March 28 - Preparatory Walk to the Train Station

Today after class, I timed a walk to the train station.  Tomorrow evening, we fly to Barcelona and I don't want to miss any more class than I have to... so my plan is to leave during the break, walk quickly to the train station that is just over a mile from school, catch the airport bus at the train station stop, and head out.  If all goes well, Albert will already be on the bus (having caught it at the origin point near our house).  I made it in plenty of time - so even if traffic is a little worse tomorrow, I should be able to make it.

Of course, then I needed to walk the couple of miles back home... But that part of the walk was much more leisurely. 

I stopped in to check on the work in the plaza near my school.  The bleachers are coming along and they have started to put up the "walls" so people will not be able to climb under the bleachers.

I know that the processions will be beautiful during Holy Week, but some of the most popular plazas downtown are not very impressive right now with the preparations.

The work near our bridge appears to be a traffic pattern change for the bike route on the southeast side of the bridge - they poured the concrete today.

Albert and I hadn't gone out for gelato since January.  So when I got home from my long walk, we headed out tonight.  I intended to snap a photo of mine, but I had licked the bowl clean before I remembered to take out my camera.

Tomorrow, some Spanish, a little packing, class and then off to northern Spain, our first trip north of Madrid.  Sadly, it is colder there - with temperatures only in the sixties.  YIKES!

March 27 - Another Quiet Day

Class was pretty interesting today.  We did spend the last half hour playing a game "Synonyms and Antonyms"....it was entirely too hard for me.  I am lucky if I can come up with any word to say what I want to say - coming up with synonyms (and of difficult words like emission - I can barely come up with any in English) was crazy.  But it was an interesting way to try to stretch our vocabularies a bit.

The office at school was pretty quiet today.  The guy who owns the school is moving to Germany tomorrow with his family.  He doesn't come in to the school that often, instead doing most of his communication with the staff electronically or by phone, but he does usually come in on Mondays when it is busy with the week's new students and of course if there is a problem (like when the school was robbed a few weeks ago).  The school has a great group of teachers and admin staff, so I am sure the normal day to day stuff will be good, but I am also sure that they appreciate every non-eventful day they can get.

After school, I walked around a bit enjoying the warm evening.  I noticed a few fun things.  

It seems every person (and there are thousands of them) that is participating in one of the processions during Holy Week will be wearing some special outfit.  There are displays all over the city for the robes, capes and cone shaped head gear for the Nazarenes as well as band uniforms and on and on.  Today I noticed this store that had about 25 different types and sizes of white gloves.  One variety had a different price for each of the dozen or so sizes - seems unnecessarily complicated but I guess if your neighbor needs one more square inch of fabric in their gloves they should have to pay that extra 5 cents...?

Of course, you can spend as much as you like on Easter wear, even if you aren't in a procession.  I like these toddler/baby dresses complete with bonnet for only a couple hundred bucks - 

Of course, you may also want to dress the dolls or statues in your home as well - not to worry, we have a store for that.

It is probably good that we are only going to be here for the first half of Holy Week.  If the preparations are any indication - it is going to be a circus.

I finally finished all of our plans for things to do while in Barcelona for the weekend.  Since we finally lose our hour Saturday night, I didn't plan anything for early Sunday morning.  (our clocks haven't sprung ahead yet like in the US).

Last weekend we were able to watch a little of the NCAA basketball tournament, but from here on out all of the games are going to be on in the evening in the US which means wee hours of the morning for us - so we will just be checking scores in the mornings.  And now, the countdown for the start of the baseball season is on!

March 26 - The Camel Group Lives On

Today was pretty normal, homework, class, intercambio, store, cooking....

I did notice this chocolate hen at the grocery store with the picture of a rabbit stealing eggs.  I understand the logic of the hen and the eggs - but I stand by my position that it is more fun to eat a chocolate bunny.

I have exchanged messages with one of the girls from our trip to Morocco.  Today, she sent a picture of the five of us from our camel riding group on the beach before our ride.  She also noted that one of the pictures of our group on camel back made it into her college (Texas Lutheran) study abroad pamphlet.  Yikes!  Last weekend we saw one of the other students from the trip walking downtown.  Lots of them are in the midst of midterms and getting excited about their week off for Holy Week.  It is fun to see them all enjoying their semester abroad. 

