The Long Awaited Post about the City in Which I Am Actually Living

So, Sevilla! My period of seemingly non-stop trips has ended, at least for now, so I've compiled a smattering of pictures and anecdotes about life in Sevilla.

It has suddenly gotten absolutely beauuutiful here. The weather is gorgeous, the orange trees that line the streets are blooming, the tables in front of restaurants have reappeared, and the city has come back to life.

This has made it much easier to convince myself to leave my (no longer icy) apartment, be it to sun on the roof (which really throws off my old neighbors when they go up to hang their laundry), to hang out by the river, to run, or just to wander around.

I did some of the latter the other day and unintentionally ended up in this really neat street in the heart of Triana (really close by...how did I never walk down it before?) called "Alfalfería"-- where all the ceramics painters have their shops. I didn't bring my camera, which was a mistake, because there's no way I can describe what it looked like. Tiny, windy streets with apartments on either side and millions of ceramics and tiles shops on the ground floors. I went in a few and even got to see some of the artists at work.

In addition to plates and flowerpots and mailbox covers, there were the tiles with the classic Andalucían/arabic-looking geometric tiles that all buildings have in their entryways; elabroate tiles with pictures of Triana and Sevilla...

It's here that I'll take a moment to say that Triana used to be a separate city. I don't know until when, but now, the sense of pride that people have from being there is strong. Like, within Sevilla, people will say "I'm from Triana" rather than "I'm from here." And They even sell shirts in kitchy shops that say "Triana: Republica Independiente." They're proud with good reason-- for example, it's the birthplace of flamenco...and most of the men that first sailed to the Americas.

Anyways, so there's that. Here are some pictures from the past month or so:

This is one that I snuck in a typical tapas bar:

This is a friend from church, Julia, and I getting some tapas afterwards. I got cute little fried satchels of cheese, and she got....shrimp. We kind of expected something more exciting...

This is when I went out to tapear with coworkers after school one day. (I'm starting to see a theme here...) Fun factoid! This bridge, el puente de Triana, was designed by the same guy who designed the Eiffel Tower. The design with the circles makes it onto a lot of stores' signs in Triana.

This is me, Andy, his roommate Moli, Pam, and his other roommate Jaime in Plaza del Salvador--a beautiful plaza with a beautiful church by day and botellon central at night.

El torre del oro: a classic Sevilla landmark. I think it used to be used to control the waterways, like starting during the 1400sish (wikipedia it if you really want to know), and now it's a naval museum with bad hours that I keep meaning to go to.

This is my roommate Jorge and a friend of his friend. We don't hang out a ton, but that day, some of his friends celebrated their birthdays at our apartment and it was good times.

This is the Alameda (de Hercules). After being impressed that Carmona also had a place called "la Alameda," I learned that it just means "tree-lined avenue." Anyways, it's a really cute plaza with tons of cafe-bars. This is from one day when I went there to go get coffee with Pam.

So, every day, I run along the river, and every day, I see people hanging out there--talking, drinking, playing music, playing with pets...and I'd been really wanting to join them. So one day we assembeled a group of guiris, I bought some wine and a spare towel, and we went and hung out and sunned till the sunset. And it was just as great as I thought it was going to be.

This is from when Pam, who's here on a Rotary scholarship, invited me to one of her weekly events. They were having a benefit fashion show and asked her to bring someone to help with raffle tickets. Plus she mentioned that there's usually food.... So I helped out, saw my first fashion show, and then hung out and snacked and drank manzanilla (the kind of white wine typically drunk with Sprite during Semana Santa) with her and a bunch of old, rich Sevillanos. She said after snacks, they usually bring out a paella. They didn't this time, though, so we went to 100 Montaditos, a Spanish chain with, well, 100 different types of fun-sized sandwiches, and got some with smoked samon and cream cheese. I guess I'm writing all that cause I'm really hungry now, but, anyways.

Anyways, I'm gonna try to get better about posting. I think I just got so behind that it seemed overwhelming, but we should be good now. Plus that way I get to tell little stories instead of huge overviews that leave out some of the neat little tidbits.

