Tuesday January 29/Wednesday January 30

The "pantheon" of tombs for members of the Ribera family.
A cool outdoor structure at the monastery, built for the sole purpose of having snacks in the garden.
Contemporary art sculpture.
More contemporary art.

For class Tuesday we met at the Monasterio de la Cartuja, a monastery in the northwest part of the city in an area called La Cartuja. The 13^th-century monastery is small but pretty, with lots of original stone, vaulted ceilings, and burial rooms for some of the members of the super-wealthy Ribera family, to whom the Casa de Pilatos belongs (see January 22 post). In fact, their burial room is referred to as “el panteón” (the pantheon). The monastery is connected to the Andalucian Contemporary Art Center, which we visited afterwards. The art center has lots of artwork from 1957 and some films by Mark Lewis. Overall, the combination of a monastery from the 13^th century with contemporary art was sort of strange. Then our class walked north, farther into La Cartuja, to see some of the buildings that were constructed for the Universal Exposition of 1992. Over 100 countries participated in that exposition, and some of the pabellones (pavilions) built for it, like the one for Marocco and the Vatican, are cool.

Wednesday I woke up feeling sick and had to cancel a date to meet my intercambio for the first time. The whole intercambio system links a student whose first language is English with a student whose first language is Spanish so that the two can meet and talk and improve their speaking skills. My intercambio, Isabel, and I will have to try to get together another day. Later I met Beth for chocolate con churros before heading to class at 6.