23 June 2009

I can't believe it's been a month since I left Sevilla. 30 days that I've been home in the United States. "home." Sevilla was really starting to feel like home - when i traveled anywhere (like i did almost every weekend) it would always be such a relief to arrive back in Sevilla. I am glad to be home in the US but I miss that home. It's so hard to build a life somewhere and then be suddenly ripped out of that life and dropped back somewhere that somehow seems unfamiliar. To have your favorite stores, bus stops, ATM's, ice cream shops. To finally be fitting in with your new friends and being happy with them, and then to all of a sudden leave them, with the knowledge that I probably won't ever see most of them again, and to be shoved back into my old group of friends from home. I still love my friends here and it's finally feeling normal to be back with them, but at first it was akward - i didn't know how to act here. I still mix up which language I'm supposed to be speaking sometimes, especially in public places like stores and banks. I miss speaking Spanish a lot - around here there aren't very many opportunities to speak it and i just know I'm losing it. I read a book in spanish and i have a spanish movie to watch, plus I'm gonna write to Carmen and send a package to my kids (Pedro, Maria, Marta and Claudia) but it's not the same as speaking it all the time.

I wasn't necessarily depressed being home, i just felt (and still sometimes feel) antisocial almost, and reserved. The question "How was Spain?" still stumps me - it's either a one word answer, as enthusiastically as I can manage, or it's a month-long story. How can I possibly sum up so many events and feelings in one sentence? "Glad to be home?" is also a tough question. Happy to see Bennett, my family, my friends? Of course. But I miss my spanish kids and my API friends - sometimes I'm so overcome by missing them, and by the contrast between last month and this one that it brings me to tears, especially when I'm at work, endlessly scanning and shredding, with nothing to do but think. Think about my past semester, how amazing the opportunity was but how hard it was to leave after living there for so long. Think about this horrible rainy weather and how hot it is in Sevilla right now. Think about SJ and Julia and Steph and Ellen - and all my other friends from API. Think about how jealous I am of Coty that she's still in Sevilla, teaching my kids, and how jealous I will be of Em when she's adjusting to her new (temporary) life in my favorite city in the world this fall while I'm back in rainy Rhode Island.

It's funny that I never really experienced the whole culture shock thing arriving in Spain - obviously it was rough sometimes, but I never honestly wished that I was home and not in Sevilla. The adjustment back to US life was a lot harder. Certain things will always remind me of my past semester - ham sandwiches and motorcycle rides, early morning flights and late night bike rides home, laughing with Pedro and Maria and heart to hearts with Carmen, magnum ice cream bars and the smell of the streets during semana santa, tinto de verano and rebujitos at feria, slumdog millionaire and hiking up mountains, castles, monasteries, cathedrals and cobblestone streets. And so many more things that will forever hold a place in my heart. NO8DO - Sevilla never leaves you. It will always be home in a way and I can't wait to go back someday.

Thank you to my mom, dad, and nick, to Bennett, to my friends (especially Kelly, Brooke, Emily, Jackie, Beth, Amy, and anyone else who sent me letters and packages), to my family (Grandma, Eleanor&Tommy, Lynne&Tom, Jen&Andrew, Bonnie&Bill, and again anyone who sent me letters/cards). I appreciate your love and support through the whole experience, and for still being here for me when I came home to the US. Words can't even describe how amazing those 4 and a half months were and I will certainly never forget them.

<3

En Fin.

I leave for the airport in an hour to start my journey home. I can't believe it's already over.

the end

20 Mayo 2009

Yesterday was my second-to-last day teaching the kids and they told me they had a present for me. I was pretty excited and had no idea what it was going to be. Maria was asking me if my bag was longer than a meter and I was like um…I have no idea. Then later they come out with my present: a meter-long sausage. It’s called salchichon and it’s like salami only better. I had tried it at their house last week and said I liked it so they bought me a huge, good quality sausage. Then the mom was joking about making sure no one steals it on the way home and then Maria got all worried that someone was gonna take it from me! So I assured her I would use it as a sword to fight off all the sausage-robbers – and I have a series of pictures of us using the salchichon as a weapon. So now I have a sausage to pack up and put in my luggage to bring home! Only in Spain…

Anyways, today is my last day with the kids and I’m SO sad to leave them. I’ve been trying to do a lot of last minute sight-seeing here in Sevilla lately but it’s been a little hard with finals to study for. I have one last final tonight (which I should be studying for right now!) and then I need to finish packing and try to enjoy my last day and nights here. I have lots of pictures from the past week:

sight seeing + salchichon

other pictures

I can't believe I'm leaving in less than 3 days!!!!!!!!!!!!

