Feria

Feria is the craziest most amazing thing I have ever seen. It makes me want to become Spanish, wear a flamenco dress, and learn to dance sevillano. I think the thing that is most amazing to me is how proud they are of where they live and their heritage. I mean, we have the 4th of July but that is for the whole country. We don’t even have enough history to celebrate, the US is too young. But here they have all of these traditions and customs. I love the way they all dress, the women in their flamenco dresses and the men in their short suits. I love how the whole world goes to the streets. I love how everyone is so happy and just having fun together. I love that the rest of the city just shuts down. I love all the horses and carriages parading through the streets, the people everywhere just watching and talking and dancing and drinking. I love how the tents are not just tents they look like actual houses. They are all decorated in different ways and it is just beautiful. Sevilla is great. End of story.

Sevilla y la fam

I got to show Sevilla to my mom and grandma and it was wonderful! They were only here for a day so it was not nearly long enough to actually show them the city but we had enough time to drink some wine on the roof of dona maria and look out at the the giralda, walk through santa cruz a little bit, see the lighting of feria, look at the cathedral, and eat lunch with my senora. They loved the cathedral, thought feria was a little crazy and that the lights were not nearly as exciting as they had expected but still an experience, and lunch with my senora was probably the most entertaining experience of my Spanish life. Watching the three of them attempt to interact, o man, it was great. No one knew where to look while they spoke, Mercedes (my senora) kept telling me to translate things that I had already told them and when I left to pack my stuff she was trying to show them her knitting and they all just kept talking louder and loud in hopes that maybe the words would magically translate themselves and the other party would understand. It was really fun to translate though and it was great that they all got to meet each other. Although now that my mom has seen where I live she is going to worry even more, not that it is a dangerous area at all. Good thing she brought the pepper spray haha. PS mom it really is in my purse and I did get it out after I got off my bike last night, just for you.

Marbella

The taxi driver pulls up to the gated entrance. I look ahead to see a tropical paradise sprawled out in front of me. Cual piso? The gate keeper asks me, but I am speechless..in both languages…I turn to him with a look of confused amazement. He laughs that “ooo dumb Americans” laugh and says, “What is your apartment number?” Finally my brain registers that he expects me to respond. “Oh, lo siento. 1214.” He says something else but I am lost again in the scenery: palm trees, brightly colored flowers, mountains, pools, Spanish style building with stone roofs and porches. My eyes traveled beyond the Marriott to see the ocean peaking out at me from beyond the trees. “This is it???!!” I asked mom. “Yup,” she says amused. “Dang!” was the only response I could muster.
The luxury only continues as we enter into our legit apartment with two bedrooms, two huge bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, and of course, our own personal balcony. The beds each have about 5 pillows on top, but just in case none of those work for you, there is a whole closet full of other ones you can chose from. (You know how well I do with decisions. I literally had an assembly line of pillows on the bed and had to try each one multiple times before I could pick one.) From the balcony I can see the ocean, about 5 different pools, some mountains and the most amazing workout room known to man. It was basically Vanessa heaven.
The weather was a bit to be desired but we still had fun. We took some walks on the beach so that grandma could stick her toes in the Mediterranean Sea, mom had her drinks on the beach and I got to run into the sunrise. We had several interesting culinary experiences like lunch on the beach and Italian in the rain and our attempt to go in for tapas. (Mom was not into the legs of meat hanging from the wall and they did not think the pictures of flesh covered in cheese looked appetizing, I can not understand why haha). Needless to say, we sat down for about 2 minutes and then left.
Marbella was absolutely beautiful. It pretty much looked like a breathtaking landscape portrait that we got to walk around in. Never in my life have I been anywhere that amazing and wonderful and nice. Thank you Douglas, Of course we still brought our small town, American flavor to the table. Grandma and mom had a giggle about the topless Europeans and the men in Speedos small enough to make you want to rip your eyes out, we ran around in our bright pink rain jackets and tennis shoes, I gave my camera to a homeless man only to realize that he was not really offering to take our picture out of the kindness of his heart (but 1 euro for a picture isn’t too bad), we hijacked the covered beds in the center of the pool deck one morning before the rain just to try it out, we played phase ten in the hotel room, and grandma got a few snore-filled naps in on the pool deck. Over all, it was a wonderful trip.

