...porque es Sevilla

[Pics have nothing to do with the post]
Fabiano helping the Real Madrid goalkeeper after Fabiano took him out

It’s been very difficult to get a hold on what I actually do at night and how it happens. I rarely have a plan after dinner, but it seems like every night I have found something to do. It always starts the same way. I eat dinner at 8:30 and around 9:15 I leave the house to walk around for an hour. Once a week I will grab an ice cream on the way out of the neighborhood.

To show you how random my nights are I will give you examples of a few nights this week. On Tuesday I wandered into Macarena which is a barrio (neighborhood) about 15 minutes away. I found this bar, Caferia, a couple weeks ago where the bartender, Carmen, is not only cute but she doesn’t speak English. So, in order for us to communicate I have to speak Spanish to her. I think she enjoys correcting and laughing at my bad grammar. I was in there for about a half hour and I left to go home. On the way I heard this American and I was laughing at what she was saying to her non-American friends. Not knowing that I knew English she asked, “What are you smiling at?” I found out she was from Texas and is an au pair here. Her friends are also au pairs and I walked them back to their barrio asking them about their jobs. On the way back I ran into classmates and I sat with them at a restaurant for awhile. Before I know it I wasn't walking home until 2:30.

Part of The Cathedral

The next night, Wednesday, started out a little earlier, but I still went into it without any type of plan. I met Carmen for coffee before dinner. She wants to learn English and I obviously I am trying to learn Spanish so when we meet for coffee she only speaks English and I only speak Spanish. It takes awhile to have a conversation, but all I have is time anyway. After coffee we walk over to her friend Margo’s store. It turns out it is Margo’s birthday and she was nice enough to invite me to a little party that night that started at 10:00.

I went home to eat dinner and then met Carmen at Caferia at 12:30 when she was closing the bar. We walked to the party which was on the roof of an apartment building. There were about 20 Spaniards, Italians, and even another American. We drank fresh mojitos and ate a homemade Italian cake. It was a lot of fun, but again I found myself out well past 2:00.

Plaza de España

This is what happens almost every night and I love it. The best part is that Spanish is spoken most of the time so I get to work on what I am studying. When people ask me why this happens I have come to one standard answer...porque es Sevilla (because it's Sevilla).

What I Do

The door to one of the many churches I walk past everyday. That door is about 16 feet tall
[The pictures are not representative of what I write about they are just thrown in to show you what I'm seeing]

I wanted to wait a week or two to talk about what my daily life in Sevilla is like. It took a week for me to get into a routine during the day and then a little longer to grasp what my nights look like. There is nothing really special here, except for the fact that it’s Spain of course.

I wake up between 8:00 and 8:30 every morning. This is early for most Sevillanos but late for me so I consider it a good compromise. Some days I will go for a run and some days I will study in my room for a couple hours. Usually breakfast is basic with some kind of cereal or toast. Around 10:00 I will head out to walk into the city center where my school is and where my favorite restaurants and plazas are located. The walk takes me anywhere from 15-25 minutes. I have gotten bored with the same route lately so I am taking longer roads to shake things up.

Once I get to the city center I head to Alfalfa and walk around its cobblestone plazas and tight one lane roads. There are four or five different cafés I have to choose from. I will sit down at a table outside, order a coffee with milk and a tostada with ham, and take out my books to study. I have yet to encounter a morning where the weather isn’t perfect for this. Usually its around 75 degrees at 11:00.

The crowd before the Sevilla v. Real Madrid game

I have noticed something interesting about the cafés and restaurants here. Tipping is not necessary in Sevilla. I liked the fact that I did not have to at first, but I quickly found out why we tip in America. The waitresses just aren’t very nice here. I guess it’s because they don’t have to be.

After my coffee I walk around for an hour or so and look in the shops and people watch. Usually one of the pastry shops will suck me in with some kind of pastry covered with chocolate and if I’m lucky I will be surprised by chocolate inside the pastry as well. That’s a good surprise. Then right before class at 2:30 I will get a small sandwich.

You are probably looking back and thinking that I sure do eat a lot. Yes, I do. I am going to come home fat and broke because of it. I just cannot get enough of the pastries, tapas, and tinto veranos (red wine with some citrus flavored soda).

Last night we walked up on some ceremony coming out of The Cathedral. Not sure what it was for

We have a 30 minute break in the middle of the four hours and I will take that time to walk around and get a bottled water. I can buy a 1.5 liter bottled water for half the price of a ½ liter of Coke. Depending on what they’re tempting me with at the counter I might get a snack as well.

After class I have two hours before dinner so I take my time walking back to the house. Like I said, just another day...in Spain

Words Couldn't Explain the Game

I am not ready to post my thoughts about this game but I must give you something. As you may know already Sevilla upset Real Madrid last night. I was on the 5th row to experience it all. I tried to get some of the atmosphere through my camera. Below is a taste of what I could get. There will be more to come in the next few days. Disfrute!

Now remember this is from my point and click camera from 2002 so the quality isn't great

This is just before the start of the game


This is right after the game ended

It's Game Day!

I'm headed to what may be my only tailgating and game day of the year.
Hopefully I do the trampelling if Sevilla wins instead of being the
one that gets trampelled on.

Saturdays in Sevilla

Sevilla from the tower of a cathedral

I am spending my first full Saturday in Sevilla and trying to enjoy it just as the Sevillans do. I woke up later than usual, bought a local paper from a newsstand, and walked to my favorite plaza to grab a tostada con queso y jamón y un café con leche (toast with cheese and ham and a coffee with milk). It’s a great way to start the day.