So on that very optimistic note, I'm gonna sign off. Peace!

Daytrips!

These past couple months have consisted of a few little trips too. So I’ll mush those together into one convenient post. 

The first was a daytrip with Andy and Pam to a town called Carmona. Well, little city. “Town” has a whole new meaning after being in Aznalcóllar.

Carmona was a Roman city and then, when it was taken over by the Moors, got a ton of cool new buildings, a wall around the city, etc. What we'd heard was “ruins,” “ruta de tapas,” and that it was a 45 minute bus ride away, giving us a perfect activity to fill a Sunday.

Soo we met at the bus stop (after some issues riding around blocks and blocks to find a place to park my stupid rental bike), were early, had coffee, left, saw some sights, had some food, and headed back in the afternoon.

Here's the town from atop one of the super cool Moorish buildings that I don't really remember what it was:

After this gate...there's nothing. Except part of the Via Augusta, which leads to Rome. Cool, no?

 

This is the view of the plaza while we ate lunch:

Ohhhh, lunch. It was here that I had my first menú del día: when you pay a flat fee and get three courses: a tapa-esque starter, a plate of meat or fish or something, and a dessert. Oh! Plus a breadbasket and a drink. In this case I think it was 9 euros, but there's some places by my house that do it for like 7. Not bad...

I got croquetas (fried mozzarella stick-shaped masses of goodness filled with bechamel and something like ham or cheese), then some kind of meat, then flan. And tinto de verano, red wine with lemon soda (especially popular in Andalucía, though here we do it sometimes with orange soda instead.) The whole affair took a couple hours, partly due to our voluntary lounging around and partly due to the server being in no rush to serve.

So, in summary, great day trip.

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Anyways, that was in February I think, but last weekend I went on another day trip-- this time to Gibraltar. I'd been wanting to go, even though I knew there's not that much to do, but I thought it would be really neat to see a little piece of England inside Spain...and to hear the funny language they speak.

There's this group of people that meet up for a weekly "intercambio"-- a gathering at a bar for guiris (extranjeros) who want to practice Spanish and Spanish people who want to practice English. These gatherings also include "speed intercambio," which looks just like speed dating but (hopefully) with different intentions. I've only been once, but it was a neat something to do. 

Why am I telling you this? Cause they rented a great big bus and made this trip happen. For wayy cheaper than it would have cost to get there on my own. Plus the planning was already done for me.

So Andy, Pam, her friend Julia who I don't know if I've mentioned but who I've hung out with a lot this month or so, Julia's friend Jan, and I went down and back with this group and just kind of wandered around on our own the rest of the day. It wasn't much of an intercambio after all, but whatever.

In summary: it was neat! No, there wasn't much to do, but it was fun. Here are some pictures!

Main street. Chock full o' tourists, Spanish and British, mostly. See if you can spot the Americans!

The first thing we did was get a tour up to the top of the rock. We thought we were gonna take the cable car up but ended up going in a little van tour.

The view from the top. That's Spain (Tarifa) to your right and Africa to your left.

Then we went in some caves which were thought to be the entrance to Hades. There was also an amphitheater inside, used for concerts and weddings and stuff. I doubt that would be too pleasant though, cause it was really drippy inside.

And, of course, we saw the monkeys. They really were everywhere! Well, on the top of the rock anyways. Not in the city, thank goodness.

Andy and our guide:

Another rock/monkey shot for your viewing pleasure:

  

Yet another. No monkey picture for me, sorry (not):

The plaza where we ate absolutely glorious fish and chips (a first for me!) smothered in mayo and ketchup and tartar sauce:

And we watched a plane take off from above. And all just stood there, fascinated, waiting for it to finish doings laps around the runway till it finally took off. Also, you have to cross this runway to get into Gibraltar (we parked in La Linea, the border city on Spain's side).

So, walk fast:

Ok that's pretty much it. 

