Advertisement
I arrived back home in Hutchinson, KS over a week ago and have much to catch up on, including my last few weeks in Spain, and my last two weeks of travel around Europe!
FERIA
The Feria of April in Sevilla is a week-long celebration, a couple weeks after Semana Santa. It was started to improve trade and agriculture, and officially" began in 1847 by Queen Isabel II. Walking through the present day feria, it has obviously shifted gears to more of a festival gathering for family and friends, and is a luminously colorful sight for the ojos. Each year a huge portada, or main entrance gate, is constructed, and the thousands of lights on it are turned on (el alumbrado) at midnight of Monday, the first day. Paper lanterns(farolitos) run along the streets as well. It rained in the middle of the week so many were looking a little droopy.
"Casetas" are constructed as little festive houses with pinstriped canvases. Each has a bar, a tablao (wooden platform for dancing), and tables. It is almost like a thousand wedding receptions all going on at the same time. One actually needs a map to navigate! The inside of each is very elegantly decorated, with paintings, pottery, and flowers hanging on the walls. They are either personally owned, exclusive for members of certain neighborhoods, or government/campaign based. Families or groups of friends combine their money and pay the government a hefty fee all year to own a personal one. I was allowed access into the government (public tents),and the districto antiguo (caseta for my neighborhood). Anneli's host parents had a caseta, so we were able to enter into one of the private casetas and enjoy a complimentary rebujito, the main drink of feria. Since the people are sipping drinks all day long, it is a mixture of manzanilla (a fino sherry), 7up, ice, and mint. A fino is really never a tasty choice but at least its pungency was diluted. The food, drinks, dancing and live music continued through the night.
The quintessential picture of feria is the flamenco dress. For about 2 months before feria, the store windows are packed with frills, polka dots, and bright colors, and they aren't cheap. (Really nice ones can cost 800 euro). The men wear the "traje corto", the Andulusian country worker suit, sipping manzanilla out of fine glasses, sitting on their horses with the women riding side saddle behind them.
The dancing of feria is Sevillana. An elaborate partner dance of constant arm and ankle action had me sweating and joint popping for a week as I attempted to learn from Lourdes. I decided against publicly attempting it in the end.
Next to the area of casetas is "Calle del infierno", a modern and noisy amusement park including two large ferris wheels. The waffle stand here was indescribable. Dripping with white chocolate and such rich batter, it magically passed over my tastebuds and then took an unpleasant residence in the bottom of my stomach. Elizabeth and Anneli were addicted to them, and had one each of the 3 times we went to feria. I had a bodily dilemma against the drooling of my tastebuds and the aching memory of my bloated stomach, finally deciding against a second.
LA MÚSICA
I finished the song I had been working on in Spanish! I spent a bright sunday afternoon in the gardens of the Alcazar, taking advantage of my free student admission (normally a 7 euro entrance) sitting and writing the sheet music , with ducks and wandering peacocks eating out of the palm of my hand. I worked with Luis on putting cello to my music, and we performed it for the family downstairs a week before I left. The lyrics were about my pleasant experience seeing more of the world.
TORO, TORO
I finally watched a bull fight...but downstairs with the family on live television instead of in the arena. I had every part described to me, and was quite amused to hear their reactions. One of the toreros had weakly positioned his sword in the back of the bull, and they were annoyed and booing in the same way as a sportsfan watching someone miss an easy field goal.
NECESITAMOS BEBER Y COMER
I went out for a couple drinks and tapas with my teacher, Carmen, and a few students from my class. She told us about her own perfume business she had. She did everything from creating the scent, to designing the bottle and marketing. Traveling to and from the Canary islands she used melons and white flowers. She topped the bottle off with a volcanic rock lid, and put them in wooden boxes with old little maps of the islands. Selling them at 30 euro each she only quit because she wasn't getting enough "people interaction". It was really interesting to hear the whole process, I guess I was just impressed and inspired by the whole endeavor.
A group of us from the school got together, went to the grocery store, and barbecued at one of the student's houses. He is from Sweden and lives with his dad, but they both live in a house right outside Sevilla. They had a huge collection of artifacts from around the world, and it was quite the international table. It was a great semester for meeting so many other nationalities. At one point in April, I noticed there were three belgians at our table, so we toasted to Belgian's government. (Since it didn't have one for 9 months last year) .
Speaking of toasts, I perfected my sangria making before I left. I had been browsing cookbooks and saw various recipes for it, so I threw some together. My host mom was very impressed and threw in a secret ingredient, which I don't plan on telling anyone, as I prefer to be the local expert.
STICKY
About halfway through the semester, I mailed in a bike subscription request for Sevilla. "Sevici" has bike stands plotted all around the city, one can pick up and drop off a bike at any of them. My housemate had done it and gotten her card in a week. Needless to say the subscription never arrived and I decided it was lost somewhere in the mail.
The day before leaving Spain I looked at my bank account and noticed a whopping deduction. There is a 150 euro damage deposit. They had finally begun to process my subscription. I tried to cancel right away, and was told it was take a month to get my deposit back (and only after I would mail in a signed request and another copy of my passport) , I would be charged for the subscription, and charged for the cancellation. I can't imagine dealing with leases or any other large amounts of money in a foreign country, it is always bound to be a mess.
QUICK DEPARTURES
On my last day in Sevilla, the family downstairs had wine and platters of cheese, sausage, and chorizo set out. It was sad to tell them goodbye. We have already written a few emails, and am excited to maintain my spanish and my friendship with them! I had lunch with my host mom and afterwards remembered that I was going to be short on underwear for the last two weeks of travel, and that I was leaving in 30 minutes. So I broke a sweat running to the store, proceeded to run through the store, grabbed underwear, and ran to the counter. It looked like a grand emergency. We took the 6pm. bus to Madrid, where I began the next chapter of my trip...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.071s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 13; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0304s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Catherine Green
non-member comment
To Be Continued...
Fun to read and have you home already too.