Semana Santa Begins!

Saturday

                It was another rainy day in Sevilla. Why it would decide to rain frequently now after so many weeks without a single drop is beyond me. I don’t mind rain, but not now when it’s Semana Santa. Despite the rain, that really wasn’t very heavy, I ventured out to meet up with Paige. I bought a sweatshirt for myself that was rather an impulsive buy, however it was the cheapest price I’d seen so far and it said “I love Sevilla” which is the first we’ve encountered in Sevilla. I had previously believed they just didn’t sell sweatshirts here since I’ve been in many shops without seeing any. However, thanks to Paige’s diligent browsing through souvenir shops in her free time, we now both possess legit Sevilla sweatshirts.

                We had planned on visiting some more churches in order to see pasos, but they were all closed in the early afternoon, so we ended up watching some more Next Great Baker episodes while we waited for things to open up. Our second attempt at visiting churches, around seven, was more successful and we saw pasos in San Lorenzo, Jesús de Gran Poder, El Salvador and Capilla de Montserrat. We also tried to get into Magdalena because they were having a ceremony for putting the Calvary statues up on the paso and I’m sure it would have been really cool to see. Unfortunately, the huge church was so packed that we couldn’t even get through the doors and from our position trying to look in from outside, it was impossible to make out what was going on. So we split up to go eat supper and after were then going to try to go to a special Mass and ceremony at eleven for kissing the hands of the most famous Jesus statue in Sevilla, Jesús de Gran Poder. Concepción wanted to come with me so we met up with Paige at the church at ten and waited in line until the church doors were opened and then it was a mad rush to get seats. In a matter of seconds the church was full and we managed to snag seats in the very last row that didn’t provide the greatest view thanks to people standing in front of us, but it was better than nothing. After the Mass and the long wait in line to kiss the statue, we left the church around midnight and I was astounded to see that the line of people waiting to get into the church and kiss the statue wrapped all the way around the plaza. And so began the crowds of people and Semana Santa excitement.

                                                            San Lorenzo Virgin

                                                            Jesús de Gran Poder

                                                   La Borriquita

Sunday

                I went to a Palm Sunday Mass in San Lorenzo Church and instead of the palms that we receive in the U.S., we all got olive branches. The Mass lasted for about an hour and a half and I didn’t make it in time for a seat, so that was a little difficult, but standing for hours is going to become the norm with all the processions to watch. Once I met up with Paige, we went to Plaza del Duque in order to stake out a spot to view the processions, since the majority of them pass through Duque. However, the rain began an on and off type of game that caused four brotherhoods to cancel their processions which was quite a disappointment. Also, La Borriquita, which was the supposed to be the first procession and is of Jesus riding on a donkey, was moved back to leaving around ten at night with another procession called El Amor.  Fortunately the rain did stop after a while, and so we got to see San Roque, La Amargura,  La Borriquita and El Amor, plus La Estrella from a distance.

                We were lucky enough to get right up in the front for the majority of the processions we saw, and it made for a lot of great photo opportunities. I think I took over 500 photos, which was definitely too much and it will take me forever to go through them all. We ended up standing and watching/waiting from eight to midnight and the processions weren’t too far apart from each other, so it wasn’t a terribly long time waiting. Once it got dark, it was super cool to see the Nazarenos with their candles and especially the gorgeous pasos all lit up. One really exciting moment was when this huge paso of Christ stopped right in front of us in order for the costaleros (carriers) to switch out for a reprieve. When the men had switched out, the paso was lifted back up in a rapid jerk that was startling but impressive. The Nazarenos, the people wearing the outfits with the tall hoods called capirotes, ranged from adults to little children and in la Borriquita procession there were tons of children since that one was supposed to be in the early afternoon and be done before dark. The child Nazarenos and some of the adults would give out candy to the watching children and so all the little kids would stick out their hands every time Nazarenos walked by.

                                                             Paso from San Roque

                                                Paso from La Amargura

                                                Paso from El Amor

                                                            The last paso of the night

Monday

Since it is raining today, such a bummer, already some of the processions have been canceled. The only good thing about it is that I don't need to deal with the crowds to get to work, so I can leave around my usual time instead of close to an hour earlier. I will probably only be able to access the internet a couple more times before I leave, since the school closes this Wednesday, and I'm not sure about the plaza, depending on crowds. So this is potentially the last post until Italy. Exciting and sad all at the same time. Hasta luego.

