Budding Hooligans?

Laura and I (with Rachel and Taylor) went to our first professional soccer match. We saw the home team Sevilla vs. Girona in a regular La Liga match-up. La Liga is the Spanish national soccer league. At the moment, Sevilla is in 2nd place in that league of 20 teams. We saw the match in Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán. It was overcast and cool, but we were comfortable for the most part. The crowd was large, but generally well-behaved. Not much beer in the stands, which surprised me. Some surreptitious cigarette smoking, which was a bit annoying, especially since I have a bit of a cold with a sore throat.

It was interesting how many songs, claps, and general coordinated activities the crowd engaged in. For example, they don't open with the Spanish national anthem, but rather a song about the Sevilla football club. For a large crowd, they carried the tune quite well:


The stadium announcer was also very dynamic. After a goal by Sevilla he was ready with the traditional "Gooooooaaaaaaallllllll!" call over the PA system:


Overall, I enjoyed it. I could see me going again.

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After the match, Sevilla won 2-0, we walked back to the city center for lunch. We might have taken public transit, but it was pretty crowded (though they seemed to have things well in hand with not too much waiting).

There's one Taco Bell in Sevilla. Rachel is a fan (I like it too), so we went there for lunch. I'd been waiting for Rachel to come to Sevilla before I went. It was crowded, but we eventually got our food and found a table.

Overall, about the same as a US Taco Bell, but not quite on target. Rachel and I both agreed that we didn't need to come back. I'll hit a Taco Bell with her when I'm in Miami next month, haha.

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We spent the afternoon inside. It was cold and drizzly outside. Rachel has been trying to beat me at Words With Friends. She's pretty good, so I think she'll get me soon.

***

Laura's Spanish teacher is also an artist and she did the set design for a performance art piece that ran this weekend. Laura and I went to see it. It was a dark and foggy night and we had to walk a fair bit from the metro stop to find this little theater tucked into an industrial park:

It was a small venue, perhaps 250 seats on 3 sides. The main set was an area of sand at floor level with some dolls tucked in front, hanging from above and a video projection screen at the rear:

The piece was about 90 mins and features a couple, seen here with the director dressed in black in the center:

There was some singing and dialog (in Spanish, of course) and some choreographed parts. There was even a part where the audience was invited to participate in actions that seemed to degrade the male character. In response to this degradation, several folks planted in the audience pretended to object and others objected to the objector. A bit of a fracas erupted (all staged). Things calmed and normal order was restored. It was interesting and thoughtful. Definitely not a traditional play or show.

We met Lucia (Laura's teacher) afterwards and congratulated her on the work and headed back home on the metro.

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When we got home, Taylor and Rachel were watching a stream of the Seahawks v. 49'ers football game. I guess they needed to wash the taste of European football out of their mouths, haha.