Progress!!

Today is a day of great progress.  First of all, I went on a class excursion and made friends with two girls from my classes - and it's a total coincidence that they were both lawyers!! One girl, Joanna, is from Germany, doing a study abroad of sorts in Seville, and the other, Kiri, is from Australia and is traveling all over Europe just for fun.

We went to la Casa Pilatos, with my morning class teacher as one of the guides.  Although the name suggests that it is a house, La Casa Pilatos is actually a palace for the Dukes of Medinaceli, and in fact, part of it still exists as the private residence of the Dukes.  The entire guided tour was given in Spanish, and even as half of it flew right over my head, I couldn't help but feel excited that I could understand any of it at all.

Jardines

La Casa Pilatos was beautiful, again exhibiting the intricate and delicate Moorish detailing that graces the architecture from Andalucia. However, to me, the highlight of the Casa was definitely the gardens.  They were lush, gorgeously decorated with statutes, ponds, and carefully chosen foliage.  I particularly liked the way that they were divided into neat little squares, leaving walking paths in between them for visitors to enjoy them in even closer proximity.   Something else cool was a room, used for worship, wherein the sunlight would only shine through the window on one day out of the year.

Arches that Typify the Mudejar Style

The second success story happened when Marco and I passed a Farmacia (Pharmacy).  I haven't fully recovered from the bad squid episode that struck me last weekend, and I still get indigestion and acid reflux from most meals. It has seemed for the past week, whenever we actually wanted to find a Farmacia, they have been closed, so I figured we might as well go in and give it a shot.  No surprises at all however, when the lady working at the counter told me that she could only understand a little English and could speak even less.  So - the perfect moment to practice my newly learned Spanish arises.

Intricate Carvings on Walls

I have to say, this is entirely new territory, but I actually managed to get the point across that I got sick last Sunday, even down to the type of food, and with the aid of only un poco gesturing, described my current symptoms.  I even managed to understand her rapid fire of descriptions of two different medicines (after a few tries), and chose the one that she recommended based on the soundness of her reasoning and not merely because she was pointing to it a lot!  I was so proud of myself :)  And, might I add, it seems to be working because I'm feeling much better already.  Yay for learning Spanish!!

Estudiantes una vez más - Students Once More

 Today Marco and I enrolled in a week long super-intensive Spanish course.  Well, I actually thought I had enrolled in just an intensive course, which I figured would be enough, but I guess Marco amped it up some more.  This means that we were in class from 9:15 until 3:15 pm!!!  Un poco loco, no?

The school is located in a beautiful Spanish building.  And the teachers were all delightful.  Each class had less than 10 students (our afternoon conversation class only had 4), which meant tons of time to interact with the teacher and to speak.  I've felt my vocab increase dramatically after just this one day - but honestly, I am so glad that I put in time before the trip by using Rosetta Stone!  It's given me a lot of foundational knowledge that has been so helpful today.  This is particularly true because we had to skip out on the first day of class, which was yesterday, on account of my still not feeling well enough for such a long day.  However, because of my preparation with Rosetta Stone, I did not feel that we were behind at all with the material.

The Patio

Tomorrow, I will take a camera into class to see if I can take a photo of everyone so I can post it here.  So far, the majority of the students are German, including one guy who totally reminds me of  The Situation from Jersey Shore.  Whenever we have any activities that include a long list of activities, and we have to pick just one that we like, he always replies "nada."  Then after much prompting, he ends up trotting out with "beer, oh and cognac, and ...." and basically lists a bunch of alcohol.  Hmmmmm.....

Anyway, now I think that 4 days is just too short!! But hopefully I will have enough at the end of it to keep up a basic conversation, and I can just sign up for conversation partnering after that with locals who want to learn English.

Another bit of exciting news - last night I managed to book tickets to Alhambra, a massive palace in Granada that is known as the most resplendent and significant work of Islamic architecture (Nasrid period) in Spain.  Usually people have to book the tickets to tour the palace weeks in advance but we lucked out.  We'll be on our way this Sunday!  Be on the look out for photos!

Enfermedad de Calamar: Sickness from Squid

Saturday night, I cooked a piece of squid that we had just bought from the seafood market.  I originally had only wanted to buy half of it, but after saying "la mitad" a few times, the lady only cut it up for us and made us buy the whole thing -- how am I suppose to express that I only want half of something?

It looked perfectly good and fresh at the market.  However, after we got home I should have been more suspicious because when I was cooking, Marco said that he could smell it even in the bedroom. I only thought that it smelled like the ocean - isn't that how seafood is supposed to smell? 

