Artificial Birds

Today was a pretty mathy day. It's nice when you have an idea and it's meaty enough to get you through the whole day. Even better when it's all pencil and paper:

In my continued quest to escape the urban landscape, I found a 4 hour youtube video that is a recording of a forest somewhere in the northeast. With that playing in the background all day, sometimes you actually feel like you're in a forest in upstate PA--the bird calls are so familiar to someone that grew up there. I actually am now devising ways in which I might make my own long recording of some PA forest sounds.

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It rained a lot today. There was a slight break in the afternoon and I was able to sneak in my daily walk/run, but I got rained on for a bit. I also did some laundry. I set the drying rack up in the living room under the room heater. With the heater and a fan, everything dried by this evening except the jeans. Even they're pretty close to dry. I need to do another load tomorrow, but the forecast seems more amenable to outdoor drying. Fingers crossed.

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Our habit has been to go out to eat once a week on Friday and to try different places around Sevilla. This week we decided to switch to Thursdays to avoid weekend crowds. We went to a place recommended by one of Laura's classmates called Bar Antojo:

One of the nice things about tapas is the variety is endless and they're cheap, so it really encourages you to just try stuff. We usually get 3 and share. This evening we tried some croquettes, a leek concoction, and very blackened cod:

All of it was really good and I think we'd both be happy to go back. I'm not a huge fan of fish, but the cod was amazing. The black crust was so good. I have no idea how it was made. They also had beer:

Cruzcampo is the lifeblood of Sevilla. I have grown quite fond of it.

Why Is There Something?

Last fall when Laura and I first started thinking about where to spend this year, the one thing we agreed on was that we would live in a Spanish speaking country because we were both interested in learning the language. We both started using the free language learning app, DuoLingo, to learn Spanish. Like a lot of apps, DuoLingo keeps track of "streaks, the number of days in a row that you meet some minimum standard of work. We've continued to use the app here in Spain. This morning my streak hit 365:

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It was a bit rainy today. I got rained on during my walk/run this morning. But it was a bit warmer, so that helped a bit.

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Nice to have the election behind us.

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Talked to Emily this evening (morning her time). Got a lot of screen time with Benji the bunny!

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I went to my language class this afternoon. It's interesting to me how often student miss class. At 110 euros for 8 classes, I'm not missing any of them, haha. Today it was 3 Americans, a Belgian and a German. We had a nice time.

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On the way home, the sun came out. I took a couple of pictures along the way. The churro and chocolate stand on the corner:

The river was beautiful as always:

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Palma let us know of a "science" lecture series at a bar owned by her sister. This evening a physicist tried to explain why there is something instead of nothing. I've actually read a book on this subject called Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story by Jim Holt. Holt's book comes at this age-old question from lots of different angles. Laura and I decided to head over to the talk and see if we could understand any of the Spanish. Unfortunately, the talk was more popular than we expected and there was no room in the bar. We watched and listed at the back for a while, but eventually I got tired of standing. The speaker went at the question from a purely physics approach, not a philosophical one.

My personal response to the question is simply that we wouldn't be able to ask the question if nothing existed. Or, put another way, we can only ask the question why does the world exist from a perspective of existence. Even more simply, the world exists because it exists.

Here's the view from the back:

The Other Side

For the first time, I crossed over the river to our west during an afternoon walk:

There are two bridges pretty close to the flat that cross the river. On the way out, I used the south, on the way back, the north. The river there flows quickly and is quite muddy:

I was suprised to see the river flowing north, away from the Atlantic Ocean, a mere 100km south. Then I realized that being that close to the ocean, the river must be tidal on this side (where it isn't flood controlled). I looked up the tide table and, sure enough, I had crossed around 4pm which fell between the low tide time (noon) and the high tide time (6pm). The eastern channel through Sevilla is so closely controlled by locks at the south that it doesn't have any tidal movement.

The space on the other side is sparsely inhabited, rural and agricultural:

I also found where the carriage horses in the city center are boarded:

I met this carriage horse to be along the dirt road I followed north along the river:

I also saw a number of mountain bikers along the trail. It was good to get out of the city and travel along some dirt roads. Coming from Walla Walla where I can hike in the Blues anytime I want, the constant urban landscape can get tiresome.

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Speaking of "the other side", I'm on the other side of the paper I've been working on too. I finally submitted it to a journal. Now I can work on other things, at least until the journal gets back to me. This particular journal shoots for a 6 month turn around, so I'll still be in Spain when I hear about whether it's been accepted and whether it needs revising.

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Finally, I'm looking forward to being on "the other side" of this election, though we won't know anything about results here until we get up on Wed morning.

Tile Floors

Our flat here has tile floors everywhere with no rugs of any kind. I like them because they're easy to maintain. Sweeping, vacuuming and mopping are all pretty easy. As we move into winter, I'm starting to see a down side.

We don't wear shoes in the house. We didn't in Walla Walla and we continue that habit here. That means spending most of our time here in the apartment in socks. As the day goes on, I find my feet getting progressively colder and colder. The cool tile just leeches the heat right out. I'm not really a slipper guy, but it seemed the only solution.

Laura found a pair of slippers for me while out on her walk yesterday. They were cheap. I wore them today and they really do seem to do the trick. The heavy soles insulate my feet from the tile. As I write this, my feet are comfortably warm:

Not sure where I am on the tile vs. wood vs. carpeting question, but at least my feet are warm now. Thanks Laura!

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I mostly finished writing a paper today. If all goes well, I'll get it submitted in the next day or two. Then, my OCD riddled mind can move on to other projects.

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Happy election day tomorrow. I hope everyone votes. Since we're 6 hours ahead of the east coast, 9 hours ahead of the west coast, we probably won't hear anything definitive until Wed morning our time.

Soccer Loop

I walked out to one of the local soccer stadiums this morning. Here's the track I made as recorded by my phone:

It's called Estadio Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán and it's where the local pro team plays:

It was a cool and cloudy morning. Things were a lot quieter this morning than yesterday during the procession:

I also saw these old Roman ruins:

They're called Acueducto Romano Tramo. They date pretty far back, but have been rebuilt a couple of times, most recently at the end of the 14th century. The dark brown is an external support bar added relatively recently. Like the old Roman column, these ruins sit in a hole because in the time since their construction, the ground level has risen around it.

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Generally quiet day around the house. We did a couple of loads of laundry hoping that we could get enough sun to dry them on the roof. We did manage it, but just barely. With the painters working on the building during the week, Sat and Sun are good days to take advantage of the rooftop. Otherwise, drying clothes on the indoor rack takes about 24 hours and that with a fan blowing on them the whole time.

Otherwise, I read a bit, worked on my paper a bit, watched some netflix, studied some Spanish.