A calm weekend in Sevilla

My first weekend with nothing planned in over three weeks! It was great to just experience, especially since I am usually so tired after my internship and have so much planning to do that I don't get a chance to explore. I made my way over to two mercadillos this morning. One, was HUGE, it took me 2 hours to get through and I wasn't even walking slow. It was just packed with people and sales like you wouldn't believe. The clothes were so cheap, I bought scarves for a 1 euro each. Then at the second mercadillo, my host sister was selling cookies. She is opening up her own bakery next month, and does amazing things with fondant. It's definitely an art.
Here is a link to her online bakery that she has been operating out of: lamardedulces.com
I took a stroll through the park by my house on the way home, and man, it is beautiful. It was built in 1929 to host the World's Fair, and you forget you are in a city with 700,000 people.

This is a South American tree they imported for the fair, they grew so well in Seville, they are still here.

Oh, last night, I was walking along Avenida de Constitucion and one of my students saw me. She came up and kissed me (standard Spanish greeting, they don't shake hands, and they don't hug) and asked to take a picture with me. Pretty sure that's getting posted on facebook. Speaking of which, I got a friend request from one of my 8th graders. Surprised it took so long, really. It also took them a month to ask if I had a boyfriend, it took the American kids one day to ask that question. I think if I accepted the friend request on facebook, it wouldn't be frowned upon here. The relationship between the kids and teachers is so informal, I don't think administration would look down upon it, something drastically different than in the US. The teachers are just like a family to the kids, and there is not really a boundary line between school life and personal life. For the record, the kid's request is still sitting there, but so much is ok here that isn't in the States. I am allowed to wear jeans and a spaghetti strapped tank top to teach. The Spanish culture sees touching as affectionate rather than sexual in most scenarios and they keep 40s and bottles of wine in the staff refrigerators. The standards are just very different, and in most cases, not a bad thing.

I thought it was funny how they adjust to weather here. First of all, their bodies are so much more sensitive to change, because it never does change, and the temperature never drops, so when we had the cold front last week (it's still been 85 and sunny), a lot of people got sick (the way we do around November when the temperature is dropping 20 degrees overnight). It is also considered fall here. I had one of the teachers ask me at the school why I am never cold. I just laughed and said because it hasn't been cold here yet. I was wearing a tank top dress, he was wearing pants and a long sleeve shirt. When it gets cold out, the chestnut roasters come out! Every street has these vendors, roasting away, selling chestnuts for a warm snack. You peel the skin off and the nut is like soft and chewy, it is different bu really good! It has a smokey taste too with a touch of salt.

2000 year old Roman aqua ducts just hangin' out in the middle of the intersection. They are called Canas de Carmona, and were in use until the 1900s. They connected Sevilla to Cordoba and brought in drinking water for the city. Built in 65 BC when Julius Cesar was in power, all but three aqua ducts have been torn down. Each day, people drive past these without glancing at the history they have lying right before their eyes.

The columns of Almada de Hercules were built in 1564 and are still the originals today. Before they added more irrigation to the river, this area would always flood and not until the 16th century did they utilize the space. On column has Hercules on top, the other, Julius Cesar.

Sevilla Life.
The amount of live music and  street performers is unreal. Everywhere you turn, someone is playing the accordion (yes, so many accordions), or the guitar, or have set up a little area and are busting out some flamenco. The traveling saxophone player is one of my favorite (he is always in different spots), but I also LOVE all the accapella groups. They just always look like they are having a blast and they always draw a big crowd. This is one I found on my walk home Friday afternoon (here, morning is until 3, from 3-10 is afternoon and 10 on is night. Do not mix them up, the Spanish will look at you very funny).

Parking also always amazes me here. Standard practice here, if you cannot find a parking spot, is to park off to the side and leave the car in neutral, that way, the people you are blocking push your car out of the way so they can get out of their spot. Boggles my mind, and this is fairly common.

These just make me laugh. We share the bike lane.

I headed over to the soccer stadium for a festival that ended up getting cancelled due to rain (it never rained), but then I decided to take a gander at the mall. The architecture of the mall is cool because it is a big circle, and is right in front of the stadium.

I also stumbled across this basketball court. made of dirt. I don't know how they play, it didn't look too packed in.

this is just down the street from my house.

Last night, we went to La Carboneria, a bar that has free Flamenco shows. There are a lot of bars that have them on the weekends and all you do is get a drink. I could feel the passion and it was really cool to watch,  almost like a Spanish tap dancing. After the flamenco show, there was a father daughter band that sang traditional Spanish songs, and that was cool too. We got the "agua de Sevilla" drink... Champagne, rum, vodka, pineapple juice with whipped cream and cinnamon. Man, was that tiny strong!

I also booked my ticket for Barcelona! That will be my last trip and it's at the end of November. I only have 54 days left to enjoy this experience! Teaching is going well, they are confident enough now to leave me with a class unchaperoned. They don't have subs here, so I have subbed a few times, and always gotten to plan the lessons so I don't mind. It is very difficult though, especially since I still don't know all the kid's names (they never told me! ) and I don't speak the same language as them. When they are talking with each other, it is very difficult fr me to understand ( I am still not used to the Andalucian accent yet, where they say their "s's" like "h's" and from the back of their throat- so it almost sounds like Arabic, and they don't finish their words, and to top it all off, they don't move their lips when they talk.) I like speaking in the accent though because you can almost be lazier and you can talk so much faster. People also understand you here a lot better if you use the accent, vs real Spanish.

In Spain, teachers get 15 personal days. Yes. 15. So, one of the teachers is taking her honeymoon (she's going to Kenya) in a couple weeks and I was told I might have to help out with her classes (and by help out, they mean, here, these are your classes for the next two weeks) ! It will be a lot of work, but great experience. If I was not here, the kids would just have a study hall those days pretty much. Crazy.