afternoon adventures and despedidas.

it has been an interesting month so far, just seeing the way everyone is dealing with getting ready to leave. some people are really excited and can’t wait to be home and eat mexican food and live their normal lives again. i have other friends who are like absolutely devastated about leaving and they just don’t want to go yet. It’s definitely a crazy time for us all and emotions are coming out in different ways because we are trying to study for finals, move 4 months of accumulated junk from Europe home, say goodbye, and end this adventure for now. It really depends on the day for me, but I was kind of in denial at first and I didn’t want to talk about it. and when people brought it up, I didn’t want to hear about it ending. But I mean its inevitable and I do have to say goodbye. So there are moments when I get really sad and don’t want leave Manoli, Clara, or Ana and then there are days when I get really excited about spending time in june with Sharlarose, Christine, elise, shane, and Emily. Then I get excited about seeing my dad, kays, mom, and matt in july too. it has definitely been a bitter sweet past two weeks now but here’s some of what I have been doing:

after mom left, hace dos juves (two Thursdays ago), I ran to make it to our UPO fieldtrip – which was riding down the Guadalquivir on a boat/crucero – cruise ship thing. it was fun and good to spend time with my friends after a busy week, but I was sooo tired because I had gone out the night before.

I have this friend, Amer, that DJs in New Mexico (that’s where he’s from) and so he was talking to some Spanish people at on of our UPO intercambio mixers one day and he was telling them that he DJs, then the guy like hooked him up and gave him a DJing job at Boss and so we would go to there every Wednesday night to see him pinchar (DJ). And so he’s met all these DJ friends, who are giving him jobs at other discotecas/clubs…. which means that we get to go on his guest list and get in free, which is so awesome. So in the past two weeks, all our friends have had a lot of fun going out to Abril and Bandalai too.

so in our final weeks here ali and i decided that we are making the most of our time and going on afternoon adventures everyday. saturday night, ali, erica, carla, and i went to an FC sevilla soccer game, in nervion plaza against mallorca. it was great because Sevilla won and everyone was happy! the crowd was singing the whole time, and we even joined in by ripping up random advertisement papers and making confetti, while ali blew her whistle horn too!

On Sunday, ali and i had a Sunday funday. we went to real alcazar and just walked around, and illegally fed the fish, then we went to mcdonald’s and got icecream for one euro, then we went to parque de los principes (the park in los remedios) and we sat on the swings for awhile and swung, then we fed the fish in that park. But funny story, so I didn’t have any bread type deal except goldfish that mom brought me so I brought those and we fed cheddar goldfish to real goldfish. ahaha and this old man in the park was like you want some bread? or uncooked cuscus rice to feed the fish? And I was like a little wierded out by him at first but then he was just like there. It was funny. after that, ali and I found a tree that reminded me of teribithia, so we climbed it.

Tuesday, I took a twenty minute siesta at amir’s house on his couch, before we went souvenir shopping for friends and family. he made me go to a smelly china bazaar (china bazaar’s are like dollar stores) with him to look at cheap luggage. Then, we met up with ali in el centro, and we found the smoothie place… sooooooooo exciting!! We sat and had juice/smoothies for awhile then we walked around buying gifts. I got a 5euro No-Do shirt so I was happy.

Wednesday, ali and I wanted to jump BUT the trampolines in the nervion plaza were closed, even though the guy told us on Saturday when we were there (but I was wearing a dress, so we couldn’t jump then) on Saturday, he said that they were open everyday of the week from 10am -8pm… but we went after school on Monday and just got off early at the nervion stop, but it was closed!! well, that’s spain for you. But instead we went pedaling down the river in pedal boats, which was so much fun. We have been wanting to do it for a really long time too, so I’m glad we finally accomplished our goal. Wednesday night was so much fun too because we had our TCU family dinner. where all 24 of us went with mary alice and our senoras to Abades Triana, a really nice restaurant by the river and had dinner with each other, so we finally got to meet each other's senoras!! and i got to meet Puri (ali's senora!).then, we went to Abril and almost all my friends were there so it was just wonderful to go out with everyone.

