Portugal

Yes, that’s right, I went to Portugal the next day with another school trip! Okay so funny story. For some reason I though we were meeting at Torre del Oro, right near my house. We had met there for other things before (although never for big trips like this). I got there when I was supposed to at 8:45am but I waited and waited and I wasn’t seeing anyone or even the bus. I finally called my friend Christa who was going to be my roommate and was like, “Donde estas?” I will never forget how my heart sank at her response: “En el autobus!” she said. I was like “Oh my gosh where were we supposed to meet??” She told me “Avenida del Cid” and said it would be too long to get there walking at this point; I would have to take a taxi. I was so scared, I had never flagged down a taxi myself before, but I had no choice! I hiked my bags up on my shoulders and walked out to the curb, praying desperately for one to show up soon! God was very merciful and brought one along within the minute. I got in and told him “Avenida del Cid.” He was like “Ok…but where on Avenida del Cid??” (in Spanish). I was like “I don’t know I just need to meet a bus there! I’m looking for a bus…” hehe! I finally pulled out my itinerary they gave us (that I had not felt the need to pay much attention to) and lo and behold there was a map with an arrow at the specific spot we were supposed to meet and that very street name in bold letters. (WHY do I have to be so stupid sometimes?? I even knew the place, I just hadn’t recognized the name, but it is where we had met for the Morocco trip!) So then I told him exactly where I needed to be and so needless to say I got there just in time and had quite the adventure in the process. I got on the bus and our trip leader, Leri, was like “Torre del Oro, huh?” because Christa had told him I was on my way. I was like “yeah…” hehe. But I wasn’t the very last person because another girl had slept in and had to catch a taxi as well and got there just in time, so I didn’t feel quite as bad!

So anyway, the trip was along the southern coast of Portugal to the different beaches and such. I had actually tried to cancel going after thinking about it because I was afraid that I shouldn’t have spent the money and I realized that I didn’t really even like the beach that much. (They wouldn’t let me cancel though.) Well I found out the reason I didn’t think I liked the beach: I hadn’t been to beaches like this! They were gorgeous, God knew that I needed the rest. That was the most relaxing trip I went on the whole semester! All we did was go to the beach. Different beaches most of the time, but all beautiful. It was kinda windy and cold was the only thing, but most of the time still nice enough to at least lie out and read a book…which is basically what we did for the whole time! And on the bus God helped me not to get bus sick (which was better since it was not stuffed full of 50 other people this time, I think that we had less than 20 people!) so I could get stuff done, like write out all the previous entries about Semana Santa and Feria on paper before I forgot all the details. It was nice to feel a little productive! And then I studied a little for an upcoming test as I laid out (or I read Redeeming Love which was nice and relaxing!) Christa is just as nerdy as I am so we sat and did homework a couple times. I know y’all are rolling your eyes but I needed the time to get caught up for the coming week and then have some time to rest as well so it was perfect.

And it really was beautiful. There were lots of rocky cliffs at most of the beaches that sometimes jutted out or just dropped off into a soft orangey sand sinking into the blue ocean. The beautiful blue sky was the icing on the cake! One of my favorite parts was when we went to Cabo San Vicente in Sagres. This was the place that they thought was the edge of the earth—the end of the world—before Columbus’ time. We could tell why! It was like a rocky piece of land jutting into the ocean, creating rock walls accenting a sheer drop into the water far below. It was like the world just ended…it was cut off right there. We walked out to the edge to wait because we had driven out there especially to see the sunset! Aside from singing, “It’s the end of the world as we know it…” one girl who I know is a Christian said “This would be a perfect place for a worship service!” So we all started joking around singing “Lord I Lift Your Name on High” and stuff. But then in all seriousness she was like, “It really does remind me of how God is sooo big and I am sooo small.” And as the sun set, I hoped that the others there could feel that amazing truth as much as I did.

Overall, Portugal was pretty cool :)

!La Feria de Sevilla!

The next week was Feria! This is another week-long celebration the second week after Easter. Many cities/towns in Spain have ferias (fairs) but Seville’s is the most famous. The feria is a fair where everyone dresses up in traditional flamenco dresses, rides in horse-drawn carriages, and spends most of the time in casetas. In the fairground (which is right near where I lived!) there are more than 200 of these colorful little booth/tent things set up called casetas. They have tables and chairs and room to dance and usually a bar in the back. Some are small, belonging to the families or a group of friends; some are big, belonging to companies or other groups. Most all of these were private so we couldn’t go in. There were other public ones though, like those belonging to the town hall or political parties that anyone could go into. Basically everyone just goes in these things and eats, drinks (Spaniards always eat and drink at the same time, so they don’t normally get drunk!), and dances all night! These people sure know how to enjoy themselves. Even the rain didn’t stop a lot of them from getting out.

