Already, I am understanding locals much better than when I first arrived. My responses back to them are what really need the work, especially when they ask me directions. Now tell me people, do I look Spanish? Because yesterday I was stopped twice by Spaniards asking if I knew how to get to such-and-such street. I had to give them that wrinkly-brow face and say “No, lo siento,” because I have no idea where the hell I am going these days, never mind where others are going.
I am continually losing myself in this city. The streets are ridiculous. I understand why El Centro is an absolute mess—that area is centuries old, built up long before the age of cars when people apparently had plenty of time for getting lost. The rest of the city, though, has less of an excuse. The first problem is that there are no street signs here. The only labels are the street names tiled onto corner buildings, but sometimes those are not even present. The second problem is that it seems like a street's name changes every three to five blocks, even if that street is continuing in a basically straight manner. I’m not sure how to explain that one. The final problem is that I must have just about the most useless map of Sevilla out there, which was given to me by my program during orientation. The streets are all represented, but again, many of them are not labeled. I am used to having a clue, so this experience has made me very uncomfortable. Directions in the U.S. will never be this confusing, so I figure that once I conquer this, I’ll be good to go for a while.
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