SNewman and Dr. Oz go to Cadiz

Liz and I decided to spend one of our last free days in the lovely city of Cadiz, the oldest continually populated city in the western hemisphere. After a slightly stressful morning due to a serious lack of sleep and excessive powerwalking, we made it to Cadiz, which really feels like a little beach town. It was a relief from the weather in Sevilla, which right now is about 105 F in the sun. Cadiz was cooler and breezier and beautiful to walk around. Soon we realized that things in Cadiz are much closer together than they seem on the map, it's a very small city. We walked past the ayuntamiento and the very grand cathedral, through a few plazas and stumbled upon the Marcado Central, selling some crazy looking, but very fresh seafood, fruit and ham (as usual). We took a bocadillo break there and bought some fresh fresas to snack on. I spent that time watching the olive man, who was very animated selling his olives. We tried some free samples, the oliviest olives I've ever eaten. Then we made our way to the beach, it was great beach weather. The water was a little cold, but I spent a good amount of time swimming in circles. The beach culture in Europe was a little bit of a surprise to me, but I guess it's what I should have expected. There were a lot of topless women, or nearly, pregnant women in bikinis, and speedos everywhere! It was easy not to give a crap what I looked like when everyone else didn't either!

(All pictures stolen from Liz because I'm lazy)

Paddleboating Pic!

WEEEEEE!

The End of an Era

It's only a matter of days before I'm on a flight back to NY, leaving this incredible place that I've been lucky enough to enjoy for the last 3 months. The only reason el tiempo no esta volando is because I'm in the middle of writing papers and exams all bunched into this small stretch of time. 

I feel as though I've grown a lot this semester, which is ironic because I've probably been the most irresponsible and care free for the last 3 months than I ever have in my life (sorry Mom and Dad). I've had opportunities to live and travel and learn that I never could have imagined, and I've taken advantage of as many as I could. I've even been using a different part of my brain after becoming so immersed in another language (even though I did get a little lazy after Feria). A few weeks ago, on the 6 hour bus ride home from Madrid I took the opportunity to write down a few things that studying abroad in Sevilla has taught me. Actually, there are a lot. Here goes:

What my time studying abroad in Sevilla has taught me:

To try to avoid wearing short dresses on windy bridges

To have so much respect for people who live in a country where they don't speak their native language, 

Things can go wrong when traveling, they probably will; it's not the end of the world, you'll get where you need to go

On that note, don't put your bus ticket in your bra and then forget that it's there and have to beg the bus driver to let you on.

That I'm capable enough to learn another language, one that I may not speak perfectly, but that I can communicate and make friends in.

That it's a unique feeling to speak a language in which you can't fully express yourself, things really do get lost in translation, but what's important is to be able to explain your way around what you really want to say. 

People love the things, especially the food, that they're accustomed to. 

Lots of Spanish curse words....joder.

That I'm more adaptable than I think

That I need to travel with people who travel like me, and not with a big group.

Traveling alone isn't as scary as it seems; with that, sometimes doing things by yourself can be more enjoyable.

You don't get if you don't ask (Chuck Newman)

I have a terrible sense of direction, but I'll eventually learn a city. I need to pay attention to where I'm going

Traveling isn't just sight seeing, it's mostly about who you meet, at least for me

There's always another option, you're not stuck in your chosen path. (The oil surveyor we met in Granada)

Not having responsibilities is pretty awesome

Don't be afraid to do things, you wont get the experience you want if you dont get out of your comfort zone. 

It's ok to regret things, if you don't regret, you'll never learn. 

Always have a bag with zippers, and check it often

Too much garlic, too much salt, and too much ham is very possible. 

To walk everywhere

Don't be hungover for 3 hour tours of La Alhambra or La Mezquita de Cordoba. Or in class. 

To appreciate having control over my own food and what goes into it.

Dulces usually look better than they taste

To wear closed toed shoes at Feria and in mosh pits.

To appreciate fines for not picking up dog poop. 

Some of those are cheesy, but they've been important lessons for me to learn. I'll just try to enjoy my last 4 days around the tests and papers. To the Cadiz for the beach tomorrow! So no...I'm not studying too hard. 

Hace muchisimo calor!

So this is what all the Sevillanos are talking about. They kept telling me how hot it's going to get, and now I see what they mean! The temperature in Fahrenheit is definitely in the mid-90's. Definitely teaches you the value of a siesta. I'm kind of glad I wont be here for the real heat that has yet to come.

Today we went paddleboating! It's been on the Sevilla bucket list my whole time here. It was so nice! We had a big group so we went out in 3 boats up and down the river. Not a bad life.

