So.... who knew? No wonder that quick little trip through the cathedral the other morning blew my mind.

The Catedral de Santa Maria de la Sede is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world! And the third largest church in the world! And you certainly feel that when you're in the thing. Notre Dame Paris? well.... i love you but, that's real gold on the ceilings for pete's sake! And that enclosed area in the middle of the nave, the part with a zillion minor altars lining the perimeter of it? The choir 'loft'. Take a minute to read this little history of the place. It's really amazing. You know, it may well have been a smelly experience living then, but the 15th century had a lot going for it...

Next haircut, Tans?? Way cool... taken in metro.... don't worry i studied it carefully.. I'm sure she thought I was an oddball.. oh well.

skater in school uniform....

incense seller by the cathedral....

this guy is here every day miming or holding perfectly still...

note

Note anatomically correct religious figurine, these people are serious about art..

smokers outside the school ...

click on patterned plaza to see detail, small flat stones, perfect for skimming, laid on their sides and cemented in ages ago.

below -shoes on the metro and Isabel teaches me and Zuzka to flamenco after eating that yummy paella..

Well! I finally have a minute to breathe. Don't have to teach again until Monday. Which means I have a Language Analysis, a lesson plan, and a stage plan and computer organizing stuff to do by then and feel comfy enough to teach it decently. But today went pretty well, and an assignment I thought would be pure hell turned out to be the most interesting thing I've done so far in the class. I actually enjoyed it. Of course it involved research, analysis and writing, three of my fave activities.

So I've taken to taking pics of groovy women's shoes on the metro and anywhere else I can get away with it. Just so I remember when I get back to the fashion-boring states how good a woman can really look if she lets herself have a little fun. The Spanish women are amazing, really. Plenty of cleavage everywhere, but so natural looking, a symptom of their sense of the feminine. They have a center, a self that appears to lack anything even resembling self- doubt. Maybe it's because they don't change their names here when they marry. I mean, that bores into a woman over time, doesn't it? Changing your name to someone else's? Retarded if you ask me. Anyway, they don't, change it that is. Never have. In a Catholic country renowned for its machismo that fact blew me away. I think it has something to do with their confident attitude, the women.

(Uno momento, por favor... think I'll finally just tuck into this monstrously gorgeous ginormous melon that I bought at the mercado last Saturday. Sweet and juicy and cheap. Just hack that giant end off with my paring knife... There, that's better. Mas mejor)

The other students in my class are nice now that I'm getting to know them and they me. They're being nicer to me now, or seem to anyway. I think we've all figured out we're in this together. The only times I feel unhappy is when I detect a tone of "it's every man for himself" in someone, but that's rare. It's more like, well, you may know how to do that, but I'm good at this and can help you too. That's when things work. I've actually come to quite like everyone at the school, from the teachers and students to Patricia, the woman who keeps things tidy and well stocked at school, and Letitia and Marian, who help us with logistics. Everyone... Everyone is working hard.

I'm sure I'll feel like hell again, but (much to my relief) I have a dentist appt tomorrow evening near the school to fix my tooth (at last!) and will be able to chew on the left again, hopefully. Avoiding caramels, like a good girl ;-( Plus I can spend time now organizing notes and doing some deeper thinking about material. I'll like that. Trying to figure out a way to get to the Alhambra, you need to make a rez, and it's two hours away by train or bus... It would kill me not to see that while in Spain. Although I'm already thinking how great it would be to teach over here for awhile...

Today considered flying "the shoe expert" -- you know who you are, yes you -- over here for a few days to help me shoe shop. Wouldn't that have been a grand birthday?! Next year? I had a few minutes to gander and try a few on this evening on my way home and was hopeless in the face of such wondrous choices. All fairly cheap (saw some pa-rii-cee ones at lunchtime). It pains you to walk away, it really does. Most of them are made here of course, second largest industry in Spain next to tourism. Olive ranks a close second as well.

Ok . load pics now and chill. Finish my melon and find a flight to Zurich for later in October.

But wait... i haven't told you about the sounds I have come to know! the boys playing soccer outside my terrace wall in the evening, or the way the cathedral chimes nine o'clock every the morning to let me know how much faster I have to walk down the Avenida to be on time, or the Delta Blues man who sings and plays outside the government building every day to his tiny audience, his slide guitar echoing across the plaza, the wheeze of the trollies, the smooth rush of the metro, the sweet sounding voice of the metro announcer (female of course). the smell of jasmine, the clop of horses' hooves on the cobbled streets, the way RAfa the cafe guy shouts your order to confirm, the smell of the incense sellers table, the sheer sensual luxury of it all......

ciao, bambinos...

con muchos besos

Cat