Finding flats and making friends

¡Hola a todos!

So it's now half past 9 on Sunday night and I still haven't got a place to live! I assumed I could just turn up and there would be loads of places to choose from and I'd move in in a few days.. Definitely not the case. I have been to view quite a lot of flats now and the have all been absolutely disastrous. Seriously, terrible. I need to live in the centre to catch the bus to where I will be working so don't want to go too far out of the centre. How the landlord can show me round is beyond me, they are all filthy and way too far away. One of the landlords made me laugh though, he smelt my Englishness so spoke English to me while showing me around. Well, in Spanish the word for cupboard is armario, which sounds slightly like the English word 'armchair'..? Yeah, he kept calling all the cupboards in the place armchairs. The flat was disgusting but it gave me a little giggle when he said 'Open the armchair and have a look inside'. Or pointed at the wall and said 'There's an armchair there too', the first time he said it I just let it go and didn't think anything of it but when he said it again and again it became apparent what he was talking about. I probably should have said something but, alas, I didn't. I'm a terrible person. 

 I'm going to Madrid on Wednesday so if I don't have a place by then, I really will start to panic! I'm viewing some more tomorrow so fingers crossed!

Anyway, enough of that! The other day I received a Whatsapp from one of the  English teachers at the school, she invited me round to her house for dinner and to meet her son and the children of another English teacher, Jesus. I read the message and was immediately terrified, but I of course agreed. I went along last night and with after difficulty finding her flat, I arrived. 

I went up and said hello to everyone, when it became apparent that in Spain they greet each other by two kisses on either cheek - well I'm obviously not used to this! I must have spent about an hour kissing everyone. The girls, I hasten to add! Us men greet each other with a firm handshake. Because we are men. I greeted everyone and we headed up to the roof to eat, the flat was ridiculously hot - I was already melting and I'd only been in there 5 minutes. The heat here is ridiculous, it's nearly October and it's still in the high 20's / low 30's. It's crazy! 

We headed up to the roof where Elena had prepared the food for us all. There was a huge Union Jack hanging on the wall and lots of London posters and English things, which made me laugh. 

All the children were around my age, which was nice. They were talking amongst themselves and one of the teachers said to me can you follow what they're saying? Not a chance. They were talking unbelievably fast and with such a strong Andalucian accent that I understood literally nothing. They were told to speak very slowly to me, the speed they had to speak for me to understand was quite frankly embarrassing. It must have been painful for them to speak so slowly! We were left alone and it was slightly awkward at first but once we got chatting it was okay. They were all learning English so they were keen to practice it, and I was more than happy to speak to them in English, even though I shouldn't be. One of the guys told me he likes to watch Downton Abbey which I thought was quite funny. They all said that they love the Big Bang Theory, which is one of my favourite shows, but they find the American accent very difficult to understand.

Elena had made an Andalucian soup called salmorejo, it's tomato soup with lots of garlic and olive oil, and crushed up bits of boiled egg in. It was actually really nice! She had also made hollowed out boiled eggs filled with tuna and a kind of sauce. We all ate and chatted a bit more about our countries and their customs and after dinner they thought it would be a good idea to take me out and show me all around Sevilla. We walked for ages as they told me where is good to go, what each area is and things like that. 

We got back and Jesus asked me if I had been speaking Spanish, to which I wanted to say yes but the truth was that I let them talk to me in English the whole night. They all got told off and didn't speak a word in English to me for the rest of the night. I found that on the whole, I understood them really well if they spoke slowly enough. It was when I came to reply that there was a problem. I just can't think quickly enough in my head of what I want to say, I have to formulate it, wonder if it's correct or not, if I think it sounds okay then I'll say it. Marcos understood and told me that in one month we'll be able to have a proper conversation - we had a bet on it. On the whole all I did was sit there and nod a lot, probably looking like an idiot in the process.

I think I am starting to get to grips with the Andalucian accent also, the main thing that I've noticed they do is miss out 's' in random places - there doesn't seem to be any kind of logic to it. Sometimes it's there, other times not. Muchas Gracias is interesting because the 's' can disappear from anywhere. I heard so many variations:

Mucha gracias 

Muchas gracia

Mucha gracia

It just seems to disappear. If I listen very carefully I can tell where they should be. This lets me off the hook with my plurals because if I miss an 's' off a plural it doesn't really matter - I'm just adapting to the local dialect!

All in all it was a brilliant night, I met some great people who were probably some of the friendliest people I've ever met. They were incredibly welcoming and understanding of my position and I could tell they genuinely wanted to help me. It really does help me feel more settled with people like that. They also gave me some great advice about the city which I shan't bore you with. 

As you know, I have no place to live yet so I'm still in my funky hostel. Well, I haven't really been eating that well. I have breakfast here than I usually only get a sandwich or something for the rest of the day. Today however, I thought I didn't care about the embarrassment of going somewhere to eat on my own. Driven mainly by my stomach and of course, my mother. Today I had a big lunch and for dinner I went and got myself a pizza. There was nothing that could have prepared me for it. I was so excited to eat it you couldn't believe - not even tr smell of horse shit on Avenida de la constitución could put me off it! Which reminds me of an incredibly annoying thing some people do here. I went into the pizza place and was talking to him in Spanish. My massively English look / smell / aura must have made him think that he has to speak to me in English. There is no way to stop this other than to tell him to speak Spanish, which is a bit embarrassing. If he were to speak Spanish and I gave him the blank stare that I have mastered over the last few days, he would have the green light to speak to me in English. Until then, pleaseeee speak to me in Spanish! Rant over. 

