Granada take 2

This weekend I took a short trip to Granada, a city about three hours east of Sevilla by train. You might remember I went there in the fall, but this time, I got to see the Alhambra (Islamic palace complex) and visit another Fulbrighter who's doing research in Granada this year. I also went with my Fulbright friends Lindsey and Lauren from Cadiz (whose names might be familiar if you've been reading my blog!). We had fun walking around the city, going to the lookout point of the Alhambra where all the postcard pictures are taken, and tapeando - at almost any bar in Granada, a free tapa comes along with any drink you order.

The Alhambra itself was very impressive, as I expected. It's a huge Arabic palace/fortress complex that was constructed over the 10th and 11th centuries. Not even all the buildings and gardens are open to the public, but that's more than enough to take up a 5-hour visit and to hold the thousands of people who visit every day! I liked the intricate tile and stucco decorations, the pretty patios and fountains, and great views of the city. I had also read some of the Tales of the Alhambra, short stories/legends/fables by Washington Irving inspired by the time he spent there in the 1800s, and it was cool to see what his inspiration was.

I still have more trips coming up in the next two weeks so stay posted for more travel updates! :)

View of the Alhambra, and this is from within the complex!

The famous Lions Patio

Awesome view, and we lucked out with sunny weather!

Carnaval Part 2

I went the city of Cádiz again this past weekend - besides seeing the second weekend of Carnaval, I got to see my two Fulbright friends Lindsey and Lauren, who are both doing chemistry research at the University of Cádiz this year.

This weekend I got to see more of the singing groups performing in the streets: coros, large groups that perform during Carnaval on floats pulled by tractors around the city, and chirigotas, smaller groups that perform along the streets. One highlight was seeing a chirigota perform that I had seen on TV a few weeks ago, on the coverage of the contest leading up to Carnaval!

Between the accent, singing, sarcasm, and plays on words, I couldn't understand a lot of what the groups were saying, but I could get a lot from context and besides I enjoyed taking in the atmosphere! Unlike last weekend, I was there at night, so I saw more of the humongous crowds of costumed, drinking people everywhere.

A coro performing on their float - hopefully this picture captures some of the craziness!

A chirigota performing on the steps of Correos, the main post office building

I'm getting to know the old part of Cádiz pretty well, although it's still easy to get turned around in the narrow, winding streets. We had fun walking around, shopping at the market, and going up the Torre Tavira, the highest point in Cádiz. It's one of the 126 watch towers still remaining from the 18th century, a golden age when Cádiz was an important point of entry from the Atlantic.

Research update

I've been blogging a lot about travel and festivals, but Monday through Friday my days are mostly research at the lab. Right now I have all the results I need to put together one publication, and I´m in the middle of writing up the article! As I probably could have expected, it´s taking longer than I thought it would. This will be my first publication, but I´m glad I did all those fellowship applications and research proposals last year, which were invaluable for working on scientific writing.

So the for last few days, a lot of my time is writing, working up plots, and reading articles. Also monitoring a few last runs for data to put in plots. Also I´ve been reading papers by a LBNL (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) researcher who is going to collaborate with our group and is coming here next week, as well as a month in May. I might collaborate with him, which would be awesome because I´m really interested in his research (a lot with applied mathematics to efficiently describe zeolite structures for high-throughput screening). In the last month, we´ve also gotten two new postdocs, from Galicia and Cuba!

Otherwise... lunch is still at the lab every day, all together, usually 1 1/2 to 2 hours. We often have tea at some point during the day - in the morning around 11-12 or after lunch, either in the lab or outside. If it's cold, we go outside the front of the building for what my group calls "sunny tea time" or if it's warm, we go out on the landing of the side exit stairs in the shade for "emergency tea time". :)  Sometimes we have merienda - the snack eaten around 6-7 pm - sandwiches of galletas (cookies) with Nocilla (hazelnut/chocolate spread).

For a visual aid, here's a picture of my work station, where I spend pretty much my whole day! An interesting fact I recently learned is that the heat is not turned on in our lab - but rather all the heat comes from the computers themselves!

Carnaval

This weekend was the beginning of Carnaval, the festival celebrated throughout Spain that generally involves dressing up in costumes, going out and having a good time. The Carnaval in Cádiz (province neighboring the province of Sevilla) is probably the most famous in Spain, and in Cádiz, Carnaval involves the performance of musical groups whose songs are funny, witty, and critical.

This weekend I got to enjoy Carnaval in two different cities!

Saturday I went to the city of Cádiz with a girl from my lab and one of her friends. Until 4pm or so there wasn't much going for Carnaval, since everyone was recovering from the night before, but we enjoyed walking around the city in the absolutely perfect weather. Later on we got to see a few chirigotas (one type of musical group) performing on the streets. We left just as the crowds of partying young people were coming - absolutely everyone was dressed up!

Everyone in costume. This is on the steps of the cathedral!

On Sunday I went with two girls in my lab to the town of Bornos in the province of Cádiz, where Juanjo, another member of my lab, is a part of a comparsa (another type of musical group) there for Carnaval. It was a big contrast from Cádiz - Bornos is a little town out in the country, with a cute little church, town hall, and a main street with a few bars.

A chirigota performing in Bornos

We got to watch Juanjo's comparsa perform in a bar - 14 people with a singers, guitar, and a few other instruments. They performed for about half an hour and had songs about the spirit of Carnaval in Bornos, world leaders, inside jokes about Bornos, and other things. The crowd loved it!

We guessed that we were the only people in the town that day who weren't from Bornos, because everyone there knows each other. While we were waiting in the bar for Juanjo's comparsa to start, a dad asked us if we were from outside - he probably didn't recognize us and knew we weren't from Bornos! We told him we're friends with Juanjo, and he knew pretty much immediately who we were talking about!

After the performance

I've learned so much about how Carnaval is celebrated and viewed and about the rules/styles/traditions of the songs, but of course can't write everything here. I'm fascinated getting to be immersed in Carnaval, having known about it since we did a little unit on it in Spanish IV back in high school. And next weekend I'm going back to Cádiz for the second weekend of Carnaval!

At the grocery store yesterday

Me, to the guy working the fruit section (in Spanish):  "Hi, I'd like tres (three) of the yellow manzanas (apples)."

Guy goes to the bananas.

Me: "emm... las manzanas amarillas?"

Guy: "Oh! I understood bananas." Puts three apples in a bag and keeps putting in more.

Me: "emm... solo tres, por favor." Guy looks at me.

Me: "tres?" I hold up three fingers.

Guy: "Oh! I understood seis (six)."

Oy. At least I got my apples in the end.

Huelgas

In newspapers and on the news I hear about huelgas (strikes) all the time in Spain - of metro workers, of doctors, of everyone (in the case of the one-day country-wide general strike back in November). Currently there are two strikes going on in Sevilla that I'm aware of. First, the people who work for the city's trash collecting service have been on strike for over a week now - they haven't yet reached an agreement regarding the salary cuts and working conditions. This means there's a ton (actually closer to 6,000 tons) of garbage on the streets!

Trash collectors' strike...yikes! And this picture is from 5 days ago.

Second, the workers at the cafeteria at the university where I work have a strike today, one day next week, and then permanently starting the next week if they can't come to an agreement. Apparently they haven't been paid since November! Anyway, that's where I buy lunch most days, so I'll be anxious to see how it turns out.