Tapas Culture

First, Cheetos kinda suck here (I know, most of your are like, "Duh, they suck everywhere.") On a whim, I bought this bag of Cheetos yesterday. They're like air with a bit of salt added. When you eat them, they kind of evaporate like cotton candy, but also kind of glue themselves to your teeth. Won't be going there again:

Took a walk into Sevilla this morning before the heat really built up. Ran into the "mushroom" sculpture again:

I also came across a nice little park with a statue commemorating a flamenco guitarist named Niño Ricardo:

Later, I walked with Laura to her class and then went to the post office to mail a couple more postcards. The heat was really on, 43 degrees Celsius! I had a lot of sympathy for the horses outside the cathedral in the tourist area. I hope they get a lot of water and rest:

I passed by this store:

for those hard to find American products, like Cheerios!

This evening, we went to a tapas bar called Blanca Paloma recommended by Palma. It was a bit off the beaten path, so not many tourists, but a friendly waiter detected our American-ness and brought us an English language menu, haha:

Laura and I have discovered that 3 tapas seems to be just right for the two of us. Well, 3 tapas and some beer:

I have to say, eating dinner at 9pm was not a thing for me in Walla Walla, but here it just seems normal now. Walking home this evening after dinner, it was still 39 degrees out there, whew! I think that's what really gets to people this time of year--it doesn't really cool off at night, there's no relief.

The tapas bar across the street from our flat was happening tonight too. Here's a patron and his dog:

Thinking of doing another photo series on city dogs. There are a lot of dogs here.

Sometimes It's Obvious

Laura and I finally got some postcards and stamps. We've been writing a couple a day and mailing them. We've been mailing them at the big post office down in the city center. Yesterday, the first time, I wandered around the lobby looking for the mailbox until a kind security guard showed me where it was (right in front of me basically). Today I went there to mail a couple more and on the way in I noticed these on the outside of the building:

Postcards to the US go into the "extranjero" slot on the right. These are really hard to miss. Oh well.

I'm thinking of starting a series of photos of the different vehicles used by the Sevilla public works. There are sooo many. Here's one:

Laura and I went out after dinner to ditch the trash and get some dessert. It was still pretty hot out there, even at 9pm. The street was definitely less busy, but the buskers were still roaming. These two guys wander around and play guitar and sing for euros:

We hit the usual gelato place. You'd think with all the untried options, we wouldn't go back to the same place (and have the same flavor), but it's so good, I don't want to risk disappointment. This is "brownie" and it is smooottthhhhh:

Sorry this is such a crappy photo. This poor gelato deserved better.

One Month Out

It's August 1st, meaning we've been out of the US for 1 month. In some ways it seems longer, some ways it seems shorter. Like all years when you're my age, I know that this one will go by in the blink of an eye.

Here's my life most afternoons now:

I think I'm watching a DataCamp course here. I managed to negotiate instructor access to the site. I've done 3 courses and 1 project on the site so far. I've been really happy with it and would recommend it to anyone with an interest in learning about data science.

It's getting warm. I went out for a walk this morning at around 9am and it was already warm. I ran across this statue that looks a bit like George Washington (but isn't):

This afternoon, just to get some exercise, I walked with Laura over to her language school. It was really hot, about 40 degrees Celsius (or 104 F). On the way back, I tried to take a picture of this deli counter, but got a lot of reflection instead:

I also ran into a crew putting up sun shades across a street. These are ubiquitous around Sevilla and they really do help to keep the temperatures low at the street level:

I also stopped by the CLIC language school and got some information about a Spanish language class. I think I'm going to sign up for a 12 week course that starts in mid-September. I took a written placement exam to measure my current proficiency. I still have to take an oral exam. Once that's done, they'll group me with a half-dozen other students and that will be my class for the 12 weeks.

I hope it cools off enough over night that my run tomorrow morning isn't too sweaty.

Shutters

August is a traditional vacation time for Spaniards (really most of Europe). Sevilla is a net exporter of vacationers at this point (i.e. more people leave Sevilla for their vacations then come to Sevilla for their vacations). Shopkeepers also hit the road at this time. For example:

Rolled down shutters were definitely more common as we walked around town today. An interesting tradition among shopkeepers is to paint their shutters with some representation of the shop. In honor of the August vacations and the closed shops, here is a collection of some paintings that I saw on closed shop shutters.

I don't know what kind of shop this was, but it had lovely scenes from around Seville painted on its three shutters:

 This is the shutter of a "gift shop for men":

 The shutter of a photocopy and office supply shop:

 A produce stand:

 A pharmacy. This one I really don't get. It's like the Caduceus, but around a martini glass and then pills. What's the message here? Or am I just supposed to laugh. I'm kinda laughing:

 I think this is an office furniture place:

 A luthier shop:

 A hardware store, not sure why the venus is there, but maybe offering to fix the missing head and arms?

 A bakery, pretty much nailed that:

Two last items, we received our bike share cards in the mail today. Not sure of their practical value, since we've both already memorized our access numbers. But, it's nice to have something official I guess.

And, I liked this selfie that I took while taking pictures of store fronts today:

Goodnight.

ATMs The Definitive Word

Having explored the ATM situation here in Sevilla extensively, for the good of the internet, I summarize our findings here. First, the winning combination: 

If you come here to Spain from the US and all your assets are in USD and you want euros cheap, before you leave, get an ordinary CapitalOne 360 checking account with a debit card and put some money in it. When you get here, look for a BankInter ATM machine (locator), go to the nearest one and withdraw some euros. At some point, you'll be given the option to conduct the transaction in USD or euros. Do the transaction in euros. There is no fee and the exchange rate will match the day's rate to about 3 decimal places. Basically, free currency exchange.

Now for a bit more detail. The option to do the transaction in dollars or euros comes up a lot here with both debit and credit card transactions. Choosing the most advantageous option is complicated and depends on the card issuer.

Some cards charge a foreign transaction fee. In this case, doing the transaction in euros will result in an additional charge from your card issuer (your US-based bank or credit card company). Sometimes the fee is a flat rate, sometimes it's a percentage of the transaction. It's really difficult to figure it out sometimes and you maybe should just call your card issuer beforehand to get the details. There are some cards that don't have a foreign transaction fee (e.g. CapitalOne cards, and a few others). But a lot do, especially if you're just using your local bank.

If your card issuer charges a foreign transaction fee, then you should consider doing the Spanish transaction in USD. But, there's a catch there too. In that case, the Spanish vendor may charge a transaction fee for working in USD. Now you really have to work. You've got to compare what the Spanish vendor is going to charge to what your US card issuer is going to charge and pick the cheaper. When you're standing at an ATM machine on a busy street in Madrid with 4 Spaniards lined up behind you waiting for the same machine, you have to be prepared. I recommend taking your phone and snapping a picture of the screen that gives you this option USD or euros and canceling the transaction right away. Then, go off to a discreet location and do the math.

This is no fun (and I'm a mathematician). By far, the best approach is to get a card(s) with no foreign transaction fees and do all of your transactions in euros while in Spain (or elsewhere for that matter). Both our credit cards and debit cards are CapitalOne so we do credit and debit transactions in euros.

Even here, however, there is one last catch. There are still the old ATM fees that have nothing to do with currency exchange. Your card issuer might charge a fee for not using one of their machines, and the Spanish bank that owns the ATM might charge a fee. This is why I'm happily writing this blog post. The BankInter ATM does not charge a fee and CapitalOne doesn't charge a fee for using it (so I guess it must be in their ATM network somehow).