Breaking up is hard to do.

So yeah. I know I've been absent from this blog lately. I've just been so busy with all things work related that I haven't had time to come to the internets for fun. I hate to be one of those people who uses work as an excuse, but fun and the Internet are a foreign concept when you work for a Web site. In fact, it's an unusually slow day at work that led me here. And in the end, it's all about the journey.

When I realized that I had time to use the Internet to kill time again, I felt overwhelmed. First, I wanted to take to Twitter, which has surely suffered for my long absence. But there were so many pithy sayings to catch up on! Then I took to a few of my fave Web sites and got really bored once I realized I would never actually be able to read all I missed out on over the last few months. (LOLcats excluded. I could kill an entire lifetime on that site.)

So next it was on to my friends' blogs, all of whom are much more dedicated to their blogging craft than I am. I got to catch up on the teething issues of the adorable Anna Jae and check out Ysolt's pictures from her trip to Mexico. Then I remembered that I too, had a blog, likely with no readers at this point, and I got to thinking of whether or not I should update it, or just end it.

This blog started as a way for me to share my travels with you, back when I was working at the job of which I no longer speak, and then as a way for friends and family to know what was going on in my day-to-day when I was 6,000 miles away in Spain. I definitely took pleasure in it, and wrote with the really, really, really faint hope that this blog would land me a book deal, a sentiment I always felt guilty about because starting a blog to get a book deal is a really gimmicky thing to do, and my gimmick (is it even a gimmick? Seems more like ramblings) was just one among millions. Plus, my gimmick was not nearly as well thought out as Julie Powell's.

So lets not pretend here, people. Sure, I'm blogging today, but I don't know what will happen tomorrow or next week (except that I do know that I will be on vacation next week, where the last thing I will be worried about is blogging--not a good sign). Plus, I have to admit that there is a part of me who thinks this blog should end as is, with a beginning that chronicled what led to Spain; then Spain; and where Spain led Jay and I to (engaged, duh). That way it's like "our story" all tied up with bow, complete with an arc and happy ending. A journey, if you will.

So I've made the decision to give up the blog for now. (It will still be here, should there be a particular post you want to revisit for goodness knows what reason; I just won't be updating it.) The truth is, I'm just no longer that angsty girl who wants to flit off to Europe for an undisclosed amount of time with her boyfriend. And I cannot (Can. Not.) become someone who blogs about wedding planning. Something about it just makes my stomach turn.

But they say a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Which is why I encourage you to check out my Flickr, which I will be updating every time I--er, take some photos.

So, I guess this is ta-ta for now.

Exit Interview: Jay and Jenn

The editorial staff of See Jenn Blog has developed a questionnaire for guests, fielded the night before they leave, to get their impressions of the city. We always knew we would inflict this ritual on ourselves and when our last Friday night in Seville turned out to be a rain-soaked mess, we broke out the cava we had been saving for a special occasion, put iTunes on shuffle and commenced our version of the Spanish Inquisition. It's a lengthy one, so you might want to grab a cup of coffee before you start reading.

Jay: What was your favorite thing about Seville?
Jenn: [Long pause.] One of my favorite things was the eating experience. I love eating standing up. I don’t know how I’m going to go back to actually sitting through a three-course meal. In Spain, it’s so in-and-out and it’s so social, too. It was less about going out for food—even though the food was absolutely delicious—but you could tell people were out more for the conversation and the company than for the food and the wine. Dining just isn’t like that anywhere else I’ve been.
Jay: It’s like dining for people with ADD. You just bounce from place to place and have a little meal.
Jenn: And also, how you always talk about “plate envy,” you don’t have any of that in Spain. If you see something someone else has that you like, you can get it, and you’re not being gluttonous because it’s this tiny little plate. Overall, the Spanish really know how to enjoy a meal. What about you? PORK?
Jay: Yeah, that rolls into eating as well. The food here, I love it, and I pretty much agree with everything you said.
Jenn: That’s a lame answer.
Jay: Well, I probably enjoyed the dishes more than you since everything is very meat heavy. And I realize that favorite is singular and should be one thing, but the city itself I really like. It’s easy to get around. No cars; not even a subway. Sevici is awesome. It’s a perfect city for that and as much as I like the program I can’t see it taking off in New York, if it existed there.
Jenn: Although they are taking it to D.C., Chicago and possibly Philadelphia. New York would really have to implement a bike path like Seville has. If New York did that, I would totally hop on it. Maybe not in Staten Island, but throughout the other boroughs and bridges, I could see it working. I’ll have to take that up with Bloomberg when I get back.
Jay: We could probably have a whole conversation about our favorite things in Seville, but another thing I really like about it is the people here. I like their attitude, their patience. They’ve been very kind to us. I just wish I knew what they were saying, because I’m sure it’s entertaining.
Jenn: That was always the amazing thing. You and I have traveled a lot and you get different responses to your attempts at the native language. The thing I really like about Spain was that as long as you tried, they humored you, and they have no problem correcting you but it was never in a condescending or flippant way, so I definitely have to agree with you there. I always talk about New Orleans having the nicest people and I think Spain probably gives them a run for their money.
Jay: Although maybe if we knew what they were saying it might be a different picture. Maybe they were telling us to fuck off in a really friendly way.