A week away from goodbye...

Monday

                It wasn’t a bad Monday, and it was strange to think that it was already my last Monday with a full week of work ahead of me. I met with Carlos and we had a nice visit in a large plaza called the Alameda de Hercules. Then I used the internet, like always on Mondays. Work was really boring because all three check-ins that happened while I was there happened within fifteen minutes and the rest of the time neither Jaime nor I had much of anything to do. It was so slow at the hotel that Jaime told me I could leave at 7:30 if I wanted since there wasn’t any reason for me to stay any longer. It wasn’t exactly fun being bored out of my mind at work; however it was worth it to be able to leave early.

Tuesday

                I did some more plaza visiting again on Tuesday; this time to Plaza Nueva, which I frequent on a regular basis for the internet, and Plaza de la Encarnación. Plaza de la Encarnación is the plaza that has the setas that I visited on Sunday; however, while I was there I forgot to take a picture of the entire structure from down below, so I decided to return in order to get some pictures that better reveal the mushroom shape.

Aside from working at the hotel reception desk on Tuesday, I spent over an hour working in the administration office doing random things that needed to be done as well as a little bit of helping out Javier in the apartments. I didn’t mind a little variety at work since it helped to pass the time and it made things a little more interesting.

Wednesday

                I met with Carlos again and we ended up going to Triana which is a large neighborhood of Sevilla that is across the river from where I live in the center. We went to a church that I had visited on my first weekend in Sevilla when I went to a concert that Concepción was in, and this time the pasos for Semana Santa were on display. One of the pasos has the statue of Mary called Esperanza de Triana, which is very similar to the Macarena statue of Mary, and according to Carlos there is a little bit of rivalry between the two churches because of their similar Mary statues. We walked to a couple of different churches in order to potentially see other pasos out in preparation for the upcoming week’s events; however of the three churches we tried, two weren’t open at all, and the last one charged a three euro fee to enter so we decided against going in. It was neat though seeing the pasos for la Esperanza de Triana, especially because that is one of the most significant processions and takes place on Good Friday. The pasos for this procession leave the church at 2:10am and arrive at the Cathedral at 6:15am and finally return at 1:30 in the afternoon, the whole time each is carried by forty to fifty men that switch out every twenty minutes. It will be super crazy and there will be people everywhere, either watching or participating in a procession, because there are usually at least three to six going on at a time. I’m super excited to see as many processions as possible and I hope it doesn’t rain because rain in the forecast means no processions which would be a bummer, especially if it rained on the most important day of processions, Good Friday.

Thursday

                I decided to go visit the Basilica de la Macarena again because although I’ve been there twice before I always forget my camera. This time I went prepared and I was excited to see that both of the pasos were on display so it was a perfect time to get some photos. The two pasos for the Macarena are of the condemned Jesus and the Virgin. I wish I had time to visit all the churches before Semana Santa in order to see up close all of the pasos, because the ones I’ve seen so far are super ornate and beautiful, but alas, there just isn’t enough time so I’ll have to be content with seeing them from a distance during the processions.

Friday

                I only have three days of work left after today. It’s hard to believe how time flies. I felt like the internship would take forever and now I’m practically done. Once the processions start taking place next week it will make getting to work a little trickier since the hotel is on the opposite side of the main street that all the processions take. Carlos showed me a way to get across to the other side that seems achievable so I’ll give it a try on Monday. The worst that can happen is that I’ll be rather late to work.

                

Another weekend gone too fast

Friday Night

                We finally saw a flamenco show on Friday! The show began a little before eleven and the place was packed full of people so we were lucky to get a seat even though we arrived a good fifteen or so minutes before it began. There were three performers: a guitarist, singer, and dancer. It wasn’t my favorite type of music, but it was neat to see and definitely a good cultural experience. The show ended around midnight and as we were walking back we stopped to take pictures of the Giralda and Cathedral at night. It is a great view that I get to see every night when I leave work, and since I finally had my camera on me, it seemed like a good opportunity to get some pictures to remember it by. We decided to be impulsive and get some ice cream at a shop right next to the Cathedral because it was still open even though it was after midnight and the temptation was too great to resist. Plus it was a perfect way to end the night.

