Friday:
As I don’t have classes Friday evenings, I went to meet Enrico at a nearby plaza with his friend Fehmi who had just arrived from London. We went and hung out with beer and chatted about music and flicks and our official status of trio was cemented when I was able to prove that not only do I know who ‘The Knife’ is, I also had them on my iPod. I was almost kicked out though when I admitted to not having seen ‘One flew over the cuckoo’s nest’ but I was quickly forgiven as I was a fan of ‘Benny and Joon’. Also, turns out I just happen to be in London for Fehmi’s birthday and The Knife is playing so we made future plans for the end of July. We decided to find a place to continue the evening so we headed to Triana. We first went to a pub and had more beer, we wanted Jagerbombs but they ran out of Jag so we did some other random shot. Then it was time for a club. We were surprised to find it completely dead at 1:00am while everyone was at the pubs and on the streets so we promptly left after I took a moment to tweak my bandage situation (still breaking in the shoes I picked up in Turkey). We wandered about trying to find another place that could make Jagerbombs and after sitting for a while discussing our next move, we realized we were sober and that we would call it a night with plans to meet up the next day. Took a cab and Fehmi and I geeked out as he went into ecstatic praise about CS5.

Saturday:
At the ungodly hour of 11:00am, I got a call to meet the boys near my place as they had already been up for hours. While I waited at the Macarena gate, there were piles of people at the church in their Sunday best but it wasn’t for a wedding, there were about a dozen children, girls in white dresses and boys in sailor suits, having their first communion, it was a pleasant slice of life in Seville. The three of us walked about the town with Fehmi and I taking photos and Enrico getting bored and annoyed with us for being tourists, so we took even more photos :) We went to get something to eat and the boys got some pastries and I got croquettas. After a few hours, I left the boys to have a siesta which I’m getting quite used to. Got a text later that there was paella at their hostel that night and of course I had to check out what was being touted as being the best paella in Seville. Let’s just say they’re lucky my dad doesn’t live there as it didn’t come close to being as good as his. The sangria on the other hand was perfectly acceptable. The plans to go out were derailed by a futball match that kept the boys entertained until about 2:00am, thankfully I met Jen, a fellow Canadian from Kelowna that I had a great conversation with and we even had a friend in common. A Swedish fellow appeared in the midst of all the conversations that also knew The Knife, but this time literally as he’s from the same town in Sweden. Fehmi had been texting me for the last hour trying to get Enrico to stop talking so we could go clubbing but I was busy with Jen and eventually he gave up and went to bed. I was about to head home to do the same but a now drunken Enrico insisted it was time to go out. I figured what the hell and we wandered to Triana. Apparently things don’t get bumping here until at least 2:30 so this time the club was packed and the bouncers looked discerning and we weren’t dolled up so we went to the pub from the previous night. Everyone was well into their cups and a fellow from Barcelona fed us booze and chatted and kept insisting that Enrico should be Canadian not Italian and why was he so serious? I pointed out that he was far from serious and only appeared that way because he was borracho. I was quite tipsy as well and after taking goofy photos with our new friend, we merrily made our way home.

Sunday:
Did a whole lot of nothing. I wandered about town, had ice cream, checked my mail then went home for a nap that lasted until 9:00, oops. Apparently Enrico slept until 10:00 and Fehmi of the boundless energy went all over the place.

