Cuevas, Flamenco, and Celebrities--Oh my!

Hola a todos! I hope everyone has had a wonderful weekend—I certainly did! I have been so busy that I haven’t had any time to blog until now, on Sunday, and oh man, I have a lot I want to share!

First of all, something I’ve been noticing around the city that I keep meaning to mention is all the construction. A subway/metro is being built (not sure why, because Granada doesn’t really seem to need a metro to me, but what do I know), so one street over from my house is closed to traffic and literally being dug up, hollowed out, and repaved. At first, I was just excited to have a reminder of home and Cruncher right out my back door, but then I started noticing little things that disturbed me. For example, one day a welder was onsite welding something, and there was a guy standing not three feet away watching the welder—and not wearing safety glasses or any type of eye protection. I was like, dude, there’s a reason welders wear those full-face mask things. Also, I often see workers wandering the jobsites not wearing their hard hat or their high visibility vests. Usually they’ll have it tucked under an arm or something, but sometimes it’s nowhere to be seen. I know I may seem crazy for noticing these sorts of things, but it just struck me that the level of safety awareness or protocol here seems to be drastically different from what I’m used to hearing about and seeing back home. It makes you think—who’s missing the boat here? Are we (Americans) way too precautionary, or are they (in this case, Spaniards) not being careful enough? I feel like perhaps there’s a little of both going on, and also that the issue is never quite that simple. Just food for thought.

Ok, so, back to my awesome weekend. On Thursday night I went out for 1 euro margaritas with a few of my new friends, and that was really fun bonding time, although we didn’t stay out very late at all. Then, on Friday, we had an excursion through our program to go see the cuevas of Sacramonte—the old caves that people (mostly gypsies) created and lived in just outside of where the old city limits were back in the 15th century and up until modern day. Yup, some people still live in these caves in the hillside, although of course not the ones we went wandering through. It was really fascinating to explore these little manmade caves and see some of the furniture and objects they survived with only half a century ago—it reminded me in some ways of seeing staged pioneer houses, with the children’s toys and the washboards and things like that. Like I said, it was fascinating from a cultural and anthropological perspective, but also very humbling on a personal level. I am so very lucky to have been born in a culture and an era in which I have the things and the opportunities that I have. Sometimes I joke around and say that if I’d been born even just a hundred years earlier or in a different country, I may have already died because of my delicate health and temperament, but sometimes I think I may actually be right about that.

The sun was setting as we were walking back from Sacramonte, and the view of the Alhambra and Generalife was absolutely breathtaking. The white walls of Generalife glowing orange, the Alhambra in red, the dramatic shadows, and the clouds creating a dynamic layered background of fluffy pinky white. I tried to take pictures, but how can you really capture that in a picture? You can’t.

I finally got to have coffee with my friend Vicki—with whom I taught a fourth grade Spanish class last year for Core III, and who is also the girl who lived next to me in the Spanish hall last year—and it was so wonderful to see a familiar and friendly face, to chat with someone who already knows me and doesn’t need context to have a conversation that goes beyond “Can you believe all this rain?” and “How are your classes?” I’d really like to make a habit of seeing her a few times a week for coffee or tapas, although our busy schedules will, I am sure, get in the way. Still, it was so refreshing to hang out with her, and I’m looking forward to seeing her again.

Friday night, a group of my new friends and I went out in search of a good tapas bar, and ended up finding a bar at the end of Calle Elvira that had live Flamenco music!! It was so wonderful. I had a glass of Rioja (my new drink of choice) and my little tapa and really enjoyed the experience of being part of a Flamenco performance. The group was made up on a guitarist, a percussionist, and a… clapper? A guy who sat there and clapped. Both the clapper and the guitarist sang, and actually, there was a Spanish girl and her boyfriend right behind me that knew many of the songs and sang along as well! I was surprised to find that I, too, knew a few of the songs they sang—one was a song I have by the Gypsy Kings and another was one that Concha gave me, although I can’t remember who sings it in the recording I have. I really loved the husky voices and the wild guitar, and I was tapping my feet and bopping around as much as I could in the smoky bar packed full of people. It was such a cool way to spend an evening.

