Magdalenas con Magdalena and Chats with Chris

I know it has been a few days since I last blogged, but honestly until today not much of note occurred. On Tuesday the most exciting thing that happened was that our professor brought us to a convent to buy magdalenas (or muffins) from nuns. The muffins are how the nuns make their money. We stayed and chatted for a few minutes with the nuns. One was from Kenya and another had been there over 60 years. I wanted to take pictures of them because they were so sweet but I felt that would be inappropriate. The muffins were AMAZING! (Though in my very biased opinion they could have been improved by some chocolate chips).

Now I shall fast forward to today because yesterday was such a bore! Today my class visited a church (its connected to the convent we visited on Tuesday). This church is the perfect example of the convergence of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity in Seville. The church was originally a Jewish synagogue that was then rebuilt by Muslims into a church. Interestingly enough when the Muslims rebuilt the church they kept to the Jewish rule that there be no human symbols inside the church. Of course the Catholics added them later. The church, since it was a synagogue is also not laid out in the form of a crucifix like most churches. There is also a statue in the church dedicated to the first African-American saint, Saint Martin. Apparently, St. Martin always miraculously had bread to give to any hungry child that he came across. His symbol is a broom for his humility. Our professor then proceeded to get us all mini brooms as souvenirs. Before we left we talked to another nun! She didn't know how old she was because she had lost her papers, but when asked if she was happy in the convent she said she was more than happy! She also seemed like she wanted someone to talk to because we couldn't get her to stop talking to us, but that's okay, I'm sure we made her day. She then blessed us and we left. So here are some pictures from the church. I had a lot more, but the lighting was bad so a lot of them came out blurry.

Apparently, if your tombstone thingy has pillows you are important. The more pillows the more important. This particular tomb is the tomb of Hernando Cortez's daughter. 

Notice the pillars and the Star of David incorporated into the architecture. 

Me and my mini-broom! I can sweep up crumbs with it!

After class I went to the cathedral of Seville and climbed to the top of the Giralda (which I was silly and didn't actually take a picture of. Oh well, I walk by it every day on my way to class). The Giralda actually used to be a minaret because the cathedral is built where a mosque used to be. Neat thing about the Giralda is that to climb up it, you don't climb stairs, but rather ramps. The men who would do the call to prayer back in the day would ride a donkey or horse up to the top. They certainly were smart!! It was so much easier climbing ramps than stairs. There were 34 ramps in all. The cathedral is the third largest in the world surpassed only by the Vatican and St. Paul's cathedral in London. Honestly, this cathedral dwarfed Notre Dame (and sorry to the French but this cathedral is better). Here are some pictures!

Outside the cathedral is a replica of the weather-vane on top of the Giralda (Giralda in Spanish means weather-vane so that's how it got its name) 

Inside the cathedral is a courtyard where Muslims used to cleanse themselves before entering the mosque. The courtyard is filled with orange trees. (Traditionally it would be olive trees.) Apparently, the smell of the orange blossom is like unofficial scent of Seville. 

Why do they have a crocodile hanging from the ceiling you may ask? Well, back in the day, Egypt wanted to make a marriage alliance with Spain and so they sent a bunch of gifts to the king. Including a crocodile from the Nile, a giraffe that you could ride, and an elephant. Spain did not accept and the king to whom these gifts were presented is buried in the cathedral. 

According to legend, these two saints from Triana (the area where I live) came down from heaven during an earthquake to save the Giralda from falling over. Honestly, it was probably just the very smart construction of the Giralda. You know those ramps I mentioned earlier? They serve a dual purpose, they actually improve the structural integrity of the the Giralda. 

These statues, my friends, are carrying the remains of Christopher Columbus. When Chris died he wanted to be buried in the New World so he was buried in the Dominican Republic. When the French came and took over, the remains were moved to Cuba and eventually Cuba gifted the remains back to Spain. The remains are for sure Chris's because his son is also buried here and they did DNA testing to prove it. So while many churches claim Chris is there, none except Seville's cathedral know for sure. Also, to get the box open you need three keys that have been given to three different people; one of Chris's descendants, one to the bishop of the church, and one to the mayor of the city. (How very Da Vinci Code eh?) 

These are replicas of the keys that were given to the first king who conquered Seville. One of the keys has Arabic script, the other Spanish. 

Views from the top of the Giralda!

To end a picture of me and Chris spending some quality time together. I just wanted to thank him for discovering the area that then led to the to the foundation of my country!