NO8DO

Ecology Field Trip

16 Mayo 2009

Last Saturday I had an ecology field trip. None of us really knew what we were doing or where we were going or anything, so we were all a little unsure about how the day would be. After getting a little ecology explanation about rivers on the bus, we stopped at a little town for breakfast. The only option for breakfast was bread or coffee…so I got ice cream and a banana. Then we headed to a place called Cerro de Hierro for a hike in the countryside. The wild flowers were beautiful and it was an old iron mine, so there were some amazing rock formations. I took a lot of pictures (as usual) and it was actually a lot of fun. Our teacher is really cool, a little bit crazy but a lot of fun. We wandered around the rocks for awhile, had some tough climbs up slippery rocks (I cut my hand) and through caves/tunnels (I smashed my head on one and broke my sunglasses!). Then we stopped for lunch and all shared out food – I really like my class, we get along really well. I was glad we waited until the end of the semester for the trip. At first it seemed like a waste of one of my last days here, but it ended up being really fun. I like these kinds of field trips because I never would have gone to this random place to hike on my own but it was really beautiful. Then we got on the bus to head to a different place. One of the kids brought his guitar and my teacher plays harmonica so they were playing blues songs on the bus and then the kid started playing/singing songs that we all knew, like Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz, the Beatles – even some Britney Spears! It was really cool, especially when everyone sang along!

Our last stop was at this beautiful little waterfall called El Martinete, in the town of San Nicolas. We were so mad our teacher hadn’t told us to bring our bathing suits because some Spanish kids were swimming and jumping off a huge rock into the water because it was very deep. We were hot and it looked like fun…so another girl and I decided to swim anyways! We jumped off the big rock into the water, and swam around. Our teacher had said if anyone went in, he would, too, so he did! Eventually about ¾ of the class ended up in the water in various stages of clothing, haha. It was very fun and the Spaniards were all looking at us like we were crazy! There was one scary moment though – one of the kids was going to jump off but he hesitated and slipped near the edge – right towards the only rock in the water! Luckily he managed to grab onto a vine or tree branch and hang above the water for a minute until he was able to swing himself back onto the rock. He ended up being fine, other than a bunch of big scrapes, but it was really scary! It was such a fun day though, very crazy and definitely an interesting memory of Spain!

pictures!

solo queda nueve dias...

14 Mayo 2009

Wow, so I have 9 days left here in Sevilla. Single digits. I still can’t believe it went by so fast (I’m sorry if you’re sick of hearing me say that!). Right now I’m trying to figure out what I still want/have to do here in Sevilla before I leave. I have been writing lots of lists! I did go to a futbol game last weekend, which was really fun. The tickets were really cheap and it was a good game – I’m so glad I went because that was something I really wanted to do while I was here. Then we went to see my friend José at the bar where he works – I wish I had gotten to know him sooner because he’s really nice but I’ve only gotten to hang out with him like 3 times and it’s already time for me to leave Spain. It was a lot harder to make Spanish friends than I thought it would be. I mean you meet a lot of people when you go out somewhere, but then keeping up the friendship? That’s the tough part, especially because I feel akward calling people I don’t really know, although it’s a lot more normal here to call someone you barely know to hang out. I just didn’t get used to that concept fast enough, I guess.

I really want to start packing because I’m a little nervous about fitting everything but this room isn’t really big enough for me to leave huge suitcases lying around. I’m finally almost done buying things for people, just a few more little things to get. Today is my last day of classes here and then I have finals next week – 3 on Monday, 1 Wednesday, and my last one on Thursday. I’m hoping they won’t be too hard, but I’m planning on spending Sunday sitting out by the river studying. The weather has been a little nicer lately, not quite as blistering hot. I do have a sunburn from last week at the beach though – I was only there for like 4 hours and I put sunscreen on 3 times and I still got burned! The sun here is just so strong.

