Aventuras de los Bentley: September 2009

So time is already flying by for us here. We don't feel like we're that busy but this first month has come and gone. So here is how we have been spending our time.

Here are our Slovenian couchsurfers that stayed a couple nights in the loft. Maja and Rok.

This is the church were we do the Wednesday night worship nights with the students called Encuentro.

Some people have expressed seeing more of the school. So here is the outside of the building where you can see the sign for Acento.

This is the metro station that they just finished recently. The area had been torn up for years. It looks great now.

Sarah standing at the entrance of the school.

Up the stairs

Everyone is greeted at the front desk. This is Mercedes, who works in the evenings. She's great!

Once in awhile we take the students to play bingo with with the men at a nearby retirement home. The men love to kiss the girls on the cheek and love to win.

Sarah calling the numbers

These next pictures were from the Night of the Museums in Seville, where all the museum had special events going on, had no entrance fee, and were open late into the night. The first was the museum of fine arts. The building was an old convent, which was a beautiful place to house the art.

There was an amazing female classical guitarist playing in one of the patios. Believe me when I say AMAZING.

Then we took a bus to the other side of town to the Popular Arts Museum where there was a flamenco show in the center patio. This dancer was intense.

Downstairs were a bunch of set-up scenes of what stuff looked like. Of course I was interested in the guitar shop.

Then walked across the courtyard into the Archaeological museum. Lots of interesting statues and sculpture that are too old to comprehend. There was another guitar concert. This guy was good, but played some pieces that were pretty strange, so we only stayed for a bit.

The next night went to the Alameda de Hercules for the Alamedando. 1 Euro buys you the cup, 1 Euro for each drink, then you sell your cup back for 1 Euro at the end of the night. We thought it was genius because the city gets trashed every night from people drinking and leaving their trash.

At the same time was the Tapeando. They gave everyone a booklet with list of restaurants and the food they were selling for cheap. We had all eaten so we decided to go for the ice cream. Here we are with our couchsurfer Lauren.

Gui and Leah really enjoying their ice cream.

Sarah was excited to see the chocolate that they poured in the bottom of the ice cream cone. She tried to get at it a little too early and total chocolate carnage ensued.

Then on Sunday we packed some sandwiches to eat along the river.

Sarah couldn't eat all of her sandwich so she shared.

Then we felt the call of the open waters and rented ourselves a paddle boat.

We took turns paddling. Sitting in the back was a lot nicer.

We were happy to do our part in cleaning up the river. Thanks to Gui's "precision of the movement" (as he called it). He steered while Leah grabbed the bottles.

Titanic pose. Very true to the original I think.

a lot more awkward

So that is our life in the city right now.
For those of you who think all we do is play around and siesta, it may seem that way, but we promise its not.

The trip to Cordoba was on September 11. It began with a visit to some ruins just outside Cordoba called the Medina Azahara, which I can post pics if requested.
The main event though was definitely the Mezquita. Basically the history of it goes like this--There was a church, Muslims came in and destroyed the church to build a mosque, each caliph added to it to show their power, the Christians got it back and while trying to preserve some of it, built a church right in the middle of it. This all makes for some interesting design and constrasting architectural styles.

The streets around the Cathedral were so small the bus had to drop us off a ways out. As you can see in the picture, the town has designed special small cars to navigate the small corridors. (not really)

The outside wall

Torre de Alminar

Julie Ann, Ana, and Sarah standing in the patio full of orange trees. Notice the radios they are wearing. Ana had one with a microphone and everyone else's had earpieces to hear her. They didn't like loud tour guides in the Mezquita.

Muslim

Roman Catholic

The Group. (Sarah on the left)

A crucifix under Muslim arches

The Mihrab, (supposedly doesn't face Mecca that well)

Random little shrines

Books!

So many arches

Notice the good construction on the left, and the cheaply done on the right. The Caliph who had the addition done on the right was going more for quantity then quality. Instead of using different kinds of brick he just painted the bricks. tsk tsk.