Viva Espana!

As the whole world knows by now, Spain won the World Cup! My intrepid housemates and I decided to support Holland. Wearing orange in a Spanish city on final game day is tempting fate, but our commitment to the Orange was unflappable!

Soccer fans convened in restaurants and bars all over Sevilla to watch the long awaited match. So, we took to the streets wearing all manner of orange and Dutch flags. Most Spaniards were satisfied with innocent teasing. The more avaricious fans ordered us to stay out of their bars, brandishing vuvuzelas like shotguns. Eep!

All of our favorite game watching haunts were full to capacity and turning people away. Those lucky enough to secure seats inside had come a couple of hours beforehand. We tardy refugees ended up in the middle of the action in the city center, right by the Cathedral. Thousands of people clustered in the street jostling and craning for views of the few flatscreen televisions hung outside of the bars. With all eyes on the World Cup, the spirit was electric, even if we orange were very much in the minority. Everyone was drunk with sports mania, alcohol or both.

Throughout the game the crowd erupted in spontaneous chants. The favorite by far was "Yo soy espanol!!!", to which we would reply "yo soy hollandaise!!!!". Like I said, we were tempting fate.

With two incredibly talented teams, the first two quarters progressed with no goals.

La Fiebre de Futbol

With Spain set to take on the Netherlands this Sunday for the World Cup title, football madness has reached fever pitch here in Sevilla. This past Thursday Daphne, Lisa and I watched the game in our favorite sports watching spot, Flagerty's. The place was overflowing with fans of Equipo Espania dressed in all forms of regalia- flag capes, body paint and bull horns. As soon as Spain registered its victory over Germany people took to the streets in droves. Teenagers clustered in plazas snapping photos and chanting "Espania!" until the wee hours of the morning. Drivers honked their car horns while waving flags out passers by. It was a parade of athletic nationalism.


The fervor has subsided a bit since yesterday, but it is sure to return one hundred fold on Sunday. I am excited but a little afraid to see what Seveillans will do if Equipo Espano wins.

Rollin', Rollin', Rollin' on the River

Yesterday I enjoyed a leisurely cruise on Sevilla's Rio Guadalquivir. We departed from the Torro de Ore, a moorish tower formerly used to store gold. From here we traveled a short distance in each direction. A recording described famous sites as we passed them, but I was more interested in the quotidian activities of the Sevillans in and around the river.
As we lazily glided up the river, I spotted a group of kayakers that reminded me of a whale pod. On the river banks, Sevillans draped themselves listlessly across blankets and rocks, wilting in the Sevillan heat. Kids jumped off the banks and into the cool river below. A few children even flashed their behinds at us passerbys. Apparently mooning transcends geopolitical divides.

La Isla Magica!

On Sunday my housemates and I fled the infernal Sevillan summer heat to La Isla Magica, an amusement park in Sevilla http://www.islamagica.es/. It was so hot that I felt like a camel in the Sahara all afternoon. Needless to say, we went on all of the water rides. Mike got the most soaked of us all. We also sampled the roller coasters, which were fun, but caused my face to be frozen somewhere between terror and exhilaration. Somehow, Mike managed to look completely calm on every candid ride photo, even the rides with surprises. Amazing!

On the way out of the park I caught a glimpse of a nightly water fountain show. It reminded me very much of the water show in front of the Bellagio in Las Vegas. I remembered watching undulating water sprays in Las Vegas a couple of years ago (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP0K6H2QK7A), idly wondering where I might be in the future. Seeing the same watery arcs here in Sevilla, I was filled with serenity, content in the knowledge that I had achieved this very Sevillan adventure, and all other blessings in my life, by living the life that I dreamed of and by taking chances. To combine the wisdom of Eleanor Roosevelt and Robert Frost, I did the thing which I did not think I could do, and that has made all the difference.

Fin de Semana...Muy Tipico

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Here at La Casa Cucaracha we kicked off the weekend with a barbecue on our roof. It was a true family effort- Isabel and Joanna made divine pasta salads, Mike and Shiro brought beverages and I found contributed snacks and fruit galore. But the best part by far was our 7 Euro grill. At that price, I was not convinced that the grill would stand upright, let alone cook meat. But, much to my delight, the grill was a better cook than George Forman. Some friends from the language school came over for a refreshingly breezy Seveillan evening under the stars- a perfect start to the weekend.