Thursday, after lunch, I took another siesta on amir’s couch because they are doing construction in my apt building and they hammer, so I can’t sleep… ali was too sick from going out the night before, so, amir and I hungout at his house and he played his guitar (that he bought here in spain) because he is selling it on Saturday and he wanted to get some more use out of it. Thursday night, we also had our last hoorah dinner. mal and i had our usual tuesday bonding time on the bus and decided that we should all have dinner together and celebrate before everything gets crazy with packing, finals, and leaving so that we could have a proper despidida.(goodbye) so we all went out together for tapas on Thursday night at this place by the cathedral and it was good, just to all spend time together. Then we went to an outdoor concert in Plaza San Salvador, which was okay, it wasn’t great because I was really tired. But then Jen (brian’s gf who was visiting), brian, amir, and I got week sevici passes (like communal rental bikes strategically located around the city), and rode home on those. Jen and Brian were tired so they biked home. and Amir and I rode around a bit on bikes by the river and in los remedios because it was a nice night.

Friday morning, I rode my sevici to amir’s. and jen, brian came over too so that we could have breakfast/mid morning snack. We just spent the morning together, which was nice. After lunch, we met up to go to this medieval fair that they are having in the park next to Prado. It was fun I bought some earrings and a bracelet. Ali bought a new ring too, and amir ate a schwarma. But it was too hot and so I went home and siesta-d. Then we went out later to bandalai and saw DJamer, so it was a great night.

Also this week I had three oral exams, one Tuesday with ana for conversation class over la comida espanola, which went really well and corey asked me “te gusta jamon serrano?” (which is like a tapas ham) and only ana, corey, and I got the joke because only they know that I am a vegetarian, haha very funny right.. anyways, and then on Wednesday I had my lola lago oral exam with Penelope which was really easy, and merillat and I studied for it the night before, so it went really well too. but Thursday I had my individual conversation oral with ana and I had to talk to her for 11 minutes about life. Before hand I was really nervous about it because I don’t like oral exams, especially in Spanish, but since I had, had so many this week already the nervousness wasn’t as bad. But I was also worried because Ana is like one of my favorite people in Sevilla and I really just wanted to do well because I wanted to show her how much Spanish I have learned from her, it’s a world of difference really, it is. I’m going to be so incredibly sad to say goodbye to her.

I have to go study a bit now for the 2 spanish finals I have on Monday morning, but I will write more later. Hasta luego! (Until later!)

semana santa. jason & miya’s visit. and the week after.

Pictures: 1) Miya, Jason & I by the Guadalquivir. 2) Amir, Daniela, Mal, Brian and I at Amir's apartment. 3) The paso of La Macarena. 4) The Virgin from La Esperanza de Triana. 5) Nazarenos from La Esperanza de Triana. 6) Look at all the people on the Triana Bridge!

We came back from morocco on Wednesday night and I was sooooo tired. I slept in on Thursday because we had no school for the rest of the week because it was Semana Santa (Holy week) so we were on vacation. Another reason we had the week off too is because Sevilla is the most famous place in the WHOLE WORLD for Semana Santa processions. – that’s what Ana Claudio says anyways, and she isn’t just saying that because she’s a Sevillana. it really is true.

We all planned our trips perfectly so that we would be in Sevilla for the end of Semana Santa because that is when the best processions go on & the most important part of the week is. Thursday night was la madrugada – which literally means ‘early morning,’ but it’s the night when the most famous processions happen and people stay up the whole night to watch all of the processions. Let me explain the whole Semana Santa processions before I tell you about my experience with La madrugada though. --- so during the entire week there are these things called Pasos – which are like floats that the churches spend the year building, they are ornate and beautiful and they are made of gold. and “most brotherhoods carry two floats: a float with a Christ, representing the distinct stages of the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ and a float with a Dolorosa (Mary the Virgin in pain) under a canopy. Some brotherhoods even carry three floats. Resuming, in the eight days of Semana Santa, a total of 57 brotherhoods, carry their 116 floats from their church to the Cathedral and back, in the company of around 60,000 brothers participating in their different appearances: Nazarenos (Nazarenes/Penitents), Costaleros (float carriers), acolytes, bandas de musica, saetas, and women who wear el traje de mantilla. During holy week the Cofradías (Brotherhoods or Fraternities) process in penitence through the (many narrow) streets of the city, from their church to the Cathedral and back, taking the shortest possible route, as decreed in the rule of the ordinances by Cardenal Niño de Guevara in the 17th century. Starting on Domingo de Ramos (Palm Sunday), and ending on Domingo de Resurrección (Easter Sunday), there are 57 brotherhoods that pay the religious visist to the Cathedral of Seville, the third largest Cathedral in the world.” http://www.sol.com/semana-santa/

