Ten Days Left... WoW

Luckily for me, it has cooled down quite a bit. It's definitely tolerable again. The decline in the temperature did not take away my tan though. My chest and arms are really dark now. I have the most insane tan lines, because I am mostly in the sun when I walk to and from school (only 2 to 3 hours of sun exposure daily... no biggie) so I get the lines from what I wear to class. I'm so tan now that my host mom is walking around calling me , "morena," it means really dark... I guess. hahah I find this so funny because she says this all the time... Including when my black roommate is around.
There is an insanely high number of tourists in the city right now. (I mean... without due cause, like Semana Santa or Feria... they're here just because). They are so easy to spot, it's ridiculous. For the record, while on vacation in Spain, never: carry a bottle of water, go to Starbucks, wear a baseball hat, speak loudly in NOT-Spanish, stop dead in your tracks and whip out a map. Thank you.
My professor Grillo has been making fun of me all week. "Did you buy those boots in Spain?"
"No."
"That's pretty obvious..."
"Thanks?"
"I like them!"
"Ah, huh..."
The class before that: "In the times Franco was in power, women couldn't wear short dresses, they always had to be longer than their knees... Cecilia, you would have been sent to jail. Also, your hair would have had to have been pulled back."
k.
I've taken note of their style and adjusted a bit to blend in more. But, I could walk around naked and not stick out more than I already do (I know I'm not the only one that sticks out, but still...)
He's the funniest professor EVER. He is just a grouchy, hilarious guy. He's making us go out to get drinks with him on the last day of class. I'm so excited. Also, he calls everything he doesn't like, "chungo," (shitty) hahahha.
On another note, I've decided I feel perfectly at home in this city now. I like the bigger city atmosphere (not that there aren't things I miss about smaller cities). But, I'm now one of those people that always crosses even though the pedestrian light is red. Or cross a road one lane at a time while the traffic rushes past.
I have had the most outrageous, almost uncontrollable urge to listen to country music lately... I have no idea why.
Random: It is outrageously popular for older women here to dye their hair a RIDICULOUS shade of highlighter red. I HATE IT. It's imppossible not to stare at their head while wondering how they managed to get the shade they did.

Here's a peek into my life with my roommate:
She'll be at the dinner table with me. We'll both be staring at our food. She'll look at her blackberry and make a sighing noise. Normally, I'd ask her what was wrong, but I don't want to get her started... Because once she starts talking, she doesn't stop. For instance, yesterday, I be sat at the table in a little sun dress with my headphones in, listening to the Spice Girls with my blond hair up in a high bun while her in her dark clothes, man's hairstyle and bad attitude rambled on about something I consider(ed) completely stupid, but she thinks will fix all the world's problems. Grr
I have been working on my school work an insane amount. I didn't go out all last weekend. Just studied. On Wed. I had to turn in a paper. On Thursday, I was supposed to turn in two papers and take two tests. And I had a meeting to go to. Insane.

My Spanish skills are now developed enough to hear the Spaniards around me have whole conversations about me. "What is she doing, going to the beach? What's with the shorts?"
Sometimes I can just let it go, but most of the time I turn around and give them a nasty look so that they know I not only heard them, but I understood them (like few Americans here could). I'm not gonna lie, though. I changed into jeans when I got back to my apartment and sweated all day while pretending to not be hot, because none of the Spaniards were.
The teens here are really weird. I've almost NEVER been hit on my a teenage boy. All of the kids here basically ignore each other unless they're best friends. Also, it's almost as though the Spanish girls with boyfriends have trained their men to do one of 2 things when a girl like me (tall, blond, American or pretty (any combination of the two and they're irresistible)) walks by: look down at the ground and pull their girl in closer, or stop and look deep into their girl's eyes and kiss them. Literally, every time I walk past a teenage couple, this is what happens.
Also, I feel bad for the American boys here. They are all totally rejected/dissed by the Spanish women. Spanish women hate HATE HATE American boys. They think they just want to have sex with them. (Which they prolly do).
I really wonder how many of them speak English. They wear shirts with the strangest phrases on them, "mile high club," "Keep your hands to myself," etc... I really really wonder if they know what they mean.
Mari needs to learn that she can't just leave food out on the counter all day. Seriously. They pasteurize their milk differently, so you actually CAN leave that out, but butter, mayo.... All that? FRIDGE.

I wanted SO BADLY to get tickets to the Barcelona v. Sevilla game. It was obvious BCN would win, which they did, but I really wanted to see them play. Messi is my new huge obsession. I had a group of people (all boys) who wanted to go with me, but when ticket prices were posted and we saw that the cheapest seats were 100 euro... we had to bail. TRAGIC.
Something occurred to me this week: How am I, as a very German person (physically, stereotypically, mentally) surviving here. Germans are SO organized and rule-oriented and Spain is basically... the opposite.
I NEED A HAIRCUT. But, if you go here, they're guaranteed to cut off at least 5 inches of my hair. They don't really listen to what you want. They cut off all they think needs to be cut off. I'm not willing to do that... So I have to wait.


This weekend was the most jam-packed of all my weekends in Seville yet. Friday we had an excursion to the monastery Columbus left from. They also took us to a place where they have models of the ships he traveled in. They were tiny, but we got to play on them. We then went to the beach. My roommate went along and secluded herself, of course. Friday night I went on a boat ride up and down the river with a bunch of kids from my school. It was fun except for the lack of bathrooms (which lead to peeing off the top deck), over served party-goers (many threw up off the bottom deck... I wonder if any of them were peed on...), and bad music (I recognized only two songs the whole night!).
We got to hang out and meet some cool people. There was a lot of drama which has made everything SO awkward between everyone that I am almost looking forward to leaving them all behind. hahah NOT ALL of them, but most. The boys mostly.
That was one of the things that kept me from wanting to go home. I kept thinking, even if I come back to Spain, it'll never be the same as it is now, I'll never be with all of these awesome people again. All of us together. Well, now I don't want us all together or a fight may break out.
Saturday I spent all the luck God's given me on one fortunate run in. After souvenir shopping for the folks at home, checking out an art fair and book fair, I was walking home and saw MESSI. My hero. OMG. I saw him in flesh and blood. And I was even super close. I had the strongest reaction. I was really surprised by how much I freaked out. I grabbed my mouth and started shaking a bunch. My heart was racing. RACING.
WOW, lucky, yes? Saw him w/o paying the 100 euro!
Also, you want a good way to reduce your number of Sevillano friends/ensure people will SPEED UP although you're in the crosswalk/get started at and talked about in the streets? Wear your BCN jersey on the game day. I wouldn't even go into the bar we were supposed to watch the game in. I was SO scared hahahah
Sunday I went to a bullfight! It was so cool. Really different than I expected but I loved it. If you look away for the last few seconds and try to think of the spears and stuff as sticky and not pointy, it's no big deal. It seriously was amazing though. So much tradition, so much culture. I got a little high off it ;)
I called my mom. I miss her. I miss my whole family. I'm ready to be home!
SO for now... I'm trying to enjoy my last days and not cry too much. hahahah
Hugs are crazy prevalent right now.