Once back at the apartment, I found myself stuck in the hallway because Concepción had tied the door to the TV/dining area (which leads to my room) shut from the inside with a scarf so the dog couldn’t get in and she was sound asleep with headphones in her ears. I tried uselessly to budge the door open enough to reach the knot but after several unsuccessful attempts I resorted to banging on the door and I even tried flashing on and off the hallway lights in the hope that she’d somehow see it. When I was about to resign myself to a night spent in the hallway, Concepción woke up finally and let me in. It’s probably a good thing that I don’t stay out late often, or else I’d more likely than not have that happen on a regular basis.

Saturday

                It rained all day Saturday. It wouldn’t have mattered that much, if it wasn’t for the fact that we had made plans to see the Plaza de Toros (bullfighting ring) and the gardens of the Real Alcazar (Royal Palace). We still went to see both since the rain wasn’t super heavy or anything, but it made for a dreary day. The Plaza de Toros was all basically in a covered area so that was nice and it was cool seeing Sevilla’s bullfighting ring and also small museum and chapel. The museum had some bull heads from famous fights, as well as paintings of toreros (bullfighters) and some traditional costumes as well.

                Fortunately, the rain subsided to an extent while were in the gardens of the Alcazar and so I was able to take a good amount of pictures without fear of getting my camera all wet. We had been to the gardens when we went on our earlier visit with CLIC, however, we didn’t have time to see all of it so we wanted to return in order to finish on our own. This time flowers were blooming and things seemed a little greener so it was more opportune for photos. There is also a labyrinth in the gardens which was fun to explore. Right as we were getting ready to wrap up our visit, the rain increased, so it was pretty good timing overall. 

             Then we headed to Paige’s place in order to watch an episode from the Next Great Baker since the rain made it acceptable to do something indoors. On the way we picked up some Napolitanos which are our favorite pastry filled with chocolate that we both have a weakness for. It made a great lunch, although I probably could have eaten a couple of them to be honest. Despite the rain I’d say it was a good Saturday.

Sunday

                We went to Mass at the Cathedral for the first time Sunday and because of some work being done on the high altar, Mass was held in the choir, opposite it. After Mass, which despite being in the Cathedral was still very short, we wrapped up our Spain souvenir shopping at a great little shop right along the busy Avenida de la Constitución. For a late lunch we made a return trip to Buoni, the pizza place that we found at the beginning of our stay, and this time I got patatosa which is potato pizza and actually pretty good.

                We then paid a visit to the setas, which means mushrooms, and it is basically a building of sorts that is in the form of giant mushrooms and has a museum, shops, conference rooms, and at the very top, a viewing platform. The view at the top was nice and allowed us to see the Giralda, Plaza de España, a ton of church spires, and other various structures of interest. After we satisfied our picture-taking desire, we indulged in a frozen yogurt treat that was perfect for a warm and sunny day. Sunday is the spring-ahead an hour day here, so it was strange how bright it was so late and even after I was heading back to the apartment at 8pm it seemed as bright as midday out. It will be strange getting done work every day now with the sun still out, but I don’t mind.   

Week 10

Monday

                Well I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary that’s worth writing about, just normal things like grocery shopping, using internet at the school and then work. It was a good but not impressive day.

Tuesday

                I accompanied Concepción to a couple stores because she wanted a second opinion on outfits for Semana Santa. First we went to a legit flamenco dress store because Concepción wanted to see some for the fun of it. If I had a couple hundred extra euros to spend, I would totally buy an authentic flamenco dress because there are so many pretty styles and patterns to choose from and it would make a great souvenir, but alas I do not have the funds for such extravagant spending. It’s crazy how every year a lot of women here buy a new flamenco dress just for the April fair. It’s too bad the fair is after I leave because it would be really fun to see everyone dressed up in their traditional garb.

                I decided I needed to do something cultural with my afternoon, so I finally went to the Museo de Bellas Artes (Beautiful Arts Museum). It has works from famous artists such as el Greco, Velazquez, Goya and Murillo, who happens to be the same Murillo that the hotel I work at is named after. The first part of the museum mostly consisted of religious paintings and I was especially a fan of a large room that had a lot of beautiful paintings of Mary by Murillo. The second half of the museum focused on Spain and particularly Sevilla, and exhibited a lot of works by native artists. I enjoyed seeing the museum and I think it was definitely worth the small entrance fee.  

