So it rained yesterday. And it's raining today. Which is not normal at all. I felt like a rain jacket was sufficient. False. Not when you have to walk 10 minutes to the metro and 10 minutes to school when ya get off. Should have listened when Esperanza told me to buy an umbrella and not wear sandals. I just forgot how to spell sandals. It literally took me a good 3 minutes to remember. Awful.
So I'm walking to the metro, listening to some nerdy Showtime Spanish lessons on my iPod and feeling pretty good despite the pouring rain. I'm getting really into the Showtime Spanish. Listening intently. I get down to the metro station and the first metro is full to the brim of personas because of the rain. So I patiently wait for the next one. El próximo is equally as packed but I have no other choice so me, and 10 other Spaniards try to squish into the exact same space. Headphones still in, I hear a woman ask me a question, to which I of course think I heard correctly. Falso again. I respond incorrectly and she laughs to the guy next to her. "Lo siento, pero no entiendo," I say, stuffing my headphones back into my ear. Just when I think I may have got a handle on some sort of new sentence structure I'm learning via Showtime podcasts, I get slapped in the face. Pride destroyed. Humility embraced. Thanks Jesus.
.40 euro cafe con leche purchased. Everything gets a little brighter.
After a long day of class and an unfortunately not-so-tasty bocadillo, I head home. Luckily it had stopped raining at this point. On my home I stop by the Chinese store to buy some cheap post-its and then finally get home to my warm and extremely clean room. Obviously, not by my own doing. Esperanza comes into chat and we gripe about the rain together because everyone loves to talk about the weather. It was a well constructed conversation on my part. Feeling better. I ask her where the laundry bag is, she literally yells at the top of her lungs to her mom to ask. She eventually brings in the bag, accompanied by a giant piece of chocolate for me. Things just keep getting better.
Eventually, I make it out again to search for la Plaza de Duque, where I was meeting my class to go out for tapas. I couldn't figure it out (there are 162 plazas in Sevilla) so I asked a handsome and well-dressed businessman to show me. And he did so with a smile. Dinner was lovely. We went to Sevilla's oldest tapas bar, El Rinconcillo. It first opened in 1670! We had some fantastic dishes like espinaca con garbanzos (so far my absolute favorite tapa in Sevilla), bacalao frito, salmorejo, and a few others. While we were "tapeando," an old man handed me a napkin with a poem scribbled on it that he had written for me:
"She's tall and blond like
the sun. She's elegant and
very beautiful and dressed in
black and pearls."
Ha! So precious.
Once we leave the bar, it starts pouring. Obviously. I of course, don't have an umbrella. So a friend and I walk, paragua-less for about 10 minutes, por el centro, to the river, and stop at what could be compared to a Walgreens so she can buy something. I wait at the front and some how end up in conversation with a woman by the door who studied in Ireland for a while. We talked about how wet I was from the rain and how I didn't have an umbrella, but "no pasa nada." But, being the Sevillan that I am, I naturally cut off my sentence to sound more like "no pasa n..." Well she loved it and was so impressed as to how Sevillan I had become/felt pity because of my sopping when clothes and hair, that she handed me her umbrella and told me to take it for the walk home. What? Qué? "En serio?" I said. Why would someone just give me their umbrella for free? When I got home, I told Esperanza the story and she was pretty shocked too.
I love these people. I love this country. And despite the cold rain and the occasionally bad bocadillo and the intense frustration that I experience on the daily with attempting to speak a new language, I love this city. When for even a moment I experience discontentment, I ask for joy and the Lord gives it abundantly.
"On the day I called, you answered me;
my strength of soul you increased."
Psalm 138:3
No comments:
Post a Comment