Buenas tardes (good afternoon)! I am tan, relajada (relaxed), and back in Sevilla after our amazing Tenerife getaway! For the first time after one of our trips, I felt like I could've used just ONE more day-- usually I'm so exhausted from site seeing and running around, but this was definitely the complete opposite.
NOTE: I began this post right when I got back from vacation, but I've been busy and computer-less por un rato (for a little while)... I'm sad that I probably won't be able to recall everything that I would've liked, had the experience been fresh in my mind, but I can definitely detallar lo más importante (recount the most important things).
So, where to begin? La ceremonia del alumbrado (the lights ceremony) kicked off Feria on Monday night, but we were even more anxious to get back to Los Remedios for the Tuesday celebrations. After speaking with our family, and conferring with Carlos, we figured it would be best to eat la comida at home and rest up before heading directly over. Laura and I weren't quite sure about how it would work with eating before squeezing into our tight trajes (outfits)... after all, the key (according to Ana's daughter-in-law) is, "no comáis, no respirés... y ya está!" (don't eat or breath and you should be OK!) In any event, we ate a little bit, and then the fashion show began! I would say that the getting-ready process was the most divertida (funny) thing to participate in and watch. The problem was that once you slipped on the dress, you were required to zip it closed somehow, and then you couldn't bend down to do anything else! Since quitándolo (taking it off) wasn't an option after expending the energy to get it on, the sight of us navigating the room was comparable to that of 10-year-olds competing in a potato-sac race. Laura helped me braid my hair and we threw on our tacky jewelry, ending it off with the application of dramatic maquillaje (makeup). After we had done all we could on our own, we went downstairs to seek the help of Sofia, Alfonso's wife/Alfoncete's mom. After a somewhat heated debate about where to place the HUGE flor (flower), we succumbed to tradition and let Sofia fasten it to the top of our heads with bobby pins and hairspray. We felt RIDICULOUS but deep down, we knew that this was how all the women wore it! Después (after), she helped me fasten my shawl in such a way that it wouldn't fall off, even though I kind of wanted it to-- in light of the scorching heat! Y por último (lastly), Sofia helped sew in a makeshift bosillo, a little pocket built into the under-ruffles of the dress, meant to hold money, camera, keys, etc. Most dresses come with a bosillo installed because no one wants to carry a bag around the Feria grounds. Once we were all set, we slipped on our zapatos incómodos (uncomfortable shoes) and presented ourselves to Ana and Manolo. I thought Ana might have a heart attack, considering I've never heard her "OY OY OY OYYYYY" like that before! So we definitely took it as a good sign, and went outside to the garden with Alfonso for a photo shoot!
Shortly after, we followed Ana's suggestion as took a stroll down to el Parque de Maria Luisa to take some pretty pictures and keep our eyes peeled for some outrageous dresses. This was probably the best idea, considering the walk there had already begun to brew blisters on our toes and we still had a way to go before llegando al destino (before getting there). We began to see the magnificent looking coches de caballo (horse carriages), all decorated with gold, carrying Sevilla's socialites. I took some pictures of mini versions of Lauren, who were also dressed in trajes that could easily cost 50 euros! When we were ready, we picked up and followed the crowd over to Los Remedios... I kid you not when I say it looked like the Great Migration that Cornell has for freshmen during orientation week, when you can neither spot the beginning nor the end of the line of hundreds of people heading in the same direction. This at least gave me the chance to snap some pictures of women's dresses from behind without looking like a crazy stalker/tourist. So we hopped on the line at one point and were there within quince minutos (fifteen minutes).
It's amazing how different the fair grounds looked during the day! While the physical setting wasn't as beautiful, considering the luces (lights) were just hanging there with the same feel that Christmas lights give off during the day (bland...), your eyes were completely distracted by the wealth of colors of people's outfits! Every color of the rainbow was present, though the style of the dress was pretty consistent from person to person. All over the place, families and friends were either flooding the streets or uniéndose (getting together) in their casetas for food and drinks. The vibe was definitely more relaxed, considering the bands weren't blasting music and people weren't dancing Sevillana, so it was cool to see the contrast between the festival at night and in daylight. Seeing the groups of kids around my age, give our take a few years, me recordó de (reminded me of) prom! After all, the weather felt like mid June and everyone was getting together to pose in their beautiful attire. Again, I tried not to creep people out with the picture-taking, so I made sure to be really discreet... We stuck around for a little over an hour, until Carlos got in touch with us to let us in on the plan for later... So, Laura and decided it was time to waddle (yes, at this point the dresses were feeling really tight and our feet were practically bleeding) home for a break. The first thing we did when we got home was get OUT of those dresses and change into something in which we could, in fact, respirar (breathe). Since we had a few hours before we planned to salir otra vez (go out again), we joined Vicky in the kitchen and had a snack... leftovers, our favorite!!!
