September 30 - A Quiet End of the Month

Today was quiet.  I did some Spanish, went for a couple of short walks, read almost an entire novel, watched the USA women's basketball team win the World Cup, and followed Whitman sports on twitter.

The bar across the street was open today for lunch.  It is not usually open on Sundays, but maybe because of today's big religious procession, they decided to take advantage of the extra people on the streets.

The crowd was lively.  But, it appears that not everyone was in the mood for traditional tapas.

During my first walk, I went down to see the procession.  Along with the band and the ornate paso - there were groups on many of the balconies along the route - the band and paso would stop and the group on the balcony would sing, sometimes followed by a man making loud proclamations (for the church, the neighborhood, hope, ... ) to wild applause by the huge crowd- then the paso would continue to the next balcony of singers....  When the paso finally made it to the church entrance, it was carried inside and the crowd cheered like the end of a rock concert.  Then, the paso came back out for a bow and retreated back in - the crowd cheered again.  After a few "encores", the paso went in for good and the crowd dispersed.

On my after dinner walk, things were much calmer.  The bar across the street didn't open for dinner, the Vela San Miguel was starting to close down and the stage was empty,

and the Triana Market was closed and locked...

Of course the festival of nations was still going on, but I didn't walk that way today.  Hopefully Albert and I can check it out again next week when he gets back.  

Tonight, after I check up on the Whitman athletics teams, I will head in for an early night so I can be fully rested for another week of school.

September 29 - Lots of Concerts

I went to the store today for the first time since Monday.  I didn't really need anything, but I wanted to make salsa - so that meant a trip to the market.  It is times like this that I miss having my Ninja blender.

Also today, I had a board meeting for the W-Club at Whitman.  Obviously, I couldn't make it in person.  So, from 6-9 this evening (9-12 in the morning for them), I participated via a conference call.

After that, I was ready to get out of the house.  Luckily, it is Saturday night and there are lots of things to see.

First I went to the Festival of Nations which is about a mile and a half from home.  This is the 25th annual.  It opened tonight and is open every Wed-Sun until November 4.  There are booths for different countries serving traditional food and drinks and then lots of booths selling clothes, trinkets, jewelry, candy (stacks of tubs of cotton candy) ,... And, at the far end is a stage.  Each night there are a couple of concerts.  Four or five nights have bigger names, but most nights (including tonight) are local groups.  I watched performances by a local dance school (hip hop and salsa) and a group that did traditional Argentinian dance.

Next, I headed to an outdoor concert where they were raising money to for cancer research.  The fundraiser actually had a few different concerts going on around the city, but I went to the one with a pop band.  Lots of teenage girls screaming and singing along.  I really enjoyed this one and stayed for pretty much the entire set.

After that, I headed back toward home, but decided to stop in at the Vela San Miguel festival at the foot of the bridge and watched a rock band for a while.

Then, I walked down through the tents.  I noticed this one selling nuts and dried fruit in the big part of the tent, but then had fresh coconut and other fresh nuts under the sprinkler.

And finally, before heading home, a quick selfie in front of the creepy Bart Simpson slide....

I am not sure why, but the bar across the street didn't open tonight.  The big street was rocking - it is Saturday night after all.  It appears however that someone took out one of the posts in front of the bar across the street - I bet that left a mark.

The final game of the Women's Basketball World Cup is tomorrow.  Both USA and Spain made it to today's semifinals.  The US women won their semifinal, but Australia, in a come from behind win, eliminated Spain.  I was hoping it would be USA vs Spain in the final, but it is probably better this way - no split loyalties! 

September 28 - Night Run

Today after class, I walked around with the same young women from my class as yesterday.  After checking out a few places we settled on a restaurant in the city that specialized in tacos.  The food was great (fresh guacamole, tortilla soup, and tacos).  I will certainly visit this place again with Albert when he comes back.

After dinner, we made our way down toward the river to check out the Night Run.  It is an 8.5 km "race" put on by the city equivalent of "parks and rec".  Roughly 25,000 runners made the loop along the river around downtown and back to the starting point.  We came in at about the 3km mark and worked our way backwards to the start/finish line.

We watched lots of racers cross the line and some awards given out, and then it was time for the fireworks show.  It was a massive display right overhead of the finish line.  

