Week-End, and Origins of the name Seva

Another Memorial Day weekend in the books.  Jeannie, Seva, and I just got back from visiting Mita and Eric.  We had dinner together there: hot dogs, baked beans, and corn on the cob.  Our dessert was muffins topped with ice cream (my combo being double chocolate chip muffin topped with vanilla ice cream).

While there, my friend Shay called me back.  Jeannie, Seva, and I took a drive to New Jersey on Saturday afternoon and I stopped by a house in Cherry Hill, where the online white pages indicated Shay may live.  Luckily I was right.  His wife answered the door and chatted with Jeannie and me for a few minutes, catching me up on a few details of Shay's life.  Unlucky for me, though, Shay himself wasn't there, so I left my personal business card with his wife and she gave his cell phone number to me.  The connection was completed when he called me tonight.  And I hope to complete the circle when we, hopefully, get together some time soon.  During our short conversation tonight, he said that I was "like a brother" to him, which made me very happy.  I was very happy to hear his voice, for the first time in many years.  And I hope to see him within the next month, so we can finally catch up and renew our friendship.

Now, since it's still early in Seva's life, I want to tell the story of how we chose her name.  Jeannie had shared with me early in the pregnancy that, at some point when she was younger, in college if I recall correctly, she had a dream in which her daughter's name was revealed to her.  The name revealed was Evelyn.  So, Jeannie carried that name with her as she got older and kept it in mind as a name for her daughter.  I listened to Jeannie's story with an open mind.  I wasn't sold on the name Evelyn, but it was early in the pregnancy, so I didn't judge or decide, I just let it be.  At some time later, perhaps about halfway through the pregnancy, after Jeannie had told me that she was open to considering other names, I thought to myself about our daughter's mixture, namely racially and culturally in heritage and ancestry and I wanted to identify a name that somehow captured that worldliness.  I also thought about my own name, which is short and simple, but also unique, that is, not common in American culture.  I wanted to identify a name that also captured that simplicity, but otherness that I was looking for.  So one night, while here at home (in the same spot where I'm typing this now), I went on to Google maps to look at a map of France to look at names of towns and villages, hoping that one might grab my attention.  I started around Paris, zoomed in pretty far so I could catch names of many of the smaller villages too.  Nothing grabbed my eye, so I slowly scrolled south, south, south, until I got to the Mediterranean Sea, where I slowly panned down the coast, until I crossed the border into Spain, right around Barcelona, when I noticed the village name "Seva."  I liked it immediately.  I opened another tab to Google the name Seva and it came up with a disambiguation page on Wikipedia (here), which showed that the name also refers to selfless service, volunteer work, and work offered to God. That sealed the deal.  I loved the name from that moment.  So I called Jeannie, without telling her the name, and asked her to look on the map to see if she would identify the same name as I had.  She couldn't find it or she completely overlooked it, I'm not sure which one.  After several minutes, and feeling disappointed, I showed the name to her.  I told her not to make a decision, but just to let the name sink in and add it into consideration.  I'm pretty sure I explained the other meanings of the word and my logic leading up to it (in line with what I just wrote above).  Months went by, the pregnancy went on until the end.  I never brought it up again, although internally I was definitely pulling hard for the name Seva.  Jeannie brought it up a handful of times, showing that she was certainly considering it and I think testing it out as your name, but I never responded one way or the other.  I wanted to make sure that she wasn't led to the decision, but instead reached it on her own.  As I recall, it wasn't until the moment you were born, when the midwife or nurse asked for your name, I looked at Jeannie and she said "Seva," and I wholeheartedly agreed.  I love the name.  And in the 6 weeks since you've been born, we've gotten a lot of positive reaction to the name, making me love it even more.

Granada, Spain -- night

I sit now by a fountain just down the hill from the Alhambra. The air is pleasant, now that the sun has set after a hot, dry day.

Before writing this entry, I looked back in this journal to realize that it was a little over a year ago that I was in Granada, Nicaragua, the other Granada on the other side of the Atlantic.

