EXCERPT FROM SARA’S JOURNALFebruary 4, 1999
Huerta Santa Maria
Near Galaroza
A Seville Studio II
The proprietor is standing in the perfect kitchen of her perfectly new
condominium at the edge of Seville. Maria Jose, our agent, stands beside her, nodding. The
proprietor is speaking very quickly. Maria Jose can’t understand her because the
woman is, in typical Sevillian Spanish, swallowing half of the words and mumbling at light
speed.
She is going on excitedly about the apartment. She opens the cupboards
and shows us the new pots and pans, still wrapped in cellophane. She opens the drawer and
removes a tiny cutting board. "chopchopchopchopchop!" and she makes a chopping
motion with her hand on the board. She is giddy and about to burst something. She shows us
the bed and the mattress and the mattress cover. She explains how we can hang our towels
on the hook on the bathroom door. She opens the closet to reveal and iron and ironing
board.
Then she opens the window. There’s a window in the small salon.
She tells us that the glass is double paned. This is unusual in Seville, where houses have
no heat, and many gaps in the windows and doors. The window slides and at once we are
standing in the middle of a construction zone, five floors up from the centre of
Seville’s ring-road. The noise of the traffic and jackhammers is so loud that the
proprietor and Maria Jose are shouting in front of the window. Rich and I are ready to
jump.
We have come to Seville to continue our search for a studio. This task
is more difficult than we first anticipated. Maria Jose has found us something
perfect—a typical refurbished Sevillian house in the centre of the city--but the
owner does not want to rent to foreigners. We don’t know when we will want to leave,
our Spanish is still in kindergarten and to her we are as good as unemployed. Now Maria is
trying to make it up to us with this modern condominium. This is something we could easily
find in Vancouver.
After some modern lowrises and a few Santa Cruz district walk-ups, we
find a small apartment in a building that was once Seville’s Music Conservatory. This
is vintage Sevillian architecture; a huge, heavy door with a small, square door at
eye-level. When a Sevillian is home, she opens the little door to show that she is in.
This is a signal for her friends. It says, "Come in and visit with me".
Behind the heavy door is a courtyard laid with marble tiles. There is a
second door to this oasis. The door is ornate, iron. The courtyard is open to the sky,
filled with light, but cool in the hot months.
The 19th Century Conservatory stands with marble columns and
a grand, wide staircase. At the top of the stairs are the second-storey walls of the
courtyard. The walls are made of original blue and clear glass, casting patterns on the
cool, grey and white marble floor.
The little apartment includes a tiny studio, looking into the courtyard
and through the ancient, patterned glass. The apartment is furnished, and almost half the
price of our Vancouver apartment and studio. Carlos has agreed to be our guarantor, and to
help with the signing of the rental contract. Now we sit in the agency office with the
owner of the apartment and her father, a local doctor. We are signing our names to the
next few months in a city alive with possibilities. The young proprietor turns to me and
says, in almost perfect English, "I hope you will have a good time in Seville, with
so much to see and do, it is a wonderful place".
