sweaty armpits

Yes, it is a hot day here in Sevilla. And unfortunately there is little to report and I used up my poetic prose on that last entry. Last night I did indeed to to the shores of the river again to bask in the shade and swap conversation and books with a friend. Later in the night I met up with several friends to go to a tapas bar that was established in 1670 -- that´s not something you can find in the states. I could imagine what the place looked like before the candels were replaced with florescent lights, for practically everything else was the same. I ate little fishes that still looked like fishes, but luckily their heads were cut off so I didn´t have to look into their eyes before eating them. After that I went with 3 other people to find the "free piña colada" place that someone told us about, but we were too late for the free entry and we weren´t about to pay 7euros for drinks that we found out later didn´t even taste good. Instead we found a quiet bar just feet from the water´s edge where we sipped on rum and pineapple juice and talked about whatever we found to have in common. The 40 minute walk back home took my final drops of energy, so that when we finally came into the apartment at nearly 3am I practically passed out on the pillow. We turned on the ceiling fan even though she told us not to. My professor thinks that our señora told us we can´t use the fan not because the motor will burn up but because she might be trying to cut corners to save money. It´s hard to remind myself that we are her customers, because they do make money off of letting us stay in their homes.

I also had to go to the U.S. consolate today to admit my own stupidity of losing my driver´s lisence in Morocco, just in case someone tried to steal my identity. In a moment of absolute carelessness I left my coin purse with my driver´s lisence, school ID, and 10 euro on a taxi. At least it wasn´t my passport or credit cards.

Yesterday morning I accidently found myself at a museum that was truly moving; I was riding around town on a rented bicycle to see what I could find and eventually came upon a place where people were walking in, so I followed. "Desculpame, señor, éste parece muy estupido, pero tengo que preguntar: ¿donde estoy?" I had found the museum of contemporary art, which had free entry on tuesdays (¡que suerte!) and one of their current displays was of Joseph Renau, an artist of the Spanish Civil War as well as WWII and the capitalism/consumerism of the 20s-70´s. His work was amazing -- I strongly suggest googling him to contemplate some of his works. Most of it was very political, although even his landscapes or portraits were unexplainably moving. Many of the messages of his works from the 60s and 70s were sharply applicable in today´s situation. More often than not politics make me very sad. Like yesterday, for example, in class after watching Pan´s Labyrinth when our professor brought up the debate over the use of torture by the U.S.. My eyes that were already moist from the movie began to fill again with sadness. I am appalled by the thought that in our country that we think of as so modern and so concerned with justice would lose itself in the idea of "the end justifies the means" to such an inhumane way. And it also makes me sad to see that religion has been such a political thing for so long. For this reason and more, this trip has made me dislike religion more and more while simultaneously making me love God more and more. Oh, the irony.

10 days and counting....