So on Sunday night we saw the “Alumbrao,” where they turn on all the lights of the portada (the entranceway) and the whole place at midnight. It was really cool! Unfortunately, we still had classes though through Wednesday so we didn’t go back Monday or Tuesday but it was raining anyway. (It was funny because it rained some that week and Semana Santa but the week in between the two was beautiful weather!) On Wednesday afternoon I was planning to go back to school and turn in some homework and use the internet but I ended up dropping everything because my host brother, Jose Manuel, and his girlfriend, Isabel, came home and invited me to go with them to Feria! (In case you are worried, my teacher had said it was okay if I had to turn in my homework late! hehe) I was really excited because he had already told me he had gotten a ticket for me to go to his company’s caseta at some point and I felt really lucky because most students don’t have the opportunity to go into private casetas (which are supposedly better than the other ones). I was kinda nervous though because I was going by myself with them and didn’t know what to expect. It ended up being a lot of fun! During the afternoon we just sat and had tapas and drank rebujitos (little cups of manzanilla, the wine they drink at feria, and 7-up or Sprite). We were with one of Jose Manuel’s professors and coworkers, then some other friends joined. It was kinda boring at first because when they got in their own conversations I couldn’t hear well enough to follow because there was loud music. I was also distracted by watching the people around us dancing and socializing, especially the girls in their flamenco dresses with all their jewelry and hair all done, everything was so pretty and bright and colorful! I did talk some, mostly to Isabel. When they addressed me I could normally understand them fine. It was funny though because as we sat there they kept refilling the rebujitos and I kept having to say no or I just wouldn’t drink it. I’m not really sure how much is too much for me and I can see how it would be easy to lose count of those little cups! By the end of the night they finally just ordered me a coke J

Anyway, after everyone had drunk a bit they were in the mood for dancing. Some other guys that they knew came up and they all tried to convince me to dance Sevillanas (traditional dance done with a partner during feria) because I was in a Sevillanas class at my school. Jose Manuel got me to dance with him and then I danced with this other guy who didn’t really know what he was doing. It was probably some of the worst dancing I had ever done because I was so nervous being watched by all these random Spanish guys I barely knew! On top of that, I was only used to dancing with other girls in our Sevillanas class (there was only one guy in my class) and the natives do it all their own style which is totally different, and I was still in the process of learning it to begin with! It was funny though and they didn’t care. I danced with Isabel later and this other girl named Maria Jose and they helped me a lot and it was really fun. I was really glad I knew the dance! Later we got up and went to the dance floor and just danced however. Even though I didn’t know any of the songs like they did I still had fun dancing. They introduced me to a random Spanish guy who actually apparently lives in Miami now; he asked me something about Hillary and Obama and I said I supported neither and he just couldn’t believe it. He was like, “You are too young to be a Republican!” He later said that even though I am a Republican I still have to dance, lol. I met this guy from Belgium too, who was really nice, and then a girl from England, too. But we ended up having to leave kind of early—1:00am—very early for Spaniards! I later found out (Magdalena had happen to found out from Jose Manuel about a week later and told me lol) that one of the guys that we had been with us the whole night who had been like a friend of a friend of Jose Manuel had been hitting on Isabel so that’s why they wanted to leave. That guy was pretty drunk and all over the place; apparently his girlfriend (who was there as well) made him call later and apologize to Jose Manuel because he didn’t remember doing any of it. I was pretty clueless about the whole situation at the time though. On the whole I had a great time, and I was super happy to have a little bit of a genuine Spanish experience!!

The next night I went to Feria with Leigh. We rode one of the amusement par rides and then got a bocadillo in a public caseta. Then we walked around some more and ate chocolate covered apples. We eventually ran into another group from our school and there were some others who were in the class so we all danced and had a lot of fun. It was so nice to dance with guys that actually danced the same way I had learned! We tried to change it up and do some different stuff we saw the natives doing…weren’t very successful but it was really fun nonetheless. Then I walked home with Leigh at about 1:30am and packed to leave for Portugal the next day!

Random Funness

The next weekend Emma, Joanne’s roommate from Mercer, came to visit. She was studying at Oxford for the semester. Since my roommate had gone she ended up staying with me. She barely spoke a word of Spanish, so Joanne and I had fun translating for her and Magdalena, it made us feel like we could actually speak Spanish! [Side note: NO, I am not fluent yet, so please don’t ask me if I am! :( It would probably take a good year and not being around Americans so much to get to that point.] It was funny though because I would hear Magdalena say something like, “Have you slept well?” while Emma passed through the living room and she would be clueless so I would yell the translation from my room and Magdalena would always laugh. It was cool to have a little Mercer reunion!

