Sleepless in Sevilla

Spring has finally arrived in Spain! The birds, caterpillars and wasps are out in full force; not to mention my allergies. All the Reactine I brought from Calgary is not going to last me longer than a few weeks... its like my body is allergic to all the sun. By this point in Calgary the winter blues have set in, but over on this side of the pond we've had a total of two overcast days; I wake up, and the sun is out! It's funny how the true Canadian tolerance to the "cold" is finally making itself useful; while Ally is still wearing socks to bed and walking around the house in layers, I've shed all of that. And out in the streets, some people still have their "winter" jackets, but I expose as much of my skin to the sunlight to quench the deprivation.

The past week has been a catch-up on sleep and appreciation of Sevilla kind of of week. Its wonderful to just go downtown and discover new areas of the city, and re-visit the familiar old ones. I actually feel comfortable enough around certain sectors of the city to give directions to wandering tourists. But let's not go too crazy on that level of comfort. It usually involves a team effort.

I would like to share about my life-changing experience on Friday when I finally attended a good old flamenco show. The performance lasted 45 minutes, but it felt no longer than 5. The music, the atmosphere, the dancers were breath-taking. I have always held a deep appreciation and respect for all types of dancing, but this was just on a whole other level. The dancers and the music conveyed such powerful emotions, I'm sure everyone in the audience felt it down to their toes.

Sevilla is so close to the coast, an hour's drive on the high way will take you past lots of little beach towns, which is exactly what we did with our host mom Lola on Sunday. I can't remember the last time I was by the ocean, but its lovely every single time. According to Lola its unseasonably warm, but its still not sweltering hot. We could lie comfortably to tan [and sleep], but there was a constant breeze that sometimes made you put on a light sweater. FYI: the water was NOT warm.

Today is a provincial holiday (Día de Andalucia) so we have no classes; of course this is the first day since I've been here where I've woken up before 7am [not because I chose to]. So what's on the agenda? A picnic in the park and a stroll or bike ride by the river. 

ps. keep in mind that I am and will continue to be extremely jealous of missing out on ski season. 

pps. I am also showing the few Spaniards I've befriended youtube videos of Calgary.

Carnaval

What do people mean when they say the "third biggest carnival in the world"? I really couldn't come up with an answer to that either, maybe a mix between Rio de Janeiro's beautiful costumes and beautiful people dancing and Mardi Gras' drinking. Or maybe they meant the apocalypse.


On Wednesday I had my first quiz of the semester, and let me just say that I haven't written or studied for anything in about TWO months, then add the fact that I genuinely keep forgetting that part of my being here is to get an education. On the other hand, classes here are very similar to Junior High or High School, with worksheets and attendance. The little town I live in is very quiet and usually by Thursdays I start to get cabin fever and a serious need to go downtown where there's people hustling and bustling. Interestingly enough, there are 2 movie theaters in Sevilla that don't dub their movies into Spanish [side note: when Spain was under the Franco dictatorship, a law was passed that all foreign movies had to be dubbed into Spanish] so Andrea and I went for a nice evening walk along the river and watched Steven Spielberg's War Horse. 


Our university's international student center really makes an effort in integrating us into the Spanish community by providing us with babysitting opportunities, going on 'field trips', joining the intermural soccer team, etc.  So on Friday morning we met downtown nice and early to catch some buses and go see the ancient Roman ruins of Italica. This little city is not very far from here, and the ruins are still in very good shape... considering that they are more than 2000 years old. Personally speaking, I think that one of the best things about Spain is that there were so many different cultural influences that didn't destroy each other's architecture but just accommodated it to suit their needs. So basically you have a mix of 4 different cultures in the same area. Not to mention that they built HUGE infrastructure back in the day with pretty much sticks and stones. The Italica excursion only took up the morning, so in the afternoon I joined the lovely Calgary girls and we had some lunch and beers out on a patio [side note: we got pooped on by birds... good luck?] and the rest of the day we discussed about what trips we wanted to take and looked into flights. Finally, we decided that we would go out on the town for the first time since we've been here. After dinner we went over to Calle Betiz (think 17th Ave) and bar hopped a little, probably not a good idea considering that Saturday was the big Carnaval day.