March 25 - My Sharona

If you have never heard the song My Sharona (The Knack 1979), you are not missing much.  If you have heard it, you might realize how easily you can substitute the word Bar-celona for My Sharona... and if you do, you will know exactly what runs through my head every time I hear the city name Barcelona.  This morning, as I made all of our final travel arrangements for our trip this weekend to Barcelona, I had the soundtrack running through my head... I am sad to say, it continues.

Two new students entered our class today - both coming from other classes.  They are both nice and relatively serious about learning Spanish and both are planning to be here for a long time - YAY!  Lots of students come to classes for a couple of weeks (on vacation) but some are more long term (months or even years).  We are finally to the point in the year where I am starting to see a significant number of students who will still be here after I am gone.  The year is flying by.

After class, I went for a walk.  There are lots of Easter dresses and suits as well as fair dresses and suits in the store windows.  And of course, there are lots of T-shirts in the tourist shops.  But, today, I found a fun jacket that I had not seen anywhere else...yes those are bananas.

It is starting to be so warm during the afternoon that people are moving their exercise times to the evenings again.  Lots of boats were out on the water (with people doing rowing practice) as I was heading to the store at around 9pm.

At the store, a small display of Easter candy came out this week.  I don't particularly like the idea of the chocolate soccer balls, I mean you miss all the fun of chomping off the ears.

They painted new bike lines today.  They are bright and make the bike path obvious.... except to that one guy who walked in the paint and left footprints in the newly painted path.

March 24 - LOTS of Spanish and a little sunshine

On Friday, my class covered a lot of material - so, that meant that this weekend, I had A LOT of homework.  With our trip to Italica yesterday, I did some, but not too much.  So, today was it.

I did a few hours this morning before lunch.  Then, after lunch, I did a little more - but not too much before I decided I needed to get out and get some fresh air.  They had been predicting rain today, but it never materialized and it turned out to be a very sunny and warm day.

Albert and I headed over to the cathedral area to see if the car show was still going on, but the tents and cars were already cleared out.  Next we headed over to a bike expo - there were some booths and some kids activities.  Nothing exciting really, a destination for our walk more than anything else.

Next we headed back through a park that has just reopened - it has been closed since we got here.  The fountain was running, but the thing I liked best was this gigantic tree.

We wandered through the Santa Cruz neighborhood and found this sign "Old Corner of The Kiss".  There is a legend that this corner was named because it is on a very narrow street where lovers - each standing on their own balcony - could kiss across the street.  At the street level, at its most narrow point this street is about 43 inches wide.

After our walk, I headed back to do some more Spanish.  Mario came by to return two chairs and take the last one.  

I took another short walk this evening to pick up a couple of things at the express market that is open on Sunday.  Then back in for a little more Spanish.

March 23 - Italica

This morning we headed out across the city to meet our bus for our trip to the archaeological site of Italica.  It was sunny but a little windy.  Albert was happy to have his coat in our open air bus.  It was fun to see the route out of Sevilla as a tourist. 

About 15 minutes outside of Sevilla, we arrived at the archaeological site and started our tour.  First, we walked around the ruins of the city that had been unearthed.  The site is nearly 2000 years old.  Some of the mosaic floors that have been unearthed are absolutely amazing.  We were able to see the foundations of a number of houses, public buildings, roads and baths.  Some of the marble and pieces of the mosaics were stolen between the time that the site first started being unearthed and becoming an officially protected government archaeological site but there is a lot still there.

In addition to the columns, statues, and fancy floors - there were some more "practical" ruins - things like the bases of ovens and bathrooms.

There were also some grates in the ground allowing visitors to see the waterways running below - one pipe was visible - it was made of lead - not the best way to distribute water, but at the time, not knowing the health implications, they used lead in all kinds of things - including make-up - yikes.