The next weekend a couple girls and I went with my intercambio, Cristina, her boyfriend, and another girl from her English class, Encarni, to this festival. It was funny because it was basically like a hippie festival. It was cool though…there were a lot of little booths with homemade stuff and all natural food, which I’m always a fan of! We also went to this massage thing (was actually their idea to go, I am too ticklish for most massages!) which ended up being a massage class. Let’s just say it was very interesting! (And by interesting I mean a new experience that I hope to never repeat! Hehe If you really wanna know you can ask….) All in all it was super fun just to hang out with Spanish friends! :)

That Saturday three other girls and me took a day trip to the nearby town of Ronda. It is a beautiful little community seated right on top of a breathtaking gorge. The pictures don’t do it justice but here are some anyway:

We hiked down to the bottom of the gorge and were able to see it from below as well! We also found this deserted building (above is the areal view of it) and went down in it’s basement, it was like in suspense movies or something hehe. We packed a lot in so it was an exhausting but fun day!

Semana Santa

So after Morocco I came back to an entirely different Sevilla: it was Semana Santa (Holy Week), the week of Easter. It scared me a little at first to see the “Nazarenes” (members of the “brotherhood” of each church, see photo) walking by in their outfits when I got off the bus that night.

After resting a few days (I was exhausted) I ventured out to experience one of the biggest holy week celebrations in the world—second only to Rome! Seville was flooded with people who crowded the streets to watch the “pasos” (floats of statues of Mary or scenes of Jesus during the Easter story) parade by, along with the Nazarenes and penitents, and often a band as well. Each paso made its way from its own chapel to the big cathedral and then back. You can also walk down and see them on display before they are taken out of the church. Magdalena took me to see a few in Triana (our neighborhood) which was cool. She is so funny—she and her sister love Semana Santa and they were watching everything on TV like all week. I went out with some friends to see the parades on Thursday and Friday night. On Thursday night the most famous pasos make their routes through most of the night and morning. I went out late but I didn’t last all night!

I have to say seeing the pasos in person was much different than seeing them on TV. Magdalena told me that with all the music and people and smell of incense it is very different and very emotional. She was totally right. One of the first ones I saw was of Jesus being taken off the cross after His death and it was actually a silent one. The crowd was hushed and the Nazarenes walked slowly by with candles. I liked it; was a sobering and poignant reminder of what He did for us.

However, it seemed to me that people were almost more emotional about seeing the pasos of the Virgin Mary…or Marys I should say. I think each church has their own Mary paso and Jesus paso…but the Mary always comes last in the parade. They are all different Virgins…the one of Triana is “la Esperanza de Triana” (The Hope of Triana). There is the Macarena, “La O”, and many others. I have seen people cry when they see the paso, sing prayers to it out loud… Magdalena told me to touch the float when it went by and say a prayer. She told me that people form an attachment to “their” Virgin—they step into the church and say a prayer to it on the way to the grocery store or wherever. This just blew my mind. Praying to Mary already doesn’t make sense to me, much less a specific statue of Mary. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mean to offend anyone or disrespect the culture… I can see how if you grew up doing that a strong emotional attachment could easily be formed. And they are beautiful statues. But it was more disheartening than I can say to see people in a Christian denomination not only praying to Mary, but praying and worshipping a specific statue of Mary. It looks too much like idolatry to me…to go pray to a statue instead of Jesus who died so that they could come straight to Him. So that was frustrating and saddening for me.

I also wish there was more focus on the resurrection. There is only one paso on Easter Sunday of the resurrection. I do think it is good that the Catholic Church focuses on the crucifixion—one thing I think the protestant church may not do enough. The extent of His sacrifice shows us how much He loves us! But I want people to see that His death was not to bring guilt, but freedom from sin and a relationship with Him! That truth was not evident to me through Semana Santa. It seemed like the week focused more on feeling guilty because of His death and doing penance. The penitents were people who walked, covered up like the nazerenes (just without the pointy hat), carrying crosses the whole route (hours and hours—a whole day or night). Some did it barefoot. I think most were people with a prayer they wanted God to answer and felt like they needed to do this to earn it I suppose. Then there were the costeleros—the men (and sometimes boys) who carried the pasos. It rested on the back of their neck right above their shoulders. The paso is so heavy that by the end of their one or two hour shift they would often be bleeding. When we saw it on TV Magdalena would point out their wounds with pride. Although I admire their devotion, it made me sad that they feel like they need to do all this…for a statue, or to get God to answer their prayer…He offers His love freely, we don’t need to feel like we have to torture ourselves to earn it!

Anyway, despite all that, Semana Santa was a really neat experience. It was crazy to see Sevilla so full of people! I love the picture to the right. See the crowd?? The paso is in the distance. That is right in front of a bridge I crossed everyday. And it was cool to celebrate Easter like that—with reminders of it at every corner, literally! But I have to say that I was overjoyed to be encouraged by those who believe like I do on Easter Sunday. (Although I also love hanging out with people who have different beliefs as well!) I was with Mary Alice and some American girls interning with her. We had a picnic and church service in a park with three missionary families there (two that I worked with when I came before!) We sang familiar praise songs (in English), listened to one of the missionaries, Dave, speak, and had an Easter egg hunt for the kids…which was great because I was sad about missing watching my siblings do that. It was a wonderful day!