Bikes

This morning I finished writing up the last result I want to put into this current paper. I'm still on the fence about where to submit it. I have to decide that before I start the re-write. Ya gotta know your audience.

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Spanish class had a new student from Italy today. Italian students usually speak Spanish relatively easily. The two languages are very similar.

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This afternoon I decided to just ride one of the bike shares along the river today for exercise. The game here is to keep swapping bikes in less than 30 mins to avoid getting charged. So far this year, I've manged to do, but today when my 5 minute warning went off, I was about 6 minutes from the nearest bike station. It's not that big a deal keeping it out longer. The charge is like 1 euro/hr, but I figured I'd try to get it to the station under 30. Well, I got over there and put it back into a slot at about 31 minutes. This turned out to be a mistake because, the system wouldn't let me pull a bike until I paid my balance. Unfortunately, I was in my gym clothes and didn't have my credit card with me. So I walked home about 2.5 miles.

I'll head out to the kiosk around the corner with my credit card and square up so I can use the bikes again.

On the plus side, for the first time I remembered to unpack the one pair of cycling gloves I brought with me from Walla Walla. Riding with padded gloves is soooo much more comfortable. Glad I finally remembered to pull them out.

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Speaking of bikes. The bike lane on the main street (a pedestrian street) near our building is woefully disregarded by the pedestrians. It's generally excusable though because the only real clue that there's a bike lane there at all is some very faded street markings and some subtly different street pavers. Well, that problem was solved today:

The freshly painted lines really seem to be working just based on my brief observations. People are now staying out of the bike lane (except for me while I take pictures, haha) and bikes are moving relatively freely.

Narrow opening

Managed to prove a theorem today that I'd been working on this week. Turns out the statement of the theorem wasn't true. I found a counter-example while trying to prove it this morning. Fortunately, the counter-example made it clear what the correct statement of the theorem should have been. Once I fixed the theorem, the proof came relatively easily. It's definitely easier to prove true theorems than false ones, haha.

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I went for a walk with Laura this afternoon. We went to a "cycling in Sevilla" exhibit, but it wasn't that interesting. On the way home, we passed by a park that has been under construction since we got here last summer and is now open. Honestly, it's not clear what they actually did. It looks like any other park. My guess is that they were busy doing something to the infrastructure under the park, not to the park itself. That said, it's a pretty space:

On the way home, we passed by Plaza de San Francisco to see the progress on bleacher construction for the Semana Santa processions. The aisle that all of these procession have to pass through seems surprisingly narrow. Also interesting to note, the bleachers in this plaza are custom fit around lightposts, trees, fountains etc. They are clearly for this purpose and this purpose only:

Itálica

Today we took a tour of the nearby Roman ruin of the city of Itálica. The city was founded in roughly 200BC, but really usurped an existing village of indigenous people. Initially, the city was down in the Guadalquivir river plain, but regular flooding forced its relocation up into the nearby hills. The part of the city we visited today was actually added later, a mere 400 years later, in 200AD. Itálica was the first Roman city on the Iberian peninsula. It seems to have thrived for about 600 years and then sort of faded away, though there have been people living around it through to this day.

It was initially unearthed in the 14th century by monks of the nearby Monasterio de San Isidoro del Campo. It didn't become a protected archeological site until the early 20th century. There's not much left above ground. The site consists mostly of foundations of homes and businesses and avenues. There are some replicas of Roman statues that have been unearthed at the site. This Venus-like statue was found half buried in a nearby village being used as a doorstop.

Entering Itálica, you hit the main avenue with the original stone pavers:

Some of the stones bear graffiti:

The first of many intricate mosaics we encountered was in the bathroom:

Here's a row of nearby toilets. I guess the Romans were a little more comfortable than us with their normal bodily functions, haha:

The rooms of various homes were easily discernible by their outlines in the foundation stones. Most remarkable were the floors of the bedrooms and other rooms that had beautiful mosaics. These intricate mosaics were like the Persian rugs we use today:

It's hard to see here, but I was most impressed by the use of different color stones. There were blue, yellow, green, red and lots of other color stones. Impressive because paint would not have lasted 2000 years:

A row of smaller rooms in a poorer section of the city:

Also impressive was the Anfiteatro de Italica. This stadium seated 25,000 people and hosted regular gladiator bouts. This site has also been used several times in the filming of Game of Thrones:

Underneath the stadium, these tunnels let service personnel and competitors get around:

After the ruins, we visited the aforementioned Monasterio de San Isidoro del Campo. Established in 1301, it has been a Catholic monastery up until recently:

The typical mix of moorish and christian art of southern Spain is in evidence here:

The style of this painting of the last supper was unusual. It is not know who painted this:

The woman in this crypt is reported to have been burned at the stake for some transgression (though it's not clear to me why she would then be buried in the church). The legend goes that during her burning, the heat from the flames lifted her skirt immodestly. Her loyal lady in waiting, jumped into the flames and died protecting her lady's modesty. She too is named and buried in this crypt:

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We got home and Diego's Bar was going strong. Here you can see the last of the patrons and then closed and cleaned premises an hour later:

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Putting the Whitman VPN to good use this evening watching UK play in the second round of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament:

Bean Burritos

Laura made some refried beans and we had bean burritos for lunch:

Interestingly, the best salsa you can find here in Sevilla is at the Costco.

We've been meaning to check out this market across the river from us for a few weeks now. We finally made some time for a walk through today:

It's nice space, but there's not much here that isn't in the closer Triana Market. Some of the prices on the produce were perhaps a bit lower.

Preparations continue here for Semana Santa (Holy Week before Easter). Every Catholic brotherhood in Sevilla will have a procession to the Cathedral. Each procession follows a different route from its home neighborhood, but they all have to pass through the Plaza de San Francisco. Crews are setting up bleachers here so that spectators can see each of the processions that occur during this week-long event in a single place. The seats are like "box seats" in a stadium and are not cheap:

Spring

On this first full day of spring, I went to Parque de Maria Luisa to see what I could see. Turns out, there are a lot of flowers in full bloom here in Sevilla this time of year other than the azahar (orange blossom). I sat by this reflecting pool for a bit and read a book:

The smell of the orange blossoms was quite strong. When I got up and turned around, I saw why:

This tree is well on its way to having its leaves back:

The purple bougainvillea on this trellis were going strong:

The statue of Maria Luisa herself presided over a varied display of flowers:

The sun was so bright, it washed out this photo of the north tower of the Plaza de Espana:

In one of the lesser parks on the way home, I noticed these red/orange flowers:

It was pleasantly cool today.

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I mostly read elementary probability and statistics today. I'll get back to working on the paper tomorrow.