A Day of Historical and Hipster Neighborhoods

One of the most common dinner topics has been politics. Spanish (well, really Europe in general) and American. At first, I found this surprising since I have been aways heard that money, politics, and religion are the three no no topics of conversation. Within a week though, Antonio was talking about the debt crisis and education reform problems that are taking place here. Because of the language barrier, its a little difficult for me to understand fully what he was saying but as it is with all political unrest, what I understood is that people are incredibly frustrated. The news has been featuring updated on the various protests and actions that citizens have decided to make. Over the past few days, as I have been walking around, I have run across several protests. However, instead of running in the opposite direction, per the advice of my study abroad advisors for whenever you see a protest, I have gravitated towards the large groups and stopped to take pictures. Typical.

A nice shot taken from a distance behind the safety of a pole. This group is with the Workers' Commission - a trade union:

This second picture is from a mostly student/young person protest also about labor reform:

I am planning on doing some more research on what exactly is going on with both of those big issues. Amongt the dinner table convo of the previous week, I was able to catch that a lot of people are out of work and utilize unemployment.

In other news, there has been a festival/feast of sorts going on this week! Although I havent seen any big celebrations, I seem to be running into the remains of it.

This alleyway has streamers of white paper type flowers. I have also been able to hear, but not locate two things.

1) Bands playing festive music

2) Fireworks. These start going off in the afternoon and continue at random points throughout the night. Although I havent seen them, I definitely hear them. My instant reaction though to the sound is to duck and cover or hide because it sounds like an incredibly loud blast not how "traditional" American type fireworks sound.

Ohhh also, Sunday was marvelous. For the first time since I have been here it was cool weather! My friend Christa and I decided that we wanted to play tourist. So, I pulled out my guidebook - trusty Rick Steves - and we headed to Barrio Santa Cruz, an old Jewish neighborhood that has a ton of history packed in a small space and is absolutely beautiful. Our little tour reminded me why I wanted to study in Spain in the first place and was a reminder that this place has so many hidden treasures I have yet to discover.

A postcard picture view of La Giralda - the bell tower of the ginormous Cathedral:

A few more highlights from the tour:

After the barrio, we decided that we wanted to just wander the streets and talk. Which we did and loved. As we aimlessly walked and ate our ice cream, we found the hipster part of Sevilla:

This stumbleupon has inspired us to return and have our own hipster day complete with hipster clothes, natural food, people watching and hipster/unconventional conversation. And yes, there will be a post covering that experience after it occurs.