Un viatge andalús

This past weekend I went with four other students in my program to Granada and Sevilla, two cities in the Andalucía region in southern Spain.

A verbal description will follow, but in the meantime, take a look at my photos.

Castanyes torrades

This evening I rode my bike all the way down to campus, to find out that my Pragmatics professor was out with a migraine. The trip, however, was not made in vain:



As I was leaving, I passed by a woman on the side of street selling roasted chestnuts. Never having sampled the delights of their flavor, I was intrigued, and turned back to purchase a dozen. At 20 eurocents a piece, they were a bit pricey, but incredibly delicious nonetheless. Instead of going straight home, I took a walk around campus with a newspaper pocket full of warm chestnuts, and finally ended up sitting on a bench eagerly eating them like a squirrel.

Apparently there is a very important custom here called the Castanyada, which is celebrated on All Saints Day (November 1) and involves roasted chestnuts. I can't wait.

Un partit amistos de futbol sala

Some background:
Barcelona is in the autonomous community of Catalonia, a semi-self governing region of Spain. Due to oppression during the Franco regime, among other reasons, Catalans are generally not fond of Spain, and there is a significant separatist movement that would have nothing to do with it. Regardless of personal political leanings, most Catalans are extremely proud of their culture and language, and displays of nationalism are abundant.

This past Friday there was supposed to be a soccer game between the national teams of Catalunya and the USA, but the Real Federación Española de Fútbol (The Royal Spanish Football Federation) did not approve of the match, and denied permission for it to be held. This was ostensibly because it was scheduled too close to other international games, as well as on Día de la Hispanidad (Hispanic Day), a Spanish national holiday. As an act of defiance, the Catalan Court Soccer Federation set up two matches against the USA court soccer team, to be held on Friday and Sunday.




I went to the second game on Sunday night, which was in a small indoor arena and was sparsely attended. It was fun, though. I went with my Catalan language exchange partner, Marc. He told me to bring my American flag, but, alas, I did not have one.




The USA team lost both games, 7-1 and 6-1. I missed the only American goal, as I was too busy taking a picture. Only afterwards did I realize that I happened to capture it going in.

Excursiones y fotos

This past weekend we went on two excursions: Saturday we visited two Cistercian monasteries, the Monastir de Santes Creus and the Monastir de Poblet; Sunday we went to a Birds of Prey show (seriously) at Cim de les Àligues, then to the beautiful nature area at Sant Miquel del Fai. The monasteries were interesting, and they almost made me want to become a monk and pray, work, meditate, and copy manuscripts all day. They actually do allow guests for up to week...we’ll see.


I’ve uploaded a bunch of photos to my Flickr account for your viewing pleasure. They can be accessed by clicking the mosaic to the right.

In other news, I broke the toilet, and my Semantics professor finally came to class! I think I will enjoy the course, as the first lecture was quite interesting indeed. I also joined an Easy Catalan Reading Club. I missed the first meeting last Wednesday, but went today to pick up the book and CD and had a nice conversation with the instructor (in Spanish).