La Playa
On Thursday night we went to la Alameda de Hercules, a big plaza on the other side of town. Juanma (Juan María - one of the program guides) has gone out with us a lot, we've meet lots of his friends and he's shown us some good spots. La Alameda was a big plaza where hundreds of young people gathered in the early morning hours to drink and socialize outside, known as el botellón. On Friday, I slept in and caught an early afternoon bus with three other students to Matalascañas, a beach town about one hour to the southwest of Sevilla. Its great to be able to get a 10 euro round trip bus ticket and go to a great beach for a day. We snacked on crackers, bocadillos and fanta and relaxed for a few hours on the beach, the water was cool. This is the last busy beach weekend. By next week the August vacations will be over and life will be back to normal. The streets of most towns are pretty empty, and lots of small businesses are closed for much of August, the whole country takes a long vacation.
Bernardo (the 13 year old), just finished his exams yesterday and went to the beach for the weekend. The grandparents are fairly wealthy and have a beach house in the southwest corner of Spain that I hope to visit sometime. The mother and three of the kids don't come home for a few more days so I still haven't met 1/3 of the family. Almost everything is closed on Saturday after 2 pm and all day on Sunday. I'll have to adjust to that and find other things to do. I just finished Death and the Sun, a book about bullfighting, several other students want to borrow it before we all go to see a bullfight.
Futbol (soccer) season started last week. Sevilla has two teams in the Liga Primera (Spain's major soccer league). Sevilla CF and Real Betis. I was told by a friend who studied here recently to support Betis and luckily my family are big Betis fans. I would be kicked out of the house if I wasn't. Betis made the European Champions Cup tournament, and they will play world class teams Liverpool and Chelsea and one other team, twice each - home and away, this fall, in addition to the regular schedule of Spanish teams. Those games, especially Liverpool, the best team in Europe right now, will be monumental events that shut down the city. I'm hoping Sevilla and Betis play each other sometime this year, that is always a huge game.
When the American students are together, we talk a lot about our families and experiences, we've noticed a lot of cultural differences that we didn't expect:
Spaniards watch a lot of tv, especially during lunch and siesta. We thought only americans watched a lot of tv.
Spaniards are vey animated and expressive, partly because of the style of the spanish language. They also just love to argue and opine and discuss everything. The elderly señoras are funny because they are very independent and love to say whatever is on their mind.
Gossip shows on tv and tabloid papers are big. So are american tv shows.
August is a strange month. Everyone is at the beach and life in Sevilla is slow because its sooo hot. I thought living in the hottest city in Europe would be great, well its not.
Spaniards are appalled by the idea of retirement homes in the US. They value family and kinship, children live with their parents well into their 20s, until they marry. The elderly live on their own or with their grown children when they can no longer take care of themselves. Retirements homes seem ridiculous to them, almost cruel. I agree with them.
We've also noticed that Spaniards are extremely proud of their language, food, traditions and way of life. They are almost snobs about it, but in a way its nice that they are so proud and protective of their way of life.
It was also surprising to see how much the US mattered to Spaniards. They care a lot about the Iraq War, New Orleans, American celebrities, American culture - and of course they give us their opinions on all of it.
Well, its 3 pm, time for lunch.
Bernardo (the 13 year old), just finished his exams yesterday and went to the beach for the weekend. The grandparents are fairly wealthy and have a beach house in the southwest corner of Spain that I hope to visit sometime. The mother and three of the kids don't come home for a few more days so I still haven't met 1/3 of the family. Almost everything is closed on Saturday after 2 pm and all day on Sunday. I'll have to adjust to that and find other things to do. I just finished Death and the Sun, a book about bullfighting, several other students want to borrow it before we all go to see a bullfight.
Futbol (soccer) season started last week. Sevilla has two teams in the Liga Primera (Spain's major soccer league). Sevilla CF and Real Betis. I was told by a friend who studied here recently to support Betis and luckily my family are big Betis fans. I would be kicked out of the house if I wasn't. Betis made the European Champions Cup tournament, and they will play world class teams Liverpool and Chelsea and one other team, twice each - home and away, this fall, in addition to the regular schedule of Spanish teams. Those games, especially Liverpool, the best team in Europe right now, will be monumental events that shut down the city. I'm hoping Sevilla and Betis play each other sometime this year, that is always a huge game.
When the American students are together, we talk a lot about our families and experiences, we've noticed a lot of cultural differences that we didn't expect:
Spaniards watch a lot of tv, especially during lunch and siesta. We thought only americans watched a lot of tv.
Spaniards are vey animated and expressive, partly because of the style of the spanish language. They also just love to argue and opine and discuss everything. The elderly señoras are funny because they are very independent and love to say whatever is on their mind.
Gossip shows on tv and tabloid papers are big. So are american tv shows.
August is a strange month. Everyone is at the beach and life in Sevilla is slow because its sooo hot. I thought living in the hottest city in Europe would be great, well its not.
Spaniards are appalled by the idea of retirement homes in the US. They value family and kinship, children live with their parents well into their 20s, until they marry. The elderly live on their own or with their grown children when they can no longer take care of themselves. Retirements homes seem ridiculous to them, almost cruel. I agree with them.
We've also noticed that Spaniards are extremely proud of their language, food, traditions and way of life. They are almost snobs about it, but in a way its nice that they are so proud and protective of their way of life.
It was also surprising to see how much the US mattered to Spaniards. They care a lot about the Iraq War, New Orleans, American celebrities, American culture - and of course they give us their opinions on all of it.
Well, its 3 pm, time for lunch.
posted by Sam at
6:42 AM
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