Apologies

I've had a bad last few days and I really don't want to go into details, so forgive me if I skim over some things.  All I'll say is that I am about ready to drown my roommates in the river.  Not even joking.

Oh.  Sorry for not posting anything yesterday.  I was tired and mad.

So yesterday morning, I woke up, and had to go to school in the morning.  So, at 8:30, we trudged down the road and did our presentation.  We were second, and I did well enough, even though my group-mates dropped the ball.  I did my bit about Spanish history, and I bored everyone but the teacher, since I used some big words that they probably couldn't- or wouldn't- understand.

We talked about... something after that.  Weeeirrd.  After I had a coffee, I can't remember two whole hours.  I hope we didn't talk about anything important.

I walked back to the house because I wanted some time alone to rest (I was tired), and I had lunch somewhere in there maybe.  I know that I got some work done on my book, which caused me problems later that day but I don't want to expound upon that.

We met at 6:30 at one of the many plazas in Sevilla and walked to the Flamenco museum to see a show.  We were a little late, so my seat was very bad, but maybe that's for the better since the dancers got very sweaty and the first three rows were drenched by the end of the show.

Flamenco.  What is it?  It's one of the two major Spanish dances, the other being the Paso Doble.  Flamenco originates in Andalusia, probably in Sevilla, and flamenco dancers are everywhere on the streets.

It's a very different kind of dance, and the best I can compare it to is Tap.  Flamenco utilizes foot and wrist movements above everything else, can be done in tiny spaces (or larger ones) and is danced in parts.

Flamenco music has no real melody, is almost exclusively on guitar with vocals, but there aren't really words either.  For example, last night, one of the "songs" consisted solely of the singer wailing "Mariposa" over and over again.  Oh, and "¡Olé!".  The songs are instead more of a short piece of showy rhythms and some difficult semi-melodic blurps, where the dancer dances very quickly.  After this solo type thing, they slow down significantly.

Flamenco originates in the Moorish time, and it shows.  The vocals sound very much like those used in traditional Arabic music, and even though the rhythms in flamenco are distinctly Spanish, one has to wonder where that Hispanic sound comes from...

After the foot tapping gave us all a headache, we asked Maria to suggest to us where to go eat.  She pointed us to an Italian restaurant, where they played repetitive club music at us.  I had some pasta, and while I like the other Italian pasta I'd had, this was also not bad.

Apparently the waitress gets as sick of the music as we did.  I feel a bit sorry for him.

We slogged back home... and passed some fund-raiser in one of the Plazas.  They were playing Guantanamera... not the version by Pete Seeger, unfortunately, but we had to stop for it.

Something to say here is that in the US, if they tried to do what they did here, no one would dance, and if they did, it would hardly be called "dancing."  Here in Spain, when you dance, you dance.  The entire crowd was moving in unison.  It was lovely.



This morning, I woke up a little later, ate my breakfast and hid from people.  Then I wandered over to Plaza de España again before I went to school.

Today, we had a cooking class.  Where better to have it than at a school?

Maria was very, very, very excited.  She loves cooking, apparently, so she got straight to work and had us choppin' up veggies for gazpatcho and Spanish tortilla.  I was put in charge of peeling a potato with a dull knife.  Very safe.  However, my job was certainly not the worst.  We had three onions that needed cutting.

Apparently, Spanish onions make you cry more than American onions.  We all, every last one of us, were practically chopping our respective veggies blind due to the swelling and the tears.

The tortillas were very tasty, and the gazpacho was better than the other gazpachos I've had, all things considered.  I still don't care for the stuff.  At all.

We had about an hour to kill before we had to take a test.  So... I watched the guys and a few of the girls playing Monkey in the Middle with an unripe orange.  Things got intense!!  Also, we were joined by the world's largest grasshopper.

We went and took the test, which was wonderfully easy (except the map labeling.  I had no idea where the tallest mountain in Spain was, nor did I know the exact location of a river.) and after that, the other professor came in and we did some review games.  She realised that we had just taken a test, and felt sorry for us, I guess.