On Saturday morning, Concha took me to a museum; she is a supporter of the local orchestra, and occasionally the Friends of the Orchestra group organizes cultural visits or events, so we got in at a reduced price and had a guided tour. The museum was really wonderful; it had a lot of newfangled interactive exhibits as well as the more classic displays of antique dental equipment/toys/a saddle/guitars, etc. There were also panels and drawers you can lift up or pull out to read about certain aspects of Andalucían culture or see and touch different types of materials, trees, fruits, etc. All in all, it was a really awesome museum, and I would love to go back with more time at some point.

The entire time, the tour guide was kind of hurrying us along through the museum. She did a great job of helping us see everything, but we kept asking each other, what’s the rush? What’s up? Also, there was a lot of security outside of the museum, and Concha wasn’t sure why. At the end of the tour, the guide told us, “I’m sorry to have rushed you a bit today, but we have a special visitor arriving soon, and we need to have the museum clear of the public before he gets here.” We all asked, who is it? The mayor? Some local politician? Who? And she said, “No, actually, it’s Antonio Banderas.” OH MY GOD, Concha and I were like, ok, we have to wait and see him. We waited outside in the sunshine (yayyy, it was finally sunny yesterday, but freezing, too!) and in a few minutes there was a hubbub, and sure enough, here comes Antonio Banderas!!! He was wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, and he’s grown this annoying salt-and-peppery beard which makes him look old, but STILL, he was all curly hair and smouldery eyes and guapísimo. And Concha, being the awesome person she is, says to him as he’s passing within TWO FEET OF US, “Hey, pick your head up so we can see your pretty face better, guapo!” And as anyone should react to a tiny and adorable little spitfire such as Concha, he smiled, looked at us and said, “Hola; gracias.” OH MY GOD, GUYS, ANTONIO BANDERAS LOOKED AT ME AND SMILED. I feel like my life is complete! Haha, just kidding, but STILL.

Ok, so then we were walking away to go home, and this whole tour bus of people is following Antonio into the museum—it was the team that worked on the Spanish short film that A.B. produced called “La Dama y La Muerte,” which just won a Goya (Spanish Oscar, for context) and is nominated for an Oscar for Short Animated Film. Look it up on Youtube, it’s fantastic (and not in Spanish, don’t worry). Anyways, the director, writer, and the guy who came up with the concept and orchestrated the whole film is Javier Recio Gracia, and he is probably in his mid to late 20s, very attractive, and probably the nicest young man I’ve ever met. YES, MET. I HELD HIS GOYA. THAT’S LIKE HOLDING AN OSCAR. SORT OF. And he stopped and chatted with me and Concha and a few of Concha’s friends, and let us take a picture with him, and did the kisses on the cheek thing when we left!!! He was soooo sweet, and sooooo attractive, and just very enthusiastic about his art. He won an award for his first film I think last year or a few years ago, and won the Goya for La Dama y La Muerte this year, and is maybe going to win an Oscar!! I was out of my mind gaga over this guy. IT WAS SO COOL!!! (About two hours later it struck me that I should have given him my phone number and I started kicking myself over that, but then I realized that it would have been really random and awkward… but still!!! On the off chance that he would have called me and we could have had a drink and talked about art and creativity and HOW COOL HE IS, I still should have forced myself on him—or, I mean, my number… yeah…)

So, after having met Antonio Banderas and Javier, Concha was like, “We can’t just go home. Let’s go have a beer.” Haha! So she bought be a beer at this little bar and we got these delicious tapas and just kind of let it sink in. Wow! It was a morning I will never forget.

I know everything else will seem really boring and normal after that story, so I’m just going to leave you with the images of Goyas and celebrities floating through your heads.

OH one last thing, I finally bought myself a new pair of boots to replace the France boots, which are dying—they’re literally starting to come off of the soles in places, which makes them a lot less waterproof. :P

Alright, I love you all!! I hope all is well in your lives.

Pura Vida,
Kelsey

PS. I SAW MYSELF ON TV!!!! Yes, that´s right, I was on Spanish television grinning like the star-struck fool I was as Antonio Banderas walked by!!! IT WAS AWESOME! Concha said it's just the beginning of my life in the limelight :P I love that woman.