Crazy Week April 30, 2007

I´m starting to realize that I don´t have much time left here in Spain, so my philosophy is, why not enjoy it?

On Tuesday night Megan, Lauren, Kim, and I went out with Megan´s friend from Italy.  We took him to La Carboneria, which I had never been to but it was a lot of fun.  Its a bar with a flamenco performance.  It was so much fun!  We ordered some sangría and chatted while watching a flamenco performance, it doesnt get much better.  After this we went to another more local flamenco bar with our friend Mateo from Italy, also.  This bar was so fun and cute.  Its really local and the people are really nice.  They sing flamenco music and then brave souls can dance the sevillanas. Well maybe it was the cause of the sangría, but Lauren and I decided that we could dance sevillanas to. Apparently it was a source of amusement for the entire bar, especially our friends and ourselves. Until, that is, some old guy wanted to dance them with us. needless to say, it was incredible night

The next night it was pouring rain so we decided to go to Megan’s friends’ hostel and just play cards, make cookies, etc. So we trucked over there in raggedy clothes and sneakers. However when mateo and Domenico arrived…we were told we were going out and so somehow I ended up looking like crap at one of Sevilla’s most trendy discotecas. oops. Anyways, it was a lot of fun Excpet that Yasir was there and he was trying to make me jealous by showing off his dance skills in front of me. Nice try. I wish I would have worn better clothes and shoes because it was a really fun discoteca.

The next night we got Kim to go out with us So we met up with mateo and first went to this really cute, trendy, chill bar. Besides the face that the drinks were ridiculously expensive, it was a really nice and cute place. After drinks, we went to go to the discoteca that Mateo wanted to go to, however we discovered that they were having a special night and it was really expensive and none of us were feeling up to paying. So we decided to go back to the discoteca we were at the previous night. However, when we got there Mateo couldn’t get in because he was wearing white shoes and discotecas don’t allow white shows because that’s a sign of poorness. so then after some contemplating, we decided that we would go with out Mateo, except that when we tried to enter they carded us. We have never been carded before and so i never bring an ID, so once again we were denied entrance. After this about an hour of trying to find a place had past and we were pretty beat, but we decided to go to Azucar de Cuba. We had never been here before and it was actually a really neat place. For five bucks you got to salsa dance and you got a free drink of anything. We had piña coladas and margaritas…delicious! I don’t know how to salsa dance and it was really crowded and everybody there was really old, but Lauren taught me how to salsa sort of and it was really fun. The music was amazing and the atmosphere was great.

The next night Lauren, Megan, and I went out. We decided to try and go to the discoteca that was expensive the night before. It seemed like a neat place, but it was empty, so that wasn’t very fun. So we headed back to Triana and looked for something on Calle Betis. It seemed to be a night full of Bachelorette parties which was amusing. We spent most of our time dancing at this one place and it was really fun. We just kept switching between various discotecas on Calle Betis…and it turned out to be a great night.

A new look on Easter April 30, 2007

As soon as we got back from France, Sevilla was in the midst of its huge Semana Santa celebration. Semana Santa being Holy Week. Unfortunately we got back late from France and I was exhausted so I didn´t have much energy, however I wanted to see the madrugada of Semana Santa which is supposed to be really neat. Holy Thursday is supposed to be the best part so I decided to go for a little while anyways. Nothing that I had learned about in class or had been told by other sevillanas could have prepared me for this form of Easter celebration.

