Mexico Lurks

Low-key day today. On the way home from the usual big Saturday grocery shopping trip (everything's closed on Sunday), we ran across this random Mariachi band playing on our main street:

I have no idea what the "event" was. This is not a Spanish tradition. It's a Mexican tradition. We probably should've take that as an omen.

***

Spicy food is not part of Spanish cuisine. The hot pepper, so common to Mexican cuisine, is actively avoided by Spaniards. Laura and I are huge fans of Mexican food. We always on the lookout for good Mexican food here in Sevilla. We've found some OK places, but none compare to the ordinary Mexican places we have in Walla Walla. Laura has also worked hard to make Mexican dishes at home. She even knows how to make pretty good refried beans (which you can't buy here) and homemade salsa. The missing ingredient is always the hot pepper.

Today Laura decided to browse the Triana Market for hot peppers of any variety. We saw some promising small green peppers at two stands, but both were just baby sweet peppers. After wandering through nearly all of the stalls in the market, we came around a corner and spotted a small stash of fresh jalapeno peppers! They were expensive, but we snagged a handful and a couple of serrano peppers too:

They were relatively expensive--5 euros, but the salsa Laura made this afternoon using these peppers was perfect. These were definitely the missing Mexican ingredient. We went all in and had some nachos with heavy toppings for dinner:

The Mexican itch is now scratched. Not only that, but we now have a nearby, reliable supply of hot peppers for future Mexican dishes.

Alpenista

The workers painting the interior spaces of our building have moved into the small courtyard. We have three windows the open onto this small courtyard, but no access to it. It's too small for scaffolding, so they work hanging from ropes tied to the roof. Perhaps it's normal, or a translation issue, or someone's sense of humor, but the leaflets we get under our doors letting us know of the work schedule and telling us to keep our windows closed while they work, referred to the workers as "alpenistas" (mountain climbers). Laura and I kind of laughed about it when we read the note. However, this morning when I saw them working, I couldn't think of a better term:

***

Laundry was piling up and I couldn't wait for roof access, so I did another load and set it out on the indoor drying rack. It was a large load and there was literally no room to spare on the rack:

With the fan, the heater and the sunlight, 90% of it dried by the time I went to bed.

***

The weekly cultural activity led by Laura's Spanish teacher, Lucia, had us at the Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo(CAAC) to see an exhibit of the work of Spanish artist Alfonso Albacete.  The CAAC is in an old monastary that made ceramics. There are old chapels, school buildings and kilns interspersed across the site:

The courtyard with the ivy leaves turning red in the late fall was serene:

This was our second visit to the CAAC. We went in August, but all the exhibits had since changed. Plus, it was about 40 degrees cooler.

Here are a few of the pieces I liked. This is an interpretation of the approach to the Mediterranean coast in the south of Spain. I liked it because I recognized it almost immediately as the landscape we saw when we took a bus to Malaga in August, in spite of the fact that it is heavily abstracted:

I liked this juxtaposition of an injured soccer player being taken off the field and the lowering of Christ's body from the cross:

I just liked how expressive these simple rectangular windows were:

Finally, there's a lot of self-reference going on here. It's a painting of a painting on an easel. In the easel painting, we see an abstract painting of the room in the painting. We also see to the right, a painting of the artist in the painting:

On the way out, I took a slow motion video of one of the fountains on the grounds. Unfortunately, it's slightly out of focus, but still kind of interesting:

***

After the CAAC, we rode bikes over to the grocery store. Then walked home. Dinner and a restful evening followed.

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.

***

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.

***

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:

***

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.

***

Nice to have the election behind us.

***

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

***

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.

***

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:

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.