So the long and short of it is that I ended up getting food poisoning.  Marco, however, was completely fine - what I wouldn't give for his iron stomach.  However, he didn't get away scot-free because he's been my caretaker, making me rice porridge and running to the farmacia, bless him.  I have half a mind to run back to that market and yell at the lady who sold me that squid - but that will have to wait until I take some more Spanish lessons.  El Calamar es mal somehow doesn't fully express my anger.

Lesson learned: do not purchase seafood from a stall with few customers, and throw away seafood if it makes your home smell like the ocean.  Better safe than sorry.

One more day of recovery time before the adventures of Marco y Lucia resume!

A Walk in the Park

March 26

It wasn't very hot today, so Marco and I decided to explore the Maria Luisa Gardens in the south of the city.  It's a huge park and we were told that it could easily take up an afternoon to fully explore it so to go either on a full stomach, or to prepare some food to picnic.

Never to lose an opportunity for a picnic, we first made a stop at the underground market (the one with the honeycomb roof that I put up photos of on the first day).  This time, I noticed that our Spanish had improved much more than our first visit, which resulted in our coming away with lots more food than last time.  :D




We took the tram to the last stop, and found the Plaza de Espana.  I hadn't looked into what that was at all and was totally surprised to see gorgeous, ornately decorated buildings framed by a lovely little moat that ran all around, allowing visitors to rent boats and paddle under cute bridges and around the plaza.  It very much had a Venetian meets Spain feel to it.  Marco explained to me that the entire thing was built to house the World Expo when it took place in Seville.  That's why it was called the Pl. de Espana.

 Maria Luisa park was beautiful as well - manicured lawns hiding gems of little ponds, museums, and ancient  trees.  I especially loved the pond beside which we chose to picnic.  There was a large trellis overhead, providing shade for the benches, with fragrant, trailing lavender blossoms hanging down like a curtain.  Two turtle doves actually cuddled and groomed each other in a nearby tree, and all the ducks in the pond swam by in pairs.  Obviously when people said that Seville is saturated with romance and couples they were not exaggerating!!  I wonder what people passing by thought of Marco and I --  we were engaged in a grape-seed spitting contest with much gusto!

We rented one of these to ride around the park, and got into a race with a Spanish couple!

Ku Klux Klan? No, only Easter in Sevilla

March 25

This morning we woke up at what has now become an unnaturally early hour - 9am - to get ready for our walking tour of the city.  We enjoyed our last tour of the Alcazar with Concepcion so much that when we found out that she also gave a walking tour of the entire city, we jumped at the opportunity.

We were the first to arrive at the square, but were soon joined by about 6 others, all from different countries - France, the Netherlands, America, Slovenia, all were represented.  What a Benetton ad!  Even though we had not been in Seville a full week, I wish we had gone on the tour even earlier because it did such a great job in orienting us about the city as well as explaining some cultural customs that had really begun to confuse us.

The biggest puzzle has to do with  a decoration that Marco and I kept seeing in store windows.  The closest thing that I can compare it to is truly the garb of a KKK member - a white sheet draped over the body and even the tall cone covering the head, it was all there.  The life-sized mannequins in store windows never failed to make me jump a little when I came across one, and once I even spotted miniatures made out of chocolate in a candy shop.

However, Concepcion quickly explained that it was actually a religious costume associated with one of the upcoming festivals - Semana Santa (the Holy Week).  Marco and I knew exactly when that was happening because rent spikes up during that week to be around 4 times what is typically charged.  Huge parades and floats of religious symbols go through the city.  Apparently, people also put on those strange costumes I just described and they actually identify the fraternity to which the wearer belongs by the color of the cone.  Apparently people would have to go to specialty stores to have the costume tailored to fit.  This practice has been around for centuries, certainly older than the KKK has been in existence.
 

On a Man-Hole Cover

Another puzzle had to do with strange signs that we saw all over the city with the writing "No8Do."  I could see them hung up on flags, on trams, even on man-hole covers.  Taken literally, "Nodo" sounds just like the word meant for a "knot," which explains the symbol of the 8, and stands for unity.  It is also the official motto of Sevilla. However, Concepcion told us of a much more romantic story associated with the motto.  The 8 represents a skein of yarn, which in Spanish is a madejar. When that word is substituted, the entire phrase "no madejar do" sounds just like "no me ha dejado" which means "Has Not Abandoned Me".  Apparently, a past King awarded the city with the phrase when he ascended the throne because of the faithful support of the citizens of Seville. The city then adopted it into the official motto, and that is why it can been seen absolutely everywhere.

