So, I don't even know how many people will read this, but I have been meaning to write my last blog entry for awhile, as a kind of closure to my experience, and in fact, i wrote my last entry about 2 days before i left, but i had no internet access to upload it in spain, and the computer i used there has since basically exploded on itself with viruses so i'm afraid i may never see another file on it....no biggie though. So i have decided to take the last few entries i wrote in my personal journal in the few days before i left sevilla...and also add some last thoughts.
May 13, 2009
I can happily say i am half done with my finals so things are looking up. I feel like i should be outside but i need to descansar for a bit (rest). I'm beat! It was totally reminiscent of madison finals. sick. anyway..let's do some updates. things have been winding down incredibly quickly here and no one seems prepared for the inevitable. they have us cranking out finals until the very last minute. last weekend was SUPER fun though. Me and Gillie went with our friends Lauren, Cass, and Erica to the beach house of some boys they have been friends with for awhile. (One is the host brother of Lauren/boyfriend of Erica and the other two are friends of his). it was cloudy the day we went to the beach but we stayed over night and made dinner and played 2+ hours of "Yo nunca nunca..." (aka "never have i ever") and after that we brought it back old school style and played spin the bottle haha. so much fun. afterwards i went swimming with one of the spanish boys at 5am in the ocean. scandalous! haha...he was so cute...i'm kind of glad/sad i didn't meet him sooner because i probably would have kind of dated him while i was here, and goodbyes would be even harder. Anyways, the next day was BEAUTIFUL and we got to spend a little more time on the beach before taking the bus home together...i think i'll be seeing him before i leave :)
in other news, i'm NOT ready to leave. over the past 4 months i have experienced so much, more than a lot of people could ever even hope for. i've learned about people, culture, language, but most of all, myself. i've made bonds with people and places that i will never forget in all my life. the reality still hasn't set in. just as it didn't set in until i was on the plane to spain, it won't set in this time until i'm long gone...
May 16th, 2009
Well, I have to say the words i've been dreading this whole time--it is my last day in spain. that broke my heart just to read that. it's really hard to describe how i feel right now. mostly i think you could say i'm devastated. each minute that gets closer to my departure, i get more and more depressed. it all hits me at random moments and when it hits, it's like a wall, and i'm hysterical. last night me and gillie went out with erica, cass, lauren, and the guys again for one last night out. it was probably one of the most fun nights i have ever, ever had. we botelloned for awhile and got a little tipsy before going into the COOLEST club i've ever seen called Babalonia. it was half outside, half inside....i can't even really explain it. and the music was awesome and we danced until we couldn't move. then i had to say goodbye to luis and samu and i just started crying so hard. i haven't even known them for very long at all but they have been so nice to us and we've had so much fun with them. "guapa, no llores, vale? no quiero que llores!" (beautiful, don't cry, i don't want you to cry!) so as i sobbed, alvaro (ma man), walked me home and tried to calm my horrific drunken sobs. When he dropped me off we vowed not to say goodbye until tomorrow, the very last minute possible, because i just couldn't even cry one more tear.
Today i have been out taking pictures of all the places i should have visited and photographed a looong time ago--ie the catedral and the plaza de espana....the most famous sites in sevilla haha. it was a day of a lot of introspection since i was all by myself just walking through the city. Tonight i was lucky enough to have dinner with gillie and her dad and sister as well as her host family for my last spanish meal at a beautiful restaurant. Afterwards, i went back to my apartment and finished some last minute packing before meeting up with alvaro one last time. We walked down by the river and talked until 4:30 in the morning...I had to leave my apartment at 4:45 to catch my plane haha. verrry last minute!! but some great last memories for sure.
i am nervous about going back. i just don't know how its going to be when i see my family and friends. i mean, i know i'll be so excited at first, but when the reality sets in that i'm thousands of miles away from where my heart is, its going to hurt. a lot. i just hope they can understand what i'm going through. i feel like a whole new person. i have new friends across the country, i have friends (and family) across the world...i am so lucky. there is not one thing i would take back from this incredible journey and it has made me into the person i am at this very moment, and will forever affect the person that i am becoming with each day that passes. sevilla will always have a piece of my heart and a piece of me. Until next time sevilla--hasta pronto y recuerdame para siempre... <3 <3
well, i know it doesn't have the same effect it might have had, oh, you know, like a month and a half ago when i should have written it, but i really hope that if you have followed my journey, that it gives you some type of closure. and i want all of you to know that even though i miss sevilla with every part of me, coming back home was an incredible relief in many ways. the people i love most are all around me, i am in my other favorite city in the world, and probably most importantly, my life no longer revolves around the exchange rate of the euro :) my life still revolves around spain tho--the day i got back i made gazpacho and drank rebujitos, i watch all my movies with spanish subtitles, i am still emailing, (and calling), all the spanish guys from the last few weeks (luis, alvaro, and samu), i have written to pepita and i am already making return plans with amber and gillie for after graduation. it will never leave my thoughts. and in sevilla's own motto "no me ha dejado" (it has not abandoned me).
i hope that if you have been taking hours out of your life to read this, that you have enjoyed it and somehow felt closer to me by reading it. until the next time (because there WILL be a next time..), i love you all, thanks for reading, y muchismos besos para todos!!!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Bienvenido a la Fería!!!
Bon journo!! That's my attempt at Italian for you. Well, right now I am finishing up the weekend of Feria, which I'll explain later, but its safe to say that I'm completely exhausted. I only have two weekends left here and I'm slowly running out of energy. I'm actually getting really bored of recounting every moment of the trips I go on, especially since this last one was nearly a week long, so I might just skim the surface of Italy and give more details when I get home. I had some of the most tiring travel experiences of my life, but it was definetely worth it. We started out taking the night bus from Sevilla to Madrid, (so from 11pm to about 5am...always a treat), and then we spent the next 7 hours between the bus station and the airport, trying to make some sort of sleeping area wherever we could.
We got to Rome on Friday evening and the only thing any of us had energy to do was eat and go to sleep. The next morning it was beautiful out and we went site seeing throughout all of Rome. We got lucky for the first few days we were in Italy because it was Italy's culture week, so all of the public museums (including the Colesseum and Forum) were free for everyone. There was a lot of people, but it didn't take very long at all to get in. The Colesseum was SO cool...much bigger than I had imagined. The coolest thing about Rome was that you'd just be walking and then all of the sudden you stumble upon some crazy ruins. We got all of our hearts desire of beautiful pictures that day, unfortunately it would end up being the only nice day we had the entire trip. That evening we made our way to Florence on the train and got there around dinner time so we hit up what would end up being our fall back favorite...McDonald's euro menu!! Whooooo! We had all pretty much drained our bank accounts so the euro menu was pretty much all we could afford, except for an actual meal once in awhile. Both the hostels in Rome and Florence were super nice, the Florence one even had a rooftop terrace and a pool...pretty shwanky. The next day in Florence it was raining, but we made the best of it and went to see the David and Il Duomo (a really beautiful church that we mistakenly waited like 2 hours for), during the morning. It was super cool to see the David, I had no idea how HUGE it was...about 7 feet tall I think. Even snuck some pictures before the camera nazis verbally assaulted me. In the afternoon we wandered around an old antique market, then a food market where we enjoyed some delicious samples of cheese, wine, bread, and amazzzing pesto. The market was right outside of the church holding the tombs of Michelanglo, Dante, Machievelli, and Galileo, so that was really awesome to go inside of. Afterwards we wandered around some more, getting sucked into the amazing shopping of Florence, (except for me who ate stolen hostel bread for meals), until it was once again time for us to pack up and move on to Venice. That was one of the things I really didn't like about our trip is that we were constantly having to think about leaving before we even got somewhere.
Venice was quite an experience. We got there at about 11pm, and were completely blown away by the fact that, yes, it actually is completely surrounded by water, and their public transit system is actually a waterbus. An extremely expensive water bus at that—6.50 per ride or 18 euro for a 24 hour pass...yeah. So we talked to some cute persuasive Italian boys who told us that their boat went to our stop, (even though we had a book that said it didn't...i wasn't in charge thank you very much), so we got on and hoped for the best. Of course, when their stop came they said “Oh, em, this-a no-a stop at-a Arsenale, we-a sorry!” So we had to get off at the next nearest stop which put us that much farther from our hostel, but one of the girls, Anne, was like a frickin GPS so we had faith.
One thing about Venice is that is was unnecessarily dark. They really would have benefited from a few more streetlights. When we were blindly walking around there was also not a soul outside, so it made for a pretty creepy setting- winding roads, dark alleys, dead ends that ran into WATER, and endless bridges that all looked the same, but we finally found our hostel, and what a treat it was. At first we didn't even think it could be right, since we were in an alley and all the windows were dark and barred and boarded up. But low and behold it was our hostel. We had to walk over to their sister hostel since the doors were locked and grab the keys to our rooms. We walk up the 1000 stairs to the room and open the door on another horror movie set. The room wasn't that bad, but we were all already creeped out and the room was all sorts of old fashioned furniture, including a dresser blocking a suspicious looking closet. Originally it was supposed to be 5 in that room and 2 in another but upon assessing the situation, we decided to make it a close fit and get all of us in the same room. Me, Janelle, and Amber slept three to a double bed and tried to tell funny stories until we could fall asleep but there were strange noises all night.
The next day of course it poured pretty much the whole day. In the morning we explored the city a bit and walked through Saint Mark's Basilica which was really pretty, and then walked through the high end shopping district on accident to try and look for a cheap place to eat before our walking tour through the city. As a part of our walking tour we got a gondola ride which was a little bit more like a boat ride from hell because the wind was whipping the rain in our face, but when we got on the inside canals it was fun. Also during our tour, our guide informed us about the walking platforms that they were setting up—they were for the flood that was coming by later that night when there would be water that came over our ankles....we had picked the perfect time to leave. We got our stuff together and were on the move again, back to Rome.
The distance from Venice to Rome was the longest of our journey, and in order to avoid spending 100+ euros, we knew we would be taking the slow train (about 7 hours), to Rome overnight. And boy was that an experience. We hadn't really gotten a good night's sleep the entire trip what with our over night bus, sleeping on the airport floor, and haunted hostels, but this was by far the worst sleep of my life. Me, Amber, and Janelle got into a cabin, and since Janelle had “found” it, she decided she had rights to her own bench, even though she is the size of a fourth grader. Meanwhile, me and Amber spent the next 7 hours in positions I never thought were possible of any human being, let alone myself. On top of that, we made stops about every hour at train stations and since we were all terrified of missing our stop, we would wake up each time. There was also the occasional ticket person screaming, “BIGLIETTES!”, while they whipped open the doors and flicked on the lights. Worst part of it all, we found out from our friends in the other cabin that the chairs pull out into beds. So there was no need to have our asses in each other's faces after all. Awesome. But, en fin, we made it to Rome relatively unharmed and only a little bitter.
That day we were super excited, even though completely delirious with exhaustion, because we had our tour of Vatican City. Of COURSE it down poured harder than ever and I was wearing slippery sandles that put me at least 50 feet from the group at all times, but it was still one of my favorite things about Italy. It was really great to have a guide again because its really cool to learn about the stuff you're seeing and not just look at it. As a part of the tour we went through the Vatican Museum, Saint Peter's Basilica, and the Sistine Chapel...sooooooo beautiful. And the things we learned were absolutely unbelieveable...some of it literally I'm not sure if I believe, but nonetheless, impressive. And even though there were camera Nazi's, I snuck some sweet pics of the Sistine Chapel.
That night, everyone went to a pub crawl with the hostel, but I stayed in for lack of money and also because at some point during the day while I was slipping around the Vatican, I pulled some sort of muscle in my back and couldn't really walk. So I decided to sit that one out and actually get sleep for once. The next morning was beautiful, (obviously), and we walked around the city a bit before heading to the airport on our 15 hour travel home. Fun stuff.
I really loved Italy but when I do it again I will change a lot of things. First of all, all I could think about while I was there was how much I wanted my family to be there with me, or at least someone from my family. It's just one of those places that I think would be so much more fun to do with them. I think that about a lot of places, but I felt that way especially about Italy, and Paris also. I liked the girls I went with but it was a really big group and there was always tension somewhere. I also would have liked more time in each place—even though the weather was absolutely awful for us, so it was okay to leave after a little while—I felt like we were traveling more than we were actually in a city. BUT I can't stress enough that just like literally every other place I've been over the past four months, I had an amaaaazzzzing time and I will never forget it in my life.
Now, it case you guys don't remember why we have this second spring break, it's because of a little thing called Feria. This is a week when pretty much all of Sevilla and people from all around Spain come to these fair grounds where they have these things called “casetas” (some kind of hybrid between a tent and a house type thing), set up and there are rides and horses and rebujito (traditional Feria drink made of wine and 7up), and best of all are the flamenco dresses. And dancing, lotttsss of dancing. The dance they do for Feria is known as Sevillanas, and it is so cool to see literally everyone dancing it, even the tiny little kids dressed up in huge dresses. It is truly an authentic spanish experience. Of course as such, anyone that isn't Spanish feels a tad bit out of place. There are only certain people who own casetas—usually businessed will or a rich family or a group of families will rent one, but not everyone has one, and you can't go in them uninvited. There are public casetas which are fun too, but the real experience is in the private ones. People stay at the fair grounds all day and all night, some don't even go home the whole week. I was lucky enough to go into a couple casetas, one was one of my spanish friends', and the other was Pepita's. Pepita's daughter came with her husband and the two girls, Maria and Ana, who I've talked about before when they came for Pepita's birthday. Whenever Pepita talks to Rosa (her daughter/Ana and Maria's mom), she says that Ana always asks about me “Y Emi? Y Emi?” It was so good to see them again! And they looked so beautiful in their dresses, both made by Pepita of course. They invited me to come with them to their caseta and what an experience that was. Seeing it from the inside is so different than looking in on it. We had a bunch of different foods for lunch and...I tried JAMON for the first time! Ahhhhhh! Peer pressure. When in Rome I guess. Or Feria, whatever. I have never really liked ham, so this wasn't much of a surprise, but it was definetely better than the lunch meat crap we have at home. Probably the coolest thing was seeing Maria and Pepita dance Sevillanas with each other. I got some pics but I totally should've taken a video. Later on we went for a ride in the horse carriage, Ana was super pumped at first but by the end she was struggling to keep her eyes open.
Me and some friends went again that night and wandered around the grounds, imitating what we could of Sevillanas, but mostly just admiring everything; the colors, the music and voices, the lights...todo. Trying to take it all in and not let it go. On Saturday afternoon I went to Pepita's caseta again and she invited Amber to come too so that was really fun. Amber told her that her mom and two friends are coming to visit and Pepita decided we have to have them over for coffee and cake. We told her they don't speak a lick of Spanish but she didn't seem to mind. I'll let you all know how that goes. That night we went to “La Calle del Inferno”--literally Hell Street, which is what they call the area with all the rides. And I can see why. Good grief, every one of the rides went at least twice as fast as the ones in America. Even the Ferris Wheel looked like it should be outlawed. But it was SO much fun, I haven't screamed and laughed so hard in a long time.
On Sunday me and the whole fam ate lunch together, and Rosa, Isidrio, Maria and Ana had to leave afterwards. Ana was sitting on my bed just chillin and her mom came in and said that she had to say goodbye, but Ana didn't want to. “You're going to stay here with Emily then? Go back to Wisconsin with her?” “Si!” she responded. I told her she could stay with me and help me with spanish, and she seemed to like the idea. I said goodbye to everyone, and it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. When Rosa told me that it was a real pleasure to get to know me and good luck with everything in life, I almost started crying right there. I hugged and kissed them all goodbye, (though I don't think Ana understood), and watched them walk out the door. Pepita told me later that Ana fell asleep in the car and when she woke up she said, “Emi isn't coming with us?” I'm gonna miss that little girl. Later on Sunday we all bid farewell to la Feria with the fireworks over the river, and my heart broke a little.