I know I've promised it about four times, but my next post really will be about Sevilla. (Hey, last time I said "in and around Sevilla"...)

Stay tuned!

Sometimes I Work

But even then, hardly. 

These past couple months have included some fun events at school, including El Día de Andalucía and a few field trips.

El día de Andalucía

So Spain is divided into Autonomous Communities. Aside from showing some divisions of cultural and linguistic identity, they do have a good bit of autonomy, for example, the health and education systems are run by the Junta de Andalucía and not the federal government.

I’m in the teachers’ lounge now, and looking around I see green  (Andalucia’s color) chairs and bulletin boards, little laptops given to teachers by the Junta, a calendar of dates and holidays set by the Junta, and a coffee machine that I really want to waste money on.

Anyways. I’m not positive that this is a true statement, but I think each autonomous community has its own day that it celebrates. For the día de Andalucía, we celebrated it on a Thursday, prepared for said celebration the preceding days, and got the Friday and Monday after off. Awesome.

Our celebration involved each class making a booth representing a different period of Andalucía’s history, singing, dancing, an Aznalcollero breakfast that some moms brought (Toast with olive oil and sugar), games at recess, and some Andalucía trivia.

Some of my first year girls and I at their stand:

 Some of the teachers:

Then some girls performed a flamenco dance, ending with a dramatic stomp and whipping an Andalucían flag out of nowhere:  

 

During trivia time. How are they never this still during my class???

"Los juegos de siempre"-- the classic games. Though I'd never seen this one. There are two teams, lined up on either side of someone in the middle who is holding a scarf. The person in the middle blows a whistle, and one person from each team (going gown the line) tries to get the scarf and make it back to their original spot in line without being tagged by the other person. If you get tagged, you're out. Sometimes it resulted in one person sprinting, grabbing it, and getting back fine, and sometimes both would just stand at the scarf and stare each other down till someone risked it. Fun stuff.

And, of course, a students vs. teachers soccer game. The ref was still dressed up from his gig at the inaccurate and slightly offensive "Discovery of the Americas" booth.

Field Trips

Another neat school thing is that this is apparently field trip season. One day we went to downtown Sevilla to see the outside of the Cathedral and the inside of the Real Alcázar (an old mudéjar palace and where the current royal family stays when they come. I didn’t take pictures, but it was absolutely gorgeous, so I’m gonna have to go back. Maybe just take a book and read in the huge gardens. Free entrance with my Sevilla ID. Yay!  

I’m fairly certain that the kids’ favorite part of The Big City Trip was getting McDonalds.

They also went to Doñana, a UNESCO site and biosphere reserve, but I didn’t go with them on this trip.

Another was Itálica, an old Roman city. It wasn’t suuper impressive, especially since they focus on preservation rather than reconstruction there, but it was waaayy better than going to Aznalcóllar for class with the hooligans. Ah, we also went to a neat monastery (supposedly where they did the first translation of the Bible into Spanish), but we weren’t allowed to take pictures there.

In Italica:

That's our guide on the back left. They paid about as much attention to her as they do to me. Poor lady.

More from in and around Sevilla coming soon. Love!

Confused Buildings and Fun-Sized Food: Spain in a Nutshell

Hi!

So I know I need to post about life in Sevilla, because it is preeetty good. Spring has sprung, the city has come back to life, and it deserves a post.

But first I'll catch you up on my last trip: a visit to Zaragoza (and Logroño!) I'd heard there's not much there but a cool cathedral, but we all know I can't turn down a 13 euro ticket.

I woke up reeeeeeeeeeeally early that Friday morning (it was a few weekends ago), after not having slept much the night before cause I was last-minute packing. I meant to sleep on the plane, but couldn't. I was busy watching what might possibly have been the prettiest sunrise I've ever seen:

This meant I was absolutely exhausted the whole day, and dozed off in a museum during a video about Roman Zaragoza. So don’t ask me questions, cause I can't tell you much.

