feeling accomplished, pasos, and hoping I haven't developed some kind of lactose allergy

Today was a pretty good day I'd say.  I felt really accomplished at work because I was left alone in charge of the 2 year olds while their main teacher was at the doctor.  I had them to myself for close to 2 hours.  And it went pretty well.  There were melt downs and the usual she took my toy he hit me kind of things to deal with and this one girl that only seems to want to communicate in gestures or really mostly screeching and crying.  That was kind of trying and I did have to send her out of the room once because I couldn't take it.  But I gave them breakfast and had them play with and then clean up multiple things and we even read a couple of books and I managed to do a passable version of their very story about the dirty duck.  I was feeling pretty good.  Then I helped feed the babies because that teacher was gone today so we were down a hand since the afternoon lady is the one that covered for her.  And the two that I fed were the two that used to give me the most trouble when I started and today they ate fine for me.  So they have gotten used to me and might even like me.  Which makes me happy.  These kids are just so darn cute.  So even though they drive me crazy and I am soooo tired at the end of every day, I really am happy with the experience and am glad I got to know these adorable booger monsters.  And this afternoon it was just me and Fernando and Jaime chillin while watching a movie like they usually do in the afternoon.  But every day this week has been the same episode of teletubbies that they've been watching since I started weeks ago.  I'm so sick of it.  But today when I turned the tv on the little mermaid was already in there and I was not about to change it.  It was a very good change.  At least for me.  I don't think the little boys cared.  They just wanted out of their chairs to get down and run around but they had to sit there and listen to me say oh look at the fish or see the that crab and stuff like.  Lucky them.  So it was a good day at work.  Only 3 days left.  I'm  just sad realizing that I might have already seen some of the kids for the last time without even knowing it because I honestly don't know how many will show up next week.  But maybe if there's not a lot of kids I'll get to go early?  Wishful thinking probably, but a girl can dream.

On to the next topic...pasos.  I got some fabulous froyo after work today as treat for the end of the week but then I can back to the house and had a sandwich for my real lunch.  I was going to go to the park or a museum or something but I was really tired and once I sit down on my bed it's just hard to get moving again.  But I did eventually get up because as I was looking through the semana santa programs I saw that there were several churches that were supposed to be open this afternoon so that people could come and see the pasos.  And upon looking up some of the churches I realized that one was close to where I work.  So I decided to go out and at least be able to say I did something.  So I walked in the direction I knew the church to be, all though when it came time to deviate from my route to work, as in turning left instead of right, I quickly came to a point where the street branched off into two different streets and I had no idea which one I was supposed to be on so I chose to walk toward what looked like it might be a church.  And it was, I don't know if it was the one I had set out to find, but it was a church and I got to see five different pasos, two with mary and three with jesus.  And one of them was the last supper scene which is one of the big deal pasos so that was pretty cool.  Then on my way back I noticed that one of the other churches I pass on my way to work every day was actually open for once so I went in just on the off chance that they might have pasos up as well.  Well they did and the church is named for saint john so their mary paso had saint john on it as well which was pretty cool.  After that I had wanted to go to the story to get some water to get me through this last week and maybe some crackers or something, but it was raining so I didn't feel like doing any more walking than necessary.  I didn't have my umbrella with me because it literally started raining like basically as soon as I stepped outside the house.  Perfect timing.  And I didn't want to go back in at that point so I just kind of hoped that it wouldn't get any heavier than the light drizzle that had started.  There were supposed to be some minor processions today, but I doubt they actually had them because the rain started at just about the time they should have been leaving their churches.  Bummer.  I'm seriously going to be so upset if any of the processions get cancelled due to the weather.  Like especially the overnight ones during the very early morning of good friday.  I'll be crushed.  But there's a chance of rain in the forecast almost every day next week.  So pray that that changes and that it got it all out of the way tonight and it can rain tomorrow too if it wants.  But come sunday we need eight days without precipitation.  And I'm pretty sure we just had like 80 days without precipitation so why it felt the need to start now I have no idea.  Ugh.  Still hoping for the best though.

