Semana Santa, at long last

Semana Santa has begun, and I can see why Sevilla is famous for it. Where do I begin? On Monday I met up with Staci, one of the Jewish students who's coming to the Passover seders. We walked around the Centro with her roommate and accidentally happened upon one of the processions. The processions are made up of people in Catholic brotherhoods marching all around the city, each on a different route. Every procession enters and exits the big Cathedral, but other than that, their paths are different. This can make navigating difficult, when you're blocked off on multiple sides by different processions.

Many of the processions are led by a marching band. After the band passes, the nazarenos march by. Nazarenos are people in long robes and capirotes (hoods), similar in appearance to those worn by the KKK. Different brotherhoods have hoods in different colors. Many of the nazarenos hand candy out to children as they pass. Some carry long, large candles, which are lit when it gets dark. After the nazarenos comes a big float with some sort of Jesus image. The floats are not on wheels, they're carries by men in the brotherhood. The marching lasts for many hours (one which I saw yesterday marched for 13 1/2 hours), so the men carrying the floats trade off every once in awhile. When the new carriers get a hold of the float and all lift it together, it makes a bit of a bouncing motion as it's lifted, and the crowd cheers. When it's not being lifted, the crowd is often silent as the floats pass by, showing their respect. I hear that some people cry, it's a very emotional experience for them.

After the Jesus float come some nazarenos without the hoods sticking up. They're wearing their hoods, but the hoods just fall limp. I'll see if I can post a good picture. These nazarenos carry big wooden crosses. Then come some more people marching, sometimes another band, and then people carrying incense. Finally comes the float with the Virgin Mary. This float has lots and lots of candles, which are lit at night. It is also carried by men from the brotherhood. It's sort of the grand finale for the procession.

Yesterday one of the processions passes right by my apartment. I could see it from my 7th floor balcony, but of course I ran downstairs to get a closer look (and closer pictures). This procession seemed particularly family-oriented. A lot of family members walked alongside the nazarenos. There were quite a few children marching as nazarenos. It's adorable, seeing a little hooded person marching along, holding hands with a parent. Marching in a procession is a huge honor, and the family members have a lot of pride for their loved ones who participate. They blocked off the entire street to have this procession, and I live on a large and major street. Since the street was so wide, I was always able to move easily and find a good spot to stand close to the procession. I took about 100 pictures of that procession alone, and another 100 that afternoon/evening. Later in the day, I met up with Allison, and we walked into the Centro to see more.

I have never seen the Centro so crowded. Since the streets there are very narrow, it was very difficult to navigate. Our strategy was to follow the people weaving through the crowds in the general direction we wanted to move in. We staked out some spots to watch one procession, and felt very claustrophobic surrounded on all sides by people and pressed very closely into the crowd. I can see why it's so easy for pickpockets to steal during Semana Santa. At one point, some very rude women pushed their way through a very tight crowd very forcefully. Shortly after, a girl nearby started crying and was taken away by police. I hope she wasn't hurt. Allison and I had a little bit of difficulty leaving the crowd, since we were surrounded on all sides, but we finally managed to escape with our toes and wallets unharmed. It was fun and interesting, but I'm not eager to jump into a crowd again. I can see why the native Sevillans go on vacation during Semana Santa. It's fun to see a few times, but the processions are all pretty similar, and the crowds are a little intimidating.

On our way home, we ran into the same procession I saw in the morning making it's way back. It was getting dark, so they started lighting their candles. I haven't seen a procession during the darker parts of night yet, but I'm sure I will after leaving one of the Passover seders. There's one procession called "El Silencio" that marches in silence. The crowd is usually pretty noisy, but people are supposedly very quiet when El Silencio passes by. I hear it's quite eerie. I'd like to see it, but they march from 1am to some unpleasant hour early in the morning, and I'm not sure how much I'd enjoy being out that late. We'll see what time the seder finishes that night.

Tonight I go to my first Passover seder. I'm very excited about it, I'm not quite sure what to expect. I wonder if the Hebrew will sound different in Spain. I'll post a blog describing that experience when it happens.

