Last Bit of Summer

This week was my most “Spanish” week thus far. I feel I am finally getting a handle on the city, the customs, and the language- hooray! My week started off with tapas and ended with tapas. On the bus back from Lagos two weekends ago my friend Katie and I met a Quebecois who was coming to Sevilla for a few days. We met up with him on Tuesday for Tapas. We had a great time walking around the Barrio Santa Cruz looking for a restaurant and finally choosing one with a nice patio. Sevilla is so beautiful at night with everything lit up and street musicians playing. Although we were originally looking for a tapas place we ended up eating at a restaurant, which was nice anyways.
Friday was a friend's birthday so Margo, Amber and I decided to take her out for tapas! Sara, the student ministries coordinator here, recommended we go to Taverna Coloniales and she was spot-on! We got there around 9:20 (early for dinner Sevillana time) and it was already packed. I was elected the one to squeeze my way up to the bar to put our name on the list for a table. We ended up only having to wait about thirty minutes before being seated. We sat on the third floor of this beautiful tapas bar. The tables were all marble (a cheap material here!) and the walls were warm yellows and oranges. Our waiter was a friendly young Spaniard who told us all the specials and looked shocked when we all ordered water instead of wine or sangria. We decided to order 2 tapas each and then share them all and we picked an excellent assortment! A shrimp tortilla (which is not like the American tortialla at all), fried cuttle fish, almond chicken, potatoes with marinara, sirloin with Roquefort sauce, spinach croquets, and a tostada (which in Spain is a large piece of fried bread with a sauce and cold meat on it.) I love tapas, it is the best way to get to taste a lot of different foods for a great price. For all our food we only paid 26 euros! We had a trendy American dessert at a place nearby called “Yogurtlandia.” Ha! Love it!
After tapas we decided to go look for a bar /museum which we heard has free flamenco. After much wandering we found “the red door” ! The building was stone and piano music was playing as we entered. There were photographs on the walls, wooden benches for sitting, and a lot of people. In a side room people were packed in around a little stage where one man played the guitar, one sang, and the lady danced. It was beautiful to she her graceful arms and precise wrist movements. She stomped her feet and swirled her skirt to the melancholy tune. The audience clapped and moved along to the music, enveloped by the sounds. On our way out we bought hand made silk flowers for our hair so the next time we can go we can be Spanish :)
Saturday the school took us to Huelva which is the old city where Christopher Columbus set sail for the America's in 1492. We visited the monastery where he waited for seven years to hear back from the King and Queen. Afterwards we got to see the life size replica's of the Niña, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria (remember that from 1st grade with Mrs. Madden?) We were like kids climbing the ropes, dashing below deck, and causing general chaos. But how many times do you get to play on boats like that? They were much smaller than I would have thought, let me tell you I would not cross the Atlantic in a boat that size! The afternoon was spent relaxing on the beach, enjoying the last drop of summer air.