I really wish I had gone to get the water and crackers.  Because once I got back to the house my stomach started giving me all kinds of trouble and I was experiencing some serious discomfort.  It's doing better now, but all I could think was the only weird thing I ate was the frozen yogurt.  I certainly shouldn't have a problem with peanut butter sandwiches.  I've been eating those every day since I've been here almost.  But I definitely had this same frozen yogurt on sunday and I didn't have any of this trouble so maybe it's just some viral thing, a gift from the booger monsters I work with.  My congestedness and just general grossness had gotten a lot better but the last couple of days it has gotten worse so maybe this is the climax of some new bug.  Who knows.  I just hope it goes away soon.  It just got me worried about my return to dairy products.  I mean I went from eating milk and cheese all the time to the only regular consumption of anything dairy related being the butter on my toast in the morning.  I mean we have cheese pizza once in a while or use parmesan cheese on our pasta but that's about it.   And I've long since given up on the milk here.  It just weirds me out how it's not refrigerated in the stores and then they leave it out for a really long time here.  I don't know.  It's just weird.  So I don't know how my body's going to readjust to the dairy all the time thing.  But it will just have to get used to it.  Because I am going to be so excited to drink a big glass of cold milk when I get home.

Well that's more than enough random rambling for now.  Here's some pictures of the pasos I saw as a reward for those of you that actually read this far.

my unexpected vacation day

I did absolutely nothing today.  And it was wonderful.

Except that's not entirely true.  I did a lot of looking up practical traveling info for when we leave sevilla.  And it kind of stressed me out.  And I feel like I could spend a fortune in london if I got to do everything I want to do.  We'll see how crazy I decide to go.  I feel like I should be out with the girls tonight, but when it came down to it I was just too tired.  So I decided to continue the pattern of the day and spend some more quality time with mi casa.  And I know ya'll have been wondering all this time exactly what my home away from home looks like.  So here's some pictures to satisfy that burning curiosity.

The grand tour...

the bowl on my desk where I put all of my ticket stubs and brochures and all that jazz, soon I will have the fun task of going through it and deciding what to keep

the bottom of my closet where I throw all the things I buy, some day soon I will have to face the fact that these things must find a way to fit in my suitcase

the cork board where I've posted all of the lovely cards and letters I've received as well as some pictures I brought with me from home, It has added some much needed color to the room

the hallway outside my room, on the left is the door to the room where the high school students stay when they come and there's another door you can't see that leads to honestly I don't know where, the door at the end of the hall is where we pick up our laundry most of the time but there's definitely a bed in there, then on the right is the bathroom

the window here is to the inside of the house

looking down from the bathroom window

this is the patio, the center of the house and how it looks from the top of the stairs

this is looking out onto the terrace on the roof of the house

the narrow winding staircase that I have almost died on as I walked down the stairs too quickly in the dark, you have to take the curves at a wide angle so that you actually hit every step

this is the inner door, it has a name I can't remember, it creaks really badly, beyond is a set of double doors that actually lead out to the street, normally they are open during the day but R and J were out this afternoon while I was doing this fun little photo shoot

Lola.  She's quiet when she's sleeping.

the view of the kitchen from my bedroom window, well if I open the window and look down this is what I would see, and when I did this today I noticed that breakfast was still out so I went down to eat even though it was after 2 in the afternoon

this is what I really see if I just glance out my window

the kitchen

this is where ham comes from in spain, yum

what I come down to every morning, the table set for breakfast, and I though I would eat while they were out but they came back before I finished so they got a good laugh at me sitting in the kitchen in my pajamas eating breakfast at 2:30 in the afternoon, it was just one of those days

looking up from the kitchen, that window is the window in my room

Wasn't that fun?  So now you know where I'm staying and I will always be able to look back on my home in Sevilla.  Nothing more to say because today I didn't take one step out of la casa.

wednesday

Another day gone.  After tomorrow my days left in Sevilla will be down to single digits.  I still can't believe how fast the time is gone.

Today the swiss girls left.  It's a little weird being back down to just the 3 of us.  Got to say goodbye as I was rushing out the door, running late as usual.  Today the kids came dressed up for semana santa.  Most were dressed as costaleros, the guys that carry the pasos.  There was one girl in full nazareno outfit which was pretty cool.  There were also three little girls dressed as mantillas which is very traditional dress for women on holy thursday and good friday.  There was also a little girl dressed as a member of the bands that play with some of the brotherhoods.  I'm really enjoying getting to learn along with the kids a little more each day about all of the different aspects of holy week.

