España? Claro Que Si!

Sevilla was our first stop outside of Madrid in Spain and the first place I had seen before as an adult. At age 19, my friend Phil and I visited and did as much as my limited funds allowed. In the intervening 15 years, the city has evolved quite a bit. Some of the rough edges that used to be in the city center have been smoothed out making it a nicer city to walk around. But I did miss a bit of the grit that I remembered.

But what made the Sevilla trip this time so magical was the wonderful family that we stayed with. Thanks to couchsurfing, we were able to meet Anna, Juan, Linus, Leon, and Micio the cat (redundant if you speak Italian), and get to experience life in a Sevilla neighborhood. We had a great time doing simple things like going out to dinner and a movie, spending an afternoon in a park, and cooking dinner (our Thai cooking class skills were tested and I believe we only marginally passed, though I blame it on the fact that we didn´t start cooking until 11 pm!) We even had a good time doing the dishes and other really routine things that made us feel like real, non-traveling people again. Very homey and wonderful. We also got to see our first, and most likely not our last, flamenco performance, which was really fun.






I guess I would be remiss if I didn´t mention another reason that Sevilla is a wonderful and enjoyable city: the public bikes. Not to get too "I used to work at a transportation engineering firm" on y´all, but Sevilla recently put in a very good network of bike lanes and public bike rental terminals throughout the city. This basically makes the city really liveable and pleasant to get around, and not very polluted.

Another great thing about Spain is that with merely one year of highschool Spanish skills, we´re feeling wildly successful with our communications. Not having to think hard about how to say "hello, thank you, goodbye, and numbers 1-10" has freed up a tremendous amount of mental space. Sad, but true. Then again, in our first all-Spanish conversation at the first restaurant we went to, I did end up eating a hamburger by accident. Apparently, I still have something to learn...



(I began this entry and Kristi took over and tried to sound like me. She says I´m a hack and she can mimic me. What do I have to live for? Another poll?)


-d (sorta)