Progress!!

Today is a day of great progress.  First of all, I went on a class excursion and made friends with two girls from my classes - and it's a total coincidence that they were both lawyers!! One girl, Joanna, is from Germany, doing a study abroad of sorts in Seville, and the other, Kiri, is from Australia and is traveling all over Europe just for fun.

We went to la Casa Pilatos, with my morning class teacher as one of the guides.  Although the name suggests that it is a house, La Casa Pilatos is actually a palace for the Dukes of Medinaceli, and in fact, part of it still exists as the private residence of the Dukes.  The entire guided tour was given in Spanish, and even as half of it flew right over my head, I couldn't help but feel excited that I could understand any of it at all.

Jardines

La Casa Pilatos was beautiful, again exhibiting the intricate and delicate Moorish detailing that graces the architecture from Andalucia. However, to me, the highlight of the Casa was definitely the gardens.  They were lush, gorgeously decorated with statutes, ponds, and carefully chosen foliage.  I particularly liked the way that they were divided into neat little squares, leaving walking paths in between them for visitors to enjoy them in even closer proximity.   Something else cool was a room, used for worship, wherein the sunlight would only shine through the window on one day out of the year.

Arches that Typify the Mudejar Style

The second success story happened when Marco and I passed a Farmacia (Pharmacy).  I haven't fully recovered from the bad squid episode that struck me last weekend, and I still get indigestion and acid reflux from most meals. It has seemed for the past week, whenever we actually wanted to find a Farmacia, they have been closed, so I figured we might as well go in and give it a shot.  No surprises at all however, when the lady working at the counter told me that she could only understand a little English and could speak even less.  So - the perfect moment to practice my newly learned Spanish arises.

Intricate Carvings on Walls

I have to say, this is entirely new territory, but I actually managed to get the point across that I got sick last Sunday, even down to the type of food, and with the aid of only un poco gesturing, described my current symptoms.  I even managed to understand her rapid fire of descriptions of two different medicines (after a few tries), and chose the one that she recommended based on the soundness of her reasoning and not merely because she was pointing to it a lot!  I was so proud of myself :)  And, might I add, it seems to be working because I'm feeling much better already.  Yay for learning Spanish!!