Hey look, it's people!

Every post so far has ended with ‘and then I hung out on the roof,’ so figured I’d say why and who all I was with.

La Banda has a pretty rockin’ rooftop deck, with a view of the cathedral, a couple lounge chairs and couches, a bar, and an enormous dining table that can seat 15-20. Every day started out with everyone in the hostel crowding up to the roof for breakfast, and every day ended with everyone hanging out and getting cheap drinks from the bar while chatting and swapping stories about their day or previous travels. It was a pretty awesome way to end every day, and a lot more pleasant and sociable than a lot of my time in Japan.

The hostel seemed to have a spectrum of employees, ranging from the semi-mythical Owners (four guys who I never met while I was there), to semi-permanent staff who were there for longer stretches of time, to short term folks, who worked largely for room and board there for a month or two while pursuing some other endeavor in the city (like Gemma, a girl from Belfast who was there studying Spanish). It was great because you never felt you were dealing with an impersonal front desk or concierge, but the first morning it took me a while to figure out why the two girls who’d been drinking beer with us discussing their studies the night before kept offering to cook everyone eggs.

Anyhoo, in no particular order here’s some of the folks I met there:

• The aforementioned Gemma from Belfast. Her last day at the hostel was also mine, and she kept getting farewells from everyone there. The walking tour guide Mehdi walked in her last night, hugged her, and said she was in no way allowed to leave. He was apparently partially right at least, as she slept through her bus to the airport and had to book a rideshare to get there.
• Juan, who got me all checked in and such. Super nice dude who seemed like he would be sticking around for a while. Said that one of the main reasons he took the job was because he liked all the questions they asked.
• Ben and Mark, two PhD students in economics in Michigan. They apparently worked in some field that analyzed the role genetics had in risk tolerance, and what the implications of that were (I also added them on Facebook so guys if you’re reading this apologies if I’ve butchered the description of your research :D )
• Sean, a 36 year-old Brooklynite who looks at most in his mid-twenties. Described himself and his entire family as ‘Irish as all hell.’ He has a tattoo his family's crest on his arm, is quite ginger, and is a fierce soccer fan. He left for Lisbon on a bus the day before me and was very much dreading the fact that it was going to be an 8 hour bus ride.
• Shyam, who I went exploring landmarks with. He just left an associate position at a dental firm in Orange County and was taking this trip as a break before starting his own practice. Super nice dude, and we were able to actually get photos of ourselves at the big landmarks.
• Tom (Thom?), who was in Sevilla from the Netherlands for an animal and pest control conference where he was showing that he had literally built a better mouse trap.
• One of my roommates, Jinny, was from Korea. She asked where I was from and I told her Mississippi, and she nearly hit her head on the bedframe she jumped so hard. She said when she was in school she did a study abroad at MC. I asked why Mississippi, and she just laughed and said she didn’t have much of a choice.
• Wei Wei, a girl from China who was in Sevilla to take a couple weeks of flamenco classes. She brought some sweets on Wednesday and we all tried to guess what they were.
• (And here the names get fuzzy) An Australian fella who was so Australian it hurt. My first interaction with was him walking up to me shirtless and barefoot to offer me a beer. I asked ‘what’ and he said he was the bartender, then went back to sitting in a ring of more shirtless Australians.
• Several Seattlites actually! Met four others while I was there, two from Wedgwood, two from Sammamish. Far enough away from my usual haunts that I probably won’t see them again, but you never know!