A lovely, medieval Spanish town with narrow, labyrinthian streets, our introduction to Sevilla was an assignment to observe and document a public space as well as explore the city. We were given a choice of four plazas, and told to choose one and observe not only its layout, but also how it was used by people at different times of the day. I chose plaza San Francisco, a small plaza used largely as a meeting point and pedestrian traffic intersection, but also home to several cafes and benches constantly occupied by people hanging out.

We presented our public spaces to the group the next day, tuesday, and went with the group to visit La Ghiralda and el Alcazar. La Ghiralda is the gigantic cathedral in Sevilla, and rests on the site of a former mosque, having adapted the minaret of the mosque into a belltower, and keeping the orange grove courtyard. The cathedral holds the world record for cathedral with the largest square footage. While we were there, there was a protest group for mining rights (from what I could interpret) camped out in a corner of the cathedral.

El Alcazar, the Moorish castle, is a very extensive and lovely building. In use as a royal palace for numerous years, the gardens and long halls are well kept and preserved as a monument to Islamic architecture in Spain. I and some of the other students stayed for a while to do sketches of the grounds.

Later last night, the group met up for more authentic tapas, yelling orders over the counter at harried waiters who kept customer tabs on the counter in grease pencil. We then went out to see a rather low-key, impromptu flamenco performance. (the dancer was an impressive wall of woman, who the guys referred to later as a linebacker... however, I'd not say that within her hearing, as her clogging was of enough strength to crush bones).

Today we went to see the Spanish Pavillion, a fairly new piece of architecture, built in the 1920s for a world expo, but designed to look like much older architecture. The pavillion has also been filmed in one of the newer Star Wars movies. We then had the rest of the day to ourselves, and the group met up again that night to go see an authentic, professional flamenco show, which featured several different styles of flamenco, and included the 'gran bailadora' (best dancer) of Sevilla.