I didn’t know much about the city of Sevilla before I arrived, but now I wholeheartedly believe that Sevilla is the best city in Spain to study abroad. While it’s not as famous as Madrid or Barcelona, it’s still the fourth-largest city in the country and the capital of the large, southern autonomous (independent) region called Andalusia. Fun fact: I flew here from Baltimore in the beginning of February. It took a day to get here, but due to the time zone change, it technically took two days! I left Sunday morning but didn’t arrive until Monday afternoon.
While I’m here, I’m living with a family in a homestay. I was really nervous at first because in Baltimore I live with just my mom and I don’t have any siblings, so I’m not used to living with other people. My Spanish family has four members: la madre (mom) Yasmina (yaz-mee-nuh), el padre (dad) Lorenzo, el hermano (brother) Manuel (mahn-well) and la hermana (sister) Mencía (men-see-uh). My host siblings are 11 and 13 and both of their parents are lawyers. We all live together in a house in the center of the city. I was also worried that I would have trouble eating because I’m vegetarian, but I got super lucky and I’m so fortunate to be living with an amazing family that cooks delicious meals! We spend a lot of time together and have become very close. Whenever they travel, they bring me back little presents. We order pizza on the weekends and watch movies together. Earlier today at dinner, we spent an hour telling each other jokes in Spanish. I’ve learned so much about daily life in Spain from chatting with my family over meals.