Pictures:
1) nazarenos with different colored hoods
2) nazarenos carrying crosses
3) Jesus float
4) nazarenos of all ages
5) nazarenos handing out candy to children in the street
6) view of procession from my balcony (zoomed in)
7) kids ask nazarenos for candy by holding out their hands insistently
8) child nazareno giving out candy
9) tired little nazareno in stroller
10) even more nazarenos
11) a different Jesus float
12) nazarenos differ in size
13) little nazareno with candy
14) the littlest nazareno I've seen
15) nazarenos leading the procession

Upcoming Semana Santa, Passover, and french toast

Next week is Semana Santa, the Holy Week. It's a huge deal in Sevilla. We all get classes off the week before Easter and the entire city celebrates all week long. There are processions and crowds, drinking and pickpockets, religious symbols and churches, and much more! (A word to all the Jewish mothers looking out for me, I plan on keeping my wallet and camera very well protected.) The hermandades (religious brotherhoods) march around wearing hoods and robes (similar in appearance to those worn by the KKK) to symbolize their unity and solidarity. I'm very excited and plan to take many, many pictures.

I'm even more excited about Passover! Using contact information given to me some wonderful Jews back home (my grandparents and Marc's parents), I managed to get in touch with the Jewish Community of Sevilla. I discovered that Sevilla has only 20-25 Jewish families, but there is a synagogue with weekly services, and they have a communal seder. I've been emailing back and forth with the rabbi and trying to organize as many Jewish students as I can to come to the seder. He told me I was doing a mitzvah by helping bring the Jewish students to the seder and to keep it up. I feel very honored. It's also nice to finally find some other Jews in the city, since I hadn't actually met any before. Now I have dinner plans with a couple of them! I can't wait to experience a Spanish seder, this should be very interesting.

My first class this morning was canceled because the professor was sick. Since I had another class two hours later, I decided it would be too much of a waste of time to go home. My friend Alex (Alexandra, not host brother Alex) and I walked around the Centro for most of those two hours. We stopped at a cafe, because I decided that it was the perfect opportunity to have some Spanish hot chocolate. Spanish hot chocolate is very thick and very delicious. Alex got a coffee, and we split a torrija. Torrijas are like french toast soaked in syrup, or sometimes wine and honey and other things. We had seen then around in bakeries a lot lately, because they are very common around Semana Santa, but neither of us had ever eaten one. It was incredibly good. I'm glad we split one, because it was so sweet. It was the perfect snack to have between classes. I don't think this will be my last torrija of the semester.

Pictures:
1) Lisa and Iago, looking cute as always
2) Educalia, the school where I volunteer
3) Miriam, the 11-year-old girl who speaks English quite well (she was making a bit of a funny face when Mercedes took the picture)

Day in the rabid centro

Yesterday the Geranios program took us to la Rábida. It was fun, but one of our less eventful excursions. We first toured an old church where Christopher Columbus did many important things. The church was run by actual monks. The monks sell the entrance tickets and rent out audio-tours. We then went to a mini-museum with models of the three ships from the Columbus voyage to America. Hillary and I had fun taking wacky pictures on the Santa María model. We also stopped by a little park. I wish I had more to report, but it was pretty uneventful, overall.

When we got back to Sevilla, Hillary and I went to a bakery. I've passed this bakery several times a week and have always wondered what their pastries would taste like. You can smell the amazing smells from the sidewalk outside. We each got a delicious pastry and were pleased with our desserts. We then went on a walk around the Centro. Apparently spring weekend weddings in Sevilla are more common than I though, I think we saw about five different bridal parties. We also saw a large group of men leaving one of the churches with shirts tied over their heads. We later saw the same group of men lifting a large wooden structure and carrying it along one of the main streets at the edge of the Centro. They were practicing marching for Semana Santa, which starts in a week. I didn't manage to get any good pictures of the marching practice, but I did get a picture of the men in headdresses.