It's really peaceful here now, with the sound of water flowing gently behind me. This is exactly what I need right now after a tiring day. Cherise and I got up early, after a late night last night, to walk with backpacks to the Gran Via of Madrid to pick-up the rental car. Unfortunately, it took us a while to locate the place to pick-up the car. Once we got going, it was already 9:30 a.m. Four and a half hours later and we were eating lunch at a diner on the outskirts of Granada.

As an aside, in case I didn't mention earlier, we decided to rent a car to meet our transportation needs for the rest of the trip in Spain, first for financial reasons as a rental car is actually cheaper, and second, to avoid another mess like the one in the bus station at Barcelona.

So getting back to today, we drove into the city after leaving the diner. We stopped and parked near a small building that was marked as tourist information. When we arrived, though, we realized it was closed for siesta. But as luck would have it, there was a young man sitting at a bus stop across the street from the closed tourist building. We approached him and asked for directions to the area of hostels. Since he was waiting for a bus to go into town, he offerred to come with us to give directions into the city. He was very nice and helped us with a brief tour of the city. When we parted ways in the center of town, he invited us to his bocadilleria, called Piccadilly Circus.

Cherise and I drove back on to la Gran Via of Granada, parked, and compared four different hostels to eventually choose one for 25 euros total per night, with parking included. After checking in and dropping off our backpacks, we walked down into town. We stopped in a few souvenir shops, then saw a double-decker sightseeing bus. Since we were both tired, we decided this would be a good option to see the city. Towards the end of the tour, I began to feel really exhausted. After a night of little sleep then driving for nearly five hours, I needed a nap. We went back to the room and slept for almost three hours, longer than we expected.

We left to go out at about 10 p.m., dinner time. We walked back on to the street behind the hostel and randomly I saw a sign for Piccadilly Circus. Of course we went in and we saw our friend Mohammed, who hooked us up with a falafel for Cherise and a shawarma de pollo for me. It was so coincidental. The food was great and Mohammed was once again very nice. I ordered another shawarma for the road, we walked back to the Gran Via to catch a mini-bus up to the Alhambra and here we are. And here I am writing, finishing this entry.

Madrid, Spain -- early morning

This is my second night in Madrid. And in a matter of hours, we'll be leaving Hostal Prado to pick-up a rental car to drive to Granada.

Madrid has been a tale of two cities: one very bright and sunny but less lively during the day and pleasant and livelier almost rowdy by night. As far as Madrid goes during the day, it is not a world-class city like London, Paris, and Barcelona have been. There are no major monuments and it seems as if there is little to do during the day except walk around and get a feel for the city; which isn't such a bad thing except for my shins.

Despite the overall dullness, last night was surprisingly one of the best, if not the best night of this trip. We came upon a restaurant just a few blocks from the Plaza de Espana where there was a great deal of the common 'menu del dia' for only 7.50 euros. We went in and we were the only patrons, which was great since we sat right up at the bar and got great service and good conversation from the owner and cook, Ricardo. The food was delicious, from a Russian salad to a main dish of Iberian ham cooked with mushrooms and cognac (or perhaps it was white wine). Also included was a glass of red wine. The meal was excellent, and for a very reasonable price. Ricardo and I got into a conversation about music, football (soccer), and the history of Spain.

Immediately afterwards, we rushed to a flamenco performance at Las Tablas restaurant right off of the Plaza de Espana. There were two guitarists, two singers, and three dancers, and the crowd was only about twenty. It was a very cozy environment, with a complimentary glass of red wine. The music and dancing was very entertaining, due especially to the fact that all the performers had a lot of great energy. By the time we walked back to the hostel, it was after one in the morning.

Earlier in the day, we arrived in Madrid after an enormous mess at the bus station in Barcelona the night before. We somehow missed our bus that was to go direct to Madrid, so we had to argue to get onto a later bus to Zaragoza, where we again argued (or more accurately, had a Spaniard aruge on our behalf) to get on the only two empty seats on a bus to Madrid. The whole system at the bus station in Barcelona was a chaotic mess. After the whole fiasco though, and a long bus ride through the arid north of Spain, we arrived bright and early in Madrid yesterday.

We undertook an arduous walk across much of Madrid to eventually locate the area where I had researched there would be hostels. We found the area and visited three other hostels before finding Hostal Prado at a reasonable price of 28 euros total per night. The owner, Pepe, was very nice, and has been nice our entire stay here.

