Gardens at the Alcazar

Alcazar & Escuela

1/29/10 Well, where to begin. We started our classes this week at ICS (International College of Seville) and so far they are great! I am out by 1:30 every day and don’t think I will have too much homework to distract me from exploring Sevilla. I have the same professor two classes in a row on Monday and Wednesday. He is Scottish and has lived here for 22 years. He is a married to a Spanish woman and has three children (possibly 2). He is quite funny and has an interesting perspective on Spain and Sevilla. He seems to understand everything that we find strange, difficult and funny, and is a good place to go if we are having problems. My professor for international business is from Sevilla, but has travelled all over the world and studied in the United States. He is very funny and has a wealth of great information and a completely different perspective on Sevilla than my Scottish professor. My comparative grammar professor is also the academic director for the school and is extremely knowledgeable in both English and Spanish. I think his class is going to improve my Spanish greatly although I feel I am in over my head. It has been over two years since I have had a formal Spanish class and you can really tell. My conjugation, vocabulary and accent are horrible, but I am working on it and trying to learn ten new words a day. Our accompanying professor from Hawaii is also excellent. I am a bit bummed because of my schedule conflict I will miss his class. I am going to do independent study however, and meet with him on Thursdays to catch up with the class. This means I will miss out on lots of good conversation, but I have no choice as I need to graduate in May. This week we did some exploring and have gotten to know our way around Sevilla a bit more. What was most surprising to me was walking around our immediate neighborhood. I hadn’t been to the area we can see out our bedroom window, but it is part of the University of Seville. There is a center with shops, restaurants and a supermarket called the Viapol Center, a nice hotel and a park right across the street from our building. There is also a fancy looking restaurant in the building next door and a bar/café next to it. In our building we have a bookstore/school supply store that will likely come in handy. I don’t think I have mentioned this yet, but one of the things I am really pleased with is that people here seem to love dogs. There are people walking their dogs everywhere (but they don’t clean up after them very much, gross). Anyway, it is so much happier than seeing the dogs in Central America and Bali. Today was our first school excursion. We toured the Alcazar (so hard to pronounce correctly) with a professor from ICS. She has an amazing amount of knowledge of the place specifically, the factors relating to art. The first room we went into was built by the Arabs and has beautifully intricate ceilings, floors and at one time walls. The tile work is incredible. The Muslim tiles depict natural things (no images of people or buildings) and are symmetrical. I noticed this week at our school that the beautifully tiled third floor of our building had one tile that was not laid correctly. I wondered what happened and today I got my answer. The Arabs always place at least one tile wrong to demonstrate the errors man makes and to demonstrate that there is no one greater than Allah. I think that’s so neat. (Gay’Le Clerc please forgive me if I butchered that). The wall tiling typically comes about 6 feet up from the ground. It is used to help prevent the plaster from having to be repaired because of the moisture from the river here. As you tour the Alcazar (Al Cathar, trying to remember how to pronounce it) you see an amazing, beautiful and overpowering mix of Roman, Arab, Christian and Jewish architecture. The term used for this mix of architecture is mudejar. In certain areas you can see the Roman pillars, Christian crests, Arab horseshoe arches, and the Star of David in the iron work covering the windows all in one glance. The Alcazar’s first buildings were built by the Romans than the Moors built around the Roman city center creating open buildings that allow the outside to come inside and be one. This is why there are fountains and other water features along with beautiful gardens there. To bring heaven and earth together they use stars and geometric shapes as well as stalactites as ceiling adornments. Apparently much of the work is hand carved in cedar then covered with a plaster that has marble dust, which makes it shine and helps it to be stronger. The carvings were originally covered with red (to symbolize blood), blue (water), green (nature) and gold (wealth) paints. The more Christian areas have tiles with images of people, giant woven tapestries (apparently some of the best in the world) and many beautiful paintings. There are crests for the great explorers, including one for Christopher Columbus made during Ferdinand and Isabella’s reign. The royal couple had a saying that says something like “as he rides she rides beside him” that demonstrated the equality of their rule. There is a crest with Tatomoto (I think, will check again) that is short for this saying. There is another crest next to it that has arrows coming together to signify the unification of Spain during the time of Castilla y Leon. Franco used this symbol during his reign from 1936-1975 and fuerza nueva (his followers, “the extreme right”) use it today. Anyway, back from my side trip, the whole place is absolutely amazing! The intricateness of the architecture is hard to comprehend. It is still a working palace and although in the past ten years the royal family has not stayed there they have hosted events, such as weddings there. Parts of the Alcazar were restored in the 1400’s (I think) by a Christian king. He added Christian and Jewish (because he couldn’t afford to restore it himself, he tapped the wealthy investors in Sevilla) adornments on top of the Arab and Roman work that already existed. Although, some things were changed much of the original architecture was maintained. Then there are the gardens. They are awesome. We didn’t have much time to go through them, but I think we will make a day of it. Apparently, Muhammad started the harem by taking in women who were widows of men who died in important battles. He took them in as a full wife and they were treated well. There is an area of the Alcazar, something Las Munecas (dolls) that if you look up you see the women’s quarters. They have wood shutters that are intricately carved for privacy/modesty. One of the Christian kings that lived in the Alcazar was famous for housing his mistress. There are streets named after her and he had the Arab baths in Sevilla revamped for her. Sadly there are no areas that are furnished in the Alcazar as they may have been under any of its occupants. It was freezing there today and I am truly curious what they did to keep warm long ago. There are no fireplaces or anything that looks like it could have been a fire pit. It must have been especially cold under Arab rule as they preferred everything open. Our host mother, Montse, told us that one of the kings who lived in the Alcazar was from Sevilla and married a women from Granada. Since it does not snow in Sevilla as it does in Granada his queen was unhappy, so the king had trees planted in the gardens that have white blossoms that look like snow. Wow, this is a long entry. I have more I could say, but I will leave it for now. I think I have gotten down most of the important aspects of our tour and hopefully, created a picture for you. I will post photos of the Alcazar as soon as Gina and I return. My information came from the tour our amazing professor gave.