Monday:
It was supposed to be Fehmi’s last day and Eric was on his way too so we all met up after my second class and during Enrico’s lunch break and hung out as a quad for the last time. In my haste to meet them I realized much later that I forgot my dance shoes at the studio and I still had 3 other classes at other studios before I was scheduled to be back at that one which was bad. Eric and Enrico had left at this point so I dragged Fehmi to the hidey-hole location of the studio where I take Angelita’s class and as luck would have it, the door wasn’t locked so I showed Fehmi some stomping as he was flying out soon and hadn’t seen any flamenco yet. (technically he still hasn’t seen any flamenco yet because I suck but now he understands it’s definitely not salsa)

Tuesday:
Ended up skipping my last class of the day because I had no food left at home and my hours make weekday errands impossible. My 12:00 class was changed until 1:00 which means I have an extra hour in the morning but it’s not enough time to go home, and then 3 free hours in the afternoon when everything is closed and then when everything is open again, I have classes until everything is closed again. I had a sandwich with a new girl in class, Jessica, to stave off the junkfood cravings that happen in grocery stores when you go shopping with an empty belly. After filling the larder at home, I heard from Enrico that Fehmi was stuck in Seville because of the stupid volcanic ash so I went to hang out at the hostel for an hour and stayed for three.

Wednesday:
Booked my tickets to Madrid, for the weekend and for my exit, still amazes me how fantastic the transport is here, I wouldn’t need a car here at all if I was a permanent resident. Also picked up sunglasses, third pair on this trip so far. I originally had the philosophy of getting cheap ones all the time but then realized I get them all the time because I keep wrecking them because cheap ones don’t have cases so this time I got good ones. Hung out at the hostel too late again while Madrid won the futball game and we chatted and chilled. I heard from Kelowna Jen who invited me for the weekend to a beach in Portugal but I took a raincheck as Madrid is already on the table and I also heard from New Zealand Josh whose epic oddysey continues in Olympos. Apparently at the hostel Fehmi met a canadian couple who had tried to go to the Infected Mushroom show in Istanbul but didn’t get tickets and wanted to meet me but it was not to be so I told Fehmi to direct them to my Flickr where I posted some video of it. Bla bla bla, don’t worry, almost done.

Thursday:
Had two no-shows for instructors today, one was becoming a grandmother for the fifth time but we still had the class as the dancers are quite advanced and there was much discussion as to which beat to start a particular series of steps on. During my day-to-evening class break, I was interviewed by a fellow writing his phd thesis on foreigners coming to Seville to dance which was really interesting. I was then late to meet Jessica but we still had time for her to introduce me tinto con limon and the two of us arrived to class full of giggles after laughing our way to the studio. As my last class was cancelled, I went to the hostel which had some bizarre moments including Fehmi begging me to let him wear my new dress, a guy burning his leg hairs, another one wearing my practise skirt as a dress and a very heated political discussion between two Brits that the rest of us backed slowly away from. I actually got home at a decent time (11:30) did some laundry, made dinner and went to bed.

As for the flamenco…
The first couple days did a number on my feet, I would be afraid to sit in case I wouldn’t be able to stand again. This week they look worse than they feel and other parts are sore, somedays it feels like my legs might give out, others my abs have been worked so hard it feels like my ribs are bruised when I touch them. Love it! My instructors are so amazing, I wouldn’t be able to pick a favorite as their styles and characters are so different and they’re all so good and ridiculously patient with me, especially my two morning classes that are much more advanced. I’m definitely finding that doing some yoga in the morning helps and I’m feeling about 60% in my classes now whereas before I felt about 30%. I can do 90% of the steps individually but when it comes to tying together all the choreography, I mess up. I seem to need to go over things more than the rest but I guess at the same time it’s been over a decade since I danced regularly so I have to retrain myself. I have gotten a ‘mui bien’ from my tough teachers though so I know I’m improving. In the evenings it’s a bit of an ego boost in that I’m the one with my skirt hiked so people can follow me instead of the other way around in the mornings. One thing I realized as to why the morning classes are tougher is that the day students are the ones who are dancing to perform professionally whereas the evening students are dancing for fun which explains the vast difference is skill in classes that are both considered principiante. I’m currently learning 3 choreographies of allegrias and 1 of caracolles with an abanico, which uses the same count as allegrias so I hear the count in my head everywhere I go, un-dos, dos-tres, quatrocincosies, siete ocho nueve diez…