Cosas de Sevilla #13

3 May 2019

Dear Family and Friends of The Texas Tech Center in Seville:

This last couple of weeks have been interesting, diversified, and intense. There have been a few excursions, and a lot of studying. First, the studying. The architecture students have been putting in some 18-20 hour days to prepare for their final presentations. (see picture, they are a really creative group). The engineering students as well have spent many hours per day in class and study, they even made their own airplanes (a little paper, a little glue). The Spanish students, not to be left out, have also been preparing diligently. Today, May 3rd, all are finished with the exception of the Architects who are presenting all their work to their professors and some outside evaluators.

For excursions, all students went to Bollullos where they toured a large wine factory to see the entire process of how the grapes are turned into wine. This was followed by a taste of the different wines produced by the company, and a number of students were able to spend the afternoon at the nearby beach.

The upper level Spanish students attended a flamenco dance class performance. The flamenco artists, a dancer, a singer and a guitar player performed and explained the art of the flamcnco. Students were allowed to ask questions and came away with a much better understanding of this cultural phenomena. It was especially interesting to those who are taking the Sevillanas dance class, as they were able to compare the two similar but very different dance styles. The Sevillanas dance class will be meeting and performing this coming week. (see picture)

The Engineering students toured a factory called Ibarra, one of the huge olive oil, mayonnaise and salsa factories. The facility we toured main focus is the production of mayonnaise, and we were informed that they produce over 5 million jars (it may have been more...I don´t remember exactly, it was at least 5 million). I do know that they sell Ibarra olive oil in the United States. The factory is very modern and well run. (see picture of their products).

As Easter, thanks to the moon phases, was in mid-April this year, it pushed the huge Sevilla fair back a couple of weeks; it is coming up next week. Classes are over so some students will miss the excitement of this unique event.

Families and friends from ages 1 – 100 gather together for one full week of eating, drinking, dancing and socializing, many from about 2pm until 5am each day. Families and companies have elegant tents set up, hundreds of them. In addition, there are hundreds of carriages and horsemen and horsewomen (called "amazonas") riding through the streets of the fair grounds. Combine this with the men in elegant suits and thousands of women in the colorful flamenco and sevillano dresses, and it is an exciting week. At least, I am sure it is more, over one million additional people come in and out of Sevilla during this week.

Our students are slowly be trickling out of Seville. Some will go straight home while others will continue their international travels before heading back. In all, it has been quite a semester. Those of us at Texas Tech Center in Sevilla express our appreciation to our students and professors and to all the families and friends for their support in helping make this a memorable semester for everyone.

It has been my pleasure to be your Cosas de Sevilla correspondent this semester. I hope that for all and especially for our students that these "Cosas" can be conserved as a semester of unforgettable experiences and memories.

Lorum