The Local Life
Although I haven’t really made friends with any of the local people (besides my host mom), I interact with them daily in stores, bars and through my service learning at a nursing home. It’s interesting because most of the local people I’ve talked to were born in Seville and have lived there their whole lives, especially the older ones. If they have travelled for school or some other reason, they come back to Seville to start a family. That is very different from what we are used to in the United States, where it is so much more common to go out-of-state for school and stay there, or have family scattered throughout the country.
With all the differences I’ve experienced so far, one that I have had to really adjust to here has been the conversion rate. Although at first I had not worried about it, as it is only about 1.12 dollars to 1 euro, it has started to add up. Plus, here they use 1 euro and 2 euro coins instead of paper bills, and when I spend coins, I feel as though I’m only spending pocket change like quarters, when, for example, I could be spending 4 euro and feel like I’m spending 4 U.S. quarters. Overall, though, if I keep reminding myself to watch what I spend and think about how many U.S. dollars whatever I’d like to purchase is worth, I can keep on top of my finances.
What do I put all those precious euros towards, anyway? I have spent more euro coins than I’d care to admit on ice cream. A measly 2€ for an ice cream cone seems negligible until you get one everyday… It also doesn’t help that the streets are riddled with temptation, with heladerías seemingly at every corner. However, I really don’t regret the buckets of ice cream and gelato I have undoubtedly consumed over the three and a half weeks I’ve been here—it’s a cultural experience, right?