After checking in, we walked our own tour of Madrid, seeing la Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor, Palacio Real, and la Plaza de Espana, which I already mentioned. We took a walk through el Palacio Real, which was very regally decorated, the throne Room being the most outstanding.

Earlier today, after sleeping in very late, then dealing with changing our flight tickets with Air India, we walked to el Parque del Retiro, which was serene and beautiful. There we saw el Angel Caido and el Palacio de Cristal, with a small lake of fish, ducks, turtles, and pigeons. Unfortunately there were no signs for la Plaza de Costa Rica, which I wanted a photo of.

Alright, I've gotta get up early tomorrow morning, so time now for lights out. I'm excited to move on from Madrid to Granada and the south of Spain.

Barcelona, Spain -- early morning

I'm actually writing this in the afternoon, despite the caption. Cherise and I distracted each other last night before I had the chance to write.

Now I'm sitting on a beach just ten meters from the water of the Mediterranean Sea. We arrived on a flight from Beauvais, France to Girona, Spain yesterday morning at about 10:30 a.m. We then took an hour-long bus ride to Barcelona. We began walking in the direction of the main plaza, Place de Catalunya, in order to get our bearings to find a hostel that had been propagandized to us by a Honduran woman waiting at the bus stop. Along the way, however, we found the hostel that we've ended up staying at, for 20 euros each per night.

Before getting there, we saw the Arc de Triomf, Barcelona's version of Paris' momument of the same name. After checking in to our room, we took the rest of the afternoon to explore the downtown, old section of Barcelona. We did a lot of walking, and I absolutely loved the city of Barcelona. We walked down the main street, Las Ramblas, where we saw what looked at first to be a statue of Che. But then it started moving, so I realized it was a man who bore a very striking resemblance to Che. It was crazy. After a little coercion from Cherise, I got a photo with him.

We continued walking throughout the stone streets of old Barcelona. The buildings around us were all about five stories, with balconies. Each balcony had plants or clotheslines. The streets were arranged in a random fashion, so the whole thing was a maze. It was also nice to see that the streets were so clean. Each street had various shops and cafes, and restaurants.

The climate is warm enough here that there are many palm trees. Last night, after so much walking, not only yesterday but since arriving in Europe, we decided to see a movie. It was a great relief to get off our feet and just be entertained for a couple of hours. For the same reasons, it is good to be at the beach today. But getting back to the movie, we saw the third installment of Harry Potter. The movie was broadcast in Spanish, without any subtitles. Since Cherise effectively knows no Spanish, I had to whisper to her at key moments throughout the whole movie.

After the movie, we walked around for a while looking for a decent place to eat dinner. We finally settled on a restaurant on Las Ramblas, where I ate a paella de pollo. Tonight, I'll try the more typical paella de mariscos. We ate dinner after midnight. So it isn't a surprise that we slept in this morning. When we got up, we started our long walk to eventually arrive here at Playa Bogatell. So far, I love Barcelona. I could live here if I got an opportunity, or make one.

As for Paris, which I really didn't write about due to our non-stop schedule there, it was good to see and good to visit. While there, I went to the very top of the Eiffel Tower, where I used their bathroom to take a piss. We also went to the Louvre, where we saw the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. We walked underground to see the six million bones of Les Catacombes. We saw the Notre Dame, which was so intricate in its architecture and very beautiful in appearance. We walked along the River Seine. We ate a lot of good bread and sat for hours at several sidewalk cafes. The coffee there was very strong, as a "cafe" is really a cafe espresso. We also walked along the Canal St. Martin, which was very nice too. Similarly we walked the Champs Elysses to the end, the Arc de Triomphe. Two nights, we went to the Bastille, which is a very hip area for restaurants and bars.

All in all, Paris was beautiful for its sights. But the French language was difficult, and so it frustrated me to be unable to effectively communicate. Paris also surprised me for not being very clean and for its citizens' bland style of clothing. In fact, the Metro stops reminded me of the Philadelphia subway, not so impressive.

Well, I done a lot of writing in trying to catch up. And now the sun is starting to go down. If I want to take another dip in the Mediterranean, I've got to do it now.