I get to cross an extra day off of my days left of work countdown.  They told me not to bother coming tomorrow because there's this huge strike planned.  I don't even know if I'm going to leave the house tomorrow.  From what I heard, things might get a little crazy.  And I don't know exactly when or where things are taking place and I don't know what all might be affected by this.  There was also some awkwardness at the end of the day with the lady that works in the afternoons.  I probably shouldn't say much, not that I really can because I don't really know what happened, but I know that she was talking with the directors and it ended with her in tears and us running late getting the kids out the door because I didn't know if she was going to be coming back and I wasn't 100% sure which kids were leaving and I don't know how to fill out their agendas that going back and forth from home with them.  So even though I felt bad for her and wanted to help, I feel like there was only so much I could do.  And then I was left with one little girl for a few minutes after all the other parents came and I thought the directors were standing right outside the door because they had been talking to the parents and such so the first time the bell rang I assumed they were going to be there to get it but when it rang again I realized it was the little girl's mom and then I felt bad making her wait and usually her dad picks her up so this woman doesn't even know me and I'm sure she wondered what I was doing being left in charge of pick up but whatever.  What's done is done.  I just wonder what exactly happened and I hated seeing this woman that I spend a considerable amount of time with every day, the only one that I feel like I have the opportunity to have real conversations with, I hated seeing her so upset.  So I'll be curious to see what friday brings.

On to happier things though...  After work I went to the cathedral.  I spent a little time walking around the church and then climbed up to the top of the giralda.  It was super crowded though.  There were so many people and especially a lot of tour groups.  There were multiple groups of students and also multiple asian tour groups which is always fun.  So it was kind of hard to get good spots to get pictures from the giralda but I did get some good ones.  You just won't see them here yet because I'm to lazy to put them on the computer.  Maybe with my day off tomorrow...

After yesterday I swore off spending any more money on souvenirs.  But the cathedral has a gift shop.  And the cathedral is located in a very souvenir shop filled part of the city.  So yes, more money was spent.  Much more than I would have thought.  But now I really do think I'm done.  Except for another trip to the fro yo place and maybe a couple meals here and there and another bottle of water.  But that shouldn't add up to too much.

I will also have to stop by the bakery by my house again though.  It's probably a good thing I did not discover these pastries until now.  Otherwise, I might have bought one like every day.  At least once a week.  I mean they've always been tempting and looked really good from the window.  But today since I didn't really eat lunch and it was too close to supper time to eat a lot by the time I was on my way back to the house, I decided to get something from the bakery to accompany the apple I had saved from breakfast.  Such a good decision.  I forget what it was called but it was like a rectangle doughnut like pastry frosted in chocolate and then filled with chocolate.  And I mean filled with chocolate.  Like oozing chocolate as soon as you bite into it.  A little bit of heaven.  Good thing I waited til I got to the house to eat it thought because it was kind of messy and I'm sure I would have been walking around with chocolate all over  my face if I would have just sat in the plaza to eat it.

Dinner was funny because R and J were working on sending a little photo message to a friend of theirs, I think I one time several years ago she was a student that stayed with them and they've kept in touch and become good friends.  But they wrote up this sign that said we'd like to share with you and they tacked to this big ham leg thing.  It's seriously like the whole leg of this pig or something and really kind of gross but they got a picture with it to send to this girl as a joke because she's a vegetarian so it's probs gonna freak her out a bit.  H and I just had to laugh about it.  I mean what else do you do when there's this big animal leg, hoof and all, just chillin at the dinner table with you?

Also at dinner J gave me a book with all of the semana santa routes and such outlined and it just has some more general information about the different days and all the traditions and stuff.  It should make for some good reading in the next several days.  He also said that the church next door would be mounting their statues and such on the paso tomorrow so I might try and go see that.  And I guess that church does their procession on tuesday of holy week and they usually go right by the church and watch it leave the church to begin the procession so that should be cool.  I know it's going to be really crazy and that no matter what I probably won't be totally prepared for all that it entails, but I'm still really excited and definitely looking forward to it.  It will definitely be a grand finale for the trip.

