Intercambio

I am not a reject--I finally have friends! I am, of course, referring to Spanish friends. I have made some great friends here who feel more like close siblings than people I met just a few months ago, and I will always have Annie, who, at the very least, must pretend she wants to be my friend as long as we live together through the program's duration. I admit, though, that I have been lacking in Spanish acquaintances. My program facilitates intercambios, which literally refers to an exchange between speakers of different languages. Ideally, half of the time I would speak with my intercambio in English, and the other half of the time we would speak in Spanish. This way, both of us get to spruce up our language skills while sharing our cultures. 

As of last week, I still had not met my intercambio even though my term here was half-over. Actually, make that intercambios. It was a struggle, and unfortunately that happens for a majority of students on my program. I had never connected with my first one, and was pursuing a second one. Finally, on Monday we were able to meet up for some lunch. I was with another friend who had already met this intercambio, a girl my age who studies business at the Universidad de Sevilla in the same building where I take my business classes. Our intercambio also brought another friend along, who is originally from Barcelona. Her native language is Catalan, but she also speaks Castellano (Spanish). We grabbed some bocadillos from a shop near the business school and walked to a little plaza to warm up in the sun during lunch. 

Both girls are extremely nice, and my friend, the first intercambio, Annie, and I went to see Cisne Negro (Black Swan) last night. It was more intense than I had anticipated, and apparently our intercambio felt the same way. We still liked the film and had a good time, though. (I think that having popcorn for the first time since I came here added to that.) We are hoping to meet up again before I head to Morocco next week.

I am thankful that I finally met someone who is my age and can help me out with Spanish and getting to know even more about Sevilla. I regret that I did not make it work out sooner, but for now I will enjoy what time I have to get to know these girls and let them teach me about their lives in Sevilla. Rumor has it that cooking, learning sevillanos (traditional dance), and trying on dresses for Feria will be involved.