The Nazarenos are the men in hooded (KKK-look alike) outfits. The KKK actually copied Semana Santa processions and Spaniards were not happy about it. But the Nazarenos wear the outfits/hooded masks to show anonymity in their walk of penitence. There are 20-40 costaleros that actually carry the pasos from underneath and they carry them for hours on their backs, which weigh over 2,000 pounds. Each procession can last from 4 to 14 hours, and have 3,000 nazerenos. Seatas are flamenco singers that take part in the processions but they sing flamenco music acapela from balconies near the churches that the pasos are going into. also, there are women who wear el traje de mantilla - it's like a black lace veil. they wear them on thursday/friday/saturday to mourn the death of christ. The processions last hours and hours all that partake in the processions – cross bearers, float carriers, acolytes, music bands, and nazarenos do it so that Jesus will save their sins. It was a very different cultural experience to watch and be a part of. I can see how many Americans are set off by it and don’t really understand it. But for Christian/Catholic people, it is a really big deal. It reminded me about what Easter really is for, so I think that was important to me. It was good that Jason came and visited this week too because it reminded me of Good Fridays/Easter Sundays at church when we were younger.

So about my experience with la madrugada… well, Thursday was the day that everyone got home from their trips. Mal/Daniela got home from Italy/France/Switzerland and Brian/Amir got home from Madrid/Toledo and so we were all reunited!! It was good that I got to rest on Wednesday night/Thursday day before they all got home. Anyways, so we hung out at Amir’s and we were all so happy to be back together again also, we swapped stories of our travels and just enjoyed spending time all together. So we were there until 1:30ish in the morning because La Esperanza de Triana (one of the most famous processions of la madrugada) started on the Triana Bridge at 2. Amir and Daniela were really tired so they didn’t come with us but Mal, Brian, and I went to get a caffeine fix before the night began… my night began at 1:30am. After I got my coffee, we went over to the Triana bridge and waited for the pasos to come. We were there for a good while and we saw the paso with Christ but we wanted to wait and see the Virgin also. Merillat, Traci, Brett, and a few of our other friends were in a bar down the road so we went to go meet up with them. Then with our whole group we were looking for a good spot to watch the Virgin come by.. mind you, there are like millions of people out and its hard to move in the streets because everyone is crowding to see this procession. Anyways, so I got split up from Merillat, but Mallory and Jacob were next to me and all of a sudden the people started shouting and running the other way. Then at once, we were all running too. I heard Merillat and Mallory screaming and trying to grab on to me as people were trampling Mal and I. Mal ended up falling and cutting her hand open but Merillat grabbed me before I hit the ground. Apparently a fight broke out and people were pushing and running the other direction because they didn’t want to get hit, and it caused a huge wave of running. NOT GOOD. it was really scary and not fun. But other than that our madrugada experience was just fine, after the running happened we waited from afar until we heard the music of the paso coming. Then we also went and saw La Macarena, which is another really really famous paso. I liked them both but I think I liked La Macarena more (it was just prettier and in the bandas de musica – music bands the players were wearing outfits with feathery hats = so pretty). By the end of the night, my feet were killing me because we were standing and walking for 6 hours straight!!

I went home and slept until lunch the next day because I was so tired! Then we all met to get sangria @ brown sugar (at 4:30 on Friday, April 10th - insidejoke we had to remind everyone when/where/what time to meet & we had to make plans ahead of time bc mallory had no phone) but it was closed bc of the holiday as well. So we just ended up hanging out in the downstairs of mama terra. We ran into Amer, Jeffrey, and Justin and spent the afternoon just talking. It was time well spent.