Well, for this post I will leave you without much of a sentimental note. I think I will be writing one more blog, (I can't believe that), and that one will be pretty much my final thoughts about the whole experience, which will be sure get a couple tears, from me at least. (And without a doubt, my mom). The past few days it has been in the 90s and almost unbearable, I'm quite sluggish. If I can swing it I think I'm gonna make one more trip to the beach this weekend to get some studying done while I get even tanner :) Well, in 11 days my friends I will be seeing some of you, and within too long after that I'll see you all, and I can't wait. Until then I'll be winding down the school year with papers and finals and saying goodbye to this amazing city. Watch out for the last post sometime next week! <3 <3
We got to Rome on Friday evening and the only thing any of us had energy to do was eat and go to sleep. The next morning it was beautiful out and we went site seeing throughout all of Rome. We got lucky for the first few days we were in Italy because it was Italy's culture week, so all of the public museums (including the Colesseum and Forum) were free for everyone. There was a lot of people, but it didn't take very long at all to get in. The Colesseum was SO cool...much bigger than I had imagined. The coolest thing about Rome was that you'd just be walking and then all of the sudden you stumble upon some crazy ruins. We got all of our hearts desire of beautiful pictures that day, unfortunately it would end up being the only nice day we had the entire trip. That evening we made our way to Florence on the train and got there around dinner time so we hit up what would end up being our fall back favorite...McDonald's euro menu!! Whooooo! We had all pretty much drained our bank accounts so the euro menu was pretty much all we could afford, except for an actual meal once in awhile. Both the hostels in Rome and Florence were super nice, the Florence one even had a rooftop terrace and a pool...pretty shwanky. The next day in Florence it was raining, but we made the best of it and went to see the David and Il Duomo (a really beautiful church that we mistakenly waited like 2 hours for), during the morning. It was super cool to see the David, I had no idea how HUGE it was...about 7 feet tall I think. Even snuck some pictures before the camera nazis verbally assaulted me. In the afternoon we wandered around an old antique market, then a food market where we enjoyed some delicious samples of cheese, wine, bread, and amazzzing pesto. The market was right outside of the church holding the tombs of Michelanglo, Dante, Machievelli, and Galileo, so that was really awesome to go inside of. Afterwards we wandered around some more, getting sucked into the amazing shopping of Florence, (except for me who ate stolen hostel bread for meals), until it was once again time for us to pack up and move on to Venice. That was one of the things I really didn't like about our trip is that we were constantly having to think about leaving before we even got somewhere.
Venice was quite an experience. We got there at about 11pm, and were completely blown away by the fact that, yes, it actually is completely surrounded by water, and their public transit system is actually a waterbus. An extremely expensive water bus at that—6.50 per ride or 18 euro for a 24 hour pass...yeah. So we talked to some cute persuasive Italian boys who told us that their boat went to our stop, (even though we had a book that said it didn't...i wasn't in charge thank you very much), so we got on and hoped for the best. Of course, when their stop came they said “Oh, em, this-a no-a stop at-a Arsenale, we-a sorry!” So we had to get off at the next nearest stop which put us that much farther from our hostel, but one of the girls, Anne, was like a frickin GPS so we had faith.
One thing about Venice is that is was unnecessarily dark. They really would have benefited from a few more streetlights. When we were blindly walking around there was also not a soul outside, so it made for a pretty creepy setting- winding roads, dark alleys, dead ends that ran into WATER, and endless bridges that all looked the same, but we finally found our hostel, and what a treat it was. At first we didn't even think it could be right, since we were in an alley and all the windows were dark and barred and boarded up. But low and behold it was our hostel. We had to walk over to their sister hostel since the doors were locked and grab the keys to our rooms. We walk up the 1000 stairs to the room and open the door on another horror movie set. The room wasn't that bad, but we were all already creeped out and the room was all sorts of old fashioned furniture, including a dresser blocking a suspicious looking closet. Originally it was supposed to be 5 in that room and 2 in another but upon assessing the situation, we decided to make it a close fit and get all of us in the same room. Me, Janelle, and Amber slept three to a double bed and tried to tell funny stories until we could fall asleep but there were strange noises all night.
The next day of course it poured pretty much the whole day. In the morning we explored the city a bit and walked through Saint Mark's Basilica which was really pretty, and then walked through the high end shopping district on accident to try and look for a cheap place to eat before our walking tour through the city. As a part of our walking tour we got a gondola ride which was a little bit more like a boat ride from hell because the wind was whipping the rain in our face, but when we got on the inside canals it was fun. Also during our tour, our guide informed us about the walking platforms that they were setting up—they were for the flood that was coming by later that night when there would be water that came over our ankles....we had picked the perfect time to leave. We got our stuff together and were on the move again, back to Rome.
The distance from Venice to Rome was the longest of our journey, and in order to avoid spending 100+ euros, we knew we would be taking the slow train (about 7 hours), to Rome overnight. And boy was that an experience. We hadn't really gotten a good night's sleep the entire trip what with our over night bus, sleeping on the airport floor, and haunted hostels, but this was by far the worst sleep of my life. Me, Amber, and Janelle got into a cabin, and since Janelle had “found” it, she decided she had rights to her own bench, even though she is the size of a fourth grader. Meanwhile, me and Amber spent the next 7 hours in positions I never thought were possible of any human being, let alone myself. On top of that, we made stops about every hour at train stations and since we were all terrified of missing our stop, we would wake up each time. There was also the occasional ticket person screaming, “BIGLIETTES!”, while they whipped open the doors and flicked on the lights. Worst part of it all, we found out from our friends in the other cabin that the chairs pull out into beds. So there was no need to have our asses in each other's faces after all. Awesome. But, en fin, we made it to Rome relatively unharmed and only a little bitter.
That day we were super excited, even though completely delirious with exhaustion, because we had our tour of Vatican City. Of COURSE it down poured harder than ever and I was wearing slippery sandles that put me at least 50 feet from the group at all times, but it was still one of my favorite things about Italy. It was really great to have a guide again because its really cool to learn about the stuff you're seeing and not just look at it. As a part of the tour we went through the Vatican Museum, Saint Peter's Basilica, and the Sistine Chapel...sooooooo beautiful. And the things we learned were absolutely unbelieveable...some of it literally I'm not sure if I believe, but nonetheless, impressive. And even though there were camera Nazi's, I snuck some sweet pics of the Sistine Chapel.
That night, everyone went to a pub crawl with the hostel, but I stayed in for lack of money and also because at some point during the day while I was slipping around the Vatican, I pulled some sort of muscle in my back and couldn't really walk. So I decided to sit that one out and actually get sleep for once. The next morning was beautiful, (obviously), and we walked around the city a bit before heading to the airport on our 15 hour travel home. Fun stuff.
I really loved Italy but when I do it again I will change a lot of things. First of all, all I could think about while I was there was how much I wanted my family to be there with me, or at least someone from my family. It's just one of those places that I think would be so much more fun to do with them. I think that about a lot of places, but I felt that way especially about Italy, and Paris also. I liked the girls I went with but it was a really big group and there was always tension somewhere. I also would have liked more time in each place—even though the weather was absolutely awful for us, so it was okay to leave after a little while—I felt like we were traveling more than we were actually in a city. BUT I can't stress enough that just like literally every other place I've been over the past four months, I had an amaaaazzzzing time and I will never forget it in my life.
Now, it case you guys don't remember why we have this second spring break, it's because of a little thing called Feria. This is a week when pretty much all of Sevilla and people from all around Spain come to these fair grounds where they have these things called “casetas” (some kind of hybrid between a tent and a house type thing), set up and there are rides and horses and rebujito (traditional Feria drink made of wine and 7up), and best of all are the flamenco dresses. And dancing, lotttsss of dancing. The dance they do for Feria is known as Sevillanas, and it is so cool to see literally everyone dancing it, even the tiny little kids dressed up in huge dresses. It is truly an authentic spanish experience. Of course as such, anyone that isn't Spanish feels a tad bit out of place. There are only certain people who own casetas—usually businessed will or a rich family or a group of families will rent one, but not everyone has one, and you can't go in them uninvited. There are public casetas which are fun too, but the real experience is in the private ones. People stay at the fair grounds all day and all night, some don't even go home the whole week. I was lucky enough to go into a couple casetas, one was one of my spanish friends', and the other was Pepita's. Pepita's daughter came with her husband and the two girls, Maria and Ana, who I've talked about before when they came for Pepita's birthday. Whenever Pepita talks to Rosa (her daughter/Ana and Maria's mom), she says that Ana always asks about me “Y Emi? Y Emi?” It was so good to see them again! And they looked so beautiful in their dresses, both made by Pepita of course. They invited me to come with them to their caseta and what an experience that was. Seeing it from the inside is so different than looking in on it. We had a bunch of different foods for lunch and...I tried JAMON for the first time! Ahhhhhh! Peer pressure. When in Rome I guess. Or Feria, whatever. I have never really liked ham, so this wasn't much of a surprise, but it was definetely better than the lunch meat crap we have at home. Probably the coolest thing was seeing Maria and Pepita dance Sevillanas with each other. I got some pics but I totally should've taken a video. Later on we went for a ride in the horse carriage, Ana was super pumped at first but by the end she was struggling to keep her eyes open.
Me and some friends went again that night and wandered around the grounds, imitating what we could of Sevillanas, but mostly just admiring everything; the colors, the music and voices, the lights...todo. Trying to take it all in and not let it go. On Saturday afternoon I went to Pepita's caseta again and she invited Amber to come too so that was really fun. Amber told her that her mom and two friends are coming to visit and Pepita decided we have to have them over for coffee and cake. We told her they don't speak a lick of Spanish but she didn't seem to mind. I'll let you all know how that goes. That night we went to “La Calle del Inferno”--literally Hell Street, which is what they call the area with all the rides. And I can see why. Good grief, every one of the rides went at least twice as fast as the ones in America. Even the Ferris Wheel looked like it should be outlawed. But it was SO much fun, I haven't screamed and laughed so hard in a long time.
On Sunday me and the whole fam ate lunch together, and Rosa, Isidrio, Maria and Ana had to leave afterwards. Ana was sitting on my bed just chillin and her mom came in and said that she had to say goodbye, but Ana didn't want to. “You're going to stay here with Emily then? Go back to Wisconsin with her?” “Si!” she responded. I told her she could stay with me and help me with spanish, and she seemed to like the idea. I said goodbye to everyone, and it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. When Rosa told me that it was a real pleasure to get to know me and good luck with everything in life, I almost started crying right there. I hugged and kissed them all goodbye, (though I don't think Ana understood), and watched them walk out the door. Pepita told me later that Ana fell asleep in the car and when she woke up she said, “Emi isn't coming with us?” I'm gonna miss that little girl. Later on Sunday we all bid farewell to la Feria with the fireworks over the river, and my heart broke a little.
Well, for this post I will leave you without much of a sentimental note. I think I will be writing one more blog, (I can't believe that), and that one will be pretty much my final thoughts about the whole experience, which will be sure get a couple tears, from me at least. (And without a doubt, my mom). The past few days it has been in the 90s and almost unbearable, I'm quite sluggish. If I can swing it I think I'm gonna make one more trip to the beach this weekend to get some studying done while I get even tanner :) Well, in 11 days my friends I will be seeing some of you, and within too long after that I'll see you all, and I can't wait. Until then I'll be winding down the school year with papers and finals and saying goodbye to this amazing city. Watch out for the last post sometime next week! <3 <3
Thursday, April 23, 2009
La primavera ha llegado
Ha llegado la primavera!! (Spring has arrived!) For real this time...or at least I think! Today it was almost 90 degrees...so hot :) But actually, it felt nothing like the Wisconsin 90 degrees because it was all dry heat, and not humid and gross like we have in the summers. It has been a crrrrrazzy few weeks, I know I've been bad about keeping this up to date so let's see how much I can squeeze in this time...
Where I left off was Semana Santa. Semana Santa is arguably the thing that Sevilla is most famous for around the world. Many other places in Spain and Europe celebrate it, but none even come close to what Sevilla does to celebrate. I believe it started out because there was so much starving and poverty and misery, and the king wanted to give the people something beautiful to look at. And he definetely did.
The city was packed with people. Granted, I got back into Sevilla later in the week when the most people come, but the size of the city at least doubled. And it was pretty cool to have people (in Spanish), ask me directions, and be able to tell them where to go without hesitating. Basically everyday there are processions in various parts of the city which consist of these incredibly elaborate float type things (but made out of gold and jewels and silver, etc...), that are scenes from the passion of the Christ, and also all the Virgens. They are carried by I believe around 40 men who are underneath the pasos (the floats). I can't remember the weight in pounds but I think each man carries like 30 kilos or more which is at least 60 pounds on their backs/necks, to symbolize the carrying of the cross. Then there are the nazarenos (ie the purple, red, black, green, and white KKK look alikes), that march in front of the floats carrying candles. Some carry crosses to ask for forgiveness or have wishes granted. I thought it would be really terrifying to see a whole bunch of them together, and granted, it was a little scary but it was nothing compared to literally running into them randomly in the street during the middle of the day. (they wear there outfits all day and night). But seeing it all together is something I can't really describe with words. Experiencing it is something that is incredibly difficult to explain, if not impossible. Even after I'm done trying to get across what it was like, most people will probably think it still isn't really worth seeing if you aren't religious. But, as most of you know, I am not what you would necessarily call religious. In the traditional meaning anyways. But seeing the scenes of Christ and the different Virgens being carried tirelessly by men that walked to the beat of the melancoly music of the banda, all lit up with candles...brought a silence over the entire mass of people watching, myself included. It was a feeling of utter awe, and I couldn't help but be inspired by the overwhelming feeling of faith The Thursday of Semana Santa is the most famous because the pasos go all through the night into Friday morning. In fact, we waited to see La Esperanza de Triana at 2.30am, and first tons of nazarenos come marching, and then the scene of Christ, and then the band, and then more nazarenos, and THEN the virgen de Triana. By the time she came out it was almost 4.30 in the morning, but no one in the huge crowd of people even looked tired. There were even little kids up high on their parents' shoulders, so excited to watch the pasos pass by when I went home at 5am to go to sleep. Crazy spainards.
Going to bed at 5am wouldn't have been all that bad had we not had to get up at 7am to go to Portugal the next day. So that was a treat. And on my way out the door downstairs I literally ran into a giant black pointed hat wearing nazareno and nearly shat myself. But Lagos was beyonnnnddd beautiful. Out hotel was absolutely BOMB, it was actually more like a sweet ass apartment than anything else. Huge living room, huge bedroom, nice bathroom complete with shampoo, conditioner, and lotion, kitchen with table, silverware, pots, pans, cooking utensils, stove, microwave, and fridge. We nearly died when we saw it, especially since Discover Sevilla set us up with it. Not usually their style to keep it classy. The first day was a tad bit cold, but pretty sunny nonetheless and so we went to Praia Dona Ana, which is a beach that faces away from the wind and is surrounded by huge cliffs that protect you from a lot of the wind as well. I forced Amber to go swimming with me and we were absolutely the only poor souls that made the great decision to go swimming that day. It wasn't too bad though after your body got over the initial shock and just went numb. The first night our travel agency set up a private party with our whole group at a bar in Lagos and thaaat was an experience. By the time we got there everyone was already drunk and dancing on tables. There were a lot of skankies on our trip. It was hard to stomach at first but we got through the night by imitating them and being obnoxious. Made a lot of good quotes out of that night. Oh, that reminds me, we kept a notebook of all the good quotes from the weekend...there were some real winners haha.
The next day we had our sangria boat cruise and once again, it was quite nipply out. So we bitterly bundled up in sweatshirts (and bathing suits), and got a big glass of sangria. The day actually turned out to be beautiful, even though it was windy. The sailing was really fun, we jammed out to some reggae and oldies on the boat while we tried not to get blown overboard. At one point we stopped and some smaller boats came to get groups of us to go and look at the grottos in the cliffs which was really pretty. When we got back, me, amber, and gillie all took the big plunge into the water and we swam around for a good 25 minutes. We even got our guide to give us some sangria in the water, can't get any better than that! And he told us that he's done tons of sailing cruises and has never seen anyone get in the water and drink sangria. But that's just how cool we are I guess.
The next day some people paid to go surfing, I really wanted to but just didn't have the cash flow, and the rest of us went back to the beach we had been at the other days and finally it was HOT. We got a lot of sun that day and we were soooo sad to say goodbye. The beach was literally the most beautiful beach I've ever been to...turquoise blue water, white sand, waves washing up on shore, and the huge cliffs all around. Me and my friend Maggie even swam out to a big cliff and jumped off. Lagos was definetely different from all the other trips i've gone on because usually we always have to be go go going everywhere and we're always tired and run down. But we finally got a chance to just relaaax and breathe and enjoy each second without having to worry about what we're missing if we take a nap. I could talk more about it but it's really the pictures that tell the story best. But I was actually depressed when we came back from Portugal. (Can't imagine what it'll be like to come home...!) But it was nice to press pause, even if it was just a couple days.
Last weekend was my trip to Morrocco with my human rights interest group. I was looking forward to it but I didn't really have many expectations. I knew it was going to be “authentic” and that there may or may not be working showers in our home stays. (In my case, there were not). So mostly I looked forward to being dirty and ugly and seeing a third world country. But I had no idea what was actually in store for me.
The first day we got into Tanger which is a town on the coast, and walked around there with our small groups and had lunch at a women's center. At the women's center they have classes for women who didn't learn how to read or write and they also have computer classes to improve their technical skills for the work force. They also have a bunch of looms at the center and they make lots of different purses and clothes and stuff. It was neat to see, and the food was amazing but we didn't really get to talk to any of the women that go to the center, just some students that knew english that answered some of our questions. Women actually have a lot more freedom than I thought they did, which was a surprise to me. In 2004 the new king signed a new family code that gave women all the freedom that they could have without going against the Koran. But they work in the government, they can vote, they don't have to wear the jihab (the scarf/veil thing), they can get a divorce if they choose, they can have their own bank accounts, their own anything really...all things that I didn't know before I went. I guess I had kind of lumped Morrocco in with a lot of other Islamic countries like Iran or Saudi Arabia where women are still incredibly repressed.
