I'm in love...his name is Cadillac

Thursday was a pretty good day. I didn't have class, which allowed me ample time to sleep. Yeah, I slept in, until perhaps 12:30ish. For the first time the apartment was quiet in the morning! I believe sleeping was the most fitting way to celebrate, eh? I decided that I was going to find a UPS-esque place before siesta so that I could send my poor lil camera back to the states. The woman at Starbucks had told me days earlier that there was a post office-type place in los Remedios on la calle Asuncion, about halfway down. So basically about a 15 min walk. I got dressed, and was out the door. It was a beautiful day, and I had never really explored los Remedios during daylight! I loved the atmosphere, the people, the stores, etc. etc. etc. I'm very lucky to live in such a great area of Sevilla for sure. There were shoes stores with huge rebajas ("reduced" but actually means "sales"), think leather boots for around 20 euro, which I was tempted to aprovechar (take advantage of). However, I had a mission to accomplish before 2pm, and I would have to save the shopping for another day. I hit la calle Asuncion, and didn't know whether to take a left or a right. My instinct drove me towards the left, and I was off. I wasn't seeing any post offices, but I stopped in a camera shop and asked the man behind the counter if they fixed cameras. He said no, but he'd take a look at my camera anyways. After messing with it a bit, he told me what the problem was: when I had dropped it, I knocked the lens out of place. Hence, 80% of my pictures are black since the bottom left corner of the lens is still in its place. It'd be very simple to fix, but the camera would need to be sent back to Nikon. He told me that there's a Nikon in Barcelona, but it takes forever and is very expensive. I told him that I was thinking about sending it back to the states and he said that that was probably a better idea. He was so nice and helpful! The people in Sevilla are all-around nice people, it's great. So I continued on my search for a post office. As I neared the main bridge street, I realized that perhaps I should turn around and look again, ask someone, or something. I then ran into Rachael and Elena taking a run, I told them of my mission and Rachael directed me towards a post office a couple blocks down. I followed her directions, which actually may have been wrong or else I'm an idiot. I didn't find anything, it was nearing 2, so I decided to just walk back home and hope to find a post office on the way. On the way back I stopped at a fruit stand to buy some strawberries and cherries which was quite a challenge since I didn't know the word for cherry. One of the guys there also laughed at me because I asked for a bag to pick out strawberries when actually you have to ask them and they serve you. This country confuses me mucho. Then I finally walked back, which was interesting. I got a bit lost, but eventually found my way. I was pretty damned proud of myself since I usually walk around with Stacey, and she has a really good sense of direction, so she always navigates. I'm learning, I'm learning! I got home in time for lunch which was AMAZING (of course). We had that incredible lentil soup again, which has become one of my favorite Maruja dishes, but this time it had chorizo and morcillos in it, BONUS! Then we had a kick-ass salmon and egg empanada, SO GOOD! After lunch Stacey took a small siesta and I did some reading and internetting. I stole some pictures from Jessica's facebook and added them to my album...check them out! Then we got ready and headed over to the center since Stacey had her grammar/composition class 5-6:30, and I just like bumming around the center. I got there, did some internet shtuff, ran a couple errands with Jessica around the center of town, met up with Stacey and then planned to get tapas with Katie and Melissa. Melissa went home for a bit to shower, and Katie and Stacey have class together, so we decided to meet up in front of the center around 7:30. We wanted something fast and close since we had tickets to a flamenco show in Santa Cruz at 9 (!!!). Melissa arrived, and we walked into 2 tapas places next to the center, but they only had limited, smokey bar seating so we nixed those places. We decided to find a fast place on the way to flamenco. We finally stumpled upon a Cafe Indias where we got some bocadillos. They were pretty damn good, actually. Then we rushed off to the flamenco show, getting lost a few times, but making it. I had never really been in the barrio Santa Cruz, it's awesome! It's older and has a lot more character. I think that it also is home to the Jewish quarter of Sevilla because our flamenco performance was in this place called Casa de las memorias, and in it were several books about Judaism in Spain, and there was sooo much artwork with menorahs and stars of David on them. Yeeeeah Jews! The guy who collected tickets definitely looked like a Jew. Hehe, how comforting. You know after so much Catholic overload it's nice to get a nice dose of Jew. I should return and buy something, perhaps.
