The Beginning of the End :(

Well, I haven't covered being in Seville in a couple weeks, but I've been eager to write about some smaller things that haven't made their way into some other blogs of mine.

First of all, work is going well. Today's Matt's first day out of the office, so I am quite lonely with an empty desk next to me :( I made Matt, Mercedes, and some other coworkers of ours paper swans that say I 🖤 GHENOVA on them, and it's sad now to see Matt's swan gone from the desk. Otherwise, I've been still doing some 3D modeling, but now that all three of my supervisors are gone, I was given a new project, which is to go and locate where things should be in the 3D model of the whole boat, and either check off that they have been modeled and placed, or not. Overall, the work has been getting a bit repetitive, but I suppose that's what a job is, and how you get better at

The elevators at our workplace were awful at the start of the summer. You wouldn't know when one was coming, if it was coming, since there was no indication of whether your button press was registered or not, and the elevators were slow and janky. However, they've been replacing them one by one and updating them to a modern system where you select your floor before you get in, and then it brings one right to you. I appreciate this change very much.

There are a few differences I've started to notice, and take advantage of, between a Spanish workplace and an American one. First, the concept of needing to be in the office from 9 to 5 (or whatever your hours may be) is not the same. People here take long breaks, either just to stand outside (and smoke), or even to just go to a local restaurant and grab a tostada, which is a sandwich with toasted bread and some Iberian specialties on it. Mercedes, Matt, and I have begun to make it a habit to go and take a breakfast break at around 11 many days. At first, we felt guilty about it, but when my boss came up to me, started to talk to me, realized that there was nobody around, and proceeded to tell me that I can leave, go take breakfast with my friends, and then he'll explain later, I realized that it's just a normal thing that everyone does. It's nice, you form connections with the neighborhood people, and experience what working in Spain is really like.

Second thing I'd like to bring up about Seville is the blinking green lights for when a pedestrian crossing is about to turn into a red. These, seemingly particularly in Seville, are stupidly short. You can enter a crosswalk when it's fully green, and walk quickly through it, and not leave it until after it turns red. It will blink seriously for like two seconds, which isn't really helpful if you're trying to determine whether you can make it across or not.

Next are a few things with our housing... it was a college dorm in May. Now, it is a home for like 200 Italian high schoolers who are all very loud and use the facilities like ping pong table, pool table, and pool. We're a little annoyed at them, needless to say. But, our crazy roommate who hogged the common space is gone, so that's a win, I guess!

Final qualm about Seville is also solved now. For a whole month, from mid June to mid July, the Plaza de España was covered by the ugliest scaffolding, since they hosted a month-long music festival there. Not only did it make it ugly, but they had it closed off many days. So, for example, when my parents came in, we were unable to actually visit the Plaza, which is a shame. It is now back to normal now, though, in it's full glory.

So the things we've been doing in Seville now... Matt was sick for about a week right before he left, so it was really just Mercedes and I for a bit. Our first activity since the last post was to go to the fine arts museum, which was a funny art museum in a typical Andalucian style house. I say funny, because there were lots of pictures of decapitated heads, lots of pictures titled "The Virgin with the Christ Child" or "Virgen con El Niño" in Spanish. Mercedes and I were laughing at the lack of variety in this huge museum... It also was annoying since they only took coins to pay, and they wouldn't accept my student visa to give me free entry. We also went to go see a movie, Sin Malos Rollos, or in English, No Hard Feelings. It's an American romcom staring JLow, but we saw a Spanish screening of it. I found it funny, and I think we were all glad we went! I was able to pick up most of it, so that was cool and exciting. It's about a woman who's hired to make a kid, well, less innocent, and it's well done, well written, and well put-together.

I started taking bike rides to explore other corners of the city, even though it got up to 116°F some times. I'd come back drenched, and with my contacts all dried up. It was certainly difficult, but worth it to see some other neighborhoods.

Mercedes and I went bowling one day, I got 132, and her, 84. That's the best I've actually bowled in recent memory! Maybe it's because I played under the pseudonym Iño (short for Iñaki), since I didn't wanna blow my cover as a tourist. We also went to an illusions museum, I visited the old Navigation Pavillion from the '92 Expo which is now a maritime museum, and when Matt's brother got here, we did a 4-person tandem bike through Maria Luisa gardens, culminating in us jumping into the fountains. Fountain swimming has been a running joke throughout the summer, so it was only appropriate that we actually did it at the end.

On Thursday, Mercedes and I finally did something else we were joking about for a while. So, there's a tram that runs from Plaza Nueva, which is sort of between the historic downtown and the commercial district, to San Bernardo, which is by us. Let's say that Seville's public transit is no Paris Metro; it's slow, inefficient, and has very few serviceable locations. The tram's route is about 1.3 miles, and takes between 9 and 11 minutes. It has five stops, and the distance between the first three firmly "downtown" is quite small. So, we'd always joked that you could walk next to the tram and make it to the end at the same time. Of course you can't, but we did have another idea. Now, neither of us could run fast enough by ourselves to beat the tram from start to finish, especially in the heat, but we thought maybe we could do a relay. We'd buy one ticket, and at each of the four legs, we'd switch off. So, Mercedes started off with the first, and what turned out to be the easiest, leg. She started running as soon as the doors opened when the train arrived at Plaza Nueva. Now, she made it to the next stop before the tram even left the station, since the conductor has to switch sides and such. We switched at the Archivo stop, and I ran to the next one. At