The week of Semana Santa was also the week of Jason’s visit… it was really good to see him & Miya. We tried to see each other while we were both in Florence but it ended up not working out. On Wednesday, I took them to Plaza de Espana, Parque Maria Luisa, and the museums in the park too – but they were closed bc of Semana Santa holidays, and we also sat by the river and enjoyed the afternoon. Then, I saw them on Saturday and took them to Alameda where we went to a little café and on the way home we ran into a Semana Santa procession. And when we finally got out of the crowd, we went to go have churros by the Triana bridge. Saturday night, we tried to go to a Flamenco Bar but Jas and I both ran out of saldo at the same time so it was kind of crazy getting a hold of each other. But on Sunday morning, Jas, Miya, Amir, and I went to the mercadillo and I got some aceitunas for merienda (olives for snacks) and made sure they tried them because Sevilla is famous for olives, ya know. It was a great weekend with them and they were wonderful visitors. I was just sad that they didn’t get to see Sevilla when it wasn’t so crazy with millions of tourists for Semana Santa.

Last week was good too. Going back to school was difficult after being gone for so long but I got back into the swing of things easily. Highlights of last week: trying to explain to Manoli who zach efron & miley cyrus are – they came on the television during lunch one day and I was telling her how much I love miley cyrus. Also, I love being one of manoli’s niñas – Manoli has given us so many sopresas (surprises) in the past weeks! Oh my gosh, it’s amazing and I love it! when it’s just me, Merillat, and traci she gives us strawberries & chocolate or icecream, or éclairs, or little chocolate muffins for merienda (afternoon snacks!) and even on Friday, when I had breakfast by myself before I left for Portugal she gave me a kiwi with breakfast (fue un secreto grande porque Isabel fue en la casa todavía!–it was a big secret because liz was still in the house!)

Adventuring with ali – Monday we went to El Corte Ingles (a big department store with imported products – so if you want anything American you will most likely find it there) bc I wanted to buy brian peanut butter for saving all my italy pictures, then we got like the best ice cream ever and enjoyed the afternoon walking around Sevilla, then on Wednesday, ali and I went to puerta jerez and we read Sabor a Chocolate, which is this book that we are reading for Ana Claudio’s class, but I love it because it’s a book that I actually enjoy reading and its difficult enough for me that I learn new words/grammatical structures while reading it but its also easy enough to where I understand so much of what is going on that its not frustrating. Anyways, so Ali and I sat in puerta jerez and read but it was really windy outside so we went into this cute café by the University of Sevilla and we had coffee. It also started to sprinkle a little so we moved inside. Then when we were done reading, we went and explored Parque de los principes (which is just another park, but its in Los Remedios, near our houses). It was a good day. On Thursday, we just sat by the river, walked around, and chatted in puerta jerez.

Friday we left for lagos, Portugal and you will hear more about that trip in my other blog. But last week was really good and I can’t believe it’s the end of April already!! My time here is going by so fast, that I never want it to end!! Alright, I am going to go take a siesta and then afternoon adventure with ali, I will write more later. Hasta luego!

feliz cumpleaños a lola y brian.

What a week. I am finally finally finally feeling so much better because I’ve been on antibiotics and on Tuesday I decided that I need to rest or else I would land myself in the hospital soon. I took siesta almost everyday this week which was good for my soul and good for my health. The weather has been amazing too. It has been around 70s-80s during the day but during in the early morning and at night it gets a little colder. It was so nice out actually that Ali and decided to take advantage of it and lay out by the river this week to siesta. It was fabulous. We also laid out by the river to catch up on homework and read a little too.

La senora con la que vivo, Manoli (the senora that I live with), has been sick but she went to the doctor twice this week and he finally gave her antibiotics. This is pertinent to my health also because she cooks all my food. Anyways, so Manoli is better now too, so all is good in the world.