Jay: And that kind of goes into the least favorite thing about Seville.
Jenn: All the construction outside of our window every day. When our next-door neighbor would get into a fight with his girlfriend and she would wail and wail and wail at 5 o’clock in the morning.
Jay: Really, that happened? I didn’t notice. A lot of our visitors said dog poop.
Jenn: Well, dog poop is just a given. I mean, who enjoys dog poop?
Jay: I don’t think it’s that bad. I don’t think the city is overrun with crap.
Jenn: I will say this—and I know this is going to sound really ridiculous considering what the weather would have been like back home—I was slightly disappointed in the weather. I really thought at this point, we’d be in tank tops and shorts and we’re just not.
Jay: I know. It’s a rainy Friday night and it’s not particularly warm out yet.
Jenn: It’s a waste of luggage space. I brought all these tank tops and dresses and never got to wear them. What about you?
Jay: [Long pause.] I find it hard to say a negative thing about this place. I hear what you’re saying about the weather. Wow, I’m a lame interview subject. And I know how hard it is to draw answers out of someone.
Jenn: Do I need to rephrase the question?
Jay: No, no, there’s got to be an answer in there somewhere. Um…
Jenn: Maybe how you can’t pick out your own produce at the supermarket?
Jay: Maybe that’s something and this may be Spain in general, but I’m so used to self-service. Here, you’ve got to wait in an hour-long line just to buy train tickets. At the grocery store you have to wait to have some guy weigh your fruit. I’m used to the American—but on top of that, the New York—pace of life that is so go-go-go and help yourself. Things aren’t very quick here. But that’s a good thing. It settles me down a little bit.
Jenn: It’s definitely taught me patience, but I guarantee you within five minutes of being back in New York all of the work that Seville has done will be completely eradicated. Is there anyway that you would say this experience has changed you?

Jay: I don’t know. If there’s been any change in me it’s been something really gradual and something I haven’t noticed. Almost something for people to recognize once I get back home.
Jenn: Like, “You’ve come back with a lisp.”
Jay: Yeah! But I haven’t noticed any change. Do you think it’s changed you at all?
Jenn: It’s definitely taught me patience. The patience of the population in general is something that I’m really going to miss, whether it’s not knowing exactly what I need or being able to take a table at a restaurant and just get a glass of wine if that’s all I want and not have to deal with some huffy waiter telling me tables are for food service only.
Jay: One change might be that for every wayward traveler who doesn’t speak English that I encounter in New York, I’ll probably feel for them and try a little harder.

Jenn: So is there anything in Seville that you wanted to experience but didn’t?
Jay: Nothing about Seville, but just looking at that map you put up, I see there’s still a whole lot of Spain uncovered. I wish I would have seen more. There’s the whole north, like Barcelona, that we’re not going to see, the Canary Islands—
Jenn: Ibiza!
Jay: Yes. Mallorca. It was shocking to me looking at the map how little we actually covered.
Jenn: I know. I thought, “We’ve been living here for three months and we’ve only covered nine cities? Come. On.” I kind of wanted to kick myself.
Jay: It just makes you realize that so many times when you travel, you’re not really seeing that much. You get a little notch on your belt, but it’s like that saying: the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know. It’s like the more you travel, the more you realize you haven’t traveled that much. It takes a while to get to know a place. Was there anything you didn’t get to experience?
Jenn: I don’t know if this is an experience per se, but one thing I regret is just not really bulking up on my Spanish before I came here. I feel like we got comfortable in our transactional conversations and the amount of new Spanish that I did learn definitely plateaued, so to that extent, I feel like I didn’t really take full advantage of this opportunity. I was hoping to be able to come back and carry at least somewhat of a conversation and I just don’t think I’ll be able to.
Jay: I agree. If there’s one regret coming out of this, that’s definitely it.
Jenn: And too, we were both lazy in the sense that you figured you could get by on what little Spanish I know and I figured—
Jay: That I could just get by on my good looks?
Jenn: [Laughs] Nooooooooo. I figured, perhaps pompously, that there would be a lot more people here that spoke English. It was a big wake up call when we first got here. What was the best part of your trip?

