la huelga

Yesterday, the public workers in Spain were on strike, spurred by budget cuts that will be made in the public sector. There was a lot of buzz surrounding the strike prior to the big day, as no one really knew what to expect. How did it affect my life? If I were a student, I would not have had to go to class. But, I was already planning on having a pretty free day. The strike did affect my day when I went to the public library to rent "Big Fish" and "Million Dollar Baby" and was not permitted to do so.

If you're interested, read more about the strike here:


http://libcom.org/news/cnt-make-spain%E2%80%99s-general-strike-indefinite-23062010

foto(s) del día

the Sevilla sky has consistently been a true blue hue with fluffy white clouds, 

always luring my eyes upward. more sky pics sure to come...

view from La Giralda

 

the view facing my neighborhood, Triana

chace crawford is my new boyfriend

 

 yes, it's true. chace has been my flatmate for the past few days.

 

see the resemblance? it's even more striking in person. and if nate is my bf 

i guess that makes me serena. be jealous.

tapastapastapas

On Saturday night I went with a few friends to a tapas bar. Not knowing what to order, we asked our waiter to bring us 10 tapas típicas de España. Scroll through our entire meal below...

1. some kind of potato salad covered in a creamy cheese. the potato salad wasn't bad but the cheese turned me off.

 

2. a garlic sauce that we proceeded to put on almost all of the following tapas- delicious!

 

 3. french fries and beef. nothing special here.

 

4. fried strips of calamari. texture was just a little too tough.

 5. fried shrimp (peel off head and tail and eat with shell on). not bad, but after ripping off the head and tail you barely have any shrimp left.

 6. veal (at least that's what I think it was) with french fries. super succulent
and won my vote for the best tapa of the evening

 7. seared or smoked tuna covered in olive oil.

super salty, and the closest thing I've had to sushi so far...
the blackness of the tuna was slightly disturbing, though.

 8. smoked salmon and cheese on bread. i love lox but this was far too oily.

 

8. fried hake. pretty plain.

 9. grilled hake. great fish!

10. grilled calamari. actually better than the fried calamari and
reminded me more of scallops than squid.

I love the idea of tapas - of tasting multiple food items in one meal - but I'm not the 

biggest fan of the Andalucían food. Nevertheless I tried each tapa 

and was full at the end of the meal, so I guess its not  that horrible...

fourteen hundred ninety two

A monument dedicated to Christopher Columbus, Fernando, Isabel, and the year 1492.

"America, f$%k yeah!"

home sweet home

As requested, here are pictures of my new room! I have two murphy (-darling) beds (sans sheets at the moment) all to myself, perfect for all of you coming to visit! And, I even have enough wardrobe/drawer space to fit all my clothes (big feat). The window opens up to a small balcony where I can hang my clothes to dry (nope, no dryers here). 

 

And, here are a few of the things I put up on the walls to make it feel a little more homey... 

 

(poster courtesy of a good friend of mine...I hope it freaks out my roommates). 

Speaking of roommates, I am living with a boy and a girl from México, as well as a boy and a girl from Germany. I originally wanted to live with Spaniards in order to be exposed to the Spanish language as much as possible, but, of course, the Mexicans speak Spanish (no, not Mexican). The downside is that I have to start censoring my Michael Scott quotes...

best man

 

My dad just left for the states, and I couldn't be more grateful for his company this week. Though somewhat lacking in Spanish language skills, his wisdom is unparalleled. Thanks, Dad, for all your support and encouragement this week. Hardest goodbye I've had to say yet...

Every instant is Still.

My friend Boro recommended that I look at a poem by Antonio Machado (1875-1939), a famous poet from the city of Sevilla. The rich landscape of his childhood in Andalucía became the subject of much of his work. Machado died while fleeing through the Pyrenees during the Spanish Civil War at the age of 64.
I particularly liked his “Proverbs and Songs”. Read a couple below.
___

Between living and dreaming
there is a third thing.
Guess it.
___

In my solitude
I have seen things very clearly
that were not true.
___

But art?
It is pure and intense play,
so it is like pure and intense life,
so it is like pure and intense fire.
You’ll see the coal burning.
__

He also wrote the title of this post.
__

praise the Lord!

though i have yet to try yogurtlandia, it looks promising.

Becca, now you have no reason not to come live here with me. 

real men wear pink

Ernest Hemingway, America's favorite macho author, took his pregnant wife to a bullfight, hoping the spectacle would have an impact on their unborn son.

At my first bullfight last night, I was struck not by the tremendous masculinity of el matador, but rather, by his feminine get-up.

 

Manly Spanish men smoking manly (or phallic?-sorry mom) cigars while watching their man-hero. 

foto del día

Although I dislike cats, this one napping by the water made me smile.

cádiz

On Sunday morning, Dad and I took a brief trip to the coastal town of Cádiz. It’s an ancient city (sometime way back when B.C., at one point a Phoenecian city) on a narrow strip of land surrounded by water about a two hour bus ride from Sevilla.


 







We saw some ruins,



climbed a tower,


took a pleasant stroll along the water,

and were back in Sevilla with time to spare for a siesta. A wonderful day in the oldest continuously-habited city in the Iberian Peninsula (and possibly all of southwestern Europe).

a taste of andalucía

“tomato meat balls” as described on the english menu. served with potatoes. (note:photo taken after I was finished eating, if that tells you anything. coming from me, it should.)

foto del día

foto del día

a view of La Giralda (the tower of the gothic cathedral) from my lunch table across the river

las palmeras

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Sevilla is full of las palmeras. Somehow my eyes rest a little easier when their explosive silhouettes are within my view.

See them here around the Cathedral of Seville, the largest gothic cathedral in the world, in the gardens in front of of El Museo Nacional del Prado, and lining the edge of La Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza (Seville’s famed bullfighting stadium).

The Cathedral of Seville:



El Museo Nacional del Prado:


La Plaza de Toros de la Maestranza (view from across the river):

pre-departure basics

1. For those who can’t locate Sevilla on a map,




now you can. For those of you who CANNOT locate Spain on a map, don’t be in a beauty pageant.

2. For those who have never seen Sevilla (myself included),

I assume I’ll be floating around somewhere in there.

(Hopefully sooner rather than later, assuming all goes smoothly with my visa. Another pre-departure basic: get a visa. on time.)

[update: visa obtained. departure from los angeles on sept. 15, 2010]