I've finally finished my terribly long papers for the end of the semester. I have finals coming up tomorrow and on Monday and Tuesday, then back to NY on Wednesday! I can't believe it. This semester has felt so long and so long at the same time.

Futbol

I finally made it to a futbol game! It's a goal I had for Sevilla to see a Spanish futbol game, and I'm so glad I went. It was a Sevilla vs. Betis game, Betis is another Sevilla team, so it was kind of like the Mets playing the Yankees. We got to what was basically the tailgate outside the stadium, which was the Sevilla stadium to find everyone dressed in red (Sevilla colors) chanting and yelling and drinking and setting off smoke and fire crackers. There wasn't a green scarf (Betis colors) in sight; we later found out that the Betis fans were having their own tailgate separated from Sevilla by rows of police so that fights wouldn't start. Every few minutes fans would start singing Sevilla songs and the entire crowd of people would join in.

We made our way into the stadium to watch the game. It was almost more fun to watch and listen to the fans, screaming curse words and insults at Betis and chanting and waving scarves for Sevilla. Some people brought in drums, which they played constantly throughout the entire game, adding to the intensity of it all. As for the game, it was 1:1 throughout almost the entire thing, when in the last 2 minutes, Betis scored their winning goal. There was only a tiny section of Betis fans since most refuse to come to the Sevilla stadium, but it was amzing how much noise they made. As the stadium emptied out of disappointed Sevillistas, the Betis crowd stayed and chanted and passed banners. It was all very exciting.

All pictures are stolen from Liz, my camera died right before the game

Sevilla fans before the game started:

Some fans giving us a background

The scene outside the stadium before the game

The one Betis section, surrounded by policemen

La Feria!

Let's talk about Feria. Sevilla has two major celebrations, Semana Santa or Holy Week, and then two weeks later, La Feria. The way I've described it to people is that it's a massive flamenco festival, but it's actually a bit different. Feria began as a forum to sell livestock and horses to the wealthy in the early 20th century. I believe it started becoming more popular and touristy in the 1970's. The traditions and dress from when it began are still very much alive today, though the fashions for flamenco dresses change each year.

Flamenco dresses are actually called "traje de gitana" (gypsy suit) because flamenco, as I just learned, was born in the caves of Granada where the gypsies lived. Gypsies, to this day, are subject to a lot of discrimination in Spain, but their cultural contribution of flamenco has been absorbed within the last last 150 into a mainstream tradition. At Feria, we danced the Sevillana, a regional folk dance which is influenced by flamenco, but everyone knows how to do it (and they dance it even if they don't). 

Sevillano families, if they have the money to pay for it, have what are called casetas. Casetas are fancy private tents with full bars and what's similar to a restaurant inside. There are a few public ones, but it's usually more fun to be invited to a private caseta. In some you have to pay for your own food and drink but in others the family treats you. The drink of Feria is rebujito, which is a mix of manzanilla, or vino fino (kind of like sherry white wine) and sprite. It's pretty good, and it goes to your head much more quickly than expected. Feria goes on all day, and it's easy to spend all day and all night hopping to different casetas and eating and drinking and dancing, sometimes it's demasiado. Almost all the women wear trajes, which can be very expensive and very beautiful, decked out with heels and big earrings and flowers in their hair. During the day people ride through the fair on horses, the women sit side saddle, and in horse drawn carriages decked out with bells and decorations. 

There's also a carnival part to Feria and it's very funny to see the women all decked out going on a roller coaster. Throughout the week you can see people in their Feria finest all over the city, it's amazing how alive and strong the tradition is. I've never seen anything like it, it's a very unique experience. It seems like it sums Sevilla up perfectly, a city full of people who absolutely love to have fun. 

Men on San Jacinto on their way to Feria in traditional dress

La Portada (the gateway), I'm not sure if they change it every year, but I think every few years they construct a different design. On the left are casetas, and the whole fair is decorated with lights and paper lanterns

Lucy, Alberto, Me and Liz in our Feria finest in front of the portada

Me with Fran's sister Sara (on right) and his friend, I forget her name. Fran's sister had beautiful dresses. This one was coral with off white lace. The next day she wore one that was hang painted. It's ok to go to Feria if you don't have a traje, women who don't have just get dressed up and usually wear ridiculous heels, which is very silly because the grounds are dirt and cobblestone. The traje is important, but so are the complementos that go with it. Spanish women spend a lot of time picking out earrings, flowers, bracelets and scarves to go with the dress.

