Hello from Sevilla!
Shalinee in Sevilla
Welcome to the first edition of "Shalinee in Sevilla!"
It’s been nearly four weeks that I’ve been here, and oh how the time is flying! It started out feeling really busy, but I feel like I’m settling in. I’m starting to figure out how I want to spend my time. When I first arrived, it was so hot during the day, it was in the high 90s every day. It’s finally started to cool down in the last week or so. Unfortunately, I’ve also been a bit under the weather the last few days (all the going out!). But I’m recovering, and I’m excited to take advantage of the pleasant weather to explore the city more.
For so long, what I wanted was to experience living here. And I really feel like I’m getting to do that. I love my apartment. It’s a really nice size, with a comfortable, inviting living room, and a great little balcony too. I really like my neighborhood. I’m just a five-minute walk to the bus stop that takes me to school. There’s a decent sized supermarket just down the street from me, and a larger one about ten minutes away. There’s a pharmacy across the street. And there’s tapas bars everywhere. Literally every block, every corner has a tapas bar. There’s probably about 10 different places in a five-minute radius from my place. The neighborhood is quiet, residential. There seem to be a lot of families. I’m minutes from a school. It’s definitely a more Latino neighborhood, which means in addition to tapas bars, there’s lots of Latino restaurants and grocery stores. I went to a delicious Venezuelan place a few blocks from me. There’s an Ecuadorian place I’d really like to try that’s literally like a two-minute walk away. I love that my neighborhood feels like a quieter, sleepier part of the city, and there’s still restaurants everywhere. I love that that’s the culture here.
The best part of my neighborhood, though, is that a few of my good friends live right down the street! It feels like being in college. I can randomly text my friends to meet up for tapas down the street on a Tuesday night, or to come over and watch a movie. Actually, this last week a group of us started a cooking rotation, where three nights a week we get together and one of us cooks. My roommate and I hosted the first one last Tuesday. We made cacio e pepe, someone brought a delicious take on a Greek salad, and someone else brought cheesecake and passion fruit juice. Afterwards, it started pouring outside and no one wanted to walk home in the rain, so we watched “Ocho Apellidos Vascos, called “The Spanish Affair” in English, a funny Spanish rom-com about cultural differences between the North and the South. It was a wonderful evening. I felt like I was really building community here, and it’s always so nice to have people over and share a meal.
Besides that, I’ve been going every Wednesday night to an ‘intercambio,’ or language exchange at a bar. The way it works is you put on a name tag with the languages you speak, buy a little beer for €1, and mingle. It’s been fun to practice Spanish and meet people from all over. I want to go to more intercambios, and find more opportunities to really practice my Spanish. And there’s been plenty of clubbing! I’ve been out every weekend since I’ve been here except this one, since I’ve been a bit sick. I’ve already stayed out all night one time, eating churros in the morning, getting home at 8am. It was fun, but honestly, that last hour was pretty brutal. I was very ready to go home and sleep. Luckily, my room has blinds that can make my room pitch black in the middle of the day, so I can still sleep. And it’s a good thing too, because I never seem to be able to get home from a night out before about 5am.
It’s been fun to adjust to life here. To figure out the grocery stores, to hang laundry on a clothesline for the first time in my life. But I very much feel like a foreigner, an outsider. That’s to be expected of course, and I’m sure it’s not a feeling that will go away any time soon. But it’s strange, I feel like I have to rebuild myself in a way. I’m much more shy in Spanish, much more self-conscious. Less sure of myself. As I get used to things, as I start to understand little cultural norms and just generally start to feel like I know what the hell I’m doing, I start to become more confident. But it really is a process of starting over. And it’s so different from being a tourist, when you don’t really care if you look out of place, because of course you are out of place.
I’ve definitely felt that extra level of shyness at school. Even though my Spanish is good, I’ve been nervous to talk to the teachers, to really participate in conversations. I know I’ll get there, and I’m not worried. Everyone at my school is so nice, and I love working there. The teachers have been super welcoming, and the students so excited and lovely. Young children are so open with their affection. I’ve been given stickers and name tags and countless hugs. I’m supposed to pretend I don’t speak Spanish, but some of the second graders are on to me. There’s one kid that kept saying to me in Spanish, “tell the truth! I know you understand!” I’m hoping I can keep the act up! It’s hard to pretend not to understand when you do. The hardest part is that I really want to get to know these kids, and it’d be so much easier in Spanish. But with some translating from teachers and other students, it’s been good so far. I very much feel like I’m just starting to get the hang of things at school, and I’m excited to see how things progress as I become a more comfortable teacher and colleague. I’ve also started giving private lessons to the daughter and nephew of a teacher at school. The kids are totally adorable, and it’s been such a joy.
One last thing for the first edition of this newsletter. About two weeks ago, I went to Cadiz for the day with some friends. We spent the day at the beach, capping it off with tacos and frozen margaritas. We took the train back, and it was one of those times when the stars just aligned. We’d all booked our train tickets separately, but through pure luck, one of my friends and I were assigned seats next to each other. And not just any seats—seats at a table! Our third friend decided to just sit across from us—and no one came to claim that seat! Things just went right for us. It was just the three of us, playing cards on a table on a train taking us back to Sevilla after a long day. We were sandy, and sun-soaked, and tired in the best way. It was perfect. This, I thought then. This is what I came for.
That’s all for now! I’m going to Mallorca next weekend, and there's always something happening here, so stay tuned for more soon!