I also can’t believe I’m only teaching English 3 or 4 more times before I leave. I love those kids so much, I’m gonna miss them. Spending time with that family has been one of my favorite parts about my regular routine this semester and it’s strange to think I may never see them again, or at least not for a few years assuming I manage to come back to Sevilla relatively soon. And by that time the two little ones won’t even remember me because they’re only 4 and 5 years old. I always leave their house in a great mood and am sad when the hour lesson is over. And I get so excited when they actually learn or understand something – I didn’t realize I would enjoy it this much! I still need to find a way to keep using my Spanish this summer when I get home – any ideas?

As much as I don’t want to leave Sevilla, I am getting very excited to go home. I’ve been away for a long time and I miss everyone very much. I actually made a list of all the things I’m excited for this summer, haha. I’m looking forward to going home (although I still don’t really have a job…) and seeing my family and friends and Bennett – everyone should plan fun things with me this summer! I am potentially having a welcome home barbecue on May 31^st – I will let you all know the exact date, but you are all invited (by me at least, I don’t know about my parents, haha). See you all very soon I hope! Thanks so much to everyone who’s been reading this regularly and has sent me things or kept in touch while I’ve been here, I really appreciate it.

Here are some pictures from the last month – there may be more soon. Sorry this blog has been so rambly and all over the place – it reminds me of my old livejournal entries haha. Thanks for reading though! <3

pictures from May

FERIA

1 Mayo 2009

This week is La Feria de Abril (The April Fair) here in Sevilla. It is always 3 weeks after Easter, unless Easter falls really late, in which case it’s only two weeks after (the April fair has to be at least partly in the right month!) Sevilla is very famous for this fair, and for most people, it is probably the image they have of Southern Spain. For an entire week, people drink and dance all day and all night. The fairgrounds are in Triana, unfortunately very far from my house. One half of the fair is a collection of private tents called casetas. They are these big tent things, with real walls and decorations and everything. They all have a dining room area, a full bar and kitchen, bathrooms, and a dance floor. Most organizations have them, along with a lot of companies and families. In these casetas, people socialize with their family and friends while eating tapas, drinking rebujitos (a mix of sprite or 7-up with this type of white wine called Manzanilla), and dancing the sevillana. The partying literally doesn’t stop for 7 days, from the lighting ceremony Monday night to the closing fireworks on Sunday night. There is also another part of the fair that is like a carnival – tons of intense amusement park rides, games, and food booths, along with a circus.

My favorite part of feria is that everyone wears flamenco dresses! They are gorgeous and because they are all handmade, every single one is different (unless they’re matching on purpose, like sisters or mother and daughter). Along with the dresses, the women wear matching shawls and jewelry, with flowers and combs in their hair. They all look beautiful; I wish I could afford one of the dresses because I would have LOVED to wear one. Everyone from babies in diapers to old women wore the dresses – the little kids were absolutely adorable all dolled up! And the men all wear suits, some of them the traditional style – especially little boys! During the day, men and women ride around on horses dressed in the typical horsemen outfit, and other men ride on horses with a girl in a flamenco dress riding side-saddle behind him. It is SO cool to look at; I took so many pictures of the couples on horseback, as well as of random dresses, and lots of cute little kids! Other people, mostly families or groups of friends, ride around in decorated horse and carriages. It is a beautiful site to see, the first day I went it was so overwhelming, I didn’t know where to look! Between all of the gorgeous dresses, the carriages, the casetas filled with people dancing, the carnival rides…wow!

