Story Time.

It has been a long day. Michael Lynn and I looked at 7 apartments today and are pretty “piso-ed” out. This also means I really don’t feel like writing about my long day right now, so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

However, I do want to tell you a story that will hopefully bring a smile (and maybe a laugh) to all of your faces.

My homestay in Sevilla ended up being rather mediocre in my eyes. My senora was really nice, and I had a lot of fun trying to talk Spanish with her. However, she had several rules and it was difficult adjusting to the expectations she had for Steven, Alex (the German exchange student) and I. These included not allowing us to buy desk fans when it was over 100 degrees outside because they used too much electricity (we all had ceiling fans in our rooms, but they created very minimal air circulation), and only taking one shower a day (which was obviously doable, but when you are living in 100+ degree heat, like it was for the first two weeks, and constantly sweating, it is nice to hop into the shower real quick two or three times a day to cool off). However, we grew accustom to the situation and it was working out well. However, we did have a mishap when Steven’s bedroom desk chair was becoming a little wobbly and she wanted him to buy her a new one because she said Steven had broken it. To avoid further conflict Steven complied with her request and spent 40 Euros on a new chair.



This leads me to my final night in Sevilla. I had just hopped out of the shower, gotten dress, and was waiting to head out to meet friends when I decided to quickly check my email. I hopped on my bed with my computer and soon realized that I was pretty warm. I had just taken a hot shower and put on jeans and noticed that I had turned my ceiling fan off. No big deal right? Well, while still looking at my computer I nonchalantly reached over and hit the switch to turn my ceiling fan on. Within a few seconds I heard a giant CRASH and I had to have jumped at least one foot out of my bed. I looked up from my computer and there, sitting in the middle of my room, was my ceiling fan. The entire ceiling fan had fallen from its mount on my ceiling and came crashing to the floor. All that was left on the ceiling was the circular mount and the wires hanging out of that circular mount. Steven quickly darted into my room to see what the commotion was and shortly after so did my senora. I was quickly accused by my senora for breaking her fan and being too hard on the cords that are used to turn the fan on and off.

Short story within a story.
Previously, our senora had decided that we no longer needed our ceiling fan (when it was still in the 80s in Sevilla) so she had pulled the cord that turned the ceiling fan off and taped that cord around the body of the ceiling fan. Get it? Basically what she did was that when you hit the switch, only the light came on and the fan no longer began to spin. Steven and I had asked her if we could keep the fans accessible for the last few days and she said that would be okay. Now I was regretting it.


Sort of what the broken fan looked like on my floor. Maybe a little too extreme...

After explaining to her that I had only been using the switch to turn the fan on and off and that I hadn’t actually touched the fan she grabbed a dustpan and broom and we meticulously cleaned up the mess in the middle of my room. This mess included a shattered light bulb, broken plastic pieces of the fan, as well as a broken fan blade and the fan itself.

What an experience. I am just glad I hadn’t been using the cords to turn the fan on and off because if I had, I would have been under that ceiling fan when it fell, and it probably wouldn’t have felt very good.

Tomorrow should be a chill day so I should get a post up about our piso search here in Motril.

I hoped you enjoyed that story, and maybe broke a smile or even a laugh (but hopefully not a fan).