Pictures:
1) those interesting men in their headdresses walking over to their practice location
2-4) Hillary and I had some fun with my camera on the Santa María
5-6) pretty flowers at the church

Jews in Spain! (finally)

Whew, it's been a tough week so far. I finished the last of my midterms today, so now I actually have time for updates.

One of the English teachers at Mercedes's school was sick yesterday, so I took over the children's classes. I worked with a couple of 5-year-olds and an 8-year-old on colors, numbers, and animals. Volunteering with Miriam was especially enjoyable. She is so fun to talk to. She's very mature, sometimes I forget she's only 11. She said that making music with me at the end of our English conversation is her favorite part of the day. I'm still teaching her some songs, and I'm so glad she's having a good time. I'll have to get a picture with her some time soon.

Last weekend, Elliot and Jeff came to Sevilla. Elliot was a Kohn intern with me last summer. He worked in San Francisco and I worked on the Peninsula, but we saw each other every week for our intern seminars. He's spending this year studying in Granada, which is about a 3-hour train ride away. Jeff, Elliot's cousin, has been traveling around Europe this semester, since he graduated a semester early. They met up and came to visit the beautiful city of Sevilla, and fun times were had by all. Also, I finally spent time with another Jew!

First of all, Elliot and Jeff didn't know where they were going to stay before they got here. I think they were going to keep their eyes open for hostels while we were exploring the city. I told Mercedes the morning of their arrival that we'd be stopping by the house to temporarily drop off their things, since they didn't know where they were sleeping yet. She offered to have them stay here. It was the sweetest, most generous offer! Host parents are expected to care for their host children, but not their host children's friends. Mercedes has already gone above and beyond what most Spanish mothers do by letting me have friends over to the house. Offering to host two strangers for a night was amazing. She also tried to feed them. Funny, she reminds me of my Jewish mother in many ways.

So Elliot and Jeff were very pleased to learn upon arrival that they had friendly, free, and fabulous lodgings for the night. (We have an extra room with two beds where the Italian girls stayed, so they had a very comfortable place to sleep.) We all thanked Mercedes many, many times, and the guys bought some flowers for the family as a thank-you. Ironically, it's really hard to buy nice flowers without buying huge bouquets. Single roses were 8€ each ($10.66). That strikes me as a little expensive...

After settling in, we went for lunch at a wonderful place near the Cathedral. Elliot loves bread (and mostly bread), so he bought a loaf at the bakery. Jeff and I each had these platters of several delicious tapa-like dishes, which came with wine and bread. And olives, Marc's favorite. [Marc strongly dislikes olives, just to clarify.] All the food was delicious. I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that the wine did not taste as bad as I usually think wine tastes. I'll post a picture of my lunch at the bottom. I forgot to take pictures of my desserts, the place we ate at had a wonderful dessert counter.

After lunch, we walked over to the Plaza de España. We must have seen three or four different wedding parties on the way there. I think every bride in Spain decided to get married this weekend. By Sunday, we had probably seen five or six of them. Elliot and I actually saw a little bit of a wedding ceremony while we were looking in a church later that night. I took pictures of some of the brides. Spanish wedding dresses are very elegant, and frequently displayed in windows throughout the center of town.

We then strolled through Parque María Louisa, crossed the bridge into the Triana neighborhood, and circled back around to the Centro. Walking around Sevilla is lovely, there are so many things to see. The next day we toured through Alcázar and visited the gardens. Students get in free, which I think I'll have to take advantage of more. With half an hour until they had to start heading toward the train station, Elliot and Jeff wanted to go into the Cathedral and climb La Giralda. I decided not to go in, since admission was not free and we had so little time. We parted ways, and I went to look in a store next to the Cathedral at pretty magnets. When I got out and started walking home, I actually ran into Elliot and Jeff again! The Cathedral was closed, and they couldn't go in. It was a shame they missed it, but we got to walk through the park again and go to the train station together. It was a very good weekend!

