“I’m going to have a nice butt by the end of the semester,” I thought as I walked up the steep flight of stairs from my room to the kitchen on the third floor to have dinner with my host family on my first night in Sevilla, Spain.
My host parents, architects who designed the beautiful and futuristic looking home that I will be spending the next four months, were still cooking dinner when I walked into the kitchen.
I sat on the couch with my five-year-old host sister, Olga. I could barely keep my eyes open, sleep deprived and jet-lagged, when I looked up at the TV and realized she was watching SpongeBob in English with Spanish subtitles. My host parents, who speak no English, explained that Olga was learning English and German.
I relaxed for the first time as I remembered the episode and then thought that SpongeBob was probably not appropriate for a five-year-old.
I began to drift off to sleep again. Olga scooted closer to me and snuggled next to me clutching the New York magnet I had bought her at the John F. Kennedy International Airport.
I crawled into bed after dinner even more exhausted from speaking Spanish with my host parents, but ready for orientation the next day and my semester in Sevilla to begin.
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Fast-forward a month later, and I am no longer surprised when I see people enjoying a Cruzcampo, the beer of Spain, at two in the afternoon on a Monday. I am not caught off guard by couples making out down the street from my house or on the steps of the university in the middle of the day. I do not even feel like I might pass out from hunger anymore when I have to wait until 9:15pm or sometimes later to eat dinner.
There are still times when I feel like if I have to speak one more word of Spanish, I might lose my mind. There are other times where I practically sprint back to my host family’s house to get Wi-Fi in order to talk to someone from home.
As time has passed, it has gotten easier to separate from my life in the U.S.
I learn at least one new Spanish word a day, usually more, and try a new food everyday.
I live with a family who asks about my day and who is incredibly patient as I often struggle with my Spanish.
I have made friends in my program who go to school all over the U.S. and with whom I have spent all night dancing and have planned trips all over Spain and Europe. I have started to make Spanish friends. I get to make fun of their horrible English as they make fun of my less than perfect Spanish.
I walk past the third largest cathedral in the world, built before the Vatican, on my way to class everyday and have yet to get sick of the picturesque buildings and winding streets of Sevilla.
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The other day when I was at the gym a man who worked there started explaining to me how one of the machines worked in Spanish. I was too nervous to process what he was saying and could barely respond. I felt ridiculous. A few hours later during dinner with my host family, Olga took my cell phone and began to have a fake phone conversation, pretending to me. I could not stop laughing. I immediately forgot what had happened earlier and felt like the one of the luckiest girls in the world as I realized that I am learning to live my life moment by moment.
And if you want to listen to some Spanish music…