I Was Going To Start A New Blog

And then, shockingly, I couldn't come up with a catchy title. So here we are, in this travel blog-turned-sketch and food blog? Or whatever, let's not put labels on it.

Allow me to fill you in. Since the last post, I moved to Florida, and then I moved to Boston. And that is as much detail as I am providing there. I will say that all of last year I sort of meant to start a blog cause I cooked some BALLER stuff. She said modestly.

Another detail I'll share is that I started a job (sorry, volunteer position) that occupies several more hours of each day than did last year's.Which means less awesome food and more stress. My dear aunt, in a loving attempt to cure me of the side effects of my rewarding yet anxiety-inducing service, assembled this for me:

And then something weird happened. One Saturday morning, during my jammies/coffee/Weepies time, I took it out and I drew. And it was actually fun.

I realize my wanting to share what I've done is super pretentious, but know that it's just cause I'm excited to have discovered something, 24 years into my existence, that I didn't realize I liked. Plus I wanted to jump on the PA blog bandwagon.

Also everyone's mouthwatering food posts have made me realize that I need to cook more. I used to get home late and come up with elaborate meals, much to my roommate's chagrin, as our very different service meant very different schedules. Now cooking generally involves trying to make something but in reality eating the ingredients as I go, cause it's 8:00 and don't judge me.

Today I spent my day doing absolutely nothing (in the best way possible) and one of my big activities was cooking something while not eating everything before it went on the stove. It was this glorious asparagus and herb frittata. It came out surprisingly well, probably because I had actually read some directions about how to make frittatas. Except I was so excited to learn how you're supposed to put it in the oven (who knew?), that I got distracted and flitted off to go make the thing.

While I was admiring my handiwork, the following internal monologue ensued: Well shoot! That turned out pretty. This is the kind of thing one puts on one's food blog. Why have I only been meaning to start one for the past year and a half? Oh right. You need a clever title and intro, and that takes work, man.

What happened next, though, was the result of my not reading all of the directions and trying to flip it out of the pan instead of sliding it out.

So it fell apart and you'll just have to imagine I've posted a frittata picture.

In the meantime, these are my doodles thus far, minus one I did while cooped up (with no ability to speak, mind you) at my grandma's during the Blizzard of Oh Thirteen, which I think got recycled along with the millions of other scraps of paper on which I was communicating. They're chronological, meaning I'm really only attached to the last one, but anyways, these are they:

2 things here: one is that European couples really like to put a lock, symbolizing their love, on a bridge and toss the key into the river. Romantic, till your bridge starts drooping and your fish start dying.

The other is from Puerta del Sol when the whole Occupy thing was starting up. These are, of course, from pictures-- another taken at that same time was of an ad behind this sign, for Loreal Vive, which was changed to "Viva la revolucion!" Clever people, those Spaniards.

Hierve el Agua, Oaxaca. Google it. It's awesome.

Some bar in Sevilla. I forgot the real name, so I used what I would call mine if I were to open a bar. FUN FACT: the picture this came from is in the post below.

Straight from my old fb cover photo. Near a Barcelona squat. Got a little eraser-happy.

And another familiar one. When Julie sees good plants, she drops what she is doing and goes to pick them.

Breakfast in Sevilla is the. best.

And I leave you with that. :)

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.

------------

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!

Mallorca!

Then I found a ridiculously cheap ticket to Palma de Mallorca, so I went there!

I left Thursday after work and was picked up at the airport by yet another lovely couchsurfing host. This is embarrassing but I’m not 100% sure of his name. Technically it’s Juan Luis, but I work with a Juan Luis who goes by Juanlu, so, who knows.

Sidenote: like in Mexico, most everyone has a nickname, and it’s fun how they names get chopped, like Fede(rico) or changed, like Pepi (from Josefina). OH. I also work with another guy named José Carlos (a very normal name), but somehow, as a result of the Andalucian accent and my stupidity, I JUST figured out that that’s his name—to me it sounded like Jose Caldo (which means “broth”) Oops. Even so, I don’t think anyone noticed I’ve been saying it wrong this whole time. When you mumble, you get away with lots.

Aaaaanyways. Mallorca. So this guy picked me up, we dropped off my stuff at his apartment (where I had my own room and everything), and we went to a couchsurfing meeting, which, in actuality, was just a bunch of hosts and couchsurfers hanging out at a bar downtown. Twas funsies, then we went home and crashed.

The next day, my host had to work, so I left to go exploring. I found a café, which I picked because it didn’t appear to be swarming with tourists, and it turned out to be run by a French lady. She seemed to know everyone who came in there, Spanish and guiri alike. I camped out with a café con leche (which is now officially a treat again, now that I’m not drinking coffee every morning anymore) and Carlos Fuentes till I got bored. OH and I realized they had bagels, which for the most part don’t exist in Spain, so obviously I got lunch to go.

Then I basically just wandered around for hours and hours and hours. I didn’t really go in anything because the time I got moving, stuff was already starting to close down for siesta. Oh, but I did see some Arabic baths.

Everything was beeeeautiful, though. I think when people think Mallorca, they just think beach, but it is a really really pretty city.

Remember this for later:

This big tent that was set up all weekend as a demonstration about Saharan independence. To me, it just looked like a table with some information and a petition to sign, and a big tent with people hanging out in it and drinking tea.

Sobrasada is a kind of sausage that Mallorca is famous for. Since then, I've seen it on menus here in Sevilla but I'd never noticed it before. Yay for one more word on menus that I understand!