It was about 2 am when I left to go and see my first ¨paso.¨ I just went to the bridge close to my house since I was exhausted and the people were already lined up waiting to see the paso. Everybody was talking excitedly, drinking, smoking, going about normal behavior, but there was such a sense of excitement in the air. I really wasn´t sure what to expect and I too was very excited. I waited about an hour and half before the paso came, it was Jesús del Gran Poder. This is probably the most famous paso for the week and it was breathtakingly beautiful. Before people were drinking, laughing, talking, but when Jesús came, the street was dead quiet. There wasn´t a sound. Soon the accompanying band started to play music and the nazarenos (they look similar to members of the Ku Klux Klan and they carry crosses on their shoulders) started to walk. There were processions of fancy crosses and such before finally the huge float like structure came into view. It was sooo pretty. It was about 3:30 am now and the street was dead quiet save for the accompanying music and 100s of brothers were carrying this huge float like structure on their back swaying in time with the music. The ¨float¨was huge and gorgeous. It was an an ornate gold structure that was candle lit and on top of it was the most beautiful sculpture of Jesús carrying the cross. It was the coolest thing ever to see. People all around were so excited to see it and just looking at it in awe, admiration, and prayer. It was really really moving for me and one of the most spiritual moments of my life. After the paso passed by, the people returned to their talking and drinking but most of the people were talking about how amazing Jesús was. I wish I hadn´t been so tired and that I could have seen the other pasos that went on until like 8 am, but I was too tired and so I went back home to wait for tomorrow.

The next day my señora had prepared a delicious meal, it was very elaborate and we had guests over. I went to Good Friday mass, which was like most spanish masses relavtively short. It was interesting though, they had a crucifix with Jesus on it and we all went up to kiss Jesus´feet. Later that day I went to see more pasos. Unfortunately it was rainy so I only got to see one. People spend all year preparing for this grand event, and then if it rains they don´t go. It´s really sad. The nazarenos are crying and depressed. It is so sad. This was the coldest and rainiest semana santa since the 1920s, so it was really sad for a lot of the ¨brotherhoods¨as they are called. But anyways, I saw another paso, this one was of the Virgen. It was really pretty. It was during the day so she wasn´t lit up but the sculpture was beautiful and once again their was a band and nazarenos that marched along. The pasos last hours and they walk all day often times barefoot throughout the entire city of Sevilla. This is a huge deal to the Sevillanas and those that are fortunate enough to walk, it is a great honor. The paso was neat.

Saturday I was fortunate enough to see several pasos. I went by the cathedral this time and all of the pasos pass by here so I got to see several. It was also neat because I got a spot next to children. It kind of reminded me of a parade, because the children were sooooo excited to see the paso, you could just see their impatience on their faces. Also, people line up to get good seats hours before each paso comes. When the children first heard the music of the paso, they started cheering and shouting paso paso! They all ran to their parents to grab their wax balls. Each year when the nazarenos walk by holding candles the children go up to them and try to catch some of the dripping wax from each candle, they then save their ball of wax for the next year and each year the ball grows bigger and bigger. The kids were so cute as they would run up to each nazareno asking for wax and then carefully holding out their ball trying not to get burnt by the hot wax. The pasos were once again beautiful. I saw a paso de ¨piedad¨which means that Mary is holding Jesus in her arms. That was really moving and almost difficult to watch, but beautiful at the same time. I still cannot believe how old and beautiful these sculptures are, how dedicated each brotherhood is, the excitement of the people, and how so much time is put into these pasos. It was so exciting to see.

After the pasos I met up with my friends to go to Easter Vigil mass. This was probably my favorite part of Semana Santa. As Spain is a much more Catholic country, the emphasis falls on Semana Santa, on the pain of the passion and not on celebrating the resurrection, so I was glad we went to the mass. We began it outside with our candles and a majority of the mass was candlelit. The mass was so beautiful because for once it was full of people, they had a band, and my friend Lauren came who is not Catholic which made me happy. It was the most beautiful mass I´ve been to hear. Afterwards, the church served champgne and pasteries which were delicious and all of the old ladies wanted to know what we thought of the mass and everything. It was so much fun!

Sunday was a weird day. I was a little sad and I actually cried during Easter mass. It was weird not being at home for Easter.  It was also weird because nobody went to mass with me which was fine, I made it fun for myself   I dressed up like always and curled my hair, you know just like Sarah…keeping with tradition.  I went to mass at the local church and in the cathedral.  The Cathedral mass was beautiful with lots of flowers and such but overall, mass was just regular.  Nothing special about it.  My señora did nothing special, it was just an average day in sevilla.  this was difficult for me because I didn´t think about the emphasis being on the passion and not on Easter here.  But later that afternoon I went to the river with Lauren, Megan, and Kim and we had a lot of fun eating ice cream and enjoying the river on a Sunday.  It turned out to be a great day