                                                            Murillo!

Wednesday

                I did a lot of walking on Wednesday because I felt it was necessary to take pictures of sights in Sevilla. First I stopped in at a building that has on exhibit an ornate paso belonging to the Church of Jesus de Gran Poder. A paso is the structure that is carried during Semana Santa and holds the statues. I had already seen it on Saturday but I didn’t have my camera with me then. After that I walked along Avenida de la Constitución, which is a busy street that passes by the Cathedral, and I walk it every time I go to work. I took a couple pictures there and then went to Maria Luisa Park that is really pretty now that flowers are blooming and everything is getting really green. 

                                                  Semana Santa Paso

                                                 Large street I take to get to work

                                                  Pretty bridge in the park

                                                

                After taking a large quantity of photos, I had to head back to the apartment in order to get my laptop and go use the internet to register for classes. I couldn’t register until after 7:30am U.S. time which was 1:30 my time so it was fortunate for me that I don’t work until 4 and thus was able to register at the first moment. I got all the classes I wanted except for concert chorale because with that one I would have a total of nineteen credits, so if I want to add it I’ll have to get in touch with the music department. It will be a busy semester but I needed all the classes I signed up for so it’s all good.

                Paige had finished work early in order to register as well, so she met up with me and we went to Montaditos since it being Wednesday and all, everything was one euro. Unfortunately, it was super packed so we gave up on the idea and ended up going to McDonald’s because it was right next door and the next cheapest option for a fast meal. Then it was off to work for me, which was fine as usual.

Thursday

                Thursday was about as uneventful as Monday, so it’s not worth mentioning.

Friday

                I met with Carlos again and we had a nice walk in the sunshine while we mostly talked in English since the last time we spent mostly talking in Spanish. Aside from using the internet and going to work, tonight I’m going to at last go to a flamenco show. Most places that have flamenco charge thirty or more euros, and neither of us wanted to spend that kind of money on an hour or so show. In class we had heard about a place called la Carbonería that has flamenco for free so we are finally going to check it out tonight. I'll let you know how it was, when I post my weekend blog. Hasta lunes! 

                 

Cadiz and other stuff

Saturday

                I finally got around to visiting the Archeological Museum in Sevilla which was full of statues from bygone eras, that were neat but it seemed to take forever to get through all of the rooms. At least I can now check another museum off my list of things still to see. Then we decided to go to Cadiz on Sunday so we bought our bus tickets for there and back for 20.75€; which doesn’t seem like a terrible price for a day at the ocean. It was very nice day for walking around and enjoying the sights on a busy Saturday, and we certainly spent a good portion of time doing just that. We went to a 6pm Mass in a little church that had a choir of nuns, which was a pleasant change after normally going to Masses that don’t have any music.

Sunday

                It was lovely weather for the trip to Cadiz and perfect for relaxing on the beach. The bus ride was a little stressful though because right as our trip was beginning a spider crawled out on the seat in front of us and brave Paige flicked it away, but I was a little on edge for the rest of the journey, because where there is one, there are sure to be more. Darn old spiders. Anyway, once in Cadiz we walked to the Cathedral and climbed to the top of one of its spires in order to get a great view of the city and ocean. Then we went to our favorite Montaditos for lunch because there just happened to be one right next door to the Cathedral. Finally, we made it to the beach itself and spent an enjoyable couple hours napping in the sun. I brought sunscreen fortunately, but I still think I got burned a little. When it came time to say goodbye to the ocean, we took a few last parting photos because you can’t find a better background than sparkling waves. To motivate us for the bus ride back we went in search of an ice cream shop, but none were to be found. I would have thought there would be a ton of ice cream places in a beach city like Cadiz, but at least in the area we searched they were seemingly nonexistent. However, right before we were about to give up all hope of ice cream, we came across Burger King, and so ended up getting a chocolate cake fusion to end our day. Overall it was a very pleasant weekend, but as always it went too fast for my liking. 

Week Nine

Monday

                I didn’t do much before work other than walk around a bit and try to use the internet in various places. I was successful to an extent in Plaza Nueva, however, with the sun so bright it was nearly impossible to make out the screen, and so I eventually went to the school like usual.

