Time flies

Only three more weeks to go! The semester goes by slowly while I'm living in it, but looking back it seems much shorter. Change of plans for this weekend, Sara is coming up from Jerez to visit and I'm going to show her around Sevilla on Saturday and Sunday. She's one of the nice Jewish girls I met at the seder during Semana Santa. She's from Baltimore, and she's spending her junior year (of high school!) in Spain. Very impressive. I have decided that showing Jews around Sevilla is a recipe for fun.

Next week is la Feria, which will be a whirl of tents, carnival rides, horses, and flamenco costumes. I'll post pictures once it gets started. Thursday through Sunday I'll be in Lagos, Portugal. I then have one week of classes, a weekend in Cádiz, and one week of finals. I have four finals to study for, one presentation (about Jews in Spain), and two essays for Pitzer to finish. I'm still working with Marc on a few details of our Europe trip, but most of the larger pieces have fallen into place and we're starting to get a better idea of what we'll be doing. These next couple of weeks are going to be busy, stressful, and fun.

Pictures (a few leftovers from Ronda):
1) one of the lovely gardens
2) classical guitarists play in the parks (and sell to the tourists)
3) a man asking directions from a young Rondan
4) a very classy Spanish menu
5) Gregorian chant music in one of the displays in the church (I learned to read this with Professor Kamm way back in freshman year)
6) very pretty street vendor jewelry

Happy Spanish birthday

I turned 21 yesterday! Mercedes told me she would cook whatever I liked for lunch, so I was expecting to eat well. I was not expecting the lovely birthday lunch I got yesterday. They set the nice table in the living room (we have always eaten in the kitchen). The entire family ate together, which has only happened once or twice while I've been here. Usually I just eat my meals with Angel, or sometimes Angel and one of my host brothers. So the table was set and my host parents forced me to sit and not help while they set the table and brought out food. I really wanted to help, especially since they were giving me such a nice lunch, but they insisted on taking care of it.

I noticed the table was set for six, when the doorbell rang. It was Allison! Allison is a friend from class who volunteers at the same school I volunteer at (a job I set her up with) on Thursdays with Mercedes. Apparently Mercedes had invited her over the day before. We'd been trying to find a time for Allison to join us for a meal for awhile, and it was such a nice surprise to have a friend over for lunch. After lunch, I was surprised again with an ice cream cake and candles. I finally got a picture with the family, too! It was a lovely celebration, and I think I have the perfect host family.

Today the Geranios program had an excursion to Ronda. It's a very pretty city with lots and lots of cliffs and spectacular views. I took over 300 photos, but they just look so 2-dimensional compared to the real views. Coming up to the edge of those cliffs to take pictures was pretty scary, even though there are barriers.

I can't believe that in four weeks, I'll be in Madrid with Marc. I'm very excited about that and the time leading up to it. I should probably start studying for my finals soon. Most of my classes give 50% of my grade for the midterm and the other 50% for the final. The Spanish students have it much worse. Some of their classes are year-long, and their entire grade is based on one giant cumulative final on all the material they learned that year. It sounds absolutely terrifying.

I will probably be traveling every weekend up until I leave Sevilla. If all goes according to plan, I'll go to Granada next weekend and stay with Elliot and his roommates for a couple of days. Elliot is the friend from my Jewish internship who visited me here a couple of weeks ago. I'd love to see him again while we're both still in the country, and I sure wouldn't mind seeing Granada again either. The following weekend I'm going to Lagos, Portugal with the DiscoverSevilla program. I'm probably going to room with Hillary and Brittney, two friends I've hung out with in Sevilla. The next weekend, Geranios is taking us to Cadiz for an overnight trip, and Hillary and I will be rooming together there too. I have two weeks of classes, one week of vacation (Feria), and one week of finals left. The rest of my time here is going to go by very quickly.

I have some leftover pictures from the end of Semana Santa, and I don't want to neglect Ronda, so there will be a lot of pictures today. I have also been asked to post pictures of my apartment, so you'll see one here.

Pictures:
1) my apartment building, the top balcony is mine
2) my neighborhood, with the same rentable bikes you'll see all over the city
3-5) flowers in the park next to my university, I had fun taking pictures the last day of Semana Santa
6) Angel, Mercedes, Alex, Alvaro, me, and a delicious cake. The boys have their serious movie star faces down pat.
7-12) Ronda, with steep cliffs and the tallest bridge I've ever seen
13) in Ronda, you get fined for not picking up after your dog
14) inside the cathedral in Ronda
15) some people taking their dogs for a... walk?

