A Day on my Own

The title is a little misleading.  I didn't spend the whole day alone, don't worry.

So, this morning I woke up nice and late (8:00, because that's late for me) and got ready.  I decided that since I was going to the cathedral today, I'd wear a dress.  Problem:  What shoes to wear?  I'd brought flats, but they're brutal for walking so I walked in flip-flops.  More on that later.

So I had breakfast.  Cereal again, but this time, she gave us yogurt!  I misread the flavors offered, and apparently coco is not cocoa, it's coconut.  I ate it all anyway.

We then set off for the meeting place.  We got there early, so one of my roomies got an ice coffee from starbucks.  Because, you know, why go to one of the delicious local coffee shops when you can be un guiri? (tourist)

We met up with the rest of the group, including our tour-guide, a History professor named Rafaél.  He was nice and had a cute accent.  He led us to the entrance to the cathedral, and we went inside.

I might have said it before, but this cathedral is the third biggest in the world.  It wasn't as pretty as the older cathedral in Toledo- which has a lot of Baroque stuff and is about three times prettier- but more history surrounds it.

Anyway, it's a gothic style cathedral, built over the ruins of a mosque.  So it was built after 1492, when the Moors were driven out.  However, there are two things left over from the mosque: a nice little patio, and the tower.

The tower is the second highest point in Sevilla- the highest is the much hated skyscraper built a few years ago.  I took a picture of it this morning while I was crossing the bridge because something over there was really on fire.

Anyway, the tower of the church is 35 ramps high.  I don't know how that translates to stories, but there are 40º angle ramps spiraling around and around inside the tower all the way to the top, and there are thirty-five of them.

Why ramps and not stairs?  Well, my students, the tower is very tall.  Do you blame the poor Moors for not wanting to run up and down 35 staircases to the top of the tower five times a day?  I can't.  So they built ramps instead, so a horse can run the people to the top.  Much easier- for everyone but the horse, that is.

After our right leg was sore from getting us to the top (it only spiraled in one direction, of course.  It's a great workout- for one leg), we were greeted by the bells.  They are large bells.  They have to be, in order to be heard from all across the city:

Then we had to go down.  I felt sorry for people who didn't have 16-year-old knees, even my legs were tired from going down that sharp of a decline.  Oi.

We wandered through the rest of the cathedral, where 25% of Christopher Columbus is buried.  They only found out that 75% of the corpse was not his a few years ago during a DNA test, the other parts of Columbus are probably in Dominican Republic, but maybe Argentina.  Maybe Venezuela.  They don't really know.  

Then we split up and parted ways.  One of my roomies met up with her American friends that were visiting Sevilla for the day, and everyone else went shopping.  I don't like shopping with anyone, least of all with people who don't share my opinions on fashion.

So I went back to the house for my school stuff.  I'd been really wanting to explore La Plaza de España ever since we saw it on the first day, and I pass it twice a day on the way to and from school.  I decided to go and wander it on my own.  I grabbed a quick sandwich for lunch, and off I went.

The view from my sitting-place.  Pictures do not convey
this place's beauty.

I cannot express how much I love this place.  And I can go there every single day if I wanted!!!  I don't know, up until this point, I didn't really feel like Sevilla was a different country.  Plaza de España feels foreign.  Magical.  Inspirational!  I will return with a notebook and a pencil so I can write down all of the story ideas that went through my head.

Also, fun fact, this place was also built by a German.  Germans build pretty stuff in Sevilla.  However, he got so fed up with the negative comments coming from the public, so he quit.  Some other guy took over the job later, and it is now complete.  I talked a bit about the Plaza in an earlier post, but I had only seen it in passing.  I walked all up inside it today.  And I will go back on Monday.

Then I went to class, where I met the rest of my people.  We learned about the Preterite tense, which is the second most common (it's basically past tense) but it is also the absolute HARDEST tense to conjugate.  I absolutely loathe it and just use the much easier Imperfect tense, even if it isn't correct.  I can conjugate the Imperfect.

We also talked about Enrique Iglesias, a singer, and did some fun analysis on his popular songs.  This one is everywhere in Spain.  If you meet a Spaniard this summer and start singing it, you'll be best friends immediately.  I promise.

We all rushed home because we have to get up über early tomorrow, so we needed to pack.  I still need to pack.  Ugh.  Anyway, I'm going to Gibraltar tomorrow!  Do I get another stamp on my passport?  I hope so.