We went home, ate dinner (Señora made us... spanish tortilla!) and here I am now.  I am still really mad at my roommates, so I'll be doing my best to spend my day off tomorrow away from them either shopping, reading, or writing.  Or sitting for hours on end in Plaza de España.

Sorry about the lack of a decent post, guys.  Really.

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Start the Project Already!

Hello again.  Short post today.

Well, I woke up and had my breakfast (cereal and jamon tostado) and we walked to the meeting place from a few days ago.  We met up with Rafaél again, and we headed off to Alcázar.

Alcázar is the castle/palace of Sevilla, where the King and Queen would stay if they came to Sevilla.  They'd stay on the second floor, where there are no tourists, but that gives some idea of the prettiness of this building.  However, the first floor is completely unfurnished, so you only have the architecture to marvel at.

A trend in Sevillian architecture is tiles.  As I might have mentioned with Plaza de España, there are very lovely tiles on almost all of the historical buildings.  There are several reasons for this.

One, it looks distinctively Sevillian.  Two, it is good for preserving the walls from the humidity.  In Alcázar, every wall has a different tile pattern.  I personally prefer the tiling of Plaza de España, but I will admit that these are wonderful, too.

 Another thing very distinctive about Alcázar is the carvings.  The old part of the building is Moorish, so the carvings follow that style.  There are many diamond patterns, leaves and foliage patterns (the Moors couldn't carve people or animals into decoration, but plants are fine) as well as scripture from the Qur'an.

There are arches, tiles, marble, and all sorts of things, but the main attraction is actually not the building.  It's in the gardens.

Fun Fact: Season Five of the TV show Game of Thrones (very popular in Spain, by the way) was filmed here in Sevilla because of Alcázar's gardens.
Anyway, we went outside and I was impressed.  I'm not much of a garden person, I know some people are, but these are pretty gardens.

There are fountains, a hedge maze (which was unfortunately closed for a few weeks) and patios for dining, sitting, and relaxing.  They are nice gardens.  There are also koi ponds and a really pretty raised walkway from where you can see most of the gardens.

From these gardens, you have access to one of the oldest parts of Sevilla.  The bathhouse!  This bathhouse is where the Moors would wash themselves, and I regrettably didn't take pictures.  But I do have some more flower pictures which I'll post.

From Alcázar, one of my roommates and I went to a heladoria, where I got some chocolate helado (gelato) and a cortado.  Chocolate and very very strong coffee taste amazing together, I have discovered :)

We went back to the home where we realized that we have an oral presentation in class tomorrow.  We've kinda been lacking in time, so we hurriedly began our project.  I am in charge of Spanish History and its economy, while she is doing modern (1975-present) Spanish government and its laws.   The other person in our trio went shopping and came home two hours later, and we stuck her in charge of the climate and geography of Spain.  Woo wee.

Anyway, señora came back and gave us pasta (it was pretty yummy) and we went to school early.  The third person in our group didn't bring her computer to Spain because she didn't think she'd need it for school, so we had to go to the computer lab in the school.

We worked on the project, and I learned some stuff about Spain and its history.  I'll fill you in later if the moment demands it, but basically first it was the Visigoths, then the Moors, then the Spanish Imperial age, then the Restoration after its territory in the Americas left, and then the Franco era.  Francisco Franco was a very very bad man.  Who looked a lot like Hitler.

We had class, where we continued what we started yesterday.  Then we worked some more in class on our presentation, and we came home.  Now I'm writing this a little early so I can get back to work.  Hoo boy.  Wish me luck!

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Hot Again- Water is Good

Hi!  I'm feeling pretty good about today~

Well, I slept nice and late this morning, which is always a good thing.  We had cereal and bread for breakfast, which is the norm.  We gathered our stuff, and set off for the meeting place.

The meeting spot was a little different today than previously, but it is also much closer to us so we were fine with it.  We met Maria right by our closest bridge.  The two girls that are not in our home were there already, but the guys were nowhere to be found.

