Friday, August 31, 2018

August 31 - Pizza

It is the last day of August - I can't believe that another month is gone.  Today was my Spanish teacher's last day before her holiday.  She will be back in 10 days or so.  It will be fun to have a new teacher for a while - just for some variety.  A couple of the students will finish up next week while she is out of town; so there were some hugs and goodbyes. 

Albert and I met after class and took a nice walk to a pizza place.  As is always the case in a walk through the center of town, we passed beautiful buildings and statues.


We were the only patrons not eating outside.  I love to be outside, but since so many people smoke, it is sometimes a relief to eat indoors where smoking is not allowed.  

The pizza was good and after a hard day of Spanish, it was nice to just sit and relax and let Albert take care of ordering.

The decor in the restaurant was a fun - a large "urban jungle" themed mural, a motorcycle on a high shelf near the ceiling, and rustic tables and wood benches.  Too bad all of the smokers outside missed all the indoor decor fun.

The plan for this weekend is a quiet weekend at home with some serious Spanish review.  




Thursday, August 30, 2018

August 30 - Gazpacho vs. Salmorejo

This morning, Albert and I headed out to Costco for one final time before my membership runs out.  It is pretty cheap to get a membership here if we decide later on that we want one, but it was a good excuse for a field trip anyway - we took a bus today whose route took us through a part of the city that we had not seen.  In addition to some lovely parks and buildings, we passed by a large street "flea market" and lots of squares filled with vendors. 


After school today, there was another "cultural activity".  These extras (cultural activities, tours, intercambioes) are great practice with informal interactions that are much different than the classroom activities.  The only problem is that after more than three hours in class, it is hard to be motivated for anything extra.  But today, it was no problem at all.  First of all, the teacher for the cultural activity is awesome.  Secondly, the activity today was making and comparing Gazpacho and Salmorejo - and then eating the results....mmmm!

First, we talked about the ingredients and recipes for both types of cold tomato soup.  A good review of food vocabulary and imperative verb conjugations.

Next, everyone helped with the prep work - cutting tomatoes, chopping bread, peeling garlic,.....

Finally Mercedes (our glorious guide) did the blending.  You may notice the cloth she has wrapped around her waist - she realized that blending Salmorejo while wearing white pants was not going to be smart.

The results were delicious- a nice refreshing light dinner on this hot August evening.


Wednesday, August 29, 2018

August 29 - Cooking, Cleaning and a little sad History

We didn't need anything from the market today - I know, miracle of miracles.  So, I spent some time in the kitchen experimenting with cookies (pretty successful 4th attempt) and refried beans (pretty good third attempt - but for all of you vegetarians, still working - today's attempt used some Iberico pork fat - mmmmmm).

Of course, without the walk to the store this morning, I needed to do a little more walking after class.  So, I wandered into a section of the city that I am pretty sure I have not been in before or at least not enough times that I remember it.

There were the usual highlights...

Lots of motorcycles...
A cute dog....

A statue (this one commemorating the May 2nd uprising in Madrid in 1808 of the French occupation):
People doing restoration work.  I stopped to watch these guys for a while.  The picture on the left shows a couple of guys doing restoration work on the crowns that need to be returned to the heads of the statues being restored by the man in the lift.

But the thing that I found most interesting was this bench and plaque.
It is called the Weeping Stone (or maybe Tearful Stone?...give me a break, I have only been in Spanish class for 7 weeks.)  

The story is basically:  In 1857 (during the First Carlist War), a group of young (some really young) liberals from Sevilla took up arms.  They were on their way to Ronda when they were overtaken.  Many died in the confrontation, but the 82 who lived were returned to Sevilla.  They were sentenced to death.  The mayor at the time begged, in vain, for their pardon, and when the boys were taken to the Plaza de Armas and shot - he sat on this nearby stone and wept for many hours.

In 2008 the City Council of Sevilla dedicated the stone with the plaque along the wall to the memory of the "exemplary civic attitude of that mayor and as a future reminder against the death penalty."