It is still an active site - tents and tools are visible.  Using technology, it is known that there are still LOTS of ruins underground.  But, now that the project is protected - new areas will only be unearthed as there is sufficient funding to excavate, restore, and protect.  There are also believed to be ruins under many of the homes, roads, and businesses in the area - but of course those ruins are not part of the projected work.

Our next stop within the site was the amphitheater.  Built with three levels (one and a half still standing today), it would hold up to 25,000 people.  The main theater was interesting, but I really liked the maze of tunnels and walkways that ran throughout - the animal run, the winner's exit, the loser's exit, the waiting rooms, the service corridors - it was an amazingly complicated structure.  

It was nice to have a guide who could point out lots of the details - and to remind us to look down at some of the carvings on the ground stones.

Our final stop in the site was the "visitor center" that was full both of informational posters, a movie, lots of cool photos, and some special finds from the site.  

After spending a couple of hours walking around the site, it was time to head across town to the monastery.  The history of the monastery is not straightforward.  Although it served as a monastery, the building has also had many other "lives" including some time as a women's prison.  Many of the pieces of art were destroyed or painted over due to the Spanish Inquisition.  But, there are lots of interesting things that have been preserved or restored.

The patron family still owns the building - it serves as the crypt for their family - and the newest member buried there was in 2017.  So, although this is no longer an active monastery - it is also not just a tourist site.

After the monastery visit, it was time to head back to Sevilla.  We stopped at the grocery store on the way home.  After a late lunch, and a little Spanish, it was a very mellow evening with a little basketball.

March 22 - Ready for a Quiet Weekend

This morning, Albert and I took the short walk across the bridge to a market that we have passed a number of times - but never when it is fully open.  Many of the flower, produce, meat and fish stalls are only open Monday-Saturday unitl around 1:30.  We didn't really need anything - just wanted to look around.  It is bright and has some nice stalls - but nothing that we haven't seen in other places.

Class was pretty intense today - lots of information.  I had seen pretty much all of it before, but having seen it and being able to use it with fluidity are two very different things.  Hopefully today's review will push at least a few things into my working speech.  We are set to get some new students next week - not sure how that will change things.

There were lots of people out after class.  There are lots of activities in and around town - spring is definitely the busiest season here.  There was a gaggle of students lining up to get into a show near my school, a line of people the full length of two blocks that wrapped around a corner to get into a show in the community center near the cathedral, and there were of course motorcycles and bicycles parked everywhere.

Downtown today, a car show of sustainable vehicles opened, but by the time I made it over there after class, all of the cars had been tucked in to their big white tents.  Maybe I will check it out this weekend.

This is the first weekend in a few weeks that we haven't had out of town plans.  Although the traveling is fun, we are both ready for a quiet weekend.... well almost.  We do have a tour tomorrow morning of the nearby town of Italica and the ruins there.  But, it is only a half day - leaving lots of time for enjoying the spring weekend in Sevilla.

March 21 - Chocolate Bread

This morning, I finished my homework a little early so I decided to adapt a recipe to try to make some chocolate filled rolls.  I was able to get them all the way to the last rising stage before we needed to head out to the store.  Then, I waited until after lunch to bake them.  So, they were warm when I arrived to class and the chocolate was warm and gooey inside....mmmm.  I had to be quick to snap a picture before they were all gone.

Class was good today - only two students.  We are scheduled to have five tomorrow.  

On the way home, I stopped off in the plaza near my school where they are staging the bleachers and seating for Holy Week.  A few sets of stairs, some long bleachers (which will eventually hold chairs), and huge stacks of pieces and parts fill the plaza.

I made my way home, and checked on the progress on the busy corner at the foot of the bridge.  Still not sure what they are doing, but clearly some work happened today.  Change in the bike lane maybe?

At home, I ate a quick dinner and did my homework for tomorrow - so now I can use tomorrow morning to do some more general studying.  Then, a little NCAA basketball.  Sadly, the game I am really interested in doesn't start until nearly 1am here - so I will have to just check the score when I get up.

March 20 - Almost Spring

Today's class was lively.  We have had some strong personalities in class the last couple of weeks (not every day, but lots of days).  It is always fun, but it sometimes feels like we aren't getting very far.  Luckily for me, I spend time at home every day working on the theory and grammar and benefit greatly from the lengthy free form conversations that have become part of our normal class.

