snow and sun burn

Wow its May! I have just a little over 1 week left in Sevilla...I don't know how this happened, and I can't really believe that I'm actually going to be able to go home.
This past weekend I went to Granada-a city about 3 hours east of Sevilla-to see La Alhambra. Its a HUGE palace/fortress with incredible architecture and decoration. We also went up into the Sierra Nevada mountains one day and hiked around. Since its May, and its been the lows in Sevilla have been in the 80s, we really only packed shorts and t-shirts for the weekend. We got to the bus station Saturday morning to catch the bus up the mountain and there were people with snowboards and winter coats...there was still snow at the top!

We were a little bit chilly, and therefore didn't really realize the nice sun burns we were receiving while we wandered around...but the views were truly amazing! We were in the clouds!

La Alhambra-a view from the Mirador de San Nicolas.

El Patio de los Arrayanes

Lovely Granada!

FERIA 2010

Feria in Fotos:
^my lovely flamenco dress that I borrowed from school-those sleeves are no longer in style...

Feria is Sevilla's spring fair, centering around drinking, eating, and dancing flamenco/sevillanas all day everyday for a week!
(because I don't have time to actually write much about it, a picture's worth 1,000 words, so here's a few thousand for you all!)

^Sevillanas on the streets in "Feria land" (where all the casetas are)

Semana Santa/Viajes:

