Seville, Day 1

Our school. Our apartment. We had a nice ten minute walk between the two.


The point of staying in Seville was to go to language school. Clic is well-known and was highly recommended. And it was great. Sadly, I knew going in that one week wouldn't be close to enough, and that I'd be very disappointed by it, and I guess I'm glad to know that I know myself so well. It was terribly hard to balance school and sightseeing. We only were able to make two cultural events for the week, and I didn't really get to know any of my classmates until the end of the week. At the same time, there are lots of places in the city I didn't see because of being in school, and there was lots of extra homework I didn't do because of trying to see the sights. It was also hard because, while I could help Wendy a bit with her studying (she was in an introductory course), she really couldn't help me practice. But I did practice a bit in restaurants and shops, and it was still very worthwhile.


After I took my placement exam and before I was placed, I had some free time. So I ran out to wander, and took a few photos in the Plaza Nueva.


Class started well. My grammar teacher was Antonio, and there were six of us in the class: Hanneke from the Netherlands, Chloe from England, Virginie from France, Nadia from Switzerland, and Henry from England. We had grammar for about 1.5 hours, then Emi would take over for conversation, for another 1.5 or so hours. After a very short lunch break, most of us regathered for more conversation/grammar with José Luis. The afternoon class was really tough for me and where I struggled most with comprehension of the accent (remember, my training is all Latin American Spanish) and differences in vocabulary. And, I really disliked being worst in the class! (To be fair, I wasn't worst in everything, just in my ability to actually communicate, which is rather important.) But more about school later.

Seville is the capital of the region Andalucía. In earlier times, it was also the capital of Muslim Spain and the most important Spanish city in trade with the Americas. Since the fall of Franco it has begun to climb back to its former prominence. Resplendent with art and architecture, brimming with history and charm, Seville captured my heart.

These few images are from my brief afternoon wander and our walking tour that evening, a quick opening glimpse of this beautiful place.


The tower of the Giralda, the center of the Muslim fortress-castle, now the bell tower for the cathedral.



Various angles of the cathedral.




The gate to the Alcázar. It would take me several days to get here while it was still open.


More cathedral and Giralda.



The city is filled with beautiful old houses, marked with tile entryways and plant-filled courtyards. Oh I want one!


From el Museo del Baile Flamenco. Sadly, I got lost trying to find it, since I couldn't get in to the Alcázar, and since our school walking tour was this evening, I didn't have much time! I didn't get to take the flamenco lesson, or watch the performance, but I did hope to go back. They had some beautiful and amazing dance footage, and I was captivated.



These two shots are from the walking tour, before it got too dark for me to shoot.


Wendy headed back to the apartment after the tour, since she was feeling poorly, and while I didn't feel like joining the group at the bar, I did want to explore. El Barrio Santa Cruz is a famous neighborhood, and I was just charmed during the walk.

I wandered for a while, and stumbled on a wonderful olive oil shop. Unfortunately, I continued to have no luck in finding someone to ship olive oil for me, but at least here I found oil that I felt I could carry back with reasonable ease. And, it was run by the most wonderful shopkeeper! So I started with some tapas: tomate con ajo (tomato with garlic), boquerones con vinaigre (yum! anchovies), lomo (a cured ham), and a glass of crianza. Then, he went through and talked olive oil with me. Yes, it was heavenly! (He was cute too, which didn't hurt.) They even had a whole line of olive oil used by chef José Andrés, who, the shopkeeper was surprised to learn, has four restaurants in Washington, several of which are among my favorites. (Really, they are!)

In the end, I bought some olive oil for gifts, although not as much as originally I'd hoped to, and got Greg a spicy olive oil, me an oil made locally in Seville and infused with the famous Seville oranges, and an oil from Córdoba, since we'd been there too. It was a truly lovely evening! However, my joy was tempered by learning when I got "home" that Wendy had fallen ill.