Un cumpleaños, un fin de semana, y recuerdas de Sevilla

Ok, first the birthday. I was center of attention again for class, but this time it was actually about me. The class sang happy birthday and then everyone had to come up with an imaginary gift for me and why they chose it. To make things fair, I had to give everyone a special thank you and wish them well. Very fun. Our game of fútbol was very fun and we're hoping to make it a Fridays tradition. We saw Pirates in the theatre, but it wasn't very good. I think it was made better by being in a foreign language. Afterwards we went out to a bar where a sangría and a lemon soda were bought for me. I love the lemon soda here(the sangría was unremarkable). Oh! I almost forgot our cake celebrations. The cake Karen baked for me didn't turn out because of the elevation so we had to go buy cake last minute. We had one chocolate and one Dulce de Leche. The Dulce de Leche was delicious and my friends made a birthday crown for me out of the styrofoam cakebox.


One more thing on my birthday! We were invited to the town hall with other newly arrived international students for a welcome message from the secretary of culture in Salamanca. It was a rare opportunity to go inside, and very cool.


The rest of the weekend was pretty good too. Saturday I just walked around town as I often do to pass the time. At night I went out to the bar again to watch the soccer game and was bought two more drinks as belated birthday presents. We had a really good time and I ended up staying out very late sitting in a park with Catherine Attewell enjoying the night air and conversation. Sunday was mass again at the cathedral and a two hour nap in the afternoon. The bible study that was planned for the afternoon by the protestants in the group got rained out, so I spent some time in a café staying dry over some tea. That was most of my day(plus a short spelling lesson from our host mom's friend before dinner).


Something else I want to mention from last week before I move to my last day touring, I want to mention another highlight of my week. On Tuesday and Wednesday we had dance lessons in Salsa and Sevillanas. I think we have the opportunity for continued lessons every week so you can be sure I'll be taking advantage of them. Also, if I haven't mentioned them, we have art and history conferences every evening. Last week we learned about El Greco, Spain under roman influence, and the history of the moors and the reconquest. We also attended a presentation on the literary movement Realismo which didn't interest me much at all.


Ok, lastly some memories of Sevilla before we finally came to Salamanca. Then I will be finished telling about my adventures before Salamanca. I wish I had time to go into even more detail with every day even here in Salamanca but I just don't have the time with a computer. And I need to be out living the adventure, not just writing about it.


Anyway, Sevilla. From where I left you, I had one full day in Sevilla to go, one more night, and a morning to say farewell. The big event of the second day was visiting la Catedral de Sevilla, which is known as the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, and rivaled only in size by St. Paul's in London and of course St. Peter's in la Ciudad del Vaticano. The cathedral was of course beautiful and contained the/a tomb of Christopher Columbus(Cristóbal Colón). The reason I say 'a' tomb is because his remains are actually in a couple places as he was moved around and parts were left behind. I think I took a picture of the tomb. We also saw the burial stone of one of his sons. Another fun fact about this cathdral is that it has a painting of St. Anthony which I think is very famous and you would recognize if you saw it. Anyway, what makes this fact fun is that the quarter of the painting containing the Saint was cut out and stolen in I think the 1920's. A worldwide notice was put out and it returned by a small shopkeep in New York who stumbled upon it in his shop, although at first he didn't realize what it was. The shopkeep returned the painting refusing the VERY high reward. Thus, the joke became that St. Anthony, patron Saint of lost things, even found himself.


I went out to explore the streets at night again and this time ran into two spaniards and a german. We ended up walking down along the river exchanging cultures. Some other friends(Alyssa&Bridget) had the opportunity to experience a community festival. Apparently during the month of may, neighborhoods host parties with drink and live music.


My time in Sevilla ended on Friday morning with mass in the cathedral. I by chance snapped a photo the day before of the chapel we had mass in so you can see it later once I post it.


Time's up! Mester is closing so I have to sign out. After Sevilla we drove to Salamanca, met our host moms, and moved into our new homes. Since then I've been very happy here as I hope you've seen in my blog. The past two sundays I've been in the cathedral for mass in the Chapel of Our Lady of Loneliness(Nuestra Señor de la Soledad), so I am in good company if I start to miss home.

¡Hasta luego!