Adios a espana

My two weeks in Sevilla just flew by.  I did learn a little more Spanish and if I go to school for two weeks every year for the next fifty years, I might get fluent.  Nah!  I am resigned to the fact that I will never master this language.  Every time I get put in a higher level, I realize how much subtlety and complexity I have yet to learn.  This week we learned several Spanish idioms.  The good news is that I can manage pretty well in Spanish for ordinary transactions.  The bad news is, I don't have enough vocabulary or range of expression to rant and rave in Spanish.  Think how tame your speech has to be if you can't rant and rave.

The students in my school were much more diverse than my classes in Central America, and were here for longer periods.  My class had two Japanese, one Korean, one French girl, an Albanian, a Russian, and four Americans.  We had to speak in Spanish among ourselves because that was our common language.  There are a few college students and a few people my age, but the average student is single and 30.  For the most part, they are ready for a change in their lives, so they quit their jobs, and go to Spanish school for half a year or more.  The Asians tend to come for up to a year.  For them, Spanish is much more difficult than Americans; a whole new alphabet with no common vocabulary.  If you speak English, you already know twenty percent or more of Spanish vocabulary.

I did two of the cultural activities this week:  a tour of the Museum of Bellas Artes, and a flamenco show in a chapel of the Museum of Contemporary Arts.  I didn't quite understand why the latter museum had a former monastery with a beautiful chapel, but really, there are churches on every block here.  The Museum of Bellas Artes also had a beautiful chapel in it, as well as centuries of church art.  Not until the nineteenth century is there anything besides Jesus, the Virgin, and the martyrdom of every saint I have never heard of.

Okay.  There are two futbol professional football teams in Sevilla.  The first two questions that you ask a Sevillano when you meet them are:  Which futbol team do you root for?  Which Virgin do you support?  Turns out there are two famous Virgins in Sevilla, and people choose sides.  You gotta know what team you are on.

I kept walking around different neighborhoods and even made it to the Cathedral one day.  It is impressive, and still has a courtyard of orange trees in it from when it was a mosque.



But the two most interesting things at the Cathedral:  One, the tomb of Christopher Columbus who traveled more after he died than in life.  They kept moving his body from Spain to the New World and back again.  The Sevilla Cathedral is his final resting place.



Two, there is a famous tower, the Giralda Tower, next to the cathedral.  Why?  It was the minaret for the mosque that the Christians tore down to build the cathedral.  People climb up it for a great view of the city, and I was able to go up even though there is no elevator.  No stairs either.  Ramps that go up on the four sides.  Since the muezzin had to climb the minaret five times a day to announce prayers, they build it with ramps so he could ride up on his donkey.  Those Moors were pretty smart builders.




It took me a week before I noticed that my apartment building was the prettiest on the block.  I was always on my side of the street, but one day I was across the street and saw it.

And that was Sevilla.  I am in Madrid overnight and will fly to Fez tomorrow and go stay with Kasey, John, and their new baby, Ruby.

Cordoba

I went to Cordoba for the weekend to do a little more sightseeing and also to see a futbol game in Cordoba - Real Madrid was coming to town.  Big game.  Real Madrid is like the New York Yankees with fans (and anti-fans) all over the country.

I took the train to Cordoba and when I got off, the station was full of police, was all roped off, and dozens of people were waiting behind the ropes.  I figured some star was coming so I asked someone what was going on.  Duh!  The team from Real Madrid was on the train from Madrid.  I decided to stick around to see them, but after half an hour I gave up and walked to my hotel.  About half a mile away, I came to a hotel with lots of police, roads blocked off, and dozen of people waiting behind the barricades.  You got it ... Real Madrid was staying at this hotel.  I kept walking.

Cordoba has an old walled city with narrow, twisty lanes.  Of course, there is a Jewish quarter (no matter that they kicked the Jews out over 500 years ago) and even a synagogue built in 1315.  It is in the moorish style - very interesting.  I believe it is one of only four synagogues in Spain today and, obviously, the oldest.



On Friday night I walked around the tourist section which was pretty empty at this time of year.  Then I walked around the rest of the city and found where the locals go:  to the mall.  It was packed.

The highlight of Cordoba is the Mezquita, which is the Spanish word for mosque.  Like the Alcazaba in Sevilla, I was not prepared for how incredible the Mezquita is and ... the Moors built it in the 900's. It is HUGE with rows and rows of red and white double arches, supposedly to look like tents in the desert.  The leader stands in a niche at one end with his back to the thousands of people praying but the rounded niche carries his voice out to everyone.







Those crazy Christian conquerors had the good sense not to tear this one down to build a church.  No, they built a cathedral inside the Mezquita.  That's how big it is.  The cathedral only takes a small part.  It is kind of the turducken of religious buildings.  All they need is a small synagogue inside the high altar.





I don't think I have ever been in a stranger building.  The organist was practicing almost the whole time I was there, so there was incredible music all around.

