Update

Flamenco dress shop, Sevilla

After friend of mine ended an email with, "I'll go check your blog for an update after I send this email," I realized I haven't really made any solid updates here in a while, if at all...just a few random things here and there.  Here are some updates and highlights to date (pictures will come along, you know I'm slow.  ):

• We went to Cadiz a week ago and checked out the Spanish coast. Beautiful with a totally different vibe. Got to surf! Thank you Jesus and Ana from Solo Surf.  We scored about a pound of incredible olives for $2 and had one of our best meals in Spain at Las Flores Freideria.
• Climbed to the top of La Giralda and went through the Catedral de Sevilla. Absolutely incredible. 

La Catedral, Sevilla

• In Sevilla, the convents sell baked goods to help bring in some money. El Convento de San Leandro is famous for their yemas, and I have no idea what they are but yemas are supposedly delicious.  Last Friday we tried to buy some yemas, but walked in during the Eucarista mass and got to hear a choir of 40 nuns singing with an organ during an evening mass. Hardly anyone was in the church and it felt like we walked into another century. Obviously, we did not interrupt them to inquire about yemas, but we will not give up!

 

Street musicians, Sevilla 

• We're talking a spanish/culture class with Ivan from Global Language Training and it's going really well. I had to conduct an interview and write an essay about it in Spanish and it was hard as hell. But I did it, and it was fun! Greg is learning some Spanish vocab, and best of all, Ivan is teaching us all about the culture, mostly through food. We had these amazing tapas the other day - wild mushroom cakes topped with egg yolk, drizzled with a carmelized sweet wine sauce.  You bet your bottom dollar I'm going to figure out how to make them.  Today is our last class and Ivan is taking us to see some ancient Roman ruins and then to a small town in the mountains to see how the cuisine is different there.
• Our friend Lola invited us for a traditional Spanish lunch at her house yesterday and we got to make paella with her mom. It was SO delicious and very interesting to participate in a lunch like that vs. the 30-min sack lunch I'm used to in the US.  Gracias Lola :)
• It's officially the longest I've ever stayed in one place that I don't live.  I'm learning a ton about Spanish culture, cuisine, and even a little bit about myself.  Good things all around.
• Tomorrow we head to Corodoba and Saturday to Granada.  Woot woot!!!