Sevilla so far

I feel like I can breath a real sigh of relief in many ways. It feels really good to finally have caught up on this blog. I wish I could be caught up on posting pictures as well, because I am a bit worried that after being so many places in such a condensed period, I will forget what was where. But I don't seem to be able to upload stuff on the internet center computer, so it will have to wait, and I'll have to think of other things. Shouldn't be too hard.

I'm now on my fifth day in Sevilla. To be honest, I haven't done all that much since I got here. Sunday I unpacked, did some preliminary exploring of the town, met my landlady Virginia who:

a) has a cat
b) doesn't speak a word of English
c) lives in the apartment with the rest of us
d) smokes
e) talks to her cat a LOT
f) seems very nice, even though she has posted lists of rules all over the house.

I also met the other cohabitants of the apartment. They are two eighteen year old girls from the Netherlands (which they just refer to as Holland, which I prefer, but didn't think we were allowed to do anymore). Their names are Paola and Linda. They are both taking a 3 month language course here. They're very nice, although sometimes they prefer to talk to each other in Dutch than to me in English, or locals in Spanish (but who can blame them really?). My first night they invited me to join them at the birthday celebration of one of the other girls from their program. We had more tapas! (I ordered this really nice fried eggplant thing with honey). It's great that they are so friendly and inclusive, it will make the next few weeks less lonely.

I slept early hard and long my first night in my new bed. In the morning, I said to myself, "Ok Tinkle. You're in Spain. Now write!" And I did, a little. So that was nice. I haven't written much since, but maybe a similar tactic will succeed again. I also went grocery shopping, in that I'm-an-independent-adult-who-is-going-to-eat-at-home-for-a-while kind of way. A way I have never shopped before. It was kind of cool and exciting. No, I didn't buy any vegetables, unless you count tomato sauce (that tastes like ketchup), but you can't really hold that against me. I'm on a strict budget here!

A good portion of my quest the first few days I was here was finding stuff to read, stuff to write with, and places to use the internet. I must say, this trip has been a real eye-opener to me in terms of how dependent I've gotten to be on computers. Not having them, or needing to pay for them, and carefully track my use of them will do that. I don't like to think of myself as someone who spends that much time on computers, or needs them much. But they help a lot with keeping in touch with people, writing, and finding out about/organizing fun interesting things to do, which are all things that ARE important to me. But I'm trying to strike a good balance between using computers when I really need or want to, and occupying myself other ways the rest of the time.

I've been able to read for pleasure a lot on this trip, and that's been great. It's been a while since I had the time and motivation. But I guess not being in school makes that much easier. Plus spending all the time on trains. Unfortunately, I have already gotten through the 3 books I brought with me (The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, Alphabet -a book of Danish poetry, and Crime and Punishment), as well as the ones I have picked up/borrowed along the way. Paola had a couple English books in her room that she lent me, but they are both how-shall-I-politely-say...not heavy lifting. Which is sort of more what I'm in the market for at the moment.

So I've been looking for bookstores with selections of English books (harder to find than you might think). Unlike much of the rest of Europe, most people in Sevilla don't speak any English at all. Spain and France have sort of remained islands of linguistic integrity. I think it's kind of cool. But it does make living here a bit more challenging for me. I am definitely going to try to pick up as much Spanish as I can, but knowing my limited ability with languages, I am not expecting a miracle of fluency.

Yesterday I had a great triumph: I joined the public library. It took me a few days to work up the energy to find it and check it out, but it was well worth it. They have computers with internet you can use for free, they have a decent collection of English books, they have English-Spanish dictionaries, they have books like Harry Potter and the Chronicles of Narnia that I can read in Spanish because I know them by heart, and they let me join for free! I'm sure I posed a strange candidate with my Spanish-illiteracy, my US passport and UK phone number, but I had a Sevilla address, and I guess that's all you really need. So now I'm restocked with reading material.

I also had a good near-death adventure on Tuesday. It doesn't translate that well as a story, so suffice it to say it involved getting lost and highways. I'm just always impressed by my special ability to change an ordinary day into a basic struggle for survival.

Wednesday I saw David Castillo and ate some pastry. It was nice to see a fellow Brownie! However, he was between trips to Portugal and Germany, so I won't see him again until next week. I also went into a hidden bar where local acts perform and do flamenco dancing for free! I have to say, the woman who was dancing was one of the ugliest people I have ever seen. It was quite ironic--you usually expect dancers to be, well, attractive. She also seemed extraordinarily unhappy and unplesant and unfriendly. But she was talented. I couldn't see her feet, and I really wish I could have, but the guitarist, singer, dancer combo and the incredible clapping and sense of rhythm were all very impressive, and felt like a good dose of real Spanish culture.

And that's pretty much what I've been up to so far. I'm hoping to catch some of the Sevilla Film Festival tonight, and I've been exploring the city a lot, trying to get a feel for it. From everything I've observed so far, Sevilla was a really good choice. The weather is pretty ideal, as is the size of the city, straddling the interesting-manageable continuum admirably. I'm looking forward to a relaxing few weeks. :)