A list of things I have bought in Spanish Chinese Shops

I have told you all about the phenomenon which is the Spanish Chinese Shop (Chino), and of course I made it very clear how much I enjoy spending time in them. But since doing so I have realised how utterly lost/broke I would be without them. And so today I give you all a list of the things I have bought in Spanish Chinese Shops SO FAR.*

• clothes hangers
• clothes pegs
• cheese grater 
• slippers
• mirror
• pritt stick
• copies
• pens
• folders
• hairbrush
• a halloween costume
• hair clips
• bowls
• mug
• towels
• cushions
• purse
• christmas decorations
• birthday cards
• school diary
• turban towel
• nail brush
• wrapping paper
• sellotape
• clothes horse (household purchase)
• yoga mat
• lunch box
• candle
• matches
• lock
• colouring pencils
• bleach
• washing powder
• superglue
• a lamp 

Truly, we all need one of these amazing places in out life. Still haven't managed to get one of those cats that does the thing with its arm but mark my words, I will possess one. Mark my words.

On that somewhat threatening note, hasta luego!

*except for food, if I had included that we would have been here all night.

Looking Up

Seville is like a lot of cities in that it has a lot of beautiful buildings that are completely unappreciated because what's going on at ground level isn't as interesting. At home in Dublin we have a lot of gorgeous Georgian buildings that are now shops, so you can forget that behind the Marks and Spencer sign is some lovely architecture. That's until you look up. Seville is the same. Walking along the main shopping streets of Sierpes and Velázquez, all you see is Zara and Mango and shoe shops (I am convinced Seville has the most shoe shops per capita in Europe. If there are official figures that say otherwise they are lying I tell you.) until you tilt your head up from the shopfronts and see the beautiful railings and balconies and plaster work. I'm not the first person to realise this, there's an entire scene about looking up to enjoy architecture in the film 500 Days of Summer, I think when the song Sweet Disposition is playing, so this seems to be a common problem. I suggest wherever you are that the next time you're out on a city street, you look up and see what there is to be enjoyed when you aren't just looking at the ground in front of you*. Here are just some of the sights to be enjoyed above eye level in Sevilla. 

Hasta luego x

*If you fall over or into someone that is not my fault unless the person you fall into turns out to be your soulmate and you get married a la The Wedding Planner. Please observe traffic lights also.

El Chino

If you live in Spain for any extended period of time you will quickly become familiar with the uniquely Spanish yet not Spanish at all shopping experience of the 'Chino'. This somewhat non PC moniker refers to any one of the many (and I do mean many) shops in Sevilla run by Chinese families. There are hundreds of them. Exactly why this is so was explained to me one night at Feria and I believe it is something to do with trade agreements and tax, nonetheless it's a strange phenomenon to come to terms with when you're in a not very multicultural city in the wild south of Spain. I first ran into one in a fishing village in the Basque Country, in retrospect it was even more odd there. But I did pick up a very affordable and stylish rain poncho.

fashion!

Ranging from the humble Alimentación to the awe inspiring Bazaar, these shops come in many sizes. Some just sell food, some sell household items, some sell clothes, and some sell quite literally anything you could possibly want. My favourite thing about the Chino shops are the fact that they never seem to be closed (except at night. There is one 24 hour shop in Seville.). However, if you find yourself hungry on a Sunday or indeed on any one of the multitude of days off Spain takes and every supermarket is closed, your local Alimentación is where you should head. On more than one occasion my need to eat my feelings after 9pm has been met by their selection of Haribo and Lays, and for that I will always be grateful. I think that the family who run my local one must either judge me or feel sorry for me at this stage, I go through a lot of sweets and noodles. 

I spy a pool noodle

The Bazaars are where the fun really begins, however. I don't know how I would have set up home here without them; it's difficult to know where to buy things like sheets and towels and bowls in a new country which turns out to be surprisingly different to your own. The only other option seemed to be the Corte Inglés department store and do you think I am made of money don't be ridiculous. Aside from being useful, the Bazaars is also a great place to kill some time. You can challenge yourself to find the oddest item costing under one Euro. Toys, cleaning products, pots and pans, glue, tools, paper, candles, those cats that do that thing with their arm, wool, fake flowers, yoga mats; you name it they've got it, or at least a close approximation of it. Sometimes you might find yourself being followed around by an employee, but it's possible that that's just me because of the amount of times I just go in and walk around for a few minutes without buying anything. The Chinos have turned out to be a large part of my life here. I'd like to take this moment to appreciate just how odd yet amazing they truly are.

Do I need this? YES.

Hasta luego x

What I'm Really Thinking

Now, as you know, I have a blog. What you might not know is that I also have a diary. The chief difference between the two is that very little of the diary is fit for human consumption (the chief chief difference is that the diary takes place inside an actual notebook whereas this is all internet sorcery but anyway). I wanted to have a blog while I was here so as to have a kind of souvenir at the end of the year that I could look back on. Even now reading back over what I wrote in September and October feels strange, Seville was a different place to me then, and I was probably quite different myself! But, you know, blogs are a very public thing to do, and like other public forums such as Facebook, they're often pretty well controlled and censored versions of events.We're living in an age where we can curate parts of our lives to suit what we want people to think about us, so personal diaries are probably some of the few honest accounts we still make of ourselves. 

What boring stories are held within these pages.

 I never wanted this to be a "And today I did this and then I did this and then I had toast" kind of blog, instead I wanted the 'Guide to Seville from the perspective of someone who doesn't get it at all' thing which I think I've done pretty well in maintaining so far. My diary is where the banal and the emotional go. The blog tells me what I was doing when, and the diary tells me how I felt/what I ate/whether it was cloudy, etc. Not terribly interesting to anyone but myself, which is just as well because no one but myself is ever going to be reading it.

 I think keeping a journal is a great thing to do while travelling or experiencing something out of the norm, because specifics fade fairly quickly and if you don't write down how you felt at the time, then your changed perspective later on will colour your memories. I last kept a diary daily in 2011 when I was working for a month in the Basque Country, and while that diary is very full of "Today it rained and we had fish and we went for a walk" it's still nice to read over because I feel like I'm back there when I do. So there's my advice for anyone who is going on an extended trip or a year abroad; keep a diary. Who cares if it's only you reading it. I neglected mine a lot in the first term but since Christmas I've been pretty good at keeping it up to date and flicking through it tonight I realised how much things have changed in the last 8 months. Here are some highlights that I can share with you all.

This is pretty much most of September. Cheer up, past me.

haha yeah Spain

the entire point of having a diary

Life, as it happens

This incident will haunt me.

what a morning that was. 

My handwriting is all over the shop. Hasta luego chicis x