people watching at la puerta de jerez

street performer

are you a musician? do you want to make money on the streets of Seville? then i suggest you follow this man's business model -- he gets more donations and attracts more of a crowd than any flamenco or classical guitarist i've seen playing in my neighborhood.
the moral of this story:  if you want to make money off of tourists, forget about offering them a cultural cliche...instead, remind them of home (or at the very least, of True Blood...which by the way is very popular here in Spain)

February 23rd, 1981

In my social history class this week we discussed the attempted coup d'etat of 1981.  It's a pretty fascinating story:

In 1975 Franco finally dies and Spain starts moving toward democracy.  By 1978 there's a constitution (which gets rid of the death penalty), political parties are legalized (including the communist party...had Franco been alive he would have died again over that news), moderate politicians are vastly popular, and things generally seem to be going pretty well.
But some radical members of the army are not pleased with the transition to democracy and decide something needs to be done.
So on February 23rd 1981 a coup d'etat is attempted...and the crazy awesome part?  you can watch it on youtube!  (some of the camera guys in congress secretly kept their cameras running.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pcc0_8i0CYs&feature=related

So here's what you'll see if you watch the video:
The first image is of president Suarez (young with brown hair) and his military adviser Gutierrez Mellado (the old bald guy)...these two, along with every important elected official, are sitting in congress. 
Members of the military break in.  The brains of the operation, Antonio Tejero (wearing the hat), demands silence.  Everybody hides under their seats except for president Suarez and General Mellado. 
Mellado immediately gets up and walks over to Tejero ordering him to stop (remember that Mellado is Tejero's superior in military terms).  Warning shots are fired into the ceiling but Mellado refuses to sit down.  Tejero tries and fails to push the old man back into his seat (what a loser)
The next part of the video shows part of the King's televised speech announcing that he has ordered the military and police to do everything they can to uphold the constitution and stop the coup.  This speech was key to the coup's failure as many military members involved in the coup nation-wide had been told the King supported them. 
Also key were civilian demonstrations and rallies that condemned the coup and called for continued democracy.

By the next morning the coup had ended...unsuccessfully.  What happened afterward? Those responsible were prosecuted and Spain remained a democratic country.  In fact, in 1982 the socialist party won the general elections...take that, Franco.

Some interesting things you won't see in the video 
--> many of the politicians held hostage in congress ate their black books page by page while they hid under their seats so that, if the coup stuck, the names and addresses of their friends and families wouldn't fall into dangerous hands. 
--> the bullet holes in the ceiling of congress are still there as a reminder of the event.
--> the king is said to have been wearing his pajamas under his military uniform when he gave his televised speech.

Aracena

This past weekend the advanced liberal arts group went to Aracena (a town nestled in the hilly area between Seville and Portugal)  10 Spanish students were invited and we were encouraged to only speak in Spanish.  The experience was fantastic and the views from the hotel incredible, but I came back with a very exhausted brain.  I also learned that I draw out the letter "o" longer than I ought to...something to work on!
I hope to return to Aracena in October for their yearly ham festival (yummmm jamon iberico)
Here are some pictures from my weekend:

Torre de Oro

The Torre Del Oro has been around since Seville was the capital of muslim Spain (12th c)...a defense tower next to the port area of the river, it served a military purpose for centuries.  Today it's a museum and a good place to get pictures of the city from above:

The tower in the distance is the Giralda, one of the only parts of the Cathedral that originally belonged to the Mosque.

This bridge is called Triana (as is the neighborhood to the left of the picture.)  The bridge was the first permanent bridge to be constructed in Seville (before it, bridges sat on boats...the river needed to be tamed before a permanent bridge could be constructed)

More updates

I had a fabulous day yesterday. 

I finally figured out a functioning schedule for the fall semester:

Theoretical Linguistcs

Latin American Story and Fiction

Literature and Society in Spain

General Sociology

Anthropology of Gender

I also met up with my 'intercambio' (a Spanish student I'll be meeting with on a weekly basis for conversations in Spanish and English).  He loves Sex in the City and Lady Gaga and wants to be a "coolhunter" which, as he explained, is someone who predicts trends...very cool.  He brought up the phrase "oh my god" and said it has recently been adopted by Spanish youth.  I then had the honor of introducing him to "OMG"...I have a feeling I'll be hearing it all over town soon enough.