Another shot of the Portada at Alumbrao. Alumbrao (which should be Alumbrado, but Sevillanos eat their 'd's) is on the first night of Feria, Monday night at midnight, where everyone gathers to watch them light up the portada, it's kind of like going to see the ball drop on New Years (something that I tried to explain to the girl I'm tutoring, never though of that as a weird tradition). Feria ends as quickly as it begins with fireworks over the river at midnight on Sunday night. After that everything is taken down right away. 

CHURROS. 

Liz snapped a sly photo of these women dancing the Sevillana

Granada 2.0

WOW. I just got back from Granada tonight, it was a spur of the moment decision. Lucy, who is studying there, came to visit me to see Feria in Sevilla with a couple friends and I'd been thinking about going back to Granada with her for a day, but hadn't planned anything. I decided to just go, why not? I bought my bus tickets in the morning and found a hostel when I got there. I'm so glad I went! The first time I went with Granada was with my program, we toured La Alhambra for 3 hours and I was super hung over, and it was raining out so I didn't have a great time and didn't get to see enough of the city. This time I feel like I've walked through the whole thing.

We got in around 8:30 and Lucy and I went for tapas. One of the awesome things about Granada is that most bars give you free tapas with every drink, so that's how we did dinner. I could get used to that rule. I don't remember which king decreed it, but the reason for the free tapas is that worker productivity was declining after 2 PM when workers left for a break and spent all their money on alcohol, so, whichever king it was, decreed that food must be served with each drink to increase worker productivity. That's how tapas were created.

Lucy had work to do for class in the morning (she had missed class for Feria...cultural reasons) so I got back to the hostel and met a group of people who were going out, so I ended up going out with them. It was pretty fun, definitely an interesting mix of people. First they took us to a bar and then to what felt like a kind of salsa/reggae club. I was pretty tired but I ended up getting salsa lessons from a German man who was a surprising talented dancer. The club was quite a varied mix of people, I hadn't realized Granada was such a hippie town.

In the morning I started out with a 2 hour walking tour that took us through Albaicin (sp?) (the Arab quarter) to Sacremonte (the gypsy quarter) where flamenco was born in the caves that people still live in. Our tour guide took us into a Carmen, a typical Arab style house adopted by the Christians after the Reconquista. The gardens were completely serene and beautiful. I met a girl from Buenos Aires and we ate lunch together, speaking Spanish and English. It took a bit to get used to her accent, but it worked out pretty quickly.

After that I met up with Lucy, who is doing a project on street art in Granada, so we took a tour offered by the hostel on the street art and caves. It was a great decision. I must have walked at least 5 or 6 miles today. Granada is hilly too! Shock to the system. Our tour guide took us farther into Albaicin, and out again to Sacremonte where we met Mali, the most interesting man ever. He came to his door just wearing a skirt and a necklace with the crest of his Indian family. He's Mexican, but lived in India for years finding his spiritual calling and working on an idealistic city called Auroville. His voice sounded like Mufasa. He brought all of us in and greeted each of us fluently in our respective languages (Italian, English, Spanish, German) and took us on a tour of the cave that he lives in which is rigged with electricity and has a garden with a Porche 911 sitting in it. He told us about himself and how much he'd traveled and where he'd lived and would occasionally go off on a tangent about religious unity and mutual respect. He had a meditation room (which is actually 40 meters underground) where he had us all stand in silence for a minute while he played an instrument that resonated for a great length of time. He called everyone "sweetie" and "brother" and invited us back anytime we like. It was a very unique experience.

We moved on to more street art, done by a painter named El Nino de las Pinturas (if I remember correctly), who is very well respected around the city; his works are everywhere. We walked into the old Jewish quarter to see one of his works, where 10% of people are still Jewish, which is high for Spain.

In the garden of the Carmen:

View of La Alhambra

Smelling the lilacs in Mali's garden

Mali quoting Alexander the Great

Street art by El Nino

The Jewish Quarter

View of Albaicin from the Jewish Quarter

I'm so glad I went to Granada again. I saw so much of the city today and got into the hostel culture, making random travel friends; it's very strange, but it's definitely fun at the same time. I could see myself going back to Granada for a longer period of time.

Mas Fotos!

Liz was my proud mama for the night and took all the pictures: 

Dancing Sevillana with Natalie

Desfile!

On Thursday night was the Desfile (basically a flamenco fashion show/showcase) which we've been getting ready for for so long. It was followed by a fiesta at the center and professional Sevillana dancers. I got to dance the Sevillana to live music in my flamenco dress! It was actually really hard because the dress I was wearing is a mermaid dress and very narrow around the knees so I felt like I was taking baby steps. I finally have a few pictures of it, I'll post more when the rest go up!

Doing my runway walk

Posing with Jenn and Kelsey!

