"You say TiggAH, I say TiggER!"

Hi all! So my third week in Spain is coming to a close. It is really amazing how time flies. I am going to be receiving six visitors here in Sevilla in the next six weeks which I’m sure will make it go even faster. Not as though I am lacking in ways to spend my time. It seems as though every day I meet someone new. My beautiful friend Maria Kristina Kolmos Liokouras (how’s that for a name?) is back from vacation in Greece and since she has been here for a while she already knows lots of people whom I am also getting to know. Friday night she had a party at her house and I met a lot of British guys…hence the title of this blog. One of Maria’s roommates had a Tigger stuffed animal, and they kept calling it TiggAH. And I was like, it’s TiggER! It’s really fascinating to be here spending time with people from all over the world. How often can you go to a party and there is a girl from Poland, a girl from Germany, a girl from Lichtenstein, two girls from Denmark and a bunch of British guys in the same room? I was the lone American and the Brits were having a grand old time mimicking the tendency for Americans to say “Oh my God!” and “You’re SO annoying!” I also learned that the Brits don’t say “to hook up,” to indicate a sexual encounter. They say “I pulled a girl last night.” Colloquial language is fascinating. Thursday night was also amazingly fun, as a large percentage of students at CLIC met at the bar Corral del Esquivel in the Alameda de Hercules to drink and talk. I met a Spanish couple around my age who were really awesome that I hope to befriend during my time here. After Corral del Esquivel we went to a discoteca called Buddha Bar and stayed there until 5 in the morning. This schedule I’m on is going to be the death of me. My French friend Michael Verdier ya ha salido from Spain. He arrived back in France yesterday. But most of the people I am now spending most of my time with are going to be here at least as long as I am, perhaps even longer.

Basically I just love it here. I wake up every day not knowing how the day is going to go, which is refreshing. Just yesterday I had promised Maria that I would tutor her in the subjunctive in the Alameda at 2, and it turned into somewhat of a party when she brought her friend, Melisssa, another classmate passing by the Alameda joined us, and then later Melissa’s boyfriend and Michael showed up and we just sat in the sun, eating, talking and laughing. I’m not really sure how I’m going to manage going home after living this idealized life for 2 months, but I’ve been weighing my options. The British guys I spoke about are all teaching English here, and some of them are teaching it to adults, which I obviously prefer compared to teaching children. I’ve asked one of the guys to e-mail me information regarding the program he is doing so that I can at least secure some work out here if I were to come back for 6 months to a year. But I am getting ahead of myself, because I have something at home that is too special to leave…