That afternoon we made our way to Rabat, where we would spend two days. On the way we stopped in the coastal city of Asilah, which was absolutely gorgeous. It was a really small town but we walked through the narrow streets and the houses were just so cute, all white with blue doors and blue shutters. I guess all the blue paint was a Jewish influence that they have continued to use. A lot of Jews came to Morrocco when they were being persecuted in Spain, so there is a lot of Jewish influence elsewhere as well. We walked to a lookout point that gave great views of the ocean and all the little houses along the coast. We kept driving onto Rabat and it was a really pretty drive, and I witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets i've ever seen.
In Rabat we were set up with families that we would stay with for two nights, and one person in the family spoke english, usually the kids. Our house sister, Howlah (that's phonetically spelling...no idea how to actually spell it), was 14 and had really good english, and she's only been studying formally for one year! When we all (Amber, Bethann, and me), were so surprised to hear this she told us that when she was younger she would watch a lot of American movies and she loves American music, especially Avril Lavigne. “My teacher at school doesn't know anything, Avril is my real teacher”, is what she told us. We even got a concert our first night, and she was actually really good! It was kind of disappointing though, because that was the only time we saw her. I think her parents are seperated, (they live in different houses but I think they are technically still married...), and she said she likes to spend time with her dad a lot, so maybe that's where she was.
The food that our host mom served us was sooooo good. Really good salads, fruit, and this noodle dish that had sweet almonds on top of it. Morroccan spices are quite tasty. But, as you can imagine, since she knew nothing but Arabic, there was a lot of head nodding and smiling going on. Mostly we just laughed at each other but a common language would have been really helpful, especially in certain situations. For instance, when she locked us into our bedroom...yeah. It happened the second night too and Bethann actually peed in a bottle. It sounds like we were in a refugee camp, but other than that it was a really amazing experience to actually live with people from Morrocco and see what it is like.
In Rabat we saw some castle ruins, talked to Morroccan professors, students, and peace corps volunteers, among other things but my favorite part about Rabat was going to the Hammam (spelling?). Before I explain what it is, I should explain the situation around it. Our shower in our homestay consisted of bucket and a drain, neither of which I would have enjoyed touching. So I, along with my roomates and most of the other people on the trip, made the decision to put off showering for four days. On top of that, I had one pair of jeans and two t shirts for the whole trip. So on to the hammam..
The day that we were going to go to the Hammam, everyone was nervous and didn't know what to think. We kept hearing different things from different people, some said you had to go naked or topless, some said you could wear your underwear...we didn't know what to believe. But I didn't have to know much more than that I was going to actually BATHE, to be excited for whatever this Hammam thing was. The Hammam is the community bath that Moroccans, (men and women but not together), go to sometimes once a week, once a month, twice a week, whenever. Some women spend up to 7 hours in it just talking about god knows what. So Moroccan girl brought about 7 of us girls to the bathes and we were all giggling like middle schoolers about the nakedness we expected to see. It was pretty anticlimatic though because we were all together with no Moroccan women and we all pretty much wore bras and panties. We were each given a scrubber glove and olive oil extract (as soap), and had a big bucket of hot water in a room that was all tile. There was another Moroccan girl that must have worked there or something and she would come around to us all and scrub us and throw water on us. We all had so much fun just scrubbing each other and being soapy and CLEAN for once...now that I'm reading that it sounds like a trashy movie set but it totally wasn't lol. It was one of the coolest things we did because we were all so nervous but five minutes into it we were laughing and having such a good time doing something that Moroccans do all the time. Really, really cool.
I enjoyed Rabat, but by far my favorite part of the trip was our journey into the Rif Mountains and into Chefchaoen. We drove for four hours into the mountains to have lunch with a rural family that lives there. It was the most beautiful drive I have ever, ever been on. It wasn't just like you saw the mountains from a distance, you were in the mountains, on the one road that went through them. We parked the van at the bottom and walked up to the families' house where we would eat. The house was much nicer than I expected, it was nicer than our homestays. It was a big family, 5 kids, grandma, grandpa, and the parents. Mostly they live off of what they grow, (they have tons of fruit trees and vegetables growing), and they try to sell the surpluses they get in the local market. It was definetely one of my favorite things I've done since i've been here. We had a man who translated between us and the family so we could ask them questions about their daily lives and how they get by. It was a really interesting conversation. After lunch we took a beautiful walk even higher up on their mountain and oh my god....I thought the view from Granada was pretty but this left me speechless. For miles and miles all you could see was green mountains, spotted with maybe one or two houses that clung to their sides. I can't even imagine waking up every day to a view like that. Truly pristine beauty. The littles boys (4 and 6), came with us and were just making flower crowns and eating grass...reminded me of what I used to be like. Especially the chubby kid with crazy dimples. I also made friends with the super timid dog that wouldn't go up to anyone else, and the older son said “You made a new friend, are you going to take him with you?” To which of course I said yes! And when we said goodbye to the whole family and were walking down the hill he yelled to me “You forgot the dog!” and I started crying right there. Not just for the dog, but for the whole experience. Each time I leave a place or person so unique as the ones I've seen and met here, I feel this intense sadness to think that there is a good chance I will never see them again in my life.
We had another incredibly beautiful (I just don't have enough adjectives!) drive to our last stop, Chefchaoen, and as we got there the sun we just setting. We drove in and saw the whole little town situated on the side of a huge mountain. The pictures will explain better than I can but it was a glorious view. We trekked through the little streets to our hostel and here, the blue paint was even more prevalent than in Asilah and it was so cool! It actually looked like you were inside an igloo or something because so much was a shade of bright blue. There was a beautiful sunset that painted the sky all shades of pink and orange, until it finally fell behind the mountains.
That night we got time to walk around and then the whole group went out to dinner at a really nice Moroccan restaurant, (which was also included in our trip). We went back to the hostel and all talked about the parts that affected us or that we liked the most while we smoked out of my new hookah that I got for like ten us dollars. (Its legit!). After we got over the sentimental crap, we all went around and shared an “interesting” fact about ourselves and learned many things about each other like that our guide tried to light his school on fire when he was in first grade. Pretty sure he isn't still a pyro but can't know for sure...
The next morning we all got up extremely early to go on a hike up the mountain to an old mosque and eat breakfast. I have certainly never eaten breakfast with such a view. We basically saw the sun rise and could see the whole town and the mountains that never disappoint.
Tired, sweaty, and incredibly dirty, we started to make our journey back across the straight of Gibraltar to Spain and back to Sevilla. I can't think of another time in my life I was so happy to take a shower.
There! I've pretty much updated you on all the major happenings. Phewf! Of course I am skipping a lot of the daily life that has gone on in Sevilla, which is kind of a shame but I just can't fit it all into the time that I have to write these. I'm already putting off homework I need to do before Italy tomorrow!! But here's a little aside from the weekend travels. The other night I was eating dinner with Pepita and we were just talking and after a short silence she goes, “I'm gonna think about you a lot when you're gone, will you think about me?” To which I told her of course I would and that I couldn't believe I'm almost leaving. And she went on to say that even though its sad, I've had an amazing experience and done things that people only dream about and that I'll think about for the rest of my life, and that traveling really makes a person who they are. During all of this my eyes started to well up uncontrollably, and even as I write this they are doing the same thing. With each day that passes here, a roller coaster passes through me every five minutes bringing me through the most extreme of emotions. Sometimes I am so so excited to go home and see my family and friends and tell them everything I've learned and what I've seen, and then I get so horribly sad to be leaving this place that has truly become a part of me. It is much different from what I felt when I came here, because when I left, it was sad, but the time was finite. I knew I would see everyone again. Though I know someday I'll come back here, I don't know when and I don't know who will still be here when I do. When I walk to school each morning I look at every building, every person, every piece of the city and try to burn them into my memory, even though I know there will come a time when the details will blur and some things will be lost altogether. I know that I am more than blessed to have been here, but it is a very bittersweet feeling as each day winds down. Usually more bitter than sweet. Sorry for the downer ending here, but every entry is only going to get worse :) You all know I miss you and love you and I think about seeing you in person all the time, but leaving won't be easy.
On a good note, stay tuned for my adventures in Italy! Our travel plans are already messed up and there is a girl on our trip who should be named Debbie Downer so I know I'll have some great stories.
Loveeeeee and kisses.
Where I left off was Semana Santa. Semana Santa is arguably the thing that Sevilla is most famous for around the world. Many other places in Spain and Europe celebrate it, but none even come close to what Sevilla does to celebrate. I believe it started out because there was so much starving and poverty and misery, and the king wanted to give the people something beautiful to look at. And he definetely did.
The city was packed with people. Granted, I got back into Sevilla later in the week when the most people come, but the size of the city at least doubled. And it was pretty cool to have people (in Spanish), ask me directions, and be able to tell them where to go without hesitating. Basically everyday there are processions in various parts of the city which consist of these incredibly elaborate float type things (but made out of gold and jewels and silver, etc...), that are scenes from the passion of the Christ, and also all the Virgens. They are carried by I believe around 40 men who are underneath the pasos (the floats). I can't remember the weight in pounds but I think each man carries like 30 kilos or more which is at least 60 pounds on their backs/necks, to symbolize the carrying of the cross. Then there are the nazarenos (ie the purple, red, black, green, and white KKK look alikes), that march in front of the floats carrying candles. Some carry crosses to ask for forgiveness or have wishes granted. I thought it would be really terrifying to see a whole bunch of them together, and granted, it was a little scary but it was nothing compared to literally running into them randomly in the street during the middle of the day. (they wear there outfits all day and night). But seeing it all together is something I can't really describe with words. Experiencing it is something that is incredibly difficult to explain, if not impossible. Even after I'm done trying to get across what it was like, most people will probably think it still isn't really worth seeing if you aren't religious. But, as most of you know, I am not what you would necessarily call religious. In the traditional meaning anyways. But seeing the scenes of Christ and the different Virgens being carried tirelessly by men that walked to the beat of the melancoly music of the banda, all lit up with candles...brought a silence over the entire mass of people watching, myself included. It was a feeling of utter awe, and I couldn't help but be inspired by the overwhelming feeling of faith The Thursday of Semana Santa is the most famous because the pasos go all through the night into Friday morning. In fact, we waited to see La Esperanza de Triana at 2.30am, and first tons of nazarenos come marching, and then the scene of Christ, and then the band, and then more nazarenos, and THEN the virgen de Triana. By the time she came out it was almost 4.30 in the morning, but no one in the huge crowd of people even looked tired. There were even little kids up high on their parents' shoulders, so excited to watch the pasos pass by when I went home at 5am to go to sleep. Crazy spainards.
Going to bed at 5am wouldn't have been all that bad had we not had to get up at 7am to go to Portugal the next day. So that was a treat. And on my way out the door downstairs I literally ran into a giant black pointed hat wearing nazareno and nearly shat myself. But Lagos was beyonnnnddd beautiful. Out hotel was absolutely BOMB, it was actually more like a sweet ass apartment than anything else. Huge living room, huge bedroom, nice bathroom complete with shampoo, conditioner, and lotion, kitchen with table, silverware, pots, pans, cooking utensils, stove, microwave, and fridge. We nearly died when we saw it, especially since Discover Sevilla set us up with it. Not usually their style to keep it classy. The first day was a tad bit cold, but pretty sunny nonetheless and so we went to Praia Dona Ana, which is a beach that faces away from the wind and is surrounded by huge cliffs that protect you from a lot of the wind as well. I forced Amber to go swimming with me and we were absolutely the only poor souls that made the great decision to go swimming that day. It wasn't too bad though after your body got over the initial shock and just went numb. The first night our travel agency set up a private party with our whole group at a bar in Lagos and thaaat was an experience. By the time we got there everyone was already drunk and dancing on tables. There were a lot of skankies on our trip. It was hard to stomach at first but we got through the night by imitating them and being obnoxious. Made a lot of good quotes out of that night. Oh, that reminds me, we kept a notebook of all the good quotes from the weekend...there were some real winners haha.
The next day we had our sangria boat cruise and once again, it was quite nipply out. So we bitterly bundled up in sweatshirts (and bathing suits), and got a big glass of sangria. The day actually turned out to be beautiful, even though it was windy. The sailing was really fun, we jammed out to some reggae and oldies on the boat while we tried not to get blown overboard. At one point we stopped and some smaller boats came to get groups of us to go and look at the grottos in the cliffs which was really pretty. When we got back, me, amber, and gillie all took the big plunge into the water and we swam around for a good 25 minutes. We even got our guide to give us some sangria in the water, can't get any better than that! And he told us that he's done tons of sailing cruises and has never seen anyone get in the water and drink sangria. But that's just how cool we are I guess.
The next day some people paid to go surfing, I really wanted to but just didn't have the cash flow, and the rest of us went back to the beach we had been at the other days and finally it was HOT. We got a lot of sun that day and we were soooo sad to say goodbye. The beach was literally the most beautiful beach I've ever been to...turquoise blue water, white sand, waves washing up on shore, and the huge cliffs all around. Me and my friend Maggie even swam out to a big cliff and jumped off. Lagos was definetely different from all the other trips i've gone on because usually we always have to be go go going everywhere and we're always tired and run down. But we finally got a chance to just relaaax and breathe and enjoy each second without having to worry about what we're missing if we take a nap. I could talk more about it but it's really the pictures that tell the story best. But I was actually depressed when we came back from Portugal. (Can't imagine what it'll be like to come home...!) But it was nice to press pause, even if it was just a couple days.
Last weekend was my trip to Morrocco with my human rights interest group. I was looking forward to it but I didn't really have many expectations. I knew it was going to be “authentic” and that there may or may not be working showers in our home stays. (In my case, there were not). So mostly I looked forward to being dirty and ugly and seeing a third world country. But I had no idea what was actually in store for me.
The first day we got into Tanger which is a town on the coast, and walked around there with our small groups and had lunch at a women's center. At the women's center they have classes for women who didn't learn how to read or write and they also have computer classes to improve their technical skills for the work force. They also have a bunch of looms at the center and they make lots of different purses and clothes and stuff. It was neat to see, and the food was amazing but we didn't really get to talk to any of the women that go to the center, just some students that knew english that answered some of our questions. Women actually have a lot more freedom than I thought they did, which was a surprise to me. In 2004 the new king signed a new family code that gave women all the freedom that they could have without going against the Koran. But they work in the government, they can vote, they don't have to wear the jihab (the scarf/veil thing), they can get a divorce if they choose, they can have their own bank accounts, their own anything really...all things that I didn't know before I went. I guess I had kind of lumped Morrocco in with a lot of other Islamic countries like Iran or Saudi Arabia where women are still incredibly repressed.
That afternoon we made our way to Rabat, where we would spend two days. On the way we stopped in the coastal city of Asilah, which was absolutely gorgeous. It was a really small town but we walked through the narrow streets and the houses were just so cute, all white with blue doors and blue shutters. I guess all the blue paint was a Jewish influence that they have continued to use. A lot of Jews came to Morrocco when they were being persecuted in Spain, so there is a lot of Jewish influence elsewhere as well. We walked to a lookout point that gave great views of the ocean and all the little houses along the coast. We kept driving onto Rabat and it was a really pretty drive, and I witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets i've ever seen.
In Rabat we were set up with families that we would stay with for two nights, and one person in the family spoke english, usually the kids. Our house sister, Howlah (that's phonetically spelling...no idea how to actually spell it), was 14 and had really good english, and she's only been studying formally for one year! When we all (Amber, Bethann, and me), were so surprised to hear this she told us that when she was younger she would watch a lot of American movies and she loves American music, especially Avril Lavigne. “My teacher at school doesn't know anything, Avril is my real teacher”, is what she told us. We even got a concert our first night, and she was actually really good! It was kind of disappointing though, because that was the only time we saw her. I think her parents are seperated, (they live in different houses but I think they are technically still married...), and she said she likes to spend time with her dad a lot, so maybe that's where she was.
The food that our host mom served us was sooooo good. Really good salads, fruit, and this noodle dish that had sweet almonds on top of it. Morroccan spices are quite tasty. But, as you can imagine, since she knew nothing but Arabic, there was a lot of head nodding and smiling going on. Mostly we just laughed at each other but a common language would have been really helpful, especially in certain situations. For instance, when she locked us into our bedroom...yeah. It happened the second night too and Bethann actually peed in a bottle. It sounds like we were in a refugee camp, but other than that it was a really amazing experience to actually live with people from Morrocco and see what it is like.