4 yr old makeovers, rooftops, and sand

So this week began with yet another birthday party but this one was for the 3..now 4..year old grandaughter of my señora. There were about half a million people there. After a significant period of awkwardness, I decided to retreat to the kid area and play. So I ran around the house, played the wii, got a makeover from the birthday girl that consisted of globs of glitter all over my face, and pretty much just acted like my ridiculous self. It was great. The rest of the week was pretty average: a little bit of class, some crazy kids at the school, some homework here and there and that´s about it. Oh and we went to a play for one of my classes. It wasn´t really a play though. It was just one guy standing up reciting poetry. Imagine watching this in English, add some comfortable seats, a man with a strong andalucian accent, and oh ya, a language that I don´t speak...it was a great experience. I kind of wanted to jump off a bridge after. Haha ok, it wasn´t that bad...
On Saturday we went to the beach. There were about 5 other people on the beach because although it is like 85 the spanish people still think it is winter. And we went to a not so popular beach because we didn´t want to be touristy. It was a lot of fun. We played in the water a little, attempted to play with some dogs, and got sand stuck in places that I didn´t even no existed. Successful beach trip if I do say so myself...
The rest of the weekend consisted of doing homework in parks and exciting things like that. Exciting news for the future: MY MOMMA IS COMING!! AND MY GRANDMA TOO!!! A week from right now, they will be here, in Sevilla, with me! Wooohoooo!! I might be excited...just a little but....

OOO side note…I have a request. I am in desperate need of a job when I get back this summer (in June). So if anyone knows of anything I could possibly do with my life (if it involved Spanish that would definitely be a plus) please let me know and I would be forever indebted to you for your helpfulness.

Ok so as much as I loved Semana santa, Easter Sunday was the strangest day of my life. It was just like any other Sunday. There were just as many if not less people in church that day and we didn´t do anything too out of the ordinary. It was soooo strange. All week long we had watched crucified Jesus and distraught Mary parade through the streets but then the day of the resurrection, the central part of the entire celebration, the point of Easter, rolls around and nothing happens. I don´t get it. Does he just never get to get off the cross? Are the spanish people walking around with a crucifix statue in their heads or do they realize that he gets off the cross, he conquers death!! He died so we could live!! That is why we celebrate Easter...isn´t it?? I am not sure why this bothers me so much but it does....

Roma, Semana Santa

O wow. I have so much to write about that I don’t even know where to begin!! The week began with the greatest surprise ever, Jenn’s boyfriend showing up outside of her class on Thursday J. She had no idea he was coming. It was sooo great. So he was in Sevilla with us for a few days before we left for Rome. We were in Rome for 4 days and we saw and did sooooo much. At the same time, there is so much to see and do in Rome that I am pretty sure we only saw a fraction of the city. We had a lot of fun though. We saw the colloseum, la Fontana de Treve, Vatican City, the Cistine Chapel, the jail cell where Peter and Paul were kept, and I cannot even remember what else right now. A lot of things. It was pretty much every time we turned a corner there was another big a beautiful building or fountain or plaza to explore. Basically we spent every minute of every day exploring the streets of Rome. Of course we had to stop occasionally for some pizza, pasta or gelato haha but we kept ourselves pretty busy. O ya, we also went to the Olympic stadium and ran around the track and this bridge that is covered in locks hung on chains along the sides by couples in cheesy moments of love. It was really cool actually (hate to admit it, but it was). We stayed in a “bungalow” which basically meant a little camper in a campground hostel but it was pretty nice. Besides the fact that the entire thing shook every time someone moved and you could hear our neighbors through the walls it was pretty quality. We got back on Thursday night around midnight and then went straight to the street to watch semana santa processions. I got back around 5am…right as my senora was getting up to leave to go watch the processions herself. It was a long night but the atmosphere and the processions were amazing. There were sooooo many people of all ages that stayed up all night to watch them. After some of the statues passed there were people who would sing from window and other times there were chants led by the people. All the candles and beautiful details…impresionanate as the Spanish people would say. So basically I spent the rest of the weekend in the streets watching processions. It was a pretty successful Easter break I must say. It was so cool to see and entire city dedicating a week to the real meaning of Easter, the crucifixion and resurrection, instead of just bunnies and chocolate. If you want to see what I am talking about, you can search for videos of “semana santa, sevilla” in Youtube and you will get an idea. No worries, the klu klux klan looking people are harmless. Well, that is all for now. I am going to try to put up some pictures if they will work…we will see.