I could have danced all night

until I realized how tired I was after six-and-a-half hours of dancing already.

Yesterday was a great, and fairly typical day for me here in Spain. I had my one Thursday class, literature (which I really enjoy) and then had most of the afternoon free. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays I tutor a family of four Spanish children, talking with one or two each session. Last evening I arrived 25 minutes late (how Spanish of me) and strolled around with 9-year-old boy teaching him important words such as "horse," "fountain" and "grass." I chatted with 12-year-old boy, focusing on airport and traveling vocabulary. He, like a small percentage of Spaniards, will be spending a year in an English speaking country to improve his language skills. At 13 years old, he's going to spend a year in Ireland away from his family. That's pretty unbelievable. So, the burden is on my shoulders to prepare him--I hope it goes well. As of right now, he'll be able to name the things he finds on a plane: flight attendants, seat belts, aisle (and what a tricky word that is!), pilot and engine. Next lesson I'm going to provide him with useful questions he may need to ask once he's there.

From there, I scurried in my little heels to the nearest Sevici station, leapt onto a bicycle and pedaled out to Nervión. The walk takes 40 minutes at most, so by bike on a warm day I went as quickly as possible to arrive at bachata lessons without panting. I was actually two minutes late for that as well. Very typically Spanish: the lessons begin at 8:00 (20:00) but they don't actually begin until 20:15 or 20:25. And they are an hour long whether or not we start late, so my salsa lesson is inevitably rather tardy too. But really, who's counting? I am there to dance. It's actually great, because I get done tutoring at 8, so the rush to Voulez-bar is less hectic knowing I am not quite down to the wire on time.

Free commercial for Voulez-bar and my other favorite spots in Sevilla so far:

Voulez-bar, Calle Marron Balbino, Nervíon--right on the street near the Hotel Viapol (the big red building) this bar and salsa club has nice instructors and employees, two levels with dance floors and bars and is right up the street from:

Ohana, another salsa/bachata/zomba club. With a bar and restaurant upstairs, the downstairs is split level with another bar and a rather crowded dance floor. There's also a mirrored wall which I have actually found quite distracting. The dancing here is at a pretty high level, but there are plenty of patient partners to be had.

...other recommendations to be made later. I have a few favorite cafés in Triana and some great clothing stores--cute stuff, not too pricey--soon to be featured here.

Coming soon: If I were a church, I just found myself in la Iglesia Betania.
Spanish, Wycliffe, opera and Michigan: who knew all of these great connections were just waiting for me, a ten-minute walk from my apartment? Sunday, March 27 was my favorite day in Sevilla so far! It was the most wonderful afternoon that suddenly became a long evening, and was a direct answer to prayer. I will soon recount some of the events of those marvelous 13 hours in a future blog post.