In Rabat we saw some castle ruins, talked to Morroccan professors, students, and peace corps volunteers, among other things but my favorite part about Rabat was going to the Hammam (spelling?). Before I explain what it is, I should explain the situation around it. Our shower in our homestay consisted of bucket and a drain, neither of which I would have enjoyed touching. So I, along with my roomates and most of the other people on the trip, made the decision to put off showering for four days. On top of that, I had one pair of jeans and two t shirts for the whole trip. So on to the hammam..
The day that we were going to go to the Hammam, everyone was nervous and didn't know what to think. We kept hearing different things from different people, some said you had to go naked or topless, some said you could wear your underwear...we didn't know what to believe. But I didn't have to know much more than that I was going to actually BATHE, to be excited for whatever this Hammam thing was. The Hammam is the community bath that Moroccans, (men and women but not together), go to sometimes once a week, once a month, twice a week, whenever. Some women spend up to 7 hours in it just talking about god knows what. So Moroccan girl brought about 7 of us girls to the bathes and we were all giggling like middle schoolers about the nakedness we expected to see. It was pretty anticlimatic though because we were all together with no Moroccan women and we all pretty much wore bras and panties. We were each given a scrubber glove and olive oil extract (as soap), and had a big bucket of hot water in a room that was all tile. There was another Moroccan girl that must have worked there or something and she would come around to us all and scrub us and throw water on us. We all had so much fun just scrubbing each other and being soapy and CLEAN for once...now that I'm reading that it sounds like a trashy movie set but it totally wasn't lol. It was one of the coolest things we did because we were all so nervous but five minutes into it we were laughing and having such a good time doing something that Moroccans do all the time. Really, really cool.
I enjoyed Rabat, but by far my favorite part of the trip was our journey into the Rif Mountains and into Chefchaoen. We drove for four hours into the mountains to have lunch with a rural family that lives there. It was the most beautiful drive I have ever, ever been on. It wasn't just like you saw the mountains from a distance, you were in the mountains, on the one road that went through them. We parked the van at the bottom and walked up to the families' house where we would eat. The house was much nicer than I expected, it was nicer than our homestays. It was a big family, 5 kids, grandma, grandpa, and the parents. Mostly they live off of what they grow, (they have tons of fruit trees and vegetables growing), and they try to sell the surpluses they get in the local market. It was definetely one of my favorite things I've done since i've been here. We had a man who translated between us and the family so we could ask them questions about their daily lives and how they get by. It was a really interesting conversation. After lunch we took a beautiful walk even higher up on their mountain and oh my god....I thought the view from Granada was pretty but this left me speechless. For miles and miles all you could see was green mountains, spotted with maybe one or two houses that clung to their sides. I can't even imagine waking up every day to a view like that. Truly pristine beauty. The littles boys (4 and 6), came with us and were just making flower crowns and eating grass...reminded me of what I used to be like. Especially the chubby kid with crazy dimples. I also made friends with the super timid dog that wouldn't go up to anyone else, and the older son said “You made a new friend, are you going to take him with you?” To which of course I said yes! And when we said goodbye to the whole family and were walking down the hill he yelled to me “You forgot the dog!” and I started crying right there. Not just for the dog, but for the whole experience. Each time I leave a place or person so unique as the ones I've seen and met here, I feel this intense sadness to think that there is a good chance I will never see them again in my life.
We had another incredibly beautiful (I just don't have enough adjectives!) drive to our last stop, Chefchaoen, and as we got there the sun we just setting. We drove in and saw the whole little town situated on the side of a huge mountain. The pictures will explain better than I can but it was a glorious view. We trekked through the little streets to our hostel and here, the blue paint was even more prevalent than in Asilah and it was so cool! It actually looked like you were inside an igloo or something because so much was a shade of bright blue. There was a beautiful sunset that painted the sky all shades of pink and orange, until it finally fell behind the mountains.
That night we got time to walk around and then the whole group went out to dinner at a really nice Moroccan restaurant, (which was also included in our trip). We went back to the hostel and all talked about the parts that affected us or that we liked the most while we smoked out of my new hookah that I got for like ten us dollars. (Its legit!). After we got over the sentimental crap, we all went around and shared an “interesting” fact about ourselves and learned many things about each other like that our guide tried to light his school on fire when he was in first grade. Pretty sure he isn't still a pyro but can't know for sure...
The next morning we all got up extremely early to go on a hike up the mountain to an old mosque and eat breakfast. I have certainly never eaten breakfast with such a view. We basically saw the sun rise and could see the whole town and the mountains that never disappoint.
Tired, sweaty, and incredibly dirty, we started to make our journey back across the straight of Gibraltar to Spain and back to Sevilla. I can't think of another time in my life I was so happy to take a shower.
There! I've pretty much updated you on all the major happenings. Phewf! Of course I am skipping a lot of the daily life that has gone on in Sevilla, which is kind of a shame but I just can't fit it all into the time that I have to write these. I'm already putting off homework I need to do before Italy tomorrow!! But here's a little aside from the weekend travels. The other night I was eating dinner with Pepita and we were just talking and after a short silence she goes, “I'm gonna think about you a lot when you're gone, will you think about me?” To which I told her of course I would and that I couldn't believe I'm almost leaving. And she went on to say that even though its sad, I've had an amazing experience and done things that people only dream about and that I'll think about for the rest of my life, and that traveling really makes a person who they are. During all of this my eyes started to well up uncontrollably, and even as I write this they are doing the same thing. With each day that passes here, a roller coaster passes through me every five minutes bringing me through the most extreme of emotions. Sometimes I am so so excited to go home and see my family and friends and tell them everything I've learned and what I've seen, and then I get so horribly sad to be leaving this place that has truly become a part of me. It is much different from what I felt when I came here, because when I left, it was sad, but the time was finite. I knew I would see everyone again. Though I know someday I'll come back here, I don't know when and I don't know who will still be here when I do. When I walk to school each morning I look at every building, every person, every piece of the city and try to burn them into my memory, even though I know there will come a time when the details will blur and some things will be lost altogether. I know that I am more than blessed to have been here, but it is a very bittersweet feeling as each day winds down. Usually more bitter than sweet. Sorry for the downer ending here, but every entry is only going to get worse :) You all know I miss you and love you and I think about seeing you in person all the time, but leaving won't be easy.
On a good note, stay tuned for my adventures in Italy! Our travel plans are already messed up and there is a girl on our trip who should be named Debbie Downer so I know I'll have some great stories.
Loveeeeee and kisses.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
"Todo está cerrado los lunes..."
Ayyyy madre mia. I am starting to get a little behind on these blogs. I just read my last entry, about my birthday, and that was almost a month ago, I'm a total slacker. Though I am writing random thoughts in my journal when I get the chance, so I don't forget. This entry is going to be super long because I am going to attempt to combine Barcelona, Cadiz, Madrid, Toledo, Semana Santa, and Lagos together...we'll see how it goes, I may have to break it up somewhere for my sanity and your attention span.
First of all, we'll start with Barcelona. We went the weekend of March 26th-28th because we found some great plane tickets for only 25 euros. I think I've told a lot of you that it is hard for me to describe my trip to Barcelona. Of course it was beautiful, the coast, if nothing else, was worth seeing for sure. Yet many things happened to us that made Barcelona more of a joke of how much it hated us than anything else. I'll attempt to explain this, though I think its something that deserves more of an oral explanation, and even still it could be lost in translation.
Our “Barcelona luck” as it came to be known, (though the mishaps in Madrid turned out to be far more discouraging), started out when Steven missed the bus to the airport. Thankfully he caught the next one and made it on time. Our flight was rather enjoyable, and we were even treated to a grandma classic--Worthers butterscotch candy at the end. We got to our hostel without much trouble and were thrilled at how nice it was. Perfect location (right down the street from Gaudi's Casa Bastille), suppper nice rooms, clean bathrooms, hot showers, free internet and computers, free breakfast, a sweet lounge, a bar (with killer sangria), and some really cool girls studying in Italy that we had as roommates. Brooke fell down about 15 stairs on our way out sightseeing but overall, things started out great. We walked to Casa Bastille, Gaudi's house, which is known for its crazy architecture (refer to pictures for explanation). However, it was 17 euros to go inside, so we opted against that. We moved on towards the Sagrada Familia, which is also a project started by Gaudi a long time ago (not sure of the year...), but he died before it was finished so it has been an on going project in Barcelona to finish it, and it won't be done for like another 75 years. Why, I'm not so sure. It certainly isn't the funding because I'm pretty sure they do alright charging 11 euros to go inside and see a bunch of construction and another 2.50 to go to the top. The views from the top were definetely worth the 2.50, though. Barcelona has great views of the mountains and the ocean which was really neat.
After Sagrada, we headed to the grocery store and picked up some food to make for dinner, (the hostel also had a kitchen we could use). Burned the pizzas to hell but we weren't too concerned. Then we enjoyed some great sangria in the lounge with some live Spanish hiphop/reggae music by a group of 2 spanish girls, which was really cool actually. Before we left, Brooke had done research on bars in Barcelona and found one called the Dow Jones which, true to its name, is a simulation of the stock market (just what we want to see in the middle of the CRISIS—pronounced “cree-sees”), and they would have the drink prices on screens and then the market would “crash” and drinks would be really cheap. We got lost for about an hour going there, and were welcomed by a homeless man telling us to shut the fuck up. Always a good start. The bar was cool but a little less Wall Street than I expected. I wanted screaming and sweat and men crying...unfortunately it was a little mellow. We left a little while later, and were yelled at again as we walked out the door by the crazy man, (we weren't even talking this time, so it was quite unnecessary). This time however, Steven decided to retaliate by singing the beginning of “The Circle of Life” at the top of his lungs. Though ineffective, we all enjoyed it.
The next morning we headed to Parc Guell, also a Gaudi establishment (noticing a pattern?). I should also mention a special idiosyncrasy about Barcelona. They think they are really special and decided to speak their own language (a dialect really, though it is completely indecipherable), Catalan, and have been trying to become their own region for....basically all of time. And they don't even appreciate the most valient efforts in Spanish. So that's why everything was spelled weird and why we got dirty looks despite our most impeccable, ahem, communication skills. The park was really pretty cool. Gaudi was a weird little man...he came up with some very interesting pieces of work. He was a part of the naturalism movement which was completely inspired by nature. The park also had pretty views of the city because it was pretty high up. Afterwards, since it was a really nice day, we took the metro towards the beach. We picked up some groceries on the way for a picnic. We ended up choosing one of the worst spots on the beach for a few reasons. Number one was the guy in love with his body in a Speedo who made a route from the ocean to the showers right behind us, to lather himself in soap, about 17 times. The other much more entertaining reason was the homeless woman who we didn't notice until after we chose our seats because she looked more like a pile of blankets until she started telling us we had whore fingers and came over to ask for a tomato. (yes we gave it to her). She then proceeded to go over to the wall behind us, pull down her pants, and pee on the building, even though there was a perfectly good working public restroom about 20 feet away. Upon returning to her pile, she took off her red underwear and waved them at us. We all agreed to moved, and Steven was scared shitless and threatened to “light her life on fire”. (Don't worry, he didn't say it to her, and he didn't have the capacity to do so). We named her PB (poop bucket, because she had one—though slightly reminiscent of another nickname that has been created and eerily similar in looks...), and moved on. We walked down to the way end of the beach, and to our wonderful surprise it was much calmer, (it was really really windy at the other place). This was probably the best part of the trip. Though we couldn't go in the water, and wouldn't want to even if we had the proper equipment (ie. A swimsuit), we played around in the water and took a bunch of pictures. And then we were greeted with another lovely surprise.
The whole day, asians had been walking up and down the beach offering massages, and to my knowledge, they didn't bring in much business. But as we were playing in the water, we noticed a completely naked man sunning himself, and an asian woman went over to offer her services. Surprisingly, the man accepted and for the next 20 minutes we were hypnotized by the can't-look-can't-look-away car crash syndrome that involved this poor woman massaging this man's oddly tan ass. The punch line came when we witnessed the woman offer her massage to another who accepted, and unbeknownst to them, were being massaged with ass particles from the previous customer.
After getting lost for awhile we finally found the gothic quarter which had old buildings, a plaza, and the cathedral, (which was under reconstruction, obviously). We hiked it back to the hostel to shower and get ready to see this amazing fountain light show we heard about an then out for Amber's birthday. Well, thanks to the woman at the hostel for telling us the wrong time, and also for one of the girls we roomed with for forgetting her metro pass, we arrived 4 minutes too late for any light show. (Are you beginning to notice the little things that continue to happen..?) So we went out to dinner which was nice and then went searching for some bars. For some reason, in every city in Europe there is an Irish pub which usually has decently priced drinks, so we went into the first one we saw. We were immediately attacked by a vulture waitress who wanted to know what we wanted to drink STAT. We all hurriedly ordered a beer and Amber asked what they had to mix with vodka because she wanted a special drink. The answer she got was “I don't know, coke or whisky”. “Coke sounds fine...” And that was how she turned 21. We were on our way to a Chupiteria which is a place that makes a lot of fun shots, (great for birthdays), when a little blonde woman asked us if we wanted free shots. Um, yes. So she gave us a flyer for another Irish pub (we should've known then), and showed us where to go. We get in and find out we have to buy a drink first. Ok fine, give me a beer. Then we go up and the bartender goes “so do you guys want your shots now?” And we said yes and ordered tequila, and got a bill for 8 euro. Hell no. So we explain it to her and she says, oh that is only for vodka. Okay then give me that. I already poured those. I really don't care, I didn't drink them. You have to pay for them. I'm not paying for them, get me the manager. So she goes and gets the fat bouncer who tells me the exact same thing and I tell him the exact same thing in a less calm manner. So I ended it with, I'm not paying, BYE. And left in a fantastic mood. After that we weren't even in a mood to do anything besides sleep.
Our last day it was rainy outside (of course), but we went to the famous market Las Ramblas, which was really cool—they had a tons of fruits and veggies and fish and cheese and meat and candy...everything you could want.
After lunch at Pita Inn (delicious chain restaurant), we headed to the Picasso Museum. On the way there, we found AMAZING smoothies. As we're drinking our smoothies Steven goes “Well something good just happened so I guess that means...we're crashing?”. Unfortunately we had to wait in a bit of a line outside and it kept raining and then stopping and then raining again. I had my umbrella down and felt a little mist so I had put it back up not 24 seconds before I hear two big drops and one of the Italy girls say “Oh dude, you just got pooped on”. And I look up to find two huge shit drops on my umbrella, and the guilty pigeon looking down on me quite contently. Truly, this city did not like us. Or at least me. And I was beginning to accept it. The museum was really cool though, and I told Barcelona to suck it by sneaking some sweet pics of some Picasso works.
We had a few problems getting back, none too serious and none we didn't expect from Barcelona, however. These included almost not getting to the airport in time, Steven's boarding pass not printing, being in the very last row on the plane with no reclining option, and witnessing a “medical emergency” midair which delayed us running off the plane for a good 20 minutes. But we arrived in Sevilla at about 10pm and Amber made us all promise to go out like crazy for her birthday because it was shit all over the night before. So we went out until 7am and slept all the next day :)
Gracias and adios Barcelona.
So now I take you to Semana Santa, which is known world wide because Sevilla is known to have the most elaborate display of pasos and imagenes and nazarenos anywhere in the world. It is also known as our spring break. Don't worry I'll get more into detail into it later. Anyways, most people planned a big trip during this time. Amber and I were not as smart, however. So we did a trip to Madrid and Toledo. But the Saturday we left for Madrid (at 11pm), we went to Cadiz for the day at the beach. We almost didn't go because we were so tired, and almost missed the bus, but made it to Cadiz at 10.30am, prime beach time! Joke. It was cloudy and not a soul was on the beach minus a few dedicated seagulls. At around 2 oclock though, it reeeeeallly warmed up and there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was BEAUTIFUL. The water was soooo blue and clear and amazing. I got a lovely little tan and we jumped around in the water, bodysurfing the waves all day. Also, I got pooped on again. My backpack and somehow the sleeve of my sweatshirt were splattered with pigeon shit. I have no idea how or when or most importantly WHY, but by now I just expect it and wasn't too upset. If, however, I ever get shat on in Sevilla, I'm packing up early.
We left for Madrid on the overnight bus at 11 oclock from Sevilla, we were supposed to get into Madrid at 5.15am, yes it was going to be early, but it was better than paying for a night in a hostel. Unfortunately, we got into Madrid a half an hour early...yes, 4.45 in the morning. We were aware of the fact that we would have to spend some time in the bus station, but any extra minute was painful. Thankfully the station was pretty nice and had a restaurant and cafe that opened at like 7. We went to our hostel at about 9, and we couldn't check in until 12 so we dragged our exhausted selves to the Royal Palace, Plaza Mayor, and Plaza de Espana. The palacio was really cool, but the plazas were nothing compared to the Plaza de Espana in Sevilla. We went back to the hostel and tried to sleep for awhile, but of course, we got the room with the broken lock that you had to hit just right in order to open it so every time someone new needed to come into the room, they had to pound on it. Needless to say, there wasn't much sleep that was had. Since we got there on a Sunday, the Prado museum was free for three hours so after our nap we headed in that direction. We went into the botanical gardens right outside the Prado and it was sooo pretty! The flowers were blooming everywhere, and for those of you who know me, you know one of my favorite things to do is taking pictures of flowers. After, we went into the Prado and saw some amazing art, the most impressive being Las Meninas by Velazquez...impressive. That night we took it easy because we planned on going to El Escorial the next morning.