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

August 28 - Time to Get Ready for Christmas

For most students in the US, either school has just started or will start within the next few weeks.  In Sevilla, most students go back mid September.  The stores are starting to reopen from their August holidays, and back to school items are featured in windows across the city.

Toward the end of class today, the discussion turned to the winter holidays around Christmas and their celebrations, that is,  which ones are celebrated most often here in Spain.  From Immaculada on December 8th to Epiphany on January 6th, there are holidays big and small (including the Christmas lottery on Dec 22nd).  Although people put up trees and many squares put up lights - most of these things do not happen until the last half of December, and in general, things just are not as commercial as in other parts of the world - or at least that is what our teacher claimed.

I made a quick side trip to Corte Ingles between class and intercambio to find a couple of things for my next cookie experiment.  While there, I noticed this disturbing sight.

Yes - a small shelf of Christmas cookies and candies has appeared in the Corte Ingles supermarket....  in August.... weeks before the fall term begins for local schools.  I am hoping it is a retail anomaly.  It is still above 90 degrees everyday.

The group at intercambio was quite small tonight.  Many of the local students are enjoying the end of their summer holidays and many of the students who are enrolled in the Spanish language program were out celebrating the last night in Sevilla for a couple of students.  Or maybe, they were all out secretly Chistmas shopping...but I don't think so.




Monday, August 27, 2018

August 27 - Residency and A Tour of the Center

This morning, after months and mountains of paperwork, it is official.  We received our residency cards.  The last step, picking up the cards, was thankfully painless.  A couple of electronic fingerprints and a passport check to verify that we were who we claimed to be and - TADA we received our cards.

This afternoon, my class had three students.  I have had the same teacher since starting seven weeks ago.  She will be taking a two week vacation starting next Monday - I am not sure who our substitute teacher will be or what students will be in the class, but for this week it appears that it will be the same three students and the same teacher.

After class, one of the other teachers, who has lived her whole life in Sevilla, offered a walking tour.  I am happy to report that with her slow and clear Spanish, I was basically able to follow along.  PROGRESS!!!  It was about an hour and a half and her goal was to show us things that we might not otherwise notice.  She was awesome.  I offer a couple of highlights - in English.

First, if you spend any time in Sevilla, you will hear that lots of buildings are built on top of the ruins of other buildings.  If you go into the first floor of the Metropol(waffle building) for example, you can look down and see Roman ruins.  In the photo below, you can see what look like columns and arches built around the doors of a builiding.  In reality, they are merely the top couple of meters of some very tall (10 meter?) columns from a no longer existing building on the site.


Plaza de la Alfalfa is a busy square in the center of the city that had from 1852 until 2005 an open air animal market.  (A slaughterhouse stood in the same place from 1500's until early 1800's).  Finally, in 2005, the European Union disallowed groups of animals in open spaces because of the risk of bird flu.  Our guide was not sorry to see the market go - she remembered the bad conditions of the animals when she came a couple of times as a child.  Now there is a plaque to mark the spot -and a playground in addition to the cafes and stores around the square.
We also visited the "Cabeza del Rey Don Pedro" (yes, the name of the road is Head of the King Don Pedro).  There is a legend/story about King Pedro going out "disguised" as a common man.  He got into a fight and killed a guy in a bar.  At this time, the mayor had claimed that no crime would go unpunished, and the family of the slain man wanted justice.  Sadly for Pedro, there was a witness.  She came forward after the king assured her that there would be no problems for her if she would just identify the killer to him in private.  She did.  The king made a clay bust of his own head and put it in a locked box.  He told everyone in the city that with the woman's help he had put the head of the culprit in the box -which should only be opened on his death.  The woman's home was on this block and a modern replica of the king's bust was placed on the side of the building in the early 1600's. 
We visited quite a few other sites, each with their own interesting story.  My guess is that none of them were places that I would have even noticed without someone pointing them out. 

