La Clase Intensiva

Last Monday officially marked the start of my semester here in Seville.  My two week intensive grammar class is underway.  I am happy that I am getting a chance to master the grammar I haven’t reviewed since freshmen year.  The class is lots of fun because we have a great group of students from my program.  The fourteen of us get along very well in class and have a blast completing the creative exercises our professor assigns us.  We have three essays throughout the two week course that all focus around some aspect of Spanish culture.  For our first essay, we were asked to go to a public library in Seville and ask for a membership.  We then had to write about our experience.  This was a great idea because now I have place to study throughout the semester  where there will be little distractions.

Our second essay was really enjoyable for me.  We were asked to cook a meal with our host family.  I couldn't wait to get into the kitchen with my Señora, who is an amazing cook.  We decided to make “Pastel Rosa”, one of her favorite dishes to bring to parties.  The dish is very different from anything I have tried in the states.  We first went to the grocery store to buy the ingredients.  We needed tuna, asparagus, peppers, and sliced bread.  The food in Seville is a lot cheaper than in the United States, we were able to buy everything for less than 20 Euro.  The grocery store was only a two minute walk from our apartment which was very convenient.  Since stores are easily accessible in Seville, most families buy food daily.  Lots of the seafood and meat can go bad after a day and it tastes so much better when it is fresh.  On our trip we only bought the few items we needed, which was something very different to me.  In the States, my family buys groceries to last us a week, maybe even two.  Americans typically are busier people and don’t have the time to go to the grocery store every day.  Since there are so many grocery stores in Seville that are easily accessible, it doesn’t take much time to drop into a store and pick up a few things on your walk home.  Buying fresh food daily is probably healthier, too.

It was a lot of fun to work with my Señora in the kitchen.  She loves to cook and I could tell she was in her element while we made the dish together.  We mixed the vegetables and fish to make a creamy sauce.  We took the crust off the bread and stacked the slices on top of each other, spreading some of the sauce between each.  At the end, we covered the whole thing with a type of pink cocktail sauce and peppers for decoration.  It was 

Every student in my class was asked to bring in a dish so that we could have a picnic.  We met at a park near the University to eat before class.  My dish caught the eyes of every Sevillano I passed on my way to the park.  Everyone wanted a piece of the “Pastel Rosa”.  A man riding on his moped evern stopped to jokingly ask if I had made the dish for him!  I was proud to be bringing a popular Spanish dish to our picnic.  Many students cooked traditional Spanish foods, like tortillas and croquettes, but the assignment allowed us to also make our favorite American dish if we wanted to share a piece of home with the class.  I was overjoyed when I found out that one of the girls in my class had made her mom’s famous chocolate chip cookies.  My mouth started to water before she could even take of the cover of the Tupperware.  I can’t help but miss the food my mom cooks at home, especially her desserts.  I’m not a huge fan of pastries and besides frozen yogurt that’s about all I’ve been able to find for desserts here in Seville.  I miss my mom’s Rolo pretzels and Reese’s cookies more than I could’ve predicted.  And so even-though I may have eaten more than my fair-share of "galletas" (cookies), they were just what my chocolate-loving-sweet-tooth needed.

My intensive course has already started to help me with my spoken Spanish and I will be upset when the courses ends this Friday.  I will miss having a class with only students from my program, but I can’t wait to start my courses at the University with Spanish students.  It is going to be a challenge that I am ready to face.