Lost in Translation: Generally we both try to alternate back and forth from Spanish to English depending on the speaker. A lot of people here speak or understand enough English to carry on basic conversations, and especially at a service-based industry it's common to engage with the patron in English (particularly if that person has a visibly terrible level of Spanish). At dinner in Seville one night, we encountered such a situation where our server offered up her English to politely excuse herself from whatever awkward Spanish we were attempting. Whenever we eat out at a restaurant, we ask for tap water - or "agua del grifo" in Spanish. Since the ordering was now in English, Joni asked for tap water. The waitress then brought two newly opened glass bottles of water to the table. These were not free, and we hate to spend money on water. Luckily, the bottles are a beautiful blue color, so we brought them home and they are now adorning our living room as vases. Now we can feel at peace about having spent a ridiculous price on water because we have a lovely Seville souvenir that was very inexpensive.
Exploring the City: We went to Seville this past weekend. As far as we can recall, no one personally recommended Seville to us. We arrived with very little idea of what was there to explore, but it was a wonderful trip. The biggest attraction is the Catedral de Santa María de la Sede, the third largest church in the world. Seville has a history interwoven with the Moors before the Spanish drove them out, and so a lot of the architecture is either Moor or faux-Moor (imitated by the Spanish that swept in after the Moors were vanquished).
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| That's a big candelabra. |
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| View from the tower. |
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| Another view from the tower. |
- Visiting Alcázar, a former Moorish palace that is currently in partial use as the Seville residence for the Spanish royal family. The sprawling grounds of this place (both indoors and outside) drove home the regal nature of the palace, and each room or garden appeared to demand a photo. We explored everything pretty thoroughly, even pausing to take an accidental nap on a sunny bench in the gorgeous garden space behind the palace.
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| This is a maze made of bushes! |
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| This bench is a nice spot for a nap. |
- Ascending the Mushroom building for a view of the city. Officially named Metropol Parasol, this plaza/tower was recommended to us by our Airbnb host Juan. We'd walked by it a few times, and eventually we decided to take the elevator to the top. It was surprisingly high, and provided a good view of the city in all directions.
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| It was really bright up there! |
- Driving a bike care around Plaza de España. After walking to the nearby Parque de María Luisa with our Taco Bell lunch, we spotted a man pedaling bike cars for rent. Naturally we spoke up and rented one of the vehicles, then proceeded to tread all over the surrounding area. The beautifully tiled Plaza de España was created for the Ibero-American World's Fair in early 20th century, and has since made cameos in Lawrence of Arabia, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones, and The Dictator.
- Taking multiple opportunities to consume gelato. We sampled three different heladerías, and they were all excellent. My personal favorite flavor WAS WHAT?
Memorable Meal: Our last night in Seville we ate at a restaurant called Alcázar, which happened to be right across the street from our Airbnb. This was a tapas bar, and so we had the freedom to choose several small dishes in order to get a wider sample. We got a spinach/caramelized goat cheese salad, patatas bravas (potato wedges), falafel bites, and steak sliders on a bed of apples complimented with blackberry sauce. Joni is not typically a huge fan of any meat, and really doesn't care much for steak, but she couldn't stop eating the perfectly tender medallions we had that night!
En la clase: This week I think I talked about the election results in every single one of my classes. I excerpted some Facebook statuses to have students read and respond to, and it came as no surprise to me that most everyone had read/heard/watched a decent amount about the whole affair. There were a lot of questions, but the main sentiment was "How did this happen?" I couldn't begin to get into the nuances with even my highest-level students and so generally I would just shrug my shoulders and move on. It did serve as a full lesson's worth of content for a couple of my one-on-one classes with students who had a higher level of interest in the subject. The majority of my students are young professionals, and while they expressed surprise and varying degrees of concern most agreed that there was nothing to be done now save for waiting and hoping. Joni's actor students had a bit more fire behind their opinions (one even wore a Bernie Sanders shirt to class), shocked and appalled at the events that had transpired. I will be eager to see if there is continued interest in U.S. politics as we inch closer to the inauguration and whatever may follow.
Joni enjoys riding her unicycle to work two days a week, as she is lucky enough to work not too far from home. Her actor students are very intrigued by her ability to ride unicycle, and one day one student in her last class said he was going to wait until she left so he could see her ride. Well, everyone thought that seemed like a good idea, so they all stuck around for a couple minutes and accompanied Joni out to the sidewalk where she then proceeded to give a quick performance, showcasing a few of the tricks she can do. They were all extremely impressed and now seem to enjoy her classes even more.
In other news from Joni's actor classes, one of her students asked if she could record a few sentences in Spanish for him. She thought for sure he'd meant to say "in English." Upon further questioning, however, she realized he wanted her to record a few sentences, some in Spanish and some in English, merely for her American accent. She jumped at the chance to get involved. The student is working on a new play and it is unclear if the recordings are just serving as accent coaching for the actors, or if they will actually be used in the show. Either way, we're hoping for some comp tickets.
Joni's 2-year-old and 4-year-old classes are going just fine, but she is suffering from Ican'tgetthatsongoutofmyhead syndrome. Unfortunately, songs aimed at teaching English to preschoolers are equally as catchy to grown adults who already speak English. As of late, "Let's do the Pinocchio" has been a constant soundtrack to her days.
Final Notes: We've wanted to get in some unique things we often see around Madrid. This week, jamón.
If we had to choose one thing that represents Spain, it would be jamón. Spaniards are very much into ham, from eating it in countless number of ways to selling full legs in markets and grocery stores across the country. There is even a restaurant/deli combo chain here called Museo de Jamón, which literally translates to "Ham Museum." Early on in our stay, we were informed that the origin of the giant legs on display was the Spanish Inquisition. To show an affinity for eating pork (thus proving their conversion from Judaism to Catholicism), people would hang the legs outside their homes. Spain is now a quite progressive country, and Madrid boasts all kinds of restaurants that have nothing to do with ham, but the meat has persevered as a kind of pride. We have had several variations of dishes with the meat, and it is pretty good. But for some reason the bacon here is basically just ham - much closer to Canadian bacon without that oh-so-satisfying crunchiness.
Now we excitedly await the arrival of our next guests - Bracton and Bri Eicher!!
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