Pictures:
1) left to right, Jeff, Elliot, me - yet another fun picture with the statues next to the Cathedral
2) miniature figurines of people who march in Semana Santa (not KKK)
3) Spain loves Obama
4) couple posing for pictures in the park
5) bride going into one of the churches
6) my delicious lunch
7) Jews with ham? That doesn't sound very kosher...

First exam and Granada conclusion

Wow, that long post was long. This one will be much shorter.

I had my first exam today in Semantics. I think it went very well. It took me about half an hour, then I spent another half hour filling out class evaluations. I was the first one done, but I can only check over my work so many times before declaring it finished, so hopefully that's okay.

I have two more exams next week, wish me luck.

I also have more pictures from Granada.
1) really nice street vendor setup, selling tea (I really took this picture for Marc)
2) interesting clothing store near the hostel
3) my room in the hostel
4) taken from the hills, you can see the Alhambra in the distance
5) cave homes
6) closer picture of cave homes
7) even closer picture of cave homes, including cave dog
8) the pikachu selling balloons that I mentioned earlier

Granada elaboration

Here are the details from that general outline I gave earlier:

- I had a train ticket for the wrong day. Hillary, my travel companion, missed the train to Granada.
My train ticket was supposed to take me to and from Granada on Saturday, which I was not aware of. I thought I could tell my program director before the trip that I was staying until Sunday, and then our tour guide would buy the right tickets. Last time we did a trip like this, she asked me the day before if I was staying the night, so I thought that telling her several days before would be okay.

Apparently it wasn't. She said our guide already had our return tickets, and if he couldn't exchange mine for one on Sunday, I'd have to go back on Saturday. Since I'd already paid for my hostel and gotten really excited about the trip, this was a very bad thing. Luckily, the guide was able to change the tickets and all was well.

I booked a hostel with Hillary, a friend from the Geranios program. She's the one who originally convinced me to stay the night in Granada. I was very worried when we boarded the train and she wasn't there yet. Not only would she have missed out, but I would have been alone in a strange city, neither of which would have been good. Luckily, Hillary managed to buy a bus ticket to Granada and got in a couple of hours after the rest of us did. She even got there in time to see the Alhambra, which was good. That's the biggest reason to come to Granada.

Basically, in the end, my train ticket was fixed and Hillary made it over and we had a fabulous time.

- We visited the Cathedral where Fernando and Isabela (Spanish spellings) are buried and saw their tomb.
I think that one is pretty self-explanatory. It was lovely.

- We saw the Alhambra, one of the most visited (and beautiful) places in Spain.
It was quite a hike, but we made it to the top of the main castle and had a view of the entire city. I took a whole bunch of pictures.

- Hillary and I stayed at the Funky Backpackers Hostel, breakfast and guitar included.
The woman who worked there was very nice. She told us which neighborhoods were fun to visit, how to find tapas bars, and how to get to the gypsy caves. This hostel does a bunch of activities, including communal meals, tapas tours, flamenco shows in the caves, and trips to the Arab baths. Hillary and I didn't do any of those things, since we had our own agenda, but I'm sure we would have if we'd been there longer than one night.

Our room was at the top of 4 flights of stairs, and we shared it with two other girls. One was from Indonesia, one from Argentina. We also met people from Germany, Sweden, and Australia. Most of the people at the hostel were pretty young, close to our age. Our room had its own kitchenette and was located next to a living room and a rooftop terrace. I found a nylon string guitar in the living room and spent a little bit of time playing and singing. It plays similarly to my (mom's) guitar, which I like.

- We walked around the Albaicín neighborhood, which has a very Moroccan style.
A whole bunch of street vendors line the sides of a few alleyways, and the alleys are flooded with color. They sell incense, belly dancing costumes, hookahs, trinkets, colorful pants, jewelry, and many other shiny things. This is an area you want to be careful in, since it's frequented by tourists and the pickpockets like to hang out there.