Saturday has been a leisurely day of World Cup spectatorship. First up, I met Daphne and Lisa at our old World Cup watching haunt, Flaherty's Irish Pub, to watch Germany take on Argentina. Germany scored an absolutely gorgeous goal a couple of minutes into the first half which set the tone for the rest of the game. As far as I can tell, Argentina plays very physically aggressively (dare I say a little too rough?), so i was pleased to see Germany win with great technique and sportsmanship. That said, Argentina is quite skilled, and really gave Germany a run for its money. It was an exciting game! On a side note, does anyone else wonder what happens when the players fall down? I understand that some of the tumbles are harmless, but on other occasions the camera pulls away from a player crumpled up on the ground and nothing further is said of his fate. Is there a black hole of downed soccer players (and my unmatched socks)?

After the game, Lisa accompanied me on a trip to H&M to buy a bathing suit. I am now proud owner of a swimsuit with a comical quantity of sequins. My mother will be very proud. No really she will. She likes the glitz.

In the evening we housemates convened in the living room to watch Spain vs. Paraguay. This match was decidedly less exciting, probably because I spent most of it deeply engrossed in my laptop:) Tonight we hope to dance the night away in typical Seveillan style. I have already had 2 coffees in preparation.

And tomorrow, we are off to the Isla Magica amusement park. Muy tipico por la vida Sevilla!

Regular Irregularity

In the Spanish language, there are so many irregular verbs that the regular ones seem strange. Life as a foreign language student in Sevilla is the same: it is a parallel universe in which the irregular is the norm. With students arriving and departing every week, our social spheres are constantly in flux. And with this ever-changing cast of characters, one week in Seville is profoundly different from the next.

I have already had so many wonderful, if overwhelming, adventures to process after only 2.5 weeks in Sevilla. So, today's field trip to Seville's Cathedral offered a welcome opportunity to gain perspective, both literally and figuratively.

The Cathedral is a massive monument (the third largest Catholic church in the world after the Hagia Sophia and St. Peter's Basilica) that dominates the historic center of Sevilla. The Cathedral is composed of a vast grey stone Gothic structure. As with so much of Sevillan culture, the Cathedral is built upon the foundations of a preexisting moorish monument, a mosque. In fact, the church's bell tower, La Giralda, is a re-purposed minaret. The bottom two thirds of this tower date back to the moors.

Most companiles (bell towers) in Europe consist of claustrophobic passages crammed with vertigo-inducing stairs and too many tourists. La Giralda, however, is a refreshing change from the norm. Rather than stairs there are 35 gentle ramps, which back in moorish times allowed the prayer callers to reach the top of the tower on horseback. The climb is easy, despite the oppressive July heat. Windows along the journey to the top help orient you and track your ascent. The view from the top of the tower is a treat. From here the city of Sevilla extends in all four directions. Buildings are clustered all around La Giralda, some with roofs adorned by electric blue swimming pools (all the more tempting on a sweltering day like today!), others with sunbathers and satellite dishes. And, off in the distance beyond the urban tangle of whitewashed apartments and church domes, there is the dusty orange earth of the olive farms.

The rest of the Cathedral consists of the Patio of Oranges (also dating back to the mosque). I felt like a pancake on a griddle standing in this Patio under the blazing sun, and I left as quickly as possible. In general, Seville's prediction for orange trees in general is a bit of a mystery. All of the guidebooks say that the oranges are absolutely awful tasting, so it's not clear why these rancid fruits have been cultivated for so long.

The Cathedral itself has a gargantuan interior. The soaring space suggests the incredible wealth of Seville from the Reconquista through the eighteenth century. You cannot help but feel a bit small as you stare up at the stained glass windows high above. The Cathedral is a consummate declaration of power and opulence, quite different from the cluttered baroque churches used by Sevillans daily.

Tomorrow my housemates and I host a barbecue, on Saturday we go for a night time paseo and Sunday we go to the water park.

Here in Sevilla, regular irregularity leads to adventure. As a store window on the Calle Tuetan says "el tiempo es ahora." Seize the spontoneity, seize the day!

Hot as a Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

I have heard that Seville is as hot as the Sahara in July, and I believe it. The last two days have been boiling. Yesterday Lisa, Daphne and I intended to visit a museum. Instead, halfway there and almost completely molten, we gave up and went to an Irish pub to watch World Cup soccer. By the time we reached Flagerty's we looked a lot like the fellow in the photo on the left- partially disentegrated and besotted with sweat. Nevertheless, in our travels I discovered a pet shop selling chipmunks. Chipmunks as pets?!