I feel that every time I start writing in my journal the first word that always comes to mind is “wow,” and it really just expresses that feeling I have whenever I think back over the experiences I’ve just recently had, and am still so amazed. I have had so many incredible opportunities to go places and see things I’ve learned about for such a long time, and also to visit places I never imagined I would ever visit. We had the week off of school for Semana Santa (Holy Week), which is a big celebration, especially in Sevilla, of Christ’s death for the whole week leading up to Easter Sunday—in which there ironically isn’t nearly as much celebration of His resurrection and victory over death. During Semana Santa many of the churches, or Hermandades, continue the several hundred year old tradition of participating in processions. My friends and I saw a very small one on the very first night, and we met two older couples from Iowa who asked us what the parade was all about-these are not exactly parades. The churches have large sculptures of Jesus in various stages of His crucifixion which they place on platforms that are then carried by people for hours throughout the city. Also in the processions are nazarenos-penitents-who are dressed in hooded traditional clothing, in colors that represent their Hermandad. There are other nazarenos that carry crosses, and those that are really intense walk barefoot-which can be pretty risky in Sevilla. There are also several other people that walk and carry large candles, incense and crosses and flags, and marching bands that play Semana Santa music. The processions are incredibly long and they will walk their route for hours and hours (typically 6-8 hours, some even longer than that). After the nazarenos and Jesus, another sculpture of the virgin Mary concludes the procession. The tradition is like nothing I’ve ever seen before; and it’s really all just for the sake of tradition, as nearly all of Spain is “culturally catholic” it’s rather hollow and empty.
That Saturday at 1am my friend Andy and I took a bus to Madrid (so we could sleep on the 6 hour ride there) and arrive in Madrid early. We arrived to the bus station in the morning, and with Andy’s direction to the hostel written out we started following the first direction listed. We walked and walked searching for the street we were looking for. After what had been a very long time, we decided to ask an old man walking his dog for help—and he told us that we had basically walked to el campo (the country) (granted the bus station was a short way outside the city center, and the “campo” wasn’t the middle of nowhere). So we turned around and retraced our steps back to the station and then set off in the right direction. We were able to follow the directions much easier from then on—since we were now actually walking toward Madrid…and we walked a long way and finally arrived to our hostel at 10am (so we had walked for a good 2.5-3 hours!). We didn’t really decrease our walking the rest of the trip. We left our stuff at the hostel after a little discussion with the receptionist about the time that we could check in for our reservation (she kept telling us that we had to wait until before 2, which to us, 10am was clearly before 2, so we asked in Spanish if she really meant after 2, but she told us again in Spanish that she meant before, so we gave up and just said we’d be back later to check in). We headed out for the day and our first stop was the Palacio Real. We looked around the outside and then stopped over to a little park to eat our bocadillos before we went inside. The Palacio Real is the epitome of extravagant—the decoration was impressive; paintings, furniture, curtains, chandeliers, everything was so luxurious, and it was so hard to understand that it was really inhabited by the royal family at one time—to think that the king really sat on the throne and used the dressing rooms and everything. We walked from there to the Plaza Mayor-a large square plaza enclosed by red buildings. There is a lot of political history in this plaza, and it now appears to be a very popular place to go hang out. Then we walked through the Puerta del Sol and quickly stopped there. We then went to the Egyptian temple that Kat (my friend from the Acento program) told us that we had to see, and on our way there we stumbled upon the Plaza de España, which has a large structure in the middle with a sculpture of don Quijote and Sancho Panza. We continued on and found the Egyptian temple-which was actually moved from Egypt to Madrid block by block. On our way back from there to the hostel we stopped at a free exhibit of Claude Monet impressionist paintings! We took advantage of “contemplating” the artwork while also resting our feet. We finally got back to the hostel and got checked into our 6-person room, which worked out a lot better than I anticipated. The next day we first went to el Parque del Retiro—an enormous park that was once the private park of the king? (I’m not positive about that). We explored a little and found this really cool Palacio de Cristal, and we also saw the 1st squirrel I’ve seen in Spain. And we also found a part of the park that was full of cats! Then we went to El Prado—for 3 hours! We saw so many famous paintings by Goya, El Greco, Murillo, Velazquez, Rafael, Zurbaran, and lots of others. Then we literally ran over to el Museo de la Reina Sofia to just go in and see Guernica by Picasso.
