Cosas de Sevilla #7, Spring 2018

28 febrero 2018

“Día de Andalucía” – (Andalucian day)

Dear Friends and Family of The Texas Tech University Center in Sevilla,

Today is a holiday honoring, as you can tell, the comunidad (or regional government) of Andalucía.  We live in the city of Sevilla, state of Sevilla, region of Andalucía (which includes the entire southern area of Spain, and consists of 7 additional provinces including Granada, Córdoba, and Málaga). It is a holiday for all the Andalucians, except for our students, and those who work in restaurants and museums, etc.

Spain has one additional layer of government to what we have in the USA.  In addition to the city, state, and national governments, they have a layer between state and national, the regional.  This would be equivalent in the US adding regional governments, i. e. New England, Southern States, Great Lakes…and of course Texas would be its own region. OK, the cultural lesson for the day is finished.

In the Broadway production My Fair Lady, Professor Henry Higgins teaches Eliza Doolittle how to speak properly.   One of the more famous lines is:  “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.”    In the Spanish version the singing line goes: “La lluvia es maravilla en Sevilla” (the rain is wondrous in Sevilla).    As you may now possibly suspect, we awakened to what is going to be a number of days of rain in Sevilla and most of Spain (except in the north where it is snowing)… we wish the best of luck to our travelling students this weekend. 

This past weekend, most of our students enjoyed their first three day weekend by visiting a number of places, mainly Dublin or Barcelona.  All seemed to really enjoy the opportunity to expand their horizons and deflate their bank accounts. 

 The students in 1607 are taking their final exams today and tomorrow, and will start 2607 this coming week.   The upper-level students keep plugging away learning more each day about the language, culture, literature and internship experiences.  The twice-a-week visits with the language assistants are a valuable supplement to the excellent classroom instruction. 

There will be a short “cosas” next week,  and the following one will be March 22 after our week-long trip to Madrid, Toledo, Segovia, etc.

Enjoy a couple of pictures of our great city.  

Lorum

 1) Plaza de España -  North Tower.   South Tower in background

2) Cathedral – La Giralda