Monday, I met with Clara, my intercambio, which was very exciting. University de Pablo Olavide has this program with intercambio (literally meaning like exchanges) where you are paired up with a Spanish student who wants to practice English and you want to practice your Spanish so you converse with each other to help each other learn language. It was lots of fun, I wasn’t feeling that well but I had a good time talking to Clara we met at Starbucks and I got tea which helped my throat too. We are going to meet every week and chat, some of the time in Spanish, some in English, and some Spanglish too.

Wednesday, Ali and I began our lunes y miercoles afternoon adventure club and went into Catedral to take pictures and explore Europe’s 3rd largest cathedral. It was lots of fun. We are going to be going on afternoon adventures on Mondays and/or Wednesdays every week because we get out of school at the same time together.

Thursday night was interesting too. Mallory met these Spaniards at an intercambio tapas event at UPO on Wednesday and we went out with them on Thursday night. We walked around town a bit, then went and hung out by the river before going to a discoteca later that night. We actually sat in a circle by the river and played ‘never never have I ever’ while they spoke in English and we spoke in Spanish. It was really funny and it helped us practice Spanish too! I was really not feeling well later that night so I went home early with Daniella and didn’t end up going to the discoteca but later Brian and Amir had a run in with some punks who wanted money from them. At first they asked for gas money because they said their moped ran out of gas and so Brian gave them a euro. But then the guys started asking for their credit cards and wouldn’t leave them alone. Amir started yelling at them and shouting once one of the guys pushed him and then so the Spaniards who were getting churros with Mal called the cops and the guys left. It was a crazy story. I’m glad they’re safe and nothing bad happened, it’s good that Daniela and I went home too so that we weren’t there either.

This weekend we celebrated both Lola’s (Danielle’s) 20th birthday on Friday and Brian’s 21st on Saturday. It was so much fun. Friday, we went to the Banos de Arabes (Arabic baths), which was so so so relaxing. It was 2hour spa-bath treatment where we got to go in a cold, mild, and hot bath, salt water pools, jacuzzi, and a sauna room. Also, we got a 15 minute massage and had tea afterwards too. It was great to have a spa-type day and we even convinced the boys to do it with us too.

Friday night, we hung out at Amir’s apartment for a while had cake for Lola and Brian and sang happy birthday to both of them. Then we went out to Calle Betis and Buddha later on which ended up being really fun. Amir always gets stopped at the door at Buddha because he never has nice shoes. Hahaha, then he always tells him he didn’t know and that next time he’ll wear them. It’s great. But anyways, it was a great way to celebrate both their birthdays.

Saturday, we all slept in because we stayed out pretty late. We ended up studying in the basement of Mama Terra (a restaurant with wireless internet) because mid terms are this week. Also, we spent a good portion of the afternoon trying to figure out whether The Reader was playing at the movie theater in English or Spanish… it was only in Spanish so we opted not to see it because we were tired.

Sunday afternoon, Amir, Brian, and I went to the mercadillo (kind of like a farmer’s market) on Avenida de la Paz. Melissa lives over near there so we met her there. I brought the dslr to take lots of pictures of it but Amir was a hater most of the day and told me someone was going to rob me so I should put the camera away. I put the camera away not because I thought he was right, but because I wanted him to stop being a hater about it so I only got a few pictures. It was fun, I love outside markets but I’m a bad barginer so I have to work on that. I bought cute earrings for a euro (they are super cheaply made too so I’m going to put nail polish remover on the backs). Brian finally bought sunglasses, Melissa bought shoes, and Amir bought like 4 kilos of fruit. It was a very successful day.

Things to look forward to in the next month: Tori is coming to Spain for her spring break to visit me! I'm meeting her in Madrid on Saturday and then she will come back with me and spend the week in Sevilla. Christine and Elise are traveling on a European excursion for their spring break too and so I am meeting them in London, also, while Marie bbbbBbbbbbBbb will be there too. At the end of the month, I'm meeting Dustin in Florence and we'll travel in the Tuscany region and hopefully meet up with Bailey too. So many loves from home and so many adventures in the next month. I can't wait! :)

Pictures: 1- Amir buying oranges at the mercadillo, 2 - shoes being sold at the mercadillo, 3 - Brian, Lola, Mal, Amir, and I right before entering the Arab baths, 4 - Ali and I laying out at the river