So I officially have 4 weeks left overseas and I cannot believe it. Before coming to Spain, our study abroad office at CU gave us a workshop of the "Cultural Appreciation Curve" (or something like that) and they talked about how you will have ups and downs when you are living outside your home country for 4 months. They said that there will be times like when you arrive and you are constantly excited and happy and then there will be other times when you will be sick of foreign food, the different culture and a different language and you will just want to go home. I was also told that about a month before you leave, you will develop a deep, heart-left appreciation for the place where you are living. I think that I have come to that point. Right after Italy, I went through a few days where I was incredibly homesick and just wanted to see my family. But that phase disappeared (not to say that I don't want to see my parents or any of my friends at home because I still miss people) and I feel like I am walking on a cloud. The weather has been between 70-80 degrees without a cloud in the sky for the last 4 days straight. I have fallen in love with this city. I could not ask for a better place to call my home (except Colorado, of course). Leaving here in 4 weeks is the EPITOME of bittersweet.
The last week or so has been a little uneventful in terms of the adventures that I have been having for the last 2 months of non stop traveling, so I'm just going to give you guys some random updates on what I have been up to.
So first of all, the day I after I got back from Italy, the festivities of Holy Week began in Seville. I mentioned this briefly in my last entry, but Semana Santa is a HUGE deal in Seville. It is one of the most important traditional events of the city. It is celebrated in the week leading up to Easter, one to two weeks before the city's other great celebration, the Feria, and is amongst the largest religious events within Spain, internationally renowned for its drama. The week features the procession of pasos, floats of lifelike wooden sculptures of individual scenes of the events of the Passion, or images of the Virgin Mary showing grief for the torture and killing of her son. Some of the sculptures are of great antiquity and are considered artistic masterpieces. I'm in a interest group concentrated on Spanish Art and we went on a field trip to a taller (workshop) where we met a man whose entire career was devoted to making floats for Semana Santa. He works all year long to built ONE float to go through the city only once. During Holy Week, the city is crowded with residents and visitors, drawn by the spectacle and atmosphere.The processions are organised by hermandades and cofradías, religious brotherhoods. During the processions, members precede the pasos (of which there are up to three in each procession) dressed in penitential robes, and, with few exceptions, hoods. They may also be accompanied by brass bands. The processions work along the shortest route from the home churches and chapels to the Cathedral, usually via a central viewing area and back. The processions from the suburban barrios may take 14 hours to return to their home churches. A total of 59 processions are scheduled for the week, from Palm Sunday through to Easter Sunday morning. The climax of the week is the night of Maundy Thursday, when the most popular processions set out to arrive at the Cathedral on the dawn of Good Friday, known as the madrugá. Stephanie's host family has a balcony that overlooks one of the busiest and most important streets in Seville so we got a chance to see some pasos from a balcony looking down, most importantly, we got to see the Virgen del Madrugá. The pasos are carried on the backs of up to 50 men and they travel at all hours, even though the middle of the night. When I was walking at home at 3am in the morning from Steph's host family, it might as well have been the 3pm. There were families everywhere, babies, toddlers, grandparents included. It was like the Thanksgiving Day parade. Because there are so many pasos, up to 5 can be going around the city at the same time, so I saw two more just walking home. It was definitely an amazing experience.
This past weekend, I went with my interest group to Madrid. My program has interest groups, each of them focused on a different subject. I choose Arte Español Moderno y Contemporáneo (Spanish Modern and Contemporary Art). Through out the semester, we have been taking feild trips all over the city to art museums to see and discuss the pieces. The semester ends with a trip that is paid for by the program. Our trip was to Madrid which I didn't know until now is a city with one of the greatest collections of art museums in the world. While we were there, I visited the Museo Nacional del Prado, the Reina Sofía and the Museo Thyssen Bornemisza. I got to see some of the most famous paintings in the world by some of the most famous artists in the world. I got to see works by El Greco, Goya, Velazquéz, Murillo, Raphael, Picasso, Dalí, Miró and many others. I got to the Picasso's famous Guernica mural. It was absolutely huge and completely breathtaking. Besides the incredible art I got to see, I also got a cool opportunity to the the AVE train from Sevilla to Madrid. This train goes up to 300 mph is one of the fastest trains in the world. It is usually about a 6 or 7 hour bus ride or hour plane ride from Sevilla to Madrid, but we got there in 2 hours by train. Madrid is truely a magnificant city. While people joke about the fact that the only thing to do there is drink and go to museums, it really is a city that you have to experience simply by walking through its streets. I loved the feel and the atmosphere of a busy Spanish city. I really fell in love with Spain as a whole even more by my trip to Madrid. I walked through the downtown streets and the plazas, hearing the spanish music and the Spanish language and all I could think was "I want to stay here forever, please don't make me go home".
I have one more story before I head off which I think is kind of funny. One thing that I love about Sevilla is that people walk absolutely everywhere. The city is set up in the way that a typical European country is set up, in a way where you don't have to use a car or even a bus at times. I walk probably up to 2 hours a day here. So the sidewalks are always full and I pass the most interesting people. Whereas people in the states like to hum or whistle while they walk, some people in Spain like to SING and loudly. Again, this is completely normal. The other thing that's important to know is that people in Spain are much shorter than people in the states. I am feet tall so when I walk into a bar or down the street, I get a lot of stares, stares I have learned to ignore. Not only do I get stares, I also get a lot of commentary over my height. Everywhere from the grocery store to the coffee shop to homestay with people visit, I am constantly getting "¿Eres muy alta, sí? (You're really tall, right?)" I get it all the time! Part of me wants to scream, "YES! I AM VERY TALL! IS THAT A PROPER WAY TO START A CONVERSATION WITH A STRANGER?" (in Spanish, of course). Anyway, a while back I was walking down the street and a man walked by and he was singing at the top of his lungs. I guess he was making up his song because when we came close to me on the sidewalk, he stopped right in front of me, looked me up and down, held out his hands and sang loudly "Qué chica tan grande!". This means "what a big girl" in Spanish. You would think that this would offend me, but it was probably one of the funniest things I've ever experienced. I was chuckling about it for the rest of the day
So that's all for this week, folks. I'm off to Palma de Mallorca! We have this next week off of school because it's Feria, which is a city carnival that shuts the entire city down once again (this Spaniards know how to have a good time, man). I'll be on the beach for the first part of the week and then testing out my Flamenco at Feria (I've been taking classes here) the second half of the week. Thanks for reading!
pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2387943&id=10235591&l=cf5459fa41
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