Dear All,

Greetings from Seville!

Last Saturday, I took the train from Jerez de la Frontera to Sevilla. It was
a nasty, rainy, windy day after a week of blissful 24c, sunny weather! Apparently, when it rains in Jerez, the whole world stops and calls the Taxi company for a ride. Standing on Calle Medina in my waterproof purple ski jacket with my big Swiss Army red suitcase, napsack and Bata-de-Cola-in-a-bag, I waited for my cab reservation that would never come. After 20 minutes, I decided to call the cab company again but by then all the lines were busy and no one could get through. Luckily, taxis intermittently streamed down the street.

The first taxi stopped and asked "Did you call?", I answered "Yes.", and then he drove off.

A second one stopped and asked "Did you call?", I answered "Yes.", and he drove off too. What the...?!

This happened several more times, when I decided to change my answer to "No! I did not call.", but then that cab driver drove off as well. Not knowing the magic answer, I decided to waddle to the train station on foot, but by then the rain turned into a drizzle and FINALMENTE, a taxi actually stopped.

INCREIBLE! THAT took 50 minutes. What should have been a 75 minute trip to Seville, ended up being a 3 hour test of my patience and character building exercise. I call these "Spanish moments".

I spent my first Sunday in Seville testing out the café con leche in various cafes. Since I have been to Jerez six times, I have my favorite coffee place "La Dolce Vita" and favorite dessert destination "La Rosa de Oro". But Seville is new to me, so I need to invest some research time in different coffee shops and bakeries.

The JJ Bean mocha is my caffeinated drink of choice in Vancouver but café con leche is my drink in Spain. Typical Spanish coffee includes:

Bombon - a shot of expresso with condensed, carmelized milk
Café con leche - ½ expresso and ½ whole milk
Café Manchado - ¼ expresso, the rest whole milk
Americano - Drip coffee

I can even tailor my coffee requests for non-fat (desnatada) or semi-fat (semi-desnatada). There is no Spanish equivalent of a Vancouver Mocha. They do have a really thick drink called Chocolate, which is so thick you can stand a biscotti up in it. Typically, the Spaniards dip Churros (basically a stick donut) into it, but Andrew and I life-time-banned churros in 2004.

On Monday, I spent the whole day trying to get a hold of Escuela Matilde Coral. Frustrated, I just went to the school at 6pm which is the time the office opens. My Spanish experience was further enhanced trying to find the establishment at 82-84 Calle Castillo. Gazing blankly at the addresses on the buildings, the addresses seemed to skip from 78 to 88. What the...?! SPANISH MOMENT! After questioning the natives and calling the school by cell phone, I did end up finding it eventually.

Escuela Matilde Coral is in Triana, a famous and old gypsy neighbourhood on the other side of the Guadalquivir River. This is where the Tangos Letra "Triana, Triana que bonita esta Triana..." comes from.
I live about 3 minutes from Barrio de Santa Cruz, so it takes about 30 minutes to walk from my apartment to the school. I cross the Isabelle II bridge each day to go to Triana, and everytime I walk over the bridge I end up humming the Triana Letra.

The school has Bata de Cola classes 3 times a week in the morning. I figure if I'm going to walk all the way there, I should also take the Bolera class before the Bata class. What is Bolera? So far bolera just looks like
flamenco with castanets, but on Fridays we wear ballet slippers and integrate more balletic movements and do a lot of hopping. In the evenings, I am also studying Garrotin with a Sevillano Sombrero. They are very clear about using a Sevillano hat as opposed to a Cordobes hat! I guess I am learning how to dance with all the props here since it is their specialty. After a week of classes, my general feeling is that the Sevillan style of dance is extremely beautiful, glorious and celebratory of old danza and estilo antiguo. I feel like I a princess when I am dancing. However, the flamenca inside me misses Jerez. I am a great fan of beauty, but I love fiery and feisty flamenco too. At this moment, I feel strongly about going back to Jerez at the end of April to infuse myself with more Bulerias por Fiesta and raw Gitano energy.

My students will be SHOCKED and aghast to hear that I have taken the
word "LOITERING" to grand new heights. I have spent many hours sipping café con leche and eating galletas (cookies). Today I spent 2 hours eating tapas and drinking "Tinto de Verano" (red wine and lemon juice), writing postcards and soaking in the Sevillan sun. I went to Plaza de Espana, road the Ferris Wheel for a panoramic view of the city, climbed the Giralda, walked around Barrio de Santa Cruz and finished the night with more tapas. So far my favorites are:

Espinacas y garbanzos (spinach and chick peas)
Puntillitas y habas (baby squid and beans)
Croquetas con tres quesos (three cheese croquetas)
Habas y jamon (broad beans and ham)

I do miss you, our wonderful studios and sushi a lot. I hope you are all doing well and I will write another letter soon!

Besos,
Kasandra
Email: kasandra@mozaicoflamenco.com