Being silly

Lola, my Sevillana teacher; she's adorable

Lagos: Vacation from vacation

I just got home from our weekend in Portugal a half an hour ago, so I'll post right now so that I don't forget. It was such a great weekend! I'm a little bit toasted, but we got in some awesome beach time and everywhere we went was incredibly gorgeous. It happened that about 20 people from CC-CS came on the same trip, it was so nice having so many friends together!

We left in the morning on Friday, which was a struggle...and got to Lagos in the early afternoon. We walked into the pretty beach town and hung out at the pool on the roof of our hotel for the rest of the day, it was cloudy so it was pretty chilly. On Saturday we luckily came into some great weather for our "Sailboat Sangria Tour and Grotto Cruise". The sangria was most definitely flowing, and it started at 11am! Demasiado. It was great to hang out on the sailboat, of course I jumped off it into the freezing cold water, it was...invigorating. We went in launches from the sailboats to tour the grottos and alcoves on the coast. I couldn't believe how gorgeous it was. Then they dropped us on the beach for the rest of the day (with incredibly soft sand!) Today we were beach bums all day. There's a beautiful little beach right down the street from our hotel, so we walked down there and set up camp. Getting in the water was a challenge because it was SO COLD, but Liz, Kate and I swam out to one of the cliffs and jumped off of it. It wasn't too high, but it was still a thrill. After staying in the water for that long my skin got so numb that it actually started feeling hot.

View from the top:

Sangria and sailboats with Kevin and Cam!

A tunnel in the grottos

At a point in Portugal called The End of the World...it was a little windy

Sunset at the End of the World

Madrid!

Getting around to the Madrid post finally! Friday morning Hilary and I left for Madrid on a nice long 6 hour bus ride. The morning was very exciting, and very stressful. Our bus was at 8am at Plaza de Armas, which is 15 minutes from where I live, walking, and 25 minutes from Hilary's hostel. I woke up and got there by 7:30 and sat to wait for Hla, who I thought left at 7. When she didn't turn up by 7:40 I called her and found out that her alarm hadn't gone off and she just had woken up! I ended up begging the bus driver to wait for just a few more minutes, and just as he was about to leave me in Sevilla, Hla managed to sprint into the bus station. It was a close call.

We got to Stu and Antonio's apartment around 3, it is AWESOME! So lucky that we got to stay there. We started touring in the afternoon and made it El Mercado de San Miguel, an indoor gourmet market with the best froyo ever, and the Royal Palace. When I came to Madrid 5 years ago, I had gone to the Royal Palace, and I've wanted to go back ever since. It is the most gorgeous building I've ever been in. Unfortunately you can't take pictures inside, it's so incredible. My favorite room has an orchard with flowers and peaches carved into the ceiling. Hilary and I walked through twice so we could take it all in. Our tour guide the next day told us that the palace actually has over 1000 rooms, so the tour must only go through a small part of it. The king does not currently live there because he deemed it excessive to live in such luxury in hard economic times. Instead he lives in a modest 100 room palace.

On Saturday we took a free walking tour of the city with Marc the Irish tour guide who yells a lot. He wasn't a bad guide, just a bit emphatic. He took us to Plaza Mayor, the oldest restaurant in the world, Miguel Cervantes house, the Egyptian temple, Plaza del Sol, and the Royal Palace. We did a short history lesson in which I was King Carlos V and Hilary was King Phillip II (I think?). Afterward we went to a bar called El Tigre where they give you a huge plate of tapas with every drink you order, not a bad deal. Later we were able to meet up with Purcell and hang out a bit in the city center with her. 

Tapas at Mercado de San Miguel

The cathedral next to the palace, it was a cool perspective with the sun behind it

The Palace

Temple given to Spain by Egypt in the 70's....don't remember why

Plaza del Sol; The Times Square of Madrid?

The second most translated and widely published author ever (if I remember correctly)

Free tapas! Jamon is everywhere. 

Updates

I should not be blogging right now, I should be reading the 100 pages I have left of Nada, by Carmen Laforet, which is actually a very good be, albeit insane. I have to read the rest of it by tomorrow, but I think a quick blog post is necessary because I haven't in a while.

To start with, I haven't yet posted my pictures of Semana Santa, Holy Week in Sevilla. I was only there for the last 2 days of it, that was all that was necessary for me. In the first place it is demasiado gente (way too many people!). I came home on Sabado Santo and I went to the Cathedral to see what I could see, which was the paso (float) El Sol, I believe, which depicts Jesus carrying the cross. I saw it entering the cathedral, but from very far away because there were so many barriers and people. The pasos move very slowly because they are big heavy wooden structures supported by men kind of shuffling their feet under them. In front and behind the processions follow with Nazarenos, hermandades (kind of like religious fraternities) that wear uniforms that look like they're in the KKK. There is also the band playing blarey, brassy Semana Santa music that can be heard from very far away. In the weeks leading up to Holy Week I would see and hear them practicing by the river at night.

