The overwhelming things I notice about Cordoba are the beautiful aromas of orange blossom, the labyrinthine streets, geometric patterns everywhere both ancient and modern, and the sense of contentment of the people.
We’re now well into week 2 of our residency and time is already playing strange games. Before we left, 10 weeks away felt like an incredibly long time to organise stepping away from our ‘normal’ lives for. Before we left, our host organisation in Spain, Academia Cordoba, sent us a full timetable of activities for the first week, and we now have another jam packed schedule this week too. We’ve been treated to more tours of the city, visits to museums and Spanish lessons, on top of our structured meal times. We do still manage to fit the odd tapas in here and there though!
Our experience here is pretty incredible and I do wonder what I’ve done to deserve this. It’s struck me though, that everyone here is very motivated and driven and I suppose that’s how we got here, but perhaps it’s also why we could all do with it. The pace of life here is completely different from being back in the UK. I first felt like a Londoner when I found myself running up an escalator whilst eating my dinner, whereas here, working until 3pm is staying late at the office. This gives people more time for friends and family, eating together, and the weather brings people to socialise in the squares and cafes, unrestricted by having dogs or children to look after. Everyone joins in.
Despite this, with our work placements in the morning, and personal projects to do in our spare time, and so much to see and do here, we’re all wondering how we can get it all done in time. This sense of urgency seems odd in such a relaxed place, but it will probably mean that we get the most we possibly can out of the experience. We might need to start having siestas to fully experience the culture though! It is great that we’re all really grateful for the experience and are really enjoying our time together.
Communicating in Spanish is my biggest challenge. Before coming away, I did a term of Spanish lessons, listened to podcasts, played learn Spanish apps on my phone and did interactive online lessons. I still wish I could’ve learned more and feel a little embarrassed that I can’t communicate better. Being in a situation where we have to use Spanish is helping me to improve though and our lessons are teaching me some of the grammar I desperately need. The lessons can be pretty hilarious what with things like Laura answering a question about food with a response about firemen in chocolate, and a rather distracting bird call outside the window that sounds like bedsprings! I feel rather terrible that our teacher in the art school is currently improving her English where we’re supposed to be improving our Spanish!
The other salient factor here is the weather. With our dreadful British winter and wintery spring, I couldn’t wait to get away to what I thought would be a much more bearable climate. It was still jacket weather when we arrived but it’s suddenly now up in the mid to high thirties each day! Apparently this is normal and the locals are still wearing cardigans and scarves! I’m now told that Cordoba is Europe’s hottest city and last year they had a week when it was 52 degrees centigrade every day! Whilst I’m worried I might never want to leave this place, it’s probably just as well our return flight is booked for mid-June.
