I thought the teacher who said this was kind of crazy, to be honest. I mean a place? Really?
Me di cuenta de que (I realized) the joke was on me. Because we visited Alcázares Reales de Sevilla (the Royal Alcazar of Seville), and literally could not believe the volumes being spoken by this Royal Palace-- which is absolutely on the top of the "must see" list if you are going to travel to this city. This palace, according to our tour guide (The art history teacher at our program), is known for being one of the best remaining examples of arquitectura mudéjar, an architectural style heavily influenced by the Moors who stayed in Christian territory after being conquered. It is breathtaking in size, and has many sections to it. Sometimes, you are just too consumed by the vastness of the ceilings, columns, and arches that you forget to simply look down beneath your own two feet at the handcrafted and painted tiles. While some sections have been converted to ruinas (ruins), our teacher nos explicó (explained to us) that others have not been refurbished and are still functional to this day. Gothic and Renaissance styles dominate some of the quarters, and you have an idea of how well they separated private and public spaces. I enjoyed seeing the Admiral's Quarters, consisting of a chapel, the Admiral's Room, the Lion's Courtyard, and a beautiful gallery. Featured next to one of the main alter pieces in the Admiral's Room, a giant painting of the Virgin of the Mariners, is a replica of one of Cristobol Colon (Christopher Columbus') ships to commemorate his reception by Queen Isabella I in that very room. I don't remember exactly where we were when we saw the famous inscription:
Tanto monta monta tanto isabel como fernando
but it really resonated with me. This motto translates to: "They amount to the same," implying that Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile had a truly joint reign. And talk about coincidence, but the shortened version of this phrase, Tanto Monta came up at the table during la comida, when one of Ana's children was telling a story! I thought it was cool because I actually knew what she meant to imply by that phrase.
I don't want to bore you if you aren't into all this history, but I just thought this place was incredible. I bought a GREAT book at the gift shop that details the many different sections, including Patio de las Doncellas (The courtyard of the maidens), La Casa de Contratación (The house of trade), los jardines (the gardens), and Salón de Embajadores (The Ambassadors' Hall). We took some incredible pictures to capture la riqueza (the opulence), and we will most definitely be coming back for picnics in the garden when it starts getting warmer within a month. Los jardines are truly the place to go if you just want to read a book or get lost in your thoughts. My only aviso (warning): beware of los patos (ducks). They are NOT afraid of people.
After our day trip, we went back home for my first encounter with la berenjena (eggplant) cooked in a way that didn't involve complete smothering in tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese. It was stuffed with carne (meat I chose not to identify) and béchamel sauce. Let's just say it was a meal that knocked us out for the duration of the afternoon. But nos despertamos (we woke up) with a new energy-- seems to be a recurring pattern here-- and decided to give the Sevici bike service a whirl. Weren't we a sight! We utilized the allotted half hour circling el campo de Betis (the stadium) and took the bike path halfway to our school to just get a feel for the ride. 3 near death experiences, 2 of which involved close calls with other human beings, later, we parked the bikes back at the station near our house and relaxed with Ana and Manolo to watch the news. We also decided to start mapping out the different viajes (trips) we want to take. We bought tickets for Carnavales de Cádiz for Feb 13-14. I gathered it is kind of a lesser version of Mardi Gras meets Halloween? We also picked out trips to Lagos, Portugal and Morocco. Those two trips have a few potential dates available so we're going to consult with some friends. Ana is also leaving for Paris soon for some work-related plans, so we are hoping she can give us some travel advice for when we are ready to brave that city! It's not that I'm worried about us being alone when she is gone, because of course Manolo and Vicki will be here! But still!! Laura and I are really growing attached to her!
Friday night, we went over to our Cornell friends' apartment in El Centro. We started off our night there for about an hour and then we went to a discoteca que se llama Catedral Club (a dance club called Catedral). It was nothing super outrageous, but the scene was fun. Much harder to practice our Spanish there with the music blasting!
We woke up to una mañana buenisima (a BEAUTIFUL morning). I decided to hacer footing (go for a jog)... and the sun was shining!! (not to rub it into all of you freezing your butts off). And I got some color in my face-- I will be breaking out la loción bronceadora (sunscreen) the next time I'm out there; I just wasn't quite expecting that! Afterward, Laura and I got dressed and went to el parque (the park) around the corner from us. It is right next to this little indoor/outdoor restaurant where entire families congregate for their mid-morning/pre-comida snack. We brought our books and parked ourselves on a bench for about an hour, and then volvimos (we returned) to the buzzing house. Saturdays are reserved for full family gatherings, and so several of Ana's children and grandchildren came over for la comida. It was a little intimidating, even though this was our second experience in this kind of setting. Hay mucha conversation (a lot of people are talking)-- and cross-talking, and asking questions... Sometimes it's just easier to sit there and nod. Alfonso, one of Ana's children, is actually one of my favorites because he is very smart and interested in our studies here. He is very cultured and loves to read, so he told me he would bring me some different novelas (shorter novels) to read by Cervantes. He said he'd help me try to understand the more dense material if I struggled.
I learned a really sad fact about Ana's family through a private conversation later that afternoon. I was looking through some of her photographs and commented about how busy she must have been with 6 children. She caught my eye and looked down, and explained that there were once siete (7) children. One of her sons was killed in a tragic accident at age 18-- she didn't really explain much further, but took the conversation in a more positive direction about how grateful she is to have the family she has.
Last night, we (Laura and the Abbys) wanted to do a bar crawl-- starting location: a bar called "Long Island" Yeah, that's right. We figured that if it was too much of an American scene, we could walk outside and be right along Calle Betis. But it was actually the EXACT opposite, but to a completely uncomfortable extreme. Salimos (we left immediately) and tried a different place for a little while. We also decided to try this place called Boss, which is less of a bar and more of a discoteca but suddenly there was a line in order to get in-- basically, the club looked empty inside, but they just weren't letting any Americans in. It probably didn't help that we were waiting in line with a group of British boys with the loudest, most obnoxious accents. I can't even be really mean about it because we all bonded over the great disappointment and left to go somewhere else along Called Betis. We learned that like 15 of them are members of a crew team, just passing by on vacation. We hung out with our new group of blokes for the duration of the night and came back agotadas (exhausted).
Hoy (today)-- Sunday-- was very relaxing, not much to write about. We slept until about 1230, exercised a bit, met the family for la comida and did the usual news watching/speaking practice. Ana had us both read newspaper articles en voz alta (aloud), which is definitely my WORST performance with the language. We ended up just laughing at each other.
I have been uploading some pictures and I will go through and label everything so they aren't just scenery pictures sin significado (without meaning). Just be patient with me. Laura and I are going to relax for the remainder of the night so we are ready to bike-ride to class tomorrow!
Hasta luego,
Sarita
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