Then Andy and I parted ways as he caught a bus back to Sevilla and I got on the metro to go to the airport and fly to England to meet Kat (flying in from Italy) and Emily (flying in from Sevilla). I’ve never really thought seriously about going to England, and it was such a cool experience. It was such a huge blessing how everything worked out getting there—that I actually found the right terminal and the Ryanair counter so easily and everything went so smooth. The three of us met at the Stansted airport (a city that is a little over an hour outside London) and just barely made our bus from the airport into London. We were so lucky to have had the driver we did—he really saved us, because when we got dropped off in London, everyone got off the bus and started to go to their destinations, and I pulled out the little map I’d printed off, since we’d planned on walking (which might have been one of our only options since it was almost 2am now…). But the driver asked us if we knew where we were going, looked at the address and said that he was driving that way and offered us a ride! (Thank goodness, because as he drove us there I kept thinking that we never would have made it to the hostel). He was a great first impression of English people—we met a lot of really nice and helpful people and a few really rude ones. We got to the hostel, checked in, found our 12-person room and just crashed. We left really early the next morning and headed out to run around London! We started by going to Hyde Park, which was right across from our hostel and wandered around there for a little while and found some huge swans and the Princess Diana Memorial “fountain”—it looked kind of like a lazy river, and no water was shooting in the air or cascading down something as you might typically think of when you think of a fountain. We left the park and went to Buckingham Palace, where we happened to see the changing of the guards! There were huge crowds of people all around the palace, so we didn’t watch very long and couldn’t see a whole lot. Then we stopped for some Cornish pasties for lunch and then continued on to find the random landmarks we had picked out on the map. We saw Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the parliament buildings, the London Eye, the London Tower, the London Bridge, and also rode on the metro called the “tube” (mind the gap!). Then we left London that afternoon and took a double decker bus to Oxford-where we stayed two of Kat’s friends from Azusa Pacific University both named Katie. They have been studying in Oxford for the semester and actually came to visit Sevilla. I really like Oxford—it was a lot like I pictured England. London was cool, but it was kind of just like another modern city—at least the glance of it that I had. Oxford was just beautiful—and full of old buildings that make up all the colleges. It was funny how confusing it actually was with the cars driving on the opposite side of the road! In London all of the crossings told you which way to look, which I really appreciated! We just hung out and the Katies’ house that night and then went on our grand tour Tuesday. We went to the Oxford Union—which is a really exclusive club, and I think you have to have attended the university to gain membership. Then we went to a covered market—it was so cute; full of little shops and cafes. We ducked in to get out of England’s only type of weather—rain! Fortunately it didn’t rain too much. Then we took a quick look inside the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin and we walked around some more and then stopped and had tea and scones at a tea place called The Rose. I don’t really like tea, but the scone with cream and strawberry jam was the best I’ve ever had. We had a very rude waitress-she would fit in well in Spain; it’s just such a weird concept to me that these people who work in the service industry can be so rude to their customers. Other than that we had a lovely tea time-so British! Then we visited Katie’s college and I saw the room they used for the Great Hall in the Harry Potter movies!!! It looked totally different-they don’t have the ceiling enchanted all the time, but it was still really cool to be where they filmed it! I was really hoping for some Harry Potter related thing in England. Next we went to Christ Church and took a very quick look around. We then went to the other Katie’s college and walked around there a little while-she told me that they filmed some other scenes (especially Quidditch ones) from HP there too. We went out to a bar that night called the Eagle and Child, where C.S. Lewis, JRR Tolkien and some other writers would get together and discuss their writing. We left the next morning to attempt to accomplish all of our complicated travels to get back to Sevilla…which turned out to be a little tricky and stressful. We took a double decker bus back to London, and then had to take the metro from where that bus dropped us off to the stop for our bus from London to Stansted. We didn’t really give ourselves enough time and ended up missing our bus to the airport, but they come every 20 minutes, however the priority is obviously given to those who have tickets for that scheduled time. So we waited for the next one and weren’t able to get on it, but luckily there was room on the one after that. We got to the airport and we were frantically running around to get checked in and to make it through security and sprinted to our gate—we were cutting it way too close because the screens were telling us that it was already boarding! But we arrived to our gate out of breath to find a huge line of everyone still waiting to get on the plane. So we celebrated our success/relief/luck and used up all the pounds we had left on us and bought chocolate and candy from a Cadbury vending machine! We were so happy when we got on the plane and knew we had made it-we got into Sevilla and took the bus back from the airport into the city center and then had our normal 45 minute walk home. So the rest of Semana Santa I spent in Sevilla, which is really famous for the celebrations. We saw a lot more processions. Andy, Emily and I even accidentally saw the same one twice in one day. We also saw a few during la madrugada (the very early hours of the morning). We literally met at 2:30am and went to the Puente de Triana to watch it—it was the procession La Esperanza de Triana. It came down the street and was really cool to see at night with the candles and at one point they dropped rose petals from the top of one of the buildings. All of the people were shouting, “Esper-aaan-zaa!” and others would respond with “Guapa! Guapa!” And Jess (my roommate) and I also went to see one the next night with Chari and Walter (our host parents). We walked there all linking arms-it was so precious. We watched the whole paso and then got churros from the stand on the Puente de Triana after-it was some fun family bonding time! Easter Sunday was pretty uneventful, and all the celebrations were really over the night before. Andy, Emily, Daniel (who was now back from his trip) and I went to Parque de los Principes and had some chocolate to celebrate.

