Death, House Rat and Drunk Italians: Welcome to my Spanish Life 

The bane of my Spanish existence: a rat named Eevee (unfortunately, he is my host mom’s dog).

Rosa’s daughter’s father-in-law died, so she had to leave the little mongrel in our charge for just one day, that fateful day. Early the next morning, Katherine and I had to leave for another program excursion to Sevilla, and thus had to take the dog out before we left. (Remember: the Spanish do not return from partying on weekends until 8 am).

That Saturday morning, we hurriedly took the rat out (he has no manners what so ever, and has the rarest habits), when we ran into a group of drunk Italians, 2 guys in tuxedos and a girl in an evening gown—of course. One of Eevee’s terrible habits is to tremble his hind legs, and so the drunk girl asked us, “¿Qué le pasa?” (What is happening to him?) in her slurred speech. Having to explain that we have no idea what he is doing, that we had to take him out, they then further delayed our hurried morning by asking why we were in charge of him—did our family make us work? Didn’t we pay to stay with the family? Oh goodness! We then told them that we REALLY had to go, and then proceeded to walk around the entire block in order to avoid them. Eevee is ancient, and so I was thinking that we would give him a heart attack because we were having to run around the block because we were going to be late to catch the bus—I am such a terrible person. I would not mind him passing away, but I could not wish it upon Rosa to have her find him dead upon the couch while we were away. Nonetheless, Katherine and I now have the “italianos emborrachados y el ratón” inside joke that always bring forth a smile.

Sevilla is a gorgeous city with a river running right through it; it was something that I would picture to be typical Spain. During our free time, a group and I had tapas at a bar on the riverfront and wandered through the cobblestone streets. One of my traditions is to purchase a work of authentic art in every country that I visit, thus I bought a lovely watercolor of the Alcázar (famous tour part of the Cathedral).