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Along the Natchez Trace

Friday, February 8, 2013

Fin de semana

End of the week...  or, as I would say in the USA...  the Weekend!  (actually, if I were still working, and were in the USA, I'd probably give a big sigh and say...  Thank God it's Friday!

We've had 5 days of lessons.  At times I was totally frustrated, but for the most part I feel that I've learned quite a lot and am on my way to actually being able to understand and speak Spanish...  pequeno.... poco.... but at least some.

I haven't taken any photos today....  we went to class, came back to the house and had lunch...  then I did the traditional Spanish thing...  took a siesta.

At 8:00 this evening we are meeting Mitchell and Jerry for dinner.  I am still adjusting to coming alive at that hour instead of hitting the sack.  I suppose by the time my body is ready to boogie at 8:00 in the evening, it will be time to boogie on back to the States and I'll adjust all over again.

Since I didn't take any photos (yet) today, I'll insert a few that I took earlier this week.....
Oranges!
The streets are lined with orange trees...  hundreds and thousands of them.  People new to the city look at them and think...
"Wow!  Free for the picking!"
Only thing is, the oranges are bitter and not really edible.  But the city does pick the oranges and someone (I don't know who) makes them into marmalade.  The marmalade is so good that it's famous.  In March, these orange trees will be in bloom.
We are lucky that we'll be here through the month of March - we'll be here to experience the wonderful perfume of the blossoms.  
Rosa, our host family, says she goes out and collect some of the blossoms early in the morning to bring to the Bed & Breakfast.
The aroma is exquisite!

On a happy note...  the garbage strike is over.
Now all that has to happen is that the workers have to collect the 6,000 TONS of garbage that is lining the streets of Sevilla.
I don't know the estimated time, but think we'll still be seeing it around a while longer.

Tomorrow Bill & I will go to the big market.  But the other day we went to the Supermercado that used to be the train station.
The lowest level is now a supermarket.  The ground level has been converted to shops, and the upper level is now a cinema.  
This is the huge window at one end of the building.

I saw several shops that sold quilting supplies....
This beautiful quilt was in one of the windows.
Several blogs I read talk about quilting and other fiber arts.  I thought of Rick's wife Paulette when I saw this window.  Stunning!

Before we left the building, we went downstairs to the supermercado (supermarket)...
That's Bill, pulling a little grocery cart.  We had to be careful how much we bought because we would be carrying our purchases a mile or two back to our house.

Wine is available nearly everywhere.  You can buy good quality wine fairly cheap.  Bill's checking the label ....  sometimes we have a bit of trouble reading things like alcohol content etc.
We found some box wine (easier to carry home) that is quite good.

We left the old train station and walked home.

I know this is kind of a mixed bag of photos, but, heck, it's 
Fin de Semana!

Time to kick back and relax a bit.

How's this for a final photo?
The End!

That's All For Today!


11 comments:

  1. And the adventure continues! You'll have to try some of that Marmelade!!

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  2. Hello! your blog is great, I'd love you to join my travel websites, and you put my link on your site, and so we benefit both.

    I await your response to munekitacate@gmail.com

    kisses!
    Emilia

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  3. It is fun to read about your time across the pond, learning Spanish, and seeing the local sights virtually. Mo spent a month there one year in the winter and loved it, but she didn't have Spanish lessons. Congrats on learning something new, so good for the mind!

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  4. There was even a mention of the Seville garbage strike in the Minneapolis Star Tribune this morning! Good thing it's over!

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  5. Hope you enjoyed your siesta....what a busy week! Can't wait to hear about dinner tonight. That was an interesting shopping cart!

    So glad you are enjoying life!

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  6. A quilt's a quilt the world around. Just scrolling through and there was a Lone Star. Maremlade! Oh, yea.

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  7. I suppose that when you have to carry your groceries a couple of miles you choose your items carefully. You might have to drink the wine there!!

    Mark

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  8. The coming smell of orange blossoms...Ummm

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  9. hahaa... boogying at 8 or is that boogie ing ... what fun. love the birdie! those guys are just sitting in trees? and fresh oranges... green fluffy birds and orange oranges... I looked Spanish for orange... how pretty... naranja

    This is why Spanish is hard for me... HAH1 says an English speaking person... English is full of double meaning and spellings ....

    This is interesting ... I think so. I'm gonna learn Spanish along with you... it'll keep me from eating... maybe.

    ~~~~
    If you can eat it, then the word for orange in Spanish is "naranja." The phrase "Quisiera comer una naranja" translates to I would like to eat an orange.

    If you are talking about the color "orange" use "anaranjado." An orange car is "auto anaranjado" in Spanish.
    ~~~~~~~
    ;) ~ I'll never remember it

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  10. Muy Bueno! We took a Spanish course before we went to Peru a few years ago. At times, I was lost as well ... and found it frustrating because it was a mixed bag of proficiency levels. Mui did better because he has his Italian to fall back on. Oh well ... it's the effort to learn and use what I learned that seemed to be appreciated by those I tried to converse with in Cusco, so I figure I done good. Disfrutar de Sevilla.

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