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.