However, Marco's and my favorite part of the tour was when Concepcion actually lead the group right to where we lived.  I had no idea that the square outside our apartment was so important!  She used the square to explain that many streets and squares in Seville may have more than one name - often, locals will tend to refer to a location by either its original name before it has been modernized. Therefore, although the modern name of our square was Plaza de Jesus de Redencion, everyone actually knows it by its original name, Plaza de Pan (Bread plaza).  Marco and I burst out laughing when we heard that because in Spanish, Marco's last name - Phan - is read just like Pan. So we chose exactly the right place to live after all!

The tour was a huge success.  Concepcion and I quickly became friends - she had actually traveled to Shanghai before, much to my astonishment.  I really hoped that she would have time to grab lunch with us after the tour but unfortunately, she had another tour almost immediately afterwards. However, she promised that she would make time for lunch the next time we decided to take an afternoon tour with her, which will be very soon I'm sure.

After lunch, Marco had to work, so I decided to venture out alone into the city for the very first time.  I have to say, up to this point, I have completely been relying on Marco to give me directions, so I was extremely unsure at my ability to navigate these winding streets.  Luckily, we came prepared with long-distance walkie talkies (obviously Marco's idea).  He was actually excited to finally use them and thus shooed me out of the apartment and made me speak to him every five minutes so we could test the range.  I looked like a huge dork walking through the city speaking into that thing, but it did come in very handy when I discovered the market I wanted to go to closed at 3pm and had to reroute to another part of the city.

I guess even I have to admit that looks need to be sacrificed during times of need!!!

Concepción

As soon as I woke up, I was determined to make the most of today - in that we had to hit up at least one touristy destination.  It's our third day here and I'm starting to get afraid that we'll start living like locals and forget that there are amazing things to see in this city!

So I booked a walking tour of the Alcazar (Royal palace). The tour was at the latest time slot available because by then, it was already 11am even though we had just had desayuno (breakfast).  We are certainly catching onto the rhythm of late nights, late mornings and siestas enjoyed by the locals!

First we took a quick train tour of the city.  There is only one line and it only has 4 stops, so we rode it all the way up and stopped at the University.  I couldn't help but wonder how amazing it would have been to have had the opportunity to study there, nestled among all that history.  Perhaps I can take some sort of a language course while I am here.

1pm quickly rolled around and we made our way to the Plaza del Triunfo, where the tour group was meeting. By now, Marco has finally fixed his watch so that it could determine which direction we were traveling in, and this has certainly made a big difference to our getting from A to B.

As soon as I met our tour guide, I couldn't help but tug at Marco and whisper, Look!! Doesn't she look just like Concepción??!  Right before leaving SF, Marco and I had watched an episode of "Rick Steve's Europe" on PBS because he was doing a coverage of Sevilla.  The local guide that was hired to show Rick around was a dark-haired lady named Concepción.  I remarked at the time how unique of a name that was, and I guess it stuck in my mind.

Now, the woman standing right in front of us had a face that was a remarkable match for the one that I saw on TV.  But still, both Marco and I was totally stunned when she opened her mouth and introduced herself as Concepción!  It was the one and the same - apparently she did the show 6 years ago and now frequently have people asking her about it.  We met a local celebrity!

Concepción and Lucia

The walking tour was excellent - Concepción had a fun sense of humor, very well informed, and took great care of us (I now know that Spanish kings are nearly all named either Ferdinand or Alfonso).  The palace was stunningly beautiful, with walls upon walls filled with an abundance of intricate carvings, lace-like in their delicacy and detail, as well as brightly colored ceramic tiles.

Although un-airconditioned, the interior of the palace was surprisingly cool, thanks to the effect of the high ceilings, openings on the roof to let out the rising hot air, as well as the ceramic tiles.  I loved the Moorish influence of the palace, which was evident upon almost all the facades.  Concepción took great care in emphasizing the fact that the Moors never had ownership of the building - they were merely craftsmen hired by the Christian Kings to decorate the palace because of their superb skill and speed in ceramics and carving.

Also surprising to both Marco and I were the fact that the delicate carvings on the walls were all done on plaster.  The craftsmen would first paste the plaster on the bare wall, and when that dried, they would trace designs onto them and hammer or chisel out the intricate designs.  The plaster is very soft and easily molded.  Obviously, it also wears quickly as the years pass, and the only reason that the palace is still in such good condition is because it has always been used and thus cared for and renovated through the centuries.

One of the paintings hung up on the chapel wall in the palace is said by scholars to contain the likeness of Christopher Columbus.  If the rumor is true (it matches with the descriptions given by Columbus' son), then it would also the only likeness of Columbus because none other was ever created.  Sevilla contained the port that Columbus left to set out for the Americas, and the city has gained much fame because of that expedition.