- For dinner we had Chinese tapas and I discovered tinto de verano.
Hillary and I explored the city, then walked around for about an hour trying to find a nice place to eat. We knew we wanted to find a place with free tapas. In Granada, you get a free tapa with every drink you order in almost any restaurant. The more drinks you order, the fancier your next tapa is. We wanted to find a place to sit outside, since the weather was beautiful, the street had so much going happening in it, and the smokers filled the restaurants with smoke.

After searching for a long time for the perfect place, we found an adorable little Chinese restaurant right next to one of the main plazas. We ended up sitting inside, but at a counter right up next to the window, facing the plaza. We each ordered a sangría and were given tapas with chow mein noodles. They were delicious. Next, Hillary ordered a strange drink from the menu that she didn't recognize and I ordered a tinto de verano. She didn't like her drink, but mine was very tasty. It was like sangría with lemonade. I think the second tapa was chicken, and I don't remember what the third one was. Looking back, I realized I should have taken pictures of the food.

I must say, it's quite strange to be able to order alcoholic drinks here. The sangría in the Chinese place was the first real drink I've had since the wine tasting in Jerez, which was awhile ago. I'll be 21 when I get back home, so I guess I'll need to get used to being of legal age. Hillary is like me, completely uninterested in getting drunk, just interested in trying new things. I think we made very good travel companions.

- We navigated through the gypsy maze in the Sacramonte neighborhood.
We climbed through the hills of the Sacramonte neighborhood in order to reach the caves, but we got very lost and ended up just aiming for the direction we thought the caves were in. The Sacramonte neighborhood is one of those neighborhoods with a hundred tiny, twisting alleyways that you won't find on a map. We stumbled across some very cute plazas and shops and restaurants during our wandering, and found some nice places to take pictures.

- We hiked by the caves in the hills where the gypsies live.
Eventually we made it to the other side of the Sacramonte neighborhood and found the caves. There are people who build their homes in the sides of the hills and live up there. We walked around the area and took pictures, but didn't actually venture down into the cave neighborhood, since we weren't sure how safe it was. There were some beautiful views from those hills, and more pictures were taken.

- Before we left, we had a delicious lunch with musical accompaniment.
After visiting the caves, Hillary and I went to a street that that the woman at our hostel said was full of tapas restaurants. We found a wonderful place right in the middle of a bunch of other tapas resaurtants. We sat out in the street and listened to some performers who walked all over playing music. We actually ran into the same performers later when we returned to our hostel. They played Hava Nagila, which I found very exciting. Lunch was delicious. We had a tapa that looked sort of like cous cous, a gazpacho-like soup, and an omelet with asparagus and shrimp. While we were finishing up, we saw a giant pikachu walking down the street selling balloons from a high balloon tower. It was interesting, to say the least.

That was our trip! We checked out of the hostel, left plenty of time to get to the train station, and returned to Sevilla.

All the pictures below are from the Alhambra. I'll post some pictures from the hostel, the city, and the caves next time.

Granada introduction

First of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD AND GRANDMA! Enjoy your days, I wish I could celebrate with you both.

I just got back from my trip to Granada a couple of hours ago. I had a wonderful time! I'm exhausted, so I'll give a basic outline of what I did here and go into detail later.

- I had a train ticket for the wrong day. Hillary, my travel companion, missed the train to Granada.

- We visited the Cathedral where Fernando and Isabela are buried and saw their tomb.

- We saw the Alhambra, one of the most visited (and beautiful) places in Spain.

- Hillary and I stayed at the Funky Backpackers Hostel, breakfast and guitar included.

- We walked around the Albaicín neighborhood, which has a very Moroccan style.

- For dinner we had Chinese tapas and I discovered tinto de verano.

- We navigated through the gypsy maze in the Sacramonte neighborhood.

- We hiked by the caves in the hills where the gypsies live.

- Before we left, we had a delicious lunch with musical accompaniment.

This blog was really an excuse to put in a round of pictures. All these pictures were taken at the Alhambra. The last one is the Cathedral, just one tiny part of the gorgeous view. I wish these pictures could convey the texture and color and clarity that I saw while I was there, but this will have to do. I'll update soon!