We waited a little bit, and eventually called one of the guys.  Apparently German slept late.  He'd been sick with some stomach virus for some days now, so sleeping through the night was actually a big accomplishment.  Unfortunately, they couldn't wake him up.  He got up on his own about five minutes before we were due to meet.  They took a taxi, but to the wrong place.

Maria told them to go to some other bridge, since we were on our way there anyway.  They agreed, and we began walking.  Now, before this, I'd slathered myself with sunscreen.  I became quite popular since I'd brought four bottles of the stuff and had enough to share, and everyone else was burnt to a crisp.

Anyway, we walked for a while down the street until we got to the meeting place.  They guys still weren't there.  We called them again, and they said they were at the bridge we had left about half an hour before.  We told them to take another taxi, to us.  They said ok.

We waited.  In the sun, in the heat (today was as hot as the day we arrived, like 90ºF or something.  We grew more and more irritated.  Eventually, they said they were on the other side of the bridge.  We crossed to their side, but they still weren't there.  We called them.  They told us which side they were on, and it was the other side.  We sighed, told them to cross and meet us at the place.  Today, we were gonna kayak.

Luckily, through all of this, we were not late.  The other group of people we'd be kayaking with (some local eighth graders) were also running late, and the previous group of kayakers had not returned yet.  We were happy that Maria had told us to meet pretty early.

The eighth graders laughed at our Spanish, since they wanted us to introduce ourselves in Spanish, but then the kayak guide told them to introduce themselves in English, so we chuckled to ourselves as they also struggled.  Ah, picking on middle schoolers.  Such fun.

We got into our kayaks and set off.  I went with one of the guys, and we got going very fast.  Unfortunately, the paddle I had was very small so I had to work twice as hard.

We crossed under two bridges until we got to a spot where we had to stop.  We lined our kayaks up side to side, and the VERY handsome kayak guides told two of us to stand up and switch places, walking on the kayaks.  I was selected to go first.  I, being the good sport that I am, stood up and strolled over to my spot.

What I had not expected was the kayak guides splashing, rocking the kayaks, and trying to tip us.  I managed fine, but a few of the others did not.  They slipped, fell, and floundered back to their kayaks.  We ended up very very wet.

Then we had tor return to the docks.  I, with my new partner, paddled very quickly because there was wind and we were wet, and we could feel our legs burning in the hot hot sun.  I yet again managed to avoid a burn.  Go me!

Then we returned to the house, where señora had made us lentil soup.  I never have been much of a soup eater, but it was actually not bad.  Apparently I eat much slower than most people.  I always thought I ate fast.  Hm.  Anyway, my slow eating made my roommates laugh at me. :(

After that, I decided to go off to the Plaza de España again because I absolutely LOVE it there.  Unfortunately, irritating castanet and fan vendors absolutely ruin the gorgeous plaza, because they are everywhere.  I get so mad... there are other places on the other side of the sidewalk from the plaza where other vendors go, why must you ruin something so perfect with your cheap stuff?  I know the answer, because American guiris will buy it if shoved into their faces, but it still is irritating.

Unfortunately, even in the nice shade of the Plaza, it was hot.  And somewhere else in the park, someone started playing their trumpet super badly.  It was so bad.  I've heard some bad trumpets, but that was a new level of painful.  I grabbed my stuff and went to class.

We learned about national symbols of Spain, the geography, national languages (there are four recognised official languages.  Castellano, which is Spanish, Catalán, which is what they speak in Barcelona and that area, Basque, and one other that is similar to Portuguese) and the political system.
Spain is a Parliamentary Monarchy, which I think means that there is a monarchy and a parliament.  I'm so smart, I know.  We learned about the King and Queen and princesses... by the way, Spain is interesting in the monarchy and secession and stuff.  The first child, regardless of gender, will get the crown.  In Spain, there are two princesses and no princes, but if the King and Queen have a son in the future, the eldest girl will still get the crown.  I don't know if the other monarchy countries do that, but I thought that was interesting.

Apparently, there will be an election this Sunday for the President of Spain.  Maria, our guide, is sad because we'll be in Portugal and she won't be able to vote.  There are four political parties.  The Democrats, the Republicans, one that is totally center, and a Hippie group.  The candidate from the Hippie party is funny.