What I do know is that it used to be called Caesaraugusta and was founded by the oh-so-creative emperor himself a few years before Jesus was born. It was a pretty big deal throughout the millennia and has been a Roman city, Muslim taifa, Jewish hotspot, and Aragonese kingdom.

This history makes for some reeeeally cool, crazy mixed-up architecture.  I loved this in Mexico too, when colonial cathedrals are sitting on top of Aztec ruins and right next to modern buildings.

Man, I am a nerd.

Roman theater (I bought the all-inclusive ticket but never made it to the baths or forum...)

The Cathedral. Like about a bazillion other Spanish cathedrals, this belltower used to be a minaret.

Check out the minaret-turned-belltower and Renaissance facade in the co-cathedral:

Oh, but wait! There's more! This is the side of that building!

 This is the main plaza in the casco historico (the Spain Spanish name for like the historic, central part of downtown, which I like to translate as the "historic helmet"):

Then in the evening, I met up with my couchsurfing host, Alejandro. He's an elementary school teacher, so I spent the day wandering around, backpack and everything, till he got out of work and we met up. He was super nice and fun, and we had a good time comparing notes about our kids.

We dropped off my stuff in his car which he keeps in an underground garage spot during the day-- a necessity in many cities if you don't live near enough to your work to walk. Parking there (and in Sevilla) is a nightmare, I hear. There's just no room on the tiny streets!

Then we consulted one of the tourist office books I picked up for something to do, and walked across town to see this comedy/magic show at a bar. It was fun and funny (words that English learners seem to have a really hard time keeping straight, by the way), but by that point I was almost falling asleep again, so I was glad when it was over and we headed home. 

Ah, yes, and before that, we went for tapas, including one called "morcilla"-- blood and rice sausage. I couldn't remember the name just now, so I wikipedia-ed it. That was a mistake; I could have lived a happy and fulfilling life without knowing the specifics of what it contains. 

Alejandro and the morcilla:

The next day was a really lazy one. We woke up reeeally late, ate breakfast on his terrace cause it was sunny and beautiful, made an amazing pasta lunch, and watched a basketball game.

"What?!" you ask? "Basketball in Spain?" Or at least that's what you should have asked. Absolutely no one in Spain cares about basketball-- it's usually just soccer, soccer, and more soccer!

Anyways, when that was over, we drove a couple hours (!!!) to Logroño, the capital of the province of La Rioja, to tapear. (When you need to make up a Spanish verb, you usually add -ear, like facebookear, but this one is actually a real word-- to go for tapas).

I definitely hadn't planned or expected this to be part of my trip, but it was his idea and his car, so why not?

This province is really famous for its wine. Actually I think wine from there is the most popular in Spain. So I knew nothing about where we were going except what I'd learned in the grocery.

On the way (yes, we left at 8 and started eating around 10):

Anyways, there is this area that's a few streets of nothing but tapa places, and a ton of places with a deal where you get a small glass of wine or short cup of beer and a little tapa for a euro or two.

These tapas included a cazuelita (cazuela-- a palm-of-your-hand-sized flat terra cotta bowl/plate) of about three bites of meat in sauce, a long toothpick of a few mushrooms in some sauce, a tiny dish of eggplant with red peppers, and a pinchito (kabob) of fried calamari, and some other stuff that I'm not really sure what it was, but it looked good, so I got it.

Throughout the several hour period, one of the ones I saw was bread with goat cheese and strawberry jam, so I decided that would be my desert one. But when I was ready for it, the place where we were had it with those two important components, but on top of ham. Which is completely normal for Spain.

Ah, and the wine did not disappoint.

Here's my only picture from the night. It's from one of the fancier places. I like the grungier ones with more character, naturally, but, I'm not gonna complain.

Then we came back and he took me, super early the next morning, to the airport. 48 hours very well spent!

I don't have any more of these little weekend trips planned, so I've been enjoying my Sevilla time and looking forward to visitors! Including Hazel and Suzanne, who are coming Friday. I couldn't be more excited (a) to see them and (b) to show them a little bit of Spanish life!

Peace!