I’ve gone a few times this week since I got back from Greece (no flamenco dress, but regular dresses paired with a mtaching flowers in my hair) but my favorite was definitely Thursday. I called SJ’s friend José who I met during Semana Santa. He lives here in Sevilla so he was with a lot of his friends and it was very fun and very authentic. I had a little trouble finding him at first because there are so many people, I didn’t know my way around feria at all, and I couldn’t hear anything on the phone because of all the horses riding around! But eventually I found him and met some of his friends – they were all very nice and didn’t seem to mind my imperfect Spanish. First we went to José’s caseta for some tapas and rebujitos. The rebujitos are very strong so you only drink a small cup full at a time, but you definitely drink more than you realize because the cup is so little and it’s very sweet tasty because of the soda. We hung out there for awhile, and then José left to go home so I went with some of his friends to one of their casetas. We ate and drank some more, listened to some live music (his caseta had a full stage and sound system!) and I talked to a few of the Spaniards. It was definitely good practice for my Spanish, and one of them even wanted to practice his English so we talked for awhile. Two of the girls were dressed up in gorgeous flamenco dresses, I was so jealous! They were both very nice though and went out of their way to talk to me and make sure I was part of the conversation. Later we headed back to José’s caseta to dance some sevillana! I had learned it in my class, and one other night out earlier in the semester, but I’m still pretty awful at it – I can do the feet movements and the hand movements separately, but putting them together is impossible! I was able to keep up with one of the girls for a little while but it was hard! It was very fun though, the music is so catchy and everyone looks beautiful dancing – most of the little girls are much better at it than I am! I left not too late because I am still pretty tired from all of the traveling last weekend but I had a very fun night – I was nervous to call José because I don’t know him that well but I’m so glad I did, it definitely made Feria very real, just like I had imagined it to be! It’s so strange that I learned about Feria like 3 years ago in Spanish class and was like wow that looks amazing, I’m going there – and I did! I went and enjoyed myself – and I still can’t get over how amazing everyone looks in the flamenco dresses! Me encanta la Feria <3

Feria pictures

very shaky video of me walking around Feria

Me encanta Grecia!

28 April 2009

So last weekend was my big trip to Greece with Jackie! It was a pretty long day of traveling on Friday to get to Athens, but Jackie was waiting for me when I got there (with a sign with my name on it haha) and we headed to the bus station to catch the bus to Monemvasia. The plan was that we would head to Monemvasia (a small town in the southern part of Greece, where my cousin’s wife Georgia has family) and stay there from Friday to Monday, then head back to Athens Monday night and see the sights there for a day before flying out Tuesday afternoon. Well, we were unaware that the bus from the airport takes about an hour, and because of this we missed the last bus to Monemvasia by about 4 minutes. It was very stressful and we weren’t sure what to do. We decided to head to the hostel we had booked for Monday night and try to switch the reservation. This was a little difficult because we didn’t know exactly where the hostel was and didn’t have a map or a phone number. The phrase “It’s all Greek to me” finally made a lot of sense when we were trying to read signs haha. Luckily everyone we asked for directions was very nice and we eventually got to our hostel. We were able to get a room no problem, so we dropped off our stuff and walked around. We did some shopping, got some ice cream, and then walked up to the Acropolis and the Parthenon. They were closed for the night, but they looked very beautiful all lit up and it was really cool to just walk around. The area around our hostel was very cute, lots of people out in cafes and restaurants, very full of life.

The next morning, Saturday, we got up early and headed over to the bus station to make sure we wouldn’t miss it this time! We got on the bus at 10 am for a 5 and a half hour bus ride through Greece. It was very long and stopped at pretty much every little town along the route, but luckily the countryside and the coastline were gorgeous and entertained us for most of the trip. Sometimes it seemed a lot like Spain, with the olive groves, orange trees, etc, but other times it was very different, like all of the mountains along the coast. And it was definitely a big change for Jackie from the flat Netherlands! We finally arrived in Monemvasia, about an hour after I had told Georgia’s cousin Lary to meet us (oops) and he took us to Georgia’s grandmother’s (yia-yia) house. Lary spoke English very well but yia-yia not so much. It was interesting trying to communicate because Jackie and I literally did not know a word of Greek when we arrived (I now know maybe 6 or 7 haha). I also don’t think she completely understood the gluten-free thing, even with the explanation I printed out in Greek, but I did not have a problem eating – the first afternoon, a delicious and HUGE meal of chicken and potatoes and salad was waiting for us – the two of us probably ate enough food for a family of 4 or 5 but it was amazing. That evening we just walked around the little town and sat down by the water – it is the cutest little town (only about 700 people live there in the winter!) and out in the water, connected to the mainland by a thin strip of land, is this huge rock island that has lots of ruins on it, as well as a very small, old town. That night a few of yia-yia’s friends (or cousins?) came over after dinner, which was fun. They are all very sweet old ladies, and one of them actually spoke a decent amount of English, which was a nice change and we were able to talk a little more – I felt bad not saying a lot during lunch with yia-yia but there’s only so much you can say with such a big language barrier – hand gestures only work part of the time, haha. She did show us a lot of pictures though, I enjoyed that a lot.