During the break, I scurried off to a bar for some coffee since I was falling asleep.  It was good coffee.  Gosh, this country is gonna turn me into a coffee drinker.

Then we went home.  Señora owns a clothing store, and we said we'd go and look at it.  She has such cute stuff!  I bought a pretty shirt, and I will likely go back because it has some really nice stuff.  It has Italian clothes and styles, and I apparently like that a lot. :)

Señora took us to a local pub right down the street because she knew I liked snails, and she said it had the best snail in town... she was very right.

That is such a bad picture of me.  I apologize, I didn't take it.  The snails were very good, and I convinced my roommates to try one.  Spanish snail- Caracoles- are served in-shell, and apparently pulling the meat out is unpleasant for Americans.  They made such ugly faces when they tried it... I kinda understand.... but they taste SO GOOD!!!

I also had jamon and queso on tostado, since a meal of nothing but caracoles is a little... blug?  and the pub was really, really cheap so I had something else.  The lemonade was more expensive than the snails.  That's weird.

We had some helado, and returned to the house.  Here I am!  Tomorrow, we'll be doing.... something.  I'll see you then!

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Lobsters

I don't really have much to say today.  I went to the beach.

Look.  Beach.

So, we woke up and went down for breakfast, where I ate some bread, fruit, and had two proper cups of tea.  We went back up and packed our stuff, then we went back down.  The German Motorcyclists were in the elevator, and we squeezed in there.  They said something that sounded like "You no make it!" and they started counting down the floors until we hit the lobby.  The elevator was really slow.  And cramped.  It was weird.

We waited for the rest of our group as the Germans sped away.  Then, we put our stuff in basically a closet and went for a walk.  A long walk.  See the pic at the top?  That was taken from halfway to to our destination, and we were going to that church thing at the right.

It was another cathedral- one of the oldest in Spain.  Luckily, it was Sunday so no tours were offered, so we walked up to the top.  It was around noon, and by the time we got to the top of the bell tower, tit was noon.  So the bells started ringing- as did our ears.

We parted ways, and once again I went with the guys since they are far better conversationalists than the girls, and I figured they'd actually do something other than lay in the sand.

We walked all the way back to the hotel because they didn't remember to bring their swim-suits, and we made our way to the beach.  Our German buddy forgot his bathing suit at home, so he deigned to sit in the sand.  The other two and I waded into the water, which was very cold, and played frisbee.  I was the only one willing to swim out to get the frisbee when they missed each other, so I did a lot of swimming.  They are very not good at frisbee.  We played for quite a while, and then got so cold that we decided to warm up a bit.  They went walking, I reapplied a couple layers of sunscreen and sat down.

Now, Cadiz is a European beach, which means that it's ok to go shirtless- for both men and women.  It isn't an entirely nude beach, thank, God, but I saw a lot more of people than I'd have liked to.  There was really no safe direction to look, so I couldn't very well just sit and people watch.  So... yeah.

We got hungry and got lunch at a chiringuito.  I hope I spelled that right.  A chiringuito is a little restaurant on the beach, really close to the water.  It's a bar, really, but the foods aren't bad.  I ordered something small, but only realized after we'd paid that they'd had snail.  Sigh.  I've been regretting my oversight all day.  I will have to seek out caracoles tomorrow.  (caracole is snail in spanish)

I felt myself roasting, as I'd been out for a lot of the afternoon, so I went back to the hotel to read where I wouldn't get lobsterified.  Because of my decision, I'm the only one of our group that wasn't seriously burned.  I have some burns on my shoulders and back, since it was harder to reach, but that's really it.  The girls are all moaning and groaning because they didn't use any sunscreen, and they can't move or touch anything without agony.  The guys are ok, because I was a nice person and gave them sunscreen to use.

I waved goodbye to the prettiest cable-stay bridge I'd ever seen.  I wish we'd had a chance to go over it.  I am saying this because we got a little slap-happy last night, and I noticed our room had a great view of the bridge, so I geeked out and told my roommates what kind of bridge it is, so they've been making fun of me ever since. :(

Admire the cable-stay bridge!

