Apartment living

So I didn’t think that living in an apartment building (which is really normal in Sevilla) would be very different than living in a residence hall at school, but now I am starting to believe that 18 year old kids may be better suited to living in close quarters than a family of five who happens to have three exchange students and a dog.

Now, I’m not trying to offer up the illusion that I come from a silent peaceful house, but hearing your own mom yell at you or your brother is way different than hearing someone else’s mom yell (in another language, I might add). For some reason, there seems to be a direct, positive correlation between volume and speed of yelling. And when my host parents start yelling, boy oh boy can they go. They have a sixteen year old son and a thirteen year old son, so for the most part I understand the necessity of yelling. The uncomfortable part is that most of the time, they are yelling so fast that I have no idea what they are saying. The other day, however, I did pick up “porqué yo soy tu madre” (because I’m your mother). It was just like being at home! At least we know that some things are universal.

I’m fortunate enough that I’ve never had to share a bedroom with a sibling, but my two host brothers share the room next to my room, and it doesn’t always sound like a pleasant experience over there. I sometimes hear them argue (which means yelling in Spanish). at night or in the morning.

There are just a lot of people living in really close quarters here, and this is coming from someone who has lived in a dorm room for a year and a half. They aren’t the most quiet people I’ve ever met, so sleep is sometimes interrupted. On one hand, at least I have a lot of auditory data to take in and be exposed to for learning the language. But on the other hand, I don’t understand very much of it, and they aren’t talking to me anyways.

When I was getting ready to study abroad, people kept reminding me that a sense of humor goes a long way, and to remember to put a positive spin on things, so here I go: at least I never feel lonely here!

In other news: today while I was in class, I caught myself daydreaming about going to Target. They don’t have Target here.