The checkmark.

During our orientation at school, our program directors introduced the concept of the checkmark. In order to make the most of our time in Sevilla, they suggested we try to get at least one checkmark each day, meaning we do something worth remembering and attempt to experience new things (rather that just sitting on Facebook or something equally monotonous). The idea really resonated with me, so here are some of my "checkmarks" for the past couple days!



I went up the stairs to my apartment. Typically, going up stairs isn't a notable occasion, but I live on the 8th floor (which in Amurica would be called the 9th floor). You can see my window in the picture on the left: it's the second one from the top with the bars. It's to prevent the dangerous Sevilla monkeys from entering at night (they can smell Belarusians from miles kilometers away).



This, by the way, es mi cuarto (from the OCD desk to my camera backpack to my swanky pink towel [I promise I didn't bring it (wow, this feels like inputting something into Wolfram [shoot, I hope I didn't miss a bracket...])].



Here's a wider shot of the view from my room.



This is Alba! She's Victor and Maricarmen's daughter. Here she's eating pasta. Nay, starting to eat pasta, because once she was done the scene looked somewhat more red... pasta sauce everywhere. Yesterday she got a magnetic drawing board from some friends that came to visit (coincidentally, their names were José and María), so our activity this morning was seeing how fast we could fill the board up with the circle and triangle magnets. Then when the time came, I'd yell "borra lo!," Alba would erase, and then we'd start over. Definitely a checkmark!



Yesterday, we had a photo scavenger hunt. This, however, was no ordinary photo scavenger hunt (cue "Ordinary" by Wayne Brady and his brief smooth jazz career change). Anyhow, this scavenger hunt took all day. Above is a picture of the wonderful people I got to walk through probably around 10 miles 16 kilometers with. Smiling up top (he did win best smile in high school) is Aaron, below is Stephanie, then Katrina, después es Caprice, and then Kane at that bottom (he's a happy camper, don't let the mad face fool ya).



Here's a checkmark we got during the scavenger hunt. We were walking through one of the main streets near the center of town and all of a sudden (allusion to the Markan gospel, just for Danielsan) heard the sound of a clarinet sweetly playing the head of "All the Things You Are" floating down from farther up the street (click the link to hear Ella sing it). Definitely made my day. What's more, we talked to them for a bit and found out that there's an open jam session on Sunday nights on a street not ten minutes from my house by bike! And in addition to that, we stumbled across a place that has open jams on Thursday nights later that afternoon. I can hardly stop myself from typing IN ALL CAPS!!!



Speaking of bikes, this is Sevici. Figured it's about time you see what the bikes/stations look like. This is the station right by my house. The guy on the left is checking out a bike (while all you ladies are checking him out...hahahgahghagagha).



Ay! I forgot to introduce you officially to our cats. This is Waka on the left and Chispa (evil evil evil) on the right. If the scratch on the back of my hand isn't proof enough, get this: When you walk into the house, Chispa is typically waiting right on the edge of the back of the couch in the living room. Interestingly enough, that's exactly 2 inches 5 centimeters from where your hand is to close the door. What does Chispa do? SWAT VICIOUSLY. THAT'S WHAT CHISPA DOES. Waka, however, just tries to chew things. Waka thinks he's/she's a dog (never was really interested in identifying cat genders).



Back to the scavenger hunt. More checkmark-worthy experiences were found by finding (well that sounds awkward) really cool architecture, like this bridge, which is two bridges up from the one I cross to get to school.



Here you can see the bottom of this awesome sculpture/building thing. It's pretty titanic (it's a shame that word has lost it's usage in everyday English). I'll have a picture of the whole thing up on Facebook sometime soon.



Near the end of the scavenger hunt, two police cars with a parade following them broke through the crowds. We still have no idea what it was for, but there were musicians and guys holding giant flags (they needed to wear harnesses to help hold them up and have a separate guy steering the top of the flag with a rope) and people dressed like the broseph you see above on the right. They were holding these wooden hedge-trimmer type things and pretending to cut people's legs off.



Doing something on Spanish time is also worthy of a checkmark. Here's us, lounging about for 25 minutes longer than planned. This is now typical. We're joined by Rebecca (on a rival team, but we still like her) on the right.



Another checkmark activity is lounging by the river. Kane, Jon, Tyler, and I did this the other day; it's as satisfying as it seems :)

Here are just a couple more things, though not accompanied by pictures. We went to a small evangelical church this morning and I talked to the electric guitar player after the service. Turns out he's been through Santa Barbara before!

Afterwards, I was walking home and decided to stop for a little at one of the tapas places down the street from my house. I want to get to know the people in the neighborhood and the employees at the tapas places, so I think I'm going to start frequenting the several that are right by me (in the picture with the Sevici bikes, you can see the tables to one of the places in the background). These tapas bars get super crowded during siesta time; It seems like the whole neighborhood comes out to eat. Today I ordered a coke and some bacon-wrapped prawns (the menu said "langostinas," which I though was little lobsters, but turns out it was a different sea creature altogether). They were super good, although they were served with olives (which some of you know I'm not a big fan of; Dal and Dean, I actually ate some of them, you'd be proud!). They also had "ensalada rusa" on the menu: Russian salad. Turns out there are some Russians here apparently! I was going to order the salad, but I asked the waitress and she said it was just potatoes and mayonaise. Figures.

On the way home from tapas, I made friends with Javier and Gonzalo (both age 9) and we kicked a soccer ball around in front of my apartment building for twenty minutes. Some of my first Spanish friends! :)

Oh, and yes, I did manage to find a Russian market:



See the sign in the upper right that says Acento? That's our school. Did you get that?? Our school is right by a Russian market. I'm buying хрен.

Okay, class starts tomorrow, I need to sleep. Good night!