Las Fallas: Valencia, Spain

This was the very first trip that I planned to go on, and was a bit more complicated and crazy than the previous ones—going to Valencia to see their festival called Las Fallas, in which fallas (highly flammable, cartoon-looking sculptures) are all over the city for a week and then on the last night they set off a lot of fireworks and burn them! Kat, Emily and I met at 6:15am Friday morning and walked to the bus stop to catch a bus to the airport. Then we flew (on Ryanair-a very cheap airline, Emily was convinced our plane was going to crash because of how inexpensive the flights were) from Sevilla to Alicante and took a bus from Alicante to Valencia. When we got to Alicante we found out that the original bus we had tickets for had been cancelled and we had to wait an extra hour and a half for a later one, but that was fine because this was the last leg of the trip to get there, so this was much better than if some portion of the middle had been delayed and thrown everything else off. So we went to a little park in Alicante and ate our bocadillos and headed back to the bus station and finally left for Valencia.

We arrived around 3:30pm that afternoon and met Pedro and Amparo—my high school teacher, Mrs. Tomaski’s friends that she had met when she lived in Valencia. They picked us up from the bus station and we went to their house for a little while and got settled. Their house (which really was a house because they live about 15 minutes outside the city in a small pueblo) was so cute and modern. They were so kind and welcoming to us, and made us feel right at home. We spent the afternoon and evening running around and finding as many fallas as we could. There is basically a falla in every plaza and in other random intersections throughout the entire city center. We had a lot of fun fighting the massive crowds of people-sometimes we couldn’t even walk! We browsed the street venders and also got some bunyelos—like churros only small and round! So we were out on the street for about 7 hours because La Crema (the burning of the fallas) didn’t start until 10:30/11pm—and that was only the small ones. We saw a few little ones burn and then waited to see the larger fallas. We finally saw some of the big ones burn around 12am—and they’re crazy! All the firefighters are there to put them out because they literally shoot off the fireworks and light them on fire! We could feel the heat from really far away because some of the fallas are a couple stories tall! One that we were watching burn caught the curtains of an apartment on fire! But firefighters came and put it out, and then everyone clapped! Also, people just set off firecrackers everywhere in the streets. Kat and Emily really disliked all the noise, so we bought bright blue ear plugs, and got stared at a little bit. We got back to Amparo and Pedro’s house late, and the next day took a tour of Valencia!

Amparo and Pedro showed us through the parte antigua and we saw the cathedral and also a large virgin made out of flowers and just wandered around a little bit. Then we went to the modern part and saw all the buildings and bridge designed by Calatrava. It all looks super futuristic and really geometric. Then we concluded our tour and went to the playa and stepped in the Mediterranean Sea! We went back to their house and they made us a huge Valencian paella!! (Pedro cooked it over a fire outside in a huge pan-which is also called a paella). It was delicious-the paella had the typical Valencian yellow rice, chicken, big green beans, artichokes and beans that looked like giant lima beans. Then we just relaxed around their house for the afternoon and Pedro had all his sobrinos (nieces and nephews) over for dinner that night. There were about 14 of us, so we made a new record for “besitos” (the “kisses” you give everyone when you meet and say goodbye). We had a great time and just talked in Spanish with them and told jokes and enjoyed dinner-which lasted until about 12:30/1am because no one came over for dinner until 10pm, since that is dinner time for Spaniards. We got up early the next morning to go back to the bus station and repeat all of our crazy travels—which went nice and smooth on the way back. I loved meeting and connecting with people because, while all cities/places I’m travelling to are all distinct and really interesting, there’s just so much more connection and value when there are people to visit, and it really enriches the experience.

Some Fun Fotos:

El jamon: ham, the ever popular Spanish food, that is literally sold everywhere-the whole leg, hoof and all. It sits on a little stand in our kitchen...

<--El Parque de los Principes

it doesn't get more Spanish than this!

a park, soccer, and pigeon feeding!

I've been taking a class to learn how to dance Sevillanas-a type of flamenco dance. This is my dress (the mass of ruffles).

Inside the catedral in Sevilla. It was constructed in the 15th century. This is what I mean when I say that these are unbelievable large! This a pilar cruciforme con baquetones-I can't translate that to English...or really most of the vocabulary I learn in my art history class.

Time Flies

So sorry that it's been so long since I've posted something, here's some highlights from the last month, and only a few of the many pictures I've taken (see facebook for more!)
Wow, I can’t believe its march already! So much has happened in a month. And it doesn’t feel like that much time has passed, and it also feels like there’s not much left. My friend Emily likes to remind us frequently that we’re in Spain-and it’s funny, because sometimes I actually do need reminding.

