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Published: February 29th 2012
La Diosa de Cadiz!
The winner was the one in red, 2nd from the left!Hello All!
I know I said I would probably have more time to write blogs, which I do, I just haven’t been writing blogs. I’ve been, well, just sort of wandering about Cádiz, riding horses, wandering in La Sierra de Cádiz (the mountainous area of the province of Cádiz) , wandering about Sevilla, and watching television. All things that are a nice way to relax back into the new school year. Oh and there was this thing called Carnaval. I may have to censor, or let you imagine what exactly Carnaval entails exactly…it is pretty outrageous in every sense of the word.
Getting back to Cádiz I spent a lot of my first week and a half saying goodbye to other students leaving to go back home for the semester. My friends Anna-lu and Miriam invited me to go hiking with them in a town just a few hours away by bus called Ubrique. Fresh, crisp air. That is what I enjoyed. They’re no Rockies, but mountains never fail to have air you can really breathe in and it tastes good. It’s true! The air tastes good! This isn’t like when my Mom says Dasani
Chris, also beautiful, I guess?
His glasses have the Spanish Flag! water has a taste, mountain air has a taste. Well, maybe you should go breathe the fishy, tobacco, and car exhaust air in Cádiz for a few months and just when you get used to it and don’t think anything of it, go smell wonderful mountain air and you will agree.
Valentines Day in Spain was pretty understated, but Carly and I being Americans and proud of our Hallmark Holiday went and got Pepa, Selu and Alba all bouques from the flower market. Pepa was so touched and surprised. She agreed that Carly and I were keepers 😊 I also got to open up Pepa’s world to the wonder of Quaker Oatmeal. Aunt Terri sent me a box of my favorite breakfast food for Valentines day and I went and put it in the cupboard. When Pepa saw it she stopped me, “Devin, what is this?”
“Its Oatmeal.”
“Oat-meal?”
“Yeah! Its like cereal, but you eat it with hot water or hot milk.”
“You eat it hot?”
“yeah! Its really, really, really good! This kind is mixed with fruit so its sort of sweet.”
“Oh, yes, we have this here!”
Lots of People!
There was not an open spot to sit on the wall the entire length of the seawall! Ah, Pepa’s famous line: “Yes, we have that here too!” She is convinced that anything that you can get anywhere in the world, or at least in the US you can get in Spain. She then proceeded to pull out packages of creamy baby food. I politely told her that my very mature and delicious oatmeal was NOT baby food. 😊 She tried it and agreed that it was very, very yummy, but I already knew that. 😊
This past week there were some extra smells in the air: Beer and urine. Yay! Carnaval is a cultural and fascinating thing to see. All month we have been watching the singing groups competing on TV, planning our disfraces (costumes) and waiting to see what the week of Carnaval would bring.
Friday the city was in such a good mood! You could tell there were more people in town and everyone was excited to start the week; there were stages set up in plazas for the singers and demonstrations of flamenco and the unveiling of who would be this year’s Diosa de Cádiz. It was all pretty neat Friday night seeing people in costume and trying
Carnaval with the new group!
Emily, Carly, Alex and I waiting for the parade to inconspicuously take pictures of the best ones, without them knowing you were actually taking a picture of them and not of yourself. My friend Brenna and I got quite good at it.
Saturday brought a whole new perspective on Carnaval. Too. Many. People. I would describe it as my Dad’s worst nightmare come to life. Crowds in plazas that literally take 45 minutes to maneuver through. To get home, you can’t even use the side streets because singing groups pop up to surprise people; and you never know when you think you’ve picked a quiet street until you hit a clot and just have to wait for 30 minutes until the crowd parts. And now onto Saturday night. I was afraid I would slip and fall everywhere I went because the streets were soaked, just soaked with, well, I don’t know for sure what all was there, but just imagine it. When I came home in the evening Pepa was headed down stairs to take the dogs out but I warned her that the street right in front of our apartment was covered in broken glass. She, like most Gatidanas, like Carnaval, but they don’t like
the way people sort of trash the streets.
My friends all met at my and Carly’s front steps and we walked maybe 15 steps into the first plaza before I turned around only to find no one I knew behind me. I went to the house of a girl who we were going to meet and waited there for roughly 20 minutes, but when no one in my group showed up and she never came out I went to plan B…the next plaza over where we were meeting our friend Tyler and his host brother. Tyler would be dressed as a Smurf (Pitufo in Spanish) and his host brother Yeyo would be dressed as a Sumo wrestler. You would think that it’s easy to spot a Sumo wrestler and a Smurf together, but this is Carnaval and there are a surprising number of Sumo wrestlers and Smurfs running a muck together. Just at the brink of Carnaval despair, I headed in the direction of home to call someone to see where everyone was and by the sure Grace of God there stood my friends that the entrance of the plaza. I lasted until about 3:15am until finally I just
couldn’t take it anymore. I was pretty proud I made it that late; there are some people who just don’t sleep for two days. Why? It’s Carnaval! Anytime that you say “Oh, I want to do this, but, well, oh, I shouldn’t.” And then the guy next to you goes “But its Carnaval.” And you say, “Good point.” And then you do something that really has nothing to do with Carnaval. It’s just how it is I guess.