Even though the "after class extras" are interesting and probably really help my Spanish - I come home exhausted.  After cleaning up and making a quick dinner, it is already midnight.  So, as soon as I finish typing this, I will fall into bed.  

So - from one of the city's newest Sevillanas - good night. 










Sunday, August 26, 2018

August 25-26 - Malaga

Yesterday, Albert and I headed out early for a bus ride to Malaga.  I can certainly think of better ways to spend 2 1/2 hours than sitting on a bus, but it was fun to see the scenery outside of Sevilla.  The trip was uneventful, and we arrived in Malaga at around 10:30. 

One of the main reasons that we were in Malaga this weekend was to see the first stage of the Vuelta a Espana.  Our first glimpse of the spectacle came as we walked the two miles from the bus station to our hotel.  Albert took the chance for a close up view of some of the team buses and setups.
We stopped for a quick meal (they would call it breakfast, for us it was a light lunch).
Our hotel room faced the sea and you could see the pool from our balcony.  We did some quality pool time between hitting the beach and heading down to the race.
The beach was beautiful.  The water was a little cool, but both the water and the sand were clean and the fact that it was right across the street was definitely a plus.
The road between our balcony and the beach was on the route of the bike race, so before heading to the race we spent a fair amount of time on our balcony watching guys ride past while warming up.

It was fun to watch some of these guys that we have been following on TV for years.  This stage was a short time trial - so the guys were racing one at a time (staring one minute apart) instead of in a big pack.  It would have been fun to see a pelaton, but I really liked being able to walk along different parts of the route and see racing.  It was cool to see guys going down the starting ramp, rounding one of the 90 degree turns, running down the section right after the line as they cooled down and then gave interviews, and lots of places in between.  After spending a couple of hours checking out different parts of the race, we settled in to a place about 500 meters from the end and watched the last 70 or so guys come down the final kilometer.  


Today was a much quieter day.  We spent lots of time at the beach. 


A little time just hanging out.
And some time just walking through Malaga checking out the buildings, fountains, statues, and parks in the quiet on the day after...  I like this statue of Hans Christian Anderson sitting on a bench.  There was a spot for someone to sit beside him, but no one was interested in sitting on a 100 degree metal bench.

Finally, we headed back to the bus station and retraced our trip back to Sevilla.  It is good to be "home".

Tomorrow, back to school.







Friday, August 24, 2018

August 24 - And then there were two....

We have to catch an early bus tomorrow for our trip to Malaga - bikes and beaches!  We did laundry this morning and put aside things to take - since we are only going for one night it is not really so much packing as filling a backpack.

We made a quick trip to the bazaar store (there are many in the city, each run by a Chinese family) with floor to ceiling shelves and racks of barely organized, inexpensive goods - many of which are hard to find elsewhere.  We needed a new kitchen trash can (woo-hoo, now we have one for recyclables and we don't have to use the counter.)   It is one part scavenger hunt, one part shopping trip.

The store was crowded, but my Spanish class was not.  Today there were only two students.  The two Russian students are gone until September 3rd.  I think one other student comes back next week, so we may be back up to three.  I like a small class, but I can't believe they will continue running it if it doesn't grow.  

Tonight the street was really hopping with families and tourists of all types.  I went out for a short walk after dinner, but now it is time to go to bed so I can be fresh for our early travel tomorrow.


Thursday, August 23, 2018

August 23 - Macarena

After class today, I attended a "bonus" culture class.  Although the theme was "summer vacations in Spain", actually it was just an hour and a half small group with practice listening and speaking.  It was good for me, but it meant that I was in class from 4:00-9:15 and I hadn't really done much walking yet.

In the bonus class, we learned about a song that was popular in the 90's about a girl from a famous neighborhood in Sevilla.  So, I set out to check out the neighborhood and the large church in the center of it.

It is a beautiful church.  And let's face it, who wouldn't want to be standing in the square in the center of ....Macarena.  Now, those of you who know me well will be both surprised and relieved to know that I did not in fact break out into dance with a sidewalk Macarena.  