In fact, our viewing spot was almost too good.  The massive display soon filled the finish line area with smoke (I felt sorry for the runners who had to finish off their 8.5 km in the smoke.)  But, also, little pieces of debris - sometimes still on fire when it hit the ground - fell all around us.  Sadly, for my friend from China - this was slightly more than just a nuisance when she got a piece of debris in her eye.  Luckily with the help of one of the many ambulance crews (mostly set up to help runners), she was able to get an eye wash and was almost good as new.  This exchange involved more pantomime than Spanish - none of us knew the phrase "I have a burning piece of firework ash in my eye and need to have it flushed, please." in Spanish.

With the fireworks over and the medical care complete, they headed off toward home and I headed back down to take a walk through the festival area set up near the foot of our bridge.  I watched the performer for a while...

Watched a couple of kids on the rides...

And checked out a few of the tents (mostly bars but some tapas and desserts).  I didn't actually eat or drink anything, because I was still stuffed from the Mexican dinner from a few hours before.

It was after midnight, and I was ready to head home and relax.  I watched a little Spanish Netflix and am now about ready to call it a night... or a morning since it is about 2:30.   No big plans tomorrow - maybe I will sleep in.

September 27 - Archive

Today, I left home at about 1:30 to go this weeks "Cultural Activity" before class.  Today's activity was a trip to the General Archive of the Indies.  For many years, the port in Sevilla on the river served as the primary port for ships going to and from the newly "discovered" America.  So, many of the documents surrounding trade and development in the Spanish colonies were kept in Sevilla.

In the 1700's, King Carlos III, wanted to make sure that an accurate history of Spain's part in developing America was kept.  So, he requested the creation of a central archive of all documents (trade, engineering, maps, plans, treaties, ....) concerning relations with Spain and America be collected into a single place.  The General Archive of the Indies is in a beautiful building that has had a long history before becoming the General Archive - it now contains about 80 million pages of documents and about 8000 maps and drawings.  Researchers from all over the world come to spend time looking at high quality copies of the documents (researchers are not allowed to touch the originals in order to preserve them).  For the last few decades, major progress has been made in digitizing some of the most important documents, but they are far from having all 80 million pages in any kind of searchable digital format.

One of the famous documents kept in the archive is the treaty with Portugal that outlines what part of South America will be a Portuguese colony (Brazil) and what part will be Spanish (the rest).  The place is part "research library" part "museum".  I will certainly go back when I have more time.  I really enjoyed it.  There is an entire hall highlighting documents and models related to engineering plans for infrastructure (city planning,  bridges, ....)

After the Archives visit, I headed back to class (3 students).  

After class, I spent about an hour helping a student from another class move her things across town.  I carried on small bag, one other student (from Brazil) carried one small bag and Wanda (the girl who was moving) carried a HUGE backpack.

After moving, the three of us went to a restaurant for tapas.  We shared 6 tapas - which turned out to be just a little too much food - but we were troopers and ate it all.

By the time we finished, it was almost 11:30 and time to head home.    

September 26 - The New Mall

After a pretty tranquil morning of laundry and Spanish, I headed out for school to participate in the pre-class "tour".  On my way there, I snapped this photo from the bridge - I am pretty sure this is the starting line for the 8.5 km night run that is scheduled for Friday night.  I am not signing up to run because I am pretty sure I couldn't finish before they closed the course... but I will certainly go down to the river and watch the 25,000 runners.

I arrived at school just in time for the 1:45 walking tour - it not so much a formal tour as a chance to practice listening to Spanish, walking a little, and seeing some interesting things that you may or may not otherwise notice.  Today, the regular tour guy was back, and we took a 90 minute walk around some of the neighborhoods near the school.  It was pretty hot, so we walked slow but still covered a couple of miles.

We saw the house that the artist Velazquez was born in - in June of 1599.  Albert and I saw a couple of Velazquez's paintings in the fine arts museum in Sevilla last weekend.  The Prado museum in Madrid also has a large collection of his work.

We also saw a number of churches of different styles - like this one that with the Mosque tower turned bell tower.

And we found the 0 km marker for the center of Sevilla.

After the tour, I went to class - up to four students.  Not much grammar today in class - mostly vocabulary.  

