Corpus Christi and Cadiz!

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Corpus Christi was on Thursday of this week in Sevilla. Our school was closed for the holiday, but we met outside of the school and walked around Sevilla with our instructors while they explained the holiday, the traditions and showed us the processions. Center city Sevilla (where I live) was decorated with religious shrines, rosemary all over the streets, and little girls in their Sunday best. Corpus Christi is in most literal terms the celebration of the body of Christ. It is exactly sixty days after Easter and marks the day that it is said Jesus truly left earth (for sixty days he still performed miracles on earth).

Every single shop was closed in the town. Everything was dedicated to the Catholic Church. It was weird to be in a country where that is even legal. It felt like Christmas times two in the sense that you couldn’t even buy milk or bread if you needed it. People of all ages, from the elderly in wheelchairs to infants in strollers, flooded the streets to observe the holiday and watch the processions. It was also extremely hot! Thursday was the first day it felt like we couldn’t possibly be in Pennsylvania anymore! This is no American summer. I still haven’t figured out why I thought it would be a good idea to study for a summer in “the hottest city in Europe”, but the sun in strong and I’m getting a good tan at least? And I’ll never complain about how hot summer session at Penn State was again!!

Yesterday, our entire group had a day trip to Cadiz. We took a walking tour of the city until about 2 pm and then had free time for lunch and chilling by the beach. It is an extremely old city, dating back to 1100 B.C. (which beats any city in Europe you could think of - Rome, Paris, London, etc.) The city is gorgeous with its incredible mix of buildings that stood long before the days Jesus walked, newly constructed apartment buildings and avenues, and beaches to die for! Around 300 years ago, a tsunami destroyed most of the city. There is very little left of the oldest part of the city, but parts of walls (including the original city walls) still stand. They had to basically rebuild Cadiz. They decided to put in a cathedral (which they were lacking before because Christianity didn’t even exist when the first built Cadiz!). The cathedral is especially interesting because they started building it in the end of the 16th century, but they had to stop in the middle of the construction due the Spanish conquerors and lack of funding. They restarted construction in 1730’s and it was finally finished around 1750, but with two very distinct styles of architecture. There is a very clear line of where the original construction stops and the newer one starts - very cool! Cadiz has walls 3,000 years old surrounding the town that used to have cannons and fortresses for protection; now the walls separate the Atlantic from the walkways and parks with fountains and gorgeous flowers, and they are currently putting shopping in the fortresses!

I have my first day of my second class today. I am taking Public Health, and as far as I know there are three people in my class. Should be interesting…

This weekend I am hoping to visit Morocco! It is my last weekend of personal traveling while living in Spain before Lisa gets here. I highly doubt there will ever be another time in my life I be able to go to Africa for the weekend, gotta live it up! Don’t worry dad - I’m paying practically double to go with guides so we will be safe in Africa!

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Comments

[andrea]

julieee i miss you so much! can't wait till the end of july to see you!