Until tomorrow then, hopefully I'll have some pictures to share since I'm not planning on doing much worth sharing.  Whatever this strike might bring about, I'm grateful at least for the opportunity to sleep in and have a lazy stay at home day.

my penultimate week in sevilla

Monday.  Well, again, I didn't sleep that great.  So I was tired all day.  Which sucked.  I wanted to get out and do something throughout the afternoon.  But sleep was the only thing that happened.  Oh well.  At least I picked up some mint ice cream from the best ice cream place in the city on the way back to the house.

As for today...

I wanted to visit the cathedral and this other church, but I found out that for some reason the cathedral was closing early today.  Go figure.  So plan b was walk a long way in the opposite direction to the basilica of the macarena.  And all of this was without coming back to the house to eat because I knew if I did I would have a hard time getting myself back out of my room.  So I stopped by a little pastry shop and picked up a yummy bola de chocolate.  Which is this yummy doughnut like thing with chocolate in the middle and chocolate drizzled on top of it.  Trust me, it's even better than it sounds.  I sat and ate it in the plaza nueva which was nice to just sit and soak up some of sevilla.  Even if it was a crazy pre semana santa version of sevilla.  Yeah, things are already getting crazy.

Then it was off to the macarena.  I didn't really remember how to get there, I didn't have a map...I just went with it.  I remembered the name of one street that was supposed to lead me to it and just kind of went from there.  It's really cool being able to get places without a map.  And I really like it when spanish people ask me for directions and not only do I understand what they are asking, but I can respond and actually know how to get to where they're going.  It's a good feeling.  But anyway, somehow I wound up on the right street, like seriously I don't know that I could repeat the path I took, and I got to the church.  The pasos, one with mary and the other with jesus, are up in the church and it's so cool to see.  I also got a program that tells me all of the streets and times and brotherhoods that are processing throughout semana santa.  I found some online versions but I liked the idea of having one with me.  Then I discovered the gift shop and made some purchases before heading on my way again.

I didn't really know how to get back either, just kind of had a general direction in which I wanted to walk.  Because going back the way I came wouldn't really have gotten me where I wanted to go.  But I walked in what I hoped was the right direction.  And eventually I wound up in the area that is about half way between the daycare and my house so I think I did a pretty good job of staying in the right direction.  While I was in the area I was hoping that the several churches on those streets would be open at that time of day but no such luck.  So I decided to visit one of the churches behind my house, the basilica of jesus del gran poder.  There was some sort of service going on, but there's a gift shop...so I gave in to a couple more temptations and I'm now hoping that I'm definitely done with souvenir purchasing.  Except maybe a little nazareno statue.  The daycare has a really cool incense thing, whatever they're called, that is shaped like a nazareno.  And I think the kids might come dressed in nazareno outfits tomorrow...they're supposed to dress up for semana santa.  We'll see what that's like.

We've been listening to a lot of semana santa music with the kids and today for breakfast they were supposed to bring traditional semana santa pastries to eat.  So I tried some torrija I think it's called which is really really sweet but good, it's kind of like french toast.  That was basically the only thing the two year olds brought but I guess in the three year old room some people brought pestiños I believe they're called.  That's basically fried dough and it can be covered in honey or sugar.  Both sound pretty good to me.  I also learned that the nazarenos hand out little candies to kids during semana santa.  And the kids have a little rhyme that they say "nazareno, dame un caramelo, si no me lo das, yo voy a enfadar" Basically meaning give me candy because if you don't I'm going to get mad.  I'll be interested to see what else I learn as the week goes on.

I owe you some pictures from today...but I'm not feeling the greatest and I was far too tired and really just lazy once I got back to the house to get the pics off my camera.  So you'll just have to wait on those I'm afraid.  Hopefully it won't be too long.

Here's hoping that maybe just maybe I can get back to that time oh up until about 4 days ago when I fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes and stayed asleep all night long.  I really enjoyed that.  But I took it for granted and now I am left seriously missing that time.

Sunny Sunday in Sevilla

Today was the opposite of yesterday as far as the weather is concerned.  Sunny and warm and perfect.