The flamenco show was AWESOME!!! I'm fricking in love with everything flamenco: the guitar, the singing, the dancing, everything! The guitar is what really blew me away, I mean, it's just virtuosic. I don't know how it's humanly possible to play the guitar like that. The singing was crazy and actually kind of reminded me a lot of Torah chanting. Hehe, yeah, the singer kind of reminded me of a crazy cantor. It makes sense, though, since flamenco is the music of the gypsies. The dancing is so impressive, a man and a woman danced, it's very flirtatious and unbelievable. Think American tap meets Riverdance meets Spain. Does that give a good image? It was a great time; once again, I am so lucky to be here! After flamenco the four of us decided to walk back towards los Romedios; Katie was a little sick and was going to stay in for the night while the remaining 3 of us wanted to stay out but do something low-keyed. We headed into los Remedios, Katie walked home, and since it was early Melissa, Stacey and I hit up Starbucks/VIPS. We showed Melissa the wonder that is VIPS. I wanted my cangrejo (crab) wrap again, but they didn't have it! So I got a pavo (turkey) wrap which was fine. Melissa got a Coca-Cola Light...she has a diet coke addiction, which has caused me to drink diet coke about once a week. It's bad news, she's a bad influence! It's OK, I'm limiting myself for sure, won't get into that habit, nuh-uh. Stacey got a caramel muffin from Starbucks which was quite good, then I couldn't help myself and got a can of Coca-Cola light, then Stacey couldn't help herself and she got herself a regular coke, some Pringles, and her new favorite cookies (the Principe brand that she's been buying frequently). Good times, good times. Then we decided to hit up Cadillac! I'm obsessed now. We got there and ordered vino tinto, hoping for huge goblets again, but we got regular sized glasses. OK, Zach's going to be disappointed about this one, but it's pretty crappy red wine. It's served, well, chilled. I know, can you believe it? I think that it's because they use it to mix sangria or make this special Spanish drink called tinto de verano which is red wine and lemon Fanta. It's interesting, even though Spain is a huge wine country, at most bars they only serve one kind of red wine, one white, and one rose. So you only order red, white, or blush wine. It's oftentimes the same case with beer: you just order cerveza since typically a bar will only carry one or maybe two brands. Anyways, I digress. We each got 2 glasses of wine, and Diego, the bartender, kept insisting on serving us chupitos (shots). We were like, no way, man. The night was really chill, Cadillac was pretty freakin empty, but we didn't care! We were just socializing and drinking, it was fun, that's the kind of scene that I enjoy. The ambiance in Cadillac is pretty great, too, so it definitely helped fuel that chilled out contentment that was the night. Then, we decided to go for the chupitos. We each got a chupito of tequila. The shots here are maybe half the size of American shots (which would explain why my Swiss shot glass is so small) which makes me consider why binge drinking is such a problem in the states. Oh man. Also, the tequila they serve here, unless it's Cuervo Gold, is usually clear, which is a bit weaker and goes down easier. And, instead of giving you a lime, they give you lemons, which actually eliminate the aftertaste a whole lot better than limes because they're a bit sweeter. Not bad, Spain! So we took our chupitos. Good times. We hung out at the bar a bit and socialized some more, and Diego kept trying to get us to do more chupitos. I think that it was because we were probably the only women in the bar, and these middle-aged weird men kept staring at us which was really pathetic, honestly. Well, we finally caved and promised Diego one more chupito. He didn't have lemons, so we were like, OK, nevermind. Then he offered us lime juice to chase. Fine. Ugh. So he poured us a shotglass of tequila and a shot glass of lime juice. We took them, and it was fine, just really sour. Then the pathetic middle-aged men asked to take a picture with us. Um, as evidence that they got to hang out with some young American girls? Don't think so, they definitely just sat there and gawked at us because they're pathetic, as I said. Whatever, we took a picture unenthusiastically and they went back to being losers and sitting down and just staring. Spanish weirdos, I tell ya. It was silly, though, they were definitely harmless. Just probably some business buddies getting a drink after a long day and just checking us out. Completely harmless...and pathetic. Hehe, I'm terrible. Then Diego offered us a bag of some sort of snack food, they're vanilla cream-filled croissants. They were delicious! Diego definitely hooked us up. Then we called it a night and paid...it was only 2 euro each!! Can you believe it?? He only charged us for one glass of wine! Gotta love the Diego. He probably did that since we were the only females there, and it was supposed to be "ladies night" (but only from 11-1, haha). Bottom line, Cadillac freaking rules, and we're going to become regulars. It's a plan. We then walked Melissa home, walked back to our home, and called it a night. It was such a fun night, I love Cadillac, I love flamenco, I love Spain!