Before I go further I must layout “Alcentro” in Sevilla. Alcentro is a large area in this city where the buildings are maybe 50’ tall and contain four levels. Each of the buildings have retail on the bottom and than three floors of residential (a very small percentage have offices on the second level). All the roofs have terraces and some even have pools. In between these buildings are small streets mostly for pedestrians, some allow cars going one way, but none have two way traffic. In fact, I would say that half the cars in America would not fit down these streets. Also in Alcentro are dozens of plazas that are small “square-like” areas where restaurants have outdoor seating and families meet to hang out and let their kids run around.

That being said, I had breakfast at Bar Alfalfa this morning. It is a very small bar at the intersection of three streets. At night the place is packed. In the morning it is a great location to sit and watch the city wake up. In every city I travel to I think the best part is squatting some place in the morning, grabbing a coffee, and observing the habits of the people in the morning as they start their day. Bar Alfalfa is a great place to do this because it is just on the edge of the Plaza de Alfalfa so everyone passes by to start their day.

As I sit in Plaza de Alfalfa I am able to look out at three restaurants with approximately 20 outside tables apiece. You have people by themselves reading the newspaper or a book, friends meeting up and having coffee discussing the night before, kids with their parents enjoying churros con chocolate (you dip the churros in hot chocolate), and people typing nonsense on their computers. [As I was typing that the waiter brought out churros for the table next to me and the 5 year-old’s face lit up like fireworks on the 4th of July upon seeing them. He is dunking them in the hot chocolate like I used to do with Oreos in milk] There is not a cloud in the sky and I would guess it is about 75 degrees. This is about the time where the temperature rises about 10 degrees in a couple hours and by then it will be time for everything to close most will head home to rest. When the temperature starts to fall around 5:00 the stores and restaurants open back up and the people are back at their social life walking around.

What am I going to do today? Disfrutaré este día y la vida. I will enjoy this day and life. Whatever I do it will entail lots of listening to Spaniards and paying attention to their relaxed way of life.

Soapbox Saturday - Smoking in Sevilla

I despise walking into a restaurant with good food and seeing this sign
With all apologies to my friends and family that smoke I need to talk about the aspect of Sevilla that makes me want to leave right now. Smoking is allowed in every restaurant and bar at any time of the day. I loathe starting my day with a cup of coffee and a newspaper and smoke in my face. It deadens the coffee and substitutes the crisp morning air with a toxin that prohibits a person from being able to breathe normally. Am I being dramatic? Yes, but I am trying to think of a habit that is more selfish than smoking in public. You need a few puffs so bad that you are willing to affect another person’s health? I am willing to open myself up to being nailed here: Someone please tell me habits that I have that are harming people around me. Maybe there are some. If so, I want to change them.

My Condolences to...

The mosaic outside of the Sevilla Futbol Club's stadium. Oh yeah...where I will be on Sunday watching the best soccer players in the world

With all condolences to my future-yet-to-be-determined wife I think I just gave away my rights to my first born son. I am still learning this language, but I heard the guy say "me das" and "primer hijo" in the same sentence. I know it's crazy to offer your first born son for anything, right? Well this isn't just anything, this is a ticket to a La Liga futbol game. These tickets are hard to come by. Sevilla is the local team in the city where I am studying and they are in the top division in Spain. Real Madrid is also in the top division in Spain but they are perhaps the best known club team in America because of their recent additions of Cristiano Ronaldo (from Portugal) and Kaká (from Brazil). Still haven't heard of them? How can I say this so everyone understands better.

Soccer here is as big if not bigger than college football in the South. Seriously. I was in a restaurant/bar (all restaurants serve beer and all bars have food so there's really no difference) watching the Sevilla game on TV last Sunday. There was actual tension in the room throughout the game and when Sevilla would score the place went absolutely nuts. Even when they scored their final goal to lead 4-0 the place went crazy. I can't even imagine what it must be like to actually be in the stadium.

Two teams that perennially lead La Liga (the top Spanish division) are Barcelona, who won everything last year, and Real Madrid. This year they are still at the top of the division, but one spot behind them is Sevilla. Everyone is talking in Spain about how this might be the year that Sevilla upsets one of them and takes 1st or 2nd place.

The best comparison I can think of is from the Big 12 South in college football. Every year Texas and Oklahoma are the favorites and it almost always comes down to their game in October that decides who will represent the South in the Big 12 title game. Suppose one year Texas Tech was right behind them in the standings and still had to play both of them. Assume Texas is coming into Texas Tech this weekend and if Texas Tech wins they will control their destiny over Texas. How rowdy will that stadium be before kickoff and during the game if it stays close? That is exactly the way Sevilla will be this weekend. And I will be on the 5th row to experience it!

I don't really think Sevilla is as good as Real Madrid. I watched RM on TV last night and they make precise passes with their feet that Steve Nash would have trouble making with his hands. How they stop a ball dead like they are catching it is beyond me. But, if Sevilla keeps the game close throughout I think the stadium will get louder and louder, RM will get tighter, and this gives them a better chance.

Oh, and like college football they don't sell beer in the stadium because they feel like the fans are crazy enough. How cool is that. I have explained our tactics of modifying cokes in stadiums but most around here have never done that.

Again, my mistake on the first born son thing but I bet you all understand now. The guy that sold me the ticket had a bunch of 5 year olds running around. Oddly enough the last time Sevilla had a game this big was about 6 years ago. What a coincidence.