After less than a week, I feel like I'm already familiar with certain parts of the city. Now that all of the CIEE students are spread out in different neighborhoods, we're constantly traveling (by foot) to meetings at the university and the CIEE center. There's a bus system but it doesn't really cater to students, so walking is our best option. The walk from my apartment to the Tabacalera is very nice -- it takes me five minutes to get to the bridge, and after I cross it I just walk along the river for 15 minutes or so. Some photos of the university:







My neighborhood itself is not as charming as downtown, but it has its own bar scene and several other students live nearby. Carmen's apartment is one of several in a kind of unattractive complex, but the inside is very nice: two bedrooms, one bath, a den, a tiny kitchen (abre-fácil, pig leg and all) and an office. My room is about the size of a single at Georgetown. I've only seen Carmen for meals because we've both been busy, but she seems pretty easy to live with. She's sevillana, in her late 20s and just got her Master's in geography. She also has a little, uh, thing for animals and there's an entire second bed in my room covered in stuffed animals. She understands English but makes me explain things the hard way. My Spanish has already begun to improve, and the Andaluz accent (they drop most S's from the end of words) is becoming much easier to understand. Here's my room:



There are certain basic Spanish norms that I'm still getting used to all over again -- no late showers, intense energy and water conservation (electricity is very expensive and the area goes in and out of drought), no bare feet, leave the bedroom door open. Oh, and no Internet at home. But I can use the free WiFi at a lively bar a block away, La Sonanta.

We finally got our entrance exam results and were placed in either one of two Spanish grammar classes or a history class (Social History of Contemporary Spain); all the classes are three hours a day every day for the next three weeks. I'm in the history class, which sounds nice because the second hour and a half is spent out in the city, visiting monuments and other cultural points of interest. University classes don't start until February.

I'm excited for tonight. So far, the night life has been kind of unimpressive, but I think that's because it's finals week, and Friday and Saturday are supposedly much livelier than week nights. We've also been too exhausted to stay out late enough... a lot of Spaniards don't start partying until 1 or 2 (Carmen didn't get home until 5 this morning). We have been enjoying some amazing tapas, though. Last night we ate at Patio de San Eloy, which has some tables but mostly consists of different levels of tiled steps that you sit on to eat. I got two tapas plates and a Sangria for less than 5€ . Not bad.

Hope all is well at home. Here are a couple extra photos that I liked:

Another view of Seville Cathedral and the facade of a nice apartment downtown.