From the sublime to the ridiculous ... I was unable to buy a ticket to the futbol game online because I misunderstood when they went on sale and they sold out.  So I went to Cordoba with the intention of buying from a scalper.  I stopped at the mall again to grab lunch but so had a few thousand fans since the mall is right next to the stadium, so the lines were way too long everywhere.  I noticed an ATM and tried to take out euros, but the ATM was broken.  I walked through the neighborhood trying to find a bank but couldn't find one.  There were lots of bars and restaurants all packed with futbol fans.  Finally, I decided for some reason that I cannot explain, that dollars were as good as euros.  I went to the stadium an hour before game time and there were scalpers with tickets.  But guess what?  Scalpers in Spain don't take dollars!

I walked back to the neighborhood, asked someone where the closest bank was, and took out euros, but when I got back to the stadium fifteen minutes before game time, even the scalpers were sold out.  Oh, well.  My stupidity at least saved me a lot of money.  Then I noticed that I was not alone.  Hundreds of people were standing around the stadium.  There was a bar on the lower level with three TV's.  So I went to the bar and watched on TV with a hundred other ticketless people.  Two men about my age were standing next to me and at halftime they started talking to me.  I can't remember the last time I hung out at a bar with two strangers, one of whom was drunk.

So the bottom line ...  I didn't see Real Madrid at the train station.  I didn't see Real Madrid at their hotel.  I didn't see Real Madrid at the stadium.  And I had a great time.  The Real Madrid star, Ronaldo, got himself ejected with ten minutes left in the game and the score tied 1 - 1, but Real Madrid picked up the offensive even down a man, and won 2 - 1.  It was not a very inspired game on the field and all of the goals were scored on penalty kicks.  Guess I wasn't so dumb to not bring enough euros.

I took the train back to Seville on Sunday where it was a beautiful afternoon.  The mornings are still chilly, but the afternoons this weeks have been sunny and in the low 60's.  When I got back, the Alameda of Hercules was packed with people enjoying the warm day.

Sevilla

So now I am settled into my cute little studio apartment in a very pleasant neighborhood.  The apartment has the strangest layout I have ever seen in one regard.  It is one long room with the bed on the right, then a desk, sofa and dining room.  The kitchen is opposite (to the left) of the dining room, and opposite the bed is ... the shower with a glass door.  Not a lot of privacy.  Oh well, it has everything I need.

On Sunday I finally went for a walk in the daylight but the streets were empty.  Everything is closed on Sundays here except bars and tourist shops.  I meandered across town ending at the futbol stadium and bought a ticket for tonight's game against Malaga.  Then I walked back home - a walk of about forty five minutes.  The game was at 9 so I decided to take a bus.  You may not know that football fans all wear scarves in their team colors.  I went to the bus stop that I thought was right and a man was there wearing his scarf.  I was pretty sure then, but I asked him anyway if this was the bus to the stadium.  He looked at me like I was an idiot and just pointed to his scarf.  Of course.

My seat was on the center line but pretty high up.  Good view of the game.  I'm not sure why they bother having refs on the field.  Every fan in my section was able to call the game.  They kept correcting the ref when he was wrong and making the calls before he could.  I think they were helping the coaches, too.  I couldn't understand everything but I heard the words puta and cabron a lot.  Fortunately, Sevilla won 2 - 0 so the ref didn't need too much help and the fans went home happy.

Classes started on Monday and they put me in a high intermediate level.  They assume I know all the conjugations and now we are working on the subtleties of usage.  I did learn all of the conjugations, but that is not to say that I know them.  I'm doing a lot of reviewing at home.  It is a very pleasant fifteen minute walk to school from my apartment and school starts at the civilized hour of 9:15.  That, by the way, is very early in Seville.  No one is out then except school children.  Stores don't open until 10 or 11.

The school has a different cultural activity every afternoon.  On Monday I took an orientation walk around the old part of the city.  The highlight of Seville is the Cathedral - the third largest in the world after St. Peters and St. Pauls.  I haven't been able to bring myself to go see another cathedral yet.  Maybe next week.



There is, of course, a Juderia - a Jewish quarter - and the guide told us once again how everyone used to get along.  Then he did mention Seville had the first anti-Jewish riot in Spain where they killed 4,000 and the first auto da fe in the Inquisition where they burned six Jews at the stake.  The tour was all in Spanish, so while I can understand it all, I couldn't take on the guide even if I wanted to.

On Tuesday I took the tour of the Alcazar which was a Moorish fortress turned into a Christian palace.  It was fabulous.  I knew the Alhambra in Granada would be incredible, but I wasn't expecting it at the Alcazar.  Those Moors were great builders.  By the way, in modern Spanish, you say Moslems; Moors is a non-pc term.





The activities on Wednesday and Thursday didn't interest me, so I went for walks on my own.  And I've got a lot of Spanish to study.