Since I'm tired and talking about it makes me depressed, I'll make the fiasco of the Escorial a long story short. Basically, it was the thing I was most looking forward to; El Escorial is a monastery and some other pretty buildings but the Valley of the Fallen, (where Franco is buried), is apparently really really cool, and I wanted to see it really badly. Well, after going through some hoops just to get to the city outside of Madrid, we come to find out that everything is closed on Mondays because its Spain, and it hates us. So that was a total bust, and after walking around the city for awhile we get back on the train to Madrid. The whole time while we were on our way towards El Escorial we never needed our train tickets and so we wondered why we even bought them. Then a guy comes around three stops before we are in Madrid and asks for our tickets. Of course, I can't find mine anywhere. So he makes me pay 3.50 euro to get back. Which, isn't that much but after the day we had just had, I completely lost it and just started balling in the train. Kind of a bummer of a day. But we got back and visited the Reina Sofia which has tons of awesome art by Picasso, Goya, Dali, and tons of others I'm forgetting now. The most impressive was probably Picasso's “Guernica”. It was so big and overwhelming. We spent the night at the hostel and had a few glasses of sangria and went to bed. In the morning, we found out we had a little too much sangria, and didn't feel the greatest, but we set out for Toledo to spend our last day.
Of course, there was the expected travel problems getting to Toledo, but we did finally make it, and while at a bus stop looking like idiots wondering how to get to the center, I asked a girl and she told us to take the bus she was on. Then when she got off she told us to follow her and she walked us basically right to the church we were looking for. She was SO nice, we couldn't believe our luck. Of course, she left us like 2 streets away from the church and we still got lost for 45 minutes. We got to the church of Saint Tome and saw the amazing work by El Greco, El Entierro de Senor Orgaz...or something along those lines. It was huge and truly stunning. We trekked through Toledo for a few more hours, it was a really adorable little town, with some great views. We had to make the 3.30 bus back to Madrid in order to make our bus home to Sevilla. ONCE AGAIN, we took the wrong bus back to the bus station and had to sprrrrrinnnntttt our butts in order to make the bus on time. Madrid did not want to make it easy on us, but we made a great weekend out of it anyway, and certainly some great stories that will be funny....someday.
Well as I suspected, this is getting to be a little long, and also I am way behind, so I will work on an entry about Semana Santa and Lagos that should be up soon! Sooner than this one at least. Things are just getting crazy here, trying to fit in everything that I can and I've got a “lot” of projects to do before school ends. Which, by the way, I have 13 days left of...holy shit right?? Granted, I have 5 weeks left here, but still....I have no idea where time has gone. I'm exhausted, good night!! Missing you all as always... <3
First of all, we'll start with Barcelona. We went the weekend of March 26th-28th because we found some great plane tickets for only 25 euros. I think I've told a lot of you that it is hard for me to describe my trip to Barcelona. Of course it was beautiful, the coast, if nothing else, was worth seeing for sure. Yet many things happened to us that made Barcelona more of a joke of how much it hated us than anything else. I'll attempt to explain this, though I think its something that deserves more of an oral explanation, and even still it could be lost in translation.
Our “Barcelona luck” as it came to be known, (though the mishaps in Madrid turned out to be far more discouraging), started out when Steven missed the bus to the airport. Thankfully he caught the next one and made it on time. Our flight was rather enjoyable, and we were even treated to a grandma classic--Worthers butterscotch candy at the end. We got to our hostel without much trouble and were thrilled at how nice it was. Perfect location (right down the street from Gaudi's Casa Bastille), suppper nice rooms, clean bathrooms, hot showers, free internet and computers, free breakfast, a sweet lounge, a bar (with killer sangria), and some really cool girls studying in Italy that we had as roommates. Brooke fell down about 15 stairs on our way out sightseeing but overall, things started out great. We walked to Casa Bastille, Gaudi's house, which is known for its crazy architecture (refer to pictures for explanation). However, it was 17 euros to go inside, so we opted against that. We moved on towards the Sagrada Familia, which is also a project started by Gaudi a long time ago (not sure of the year...), but he died before it was finished so it has been an on going project in Barcelona to finish it, and it won't be done for like another 75 years. Why, I'm not so sure. It certainly isn't the funding because I'm pretty sure they do alright charging 11 euros to go inside and see a bunch of construction and another 2.50 to go to the top. The views from the top were definetely worth the 2.50, though. Barcelona has great views of the mountains and the ocean which was really neat.
After Sagrada, we headed to the grocery store and picked up some food to make for dinner, (the hostel also had a kitchen we could use). Burned the pizzas to hell but we weren't too concerned. Then we enjoyed some great sangria in the lounge with some live Spanish hiphop/reggae music by a group of 2 spanish girls, which was really cool actually. Before we left, Brooke had done research on bars in Barcelona and found one called the Dow Jones which, true to its name, is a simulation of the stock market (just what we want to see in the middle of the CRISIS—pronounced “cree-sees”), and they would have the drink prices on screens and then the market would “crash” and drinks would be really cheap. We got lost for about an hour going there, and were welcomed by a homeless man telling us to shut the fuck up. Always a good start. The bar was cool but a little less Wall Street than I expected. I wanted screaming and sweat and men crying...unfortunately it was a little mellow. We left a little while later, and were yelled at again as we walked out the door by the crazy man, (we weren't even talking this time, so it was quite unnecessary). This time however, Steven decided to retaliate by singing the beginning of “The Circle of Life” at the top of his lungs. Though ineffective, we all enjoyed it.
The next morning we headed to Parc Guell, also a Gaudi establishment (noticing a pattern?). I should also mention a special idiosyncrasy about Barcelona. They think they are really special and decided to speak their own language (a dialect really, though it is completely indecipherable), Catalan, and have been trying to become their own region for....basically all of time. And they don't even appreciate the most valient efforts in Spanish. So that's why everything was spelled weird and why we got dirty looks despite our most impeccable, ahem, communication skills. The park was really pretty cool. Gaudi was a weird little man...he came up with some very interesting pieces of work. He was a part of the naturalism movement which was completely inspired by nature. The park also had pretty views of the city because it was pretty high up. Afterwards, since it was a really nice day, we took the metro towards the beach. We picked up some groceries on the way for a picnic. We ended up choosing one of the worst spots on the beach for a few reasons. Number one was the guy in love with his body in a Speedo who made a route from the ocean to the showers right behind us, to lather himself in soap, about 17 times. The other much more entertaining reason was the homeless woman who we didn't notice until after we chose our seats because she looked more like a pile of blankets until she started telling us we had whore fingers and came over to ask for a tomato. (yes we gave it to her). She then proceeded to go over to the wall behind us, pull down her pants, and pee on the building, even though there was a perfectly good working public restroom about 20 feet away. Upon returning to her pile, she took off her red underwear and waved them at us. We all agreed to moved, and Steven was scared shitless and threatened to “light her life on fire”. (Don't worry, he didn't say it to her, and he didn't have the capacity to do so). We named her PB (poop bucket, because she had one—though slightly reminiscent of another nickname that has been created and eerily similar in looks...), and moved on. We walked down to the way end of the beach, and to our wonderful surprise it was much calmer, (it was really really windy at the other place). This was probably the best part of the trip. Though we couldn't go in the water, and wouldn't want to even if we had the proper equipment (ie. A swimsuit), we played around in the water and took a bunch of pictures. And then we were greeted with another lovely surprise.
The whole day, asians had been walking up and down the beach offering massages, and to my knowledge, they didn't bring in much business. But as we were playing in the water, we noticed a completely naked man sunning himself, and an asian woman went over to offer her services. Surprisingly, the man accepted and for the next 20 minutes we were hypnotized by the can't-look-can't-look-away car crash syndrome that involved this poor woman massaging this man's oddly tan ass. The punch line came when we witnessed the woman offer her massage to another who accepted, and unbeknownst to them, were being massaged with ass particles from the previous customer.
After getting lost for awhile we finally found the gothic quarter which had old buildings, a plaza, and the cathedral, (which was under reconstruction, obviously). We hiked it back to the hostel to shower and get ready to see this amazing fountain light show we heard about an then out for Amber's birthday. Well, thanks to the woman at the hostel for telling us the wrong time, and also for one of the girls we roomed with for forgetting her metro pass, we arrived 4 minutes too late for any light show. (Are you beginning to notice the little things that continue to happen..?) So we went out to dinner which was nice and then went searching for some bars. For some reason, in every city in Europe there is an Irish pub which usually has decently priced drinks, so we went into the first one we saw. We were immediately attacked by a vulture waitress who wanted to know what we wanted to drink STAT. We all hurriedly ordered a beer and Amber asked what they had to mix with vodka because she wanted a special drink. The answer she got was “I don't know, coke or whisky”. “Coke sounds fine...” And that was how she turned 21. We were on our way to a Chupiteria which is a place that makes a lot of fun shots, (great for birthdays), when a little blonde woman asked us if we wanted free shots. Um, yes. So she gave us a flyer for another Irish pub (we should've known then), and showed us where to go. We get in and find out we have to buy a drink first. Ok fine, give me a beer. Then we go up and the bartender goes “so do you guys want your shots now?” And we said yes and ordered tequila, and got a bill for 8 euro. Hell no. So we explain it to her and she says, oh that is only for vodka. Okay then give me that. I already poured those. I really don't care, I didn't drink them. You have to pay for them. I'm not paying for them, get me the manager. So she goes and gets the fat bouncer who tells me the exact same thing and I tell him the exact same thing in a less calm manner. So I ended it with, I'm not paying, BYE. And left in a fantastic mood. After that we weren't even in a mood to do anything besides sleep.
Our last day it was rainy outside (of course), but we went to the famous market Las Ramblas, which was really cool—they had a tons of fruits and veggies and fish and cheese and meat and candy...everything you could want.
After lunch at Pita Inn (delicious chain restaurant), we headed to the Picasso Museum. On the way there, we found AMAZING smoothies. As we're drinking our smoothies Steven goes “Well something good just happened so I guess that means...we're crashing?”. Unfortunately we had to wait in a bit of a line outside and it kept raining and then stopping and then raining again. I had my umbrella down and felt a little mist so I had put it back up not 24 seconds before I hear two big drops and one of the Italy girls say “Oh dude, you just got pooped on”. And I look up to find two huge shit drops on my umbrella, and the guilty pigeon looking down on me quite contently. Truly, this city did not like us. Or at least me. And I was beginning to accept it. The museum was really cool though, and I told Barcelona to suck it by sneaking some sweet pics of some Picasso works.
We had a few problems getting back, none too serious and none we didn't expect from Barcelona, however. These included almost not getting to the airport in time, Steven's boarding pass not printing, being in the very last row on the plane with no reclining option, and witnessing a “medical emergency” midair which delayed us running off the plane for a good 20 minutes. But we arrived in Sevilla at about 10pm and Amber made us all promise to go out like crazy for her birthday because it was shit all over the night before. So we went out until 7am and slept all the next day :)
Gracias and adios Barcelona.
So now I take you to Semana Santa, which is known world wide because Sevilla is known to have the most elaborate display of pasos and imagenes and nazarenos anywhere in the world. It is also known as our spring break. Don't worry I'll get more into detail into it later. Anyways, most people planned a big trip during this time. Amber and I were not as smart, however. So we did a trip to Madrid and Toledo. But the Saturday we left for Madrid (at 11pm), we went to Cadiz for the day at the beach. We almost didn't go because we were so tired, and almost missed the bus, but made it to Cadiz at 10.30am, prime beach time! Joke. It was cloudy and not a soul was on the beach minus a few dedicated seagulls. At around 2 oclock though, it reeeeeallly warmed up and there wasn't a cloud in the sky and it was BEAUTIFUL. The water was soooo blue and clear and amazing. I got a lovely little tan and we jumped around in the water, bodysurfing the waves all day. Also, I got pooped on again. My backpack and somehow the sleeve of my sweatshirt were splattered with pigeon shit. I have no idea how or when or most importantly WHY, but by now I just expect it and wasn't too upset. If, however, I ever get shat on in Sevilla, I'm packing up early.
We left for Madrid on the overnight bus at 11 oclock from Sevilla, we were supposed to get into Madrid at 5.15am, yes it was going to be early, but it was better than paying for a night in a hostel. Unfortunately, we got into Madrid a half an hour early...yes, 4.45 in the morning. We were aware of the fact that we would have to spend some time in the bus station, but any extra minute was painful. Thankfully the station was pretty nice and had a restaurant and cafe that opened at like 7. We went to our hostel at about 9, and we couldn't check in until 12 so we dragged our exhausted selves to the Royal Palace, Plaza Mayor, and Plaza de Espana. The palacio was really cool, but the plazas were nothing compared to the Plaza de Espana in Sevilla. We went back to the hostel and tried to sleep for awhile, but of course, we got the room with the broken lock that you had to hit just right in order to open it so every time someone new needed to come into the room, they had to pound on it. Needless to say, there wasn't much sleep that was had. Since we got there on a Sunday, the Prado museum was free for three hours so after our nap we headed in that direction. We went into the botanical gardens right outside the Prado and it was sooo pretty! The flowers were blooming everywhere, and for those of you who know me, you know one of my favorite things to do is taking pictures of flowers. After, we went into the Prado and saw some amazing art, the most impressive being Las Meninas by Velazquez...impressive. That night we took it easy because we planned on going to El Escorial the next morning.
Since I'm tired and talking about it makes me depressed, I'll make the fiasco of the Escorial a long story short. Basically, it was the thing I was most looking forward to; El Escorial is a monastery and some other pretty buildings but the Valley of the Fallen, (where Franco is buried), is apparently really really cool, and I wanted to see it really badly. Well, after going through some hoops just to get to the city outside of Madrid, we come to find out that everything is closed on Mondays because its Spain, and it hates us. So that was a total bust, and after walking around the city for awhile we get back on the train to Madrid. The whole time while we were on our way towards El Escorial we never needed our train tickets and so we wondered why we even bought them. Then a guy comes around three stops before we are in Madrid and asks for our tickets. Of course, I can't find mine anywhere. So he makes me pay 3.50 euro to get back. Which, isn't that much but after the day we had just had, I completely lost it and just started balling in the train. Kind of a bummer of a day. But we got back and visited the Reina Sofia which has tons of awesome art by Picasso, Goya, Dali, and tons of others I'm forgetting now. The most impressive was probably Picasso's “Guernica”. It was so big and overwhelming. We spent the night at the hostel and had a few glasses of sangria and went to bed. In the morning, we found out we had a little too much sangria, and didn't feel the greatest, but we set out for Toledo to spend our last day.
Of course, there was the expected travel problems getting to Toledo, but we did finally make it, and while at a bus stop looking like idiots wondering how to get to the center, I asked a girl and she told us to take the bus she was on. Then when she got off she told us to follow her and she walked us basically right to the church we were looking for. She was SO nice, we couldn't believe our luck. Of course, she left us like 2 streets away from the church and we still got lost for 45 minutes. We got to the church of Saint Tome and saw the amazing work by El Greco, El Entierro de Senor Orgaz...or something along those lines. It was huge and truly stunning. We trekked through Toledo for a few more hours, it was a really adorable little town, with some great views. We had to make the 3.30 bus back to Madrid in order to make our bus home to Sevilla. ONCE AGAIN, we took the wrong bus back to the bus station and had to sprrrrrinnnntttt our butts in order to make the bus on time. Madrid did not want to make it easy on us, but we made a great weekend out of it anyway, and certainly some great stories that will be funny....someday.
Well as I suspected, this is getting to be a little long, and also I am way behind, so I will work on an entry about Semana Santa and Lagos that should be up soon! Sooner than this one at least. Things are just getting crazy here, trying to fit in everything that I can and I've got a “lot” of projects to do before school ends. Which, by the way, I have 13 days left of...holy shit right?? Granted, I have 5 weeks left here, but still....I have no idea where time has gone. I'm exhausted, good night!! Missing you all as always... <3
Monday, March 30, 2009
Cumpleaños en España
This is all pretty outdated because the internet at school was down for a long time (SO annoying), so I couldn´t upload this…it is all about last week. I will have a blog entry up about Barcelona soon!
