Transparency

I think the U.S. should get used to this idea: we are a nation of introverts compared to the Spanish. Seville bubbles with affability. She’s talkative and exuberant. She likes to dance and shop and stay out late with her friends. She bubbles with orange-trees and smolders with late-night lights.

She’s still demanding, though, U.S.; don’t think you’ve got the market covered on that score. But she’s demanding relaxation and she will not be denied. Relax, our host told us on our first morning when we woke up an hour late and were rushing around the house in order to get to school on time. Relax, he said, the late will always be late.” The he shrugged and helped himself to more jam.

I’ve never seen a city so transparent to outsiders before. Maybe because it’s not really during the tourist season she doesn’t feel the pressure to pander to camera-toting foreigners.

Or maybe she’s always like this. Maybe, for once, it isn’t the Truman show. For once there’s no mass cover-up scheme, designed to keep the travelers from seeing the full nature of the people they’re trying to visit.

So, thanks, Seville, for your gregariousness. You might yet make an extrovert out of me.