On the way home, I noticed these hooks outside a grocery store...

I also came across this English language school.  However difficult Spanish is for me (and it is), I can say without question, that I would not want to be trying to learn English as my second language instead.

When I got close to home, the streets were hopping!  Even a small cafe in the Triana market had live music and a lively crowd.  But, they weren't doing the Macarena....if they had been, I might have joined them.  It's only 11 o'clock, I'm not THAT tired.




Wednesday, August 22, 2018

August 22 - The "Other" Mercadona

The painters across the street moved around to the front of the building on the other side of the courtyard.  The parts they have painted really do look nice.
A city crew also began installing a water fountain on the main street a couple of blocks from us....
All over the city painting and construction projects are going on.  Since we have only been here since early July, we don't know if there is more going on because it is summer or if the city is just in the midst of constant renovation.

This evening, I walked down to the bus station to check out the situation for our trip on Saturday - it seems easy enough.  While I was down there I checked out the large grocery store across the street - it is a "Mercadona" - the same chain that we use for our shopping.  It has a few things that ours does not - like guacamole and sushi, but mostly it is the same inventory in a larger space, but I am a sucker for the escalator ramps that you can ride on with your grocery cart...

The hotel across the plaza from this Mercadona has large windows all along the square with dark curtains.  So, in the evening when the lights are on outside it is as though the first floor of the building is one large mirror.  This set up appears to be a perfect outdoor dance studio - small groups were lined up all along the wall working on synchronizing their dance routines.

All in all, another lovely night for a walk.

Then to top it off, Albert met me at the corner and we went for gelato (for him) and sorbet (for me).  I realize that I am always thinking about and wanting gelato, and then when we finally go - I can't make myself choose gelato over sorbet.  I think I will need to go more often to work out this mystery.



Tuesday, August 21, 2018

August 21 - Lots of Computer Time

Today, in addition to the normal study time and reading time that involve screens - I spent a bit of time working out plans for a trip for Albert to go to Salt Lake City for a conference.  It turns out that buying tickets from Spain to Miami and then a separate round trip from Miami to SLC is MUCH cheaper than a ticket from Spain to SLC - don't ask.  So Albert will be staying for a couple of days in Miami before the conference and one night after.  I will be holding down the fort here.

We also managed to get our bus tickets for this coming weekend printed in one try - we are learning. 

Also, it is Tuesday, so I had intercambio after class.  It was a pretty small group tonight.  I made it home by 10 - just in time to catch Albert taking out the recycling.

One year ago today, we went to Oregon to see the eclipse with Emily and Kathy and I officially started my year at Whitman.  Not sure what we will be doing one year from today, but I know how fast time seems to fly, and I know it will seem like no time at all.




Monday, August 20, 2018

August 20 - Train Station Walk

It was hot again today so I stayed home until class, working on Spanish and reading.  Our class was down to four students today - I think we will be back up to 5 or six for the rest of this week.  I took a photo of the Russian mother/daughter students.  Mom is trying to think of a word as daughter looks on...


Since I hadn't really taken a walk today before class, I took the opportunity after class to walk out to the train station and check out the area around it that I had not visited before.  On my way there, I passed a cupcake shop - first one I have seen in Spain.

I also found this statue of the famous Flamenco singer Pepe Peregil.  It is directly in front of the bar that he used to own.  There are still a number of small bar owners who perform Flamenco (usually singing or guitar) in their own bars for whatever patrons happen to be there - but probably none who are as famous.

I did eventually make it to the train station.  It is a pretty standard train station with a few restaurants and shops - it is not a particularly beautiful building, but it was clean and there were lots of travelers.

After checking out the station, I made my way home along a different route.  I found a place to buy superhero socks (although I think I am set for now).

But this shop made me think about maybe starting a hat collection.  On second thought maybe I will leave the hats to someone else...but maybe I could use some of these ideas to accessorize my socks!
hats - and then dozens of shelves of flowers, ribbons, feathers,... to add to a basic hat

After my long walk, I am ready for an early night.