Our friend Melanie came to visit. We acted like fools all week. The end.
Melanie is our dear friend from UCLA. She worked hard all quarter (even brought bluebooks to grade) and I’m glad she treated herself to a week in Sevilla before Christmas. Having Melanie here gave us a great excuse to take excursions to Itálica and Huelva, and to discover all the harbingers of Christmas in Sevilla.
We didn’t stray far from Sevilla, but we went to a couple of spots we’ve been wanting to see. Itálica, just a few miles north of Sevilla, is a site of impressive Roman ruins. Did you know that Itálica was the 3rd largest city in the Roman Empire? Yeah, neither did I! The ruins at Itálica include some brightly colored mosaic floors, parts of the city walls, the baths and a huge amphitheater.
Mosaic floors
Amphitheater
Inside the amphitheater; pretend I’m a tiger and Melanie’s a Roman slave – it’s just like the movie Gladiator!We thought a trip to the beach might be fun in mid-December, so we hopped on a train to Huelva (a town west of Sevilla), then hopped on a bus to Punta Umbría. Oh, you haven’t heard of Punta Umbría? I’m surprised. It’s a tiny beach town on the Atlantic and, in the winter, home to about 200 inhabitants. It seemed like that anyway. The day was also a bit cold, windy and drizzly, so, needless to say, we were probably the only tourists to stop by the tourism office that day. But, we saw the beach, we saw boats and we ate some incredible seafood at a place where the waiter referred to us as “familia.” On our bus ride back to Huelva, we saw dozens of wild flamingos standing in the marshes.
We sure had the beach all to ourselves!
Sevilla also had some adventures in store for us of course. We had memorable interchanges with Pablo, Tito and Sylvie – wait staff at some of the local spots we ate. Tito felt it necessary to give me a grammar and diction lesson every time he came by our table. I finally asked if they served a tapa called “¿Por qué no te calles?” (Why don’t you shut up?) No, I wasn’t being rude – many restaurants recently created a tapa by this name because that’s the question King Juan Carlos asked of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. That sound bite has been broadcast countless times in Spain and people get quite a kick out of it.
Melanie was in Sevilla just in time for some school choir finals – performed outside of our local department store. Four choirs performed traditional Christmas songs for a crowd made up of their school friends, their parents, siblings . . . and the three of us. If hearing children sing Christmas songs doesn’t get you in the holiday spirit, your heart is made of icicles.
I wanted this choir to win, but they were the 1st runners up
The Christmas Belén bonanza in southern Spain gets out of control. We saw Beléns everywhere! Here are some special Belén moments:
A cart full of shrimp, hams, etc. in a Belén scene. Just like the Peruvians dress Mary and Joseph in bowler hats and make the stable out of an ear of corn, the Spanish put all things Spanish in their Nativity scenes. The Jewish community of Bethlehem was probably not eating pork and shellfish, but that doesn’t mean those foods won't be in your Belén.
I don’t know if flamingos (or mallards) were there in Bethlehem 2000 years ago, but they live in southern Spain, and therefore are available for purchase to include in your Belén.
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