La lluvia en Sevilla es una maravilla

Cloudy skies over la Fábrica de Tobacos, one of the main university buildings

In the Spanish version of the film My Fair Lady, the phrase “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the the plain,” used to demonstrate different pronunciations of the ‘ai’ sound in English dialects, is translated into “la lluvia en Sevilla es una maravilla.” Translate this phrase back into English to get “the rain in Seville is a wonder.” And for us in Sevilla this week, that it was! I made it through the end of my first week of classes at la Universidad de Sevilla but not without a little rain to make the treks to and from university campuses just that much more interesting. I still haven’t finalized my schedule yet; we’ve got three days next week before we submit our final selections. However, at least this upcoming week should hopefully feel a little less hectic now that I’ve got a general idea of courses.

Other happenings last week:

Before el partido de fútbol

Tuesday– My first fútbol game in Spain! That’s what they call ‘soccer’ over here. A bunch of students from MCP went to the game of Sevilla Fútbol Club versus ‘Selección Champions.’ The game was a charity event for UNICEF called ‘Champions for Africa’, so the other team was a mixture of old Sevilla Fútbol Club players and other players from around Spain.

Wednesday & Thursday- Bring on the rain! After nearly a month of sunshine, these were the first gloomy days I’d seen in Sevilla. Of course it would rain on the days when I needed to venture out the the University’s Nervión campus, about a 20 minute bike ride away. I used SEVICI during breaks from the storm but otherwise had to take the Metro.

With Moniek after our 7 mile race!

Friday- I ran my first Spanish road race! My friend Moniek and I participated with 15,000 other runners in la Carrera Nocturna del Guadalquivir, an 11.3 kilometer race through the streets of the city at 10pm. I’d never run a road race in the dark before, and it’s been quite a while since I ran a race that big! It was also interesting to see how few women were participating; we were surrounded by men EVERYWHERE! I bet that of all the race entrants less than 1,000 were girls.

And what’s in store for TODAY? After running just over 7 miles last night, I was exhausted! I slept 12 hours until Kristin had to wake me up for almuerzo. But tonight we’ve asked for bocadillos (sandwiches) from our señora because we are going to la Festival de Las Naciones en el Prado de San Sebastián. The festival, which runs from September 20 to November 4, has a large mix of craft tents, foods from around the world, dance classes, and lots of performances. Tonight, the first night I’m attending, is “Día del Talento,” but I’m definitely looking forward to attending more days in the future! (Next Saturday is “Día Michael Jackson“… you can bet I’ll try to be there!)