Went to mass at the cathedral.

Bought some souvenirs.

Ate at a little pizza place we like.  You thought potato sandwiches were weird?  How about potato pizza?  It was really good.

Went up on top of the setas (mushrooms).  It's this structure that kind of looks like some mushrooms.  And you can go up to the top of them and walk around and get a great view of the city.

And there's this super delicious frozen yogurt place at the bottom of the setas.  So we enjoyed sitting in the sun on the steps of the setas eating some delicious fro-yo.  Basically the perfect day.

 
Frozen yogurt, chocolate syrup, kiwi, and strawberry.  Yum.

Daylight savings time started this weekend here.  Now it's basically light out until almost 9.  It's weird, but cool.

Dinner was really good tonight.  Tortilla, and these little I don't know what they were, but it was good.  It had cheese and peppers and onion maybe and a little bit of chorizo all wrapped in some kind of bread like thing.  I don't know.  They were good.  And H and I didn't mind at all that the swiss girls didn't eat their full share.  More for us.  The best part might have been dessert though, which was a fruit salad!  It had strawberry and kiwi, apple and orange, and banana.  It was a really yummy treat.

Basically...it was a really good day!  And hopefully this last normal week in sevilla will be more of the same.

It never rains in Sevilla...

except for today that is.

With it raining so rarely here, it didn't even occur to me to factor weather into the plans for the day.  But I walked downstairs this morning to find a cloudy sky and wet street so it was back up to my room to fetch my umbrella.  I didn't actually use it though because I refused to encourage the slight drizzle that persisted throughout the day.

We had planned on going back to the real alcázar to spend some more time in the gardens, but the thing about gardens is they're outside... so to the plaza de toros we went.  It was something we felt like we had to do while we were in Sevilla and it was cool to see the bull ring and all that.  But it probably would have been more exciting if we were actually going there to see a bull fight.  But the season doesn't start til the april fair two weeks after easter.  Darn.

After that it was not exactly raining so we decided to try our luck with the gardens.  It managed to stay dry long enough for us to see all the pretty trees that are now in bloom unlike the time we went a month ago or whenever it was.  And we got to spend some time walking through the labyrinth which was fun.  The rain just couldn't stay away though so once it started picking up again we headed out.

We stopped by a place where we picked up our favorite chocolate pastries before coming back to the house to begin the oh so fun task of looking at hotels and means of transportation and things to do in all the places we will be visiting when we leave spain.  We've now got a place to stay in Rome and in London.  And I have a vague idea of how we will get from the airports to the hotels.  But even just that started giving me a headache so I'll put the rest off for another day.  Oh traveling.  I know it will be worth the time spent once I'm there and everything goes more smoothly due to prior planning, but I still don't like it.

Here's hoping the weather is nicer tomorrow.  But I should probably go to bed soon because it's daylight savings time here and I'm hating the idea of losing and hour of sleep.

the week in review

Monday:  Ok, just another week.  I can do this.  I've got this.  One of the teachers was gone but the day went well and I was thinking it was going to be a good week.

Tuesday:  Oh my goodness.  These kids are craaaazy.  How am I going to survive the week?  Is it friday yet?

Wednesday:  The teacher was back but things were still hectic.  I got to leave early though so that I could register for classes.  I got registered and got into all of the classes I wanted and needed so that was nice.  Wanted to go to cien montaditos for lunch, but it was super busy and we didn't have a lot of time to wait around so we wound up at mcdonalds...

Thursday:  The teacher was gone again...so more improvising and crazy schedules and me never knowing where I'm going to be throughout the day.  And there was a lizard in the patio!  The teacher from the baby room asked me to come sweep up what she thought was a dead lizard because she didn't want to go near it.  The only thing was...it wasn't dead!  And we couldn't just kill a lizard.  So we left it.  Eventually one of the other teachers was able to sweep it up and carry it out to the street.  It was all gross and creepy crawly though.  I didn't like it.