End of Semana Santa

Semana Santa is officially over. What a lovely week it was. I went out every day this week and saw some wonderful things. I don't have much to report that's new, I pretty much needed an excuse to post the last pictures I took. Enjoy.

Pictures:
1) random nazareno walking down the street
2) fuchsia nazareno barefoot with his cross, just chilling

Second night of Spanish Passover

Our second seder was much smoother than the first. I think we squeezed about 50 people into the tiny synagogue the first night, and last night we only had about 20 people. I saw some familiar faces from the first night, and some new people came. Again, it was a mostly American seder. The first seder was done in Spanish and English, but last night was mostly in English. Since we didn't go through the seder twice (in the two languages) and didn't have to wash 50 hands for the ritual hand washing, we ate much sooner. When we left, I thanked the rabbi for a second wonderful night of Passover and told him that I would be back before the semester ends to go to services.

Today I saw a very interesting procession. The brotherhood was called "La O" and they wore bright fuchsia robes. I used to be intimidated by the KKK hoods, but it's hard to be scared of nazarenos wearing such lovely colors! I'll post pictures when my next blog comes up.

Pictures:
1) with Staci in the synagogue (we did not plan matching outfits)
2) view of the synagogue from the back row
3) the outside of the synagogue, which is pretty much an apartment building
4) nazarenos with pretty capes
5) we finally worked up the nerve to ask for a picture with some nazarenos
6) some of the jews balancing on poles after the seder
7) Sara and Staci with me at the seder table
8) seder table
9) picture of the synagogue from the front, up near the torah

First night of Spanish Passover

Wow, I am exhausted from today. I met up with Staci in front of the University 2 hours before services started so we could walk to the synagogue together. I'm glad we gave ourselves so much time. There were processions all over the Centro, and it took us almost the entire two hours to walk somewhere that would have normally taken half an hour to get to. We had to navigate around crowds and blocked streets almost the entire way there. We finally made it!

I was surprised to find that almost everybody in the synagogue tonight was American. I think everyone, even the non-Americans, spoke English. There were a few people from Israel, France, Italy, Argentina, and a small handful from Sevilla. Then we had Americans from Florida, New York, California, Maryland, and a couple of other places. It was really wonderful to see Jews from all over the world coming together in one place so far from home. Apparently there are exactly 104 Jews in Sevilla (out of the 1800-2000 people in the city), somewhere between 20 and 25 Jewish families.

The synagogue is pretty tiny. It's on the bottom floor of what seems to be an apartment building. I'll post pictures with my next blog, but it's basically a fairly small room and a large storage closet for food and other things. It's an Orthodox synagogue, so the men and women sat separately. The services started at 8:30pm and lasted until 9:30. The Hebrew sounds very similar to the way it sounds back home, I think the New York accent is more obvious than the Spanish accent. After services, we sat around and talked outside while some people set up the tables for the seder in the synagogue. We started the seder at 10:30pm, and we didn't eat until 12:30am. I know Spanish dinners start late, but this is the latest dinner I've ever eaten.

We had salad and Spanish tortilla, and I thought dinner was over. Then they brought out chicken. Then more chicken. Staci and I got full, and we were starting to get pretty tired. Apparently there was still more food. They had fish, vegetables, and fruit for later, but we were too full to eat and too tired to wait, so we thanked the rabbi and left around 2am. We were definitely not the first ones to leave, we left some time after half the other people had gone home. We were able to take some leftover matzah with us, which I plan on snacking on for the next couple of weeks.

Staci and I parted ways at the University, and I walked the rest of the way home by myself. I considered waiting for the bus, but decided against it, since walking would take me home more quickly. I'm glad I live on a major street, the walk home was brightly lit by streetlights and always accompanied by cars in the road. I didn't feel unsafe at all. I made it back around 2:30am. This might be the latest I've stayed out. Considering Spanish nightlife culture, this is unusual. Some people say that they're getting home early if they're in by 4am. I don't think I could do that...

Pictures:
1) Jesus float at night with candles lit
2) lighting candles on the Virgin Mary float
3) one of the many booths set up specially for Semana Santa, selling candy and cute little toys
4) nazareno-shaped candy!
5-6) blue nazarenos
7-9) black and white nazarenos (KKK?)
10) nazareno marching without shoes
11) Jesus float
12) view of nazarenos from my balcony
13) Virgin Mary float
14) the feet of the people carrying that heavy float
15) incense leading the way for the Mary float