From what I heard on the news, Carnaval is the third largest festival after Rio de Janeiro and Mardi Gras, and it actually has a really long history. The Egyptians had a 'carnival' style celebration, and when they were conquered by the Romans the Romans liked the idea of it, so they carried forward and brought it to Spain. You don't just go to Carnaval, you have to be 100% mentally prepared for it, and that includes costume. We were the 7 deadly sins. As I mentioned before, for the rest of my life I will refer to Saturday night as the apocalypse, so I will not dwell on the specifics. The bus picked us up at 8pm, the drive was an hour and a half to the beach town of Cadiz (which is beautiful by the way) where there were probably thousands of people dressed up and partying it up on the streets. Honestly, for the first few hours I was really caught up in the festive mood, looking at all the great costumes and walking around, but by 2.30am I hit the wall, and everything just went downhill from there. There were no public restrooms, only a few select porta-potties, so the streets were to everyone's disposal. We got trapped in a street where literally everyone was pressed against one another. There were riot police. There were people passed out on the streets. The amounts of garbage was just something else. All of this combined with the fact that its kind of cold at 4 am, and that our bus wasn't coming until 530... not good. We have come to accept the fact that the Spanish are not big planners or concerned with efficiency, but if you have 40 buses and like 2000 people waiting for the buses, then its probably not a good idea to make the meeting time and place all the same. Common sense? Also, I was so put off by the lack of bathroom access that all I had to drink the whole night was half a water bottle of water.


So now its Sunday, and I got home at about 8.30am. The first thing I did was take the longest shower of my life, go to bed, wake up for breakfast, go to bed, wake up for lunch, go to bed, wake up again. Also, I might need to burn the shoes I wore last night.


Eighth lesson: Don't do anything like Carnaval ever again. The whole point of this trip is to be open to new experiences, and I am definitely not one to judge before I'm somewhat more informed on the issue at hand. So yes, I had an idea of what I was getting myself into, but I went with an open mind and found out it's just not for me. 

Andalucia

Seventh lesson: Everybody hangs their clothes out to dry, so whatever you put in the wash won't be dry for about 5 days. A fact I overlooked when I packed only one pair of winter pyjamas.


This weekend I took my first trip out of the city to explore the outlying towns and countryside of Andalucia (the "province" I live in). Together with all the Calgary girls from UofC, we set out bright and early Friday morning to the Renfe station (train station) for the 9:39 train to Córdoba. This town is most famous for its mosque/Cathedral aka La Mezquita. This building started out as a pagan temple like 900 years ago, and as different cultures invaded Spain they just simply converted it to suit their religious needs. When the Muslims were here for 700  years they went all out and made the building into a beautiful mosque, and when the Catholics re-conquered Spain they added a few wings to the building and made it their Cathedral. We arrived in the town we hopped on the #4 bus, because according to our hostel's website it would drop us off fairly close to them. Apparently not. We rode the whole bus route, for an hour, waiting for the street where our stop should have been. Instead we got a nice scenic drive around the city, went back to the Renfe station and took a cab to the hostel. The first thing we did was go to the Mezquita, which was absolutely amazing and absolutely freezing. It's crazy how all the Catholic and Islamic architectural styles are combined. After grabbing lunch and sitting in the sun, we made 'reservations' for the Arab baths. The concept for this is that you have to alternate between cold, tepid and hot pools. We got the student deal which also included massages. We killed a good 2 or 3 hours there, just floating and being quiet. For dinner, we went to a Moroccan restaurant and had some good couscous, and other dishes that Spaniards don't eat too frequently. We even got a belly-dancing show! Even though Córdoba is a small town we managed to find the busy shopping street where all the Asian dollar stores are, and most of us managed to find all the things we need for our costumes next weekend (Carnival).


Saturday morning we packed up and went to the bus station to catch the mid-morning bus to Granada. The drive through Andalucia is breath-taking. Some parts reminded me a little bit of California. But for the most part it was full of olive trees, and continuously rolling hills. The soil here is very red. We even saw a random castle on top of a hill, but that's not unusual in Spain, especially as you go further north. As we drove closer to Granada this GIANT mountain comes out of nowhere... covered in snow. We all unanimously said how much we missed the rockies. When we got to the city we immediately found some cabs, and headed to our second hostel. Between 3 or 4 people, cab rides were like $2 each. It turned out that the hostel we booked was in the Bermuda Triangle or something because the cab driver had no idea where the street was. We eventually did find it, after walking up and down the same street for 20 minutes. It was an unexpected surprise to see that our hostel was in fact not a hostel, but a floor that the owner must rent out on weekends. So we had a full apartment, with a living room, kitchen, etc. Our day in Granada was basically just a shopping day, all of us definitely put a good dent in our credit cards. With the mountain in the background it felt like we were in the Alps or something crazy like that. We initially planned to go out that night but it was so cold outside, we bought a couple bottles of wine and ordered some good old Domino's pizza. Proof that we were in the Bermuda Triangle.... when the pizza guy finally showed up he said he had no idea that place even existed.


