Seville, Spain

This afternoon I had an incredible, four-hour long lunch with Dr. Ignacio Martinez, the Academic Director of the Institute of International Studies. We began with beer (I love beer) and appetizers of fried sardines and boiled prawns. After that we had a delicious white wine with Pescado a la Sal (sea bass that had been packed in about 2 inches of sea salt, baked for half an hour, the sea salt chisled open, the skin pealed, and the flawless, tender meat served with olive oil and garlic. It made me reconsider my atheism, as coffee often does. Perhaps Chef Pranayama can tell us more about it...). The fish wasn´t at all salty, and it was oh so juicy and delicious. After that we had a delicious pastry dessert with an extraordinarily tasty, sweet, frozen after dinner drink. (Here, of course, lunch is dinner and supper is much smaller.)

Add to the delicious meal a delightful conversation, and I had an exceptionally good day! Ignacio spoke very frankly about Spanish politics, life under Franco, the varieties of Spanish anarchist and communist movements, and, of course, the Catholic Church (including a delightful diatribe about Opus Dei and the Legionnaires of Christ). The four hours seemed hardly enough for us to finish our food, and our conversation, and so we will meet again tomorrow night (inshallah) for supper. I especially enjoyed listening to him talk about La Mano Negra (not Manu Chao´s band) and the exile of his sister for tossing molotov cocktails at Franco´s police.

Oh yeah, and the IIS Study Abroad program sounds pretty good too!

(Image from Internet: Pescado a la Sal)