I’ve travelled a little since our last school trip to Cordoba. Andy, Daniel, Emily and I went to Lagos, Portugal for a weekend! What a trip-it's crazy to be able to just get on a bus and be in another country in a few hours! Our ride was a little longer that I anticipated because we stopped in a lot of other cities along the way, but we left Sevilla after lunch on Friday (2/26) and finally arrived in Lagos around 8:30 or 9pm, so it was dark when we got there and then we had to find our apartment and we didn’t have a map. A good combination. We started on our way and asked people on the street for help and finally found the right street. We walked up and could not find it-I saw this door that had this little “sign” (a piece of paper with some typing on it) but I couldn’t read it from where we were so we kept searching. There were no people out on the streets-quite a change from the constant night life in Sevilla. And we finally found someone and again asked for help-he directed us to a little restaurant to ask there. So we went and Daniel and I went inside and a met a super nice, young waiter who told us where to go (he spoke English-practically everyone does because all of their TV shows are in English with Portuguese subtitles and they learn it in school. And for the record, Portuguese is not the same as Spanish.) So where do we end up with these directions? That building with the tiny-not sign (I had seen earlier) that has the name of the hotel/apartments and a phone number for us to call to have someone let us in. So we tried calling, but my cell phone didn’t work since we were in Portugal and couldn’t figure out the country code. So back to the restaurant Daniel and I went to ask if we could use a phone. The waiter called for us-he told us this wasn’t the first time this had happened. Then we finally were let into our apartment-and what a surprise! The four of us had a three-story apartment (granted each floor was about the equivalent of one room, but still!!). The first floor was the kitchen, and had a half bathroom, a couch, and a table and chairs and two pull-out beds; the second floor had a bedroom and full bath; and the third floor was a roof top patio! We had a view of the ocean!!! It was so much fun to be able to hang out in a “house”—the Spaniards don’t do that, they always go out and never invite friends over, and I find that I’ve really missed just going to someone’s house. But we did spend a lot of time outside! We hiked a trail along the “golden coast”—we were at the southern tip of Portugal. This is really indescribable. Even the pictures cannot capture it. We were walking along the edges of these enormous cliffs that dropped down into the ocean and there were huge rocks out a little ways from shore. It was stunning. I think it might be the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen/been. We hiked for hours—although we didn’t get very far. But it was a wonderful day! It is still winter in Portugal (and most of the world I guess…) so we might have been some of the only tourists, which was so amazing. We pretty much had the ocean and the city to ourselves! It was such a nice change to be surrounded with nature instead of buildings and tons of people. I sometimes forget how disconnected from nature I am here—and how noisy and crowded it is all the time—what a difference from Houghton! We also went out to dinner one night to try pollo piri piri—a Portuguese specialty that Mercedes (one of our school’s receptionists) recommended us. It was delicious! She told us it was really spicy, but what she really meant is that it had flavor! I think that Spaniards think salt is the only form of seasoning. We really enjoyed the live music in the restaurant too—there was this man playing really electronic, polka sounding songs on a keyboard and each song somehow seemed to get more upbeat! We explored the city a little—it’s a lot smaller than Sevilla, but so pretty-lots of white buildings and the ocean. We found a playground! And enjoyed joking about all the things we could do in Portugal that started with “P”—it was a fun scattergories game! It was a great weekend and I’m still kind of in disbelief that it really is that easy to travel to a different country-we didn’t even have our passports stamped, which we’re a little disappointed about.

Then we had two days of class and then went to Toledo as a “field trip” (3/4/10). The art classes were required to go, but all the students came. Toledo is about an hour from Madrid and is basically right in the center of the country. We had to meet at school at 6:20am!! But we had about a 6 hour bus ride, so I tried to sleep unsuccessfully. On our way to Toledo we stopped to see the famous molinos (the windmills) that don Quijote attacked in his first adventure! WE really only stopped long enough to take pictures, then we continued on to Toledo. We checked into our hotel and then were free to go eat our bocadillos and then met at this little museum/church to see “El entierro Del Conde de Orgaz,” a really famous painting by El Greco. It was so big, and it’s crazy to think that it’s really the original! I feel that I didn’t really appreciate it as much as I should have, because we studied it in class, and well, it looks the same as it does in the pictures…it's not quite the same feeling as going inside the churches, cathedrals and mezquita after studying the architecture in class, but it still really cool to have my art professor Carmen explain everything to us—she studied that painting for an entire year! So she’s an expert. Then we went to a monastery—which we’ve also been studying in class. It was pretty cool—especially the claustro (the main/central outdoor patio). Also, some of the doors inside were really little because people back then weren’t as tall. We took a fun picture of three different sized doors with an appropriately sized student for each (Andy, Evelyn, and Rebecca). Then we were free to explore and hang out for the evening! Kat, Emily, Andy and I went out to dinner and got pizza-it was the first time I had any since we’ve been here! It was actually really good—the service in the restaurant however, was typical Spain and was really bad, but it’s because the tip is already included in the bill so the waiters aren’t trying to really serve you because there’s nothing for them to gain from it…And we went to McDonald’s after and go McFlurries—McDonald’s truly is everywhere! And it’s really popular here-children have their birthday parties there, and it’s always packed on Friday and Saturday nights. It’s pretty ridiculous. The menu is basically the same, but there are a few things such as the Cono Kit-Kat (our favorite because it’s on the 1 euro menu-it’s just a vanilla ice cream cone with one bar of a Kit-Kat stuck in it) and café con leche (half coffee-half milk, which isn’t anything new to me since Zach Adams always got his café ole from the java cart before Secondary Education and American Culture J ). We went back to the hotel and got a big group of us together in one room and played Fishbowl (a catchphrase, charades mix). It was so much fun and reminded me of Kat, Houghton, and 3rd Old. The next day we had breakfast at the hotel—that was the first time I’ve had more than just toast for breakfast. Then we went to the catedral de Toledo-a huge gothic cathedral from the 13th century. Now, these cathedrals look ridiculously enormous from the outside, but you kind of just think to yourself, “wow, that’s a big building.” Then you go inside and realize that the people who constructed this monstrous building must have been practically insane, which the builders of the cathedral in Sevilla actually said about themselves (we’re going to build a cathedral so big they’ll think we’re crazy-something to that effect). It’s true! You walk in and suddenly you feel that you’ve walked into a giant’s house (really lame and cheesy, but the best I can do). The columns are just enormous (both tall and in diameter) and the ceilings-and the decoration is just mind-boggling, I have no idea how you do any of this-and it’s all made from stone! Plus, the stained glass windows and the other artwork that is inside are just incredible. It’s so cool to tour the cathedrals after we’ve studied them; I still just love the opportunity to go out and SEE what I’m studying. After our tour of the cathedral we headed back to Sevilla. It was a nice relaxing weekend—which was so need to rest after so much travelling. I love seeing these new places and am constantly reminded of how big this world is—and how much is out there!