And, it's fathers day.   So Daddy, thank you for letting me go on this trip.  I love you!  I love Spain!!  Wish you all could be here, enjoying Cadiz with me!

See you tomorrow.  I'm back in Sevilla now after a long train ride, and classes start back tomorrow.  Sigh.

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On British Soil

Well, this was a struggle today.  Getting the Wifi password is very hard in this hotel.

Today, we had to wake up agonizingly early.  Like, 5:40 early.  As in the time I get up for school.  Then we had to walk a half hour through sketchy streets to get to the meeting place.  Once there, we piled on a bus and set off for our destination.

Apparantly, the German guy had had a rough night after some bad... something or another for dinner, so all of the boys were irritable and tired.  They went immediately to sleep on the bus.

I change my mind about the dullness of Spanish countryside.  There actually are two things in southern Spain worth looking at.

One is the wind farms.  The southern part of the country is very hilly until you hit Gibraltar (our destination), so you can't grown a lot of stuff.  I mean, you can.  But you also get a lot of lovely breezes that turn the turbines.  There are hundreds of them.  It was surprisingly hypnotic to look everywhere and see the turbines.

The other thing is the sunflowers.  The main plant of the south is apparently sunflowers.  There are almost as many sunflower farms as wind farms.  They're so yellow and happy!

We went for two hours until we reached Gibraltar.  Finally!  I can go to the UK!

We got off the bus and had to go through customs.  Going through this customs is a lot easier than the one at airport- you literally just walk through with your passport.  We had to ask them to stamp it! And stamp it we did.  I now have a cheerful United Kingdom stamp!!

We met up with our tour guide, who was vastly superior than Mario and Alfonso from Madrid and Toledo in two major ways: one, he was very laid back and polite.  Two, he had a perfectly posh Andalusian-British accent.  As if you couldn't improve on a British accent more!

We took a van through the town of Gibraltar, which is adorable.  See, the thing about Gibraltar is that even the signs are polite and posh.  While Spain ignores street-signs completely, Gibraltar asks you to "Please Give Way" or "Slow Down Slightly" or "There Are Apes Ahead", which just makes you feel like they're looking out for you.  Everything is clearly labeled, polite, and in cheerful colours.  And they SPELL WORDS RIGHT!  As in, "Gibraltar Harbour."  Oh, it made me happy.

There's Morocco!

We went up the side of the Rock, John our tourguide narrating our "journey" as we went in a very certain and informative manner.  He talked about how the people used to get stuff to the top of the Rock before there were automobiles, the history of the many kilometer long tunnel system throughout the entire Rock, how it was used in World War 2, how many boats pass through the strait daily, all sorts of stuff.  Then we went to a viewpoint.

It was windy and cold, but I got to see the Mediterranean and Morocco and the Atlantic and several ships and it was awesome.  We took several pictures, but this was the only really good one that I kept.  See the mountain?  It is very probable that the Rock of Gibraltar and that mountain were once the same.  Then something broke, and the Atlantic surged through, splitting them apart.  The Mediterranean was formed.

Also, I'd like to note how very clear the water is.  It's like teal.  And probably absolutely freezing.

We got back into the van and buzzed up the Rock even more, until we got to the Ape Zone.  There are hundreds of apes on Gibraltar that can't be seen anywhere else in the world except across the strait on that mountain.  Coincidence?  Probably not.  Anyway, apparently, all the lady apes had babies, so they were unusually aggressive.  As in, then growled at us a bit and wandered off.  Even British apes are polite!


We passed the apes and went through a cave.  I was a bit irritated, since the caves are extremely well-lit, and are just hard to appreciate.

We then emerged from the caves, where we saw more apes.  Why aren't humans that fluffy?

One ape needed to do some grocery shopping.

