A Quiet Day in the Neighborhood

After weeks in the 100's and high 90's today it struggled to get up to 83. There are windows on both side of our flat, so when the weather permits, you can open them up and get lovely cross breezes. After weeks with the air conditioner, it was good to get some air moving through the apartment. Unfortunately, they're still working hard renovating the exterior of the building across the street. Sure, you can have the windows open, but only if you're willing to wear ear plugs:

It's definitely not Labor Day here. Everybody's back to work after the ordinary 2-day weekend.

Typical day for Laura and me too. Though, we did such a good job planning food on Saturday that we didn't need to go grocery shopping today. I had a productive day. I've been wondering if I should go to the big Joint Math Meeting back in the US in January. I looked through the list of sessions and there are a few that I think I could present in, so possibly.

We have another potential visitor. Rachel's friend Emily is teaching in Morocco. She and a friend may visit Sevilla in late-Nov and stay with us.

I've been reading a bit more than usual, though I've always tried to make room for reading. Right now I'm just about finished with the wonderful memoir Educated by Tara Westover. It's about a woman raised in a fundamentalist Mormon household and her transition to a more mainstream life as an adult. For me, as a college teacher, it represents an example (albeit extreme) of how we need to be careful about the backgrounds and social contexts that our students bring with them when they join us in the classroom. I highly recommend it.

Parque de Maria Luisa

After Laura visited yesterday, I decided to take my walk this morning through the Parque de Maria Luisa. I didn't get to hit every feature, but here's few pictures:

 This park as a lot of beautiful water features:

 These ceramic post tops are everywhere in Sevilla, parks, churches, buildings:

A statue of Infanta Luisa Fernanda, Duchess of Montpensier:

 Another pic of Triana as I walked home:

I hate that skyscraper, so here's a version with it removed, thanks snapseed:

Ever since we went Malaga to see the first stage of the Vuelta a Espana bike race, we've been in the habit of watching stage highlights each morning. Laura and I were watching this morning's coverage of yesterday's stage and the commentary about Spain really cracked us up. They were cycling through some remote, empty part of Spain. The commentators noted that there weren't many folks out spectating. The noted that having a race in the afternoon here was like having it a 4am. Here's the clip. Probably not as funny to other people, but we laughed:

Supposed to cool off dramatically here tomorrow. Looking forward to it.

Happy Birthday Rachel

Ran north to the end of "the river" this morning, then worked my way to a bike share station and rode home. Like any city, Sevilla has its blighted areas. I've mentioned the area west of the river where the '92 Expo was. Lot's of fancy Expo buildings that never really found a use after the Expo and have fallen into disrepair. Very similar to what one sees of Olympic facilities a few years after the games have occurred. I passed by another blighted area as I made my way to the bike station this morning:

It would be interesting to know how these properties end up this way. Although, I've always been kind of obsessed with the abandoned buildings that dot the western US. Whenever we drive around rural WA, OR and ID, we see lone houses or cabins or barns that are abandoned and have fallen into disrepair. Every one of those properties has a human story attached to it. I'm always imagining how the building came to be and what caused it to end up in its current state. Similarly, here in Sevilla, I wonder how these properties end up in conditions like the one pictured.

On a happier note, we talked to Rachel today to wish her a happy birthday. She has a fun weekend planned spending time in Key Largo with friends.

It's now September. Still hot here, but looks like that may be breaking sometime early next week.

Laundry kind of piled up this week so we did it today. As usual, with the hot dry weather, the clothes dried quickly and thoroughly.

In another "as usual" we planned and shopped for today and Sunday (when all the grocery stores are closed). Laura has developed a nice rotation of meals. We know the ingredients well and where to buy them. We'll have to see how inventories, especially fruits and vegetables, shift as the year unfolds.

I took a break from math today. Also, mostly stayed in and read or watched shows. Finished the series "Goliath" on Amazon. Interesting, not the greatest, but worth a watch.

Spot the Difference

Rachel told me about the photo processing app Snapseed a while back. It has some really sophisticated photo editing tools wrapped into a relatively easy to use interface. This morning I took a picture of the river through a passageway. At the end of the passageway was a sign reminding people to pick up after their dogs. It kind of ruined the shot. Snapseed to the rescue. Of course, now we have no idea what's real anymore:

Relatively normal day today, practiced Spanish in the morning, grocery shopped, did math in the afternoon. On Friday's we typically go out to eat. Laura heard about a good pizza place over on the Sevilla side past her language school, so I met her after class and we walked over that way. It was a nice walk, though still pretty stifling after the day's heat. We went through some cute neighborhoods that we had yet to visit (yes, there are still plenty left to see). Found the lovely little Plaza de Pilatos with its statue of the artist/painter Zurbarán:

 We found the pizza place a little past the plaza, Pizzería La Urbana:

The pizza was great, thin crust, not greasy, good tomato sauce:

Also, hard to beat 1 euro beers when it's hot out:

Only drawback, weird mural along the back wall of monkeys eating pizza:

I kinda liked it though.

Total random photo from someone that likes electric cars. These one-passenger electric cars are everywhere here:

Of course there's also every other kind of electric mode of transport you can imagine too: scooters, skateboards, bikes, motorcycles, mopeds. They zoom around you on the streets at all hours.

A Little More to the Right

I laughed when I saw this small tourist boat on the river this morning:

This picture doesn't do it justice, but it was riding low and listing to the left as it went under the bridge.

Laura and I took the bus out to Costco again today. The membership expires Sep 1st, so we figured we'd do one last pass through to see if there was anything we needed. We didn't find much. I bought enough shaving cream to get me through the year. We also bought some raspberries and some Reese's candy. That's it. There are a confluence of factors that make Costco less useful here. We don't have much space to store the bulk-sized items they sell. And, we have to carry it all on the bus back to the flat. So, goodbye Costco. See you back in the states.

This afternoon one of the streets Laura and I walk on to get to her language school was blocked. As I walked by, I noticed these people unloading some kind of new accoutrement for a church. I kind of wanted to hang around to see what was underneath all the padding and boxing, but it looked like it was going to take a long time to navigate the move:

I also saw these ducks fly away as I walked over the bridge this afternoon: