Sevilla y la Sociología

Humor me, I’m a Sociology minor.

This past weekend I took a trip to Sevilla (Seville to non-Spaniards) for a breath of fresh air. It’s a smaller city, so Ellis, Nathan, Colin, Melissa, Nick and I were able to comfortably explore the whole thing on foot in two days. I loved it. In part due to its size, Sevilla’s streets are wider and cleaner. Everything is very colorful and sunny, with the exception of a few minutes of rain Friday night. My favorite part was Alcazar: a gorgeous palace with extensive courtyards, fountains, and garden after garden. I loved the detail of the tilework and filigreed arcades set to a bright color palatte (thanks Moores). And in one garden, we saw peacocks! =D There’s a river through the city, and the walking path alongside it was beautiful, too.

One of the other things I noticed about Sevilla in contrast to Barcelona was the culture shift. People were out and about the entire weekend, dining in the plazas, shopping, and filling up the parks and boardwalks. In Barcelona, we did small scoping projects on local parks as part of our Seminar coursework, and everyone’s photographs showed barren, empty parks and plazas. Part of the difference may be the weather, since it’s still pretty cold in BCN, hovering in the 50’s this week and the 40’s last week. But I also noticed that people seemed friendlier and more accommodating in general. We went into a café, obviously foreign and shy of Spanish, and the proprietor went far out of her way to explain the menu and make us all comfortable. Not the resentful stare you get up here.

It’s probably a little of the North-South thing. I read somewhere a long time ago (warning: highly credible source, obviously) that the dynamic between friendly southerners and “colder” northerners shows up in many cultures throughout the world. Based on my current four points of reference, my scale goes something like this:

• Greenville/Clemson: People initiate contact with strangers and are actively (some would say aggressively) friendly. Borders on creepy if you’re not used to it.
• Sevilla: People mind their own business, but if they do interact with you, they’re going to be pleasant about it. It’s the perfect balance!
• NYC: People mind their own business. I didn’t find New Yorkers unpleasant. They just assume you know what you’re doing, and they’re not going to get involved. They’re refreshingly indifferent to strangers.
• Barcelona: There is ALWAYS someone trying to sell you something, getting an attitude or cat calling you. Actively unfriendly, in my personal opinion.

To cut the Barcelonians a break, we are living in Raval, which is a strange mix-mash of the “sketchy” side of town (not actually dangerous, just your stereotypical minority community) and the heavily touristed area across La Rambla. I think the locals who aren’t trying to make money off of tourists are pretty sick of them. At 5’10” and an Eastern European (?) profile, there’s no way I’m sliding past that one.