Words I Know in Portuguese: Obrigada.

Well, the good news is that I am absolutely 110% in love with Portugal. The bad news is that I only got to spend one weekend there. The worst news (for those of you who are anxiously awaiting my return to the E.E. U.U.) is that I would absolutely love to teach abroad in Portugal after this year in Spain is over. I think I like it better than Sevilla.... shhhh, tell no one.

It's also weird because my friends from la Universidad de Rhode Island are now here in Sevilla with me. It feels like college, part 2- especially the part where I went out until 3 am then had to crawl into class at 9am. But we did learn a lot of useful phrases in clase, such as "Ser una pulpa," which means that someone will not stop touching you... or that they seem to have 8 tentacles.

no más sopa, por favor

Things I would do to avoid having another bowl of soup placed in front of me:

1. Sell virtually any organ on the black market, except for my eyes (I would like to be able to cry tears of joy when I do not see sopa in front of me).
2. Swim in shark-infested waters with an open wound.
3. Go skydiving with a faulty parachute.
4. Live in Mexico.
5. Teach kindergarteners- as a career.
6. Know the “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” episode where Sweet Dee and Charley think they have become cannibals? Yeah, that’s looking like a viable option.
7. Run with scissors.
8. Watch an “Everybody Loves Raymond” marathon, or even just one episode.
9. Become a matador.
10. Sell my first-born child.
11. Wrestle an alligator.

Think its not that bad? Imagine having Ramen noodles placed in front of you for dinner one night (after a week straight of soup), literally gagging on it... then the next day have lentil soup for lunch and more noodles for dinner. And now, I go out for tapas.

Me encanta television de espana

Well, its official- trashy television is trashy television, no matter what the language. And I have become emotionally involved with this show my Señora watches, essentially the Spanish version of Real World. However, they have cameras that video 24/7 and there is no editing involved. In other words, they have taken an inherently American (read: trashy) show and IMPROVED it. It also has provided me with the means to learn all kinds of new Spanish words and phrases. For instance, an enano(a) is a midget. Now that I know the word for it, I feel as though I have been seeing enanos everywhere! (Hopefully pictures to follow). Not to mention today during lunch I learned that ¡Hans es un transsexual! ¡Qué guay!

Everyone else is doing it...

...so I decided to start a blog because I realized that my observations about the culture and people of Spain are too priceless to keep to myself. And even though I love it here, I've decided that my first post should be about all the things I dislike in Spain, because its way more interesting to complain than it is to list the things that me encanta:

1. I really hate that the concept of iced coffee is strange and bizarre to Spaniards. It is currently 5pm and 97 degrees. WHY WOULD YOU NOT WANT TO PUT FROZEN CUBES OF WATER IN YOUR BEVERAGE?

2. The weather. In the past week, I've sweat more than all the runners in the Boston Marathon combined. Gross.

3. Staring. It's rude. And seriously, abuelo, does staring at a woman walking down the street work for you? Do you think that whistling will get you a date? Or even better, ¿tu tiene un rollo con yo?

4. The language barrier- sometimes I literally try so hard to understand what is going on that I give myself a headache.

5. The abundance of jamón. Today, we saw ham-flavored Pringles. That is just unnecessary. And they are really sneaky about using it... just like tuna. Why would you ever mix tuna fish with pasta sauce? How does that make sense?

6. The fact that my credit card company entirely disregarded my phone call to them telling them that I would be using my card in Spain and are probably trying to cancel it right now. Well, hopefully the payment for my trip to Lagos went through.