Ahhh por fin, puedo respirar...finally I can breathe! I just finished my last midterm so I am in a fantastic mood. I mostly forget that I'm actually going to school here until it hits me the week of exams and I get wonderful flashbacks of College Library or the creepy cages in Memorial. Only it's a little bit different because I'm getting tan next to a river in Spain...so I can't complain toooo much :) Though recently (for the past week and a half), Pepita has been getting her kitchen redone and a new bathroom put in, so things have been a little hectic. By hectic I mean that the water in the bathroom with the shower (the pre-existing bathroom), has the water shut off right now so I just showered in the new shower, though the new shower has no doors on it so I pretty much held my head over it and did what I could...I'll be surprised if anything looks clean besides the entire bathroom (which is dripping wet). Oh well, I mean, it's not like I'm going to see my Spanish hottie tomorrow or anything...oh wait...lol. C'est la vie haha.
Besides being done with midterms, as most of you know, I did just celebrate my one and only 21st birthday last week...whoooo!!! I couldn't have asked for a better birthday either. Except to have you all there of course. Even the day of the week was perfect. For years I have been looking at the day that my 21st birthday would be on (Thursday), and I was always pretty satisfied, but since we don't have school on Fridays here, it is probably the best day of the week to have a birthday.
We went out on Wednesday for a little while to a bar that is nearby in Triana, but I wanted to “save myself” for more of a blow out on Thursday, so we didn't go too crazy, though it was still a lot of fun. Thursday morning I woke up and was eating breakfast, (my white chocolate and chocolate nutella on toast with yogurt and fruit...breakfast of champions!), and like I said, we've had construction workers here for a while-- and Pepita came in with a present and started singing Feliz Cumpleanos to me with all the construction guys haha. She gave me a really cute pink shirt and a ring :) Oh Pepita. I had one class on Thursday, with my awesome feminist literature teacher, and we went on a little field trip to the church down the street and she told us about it and then we got organic muffins from the nuns! Awesome. After that I got to talk to my parents and Omi for a long time...it was really good to hear their voices! It felt just like being at Madison or something. Except 80 degrees and cloudless in the middle of March.
For dinner, me and ten friends went to a really good (and cheap) Italian restaurant on Calle Betis. The food was SOOOO good. I had some sort of tortelli pasta with spinach....made me miss spinich ravioli from home, it was delicious. Afterwards we hit up some bars on Betis before finishing the night at a discoteca and dancing are booties off. I know I'm not going into huge detail, but I'm sure you can all fill in the blanks—there was plenty of 21 year old fun that was had. And as my grandma told me, I'm going to have a lot of birthdays, some I'll remember, some I won't, but I will never forget the birthday I spent in Spain...ahh.
I don't want to make any of you too depressed but the weather here is absolutely beautiful. I here you guys got a few warm days though so...whoo! It has been like 80-85 degrees and cloudless pretty much every day lately. I am like as tan as I am in the middle of summer normally. (And Garrett, after this semester, you'll never catch up to me, so you better start fake baking.) The sun makes everyday so enjoyable...though I'd always like to be enjoying it more by the river and not in a classroom...
This last week I got a volunteer job at an after school program with Spanish kids in a poor neighborhood of Sevilla. Its fun but the kids are INSANE. There is no order whatsoever, and if I knew how to yell at them sufficiently I would, but first of all, I have no authority to them, and second of all, they all speak better Spanish than I do so it isn't easy to fight with them. The other leaders are just really inconsistent with their discipline, which is half the problem. They will yell at one kid and then not at another, and then see some fighting and let it go, and yell at others fighting...the kids definetely run the show. I guess we're having a meeting about how to improve so maybe I can kick them into shape. The kids are funny though...they all think it is hilarious how I speak Spanish. “Why do you talk with so many 'S's? You use too many 'r's....you can't speak Spanish...do you even know how to read? Here, come look at a dictionary, it maybe it will help..” Spending two hours with them really cuts me down to size, that's for sure. They love me tho so I know it will be fun. It is also going to be good to say that I'm doing this because I have an interview with the Madison Park and Rec department doing some little kid activities, (and speaking Spanish to them). Which means, yes I will be spending the summer in Madison, and I am sooooo excited. Summer in Madison is like heaven, I love that city. The only problem is that my Carli is going to be making something of herself in far off California....sad. Of course I am beyond excited for her that she's making such an effort in the direction of her future blah blah blah:)
Yesterday we went to the beach that is closest to Sevilla, Matalascañas, in the town of Huelva. When me and Amber left Sevilla at 11 am it was already really hot, so we thought it would be the perfect day at the beach. Well when we got there it was about 20 degrees colder and SO windy. And it also looked like it was about to rain on us for the first hour we were there. But then, all the clouds passed and even though it was still windy, it was really sunny, and I even went up to my knees in the water. The beach was nice, but the water wasn't the pretty turquoise that I love. In fact, the beach reminded me a lot of the beaches on the East coast. We took the bus back at 6 and were really tired (from working so hard during the day obviously), so we stayed in. In fact, I watched the movie The Bridge to Terabithia on Spanish TV and cried like a baby. It was a quality Saturday night.
This coming weekend begins the famous event of Semana Santa (Holy Week), which is known worldwide. It is basically an entire week filled with religious processions through the streets and thousands of flowers and candles and other good stuff. It's supposed to be amazing, but most people in Sevilla don't stay for all of it because there are so many people. The first weekend of it I think I am going to go to Madrid and Toledo, then the last weekend of it I have my trip to Portugal, then the weekend after that I have my four day trip to Morrocco with my interest group, and after that, (though it is still in the works), I am hoping to be going to Italy for part of Feria (the other huge festival here), and then it is my LAST WEEKEND before finals in Sevilla!! I will have four days completely free after finals though so I'll be able to soak in my city as much as possible before I have to leave on the 17th... :( I can't believe how fast time is going here. Which reminds me, I need to get off the computer and disfrutar la vida de sevilla!! Adios mis amores, hasta pronto.
Ahhh por fin, puedo respirar...finally I can breathe! I just finished my last midterm so I am in a fantastic mood. I mostly forget that I'm actually going to school here until it hits me the week of exams and I get wonderful flashbacks of College Library or the creepy cages in Memorial. Only it's a little bit different because I'm getting tan next to a river in Spain...so I can't complain toooo much :) Though recently (for the past week and a half), Pepita has been getting her kitchen redone and a new bathroom put in, so things have been a little hectic. By hectic I mean that the water in the bathroom with the shower (the pre-existing bathroom), has the water shut off right now so I just showered in the new shower, though the new shower has no doors on it so I pretty much held my head over it and did what I could...I'll be surprised if anything looks clean besides the entire bathroom (which is dripping wet). Oh well, I mean, it's not like I'm going to see my Spanish hottie tomorrow or anything...oh wait...lol. C'est la vie haha.
Besides being done with midterms, as most of you know, I did just celebrate my one and only 21st birthday last week...whoooo!!! I couldn't have asked for a better birthday either. Except to have you all there of course. Even the day of the week was perfect. For years I have been looking at the day that my 21st birthday would be on (Thursday), and I was always pretty satisfied, but since we don't have school on Fridays here, it is probably the best day of the week to have a birthday.
We went out on Wednesday for a little while to a bar that is nearby in Triana, but I wanted to “save myself” for more of a blow out on Thursday, so we didn't go too crazy, though it was still a lot of fun. Thursday morning I woke up and was eating breakfast, (my white chocolate and chocolate nutella on toast with yogurt and fruit...breakfast of champions!), and like I said, we've had construction workers here for a while-- and Pepita came in with a present and started singing Feliz Cumpleanos to me with all the construction guys haha. She gave me a really cute pink shirt and a ring :) Oh Pepita. I had one class on Thursday, with my awesome feminist literature teacher, and we went on a little field trip to the church down the street and she told us about it and then we got organic muffins from the nuns! Awesome. After that I got to talk to my parents and Omi for a long time...it was really good to hear their voices! It felt just like being at Madison or something. Except 80 degrees and cloudless in the middle of March.
For dinner, me and ten friends went to a really good (and cheap) Italian restaurant on Calle Betis. The food was SOOOO good. I had some sort of tortelli pasta with spinach....made me miss spinich ravioli from home, it was delicious. Afterwards we hit up some bars on Betis before finishing the night at a discoteca and dancing are booties off. I know I'm not going into huge detail, but I'm sure you can all fill in the blanks—there was plenty of 21 year old fun that was had. And as my grandma told me, I'm going to have a lot of birthdays, some I'll remember, some I won't, but I will never forget the birthday I spent in Spain...ahh.
I don't want to make any of you too depressed but the weather here is absolutely beautiful. I here you guys got a few warm days though so...whoo! It has been like 80-85 degrees and cloudless pretty much every day lately. I am like as tan as I am in the middle of summer normally. (And Garrett, after this semester, you'll never catch up to me, so you better start fake baking.) The sun makes everyday so enjoyable...though I'd always like to be enjoying it more by the river and not in a classroom...
This last week I got a volunteer job at an after school program with Spanish kids in a poor neighborhood of Sevilla. Its fun but the kids are INSANE. There is no order whatsoever, and if I knew how to yell at them sufficiently I would, but first of all, I have no authority to them, and second of all, they all speak better Spanish than I do so it isn't easy to fight with them. The other leaders are just really inconsistent with their discipline, which is half the problem. They will yell at one kid and then not at another, and then see some fighting and let it go, and yell at others fighting...the kids definetely run the show. I guess we're having a meeting about how to improve so maybe I can kick them into shape. The kids are funny though...they all think it is hilarious how I speak Spanish. “Why do you talk with so many 'S's? You use too many 'r's....you can't speak Spanish...do you even know how to read? Here, come look at a dictionary, it maybe it will help..” Spending two hours with them really cuts me down to size, that's for sure. They love me tho so I know it will be fun. It is also going to be good to say that I'm doing this because I have an interview with the Madison Park and Rec department doing some little kid activities, (and speaking Spanish to them). Which means, yes I will be spending the summer in Madison, and I am sooooo excited. Summer in Madison is like heaven, I love that city. The only problem is that my Carli is going to be making something of herself in far off California....sad. Of course I am beyond excited for her that she's making such an effort in the direction of her future blah blah blah:)
Yesterday we went to the beach that is closest to Sevilla, Matalascañas, in the town of Huelva. When me and Amber left Sevilla at 11 am it was already really hot, so we thought it would be the perfect day at the beach. Well when we got there it was about 20 degrees colder and SO windy. And it also looked like it was about to rain on us for the first hour we were there. But then, all the clouds passed and even though it was still windy, it was really sunny, and I even went up to my knees in the water. The beach was nice, but the water wasn't the pretty turquoise that I love. In fact, the beach reminded me a lot of the beaches on the East coast. We took the bus back at 6 and were really tired (from working so hard during the day obviously), so we stayed in. In fact, I watched the movie The Bridge to Terabithia on Spanish TV and cried like a baby. It was a quality Saturday night.
This coming weekend begins the famous event of Semana Santa (Holy Week), which is known worldwide. It is basically an entire week filled with religious processions through the streets and thousands of flowers and candles and other good stuff. It's supposed to be amazing, but most people in Sevilla don't stay for all of it because there are so many people. The first weekend of it I think I am going to go to Madrid and Toledo, then the last weekend of it I have my trip to Portugal, then the weekend after that I have my four day trip to Morrocco with my interest group, and after that, (though it is still in the works), I am hoping to be going to Italy for part of Feria (the other huge festival here), and then it is my LAST WEEKEND before finals in Sevilla!! I will have four days completely free after finals though so I'll be able to soak in my city as much as possible before I have to leave on the 17th... :( I can't believe how fast time is going here. Which reminds me, I need to get off the computer and disfrutar la vida de sevilla!! Adios mis amores, hasta pronto.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Paris, je t´aime
Well my friends, I am safely back from my weekend in Paris and I have lots and lots to say. I'll start off by saying it was easily one of the best weekends of my entire life...absolutely amazing. I was initially very skeptical because I paid more than I planned for the plane ticket after going through hell to get it, and someone who stayed at our hostel said it was horrible, and the weather was supposed to suck, and sooo many people have had horror stories about traveling, but it was better than anything I could have ever hoped for. I'm going to go into a lot of detail because I want to remember it all while it is still fresh so this will probably be pretty long. Sorry in advance! So let me start from the beginning...
We, (we being my friends Amber, Sarah, and Janelle—the girls I roomed with in Granada, and whom I love), left at 5:30pm on Thursday night, and everything went perfectly with the flight from Sevilla to Paris. We got to Paris around 8:00 and we flew over the entire city lit up and we all had the... “oh-my-god-we're-in-Paris” moment as we saw the 'city of lights' below us. From the airport we took a taxi to our hostel...and held our breath the whole way there. To our surprise, it wasn't too bad. We slept in a room that was constantly 100 degrees and smelled like feet with 6 other people who snored and made sounds in their sleep like they were dying, but it wasn't that bad haha. The only time we spent there was to sleep, (even though with the snoring kings we didn't do much of that either), and eat our free breakfast of which we ate countless croissants and rolls with jelly. Once we were settled in we roamed the streets looking for a good place to eat and landed in a French-Italian joint with no other customers. We hadn't been in France for more than 2 hours when we realized how lucky we were to have Obama as president. I mean, aside from everything else, the world loves him, sometimes without even knowing why, which puts us in a wonderful position while traveling because the first thing our waiter said when he found out we were from the US was, “I love Obama!” haha. And on our last night we got crepes and the crepe man told us that Obama was his personal hero, and also that he liked Micheal Buble and Frank Sinatra hahaa. Anyways! So the first night we each ate an entire pizza and walked to the Eiffel Tower. One of the reasons we chose our hostel was because it boasted being only a 10 minute walk from the Tower, so we knew we had to go our first night. When we saw it in its entirety for the first time it was one of those moments of realization, (of which I've been having a lot of during this journey), really affirming it....this isn't a picture in a book...I'm really in Paris. Then it started doing its shimmery light show and we all screamed with excitement.
The next day we got up bright and early for a (FREE) 3.5 hour walking tour we heard about through our hostel that said it would take us to all the major sites in Paris. We really didn't have anything planned out or know how to get to a lot of places, so we figured we didn't have much to lose on a free tour of the city. We hopped on the metro, which was super easy and convenient to navigate, and met our guides at Saint Michel square. Honestly, the tour was one of the best things about the entire trip and I can't possibly tell you everything I learned/saw because you just won't want to read it, but I learned so much!!! I never thought I could be so interested in history, but we had an amaazzzzing guide from New Zealand, Phillip, (yes he was adorable and yes he had an accent), who was hilarious and incredibly intelligent. For instance, did you know that a German general saved Paris from being destroyed in World War II? Hitler knew he wasn't going to get Paris and he didn't want anyone else to have it so he ordered the general to burn the entire city and the general was like screw that so he lit a very small section of it on fire so that the soldiers on the border could tell Hitler it was burning, but really it was fine. If not for him, nothing of what I saw would exist. Also, when Louis XVI was beheaded they dulled the blade of the guillotine and it took about 9 times before his head came off. And also, the Lourve has over 100,000 pieces of art and can only display 35,000 of them at one time and if you looked at every piece for only 30 seconds each and took no bathroom breaks, no food breaks, no sleeping, no nothing, it would take 64 days to go through the entire museum. The Eiffel Tower was built as an entrance to the World Fair and only one person died while it was being built which is unbelieveable. Except for the guy who convince the French government to let him try his flying machine from the top of it...and flew all the way to the ground and made a dent two inches into the pavement. Epic fail. I have tons and tons of stories and history but it is too hard to make it sound coherent, especially without the pictures in front of me. But on top of the history, the guide would throw in pop culture stuff like where Jason Bourne (from the Bourne Identity) was hiding in a certain scene, or where Anne Hathaway dropped her cellphone in a fountain in The Devil Wears Prada, or, my personal favorite, the bridge where Carrie and Big meet in Paris during the finale of Sex and the City :) So on the tour we saw Notre Dame, Pont Neuf (a famous bridge with a great story of its own), the river Seine, the French Academy (where they decide what words to put in the dictionary), the Louvre, the royal gardens, the champs d'elysees, the Arc de Triumphe, the Museum of Orsay (which has the biggest collection of Van Gogh in the world), the place of Napoleon's tomb, the French Opera house, the Hotel de Ville (where all the famous and rich people stay when they come to Paris), the Egyptian obelisk, and of course the Eiffel Tower. I'm sure I'm forgetting some but still that is a lot! A lot of the stuff we saw from a distance, but even still it was useful to know where things were in relation to us and above all, the history was mesmerizing.
We ended our tour near the Arc de Triomphe so we decided to walk down the most expensive street in Paris (and I think the second most expensive in the world), to go see the Arc up close. It was much bigger than I thought, I felt like a midget beneath it. The Arc is surrounded by the biggest roundabout in the world, and also the most dangerous, because the stubborn French people refuse to put any signs on it in order to preserve its history. So in exchange they get a crash every 30 minutes.