Sunday morning we awoke, not to find the filthy streets still filthy, but clean. Workers must have stayed out all night (or more, all early morning) picking up bottles, plastic bags, trash, and hosing down the streets. If you were just arriving you would never have known the complete havoc that took place the night before. We were out Monday night and actually saw them all in action, at 3am out picking up probably until 9am or so. No one really wakes up before about 11am during Carnaval anyway, so they’ve got lots of time. It was really very impressive. There were still mobs of people out on Sunday, but it was a bit more fun with a parade
Mardi Gras?!
Sometimes Carnaval really reminded me of Mardi Gras with the masks, the jesters and this float! in the evening (which we waited in our spots for nearly three hours just to get front row) and Monday there were singing groups driving around the city in trucks performing in the streets. It’s all pretty cool, but I was SO glad to have a riding lesson Monday afternoon to escape for a while. It was so quiet out in Puerto Real, you would never know the party going on just 15 minutes away in Cádiz. So, Carnaval is pretty nuts, but I would have to say they do a pretty good job of keeping it contained and from letting it destroy the city. Walking around Saturday night I figured the streets would be covered in confetti and trash until May, but back to regular Cádiz clean they are.
The rest of the week wasn’t so bad, and actually a lot more fun than the crazy weekend. I mean you still had your crazies around, just ask Heather whose Skype date with me was interrupted by two drunken Spanish guys waiting in line for the bathroom at Chamara. They returned 3 or 4 times to talk to Heather and ask her why she wasn’t at Carnaval,
then the last time we got to meet their cousins as well. Oh, the friends you make during Carnaval. I have a guy from my high school that happens to be teaching in Palencia (a town up north) and he and his friend Brenna came down for a few days. On our first night of Carnaval, Chris made what can only be called a “hermance” with a pirate named Manuel. “Hermance,” pronounced “hair-maan-say,” as in “hermano” meaning brother and “romance” meaning romance, therefore “hermance” meaning bromance. Don’t bother checking a translator, I just made that up, but I think it’s perfectly valid for the situation. Chris even invited Manuel up to Palencia. Brenna says Chris knows someone everywhere they go and if he doesn’t know someone he just makes friends. Sounds like a certain Schultze I know. Dad.
The fun parts of Carnaval, for me, are the random percussion groups that pop up in a plaza and are joined by random bongo player, and then joined by small 5 person band. Chirigotas are small singing groups that dress up and start singing in the streets, and all of the restaurants and bars have specials for Carnaval, so in the
middle of the week it’s a little more low key and fun to walk around and listen to the Chirigotas sing about everything from Spanish rights, the government, and education systems, to Cola-cao (local hot chocolate), Iberian ham, and housewives.
It was all getting to be a bit much, though, and the word was that Carnaval sort of gets a second wind on the last weekend, so my friend Julianna invited me to come to Sevilla just for Saturday and the morning on Sunday because she had never been there. We all know how much I love Sevilla! It never ceases to impress me. So beautiful, warm, it’s always got a really happy vibe to it. Sevilla is what I think of when I think of a "Spanish" town; bull fights, flamenco, warm weather, nice people, beautiful buildings and homes with rod iron balconies and the most beautiful cathedral I've seen so far in Europe. I've seen a lot of cathedrals here, but the one is Sevilla is my favorite. Its the largest cathedral in the world and the third largest Christian temple. The only downfalls of Sevilla are the gypsies that hang out outside the cathedral
and try and get you to take a jasmine leaf as a “gift” only to make you pay for it, and that it doesn't have a beach. Other than that it is just a really fun city; I always enjoy taking a visit there.
We took a free walking tour offered by our hostel and it was really impressive for being free! Nearly 3 hours long and our guide was just really awesome. “My name is Felipo, it’s like Felipe only better.” He was from northern Italy but is living in Sevilla, and he you can tell he is one of those that just loves his job. He makes money from the tours on tips, but he does a great job. I’d been to Sevilla before and we took the bike tour with Juan and took tours of the Cathedral and El Alcazar, but we didn’t really walk around and hear the history of the city, so it was really interesting. I had no idea that the University of Sevilla was originally the Royal Tobacco Factory! Plus, we got to stop at what could possibly be my favorite place in Spain apart from La Playa Santa Maria, which are
Parque Maria Luisa and La Plaza de España. Every time I walk through it, it is even more impressive than the time before. Little facts for you movie lovers, La Plaza de España was used in the movie Lawrence of Arabia and as the palace of the planet Naboo in Star Wars Episode I.
Oh, and don’t forget that they have Starbucks. 😊
Love and miss all of you!
Devin 😊
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