 Work at the hotel was with David, the first person I had worked with. Fortunately it was a lot busier this Monday versus last Monday, so I had plenty of things to do to keep me occupied for the four hours. However, I don’t know if it was just because it was Monday or what, but we had a lot of unhappy clients over relatively little things. The majority of the unhappy people were American; the one exception was a Canadian. They certainly didn’t make us Americans look very good, with their complaints and bad attitudes and over things that neither David nor I could help, such as the situation of parking or room change availability. Well, I guess that is the life of a hotel receptionist.

Tuesday

I met for the first time with Carlos, the person that I’m doing intercambio with, which basically is to meet with someone outside of class/work in order for me to practice my Spanish and for him to practice English. I signed up a while back, but the first person who I was supposed to meet with wasn’t free the same hours as me, since I was still doing classes then.  My first meeting with Carlos went well; we walked to the river and just sat in the warm sun for an hour and a half chatting about random things like politics and bullfights. Carlos is strongly against bullfighting due to the killing of the bulls and although I kind of would like to see a bullfight because it is such a huge part of Spanish culture, I don’t think I’d like to watch an animal get slaughtered very much.

Work was pretty uneventful and I worked with David again. I began doing a new task that was a little tedious. I went onto a website for rating hotels and responded to the English and Spanish comments over Hotel Murillo. It wasn’t very difficult; however David had to do some correcting on my Spanish replies since I don’t always use the correct tenses, especially when it comes to using perfect tenses. There are just too many tenses to keep track of in Spanish.

Wednesday

I met with Carlos at the river again and this time we walked to Maria Luisa Park near Plaza de España. We had a nice two hour visit and I think it is definitely helping me improve my speaking skills by spending time talking in Spanish outside of just a work environment. Aside from that I didn’t do much else until work. This time I worked with Javier in the apartments instead of the hotel and it wasn’t bad, but overall there wasn’t really much for me to do but observe the majority of the time.

Supper was one of my favorite dishes, macaroni. This macaroni is similar to spaghetti and consists of tricolored noodles with tomato sauce and shredded cheese and it is delicious. I would be totally fine with having it every night, but so far we’ve only had it twice.  

Thursday

                Before work I went to Mass, sat in the Plaza Nueva for a little while, and talked with Concepción. I also am proud to report that I turned on the hot water myself for the shower for the first time. For the last few days Concepción has been gone when I get up, so I’ve had to have rather cold showers, which are not very pleasant. So she showed me on Wednesday the process of turning certain buttons and lighting up the furnace with a lighter and I was able to achieve warmer water Thursday as a result. It wasn’t very warm, but it was an improvement at least.

I worked with Jorge for the second time since I’ve begun. It wasn’t a bad day and I was able to help a lot with the check-ins. I’m already nearing the half-way point of working at the hotel. I’m excited to be done hotel work, but it will be sad saying goodbye to Spain.

Friday

                It’s finally Friday!  Thank goodness for weekends, that’s all I have to say. It has been raining on and off all day which is only the second time since I first got here two months ago. I met up with Carlos again and this time we had our visit at the University of Sevilla so that we wouldn’t get drenched from the rain. We had a pleasant visit, however the rain had picked up when we left so I was rather soaked by the time I reached the apartment. As long as the rain comes now instead of during Semana Santa, it’s okay with me. I don’t know if I’ll be doing anything special this weekend or not, maybe going to Cadiz. I do know that whatever I do, it won’t involve getting up very early, since this week I’ve been getting up before nine each day and I wouldn’t mind a chance to sleep in a little later.

Monkeys!! and other happenings...

Friday

                I don’t think internet connections like my computer very much, because I went to Starbucks in the morning and after settling myself in with a cup of coffee I tried unsuccessfully multiple times to connect to the Wi-Fi. I eventually gave up and went to the school to use the internet but it would be nice if I could find another place that worked as well.

                Work went well, but was super hectic. I had to do a lot more with checking in people and it was hard to keep all the information straight, especially after learning a bunch of different things with the computer and then trying not to mix up everything. I can only hope everything was done correctly.