After class, I spent a couple of hours walking around the city.  I hadn't really been out before class and needed some exercise.  Although the entire winter has been mild, there are very tangible signs that it is almost spring (only minutes away) - there is a much wider variety of fruit in the markets - berries and melons are pomegranate are back - and flowers (in trees, gardens and patios) are all starting to really bloom.

Of course, some things don't change at all like the fact that there is a never ending stream of road/sidewalk projects.  Today a new hole and fence showed up at one of the large corners where I normally cross on my way to class.

March 19 - Back to the Patio

This morning after finishing my homework, I decided to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies for intercambio.  My oven does not keep a constant temperature and I have to use an upside down foil covered glass baking dish as a cookie sheet, but with small batches and carefully watched cooking, in only 3 hours, I managed to do what I could in about one hour at home - but it worked.

My class was good - but we spent nearly the last hour with me answering questions about the United States - luckily the questions were pretty easy (and non-controversial).  One student was mostly interested in what it would take to visit Area 51 in Nevada. 

After class, I walked a little and stopped off to buy a couple of things at the market before heading over to intercambio.  I had shared a few cookies with my class and the professors and brought the rest with me to intercambio.  Due to the great weather, this week we moved back out to the patio (we had been inside since winter) - it was a pretty large and lively group.  They finished off the cookies.

At around 10, I headed out toward home.  On the bridge, I passed another group of men, castarelos,  out preparing for Semana Santa - carrying a weighted frame that mimics the paso that they will be carrying for hours during their procession.  

After a quick dinner, I am heading off to bed.  Lots of homework tomorrow morning!

March 18 - To the Canary Islands and Back

Saturday morning we made our way over to the airport and flew to the largest of the Canary Islands - Tenerife.  The Canary Islands are situated in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Western Sahara.  Tenerife has rocky beaches on the north side (where we stayed), a large national park that contains the highest point in Spain in the center, and sandy beaches in the south (we didn't make it to the south).

Our hotel overlooked the ocean, and we spent most of Saturday afternoon and evening exploring the hotel and the surrounding area.  

Carnival is still happening in the bars on Tenerife.  Lots of folks passed our dinner table on the way to festivities.  Many were in traditional Spanish dresses, but some were in costumes, or other fancy carnival wear.

Sunday morning, we headed out to catch our tour bus.  We were part of a small group of visitors - most were from other parts of Spain but there was also one other couple who spoke English and one couple who spoke German.  The guide basically gave all of the information in all three languages.  It was a good chance to practice my Spanish listening.  There was a woman and her mother from northern Spain who I chatted with quite a bit.  The mom didn't speak any English and the daughter only spoke a little - so we stuck to Spanish.  They are going to Argentina next and will be in Seattle in November.  They try to do at least a few big trips every year.  The mom is 75 and has two new titanium knees and is enjoying her ability to get around.  They stuck to some of the flatter trails, but they seemed to really enjoy the tour.

We were able to walk around lots of trails around the national park - including a couple that were near the top of the volcano that we reached after riding a cable car up.  The lava flows made for lots of interesting geologic formations and landscapes.

There is a nice lodge in the center of the park, but at more than 300 dollars a night, we gave it a pass.  Much like the national parks in the US, there were lots of cars at many of the popular spots.

The entire tour was about 8 hours.  After heading back to the hotel, we cleaned up a little and headed out to dinner.  We fell asleep with the sound of waves against the rocks.

This morning, we were up bright and early to catch the bus back to the airport.  The trip that only took 30 minutes on Saturday took over an hour this morning with workday traffic.  Luckily we gave ourselves plenty of time and made it home without a problem.  Sevilla was warm and sunny when we arrived.  It felt good to be home.  There was a movie shoot happening on the bank of the river all afternoon, they were just packing up the last of it when we took out the trash this evening.

I did some homework Friday, some in Tenerife, and finished up after we got home before class.  Tonight I went to the store after class and then did most of tomorrow's homework - but now, I am starting to feel the early morning travel so the rest will have to wait.