Well, we finished our tour and said farewell to John, then we had all of two hours to see all of Gibraltar.  Sigh.  We went to a pub where the waitress grudgingly gave my roomies sweet iced tea, but looked downright grateful when I asked for hot tea.  They had fish and chips (with vinegar.  I made sure they put on the vinegar) and I had chicken with chips.  The chicken wasn't what I expected (on the bone.  It was tasty though).  We lounged around there because it was a little chilly, then we split up.  I don't know where the girls went, probably shopping, but I stayed with the guys.  They figured out that my name isn't Katherine, so I have respect for them.  I helped them find sunglasses.  Fun fun fun!

Then we had to load up on the bus and leave Gibraltar.  It was a sad, sad parting.  So sad.  Four hours total on British soil just isn't enough.

We were off to Cadiz, which is a city on the beach.  Mostly tourists.  When we were checking into our hotel, a band of German Motorcyclists wandered in and started talking to each other.  I thought Americans were loud!!  Our German buddy sheepishly ducked into the elevator, clearly not wanting to communicate with his countrymen.  I can't blame him, honestly.  They were kinda scary.

I will spend all of tomorrow in Cadiz, so I'll speak more on that later.  Just know that I tried Gazpacho again and still don't understand the appeal.  I just don't.  Sorry, all you gazpacho lovers out there.

I will leave you with a pretty picture that I took as we drove away from Gibraltar.  There's Morocco across the strait, and a small strip of land right below the mountain we were on.

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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.

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Weird Germans are Weird

Hello everyone!  The ridiculously hot weather seems to have passed... knock on wood.... so life is improved significantly.  The first few days were rough, but I'm getting the hang of things now.

Today, I didn't know what time I had to get up, so I just woke up at 7:00 when Señora started banging around down the hall.  For some weird reason, I wanted to listen to a random song first thing in the morning, so I reached over and turned it on.  I've been seriously regretting that decision all day.

Anyway, humming "Mala Gente," (translates to "Bad People") I got ready, dressed, and ate breakfast.  Señora and the three of us are on much better terms now, and she made us tostado (toast) to go along with our cereal.

We had asked Maria, our guide, to meet us and help us get to the meeting place, though after our warp street discovery we didn't really need her advice anymore, but we were grateful for the conversation.  Maria is amazing, and we like walking with her.  I do, because she walks as fast as I do and I just enjoy watching people struggle to keep up with my "brisk" pace. ;)

We met up and walked to Setas.

Las Setas are actually really cool.  Sometimes, they're called Los Parasoles (the parasols, umbrellas, whatever) because they're designed to provide a whole lot of shade.  They do, by the way, but the locals call it Las Setas because they also look like, er, mushrooms.  Setas means mushrooms.

They were built five years ago by a German architect named something or another.  The project was three times more expensive than they had originally thought because the entire thing is made of wood.  Finnish wood.  It's imported, which costs a lot of money.  Besides, wood got damaged and needed replacing or reinforcing or something, so it cost a lot of money.  But, at the end of it all, Las Setas is the largest infrastructure made of wood.  Cool, right?

There are four levels to this lovely art.  Street level, there is a market that is way cooler than the one in Madrid, and inside you'll find people selling fruits and veggies.  By the way, there are like twenty types of tomatoes that you can easily find in markets.  I'm not joking.  Apparently, Spain is the perfect climate for tomatoes, which is why they're so good.

In addition to fruits and veggies, there are fish markets that sell whole fishes, shrimps, sea-snails, crabs, lobsters, you name it.  And a butchery with conejos hanging from the ceiling.  We were walking by and saw a wooden bunny, wondered why it was there, and then noticed the conejos.  That means rabbit.  They sell furry dead rabbits.  That is so weird to me.

Then we went down below.  Now, before Las Setas was even imagined, the square was this empty market.  It was surrounded by nice hotels and apartments, but there was nowhere really to park.  So, the city decided that they'd build a parking deck beneath the square.  Not a good idea.  Here's why.

Sevilla was occupied by two major civilizations before it became Sevilla as we know it today.  Firstly, the Romans occupied it and made a city out of it because of its proximity to a river and how flat it is.  Then, when the Moors came in, they couldn't remove all of the solid stone buildings the Romans had left, so they knocked down the walls and simply built on top of it.  When Spain reconquered Sevilla in 1492 (you know, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue.  It was a big year for Spain) they knocked down the Moorish buildings, and built on top of those.  So, we have three layers of history in the Sevillian soil.