Saturday

                I left Spain on Saturday to go to part of Great Britain with a group organized by the tourist company that I had almost ended up working for, Discover Sevilla. We went to Gibraltar which is located at the southern edge of Spain and is within sight of Morocco, Africa and is officially British territory. Once passed the border we split into four groups and went in minibuses driven by native Gibraltarians to get a tour of the most significant sights. Our driver, Ivan, explained to us how everyone speaks English and Spanish and often mixes the two into a form of Spanglish. Since everyone in our group spoke English Ivan gave the tour in English however he would insert some Spanish words here and there. It would be kind of fun to live somewhere where you grow up speaking two languages so fluently that you can easily switch between the two.

                Right at the beginning of the tour we had to stop and wait about five minutes during which Ivan informed us that we were waiting on a plane to take off, since to get into the city, traffic has to cross the airport runway. A road across the runway is just one of the many unique things about Gibraltar. We first stopped at Europa Point which provided a great view of Morocco. It was probably the closest I’ll ever get to Africa. At least now I can say I’ve seen three continents, if not actually having physically been in three. Gibraltar is where the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean merge together so I technically saw both at the same time.

                                                The Rock of Gibraltar

                                                Africa in the background!!

                Our next stop was at St. Michael’s Cave which is a large Cathedral Cave and is one of a hundred and forty caves that so far have been discovered in the famous Rock of Gibraltar. It was neat to see, but by far my favorite part of the day was seeing the monkeys that live on the Rock. The monkeys are semi-wild since they roam around freely however they all have been given shots for rabies and such so it is safe to be around them. Our guides warned us though that if you go after them and don’t let them come to you, there is a chance they’ll bite you. They are a species of tailless monkeys called Barbary Macaques that are the only free-living monkeys in Europe. Way back when a bunch were brought over to Gibraltar as pets from Africa, and I guess Winston Churchill said that as long as there are monkeys living on the Rock of Gibraltar it will be owned by the British. So when someone started killing off some of the monkeys, in order to ensure that Britain maintained control, thirty more monkeys were brought over and now there are  around three hundred. I really wanted to get a monkey to sit on my shoulder, like some people were lucky enough to have happen, but we didn’t have as much time with them as I would have liked and my attempts at enticing them to come to me were mostly futile. I did get some pictures next to them and right before we left one little fellow put his paw/hand (I don’t know what’s the correct term) on my shoulder. If we’d only had more time I might have had a great picture, but it was still fun anyway.

                                                            St. Michael's Cave

                                               

                                                My friend the monkey

                                                

                  Once back down in the city, we were given two hours to walk around in order to get lunch as well as shop. It was strange seeing signs in English (like God save our queen) and hearing people talking in British accents when it seemed like we were still in Spain.  I had to remind myself to order in English since after nearly two months of living in Spain I’ve become sort of used to doing it in Spanish. All too soon we joined back up with the group and made the two and a half hour trip back to Sevilla. I would definitely like to return to Gibraltar sometime, if only for the monkeys. Once back in Sevilla, we passed a group of men practicing for Semana Santa (Holy Week) by carrying the platform that will hold the statue or statues that are from their church. Back in the apartment, Concepción and I went out on our balconies and watched a band march past as they were practicing for Holy Week as well. This just makes me so excited to see all the processions.

                                                Semana Santa practice

Sunday

                After Mass and then ice cream, (for motivation), Paige and I had the exciting task of finding flights for after Spain. It was a little bit painful. We decided to take turns buying the flights so that we will hopefully even out how much we owe each other. I bought the one from Sevilla to Rome on Easter Sunday, and it was rather expensive, $373.25 for the two of us. However, the website we went through seemed to have problems with the payment, and wouldn’t send the ticket information until my card was approved, so I still don’t know if that one is a go or not. Then for Rome to London, it was actually a little higher I believe. Finally things started seeming a little better when we bought tickets for Edinburgh and Dublin, since both had prices for less than $100 each. I’m happy to report that I also now have my ticket home, since I finally bought it for $492. It is close to $200 cheaper than the one to Spain, so that makes me feel a little better about all the other flights, but only a little better. At least I will have about four months to work before going back to school, because I’ll certainly need the money after this trip. I can’t believe that I’m leaving Spain in less than a month now. Although the hotel work seems to drag on a bit, the time seems to be flying by otherwise.