Homestay and Futbol

  Seville, Spain
Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Last weekend was a lot of fun - Friday my room mate and I went out with a sevillano I met at the clubs named Jorge. We had coffee and talked about Sevilla and Spain for about 2 hours, then went on a walk around the city center where we met his father at a antique shop where he works. Conversing with Spainairds is pretty out of control, I can understand my senora pretty well but this guy had an accent that made understanding pretty hard... that and he said "da puta madre" every 5 words - I can tell you all later in person what that means ;). They make incredible use of hand gestures and get in your face when they are talking to you - and they ramble about everything! Really, it was less of a conversation and more of taking turns going off on random tangents - which is right up my alley :)

Afterwards we all went out and had a pretty good time. My room mate went a little overboard and ended the night without some possestions... lesson learned for him I suppose. The discotecas are a blast here - lots of techno. Here you'll find some pics of him and I with our senora Cuca

Pedro, Cuca, and I

and her boyfriend Blas.

Sunday we went to a futbol game, which was absolutely incredible! Describing it is difficult, so I'll just put down a little poem I wrote about it:

Level ground broken by busting columns combined to construct monumental structure
Red banners flying, crowds roaring to the every movement of the skilled players below
Not one moment without pounding energy, the will of all present combined to a palatable will
"SEVILLA! SEVILLA! SEVILLA!"
Drums beating, hands clapping, fans screaming for their beloved team
Absolute passion. Absolute devotion. Absolute need for victory succeeded.
One organism created by spectators combined, feeding life into their team with one need, to win
Such is the experience of Sevillano futobol, only one facet illustrating the endearing passion of a people passionate for all

Enjoying the game!

You see a parade in the states, and people stand idly watching the floats pass by. Here people scream, dance and sing. Sure, there are big games where everyone is completely engrossed in the game, but this was a small game - and everyone was singing and cheering from the first second to the last. The energy and passion of the spainairds is truely amazing and unique.

I'm absolutely loving my homestay - I gotta say I'm living the life out here. 3 delicious meals a day, all you could eat, laundry taken care of, cleaned up after, naps every afternoon.... its gonna be a bummer coming back! Every day my spanish improves and I'm hoping in less then a month I'll be speaking it all the time.

My love to all you back in the states, talk to you later!

~ Alex