In 2005, when they were going to build the parking garage, they discovered these layers directly below the square.  They realized that there was so much important history down there, they couldn't just destroy it.  So they announced an architectural design contest to build something nice on top of it, that would provide art or shade to the market.  The ruins, below Las Setas, became a museum.

Your history lesson for today is over.  I promise.

So we went down there, and saw the ruins.  They were no more than foundations and mosaics, but it was still cool.  The Moorish ruins were a good five feet higher than the Roman stuff, so that was interesting to see.

We then went to the very top of Las Setas, where you can see literally the entire city.  We got a lot of pictures, so I'll give you some of them.

Apparently my picture isn't as good as I thought.  Sigh.  I can't convey the vista in a photo, anyway.

Today was apparently Germans Mess with Kailey's Head Day, so some friendly German tourists came up to us and asked us directions to the bull ring.  I think that's what he wanted, his accent was really really thick.  Luckily, we have a German guy on our team!  He cleared things up.  Thanks.  Oh, here is a picture of him and his friend... they really wanted a picture.

Three guesses which is the German guy

When you get a ticket to the top of Las Setas, you also get a complimentary drink at the bars down at the market.  We went down, and the only thing our vouchers covered that we could legally drink was coffee, so I got a Cortado.  In Spain, coffee is a big big deal.  There are four types that you can get:  Black, cafe con leche, un cortado, y un manchado.  A cortado is like an espresso with a little milk blended in, but it comes in a little cup.  I'm not a coffee drinker, at all, so I wanted the smaller mug...

I imagine a coffee drinker would find it divine.  I don't like it, but two weeks in Spain might change that.  Coffees are like one or two euros a pop, so they are far cheaper than even water.  Pro tip!  Did I mention that you have to pay for water?  Unless you ask for "un vaso de agua," you get a bottle of mineral water that can cost three euros.  "Un vaso de agua" (a glass of water) is free.  

Well, we went back down and Maria had to go back to work.  Sadness.  Before she left, she directed us to the Hippie Market (there's apparently a Hippie Market in a square not too far from Setas on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays) and we walked down to it.  There wasn't a lot of Hippie stuff, mostly purses and jewelry, but it was fun to walk around anyway.

There's a really big department store right by it, so while the others were looking through the market, I wandered into the store.  I was greeted by the perfume section- why is the perfume section always by the entrance of department stores?- and I thought about my perfume.  It's Swiss, and impossible to find in American stores, but I recently got a bottle of it for Christmas.  However, my loving mother also suffers from the evil that is a store not carrying her perfume, so I looked for hers.  I found it, too!  I love you, Mom!

The German guy and his... friend... were having shoe problems, so we all went on a great adventure to find replacement shoes.  We didn't succeed, but we found them clothes and had them try on stuff.  They, being good sports, went along with it, but German was the only one who'd let us see the outfit.  I have a picture, but I don't want to scar you so I won't post it.

We went home.  I had lentil soup and... something, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was.  Oh yeah!  A banana.  I like bananas a lot.

We decided to try yet another route to school, and it was fast, but I personally don't like it as well as the other, so I will be going on the warp street route again tomorrow.

In class, today we learned about some idioms that won't make sense to you because they're idioms, more ser vs estar stuff, how to deal with compliments in Spain (turn down the compliment the first time, do not thank the person for the compliment.  That's incredibly rude.  Oops.) and some holidays.  Of course, we talked about The Running of the Bulls, which I still think is silly, and some holiday where you pelt your neighbors with tomatoes.

There's a guy in the apartment next to ours singing.  That was random.  Sorry.

Then we went home, and had noodle soup with tomatoes.  Tomatoes tomatoes tomatoes.  If I don't love tomatoes by the end of this...

Tomorrow, I get to go inside the cathedral.  I'll have some more history lessons for you then!

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