Update

2/24/10 Hi. Well, yesterday (Saturday) was rainy and cold. The coffee shop a few blocks away was as far from the house as we went. Gina wasn’t feeling well and went home to rest. I stayed at the coffee shop and skimmed the headlines of the paper. I understood more than I would have thought. There is lots of coverage here on Haiti and Obama. It seems like every few pages mentioned Obama and his policies. Most of the articles seem positive. I met Gina at home and tried to accomplish some school work. It didn’t go very well and I ended up sleeping after lunch for about four hours. I had Tortilla Espanola with hot dogs for the first time. It is eggy, oniony and potato yummy goodness. Gina and I did not make it to the welcome party on the 23rd. We were very close, like a street away, but couldn’t find the place. Oh, well we got good exercise and saw the city at night. The bridges are lit up along the river and their reflections are gorgeous. There were lots of people walking about going to and from bars, shows and home. Everyone was dressed up and calmly enjoying the evening. We almost got lost on the way home, but luckily found where we needed to be quickly. Today (Sunday) was nicer outside and I have been fairly productive. Gina and I went for coffee around 11 and then went to Ting Ting the dollar store, the only thing open here on Sunday besides restaurants and churches. The owners are Chinese and Montse says they are always open. We got some things to make our room feel more like home. I bought a pushpin board to hang pictures on. Classes start tomorrow and I am looking forward to getting on a schedule. However, my schedule has a major conflict and I don’t know what I am going to do about it. One of my classes is schedule for the same time as another. Anyway, I guess I’ll figure it out tomorrow. More later.

Sevilla La Bonita!

1/22/10 This morning I set out on my own in search of coffee as Gina slept a little more. The morning air was crisp. I walked to Felipe II the street parallel to the college that has many shops, cafes and bars. It has beautiful old buildings with bars over the windows and plants set on the window seals. The street reminds me of a mix of Alexandria on the east coast and San Jose Costa Rica. I had coffee with milk at Café Uno. The coffee here is more like sweet espresso. It is rich and creamy and in small cups. After I was done I went to the school to write down the names of the play, opera and Arabic Bath House. I think Gina and I will be going to all three. I also scheduled a dentist appointment since the insurance through the school covers a free cleaning! There is national health care here and our school’s insurance is awesome! Yay, dental insurance! Gina called me while I was at the school (we got free cell phones!) so we met and started out on a city tour. We wound our way to a park, Parque Maria Luisa. As you walk through the park gates you see beautiful old buildings. We stopped and had un café con leche and watched horse drawn carriages go by. The horses are gorgeous and at some point I will be taking a carriage ride through the park. We walked through the park marveling at the buildings with detailed tiles. We ran into two girls from the school near el Museo de Artes y Costumbres Populares (where we will be touring in a few weeks) so we took pictures of each other and headed off on our separate ways. We stopped so I could eat a delicious pastry with chocolate and honey. There are orange trees everywhere. We left the park and walked near the river. The Arabic (Islamic style?) buildings are so amazing. The detail is breathtaking. We stumbled upon the towers that we can see when we walk to the school, La Plaza de Espana! It is hard to describe, but all we could do was say wow and take pictures. It is a crescent shaped building with two large towers on either side. There are tile mosaics lining the inner wall. In the center there are bridges to an area with a beautiful fountain. It was amazing. It finally hit that we are living in Spain. We headed home so we would be back in time for almuerzo and we did not get lost! On our way we passed through el supermercado and looked at all the yummy things. Stuff is actually not that expensive. Giant bottles of olive oil are extremely affordable. Un café con leche is about 1-1.5 euros and is worth more. Today has been wonderful so far. Tonight we have the welcome party for the students at the college. It should be an adventure as it is on the other side of the river. We are meeting up with some other girls to walk there. Sevilla feels both old and new. Where our apartment is considered a new barrio, so as you get further away things begin to feel more historic. All I can compare it to, although it is different, is the feeling that comes over me when I go over the mountain to Lake Tahoe. There is something sacred, overpowering and emotional about it. There is a presence that exists no matter where you are that I can’t explain quite yet. I’ll work on it. Adios for now.