Saturday, November 17, 2018

Nativities 'Я' Us

We took advantage of some nice weather and a weekend with no painting crews hanging from ropes tied to the roof to do two loads of laundry today. Gotta have that roof clothesline. Generally relaxed weekend.

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This evening, after dinner, we walked about. Over in Plaza Nueva there was a "pop-up" old book market. It looked like old and rare books shops from all over Spain organized this event. Some of the books looked quite old:



A little further along, we came upon another collection of temporary merchant stalls beneath the walls of the cathedral. In this market one could satisfy all of one's nativity and miniature needs:



For the person that doesn't have enough variety in their miniature cow collection:


As a mathematician, I always appreciate recursion. I like this nativity in which Joseph is holding a lamp that has a nativity in it. I'm not sure if the Joseph in the lamp is also holding a lamp with a nativity inside, but I like to think that's the case:


Finally, if your nativity is just a bit too static, don't worry, one shop has animatronic figures for all of your motion active miniature needs. From nativity to simple medieval Spanish peasant scenes:


Real market or minimart? You decide:


Homemade Chinese Food

Laura's friend, Wang Zhi, is leaving Sevilla today. As part of her extended return to her home in China, her parents have joined her here in Spain and are touring Europe with her. As part of the farewell tour, Wang Zhi invited us to her flat for dinner cooked by her parents. Laura has some before photos. Here's an after:


There was spicy tofu (my favorite), dumplings, a chopped pork medley, an egg and tomato dish and two different kinds of shaved potato dishes. All of it was amazing. Wang Zhi also invited a number of other Sevillanos. One of them was Angel, a senior psychology major at the University of Sevilla. Angel's English was excellent. It was nice to chat with him and ask him all the little questions about Sevilla and Spain that I've built up over the past couple of months. He was also pretty outgoing. And, brave enough to attempt a transliterated karaoke of chinese versions of common songs like Twinkle Twinkle and Frere Jacques:


The Chinese folks in the room were unanimously in praise of Angel's pseudo-Chinese singing.

The flat was a bit too far to walk, so we took a bus to the dinner. When we left, the buses were on night schedule, which is usually a half-hour between buses. Instead of waiting, we rode a couple of bike shares home. Needless to say, there's still quite a lot happening on the streets of Sevilla at 1am. It all seemed pretty safe though. It was a bit misty in the late evening, but not too cold.

The late night is my explanation for the lateness of this entry.