 days, but I can already tell that i’m going to greatly miss Sevilla when I return to California. Say “Sevilla” out loud, with smooth local accent, the “i” sharply accented and the “ll” rolling off the tongue like an English “y.” It sounds full of beauty, mystery, and promise. Like “marvillosa.” Our program directors reminded us today that there are limitless opportunities here, not just in which street to go at night, but the different clubs and groups to get involved in, the different people to meet, locals and Americans alike. The Spanish way of life isn’t conducive to looking forward to tomorrow, pero no puedo esperar.