Seville so far

The conference doesn't start until tomorrow, but there are already several good signs that this one will work out better than the one in Venice:

1. My hotel is much nicer. We've got wireless in the lobby (as opposed to no internet at all, which meant I only had access during the day) and we actually have a tub instead of just a shower.

2. Several of my collaborators and others I know are all staying in my hotel. Granted, I do know more people at this conference than at the last one in general, but this is still a very good sign. It will also ease discussions and food acquisition.

3. It helps a lot that I more or less know Spanish. (I'm not as good as I ought to be.) I actually got completely through the airports in Spain without speaking a word of English. I understood the people perfectly and while I made some mistakes, I didn't have much trouble. I was able to get a proper iced latte by explaining what it is I wanted, and I never succeeded in getting a proper ice espresso drink in either of my two trips to Italy. Also, I had a nice steak sandwich at the Madrid airport. The default option was plain (as in meat and bun only)---I approve!

4. In Sevilla, I found a gelato place where I ordered a really good (apple) thick, practically-invertible milkshake. I was worried about the thickness, but I was pleasantly surprised by this. Yes!

5. I very much like having the opportunity on this trip to practice my Spanish.

6. I am really enjoying having a digital camera, and I expect this to continue.

7. There is some weird word usage and pronunciation here. For example, people just drop the final consonant in a word, so (for example) "gracias" sounds like "gracia". I had heard about this but didn't realize that it was so pronounced. Also, I see a lot of "os" in places where it should be "as". For example, the word for shoes is "zapatas", but I saw a lot of store signs for "zapatos". I still haven't figured this one out.

8. I knew what one particular menu item was specifically because of the nickname of a baseball player---"pulpo" (octopus) for Antonio Alfonseca, who has 6 fingers/toes on each appendage instead of 5.

9. I need to remind myself what the words for things like "menu" and "reservation" are, but I am remembering some long-forgotten vocabulary very quickly. Getting some of my Spanish ability back (and also testing it for the first time in a real situation rather than just practicing) was something I was really looking forward to on this trip. (OK, upon looking this up, it turns out that I do remember one way to say "menu" correctly and---despite how the guy at the hotel reacted---it turns out that I did use a correct version of "reservation". The thing is that I specifically used one that was American---as in South American---which is perfectly forgivable given that my father is from Argentina! (I said in Spanish that I had a reservation and the guy immediately switched to English because he apparently decided that I couldn't speak Spanish. Bah!)


Stay tuned for more updates...