On Sunday morning, Liz, Pepe and I walked about an hour to Sacromonte, the ancient gypsy neighborhood, for the Festival of St Cecilia or something like that. We walked well into the hills, out of sight of the city and on the other side of the valley we could see doors on the mountainside that led to gypsy caves. There was loud flamenco music and professional flamenco dancers, paella, balloons, and free food. Always up for free food, especially what appeared to be gigantic green beans (but were not), we waited in an endless line until finally we arrived at the food tent. The first gypsy handed us a big paper bag with a handful of the huge beans inside. The second gypsy threw in a chunk of cod. Not wrapped, not cooked, just a hunk of salted fish. The third and final food tent gypsy tossed in a big loaf of gypsy bread, which is circular and salty and delicious.
Liz with the bread, me with the cod, and Alex with the fake green bean!
In the distance you can see the cathedral near my house, which I have come to think of as "my cathedral."
I tried to upload this picture a few days ago but for some reason I couldn't. This is a huge (~300') bridge in Ronda. We couldn't even see the bottom! The first bridge was but in eight months but fell after a few years, killing a bunch of people. The next one (this one) was built in the 18th century and took more than 30 years. They weren't taking any chances. The teensy window you see in the middle (actually quite large) is the window into the prison.Yesterday was my first day of classes! Arabic is really difficult, but so far I can already say "I am Ferry. My country is America. My city is New York. I am a student. I am not married." I am putting together an independent study of Islamic tile patterns. My Islamic art and architecture professor here has offered to be my adviser. This will be really exciting if it works out!!
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