He goes on ahead of us...

He goes on ahead of us…

It seems unbelievable that just a few weeks ago I was home/visiting Houghton and struggling with saying goodbyes and wondering what would follow leaving everything familiar and comfortable behind. And while those goodbyes were extremely difficult, it has been so clear to me that the Lord goes on ahead of us—Psalm 23. “It is difficult for us to go, but equally difficult for Him to cause us pain. Yet it must be done. It would not be in our best interest to always remain in one happy and comfortable location. Therefore He moves us forward.” He moves us forward—and it has been into a whirlwind of new experiences, culture, people, foods, places…everything, ever since “cruce el charco” (a Spanish phrase for going to America: “I crossed the puddle”).

As I described in my first entry, I didn’t know very much about what to expect in Spain. I was so torn about leaving Houghton, missing track season, being gone for such a long time…and all of this sacrifice for what? Well, as I should have expected, God “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” So, while leaving everyone wasn’t easy—and I do miss you all!—I have been delighted by the ease of the beginning of my transition. I am so blessed to be here, and am so thankful for a smooth and fun-filled first two weeks. But I need to remind myself that I will actually be here for 4 months. I am trying to find balance—between all the goals, expectations and pressures I have been putting on myself. Obviously, my greatest goal is to improve my fluency en español while I’m here, and I have been getting to practice a lot with all of my classes in Spanish and the experience of living with a host family, but English easily finds its way into my days. I don’t feel any drastic improvements yet, but I don’t think this experience will necessarily be one of instant gratification—I have however, been feeling much more confident in my speaking, and at least am getting over my nerves/fears of talking to Spaniards, but I need to be realistic that it will take time and I most likely will not be fluent in only 4 months. I also have made some really good (American) friends already, and I really like spending time with them—which has made me a little less motivated to go out seeking Spanish friends (which I really want too). And, while, I am also here for academics, I want to experience the culture and see all that Sevilla and España have to offer! We took a little field trip to Córdoba—a small city about 2 hours away from Sevilla and visited la Mezquita, which is a Mosque/Cathedral built between the 8th-10th centuries, that we had been studying in my art history class. It’s quite the combination of incredible Muslim and Christian architecture (the Cathedral was built inside part of the Mosque). It’s so cool to be able to go out and literally walk through and see what you’ve been studying—everything is so applicable. I study grammar and go home and speak with my host family, and I finally am able to experience all of the foods and culture I’ve learned about for so long. I’m trying to be content with the present, but I keep wondering about what’s to come—this adventure has only just begun!

A few pictures from La Mezquita in Cordoba