Jay: I think you know the answer to this.
Jenn: Pork?
Jay: No. The road trip. I had a blast. We covered a lot. I was with Casey, one of my longest-held friends, and Kristen and you, and we all piled into a car and every day was something new, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
Jenn: What you were getting yourself into—you didn’t even drive!
Jay: Yeah, but I didn’t know what each city was all about. We went from Seville, to a town on a mountain and then a town on the coast and then Gibraltar and then the next thing you know we’re in Africa. When I look back on my time in Spain those will be some of the first images. I’m sorry to say that because it kind of belittles our time here, just me and you, doesn’t it? When I think of Spain, I’ll think of Casey.
Jenn: Why am I not surprised?
Jay: What about you—best part of the trip?
Jenn: It was a lot of little things. I like all the sensory experiences. All the scents, that’s such a big thing for me, I don’t know why.
Jay: That’s a kind way to put it. You’re holed up with me for three months and you talk about the sensory experiences.
Jenn: I will say that one of my favorite things about this experience was living with you.
Jay: Damn it. You had to make me sound like an asshole. It went pretty well, didn’t it? Better than I thought it would.
Jenn: It went really well. I went into it not knowing what to expect and may have had my preconceived notions as to what it may be like and it just really exceeded them—and for the better.
Jay: I was surprised at the ease of it. On a day-to-day basis, we’re totally different people. We have different schedules; we have totally different sensibilities about cleanliness. It was very, very easy to live with you. And there weren’t any fights.
Jenn: I don’t want to paint it as if it were all roses—we definitely had some tense moments.
Jay: Yeah, like when you were grumpy, for the record.
Jenn: Or when you refused to fix the washing machine you broke.
Jay: It’s going to be fixed! [It wasn’t.—Ed.]
Jenn: But overall the experience of living with you has been a good one.
Jay: I give you an A-
Jenn: Why an A-?
Jay: Well…. I don’t know. That’s a good grade.
Jenn: That’s not a good enough explanation! Fine. You get a B+.
Jay: What the fuck—why not an A-?
Jenn: Because you leave crumbs all over the place. Anyway, here’s a question I want to ask. What’s your favorite experience with each guest?

Jay: That’s a good question. Corrie: One, you know I love Corrie. She’s awesome and she’s a blast. I liked her total willingness to do anything. And at the time that she came, we were still discovering Seville and she really helped uncover a lot of rocks. Also; Italica. As dull as that sight was, I had a blast rocking out at Italica with Corrie. I wish her visit was lot longer than it was.
Jenn: Me too. When she left I was definitely a little sad.
Jay: Sarah: I had a blast on our prom night. Discovering the bull fight was such an other-worldly experience—I’ve never seen anything like a bull fight and I never want to see anything like a bull fight ever again—but it was cool that it was one of your good friends and it was just the two of us going out and doing something. And then Casey and Kristen… Well, the road trip. It was like a weeklong double date. What were your guest highlights?
Jenn: With Corrie, it was just her arrival. There was so much anticipation because she was our first guest and I knew she’d be a great first guest because she’s so c’est la vie. I wanted to see a familiar, friendly face and who better than nice Midwestern Corrie? With Sarah—and you tell this story to anyone else and they’ll probably be like, how boring—but our first night in Malaga, we just got cheese and wine and holed ourselves up in the hotel room for a little bit and then had dinner and we just had a really great conversation between friends—she knows what was said—but those are the kinds of moments that I really love having with friends. With Casey and Kristen, I thought it was really cool seeing Casey’s first steps into the Mediterranean. That had to be such an amazing experience for him and just to be witness to it was kind of cool. The whole night in Marbella was a lot of fun. Just us hanging out with Telepizza and booze.
Jay: That was one of the better nights, because it could have happened anywhere.

