My Thin Red Line: My Prayer/Spanish Roots II

Pray for the folks down in New Orleans, because it looks like that city is going to be demolished. 175mph winds--that's absolutely amazing. I think that's worse than Andrew. CNN reported a worst case scenario would be most of the city under 5 feet of water. Unfortunately, from the looks of things, it doesn't seem like many people in the area are taking it too seriously, as many of them are relatively new to the area and have never experienced a hurricane. The Weather Channel showed many people still walking around outside and driving by the coast. I hope they move their asses soon.

Anyway, more from el diario...

Wed., 9/8

Last night opened my eyes to what is perhaps the real flavor of Sevilla. After searching fruitlessly through the endless nooks and crannies that comprise the city's streets for a good half hour, we finally found Tamboril, a recommended local sevillanos bar. But some in the group decided it wasn’t a good joint and went to Calle Betis for someone’s birthday. A few of us stayed behind, and we were glad we did. After trying the manzanilla Dad’s friend suggested way back when, we watched as the guitarist tuned up his strings and warmed up his vocal cords. Then the lights went out; he perched in front of a glass case containing a statue of the Virgin Mary surrounded by candles, and sung some heavily emotional songs. We thought we had the crappy seats as we returned to a separate little alcolve, but it turned out that the real party was in that section. Avery, Michelle, Maryanna, and I had front row seats to the guitarist and backup singers/rhythm, as the local women (and some men) performed the sevillanas/local dance style. It was very intimate, and I’m sure Jon and the others will get back there. I can’t wait to start taking guitar lessons.

Classes are already getting boring! We’ve learned all of this stuff before, but I guess it’s good to get a crash course. I never know what to do in the evenings. I need to get to the post office and find out about this Paco de Lucía concert, but other than that I can do everything else while I’m out with the group. Oh well.

Lunch was all quite entertaining today. We conversed a bit more than normal. Maria told us how she enjoyed when we *tried* to talk in Spanish; Jon embrassingly acceded that Maria “es gordo” after being tricked by Benito; and Benito/Maria shared some Spanish tongue-twister (toblalenguas?).

Mon., 9/13

Or should I say 13/9—I got so confused by that when setting up my cell phone!

The past few days have been a blast. Thursday, we went to Itálica, an ancient Roman “anfiteatro.” It wasn’t as interesting as it probably could have been, since much of the ampitheater was closed for renovation, but we were able to walk around the center floor and tour the house ruins surrounding it. I can’t remember what we did that night, if we did anything eventful at all—ah yes, some people went to Tamboril, while I stayed back and got ice cream since I had already gone two nights ago.

Friday was another day of boring classes, but the real fun kicked in that night. A full-fledged botellón party took place in some Plaza near el Parque de Maria Luísa. It was sick—we got there around midnight and this place kept filling up until it was flowing over into the streets. (People were lighting up hash and drinking in cars and the police always drove by without doing anything :p) There must have been over a thousand people. I got a bit mixed up with where everyone was going, but collected on a 5 euro bet with Jon that I could be level-headed enough to find our way out.

Saturday, the class took a bus trip to the city of Carmona. It was very picturesque, but we were all bitter because of the scorching heat under which we walked for most of the time. We toured the ancient Necropolis--interesting from an archaeological point of view, but otherwise kind of bland. We got some good snapshots on top of the Alcázar and tasted some fresh churros con chocolate and freshly-squeezed orange juice, mmm. Later, Erin, Jon, and I tried to gain entrance to the last concert in the Alacázar Jardines but they were sold out. We ended up just chilling at a bar close to home. There were two rather large, beastly dogs who were drooling and literally sat around each other (they later became some of our best friends in Spain :). The joke of the night was on Jon, who asked the bartender: “¿Tiene Cruzcampo [the only beer that Sevillanos drink, as it is mass-produced in Seville)?” to which the bartender replied, “Antes de agua?” and a roar of laughter ensued, haha.

Sunday, a group of 20 or so JYS people decided to make the train trip down to the beaches of Cádiz. It held a gorgeous backdrop as we floated in the Atlantic Ocean and sunbathed. It was pretty crowded, and we probably could have found a better beach, but we were lazy, and I had a good time. Some of us decided we will make a day trip to Jerez de la Frontera, a city we passed by on the train ride down, since the program decided to cancel a previously scheduled trip there.

**Notes: ¡Juevos de choco ≠ juevos de cadavers!

Today we made some preliminary cursos concertados decisions. We also found out that the trip to Ronda has been rescheduled, thus opening up that 5-day weekend for some sweet traveling. [JYS, our study abroad program, was plagued by bureacratic battling and miscommunications about scheduling.] I will have to book my flight to Italy to see Mandy for that period.

Not sure what’s going tonight—I will probably check out the travel agency, and then go from there.