Seville. Best. City. Ever.

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Although I arrived in Seville and getting here was a bit complicated, the results were amazing!  The city is gorgeous.  I have never been to a foreign city that I could truly picture myself living in, but this is the exception.  The people are friendly and the sun is always shining.  Unlike most cities where the center of the city is full of office buildings, graffiti, and traffic; Seville's center is filled with apartments, schools, cafe's, and Plazas.  A river runs through the heart of the city and parks, boats and restaurants line the banks.  You won't find an abundance of tourists in this hidden jewel of Spain's cities.  Although it is the third largest city, I feel as if the environment could match that of a small town.  People stop each other on the street to talk, and parents walk their children to school.  Most stores open around 9am and close at 2 for siesta time-the hottest part of the day.  Some will open again in the evening for a few hours, but none are open at any time on Sundays.  Because of its climate, southern Spain has a very different pace of life. The mornings are productive and everyone eats their big meal of the day (almuerzo) around 2.  After that there is three hours of siesta time-in which people can choose to sleep, read etc. Most of life happens between 6 and midnight.  Even at 11 or 12 you can still walk down the street and see parents pushing strollers or having wine on an night of the week.  As a mostly night person, I love it.

RELIGION

I had very little knowledge about Spain before I got here, and though I knew it had once been a very Catholic country, I assumed that it now shared the overall religious complacence that is now commonplace in most European countries.  Spain is in fact one of the least religious country in the world. The percentage of Christians here is somewhere around .01% I believe.  I was shocked to find out that even within our school; Trinity Christian College, only one person on staff is a Christian.  After learning a bit more about the countries history, it is understandable for the people to have strong reservations toward religion.  Spain has been occupied by Jews, Muslims and Catholics and religion and government have always been connected.  The idea of personal spirituality and relationship is practically nonexistent...

I will write more later but wanted to put something up today :)

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