Before dinner I went with Bea to her friend Carmen's house.  Carmen's dog had puppies a few months ago and I got to play with 2 of them.  Carmen is still trying to find a home for one of them and asked me to take a bunch of pictures she can use in posters and such.  I put all 30 on facebook for her to choose from...but here are some highlights:

Random fact: yesterday I passed by a building sectioned off by the police...yellow tape is blue here!

Random pictures:

(photo courtesy of Cindy Sherman)

 

 

we did a scavenger hunt last week.  one of the missions was to get 20 people to stand in front of city hall and point to the clock.  the four older men in front were so enthusiastic about the whole thing that they helped us to recruit other passersby!

one of the many horse and carriages that passes by my window

Cathedral restorations

The Alcázar -- Seville's time capsule

This morning we visited the Alcázar.  It was, I believe, my 4th visit to this incredible palace / garden.  Since at this point I could probably give a pretty good tour myself, I thought I'd post some pictures and give a bit of an explanation of the place.

The Alcázar is the only European palace that was a royal palace in antiquity and continues to be one today.  The Alcázar's history starts back in Roman times (you can actually see some ancient foundation stones upon entering the palace.)

But the truly visible history begins with the Moors.  Seville was an important capital of Al Andaluz.  So it was only natural that palace and a mosque be constructed in the center of the city.  Parts of both the mosque and the palace are still around today, but christian royalty mostly tore them down in order to build a cathedral and a christian palace (the Alcázar) during the Reconquista.

So here's what remains of the moorish palace:

This wall is old...seriously old.  It's made of brick and stone -- a combination that was very common in moorish architecture.

This patio is directly outside of what was essentially an office. 

The arches are decorated with plaster (which was imprinted with intricate design molds while still wet.)

The rest of the moorish palace was, as I mentioned above, torn down.  But, interestingly enough, when the Christian royalty decided to create their own palace in the same place, they also decided to recreate almost exactly the moorish style of architecture and design...they also used Muslim workers.  This copycat architecture was very fashionable at the time and is called Mudejar.

You can see how similar the christian palace (built 2 centuries later) is to the original moorish palace.  Arches, tiles, and molded plaster are found throughout:

yea, that's a peacock.

The differences are most noticeable in the presence of portraits of christian kings and architectural details like this gold leaf covered ceiling dome:

There are moorish-inspired tiles all over the christian palace...but many reflect the fact that they were created for christian spanish royalty, specifically the royalty of Castilla y León (the emblems of which were a castle and a lion)

My first free day

Saturday was my first day without a CIEE determined schedule.  Most of the group took buses to various nearby beaches.  I stayed in Sevilla with some friends who, like me, didn't love the idea of traveling around with a group of 20 Americans (we stand out enough individually).
I spent the afternoon shopping and enjoying some tinto de verano (red wine mixed with lemon fanta...yummm) with Bea (my spanish host 'mom').  I am always impressed by how outgoing Bea is.  Everywhere we go she strikes up a conversation with someone.  Today she made friends with a group of four women in their late 50s who were visiting from the north for a few days.  (They hadn't slept the night before because they were too busy partying...I, on the other hand, have consistently gone to bed around 12)
After lunch Bea left to meet up with some friends.  I had half an hour to kill before meeting up with some friends of my own and just as I was debating how to pass that time I heard through my window the now familiar sound of old men singing flamenco music in the tapas bar down the street.  I gathered my things and walked over there hoping for something of a free concert.  My entrance did not go unnoticed as I was the only woman and the only foreigner there.  I ended up chatting and dancing with the already slightly inebriated natives (this was at about 5pm) as they serenaded me with one classic flamenco tune after the next.  They even put my glass of wine on their tab!

And now for a brief explanation of my schedule for the rest of the month:
CIEE-run intensive Spanish classes begin on Monday.  My class will be about the social history of Spain and will consist of an hour and a half of classroom time followed by an hour and a half of visiting museums / historical & cultural sites around the city.  After the two weeks of intensive classes end, official classes at the University of Seville begin!

Some pictures from my first few days in Sevilla

this is the tiny street where i live!  my apartment is in the middle of the "centro" and could not be more conveniently located.  my host "mom" is 32 and it's just the two of us in the apartment.  my favorite part of living here so far is that every so often a horse and carriage goes by my window :-)

flamenco!  the program is keeping us very busy with activities

I found this house on a nearby street.  There are a lot of old buildings here and not all of them age very well.  As you can see, this one has some pretty intense metal supports and the roof has fallen into the top floor.  According to the torn sign hanging from the window this house is for sale...any takers?