Friday:  Finally.  The week has come to an end.  Except it couldn't be a peaceful and everything goes as planned kind of day.  No.  Of course not.  The teacher was gone again so during the middle of the day we were once more down a person which complicates things.  And for some reason I got left alone with the three year olds for a really long time with nothing productive for them to be doing so they took to jumping up and down and screaming which is their favorite activity when there seems to be nothing else going on.  Ughhhhh.  It was horrible.  I got them organized enough to sing a couple songs but that only goes so far and soon they were back to screaming.  It was horrible.  But the day did come to an end and I was able to go back to the house and take a nice siesta before a night of flamenco and sangria.  We went to a touristy bar where they have free flamenco every night from like 11-12.  It was a fun time.  Nothing too exciting but the sangria was good and the music was good and it was interesting to get to see the little bit of flamenco.  The bar was crowded by we did manage to get a seat to watch the show which was good.

After the show we walked back by the cathedral to see it lit up at night and we managed to find an ice cream place that was still open and got a late night snack.  Then we walked and talked and actually ran into one of the girls that we met our first week at clic so it was nice to talk to her for a bit.  Then it was back to the house where I thought for sure I would quickly fall asleep...no such luck.  I tossed and turned like all night long.  I was up when R and J got back super late from wherever they went.  I was up when all the girls were up and getting ready and then leaving.  It was terrible.  I still did feel like I got some rest, but not as much as I would have liked.

So that was my week.  I would have written about it in real time, but I think I participated in the spanish siesta just about every day this week.  I felt like such a bum.  But that can't happen this next week because I've got a list of things I still need to do and things I want to see one more time before I go and before things get semana santa loco.  It's crazy to think that in two weeks my time in spain will be at an end.  It went by soooo fast!  Didn't I just get here?

Cádiz

Finally something blog worthy!

Today we went to Cádiz.  Just a quick day trip.  We didn't see anything too exciting.  But the weather was nice and Cádiz has beaches so we were all over that.  We took an 11am bus and it took us about an hour and a half to get there.  Then we walked around a bit.  We found the cathedral and were able to take a quick peak inside but to really see it you had to pay which we didn't want to do.  We did pay to go up in the tower of the cathedral because it promised a nice view of the city.  It was kind of cool and the view was nice and it did point out some different landmarks that could be seen.

But a large chunk of our time was spent just relaxing on the beach.  It wasn't really hot, but it was warm enough.  It was kind of windy so that made sure you never got too warm.  But the sun still felt awesome and the ocean was so pretty.  It was just a fantastic way to spend the afternoon.  Instead of trying to describe it, I'll just let you look at the pictures and be super jealous ;)

We came back on the 6:00 bus, but before we went to the bus station we wanted to get some ice cream for a perfect end to the trip.  We saw these kids with ice cream cones but we could not figure out where they got it.  So we got our ice cream from burger king... but it was delicious and satisfied my craving so it was all good.  Got back to sevilla a little before 8 I believe.  Then made the long walk back to the house in dusk when it was not nearly as warm as it had been that afternoon.  And I was looking super touristy in my flip flops.  Spaniards don't believe in wearing sandals until summer.  And apparently it really has to be summer like probably june or something.  You can't just dress for the weather.  That would make too much sense.

But anyway...we ate dinner a little after 9 but I wasn't by myself this time because there are two girls from switzerland staying with us for the next 10 days.  (the other girls are in morocco this weekend and won't be back til late tonight, that's why I've been eating alone this weekend) But while they live in switzerland only one of them is even part swiss.  Her mom is swiss and her dad is american and the other one is polish american and was born in new york and lived in florida and china and poland.  I know the one's first language is english and it might be for the other as well.  That's what they speak with each other.  Although it sounded like they might at least know some french as well.  But I wonder what kind of school they go to and what language they would speak there.  My guess would have been german.  I think they said they're from Geneva, but I don't know what part of switzerland that's in.  Now I'm going to have to google switzerland.  I'll be interested to learn more about them.  They're really young though.  I never got around to asking them how old they are but you can just tell.  I would guess maybe 13 or 14, 15 tops.  And they've only been studying spanish for like a year and a half I think they said.  So they're pretty brave I think.  It's been cool getting to meet these high school students that come and go.

Ok, hopefully that's enough to satisfy ya'll and partially make up for the long absence last week.  I'll try to do better this week and I'll try to do something interesting at least once so that if I do post it will actually be worth reading.