Meeting my host family, jumping off a 30 meter bridge, and more: A recap of my first weekend and first fail of the year

Hi friends! I am currently at the library, figuring out how to start my very first post. I'm so pumped to be writing long-form content this year; when I was living in Castellón, I shared my travel and teaching experiences on Instagram, but it didn't allow me to share nearly enough of my life abroad with you all.

The past five days have been a whirlwind, filled with newness and excitement. Let me backtrack and give you a summary of how it has gone...

Wednesday evening, October 1st: Leaving the DTW airport

I said goodbye to my parents and boarded my first flight to Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG) on Wednesday night. Goodbyes are the hardest part of leaving!

Thursday, October 2nd: Paris to Seville

We touched down in Paris on Thursday morning after a relatively easy flight. I had great conversations with the couple next to me, ranging from small talk to travel recommendations to AirFrance food. The concept of seat neighbors on planes is so fascinating to me because you can meet and have conversations with people from all walks of life. When I de-board a plane, I often think, "I never would have met this person otherwise, but I'm really glad I did."

I also think of the word "sonder" when flying. This happens mostly when the houses and streets come into view and it dawns on me that every single person is out there living their own life from their own perspective.

I slept for about three and a half hours, having decided to tough out the rest of the day in order to align my sleep schedule with Spain time. As I walked through the CDG airport, I was reminiscing on the last time I was here, eating croissants in the very early morning with my friends after our Paris trip. Si leéis este post, os echo tanto de menos! Y necesitamos comer otro pastel de Paul, pronto. :)

Thursday at 16:30: Arrival in Seville

I arrived in Seville in the afternoon, buzzing with energy and "ganas" to meet the family. My first official conversation post-flight was with my taxi driver, who took it upon himself to give me a mini-history lesson once I told him I had only visited Seville once (which I thoroughly appreciated).

Whenever I re-enter Spain and speak Spanish for the first time, I feel a slight wave of anxiety. I'm pretty confident in my conversational skills, but without fail, I get this sense of imposter syndrome for a moment. However, it lessens the more I am exposed to the language. Slowly but surely!

On my way to the apartment, my taxi driver and I talked about my experience living in Castellón last year, the Guadalquivir river in Seville, and the construction on the Benito Villamarín Stadium (old stadium for the popular Real Betis soccer team in Seville).

17:30-21:30: Meeting the family!

I communicated with my host mom throughout my travel day. She and the family had a meeting right around the time I was supposed to get to the apartment, so she left the key under the door for me. I entered the apartment and the family arrived shortly after.

They are so friendly and welcoming! They gave me a brief tour around the apartment and showed me to my room/bathroom. They even set up a cute sign in my room. I met the four kids and we got to know each other before dinner. I brought gifts for each kid and the parents -- they were so grateful for everything. The girls and I played Disney UNO before dinner, which I brought from home. Later, I played Go Fish with the kids, and I am already starting to get a sense of their personalities.

Friday, October 3rd: Visiting Maus and seeing the sights!

On Friday, I went to Maus School for the first time to drop off some money for an activity on Sunday and say hello to the teachers. I don't start classes until the 14th, but the staff invited me to the event anyway! I walked around the city after, stopping for tapas along the way. Around 17:30, I went to watch one of the boys' soccer games with my host mom, and it was so interesting to watch a kids' soccer game in Spanish!

Later that night, I went over to a fellow au pair's house who lives in the building next to me. We are both in the same language class, which is really exciting. She introduced me to another au pair/student, and we had a chill night getting to know each other.

Saturday, October 4th: My first fail in Seville

I was on my way into the city center Saturday morning when I realized I needed to grab some cash ... and the ATM SWALLOWED my card (my Spanish debit). I canceled that debit and ordered a new one, then went in to Santander today to inform a representative. She was super nice and she told me that the card would be shredded, so it all ended up working out. I'm just waiting on the new card now. :)

I took the bus north to a coffee place that has a special working area with tables and outlets in the back. I worked on my website and made a list of the things I need to do for my TIE/residency here (which is about a year long; I'm having flashbacks to last year).

Saturday night, I went to a language exchange at a bar in the Macarena area. I've been joining some expat groups and starting to attend events, because they're good ways to make friends and challenge myself. Going to the meetups is somewhat daunting, but I'm trying to expand my comfort zone even more than last year and continue practicing courage whenever possible.

On the way to the event, I chatted with this girl I met while waiting for the (extremely late) bus. She is from a small town outside Seville and it was so interesting to hear how her accent differs from those in the city. This year, I'm really pushing myself to speak with as many people as possible in everyday scenarios. Whether it's small talk in line at the grocery store, standing by the bus, etc. -- I'm not shying away from it; and honestly, I feel as though I've already gotten a lot of exposure to the language!

At the event, I met people from Denmark, Romania, the US, and Spain. We chatted about a LOT of stuff in Spanish and English. People there had various levels of Spanish, so it was nice to converse in both my native and non-native languages.

Sunday, October 5th: BUNGEE JUMPING and pizza dinner :)

You read it right, I went bungee jumping, or "puenting," yesterday. We met up at Puerta Jerez and then drove to Embalse del Agrio in Aznalcóllar, which is a 40-50 minute drive outside of Seville. There is a bridge that overlooks the embalse, which is essentially a man-made lake.

We had to choose partners to jump next to, and I paired up with this girl named Ryanne, who is also from the US. We were at the embalse the whole day since there were many students jumping. I met cool people from the US, Germany, and Sweden; we all got to know each other while we were waiting for our respective turns. Ryanne and I jumped around 15:00, and we lounged in the water after, observing the other jumpers from below the bridge.

Two men bungee jumping on Sunday afternoon

The experience was insane, it was such an adrenaline rush! We were dropped into the water after we swung right side up; they loosened the ropes and we PLUNGED into the embalse. That itself was almost another highlight. We had GoPros in our hands too so I'll get to share a personal video of the experience with you all very soon.

That night, I ate dinner with my host family and two of the kids' cousins who were in town. They're both athletes, so I got to hear all about their soccer and tennis matches! We ate barbecue, ham and cheese, and CARBONARA pizza. The barbecue was easily my favorite.

That's all for now, folks! I'm going to lump my first day of au pairing (Monday afternoon) in with my post for this coming week, so I'll talk to you all next weekend. :))) Thanks for reading!

With love,