Kyle Kessler : weblog

So I was supposed to be in Granada today; I was. But since I was wanting to see the Alhambra and since I hadn’t reserved a ticket and didn’t want to stand in line all day, I went ahead and took a train to Sevilla. This is a gorgeous city with a fascinating blend of Western and Arabic architecture. The smell of wisteria even makes me feel like I’m back home smelling flowers in our backyard! I’ll use Sevilla these next couple days as my basecamp to return to Granada and also visit Córdoba before going to Portugal.

And to bring everyone up to speed on these past couple weeks:

I had a blast being a tour guide again when Edgar and Kevin were visiting me in Paris. We found a list of Paris’s “Top 25 Destinations.” In the one real day Edgar was in town, we covered nine, and before Kevin returned home after a long weekend we had knocked out seventeen of them! The most memorable moment, probably for all of us, was being asked by a French bride-to-be to nibble candies off a necklace she was wearing. You can imagine the scene: three rather clueless Americans standing on the steps in front of Sacre-Coeur. Up walks what looks like a sorority girl halfway through some really bizarre initiation ceremony with her hair in pigtails, funny striped socks pulled up over her pants legs, and wearing a candy necklace. Now, just so you know, Sacre-Coeur is notorious for being surrounded by people who are up to no good. So when this young lady walks up to us asking for help in English with her French accent, I’m a little cautious. But she’s surrounded by camera-toting “friends” anxious to capture that Kodak moment as a group of foreigners bite off pieces of candy from around their victim’s neck. After mutiple refusals on our part and multiple requests on their part, I decided that if I can run with the bulls in Spain and dance around in a kilt in Scotland, what’s participating a little French bachelorette party tradition going to hurt? I went first, Kevin second (having a little difficulty - something about biting the string accidentally), and Edgar third. We stood around a little longer trying to figure out what we had just done and watching as the party moved on to the next group of male tourists.

When the visitors left it was time to get down to work on all my presentations. But I can hardly think of anything more boring than reading about my school work, so I’ll spare you the details.

And as for Barcelona, what can I say? It’s still definitely a city in which I can see myself spending many more days/months/years of my life. You’ve got the city; you’ve got the mountains immediately to the north; you’ve got the Mediterranean immediately to the south. The pace of life is comfortable; the people are beautiful; the food goes far beyond being just edible. It was nice to see some things I hadn’t seen before. Last year was the International Year of Gaudí so quite a few of his buildings have just now been opened to the public. The weather couldn’t have been better, and I had a great time meeting the other international students (Argentinian, Canadian, German, Greek, Italian, Mexican, etc.) who came along with us.

I’m still trying to decide how I’ll occupy my time when I get back to the States. Any ideas?