Hablamos español!?!

  Seville, Spain
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

So we´re still loving Seville. We have immersed ourselves in the language as much as we can and the spanish language courses at LINC are really helping. Our morning courses are really good at reinforcing all the grammer and building up our vocabulary. Andy is really liking his afternoon business spanish class too. I need to find someone studying English so that we can practice conversations together in both languages like I did in Mexico. So far I have a few people to contact so that´s good. Most of the students at the school are from other countries in Europe, but mainly Germany. 

Claire at the fountain in Real Alcazar gardens

All studying and no play makes Andy and Claire dull people. So we decided to get out and experience the Seville tapas culture a bit last week. On Thursday we met up with a couple named Richard and Betty that we met on the Spain Expat web site. They moved to Seville from the U.K. in January. We went for some drinks in the Alemeda Hercules area which is full of nice cafes and pubs off the tourist circut. On Friday we went tapa bar hopping with Eva, a German girl that was sharing the apartment with us last week and also attending LINC. We tried beer, sherry, orange wine, delicious olives and lots of seafood delights. It was a lot of fun and a great way to practice Spanish with locals. 

Real Alcazar 5

One thing we learned about the oranges that grow on trees here is that they use them for orange wine or marmalade. We tried one and it was sooooo bitter. But there must be other orchards that grow sweet oranges as we have bought some nice ones from the supermercado. The smell of the orange blossoms here is heavenly. I inhale deeply everytime I walk under the trees as the scent is so adictive. I guess that is the appeal of Seville - it is very sensual. Everything you see, taste and smell evokes emotion.

View of Real Alcazar gardens

On Saturday we visited one of the most prominent historical places in the city of Sevilla - the Real Alcazar. It is an amazing eclectic mix of historical art and styles of Muslim and Christian rules of centuries past. We stayed for four hours and this wasn´t even including the upper floor as the tours were sold out. We´ll have to go back another day to see that part. The Spanish Royal family actually still stay at the Real Alcazar when they visit Sevilla.

So tomorrow I´m dragging Andy to a Flamenco show. I´m sure he´ll love it once he gets into it! We´re going with a guy from the U.S. that we met at the LINC school. Then Friday we are going to Betty and Richard´s for dinner and to see their apartment in Seville. Saturday we are planning to take a train or bus to Cadíz on the coast just for a day trip. Then next week is Semana Santa so aparently the city will be alive with tourists, locals, processions, statues, and all things Catholic. It will be quite an experience to be in the thick of it!! I´ll write more next week with details!

Oh on a not so exciting note... We got a bank account and a mobile phone yesterday and we did both transactions in Spanish quite proficiently I must say! So here´s to a few more small wins for the expats... Hasta luego!