After class, I decided to walk over to the large tower that stands at the next bridge north of our bridge on our side of the river.  There is a new large shopping mall that just opened today with a large Grand Opening that is directly adjacent to the bridge.  It is 6 stories - with the bottom two serving as a parking garage and the top floor as a gym/sports space.  On one end is the tower, and on the other end is the CiaxaForum.  In reality, it is nothing special - just a large mall.  But it was interesting to see the HUGE crowd of people checking the place out.    And, of course, everything is new and clean.  There were balloons for the kids and cloth shopping bags or fans (we are in Sevilla after all) for the adults.  

But, my favorite part was the big "anchor" store - PRIMARK.  There were so many people that wanted to get in, they had barriers set up with lines like you would find in an amusement park with guards only letting in one person for each person who came out.  There was a DJ and a photo booth - it was nuts. I observed from the perimeter, I wasn't really feeling the "wait in a long line to get in to a department store" vibe today even with the rocking DJ. 

After checking out the spectacle of the grand opening, I was ready for the quiet walk home.  

Tomorrow, I am planning to attend the cultural event before class.  

September 25 - Spanish Immersion

This morning I made a quick grocery store run so I would be able to make breakfast at home this week.  Then, before noon I was sitting at the table spending some quality time with subjunctive mode and general verb conjugations.  I took a couple of breaks and used them to watch a little Netflix in Spanish.

After a few quality hours of Spanish, I walked over to class (back down to two students), and after class, I walked over to the intercambio.  On the way over, I saw an incredible pair performing on the street, the guy was playing cello and the woman was singing opera.  It is not that we don't see good street performers here, it is just that they are so outnumbered by the bad ones.  So, it was a real treat to be able to listen to these two.

They are doing some work in the lobby and cafe of the hostel where I go to intercambio.  

But we still had a pretty good group with students from Nicaragua, Bolivia, Spain, France, Australia, Brazil, China, and me from the USA.  I didn't get everyone in one photo, but these are the people that sat at my end of the tables tonight.

After intercambio, I went out to dinner (really just tapas) with a woman from France and a woman from Sevilla.  The woman from Sevilla is a high school math teacher whose students are bilingual (at least trying to be) in Spanish and English.  

By the time I got home, it was nearly 1 am, and I had not had an English conversation all day.  

Since the bar across the street is closed and nearly all of the cafes on the big street around the corner are closed, I guess that means it is time for me to call it a day.

Tomorrow, I am planning to go on the 1:45 walking tour, luckily it is only supposed to be in the low nineties.  Hopefully another good day of Spanish.

September 24 - Home Alone

This morning, Albert and I checked out of our hotel in Madrid after a quick trip.  Albert left first on what turned out to be the biggest hotel shuttle I have ever seen.  It was tasked with dropping off all of the passengers who were going to terminal 4 - the international terminal.  A smaller (more traditional looking) hotel shuttle took the rest of the folks to the other terminals. 

After Albert was tucked safely on the bus, I made my way back downtown to the train station via Metro.  I had a little time and did a little walking around the train station.  There was a TV interview going on in the parking lot below the walkway.

Some beautiful buildings, statues and fountains around the train station,

and of course the train station itself.

The inside of the station also has some beautiful spaces, like this interior courtyard full of plants and trees.  I know that there is a memorial somewhere in the station for the people killed in the 2004 Madrid train bombings, but I couldn't find it.  

After making it through security and the boarding lines, I settled in to reverse my trip from yesterday - literally reversing - my seat faced backwards. 

After an uneventful trip, I walked from the train station to the small grocery store next to my school to get a snack before class.  Then to school - my class is back up to 3 students.

It was over 100 degrees here this afternoon.  Although I was warm on my walk from the train station to school and from school to home with my weekend backpack full of school stuff, clothes, computer, ...At least I was not headed out for a photo op in a wedding dress in 100 degree weather - YIKES!

After school, I went pretty much straight home where I unpacked, had a quick dinner, did some Spanish and talked to Albert (who has safely arrived at Rachel's house after a long day of travel).  

The bar across the street is not open tonight and the building is quiet - maybe an early night for me.  It is kind of weird to think that I am an ocean away from everyone in my family.  So begins my week of "Home Alone".