After the Arc we marched our way to the Notre Dame, the most famous church in Paris and one of the most well known around the world. But, back in the day it was home to prostitution, gambling, and murder. Whoo! And during the French Revolution when they were killing all of the royalty and artistocrats, they thought that the apostles were wearing crowns, not halos, so they cut off all of their heads and the heads were lost for years and years until one day, pretty recently (I can remember when exactly, within the last 10-20 years), a woman was gardening and found the stone heads of all the apostles in her back yard. What luck! Anyways, inside the Notre Dame was beautiful. When we went they were in the middle of mass and it was really interesting to see. The stained glass windows were really incredible. And the architecture on the outside was amazing as well—the Notre Dame is the first building to use the architectural tool of the flying buttress which allows the walls to be thin without falling apart. A staple in Gothic style architecture, if I'm not mistaken.
A small aside that is necessary for the understanding of the next stop in our journey. During our tour, Philip told us that a certain church, called Sainte Chappelle, is famous for holding ancient relics of Christ, including the Crown of Thorns that he wore when he was crucified. Louis XIV (I may be getting the numbers on these kings wrong), bought the crown and had the church built for it, and they supposedly show it every first Friday of each month. And what would you know, we were in Paris on the first Friday of the month, so we decided we'd probably never get another chance to see the supposed crown of Christ. We went to the church and waited in line, and even went up and asked the people in charge if the crown was there today, and multiple people told us that it was. However, after going through security, paying 5 euros, and exploring the whole church, we found no crown of thorns. And after some more research with other guides we saw, we found out that they showed the crown in the Notre Dame that day, while we were there, and all we had to do was go downstairs and see it. Of course, by the time we went back to Notre Dame, it was closed, and there was no Christly crown to be seen. We saw pictures of it though and it is encased in something and you can't really see it, and I'm not too sure I really believe that King Louis got a hold of the actual Crown of Thorns...seems a little improbable that some sticks could hold their form for a few thousand years. But that's probably my bitterness talking :)
But, on the upside, Friday nights at the Lourve are free, so we hauled our bitterness to the museum before sunset and enjoyed lots of art, including the famous Mona Lisa, which is much less impressive than you might think. Especially since they have solved the two biggest mysteries about it: it is a painting of a woman named Lisa, not Davinci himself as a woman, and her facial expression is 83% happy, according to German and Canadian scientists, respectively. Once you take the mystery out of art, it is much less interesting. The Lourve was really interesting and just enormous, but all of the art we looked at was mostly religious, and I'm more interested in the impressionist styles of art, which I got to see tons of on our second day at the Orsay Museum. Lots of Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Pissarro, Rodin, Seurat, Renoir, Degas, Cezanne, and more. I could have stayed in that museum for hours.
After our full day of culture and history we went back to the hostel and had some wine and went over our plans for the following day before passing a few sleepless hours in the 100 degree bedroom. Saturday we got up early again and made our way to the Catacombs of Paris. These were created during the time of the Bubonic Plague and there was no more room in the cemetaries for bodies so they basically created underground cemetaries, and put in the bones in designs. It was definetely creepy, and we were glad to see daylight afterwards. Later on we went to the bohemian neighborhood of Montmartre, which is where all of the artists and singers and dancers lived back in the day, and it still has its artistic charm, as well as Paris's red light district haha. We first climbed our way up to the highest point in Paris, (aside from the top of the Eiffel Tower), which is the hill where the Sacre Coeur is, another huge and gorgeous church, with quite distinct architecture. It was an amazzzzzing view of the entire city, absolutely beautiful. It was a cloudy day but as we sat on the steps and listened to a guy play his acoustic guitar and sing “Imagine”, the sun peaked out and lit up our faces...
When we had our fill of the Parisian jam session, we walked to the red light district, the home of the Moulin Rouge. We had a ton of fun going into “sex museums” and sex toy stores...unfortunately we didn't bring anything home hahaha. From the red light district we headed to the Museum of Orsay which boasts the most (or the second most, can't remember!), Van Gogh paintings in the world. It was so beautiful. I love all the work from those eras. I found a lot of artists I had forgotten about, and some I never knew. I also remembered how much I love art and art history, and how much I wish I could remember from my class in high school that I loved so much. Art history and religion are two classes I want to take when I get back to the states.
We breezed through the Orsay and headed back to our hostel to shower and get ready for the night...we were going to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower to view the City of Light from a place very few get to go in their lifetimes. On the walk there we bought baguettes and cheese and munched on our French dinner all the way there. We had planned on experiencing the Paris night life with a Pub Crawl through the same program that did our free tour, but when we got to the Eiffel we realized we would never make it there it time so we opted for the view of a lifetime rather than the hangover of a lifetime. I'm going to have to search for descriptive words again here, so I'm sorry if I repeat things I've said before....but the view of the city at night...there just aren't words honestly. My eyes were watering just taking in everything around me....the lights, the city, the wind, the stars. It was a feeling of euphoria which I've experienced before but not quite like this...there were so many feelings going through me, I just absolutely feel in love with the city in that moment.
After our romantic date with the city of Paris, we enjoyed our last French crepes and walked to a bar and watched (and participated in), some dancing at a French bar. Afterwards we made our way home and gave the city its last kiss goodnight :)
Sunday was a bit of an anxiety filled day, but we made it to the airport in time and got back to Sevilla without much trouble at all. And though I was sad to be leaving Paris, I wasn't upset about leaving 50 degrees for 80 and sunshine.
Other than Paris, everything else is going great, especially the weather. It is really hard to be sad or homesick when it is so beautiful out. Although, my birthday is coming up (tomorrow!), and it is a weird feeling to know that I won't have the people I love most here to celebrate. Aside from that, turning 21 in the states is a little different from turning 21 here, though I plan to enjoy it equally as much :) It does get me thinking about growing up and what I'm doing, what I'm going to do, what I truly want to do...what the future holds. In a matter of hours I will be a real adult, in every country of the world, and I'm not entirely sure I'm ready for it. I'm certainly not ready to get a “real” life or being an “adult”, and if I'm anything like my mother I'll never be one, which I wouldn't be too upset about :) But enough of that seriousness....I am very excited for my birthday and i've been informed by my friends here that I will be celebrating for the entire 24 hours of it, starting wednesday night at midnight. Thursday I'm going to have dinner at a good Italian place and then reeeeally celebrate :) I think when I order drinks i'm going to show them my ID anyways, just so I can have that bamf feeling haha.
As always, I miss and love you all very very much, and I hope things warm up soon for you. Also, upon my arrival in May, we will be having another, proper, United States of America, birthday party, so prepare yourselves :) I have midterms next week so I'm not sure if I'll have time to come online on Sunday but if I do I'll be on at 7pm my time, which I think is 1pm your time since you guys had daylight savings. Love youuu. Besos!
We, (we being my friends Amber, Sarah, and Janelle—the girls I roomed with in Granada, and whom I love), left at 5:30pm on Thursday night, and everything went perfectly with the flight from Sevilla to Paris. We got to Paris around 8:00 and we flew over the entire city lit up and we all had the... “oh-my-god-we're-in-Paris” moment as we saw the 'city of lights' below us. From the airport we took a taxi to our hostel...and held our breath the whole way there. To our surprise, it wasn't too bad. We slept in a room that was constantly 100 degrees and smelled like feet with 6 other people who snored and made sounds in their sleep like they were dying, but it wasn't that bad haha. The only time we spent there was to sleep, (even though with the snoring kings we didn't do much of that either), and eat our free breakfast of which we ate countless croissants and rolls with jelly. Once we were settled in we roamed the streets looking for a good place to eat and landed in a French-Italian joint with no other customers. We hadn't been in France for more than 2 hours when we realized how lucky we were to have Obama as president. I mean, aside from everything else, the world loves him, sometimes without even knowing why, which puts us in a wonderful position while traveling because the first thing our waiter said when he found out we were from the US was, “I love Obama!” haha. And on our last night we got crepes and the crepe man told us that Obama was his personal hero, and also that he liked Micheal Buble and Frank Sinatra hahaa. Anyways! So the first night we each ate an entire pizza and walked to the Eiffel Tower. One of the reasons we chose our hostel was because it boasted being only a 10 minute walk from the Tower, so we knew we had to go our first night. When we saw it in its entirety for the first time it was one of those moments of realization, (of which I've been having a lot of during this journey), really affirming it....this isn't a picture in a book...I'm really in Paris. Then it started doing its shimmery light show and we all screamed with excitement.
The next day we got up bright and early for a (FREE) 3.5 hour walking tour we heard about through our hostel that said it would take us to all the major sites in Paris. We really didn't have anything planned out or know how to get to a lot of places, so we figured we didn't have much to lose on a free tour of the city. We hopped on the metro, which was super easy and convenient to navigate, and met our guides at Saint Michel square. Honestly, the tour was one of the best things about the entire trip and I can't possibly tell you everything I learned/saw because you just won't want to read it, but I learned so much!!! I never thought I could be so interested in history, but we had an amaazzzzing guide from New Zealand, Phillip, (yes he was adorable and yes he had an accent), who was hilarious and incredibly intelligent. For instance, did you know that a German general saved Paris from being destroyed in World War II? Hitler knew he wasn't going to get Paris and he didn't want anyone else to have it so he ordered the general to burn the entire city and the general was like screw that so he lit a very small section of it on fire so that the soldiers on the border could tell Hitler it was burning, but really it was fine. If not for him, nothing of what I saw would exist. Also, when Louis XVI was beheaded they dulled the blade of the guillotine and it took about 9 times before his head came off. And also, the Lourve has over 100,000 pieces of art and can only display 35,000 of them at one time and if you looked at every piece for only 30 seconds each and took no bathroom breaks, no food breaks, no sleeping, no nothing, it would take 64 days to go through the entire museum. The Eiffel Tower was built as an entrance to the World Fair and only one person died while it was being built which is unbelieveable. Except for the guy who convince the French government to let him try his flying machine from the top of it...and flew all the way to the ground and made a dent two inches into the pavement. Epic fail. I have tons and tons of stories and history but it is too hard to make it sound coherent, especially without the pictures in front of me. But on top of the history, the guide would throw in pop culture stuff like where Jason Bourne (from the Bourne Identity) was hiding in a certain scene, or where Anne Hathaway dropped her cellphone in a fountain in The Devil Wears Prada, or, my personal favorite, the bridge where Carrie and Big meet in Paris during the finale of Sex and the City :) So on the tour we saw Notre Dame, Pont Neuf (a famous bridge with a great story of its own), the river Seine, the French Academy (where they decide what words to put in the dictionary), the Louvre, the royal gardens, the champs d'elysees, the Arc de Triumphe, the Museum of Orsay (which has the biggest collection of Van Gogh in the world), the place of Napoleon's tomb, the French Opera house, the Hotel de Ville (where all the famous and rich people stay when they come to Paris), the Egyptian obelisk, and of course the Eiffel Tower. I'm sure I'm forgetting some but still that is a lot! A lot of the stuff we saw from a distance, but even still it was useful to know where things were in relation to us and above all, the history was mesmerizing.
We ended our tour near the Arc de Triomphe so we decided to walk down the most expensive street in Paris (and I think the second most expensive in the world), to go see the Arc up close. It was much bigger than I thought, I felt like a midget beneath it. The Arc is surrounded by the biggest roundabout in the world, and also the most dangerous, because the stubborn French people refuse to put any signs on it in order to preserve its history. So in exchange they get a crash every 30 minutes.
After the Arc we marched our way to the Notre Dame, the most famous church in Paris and one of the most well known around the world. But, back in the day it was home to prostitution, gambling, and murder. Whoo! And during the French Revolution when they were killing all of the royalty and artistocrats, they thought that the apostles were wearing crowns, not halos, so they cut off all of their heads and the heads were lost for years and years until one day, pretty recently (I can remember when exactly, within the last 10-20 years), a woman was gardening and found the stone heads of all the apostles in her back yard. What luck! Anyways, inside the Notre Dame was beautiful. When we went they were in the middle of mass and it was really interesting to see. The stained glass windows were really incredible. And the architecture on the outside was amazing as well—the Notre Dame is the first building to use the architectural tool of the flying buttress which allows the walls to be thin without falling apart. A staple in Gothic style architecture, if I'm not mistaken.
A small aside that is necessary for the understanding of the next stop in our journey. During our tour, Philip told us that a certain church, called Sainte Chappelle, is famous for holding ancient relics of Christ, including the Crown of Thorns that he wore when he was crucified. Louis XIV (I may be getting the numbers on these kings wrong), bought the crown and had the church built for it, and they supposedly show it every first Friday of each month. And what would you know, we were in Paris on the first Friday of the month, so we decided we'd probably never get another chance to see the supposed crown of Christ. We went to the church and waited in line, and even went up and asked the people in charge if the crown was there today, and multiple people told us that it was. However, after going through security, paying 5 euros, and exploring the whole church, we found no crown of thorns. And after some more research with other guides we saw, we found out that they showed the crown in the Notre Dame that day, while we were there, and all we had to do was go downstairs and see it. Of course, by the time we went back to Notre Dame, it was closed, and there was no Christly crown to be seen. We saw pictures of it though and it is encased in something and you can't really see it, and I'm not too sure I really believe that King Louis got a hold of the actual Crown of Thorns...seems a little improbable that some sticks could hold their form for a few thousand years. But that's probably my bitterness talking :)
But, on the upside, Friday nights at the Lourve are free, so we hauled our bitterness to the museum before sunset and enjoyed lots of art, including the famous Mona Lisa, which is much less impressive than you might think. Especially since they have solved the two biggest mysteries about it: it is a painting of a woman named Lisa, not Davinci himself as a woman, and her facial expression is 83% happy, according to German and Canadian scientists, respectively. Once you take the mystery out of art, it is much less interesting. The Lourve was really interesting and just enormous, but all of the art we looked at was mostly religious, and I'm more interested in the impressionist styles of art, which I got to see tons of on our second day at the Orsay Museum. Lots of Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Pissarro, Rodin, Seurat, Renoir, Degas, Cezanne, and more. I could have stayed in that museum for hours.
After our full day of culture and history we went back to the hostel and had some wine and went over our plans for the following day before passing a few sleepless hours in the 100 degree bedroom. Saturday we got up early again and made our way to the Catacombs of Paris. These were created during the time of the Bubonic Plague and there was no more room in the cemetaries for bodies so they basically created underground cemetaries, and put in the bones in designs. It was definetely creepy, and we were glad to see daylight afterwards. Later on we went to the bohemian neighborhood of Montmartre, which is where all of the artists and singers and dancers lived back in the day, and it still has its artistic charm, as well as Paris's red light district haha. We first climbed our way up to the highest point in Paris, (aside from the top of the Eiffel Tower), which is the hill where the Sacre Coeur is, another huge and gorgeous church, with quite distinct architecture. It was an amazzzzzing view of the entire city, absolutely beautiful. It was a cloudy day but as we sat on the steps and listened to a guy play his acoustic guitar and sing “Imagine”, the sun peaked out and lit up our faces...
When we had our fill of the Parisian jam session, we walked to the red light district, the home of the Moulin Rouge. We had a ton of fun going into “sex museums” and sex toy stores...unfortunately we didn't bring anything home hahaha. From the red light district we headed to the Museum of Orsay which boasts the most (or the second most, can't remember!), Van Gogh paintings in the world. It was so beautiful. I love all the work from those eras. I found a lot of artists I had forgotten about, and some I never knew. I also remembered how much I love art and art history, and how much I wish I could remember from my class in high school that I loved so much. Art history and religion are two classes I want to take when I get back to the states.
We breezed through the Orsay and headed back to our hostel to shower and get ready for the night...we were going to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower to view the City of Light from a place very few get to go in their lifetimes. On the walk there we bought baguettes and cheese and munched on our French dinner all the way there. We had planned on experiencing the Paris night life with a Pub Crawl through the same program that did our free tour, but when we got to the Eiffel we realized we would never make it there it time so we opted for the view of a lifetime rather than the hangover of a lifetime. I'm going to have to search for descriptive words again here, so I'm sorry if I repeat things I've said before....but the view of the city at night...there just aren't words honestly. My eyes were watering just taking in everything around me....the lights, the city, the wind, the stars. It was a feeling of euphoria which I've experienced before but not quite like this...there were so many feelings going through me, I just absolutely feel in love with the city in that moment.
After our romantic date with the city of Paris, we enjoyed our last French crepes and walked to a bar and watched (and participated in), some dancing at a French bar. Afterwards we made our way home and gave the city its last kiss goodnight :)
Sunday was a bit of an anxiety filled day, but we made it to the airport in time and got back to Sevilla without much trouble at all. And though I was sad to be leaving Paris, I wasn't upset about leaving 50 degrees for 80 and sunshine.