In the entrance to the library. I snuck some pictures of the weird statues-- little red riding hood, devils, etc., and left, but then curiosity got the best of me and I went back in and asked what their deal was. The security guy said they're statues with traditional dress but they'd been dressed up for carnaval. :) 

Since I was there for a few days, I definitely would have had time to go see other cities, but I decided against it. Part of me felt like I should be in super tourist mode but the other part (which I ended up paying attention to), knows that as long as I’m happy and enjoying things, there’s no need to do or see all the stuff you’re supposed to do and see.

Sidenote: there are MILLIONS of tourists there. Most of them German. I sort of knew that before going there, but I didn’t really think there would be thaat many. Signs and menus  and stuff were pretty much all in Castillian, Mallorquí (a dialect of Catalán), English, and German. Mallorquí is actually used a fair bit, I think. Host #1 said that when he hangs out with friends who are all from there (he’s from Zaragoza and in Mallorca for work), they speak in Mallorquí to each other and in Castillian to him. If you know one well, you can understand the other, except for a few things here and there, apparently.

Then Friday afternoon, I met up with Juan (? Haha) to try to see the inside of the Cathedral, but it was shut. Soo we just walked around some more, went for a coffee, and then I moved my stuff from his house to my second host’s house. It was raining during this transit (and had been the day before), so that was an unpleasant bus trip, but it cleared up the next day, and by Sunday it was really sunny.

So I found host #2’s house, but he was training with his water polo team, so he showed up later. His roommate Harry (a British guy doing the same English teaching thing as me..sorry, as I) was supposed to let me in, but he was dying in bed of a combination of several illnesses, so their friend Salvador/Sal (a Portuguese guy studying there) let me in and entertained me till León (the host, who is from Alicante, and no, no one I met was actually from Mallorca) got home.

Fun factoid, which Harry usually likes to share with people as soon as they meet Sal, but couldn’t, as he was in bed with the plague, so I didn’t find out till Sunday night), but he was on the Portuguese version of American Idol.

I didn’t get to meet one of the other roommates, León’s best friend Rodrigo, cause he was at home in the Canary Islands dealing with family stuff, and I didn’t meet the fourth till Sunday, who is a guy from Colorado and who was traveling with his parents. BUT even so, their apartment was reeeally fun.

And there were a bunch of people visiting for meals and hanging out and whatnot. There were two other Couchsurfers, a couple girls from Poland, but they were pretty much only there at night. And there was a dog, Thay, who is a huskey that they got from the pound a couple months ago and who I actually liked.

Anyways, Friday night, we made a big pasta dinner and then some of their friends came over, and then we eventually went to a bar on the boardwalk, where all the bars and clubs in the city are. Ooh and their buses run all night there, so that was a nice treat.

Saturday morning, León had to take Harry to the hospital (sounds dramatic, but you go to the ER on nights and weekends when clinics are closed), so I left to go wandering around again. That weekend (and also the  next, in some places) was Carnaval, so I spent a good bit of time watching the festivities, which included parades, shows, free food, and millions of people dressed up. Spaniards don’t really dress up for Halloween, but they sure do for Carnaval.

This was my favorite. Esp. the pie pan on his back. 

Don Quijote and Sancho Panza (who had a big fake belly)

The most famous one is in Cadiz, but I got this ticket before I thought about that, so I didn’t get to see it. People also say that there are so many people in Cadiz that it takes hours to leave the city and that you can hardly move around, so while I’m sure it’s fun, Palma’s was probably a lot more comfortable. Oh, also from the facebook pictures I've seen, it looks like people think up costumes that are a lot funnier in Cadiz. That surely contributes to their country-wide reputation as a hilarious bunch of people.

Look familiar?

Ensaimada! Usually a plate-sized treat, typical of Mallorca, but the city (or ayunamiento or comunidad, I can't keep the levels straight), provided a huge one!

I waited in line for maybe 15 minutes and was rewarded with two: one of sobrasada (the sausage stuff) and another with some dried fruit. There was also freshly squeezed OJ and coke up for grabs.

Then when León got back, we met up and he took me to this castle that’s nearby, but it was shut when we got there. Sad day.

Then we went back to his apartment and made stuffed eggplants (yum!!!).  A bunch of people came over and we ate and assembled costumes to go to an Erasmus party. I hadn’t planned on dressing up, so I went with a classic last minute outfit…dressing all in black and painting whiskers on my face with eyeliner.  So we went to these people’s house and then later to another bar on the boardwalk.  It was kind of hilarious to see everyone walking around dressed up!

That's Leon, in the yellow, drawing a Portuguese cross on Sal's face, who just wore that and a soccer scarf and called it a day. Also that's my only picture of myself dressed up...haha.

Sunday, after a late start of waking up and sitting around, León, Harry (who was a lot better by then), Sal, Ethan (the American guy who’d reappeared in the house that morning), and I eventually made four pizzas (for five hungry people and leftovers) and devoured those while watching soccer. One of the pizzas had eggs on it (like a couple just cracked on top and cooked), and it was surprisingly good. Still unclear whether that’s a León thing or a Spain thing…

Then we took Thay for a walk and went to a café overlooking the harbor, had wine, and watched the sunset. How picturesque, no?

And we went to see the inside of the cathedral, which was super nice and extremely tall. Sal had stayed outside with Thay and asked how it was when we got back. León, an architecture student, reported that it’s a lot prettier on the outside than the inside, to which Sal responded, “like most women.” Heh. 

Not really sure what the decoration in the middle is.

Aanyways, we walked back to their house, I grabbed my stuff, took a bus to the airport, and had a lovely flight home to start another exciting and enjoyable week of work! (Imagine all the sarcasm possible).

More to come later on work and day-to-day Sevilla stuff.

Peace!