Sunday morning we got up and went to a Greek mass with yia-yia. Jackie and I were very confused and just tried to follow along by standing up/sitting down and crossing ourselves (3 times) whenever the people around us did. It was a beautiful service though, pretty much all singing, and we found out later that it’s all in Ancient Greek so a lot of the townspeople don’t even understand it! Later, we called Lary to take us on a hike up to the castle and ruins on top of the island (this will make more sense once you see the pictures, if I can ever get them uploaded!). He took us on his motorcycle over to the gate of the town and then we walked through the lower town and up along the path to the upper old town, with a beautiful old church and lots of ruins. Finally we made it to the very top and were greeted by the most incredible view of the town below, and of the mountains and sea in the distance. It was unreal being up so high and having such an amazing view of everything surrounding us – it might be one of my favorite views from this semester. We took a lot of pictures and relaxed up there for awhile, before heading back down to the town. Then Lary showed us the one access point from the town down into the sea, called the portello. There’s even a ladder to go swimming, which we planned to do the following day. Then we went back to yia-yia’s for lunch, which was my favorite Greek food – LAMB! It was so delicious, accompanied by some really yummy rice. Once again we were stuffed but it was so good. Later we walked along the coast, trying to find a good place to swim. There aren’t really any sandy beaches (apparently to Greeks, anywhere you can swim is a beach!) but we found this spot along the rocks to jump in and swim around. The water was cold and very salty, but it was exciting to swim in the Mediterranean! We hung out on the rocks for awhile, took some more gorgeous pictures (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of the rock and of the town!). Later that night, we did a little shopping in the town and got some ice cream, once again just sitting down by the water and enjoying being in Greece.

Monday we awoke to not so nice weather, but we still went out walking around. We decided to venture up to the lower old town, even though it was much too cold and the sea was way too rough to swim. But we had a good time exploring the old ruins in the town and doing a little more shopping/browsing in the cute little shops. Then we got some tea in a cute café overlooking the sea and of course, took a bunch more pictures. That night we walked around “downtown” again and headed in for an early, last night in Greece because we had to get up very early in the morning.

Tuesday morning we got up and said goodbye to yia-yia, and headed down to catch the bus at 5:15 am. Both Jackie and I were very sick for about the first hour of the 6 hour bus ride, but we made it to Athens and headed to the airport. Jackie’s plane left at 3 but my departure wasn’t until 5, so it was a very long wait for me seeing we got to the airport around noon. My plane ended up being delayed so I had to wait even longer, but I finally left for Madrid and got a decent amount of sleep on the plane (I love window seats and sleep masks). We even got fed on the plane (yay for not cheap airlines!) and unlike on the way to Athens, I could actually eat this meal, even though it didn’t taste very good. Finally arrived in Madrid and had to wait another hour for my flight to Sevilla, where I arrived around 11. I had to wait for my bag that I had checked, and then wait 30 min for the bus before I finally got back into Sevilla. I then waited for the bus back home for about 25 minutes, along with a bunch of women dressed up in beautiful flamenco dresses for feria, until we realized that bus wasn’t running. So finally I got on a different bus and made it home around 1 am – about 20 hours of traveling! It was a very long day but very worth it for a trip to Greece – overall I had a ton of fun and loved Monemvasia. It is such a beautiful place, the people are so nice, and it was very relaxing. A big thank you to Georgia for helping me stay with her family, it definitely made the trip a lot more special and much more authentically Greek.

Pictures will be coming soon, along with another update later this week about Feria! (the big April Fair here in Sevilla)

Athens and Monemvasia

more Monemvasia