this point, it started to become slightly apparent to the people around us, but when I switched with Mercedes at the next stop, people really started to catch on. This third leg we figured would be the most difficult, as it requires crossing the street in a weird way, and it's quite long. Turns out, the fourth leg was probably equally, if not more difficult, but we knew that Mercedes was in for a tough leg here. So, as soon as the doors opened, she ran out. The tram sat in the station for about 30 or 45 seconds, and by that point, she was able to get a solid head start. When we get to the intersection, I see her across the street, quite far ahead still. However, she still needed to cross the large boulevard before being able to get back on the tram. So, when the tram was pulling into the station, I had our bag in my hands, ready to run off, assuming she wasn't able to make it. But she was right there, and I pressed the open door button repeatedly until it would let me off as early as possible. We had a loud, but quick interaction, as I relayed my excitement that she made it. I sprinted, crossing the street three times, and lucking out at each one with the timing of the green lights. According to Mercedes, people were watching me run, anxious to see if I could finish it off and beat the tram. Within sight of the finish line, I got a text from Mercedes that the tram was moving, and though I could see the end, it wasn't too close. I kept on sprinting, looking back occasionally to see how I was doing for time. Sprinting up to the station and hopping triumphantly on the platform, huffing and puffing, I made it to the end about 10 seconds before the tram. When the doors opened, Mercedes and I high-fived and had a sweaty hug, while people on the tram were congratulating us and clapping. It was a really funny experience, and I hope that they went back to their families that evening and told them how these two silly Americans were able to beat the tram. Honestly, a highlight experience.

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Thursday night, I left for Marseille to go spend the weekend with Arthur and his family. I had a direct flight there, and it went, like most RyanAir flights, seamlessly. I know this isn't said often, but I am a big fan of RyanAir. I think they're great. They operate smoothly, there's no significant downgrade of experience, and their prices for checking/carrying on bags are actually not egregiously expensive either. Like to check my bag for Iceland, I paid $70, but to check a bag for a RyanAir flight, it's usually $20 or so. So, I don't see where the hate is.

Arthur and his dad picked me up from the airport, and it was refreshing to be in a place where I could speak the language quite well, I have to say. We had dinner, quite late, and even later for the Ruimys, since they were fasting for Tisha B'Av, but it was the typical Ruimy Mediterranean dinner that I had gotten used to from last year. For breakfast, I had some pastries, which I've missed so much from France. Really, nowhere does it quite as well as France does... We spent the day quite relaxed, playing tennis for a few hours in the middle. I wasn't great, but I also haven't played tennis in recent memory, so I guess that's to be expected. What's funny, though, is that Arthur asked if I wanted to switch sides after about an hour, and I refused at first since there was the most beautiful view of a Calanque (a rock formation typical of Marseille and the area), which you couldn't see from the other side. Arthur laughed, saying that you're supposed to watch the ball and not the Calanque, before switching.

We had a Shabbat dinner that night, with Arthur's whole family, his mom's sister's family and parents, and Arthur's girlfriend, Ilana, and Lea's boyfriend, Jessy. The five of us, Arthur, Ilana, Lea, Jessy, and I, spent most of the weekend together, and I really enjoyed it. We all get along really well, and it's so enviable just how close the four of them are. Being with them all weekend, having a Shabbat dinner with the whole family, and just the experience of living in a family's home with lots of people around, in a place with familiar surroundings was really, really comforting for me. I think I've missed that—company of a lot of people who you all know well, and who all know each other well. That you talk about funny things, joke with each other, and such.

Saturday, Arthur, Ilana, and I went to Cassis just to sit on the beach. The water was really cold, but we went in nonetheless. Just, not for very long at a time... At night, we went downtown into this really cool area filled with graffiti and nightlife, where we went to a comedy show and grabbed some pizza. The comedy show was, let's say, new comedians. They weren't great, and though I could understand almost all of what they were saying, I don't think I wasn the only one that was occasionally struggling to "get" a joke. It was really hot in there as well, which certainly wasn't helping. We went afterwards to a few outside bars and talked, but nothing too crazy. We were all tired by midnight and were back home quite early, at least as far as Saturday nights go.

Sunday was Arthur's uncle's birthday on his dad's side, so his dad's entire family was in. So, I was able to meet them for the first time, as I had met his mom's family last year. His grandfather is a rabbi, and the entire family is quite religious. It was cool, especially after being in Spain, which has, since the 1300s, nearly as many Jews as you can count on your fingers and toes, to be with a lot of Jewish people doing Jewish things. I'd certainly missed it, and though their traditions and foods are different, being Sefardic, it was familiar and comforting for sure. The morning of the party, we were really busy prepping all the food. I cut an egregious amount of potatoes, but we listened to Virginie's "Bonne Humeur" playlist (good vibes in French), which consisted of French 80s pop mostly. We were all singing, dancing, and clapping along, and it made the time spent peeling and cutting hundreds of potatoes pass by really quickly. It certainly put everyone in a "Bonne Humeur."

The flight home was on TAP Air Portugal, connecting through Lisbon. Certainly less than ideal, and it took much longer than the way there, but it was worth it for the really, really wonderful weekend that I had with them. I was considering a few options for the weekend, including Sardinia, Malta, and the Basque Country, but I'm very glad that I decided to spend it after all in Marseille. It was so nice to see Arthur, his famille, et amis, and it was relaxing for me, and mostly, it filled that gap in my soul that I've had for a while, of being removed from a family and a large group of friends.