Quick life update

Well, after my little pity-party a couple of posts back I have been trying my utmost to get up and get on with my life. For the most part, I am succeeding.

The arts, crafts and dancing have been keeping me busy. I have also been on a date, but more about that in a minute.

Dancing is wonderful. We are on a break at the moment, because our classes run with the school terms, however, we should be back in the swing of things on the 14th of this month. We have a Feria coming up at the end of April. Here’s a little bit of a background on what a Spanish Feria is, and why we have a special evening for one. Obviously, ours is only one night and we usually go to a restaurant and have a meal and dance the Sevillanas.

The Seville Spring Fair, La Feria de abril de Sevilla, is held in the Andalusian capital of Seville, Spain. The fair generally begins two weeks after the Semana Santa, or Easter Holy Week.

The fair officially begins at midnight on Tuesday, and runs six days, ending on the following Sunday. During past fairs, however, many activities have begun on the Saturday prior to the official opening. Each day the fiesta begins with the parade of carriages and riders, at midday, carrying Seville's leading citizens which make their way to the bullring, La Real Maestranza, where the bullfighters and breeders meet.

For the duration of the fair, the fairgrounds, a vast area on the far bank of the Guadalquivir River, are totally covered in rows of casetas (individual decorated marquee tents which are temporarily built on the fairground). Some of these casetas belong to the prominent families of Seville, some to groups of friends, clubs, trade associations or political parties. From around nine at night until six or seven the following morning, at first in the streets and later only within each caseta, you will find crowds partying and dancing "Sevillanas", drinking Jerez sherry, or manzanilla wine, and eating tapas.

I may or may not invite Chris to the Feria. I am as yet, undecided. Chris is the man whom I am “dating”. I say “dating” because we have really only been on one date. The first date we had set ended up being a casual lunch with another friend of his. The second date, which ended up being the first, was at Cubana on Florida. We had initially intended to go to Spiga, but the place was packed by the time we got there, and so we ended up further down the road. Cubana is certainly a very vibey restaurant and not really somewhere to go if you’re looking for a nice quiet meal. That said however, the food was great, and Chris was excellent company. The only mild damper on the evening was that the music in the restaurant was too loud for any real, expressive conversation. If we do this again, we’re going to have to find a quieter place to meet.

And that’s all I have time for at the moment I’m afraid.
I’ll pop another catch-up on in a day or two.
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