We were ready to get dressed again when the time inevitably came, but i HAD to change out of those shoes into more comfortable ones as long as we would be on our feet the entire night. Carlos showed up at our door at around 10 with a bottle of classy wine and somehow managed to persuadir (convince) his friend to give us a lift... I later learned that this friend is actually one of the Abby's intercambios! "El mundo es un pañuelo!" ("It's a small world") I was RELIEVED, til I saw that his friend was driving the tiniest two-door, stick shift porsche. Just try to imagine the scene of us cramming into the car, trying to stuff in our dresses and taking care not to lose the flower on top of our heads. When it came time to get out of the car, we looked como si fuéramos (as if we were) straight out of a circus act...
Once our little group began to increase in size, Carlos led us over to his friends' caseta (I forgot what business/association sponsored it). He didn't have enough passes to get us all in, but the real party was actually going on right outside the tent! Most people were between the ages of 23-28, passing around pitchers of rebujitos and filling up your cup, even if they didn't know you. We made a lot of friends that night, notably Javi who was bouncing around like a maniac and making sure no one had an empty cup... "ALLLLL!!!!" as he said in his thick accent, policing everyone to ensure they were drinking the contents of their little cups. And a few cups later, Laura DEFINITELY had the hang of the Sevillanas dance better than any non-Spaniard present! While Carlos and some of the boys were still having difficulty entering the caseta, Laura and I kind of looked at each other, shrugged, and marched up to the guard patrolling our tent. All we did was smile, and he let us pass right in-- no questions asked! Go figure, right? So we took a seat for a little while at a table with Javi, giggling while our other friends were glaring at us. I think we have the flower to thank, honestly, because it really made us look authentic!
Memorable quotes from the time in and around the caseta:
"ALLLLLLLL!!"
"Si no apoya, no folla"
"Arriba! Abajo! Al centro! Pa' dentro!"
Sure enough, late night comenzó a convertirse en (began to turn into) early morning, and people were yawning and getting ready to go. Now, you can't forget that Feria, unlike Semana Santa, does not translate to a week-long vacation for everyone (really only university students and faculty, though people do generally adjust their work schedules). Laura and I were really the only students among everyone, so most of our friends needed to get home if they had any prayer of getting to work on time. After bidding everyone an "hasta luego!" (see you later!), the few of us that remained headed over to into another area where people were gathering in the streets. Sure enough, we ran into our good buddy (sarcastic voice) Scott. He's actually a year younger than us and is on a different program, but looked SHOCKED to see Laura and me dressed up. He made some sort of comment that he gives us a lot of credit because the girls on his program would NEVER get so into it-- well, jappy girls never cease to surprise me! But the truth was, Laura and I were actually starting to feel drained and we knew we had to be responsible to make our early flight to the Canary Islands the next morning... But in the time between saying bye to our friends and arriving home, we couldn't resist but to stop at a Chocolatería for some authentic churros con chocolate :) VERY delicious, and la manera mejor (the best way) to end an incredible experience at La Feria de Abril de Sevilla!
A few hours later, literally, Laura and I woke up to our alarm and pulled ourselves together for the day of traveling. This time around, we were determined to take the public bus to the airport, considering how expensive the cab fares are during la Feria-- i mean, they already start OUT muy caros (very expensive), so this would've just compounded everything. After taking the bus near our house to the main bus platform, and taking that bus to the airport, we arrived with plenty of time to spare and spent around 3 euros! We killed some time before the flight at a little coffee shop, deliriously laughing and rehashing the details of the anoche (last night). And before we knew it, it was time to board the plane... the flight was a little over 2 hours, but it kind of felt longer considering the child behind us who screamed bloody murder for the last half hour. Everyone was feeling uncomfortable and was wishing 4-year-old Pedro, as we undoubtedly learned his name, to hell. Pues, nada... (So anyway...)