Other than Paris, everything else is going great, especially the weather. It is really hard to be sad or homesick when it is so beautiful out. Although, my birthday is coming up (tomorrow!), and it is a weird feeling to know that I won't have the people I love most here to celebrate. Aside from that, turning 21 in the states is a little different from turning 21 here, though I plan to enjoy it equally as much :) It does get me thinking about growing up and what I'm doing, what I'm going to do, what I truly want to do...what the future holds. In a matter of hours I will be a real adult, in every country of the world, and I'm not entirely sure I'm ready for it. I'm certainly not ready to get a “real” life or being an “adult”, and if I'm anything like my mother I'll never be one, which I wouldn't be too upset about :) But enough of that seriousness....I am very excited for my birthday and i've been informed by my friends here that I will be celebrating for the entire 24 hours of it, starting wednesday night at midnight. Thursday I'm going to have dinner at a good Italian place and then reeeeally celebrate :) I think when I order drinks i'm going to show them my ID anyways, just so I can have that bamf feeling haha.
As always, I miss and love you all very very much, and I hope things warm up soon for you. Also, upon my arrival in May, we will be having another, proper, United States of America, birthday party, so prepare yourselves :) I have midterms next week so I'm not sure if I'll have time to come online on Sunday but if I do I'll be on at 7pm my time, which I think is 1pm your time since you guys had daylight savings. Love youuu. Besos!
Monday, March 2, 2009
La edad del pavo
Sorry for taking so long to update! I know some of you (ahem, Kim), have no life and read this religiously so my bad for the delay. For explanation of the title, you´ll have to read the last few paragraphs.
Sevilla is still beautiful, we haven't had rain in like two weeks and it has been absolutely cloudless and sunny, with temperatures around 70-75 degrees. I heard you guys just got some more snow...can't say I'm missing it! Just a couple degrees warmer and it will be perfect weather here and I won't even need a jacket. But before you know it I will be complaining about the heat! I love it though because it smells like spring.....mmm.
There isn't too much to inform about right now, just getting into the grind again with school. It is less work but it is still more work than I would like to do when i'm trying to experience the world hah. I am really enjoying most of my classes though, especially Contemporary Literature and my Film class. I think analyzing literature and film is so interesting and you can see all the symbols and foreshadowing, etc that the author put into their work. I also really love my teacher for my lit class, she seems like a total feminist, which those who know me well, know that I love :)
Going on a bit of a feminist tangent, I want to write about something here that has really affected me, which is gender roles, but more specifically, violence to women. A few weeks ago a 16 year old girl went missing and since then they found out that her ex-boyfriend killed her and threw her in the river, and they are continuing to look for her body. The reason he did it was because they were dating and he had another girlfriend besides her so she started dating someone else. Which according to him, and many like him, was okay for him to do but not her. This case is getting tonnns of media attention in Spain right now, her parents just talked to president Zapatero to try and change the laws because the boy that helped her ex-boyfriend kill her is only going to go to jail for 6 months. I'm not sure how long the ex-boyfriend will be in jail but my teacher said that because he's young and a boy it won't be that long, especially if they can't find her body. Aside from the Marta case, literally every single day on the news there is another woman who was killed by her husband or boyfriend. Yesterday there were two within 24 hours. Sorry for the downer paragraph but it is just something that has really bothered me since I've been here and a huge part of Spain that I hate and I'll never understand. It has also given me ideas about maybe someday coming back and working at a women's center here..who knows. Also, it has made me all the more hesitant about finding a spanish lover :)
Back to good stuff!! This last weekend we went to Cadiz, which is on the south coast of Spain and its where a lot of people go for the beach. However, we went for the infamous and internationally known party, Carnavales, which is, from what I could tell, a lot like Halloween in the states. In fact, it was pretty much exactly Madison Halloween, with more public urination. And yes, of course I wore sandals that were completely soaked by the end of the night. I will continue to tell myself it was water. Before we left for Cadiz, my friend Amber and I chilled on top of her apartment building and enjoyed my first of the wonderful Spanish tradition of the “botellon”, which is a huge bottle of Spanish beer that costs like fifty cents. Aside from the beer, it was really cool on top of the roof and we could see the whole city. We were up there until sunset and took a bus to Cadiz at 8 pm and got back at 6am. It was a looong night. Which ended in me taking my first bite of red meat in over 8 years...from a Burger King hamburger. A bad choice for my first taste of “cow” in awhile. I don't think I'll have a problem staying away from that anymore. In my defense I was starving and they don't have magical places like Ian's or Toppers in Spain...oh the days of late night mac and cheese pizza...I long for you. So we didn't get back to Sevilla until like 6 am which meant that I spent the whole next day making a route around my house from my bed, to the bathroom, to the kitchen, and back to bed. On one of the trips to the bathroom I did make it into the shower, and brought my shoes with me, so they are clean...pretty clean anyway...
EXCITING NEWS!!! I booked a ticket to Paris for next weekend!!! It was a huge pain in the ass that I don't even want to get into but I am actually going to Paris. I can't believe it. We also just got a hostel that is apparently 10 minutes walking from the Eiffel Tower and 23 euros a night. I'm going with the three girls that I spent the weekend in Granada with, so I'm really excited. Now I just need to pray that everything goes according to plan because I've heard so many traveling horror stories. No matter what I'm sure I'll have lots of things to say for my next blog.
Last night was really fun because I met up with my Spanish friend Carlos who I've met a few times but always at a club when you can't hear anything, so it was nice to actually talk to him. And me and my friends talked almost the whole night in Spanish!! Once I start talking I can feel it coming easier and easier, I just really need to speak in Spanish to my American friends too. We also met two guys from PARIS last night, who of course after only one year of Spanish, were completely fluent. And fluent in English as well. God damn Europe worldly-ness.
Tomorrow is Pepita's birthday so all her sons and daughter and their husbands and wives and grandkids are here...and her house is not that big so right now it is chuck full of crazy Spanish family. The two grandaughters are precious. The older one, Maria, is thirteen and her sister Ana is almost three. Ana is sooooooo cute! Ah! And she is enrolled in a bilingual school where she learns equal amounts of English and Spanish. We sang Happy Birthday in English together haha. Pepita told me she knows more English than Spanish. She is two years old! She is going to have such an advantage when she gets older. It's crazy here how knowing a second language is basically expected in Europe, and it isn't unusual for someone to know three or four. I'm so jealous, especially when I've spent the better part of my life trying to master just a second language. Ayyy madre mia! After I get back from Cordoba tomorrow I'm probably going to be thrown into a pit of Spanish Birthday celebrations. I think I'll resort to talking to the bilingual two year old.
Now it is Sunday and I'm recuperating from a weekend of ninos. Yesterday we went to Cordoba and saw the famous Catedral-Mesquita. It is really interesting and strange at the same time. It was made in many parts and depending on who was in charge at the time (the Muslims or the Christians), they would add certain things and take others away and such. There is a HUGE cathedral right in the middle of the mosque, it was crazy! I have never gone to church regularly or considered myself a religious person, but whenever I have gone into a big religious monument, I feel myself on the verge of tears for no apparent reason. Its really weird.
After the Mesquita, we rode the bus to a town about 45 minutes outside of Cordoba to one of the oldest and finest wineries in Spain for a tour and tasting!! Whoo! We stepped into the warehouse where a tonnnnnnnnnnnnnn of wine is stored in big wooden barrels and all I could think about was how much my mom would love it, and my aunt too :) The smell alone was intoxicating....a mix of aging wine and cedar. I never wanted to stop inhaling!! After the tour we got to try three types of wine; a dry appetizer wine, a semi sweet wine, and a very sweet dessert wine. The first one was pretty strong, I liked the second the best even though it was still pretty sweet, and the third one was really weird. It literally tasted like liquid raisins, and looked like it too. It was dark and almost thick...I wasn't a huge fan. I really like Cordoba but it was nothing compared to Granada, and it was of course raining for the first time in two weeks, but I still had fun.
Now today I had probably the most authentic Spanish experience since I've been here, even more than the soccer game. Alllll of Pepita's daughters and sons and their wives and kids were at the house celebrating her birthday and it was just a huge fiesta of food and laughing and music and dancing. It reminded me SO much of our Thanksgivings or big family birthdays or Christmas dinners at home. Except for the fact that they all can play the guitar so well and dance Flamenco and sing Flamenco cantes...it was so amazing to be a part of. And one of her sons, Anival, was so much like Uncle Tim, it was hilarious. Drinking and making jokes about everything, it was so funny. And two of her sons reminded me of me and Lucy because even though they are old (30s or 40s), they were wrestling and just cracking up at everything each other said. Now that I think of it, Jesus was more like my mom because he still has, as they say “la edad del pavo” which literally means the age of the turkey, ie. An adolescent pest. And seeing how Pepita interacted with her kids and grandkids was like a spitting image of my grandmas at home. I literally had to hold back tears at some points, sometimes because I was laughing so much, and sometimes because I wished so badly it was my own family sitting around the table. Even though I couldn't understand everything, I still felt like I was a part of it. They even asked me about the word “cheesehead” hahah. And little Ana fell in love with me too. We played all weekend together and she made me promise to come to visit her in Medida (about 200 km from Sevilla). I took pictures and a video of her singing “Happy Birthday” in English. What a peach. Well my friends, as always, I'm thinking of you all every minute of the day, and hope that everything is good even without my face around :) I should have pictures up from the weekend very soon, and it won't be long until the next blog because I'm going to PARIS next weekend!!! AH! La vida la vida la vida!
Sevilla is still beautiful, we haven't had rain in like two weeks and it has been absolutely cloudless and sunny, with temperatures around 70-75 degrees. I heard you guys just got some more snow...can't say I'm missing it! Just a couple degrees warmer and it will be perfect weather here and I won't even need a jacket. But before you know it I will be complaining about the heat! I love it though because it smells like spring.....mmm.
There isn't too much to inform about right now, just getting into the grind again with school. It is less work but it is still more work than I would like to do when i'm trying to experience the world hah. I am really enjoying most of my classes though, especially Contemporary Literature and my Film class. I think analyzing literature and film is so interesting and you can see all the symbols and foreshadowing, etc that the author put into their work. I also really love my teacher for my lit class, she seems like a total feminist, which those who know me well, know that I love :)
Going on a bit of a feminist tangent, I want to write about something here that has really affected me, which is gender roles, but more specifically, violence to women. A few weeks ago a 16 year old girl went missing and since then they found out that her ex-boyfriend killed her and threw her in the river, and they are continuing to look for her body. The reason he did it was because they were dating and he had another girlfriend besides her so she started dating someone else. Which according to him, and many like him, was okay for him to do but not her. This case is getting tonnns of media attention in Spain right now, her parents just talked to president Zapatero to try and change the laws because the boy that helped her ex-boyfriend kill her is only going to go to jail for 6 months. I'm not sure how long the ex-boyfriend will be in jail but my teacher said that because he's young and a boy it won't be that long, especially if they can't find her body. Aside from the Marta case, literally every single day on the news there is another woman who was killed by her husband or boyfriend. Yesterday there were two within 24 hours. Sorry for the downer paragraph but it is just something that has really bothered me since I've been here and a huge part of Spain that I hate and I'll never understand. It has also given me ideas about maybe someday coming back and working at a women's center here..who knows. Also, it has made me all the more hesitant about finding a spanish lover :)
Back to good stuff!! This last weekend we went to Cadiz, which is on the south coast of Spain and its where a lot of people go for the beach. However, we went for the infamous and internationally known party, Carnavales, which is, from what I could tell, a lot like Halloween in the states. In fact, it was pretty much exactly Madison Halloween, with more public urination. And yes, of course I wore sandals that were completely soaked by the end of the night. I will continue to tell myself it was water. Before we left for Cadiz, my friend Amber and I chilled on top of her apartment building and enjoyed my first of the wonderful Spanish tradition of the “botellon”, which is a huge bottle of Spanish beer that costs like fifty cents. Aside from the beer, it was really cool on top of the roof and we could see the whole city. We were up there until sunset and took a bus to Cadiz at 8 pm and got back at 6am. It was a looong night. Which ended in me taking my first bite of red meat in over 8 years...from a Burger King hamburger. A bad choice for my first taste of “cow” in awhile. I don't think I'll have a problem staying away from that anymore. In my defense I was starving and they don't have magical places like Ian's or Toppers in Spain...oh the days of late night mac and cheese pizza...I long for you. So we didn't get back to Sevilla until like 6 am which meant that I spent the whole next day making a route around my house from my bed, to the bathroom, to the kitchen, and back to bed. On one of the trips to the bathroom I did make it into the shower, and brought my shoes with me, so they are clean...pretty clean anyway...
EXCITING NEWS!!! I booked a ticket to Paris for next weekend!!! It was a huge pain in the ass that I don't even want to get into but I am actually going to Paris. I can't believe it. We also just got a hostel that is apparently 10 minutes walking from the Eiffel Tower and 23 euros a night. I'm going with the three girls that I spent the weekend in Granada with, so I'm really excited. Now I just need to pray that everything goes according to plan because I've heard so many traveling horror stories. No matter what I'm sure I'll have lots of things to say for my next blog.
Last night was really fun because I met up with my Spanish friend Carlos who I've met a few times but always at a club when you can't hear anything, so it was nice to actually talk to him. And me and my friends talked almost the whole night in Spanish!! Once I start talking I can feel it coming easier and easier, I just really need to speak in Spanish to my American friends too. We also met two guys from PARIS last night, who of course after only one year of Spanish, were completely fluent. And fluent in English as well. God damn Europe worldly-ness.
Tomorrow is Pepita's birthday so all her sons and daughter and their husbands and wives and grandkids are here...and her house is not that big so right now it is chuck full of crazy Spanish family. The two grandaughters are precious. The older one, Maria, is thirteen and her sister Ana is almost three. Ana is sooooooo cute! Ah! And she is enrolled in a bilingual school where she learns equal amounts of English and Spanish. We sang Happy Birthday in English together haha. Pepita told me she knows more English than Spanish. She is two years old! She is going to have such an advantage when she gets older. It's crazy here how knowing a second language is basically expected in Europe, and it isn't unusual for someone to know three or four. I'm so jealous, especially when I've spent the better part of my life trying to master just a second language. Ayyy madre mia! After I get back from Cordoba tomorrow I'm probably going to be thrown into a pit of Spanish Birthday celebrations. I think I'll resort to talking to the bilingual two year old.
Now it is Sunday and I'm recuperating from a weekend of ninos. Yesterday we went to Cordoba and saw the famous Catedral-Mesquita. It is really interesting and strange at the same time. It was made in many parts and depending on who was in charge at the time (the Muslims or the Christians), they would add certain things and take others away and such. There is a HUGE cathedral right in the middle of the mosque, it was crazy! I have never gone to church regularly or considered myself a religious person, but whenever I have gone into a big religious monument, I feel myself on the verge of tears for no apparent reason. Its really weird.
After the Mesquita, we rode the bus to a town about 45 minutes outside of Cordoba to one of the oldest and finest wineries in Spain for a tour and tasting!! Whoo! We stepped into the warehouse where a tonnnnnnnnnnnnnn of wine is stored in big wooden barrels and all I could think about was how much my mom would love it, and my aunt too :) The smell alone was intoxicating....a mix of aging wine and cedar. I never wanted to stop inhaling!! After the tour we got to try three types of wine; a dry appetizer wine, a semi sweet wine, and a very sweet dessert wine. The first one was pretty strong, I liked the second the best even though it was still pretty sweet, and the third one was really weird. It literally tasted like liquid raisins, and looked like it too. It was dark and almost thick...I wasn't a huge fan. I really like Cordoba but it was nothing compared to Granada, and it was of course raining for the first time in two weeks, but I still had fun.
Now today I had probably the most authentic Spanish experience since I've been here, even more than the soccer game. Alllll of Pepita's daughters and sons and their wives and kids were at the house celebrating her birthday and it was just a huge fiesta of food and laughing and music and dancing. It reminded me SO much of our Thanksgivings or big family birthdays or Christmas dinners at home. Except for the fact that they all can play the guitar so well and dance Flamenco and sing Flamenco cantes...it was so amazing to be a part of. And one of her sons, Anival, was so much like Uncle Tim, it was hilarious. Drinking and making jokes about everything, it was so funny. And two of her sons reminded me of me and Lucy because even though they are old (30s or 40s), they were wrestling and just cracking up at everything each other said. Now that I think of it, Jesus was more like my mom because he still has, as they say “la edad del pavo” which literally means the age of the turkey, ie. An adolescent pest. And seeing how Pepita interacted with her kids and grandkids was like a spitting image of my grandmas at home. I literally had to hold back tears at some points, sometimes because I was laughing so much, and sometimes because I wished so badly it was my own family sitting around the table. Even though I couldn't understand everything, I still felt like I was a part of it. They even asked me about the word “cheesehead” hahah. And little Ana fell in love with me too. We played all weekend together and she made me promise to come to visit her in Medida (about 200 km from Sevilla). I took pictures and a video of her singing “Happy Birthday” in English. What a peach. Well my friends, as always, I'm thinking of you all every minute of the day, and hope that everything is good even without my face around :) I should have pictures up from the weekend very soon, and it won't be long until the next blog because I'm going to PARIS next weekend!!! AH! La vida la vida la vida!
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