The next paso I saw was of Maria, I think, and I was much closer to this one. That's mainly because I was just trying to get home, but all possible ways of getting there were blocked off for processions. It took an hour and a half to find my way home, I had a nice impromptu wander of the side streets of Sevilla on the way. Finally I decided to wait at one of the barriers and they let you through once the paso passes. It was pretty cool to see one up close, they are very beautiful and elaborate. 

Real life?

I had to register for classes this week, thinking about next semester is way close to going back to real life.

On the upside, Hla is here! She stayed in Liz's homestay for her first few days and in a hostel with friends close to Alfalfa. Unfortunately my class schedule here isn't conducive to hosting someone, so I haven't gotten to hang out with her as much as I'd like to, but we're leaving for Madrid tomorrow morning for the weekend! Who's looking forward to a 5 hour bus ride?!

Hla's first day in Sevilla was HOT, weather she's not used to (because she's studying in Copenhagen) but since then it's cooled down. Today is cloudy, which doesn't happen too often in Sevilla, and 'rainy', meaning there's about 2 rain drops. Yesterday we did a lot of wandering the the north centro area, we went up to the top of the Metrosol Parasol, walked to Casa Pilatos and then met up with my intercambio. At night we went to Las Coloniales, which has pretty awesome tapas and sassy waiters and out to Alfalfa, which I managed to return from with a new pair of super euro-chic sunglasses.

She didn't get it

I did try to explain to my senora that I'm trying to avoid eating bread this week, so I asked that she give me yogurt for breakfast instead of a slice of pan, which she's fine with. But, last night, she gave me empanada for dinner, a dish made with pastry dough. O well. She even said that she was going to make me something else but then remembered I'm not eating bread this week and made me empanada instead. I felt it was too rude to say no, so I had some. I guess it's the effort that counts!

My senora's primas (cousins) are staying with her this week. I only met them yesterday, they're very sweet. One of them, Mikaela, knew I was going out after dinner so she advised me to dress up "guapisima" so that all the ninos would say "oo que mona!", then she made me show her my outfit before I left. Very cute. 

Dublin and Galway

So weird to finally be in a country where everyone speaks English! I get nervous about my Spanish after speaking English for a weekend, so after nine days, it might be a little rough to get my brain back into Spanish mode. It was, in a sense, a bit more relaxing to be somewhere where English is the primary language. I love Ireland, I think it's somewhere I'd like to go back to, but definitely over the summer. We spent our first day in Dublin. The weather wasn't terrible, so it was good for a walking tour. We started out on the free tour offered by the hostel, but it was supposed to be about 3 and a half hours long, so we branched off after a while. I really liked our tour guide, as well as a lot of the other Irish people we met. They were very friendly to tourists and had a wry sense of humor that I appreciated. Even after just 3 days there, the resentment toward the English was very apparent.

Our first day in Dublin we went to the Dublin Castle, Trinity College and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Then we went to the Guinness Storehouse, which I like a lot, learning about the history, brewing process, advertising and business of Guinness. At the top is the Gravity Bar, a room with 360 degree windows and a great view, where you collect your pint included in the tour. At night we jumped on the hostel organized pub crawl, which took us around to a few touristy bars in Temple Bar and later to some more local ones. At one we got to see some great live music and at another I ended up getting a free pitcher of beer due to  very odd bartender.

Our next day in Ireland we took a bus to a smaller town called Galway. It was very charming with lots of green space, and it was right on the water where we saw Galway Hookers, traditional irish fishing boats (also a kind of beer). The town was basically centered around one main street, lined mostly with pubs and small shops. It was a nice change from all the big cities. Our last day we spent on an organized tour to the Cliffs of Moher. We made a stop at a farm in the countryside along the way where we did and short hike. It was unbelievably beautiful, our tour guide had all of us lie down in the grass for a minute and listen to the silence. I could have stayed there for a few hours. Then we went on the Cliffs, which were very impressive. At points along the walk there wasn't much of a barrier between you and a drop straight down, a little scary, but very beautiful.

Bangers and Mash anyone?

The Galway waterfront

There's no way to capture the countryside in a photo. Our tour guide told us that over the summer there are over 600 types of flowers that cover this area. 

The mini cliffs, practicing before we got to the real ones

Some cliffs...