Granada is famous for its Alhambra, or "fortress" built by the Moors back in the day. One of the girls (Andrea) had already been there, and I won a trip for March to go see it, so both of us decided it would be redundant to go again. While the other girls went to the Alhambra on Sunday, Andrea and I took a train to another town called Ronda. We were up and out of the apartment by 6 to catch the 6:50 train, and by 9:30 we were pulling up into the town. I really had no idea what to expect or anything because it was Andrea who planned it all and I just kind of tagged along. Ronda is basically the Spanish equivalent of Banff. Its a small town, you can walk anywhere. So we're exploring, find a fountain covered in icicles (proof that its cold here), then we find a sweet-looking bridge. No big deal, this bridge is like a million years old, massive, and in the middle of these CLIFFS that the town is built on. I still cannot get over how amazing it was. I have never seen anything like that before, and for some reason it reminded me of Lord of the Rings. Hands down, one of my favourite places so far.


We got back into Sevilla at around 2:30, and its so nice to be back "home" in "my" bed with all my stuff. After almost a month here I'm starting to feel less like a guest in the house. And the travel bug has bitten.... But at the same time... I miss steak, and central heating.

Yo soy Colombiana/Canadiense

Another week, another minor third degree burn to my hand. I remember the week that I left Calgary sitting in my house listening to everyone complain about how fun -30 weather is, and then bragging to everyone how I would be going to sunny Spain. It took me about 15 minutes to EAT MY WORDS as soon as the plane landed. Its slightly more humid in the Iberian peninsula, so although its 8 degrees celcius, it actually feels like 1 or 2 degrees. If its 12-15 degrees in Calgs (with no damn wind) you can definitely get away with just a t-shirt and jeans. Not so much here, you need a scarf, jacket and mitts. Hope that puts things into perspective for everyone. Guess who the jealous one is?
To put all your curious minds at ease, no I have not experienced the night life yet. Not because I have no interest, but simply because it takes some serious determination and travel time to get to/from the desired destination. Walking to the metro, waiting for the metro, sitting on the metro, walking to the club, then reverse that. The whole process (one-way) can take a good 45 minutes, then add heels, and the cold. It's definitely an adventure that will come sooner or later.
Yesterday I had a tourist excursion day with a couple of the girls from Calgary. There's actually a few things I hadn't seen yet, so it was great to just be shameless with our picture-taking.

1. Alcazar of Seville: This is the royal palace of Seville. The monarchs lived here at the time when Seville was the capital of Spain (I hope I didn't just make that up), and it was actually built when the Moors were in the city.
2. La torre de oro: This tower was a military watchtower, a prison, and now a cute little naval museum. You get a great view of downtown from there, and the wind is nice and cold.
3. Plaza de España. In 1929 Seville hosted the World's Fair, so the city built this grand plaza surrounded my a massive park. It has your standard massive fountain and majestic government buildings. It even has a small canal where you can rent paddle boats, cute!

Afterwards the girls brought me back to their apartment, drank some vino and made a FANTASTIC stir fry (I miss rice so much). They had been living in a hostel for 2 weeks while they looked around for a place to live. On Wednesday they finally got everything sorted out and moved into a 4-bedroom apartment downtown. It's a really good find, the kitchen is brand new, and its very spacious.

Honestly, this was a pretty low-key week. It gave me time to run some errands (FINALLY GOT MY BLACKBERRY WORKING), do my readings, get a general idea of where I want to travel and when. I'm looking forward to coordinating a trip down to Morocco soon, it would be a good time to go because the weather is still comfortable but warm. 

This morning I was in the mood for some scrambled eggs with toast and coffee; a nice change from my usual cheerios. Long story short, I burned myself with the hot pan in the exact same spot where I spilled hot candle wax a couple nights ago when the power went out. (Oh yea, that seems to happen when we have too many lights on apparently).
I have come to the conclusion that I should stop faking the Spanish lisp. First of all, it feels unnatural. Second, I think Latin American Spanish is prettier, because we enunciate our words and its not so harsh-sounding. There's no point pretending anyways because they all know if you're Latin American.

It's interesting how being surrounded by so many Americans makes you appreciate being Canadian. Most of them have no idea where Montana is, so its pointless explaining where Calgary is. You also get weird looks from the Spaniards if you apologize when you bump into them, or say please and thank you more than once in a sentence. 

SIXTH LESSON: Eating in public is frowned upon. For example, munching on an apple on your way to class will get you many weird looks. You never see anyone eating out on the streets. Ever.