Columbus is the man in the center panel, to the left of the Virgin, at the front with the bald spot and curls

The garden surrounding the palace is also breathtakingly beautiful.  As with many other parts of Sevilla, the air is perfumed with the smell of orange blossoms (it has a fragrance very close to gardenias) and it makes it absolutely delightful to the senses.  I feel like I'm constantly walking in a fresh Spring meadow.  Everywhere, there are trees heavily laden with oranges.  I asked Concepción to whom the oranges belonged, and who can pick them.  Although she said that anyone could help themselves, much to my excitement, sadly she also said that they are very sour and that's why so many of them were left untouched on the branches!

By the end of the tour, we were almost faint with hunger.  It was drawing close to 3pm and we still had not had lunch, so we decided to skip a full tour of the gardens and head straight to lunch.  That's the good part about being here for so long - we can leave the gardens to another day without any ounce of regret whatsoever.

Where are the Chinos?

It does feel a little different from a normal vacation because we will be here for 3 months.  The first thing that I was really insistent upon was finding out where the markets are, especially the Chinese stores, because we cannot be eating out for every meal.  I would miss my bok-choi way too much!

Therefore, instead of running straight to the Cathedral (largest in the world), or the Alcazar (palace), we bee-lined for the Mercado al Chino.  Also, along the way I wanted to explore the underground market where some of the freshest seafood and vegetables can be found.

The streets made it quite hard to navigate because none of them run in a normal grid-like fashion.  So every time we were trying to get somewhere today, we seemed to get lost and would walk for ages.  I also (unwisely) was trying to break in some new sandals, so that did not help matters.  It did lead to our making a few surprise discoveries - such as the Plaza San Francisco, and the Cathedral.  That's the good part about being in Europe; if you get lost you might find something better than what you were looking for.

However, when we did make it to the underground market, I was so happy!!! The place is a foodie heaven.  It's also nested in this giant honey-comb like building - nothing I've ever seen before.

We passed it last night and I swore I thought it was an amphitheater where concerts are held.  But nope, just stalls and stalls of the freshest seafood and just-picked veggies.  The prices were also so reasonable! This puts all SF farmer's markets to shame.  People take their food seriously here!

I bought half a kilo of the biggest shrimp I ever laid eyes on.  Tonight, Marco and Lucio will feast!!

First Night

Landed today from Gatwick.  The most stressful thing was making sure that Ryan Air didn't charge us its ridiculous 35 euros per kilogram of overweight baggage.  Marco arranged and rearranged the cases for an hour last night to make sure everything was evenly distributed.  This was purely by feel because we didn't have a scale to weigh the bags!

Big lesson learned: do not pack for a long trip immediately before moving house.  I wanted to stuff everything I thought I might need into my luggage so it didn't take up more space in storage, or worse still, get tossed out.  This meant that we were lugging two 23 kilo cases plus two solid carry-on cases and my backpack plus Marco's computer bag onto the plane.  Loco!

All was well though - the maximum was 20kg, and both bags weighed in at 20.1 and 20.9 kilos - somehow Marco did the distribution perfectly!!!

After we landed, we immediately called a taxi to get to our apartment because it was already 8pm and getting late.  The taxi driver told us that he could not drive all the way to the door-step of the apartment because it was pedestrian only in that part of the city.  I was not pleased but the fact that I was able to deduce all of that from a long stream of Spanish did mollify me somewhat.

Old town Sevilla at night was all a maze of narrow cobbled streets, brightly decorated shops, and lots of tourists milling about.  Unfortunately the four pieces of huge luggage detracted from the experience somewhat.  We got a little lost, and I asked for directions twice before we found the right place.

Finally! Home.  It's absolutely lovely - very quaint, on the 3rd floor with access to a terrace.  The kitchen is totally stocked with everything we'll need to cook - even an adorable espresso machine. And there's even a bidet in the bathroom - not going near the thing but so quaint! There's also lots of very well planned wardrobe and cabinet space.  It's smaller than our SF apartment but the space is better arranged.  The separation for the dining-room makes all the space useful.

For dinner, we went to the restaurant literally three apartments down from us at the corner - Bar Europa.  We  ordered Pork cheeks in a wine reduction (out of this world delicioso), a goat-cheese and apple salad (manzana granny), and a delicate cod in a creamy sauce.

Pork Cheeks with Wine Reduction

Goat-cheese and apple salad 

Every bite was delightful, particularly because I was ravenous at that point.  I am also really starting to appreciate the fact that restaurants stay open past 12pm!  Little known to me at the time, but this restaurant is also one of the most highly recommended tapas joints on the Lonely Planet Guide, and it's right outside our door.

We are really going to enjoy our stay here!!