Jenn: In lieu of the who-would-you-rather-be-stranded-with question, I will ask who is the one person you wished would have visited?
Jay: My mom. It would have been fun, because she really would have enjoyed it all. She would have gotten a kick out of the city and there’s a lot of little places around here I think she would have enjoyed.
Jenn: I’d say my dad. You know my dad; Spain is so up his ally with the eating and the drinking. It’s a lot of meat and booze—that’s the center of the trip, really.
Jay: Yeah, you’re dad would have had a ball. He would have matched me beer for beer and ham for ham.

Jay: So this next question is kind of pointless.
Jenn: Well, would you want to do another three months? Or be here indefinitely?
Jay: I would want to do another three months here. I would love to do it.
Jenn: I’d have to say no. For as much as I love Seville and it will always be special to me, I’m anxious to get back to friends and family and I feel like there’s a whole world out there. I’d like to do three months in Prague or three months in Paris—
Jay: I’m down with that. Let’s do it. Maybe that’s the next question: Where are we going next year?

Top 5: Things We'll Miss About Seville

Yesterday, on my last jog along the Guadalquivir River, one of my all-time favorite songs, "Chocolate" by Snow Patrol, came on my iPod. The first few lyrics are: "This could be the very minute/I'm aware I'm alive/All these places feel like home." Reader, I teared up. But only a little. Here are more things Jay and I will miss about Seville, in no particular order.

Jay:
1. Tapas. It’s not just the great food that I’ll miss, but the way the Spanish eat—bouncing from bar to bar and having a few small bites and a drink at each.

2. Working From Home. I haven’t been in an office in three months, and I’ve been six hours ahead of my colleagues in New York: Add the two together, then subtract pants and shaving, and you have my ideal working situation.

3. Living With Jenn. We got along better than I could have imagined, and she is a very accomplished cleaner.

4. Old Stuff. I like old cities with old buildings. Let me illustrate: We frequently ate at a tapas bar that was founded before the United States.

5. Getting Around. For the past three months, we’ve relied on our feet and our Sevici bikes to move us through Seville. No subways. No cars. No cabs. No traffic.

Jenn:
1. The In-And-Out Process of Dining. I have no idea what a "reservation" is anymore or why anyone would ever need one.

2. Patience. It may seem like a contrast to the above, but the Spanish are soooooooo patient. I like to think the slower pace has rubbed off on me, though I'm sure New York will put the kibosh on that within five minutes of my arrival.

3. Sevici and Orange Trees. These two are intertwined because there is a specific section on the Sevici path where all you smell are the orange trees as you breeze by.

4. Adorable Spanish Children. I frequently joked with Jay (however horribly) about pulling a Madeline McCain on a number of Spanish tykes in their Sunday outfits. They just seem so much cuter and so much more well-behaved than American children. (No offense to anyone who has any.) Plus, they're on par with my level of Spanish.

5. Feeling Like I Was Always On Vacation. This, no matter how many deadlines I had or bills that needed paying. Should you want to feel this way in your daily life as well, I suggest never looking at your bank account, especially when you know in the back of your head that things may be getting dire. Ignorance truly is bliss.

Sevilla Later

All over Seville you can spot the curious cipher, NO 8 DO. Sometimes it's conspicuous, on a police car for instance; but more often then not, it's less so, as on a bike rack. The above photo appeared on a park railing.

The symbol stems from the 11th century, when the Catholics launched a reconquista in an attempt to take southern Spain back from the Moors. When the war went on for too long, as they sometimes do, King Alfonso struck a truce with the Moors, which angered his son Sancho, who, in a typical bout of father/son one-upmanship, attempted a rebellion against his father, but the Sevillian people ignored Sancho's little tantrum and stayed loyal to Alfonso, which is when he uttered the now-iconic phrase, "me han dejado," or "you have not deserted me." The phrase morphed from its medieval iteration to no madeja do, "madeja" meaning wool in Spanish, which led to the compact emblem NO 8 DO, with the 8 serving as symbol for twisted wool.

I don't quite get it all either, it's so much like a game of telephone gone terribly awry. But I thought it would be a fitting story to tell, given that we "desert" Seville for Madrid tomorrow, and then on Saturday, to New York. I was going to weave it all together into a nice, succinct history lesson-cum-farewell, but we can all see how I've failed miserably at that attempt, so I instead will leave you with this:

You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.

Jenn: I'm a little bummed to be missing out on Memorial Day weekend. I keep getting all these auto-replies to my e-mails about how so-and-so will be out of the office until May 27.

Jay: You've been out of the office for three months.