Flamenco, Fiesta, Siesta: A Spanish Adventure: First exam, Sevillano del Año donation and Venice!

As you can see from the title, I have quite a bit to talk about in this entry! It all started last Thursday morning.

I had my first Spanish exam on Thursday morning at 10AM. Being the punctual person that I am (read: paranoid about being late), I showed up about 15 minutes early, thinking we could get into the room and get settled. Wrong. The foyer of the exam room was packed with students chattering and cramming. This exam session included groups A and B of the third year students, so it was double the number of students in my group. Plus, a lot of students do not go to class but then show up for the exam, so it was even more people than I expected. We waited in the foyer for about 30 minutes then they started filing people into the room by group. The room did not have any desks or tables, it was just a large auditorium, so they gave us cardboard to write on for the exam. The spaced out all of the students in such a way that the rows alternated between groups A and B, since each group had a different test. Plus we had to sit two seats away from the person next to us. It was a moment where I really appreciated going to a school with an honor code - you don't have to worry about things like this. They are serious about cheating here and if one of the proctors sees you looking at someone else's paper, they immediately kick you out of the exam. Scary! When I am thinking about a specific question, I tend to let my eyes wander and stare at the ceiling or the wall or something, but I made sure to keep them glued to exam! All in all I think the exam went well, so I'm looking forward to seeing me score.

Thursday evening there was a Rotary event where José Luis, the Rotary of Sevilla president, delivered the check with the proceeds from Sevillano del Año to the Food Bank of Sevilla. We all went to the Real Academia de Bellas Artes, which is where the Sevillana del Año herself works (and also where we had the press release back in October) and there was a small ceremony with José Luis, the Sevillana, and the president of the Food Bank. In the end Sevillano del Año earned over 10,000 euros for the Food Bank of Sevilla - pretty incredible! After the ceremony, in true Spanish style, we went our for a few drinks and tapas. The bar we went to was actually very cool and the kind of place I would never find on my own. It was a bodega where the front half was just a normal store, but there was a secret door in the back that led to a little bar. Very cool!

A friend of mine from Wake Forest is spending the semester in Venice, Italy, and I had wanted to visit her sometime this spring. This weekend ended up being the perfect time because it was after my first exam, but still left me plenty of time to study for my second exam. Andy and I left for Venice bright and early on Friday morning (our flight took off at 6:30 AM!) and got into Venice early in the day. We decided to stay in a small town on the mainland, Mestre, instead of staying in Venice because it saved us a lot of money. I think it was definitely a good choice. It was incredibly easy to get into the city, and really, who hangs out in their hotel room when they're in Venice??

Venice is a really incredible city. It is just a labyrinth of canals, narrow streets, bridges and plazas. We spent most of our time just wandering the streets and eating delicious Italian food! I mentioned my friend Erin is studying in Venice, but specifically she is studying in Casa Artom, the house that Wake Forest owns on the Grand Canal. It is a beautiful house and the students are extremely lucky to live there! Just as we were extremely lucky to get to eat dinner and spend some time there :) We had a great weekend and I took a lot of pictures, but I'll post a few just to give you an idea. Now that I'm back in Sevilla, I'm spending a lot of time studying for my exam next week (and enjoying the warm weather! It was freezing in Venice...) I hope everyone has a great week!