May 14 - Back to Normal

Today was very quiet.  Homework, store, a little cooking, class, a walk, and intercambio.

During my walk, I did make it in to a couple of plazas that I hadn't been in to before.  I love the tile in this one.

And, I enjoyed some new post-fair store window displays.

Then, inspired by a postcard, I took some snapshots to spell out Sevilla.

Allergies are much better - gonna try to get to bed early tonight, lots of homework that will just have to wait for tomorrow.

May 13 - Goodbye Juli

This morning, I really tried to minimize my time out of the apartment.  I was recovering from a couple of days of really bad allergies that flare up every time I go outside.  I did make it to the store with Albert, but once I was back in the apartment, I didn't make it back out with Juli to try one more tapa at one of the restaurants around the corner.

Juli was very productive on her last morning here.  She packed, washed a load of laundry that included her sheets and towels, swept her room, and went out to try one last Sevilla tapa - all before going to the corner to catch her Uber to the train station.  My yelp review for her as a house guest would be 5/5 stars!!!  I did at least go out to see her off.

It has been so fun having guests the last couple of weeks - getting to show off our city to Marge and exploring all kinds of new places with Juli.  It was nice to have someone who loves seafood as much as me to try new dishes.  I am just sorry that because of the fair, the bar across the street was closed most of the week and we didn't get to try the snails.  Albert and I have a few weeks of alone time now until our next guests in mid June.

Knowing that my teacher would be sad today with fair being over (her absolute favorite week of the year) - I made some homemade caramel, roasted some pecans, and made a pan of nutty, caramel, chocolate bars.  I didn't really have a recipe, but they turned out pretty good.  

Class was good today, we had four students who are all very fun and who work hard.  Between my class and the other professors, all of the bars that I brought to school were gone before the end of class.  I did leave some at home for Albert and I.

After class, I took the bus out to Costco.  I picked up a few things and made it home by a ten - then a light dinner.  Allergies are much better this evening - hoping that means a good night's sleep.  Tomorrow should be a pretty normal Tuesday,  I am looking forward to intercambio.  

May 12 - Happy Mother's Day

This morning, I finished up my homework while Juli went to mass at the cathedral.  Sadly, my allergies have been really bad the last couple of days and so my motivation to get out and do something today was very low.

By about 5 pm, the temperature outside had reached the mid 90's and I had basically been in the apartment all day - so I headed out for a walk - a chance to enjoy the summer like weather.

I mostly kept to city streets and stayed away from parks - luckily you can enjoy lots of natural scenery from the bridges.

There are lots of different ice cream shops in town (luckily for us, our favorite is really close to our house.)  One of the "styles", is very decorative.  They smear a thin layer of ice cream on a cold slab and then use a spatula to form rolls of ice cream and using this technique they form "ice cream flowers".

There is a cool "information" display in the downtown area.  Each display board has informational graphics about the area - growth, tourism, business, ...  It is like 25 perfect examples of math graphics in action and it appears that the only purpose of the display is to encourage people to be informed about their city, region, and country.  

The neighborhood kids had a cage with pet mice and there was another cage sitting outside their apartment with baby chicks.  I am not sure what the long term plan is.

May 11 - Going Out with a Bang

This morning, Juli and I took a nice walk along the northern spit of the city.  There were lots of beautiful flowers and nice views.

We made it to the park at the end of the branch of the river.

Then crossed over and checked out the GIANT egg statue dedicated to Columbus.  Yes, that is Juli in front.

After all those miles, we treated ourselves to a nice lunch at one of the restaurants that Albert and I really like.

In the evening, Juli and I made our way across to the opposite side of the river where we took an outdoor elevator up one of the hills.

Once at the top, we did a little walking and were awarded with some amazing views back across.   The lights from the fair really lit up the night sky.

Then back across to Triana where we ate a light dinner near the entrance to the fairgrounds.  We finished dinner at around 11:30 and headed back toward the Triana bridge to watch the midnight fireworks that signaled the end of the fair.  For months the city has been preparing for the two biggest weeks of the year - Holy Week and Fair Week.   There are, of course, lots of other exciting things happening in the city in the other 11 months of the year, but there will likely be a bit of a letdown for the next few days after this month of celebration.

May 10 - Friday

This morning Juli joined us on our trip to the Mercadona and did a load of laundry - it was more of a "day in the life" kind of morning than a typical touristy morning.

Later she headed out to check out the city and I went to class. 

It is probably good that we are nearing the end of the fair.  People are starting to feel the effects of hours of partying every night....

The door guy for my school left early today for fair and locked all of the students out of the building during the break.  Luckily with everyone having a cell phone, we were able to message the teachers who were waiting upstairs to come down and let us all back in.

My teacher was in pretty good spirits, but she definitely was ready when class ended - just two more nights at the fair.  Luckily by her sharing photos, I can just enjoy the fair vicariously through her.

I met Juli at the bridge on my way home and we finished the walk together.  After a short time at home, we headed back out for a light dinner in a Triana restaurant.  The weather is perfect and it is Friday night, but since so many people are at the fair, we were still able to get a table right away.   

We will try to see the closing fireworks tomorrow night at the fair.  I will miss seeing everyone in their fancy dresses and suits.

May 9 - Tapas and Future Plans

Before class today, Juli and I headed over to the fine arts museum.  I have been a number of times, but there are a few pieces that I really love and am happy to visit over and over again.

I left her to do some more exploring in the museum when I headed off to class.  It was a pretty mellow day - only two students.  Even though the teacher has been spending hours every night (into the wee hours of each morning) at the fair, she seemed to be in good spirits.  I guess the day off from school yesterday was enough to keep her going.

After arriving home, Juli and I headed out for dinner.  Albert had already eaten so we took the opportunity to have some tapas that probably wouldn't have been that interesting for him anyway.
Yes those are tiny shrimp fried together into a "chip" and yes the thin shells are still on.  The result is crunchy and delicious.  The tuna like fish on top of the potatoes was also delicious.  And what table is complete without a bowl of olives and some picos (tiny bread sticks).

Even though we were not really close to the fair, we still saw a number of fair-goers dressed in flamenco dresses and suits.  There were also a number of horse groups that rode past the restaurant as we watched from our sidewalk table.

We stopped off and picked up some bakery treats to share with Albert at home.  

I can hardly believe that Juli has already been here for a week, it seems like she just arrived.  She will leave on Monday to head up to Madrid.  So, it was time for me to start planning our next adventure.  After some serious time organizing travel, we now have a weekend planned in late May for Bilbao.  There are lots of interesting places in Spain that we could visit, but we made a list for ourselves of places we really wanted to see and having visited Barcelona, Madrid, Malaga, Cordoba, Cadiz, Grenada, Mallorca, and Tenerife - Bilbao and the basque country was the last place on our must-see list for the year.  

May 8 - Day Fair

In addition to a little studying and another Spanish movie and some cooking, today Albert, Juli, and I took a walk to and through the fair.

It is fun to watch the people heading into the fair.  With today being a holiday, there were lots of families.

Of course, a big part of the day fair is the horse parade.  There are horses (both with traditional riders and side saddlers) and horses pulling carts (with anywhere from one to six horses) that are used as transportation to get to the fair but also who then parade up and down the aisles of the fairgrounds so that the passengers can both see and be seen.  

In the day fair, there are also LOTS of children.  There are lots of candy trucks, games, rides, toy vendors,.... but most of the kids we saw were just hanging out with family and friends.  It is like a big family reunion - with "costumes".

Tomorrow it is back to school.  Of course, I am not sure what shape the teachers will be in after five straight days of fair, but I will be ready to go!