That's all for now!

Cariños,

David 

Xxx 

My first few days in Sevilla!

Hi everyone!

At the time of writing this, this will be nearly the end of my third day in Seville - so I thought it was about time to start writing my blog, as I promised I would. It's nothing too serious, just something to give everyone an insight into how my year abroad is going.

So I left Liverpool airport at 6 am on Wednesday the 24th September, heading to a city that I've never visited to teach English in a school as a language assistant. Not very much worth talking about happened until I arrived in Malaga airport. From Malaga airport I had to take the train into the bigger, main station in Malaga and get a connecting train to Seville. I found the station and my train without much of an issue - buying my ticket was when my Spanish was first tested. I went up to the counter and asked the man if he spoke English, to which he replied no. So I bought my ticket in Spanish and he told me where to go etc. then he started laughing and said "But you can speak very good Spanish". It's amazing how much confidence a little comment like that gives you but as I approached my train I had a big smile on my face.

The Spanish trains put English trains to shame also. It makes Merseyrail look like a joke of the train world. Actually, no, Northern Rail. With their stupid purple, dirty trains. Mr Northern Rail should pop over to Spain to see how it should be done! These trains were immaculately clean, and bright white (not stupid purple) and very very organised and efficient. It left precisely on the minute and arrived at Sevilla San Bernado precisely when it should have. It also had little monitors all over the place, telling me where I was in Spain, next stations and other information such as the speed and weather and things. All in all, it wasn't a bad 2 and half hours!

At 13:06 (precisely) I arrived in Seville. The person who looks after me at the instituto where I will be working had arranged to meet me at the station to show me around and make sure I could find my hostel okay. Yes, I am staying in a hostel - but it's actually incredible! Nicer than some hotels! For starters I have to scan my finger to get into my room! There is a movie lounge which is basically a room filled with huge sofas and cushions and its just generally really nice! Anyway, I was met by Santiago at the train station who showed me to the hostel. Santiago cannot speak any English at all, so this was one very awkward journey, it was only 5 minutes! It was also the first time I had heard the Andalusian accent, or Andaluz. It's completely different to any Spanish I've heard before and very hard to understand. I think he realised by the blank stare on my face that I was having trouble understanding him, so he said he would try to speak castellano with me - which made it slightly easier.. but not that much. There is a phrase that they use here to describe andaluz which is "Los andaluces se comen las palabras" which means "Andalucians eat words" - most of the key sounds in Spanish are just.. not there. You kind of have to guess. I find it very difficult. But apparently if you can understand Andalucian Spanish then every other Spanish accent is easy! 

Santiago showed me to the hostel and asked if I wanted to meet up with the other English teachers at the instituto, so I of course agreed and he said he would meet me at 8. I think between about 4 o'clock and 7:30 I just slept. 

8 o'clock came and I walked with Santiago for around 10 minutes, I thought we were going to the school to meet the others but no.. he took me to a bar! So we went into the oldest bar in Seville, a tiny 17th Century place (with original flooring!) and he bought me a beer. The others arrived and I think there were 7 of us, they were all incredibly nice and very very welcoming. But they refused to speak English to me, which is good.. but also threw me in at the deep end a little bit. I haven't properly spoken Spanish in a while so to be talking to 6 other people at the same time about myself and where I'm from etc etc, is a daunting task. 

They insisted that I try some of the local dishes, so we ordered some tapas. They ordered this one dish that they said was like Fish and Chips to Brits, a very typical Andalusian dish. Well it looked like a plate of green mush, they told me it was mainly Spinach and chickpeas with a few other things that I didn't really understand. So all six of them stared at me as I shoveled this green mush into my mouth - all was very tense when I ate it and they asked "Did you like it?!" I, of course, said "Mmmmm, yes, very nice". It was absolutely disgusting. Needless to say I didn't have any more, no matter how much they told me to. Maybe they thought I was just being polite. They also ordered this plate of huge chunks of chorizo. I thought ah yes! I know chorizo! So I was offered the plate and I took one and took a big bite. Then I realised I had made a rather large mistake. Instead of being greeted with paprika and sausage, it was rubber. They then explained the big wax seal surrounding it isn't edible and I should have removed it first. Now I look like an idiot, great. 

They kept buying me beers and more tapas came, I had learnt all about the architecture of Seville and other things. When they asked for the bill. I felt relieved, I couldn't wait to just go back and sleep. I had been up since 2 am so (although I did have a little siesta) I was pretty tired. One of the teachers turned to me and said now we go to another bar and have more tapas. I laughed because I thought he was joking. He wasn't. 

The next day I got to explore Seville properly. The city is absolutely incredible, so vibrant and full of life, all the time. It really is an incredible place. The buildings and the architecture are seriously impressive too. I am seriously lucky to be in a place like this, it really is an incredible city!

I haven't really done anything else that's worth writing about, other than boring admin stuff and flat hunting - which I really don't want to talk about because I might get so annoyed I throw my laptop out the window.

I know I have only been here three days but I already feel like my Spanish is improving, from having to speak it all the time. Maybe I'm just getting more confident or remembering more, I'm not sure. 

Anyway, this was an incredibly long post so I'll leave it there for now!

Thanks for reading,

David