Getting from the airport to the hotel was the next obstáculo (challenge). The problem is that all these flights land in the North airport, which would be fine if our hotel wasn't in the most southern part of the island! Taking a cab would've cost more than 100 euros, so that wasn't even and option. Instead of panicking, we asked around (I couldn't be more proud of our speaking abilities) and learned that it would take 2 buses to get to the main terminal, and we could easily navigate to our hotel desde allí (from there). The whole thing went pretty smoothly, we transitioned where we needed to and saved a TON of money. It ended up taking around an hour and a half or so, but valía la pena (it was worth it)! At the main terminal, we met a boy who was also studying in Sevilla who seemed kind of harmless but soon turned out to be big weirdo (socially inept, really clueless, dead weight). We were nice and we all stuck together until we got to our hotel, but no teníamos ganas (we didn't really want to) kindle a friendship any further.
Once we were all checked in, we took our key and went up to our room. Now, before we cracked the door we knew it was a 4-star hotel, but we were surprised they threw in a pair of nice Adidas sandals gratis (free)... and a few pairs of jeans... and shirts... and a suitcase. OK, they clearly gave us la llave (the key) to another man's room, and we had FULL access to his private life! Gritamos (we screamed) and ran out, trying to reconcile our hunger and exhaustion with this confusion and embarrassment. In the end, they fixed everything-- we didn't get anything free out of it, unfortunately, but we didn't feel like arguing because we were in PARADISE!!
It really hit us that our semester was coming to and end... we had planned this trip so long ago, thinking about how long we had to look forward to it and how much would be happening in the months leading up to it. And there we were! We didn't want any drama and just wanted to relax, so we quickly changed into trajes de baño (bathing suits) and headed out to the pool for lunch. The creepy boy from earlier was lurking and we kinda felt bad, so we joined him... he happened to be an excruciatingly slow eater and we couldn't sit much longer than we had so we said our good-bye's and headed over to the lounge chairs for the rest of the afternoon. It ended up being a gorgeous day-- the pool was quiet because it was mostly viejos (old people) vacationing-- LOTS of german and british accents to be heard. Also, we saw much more than we wanted to of some of these old wrinkly women who went topless, sin verguenza (shamelessly)... OY OY OY! Other than that, the actual pool area was GORGEOUS! When you walk out of the hotel, past the bar and tables, you see endless lounge chairs surrounding a huge pool... the pool was really pretty and had a waterfall! There was also another little area with a shallower pool, with chairs surrounding it, but this area seemed more private.
We stayed out until it started getting a little chilly and cloudy at around 7 so we packed it up and got showered. Since our package included la cena (dinner), we shuffled down to the dining room, only to be in HEAVEN-- the one in Mallorca was great, but this topped that by a million! There were so many options, so you could theoretically eat whatever you could have imagined. We took a liking to the make-your-own pasta station... you picked out the kind of pasta, vegetables, and sauce you wanted and a chef cooked it for you right there. We also walked over to the grille, where someone was making chicken, steak, and fish... and dessert was also amazing! After eating our way into a coma, we decided that we could either give into our exhaustion and go to sleep OR at least attempt the bar in the hotel. So we chose the latter… we heard there was some sort of discoteca sponsored by the hotel, so we followed the signs… only to realize that it consisted of a live singer performing in front of a room full of cushiony chairs, upon which a handful of old people were perched. En vez de (instead of) taking that any further, we sat down at the bar and made friends with the bartender (of COURSE). We weren’t as lucky as we were in Mallorca, though-- no free drinks. But it was at least some good speaking practice if anything. We also made friends with one of the hotel entertainers (organizes activities, etc.) He came in handy for looking up the title to a song we’ve been DYING to know since we heard it at Boss a few times. And then it was time to go to bed…
Which was una buena idea (a good idea), considering we were able to despertarnos temprano (wake up early) to set out our towels on lounge chairs before the crowd took over. It was pretty cloudy when we got out there so we went in for a leisurely breakfast… which, like dinner, was very impressive! While they offered a huge variety, we stuck to the make-your-own omelet station. Buenisimo!
It was still sort of overcast when we got out again, but we didn't let that ruin our morning. We decided to take a walk outside the hotel... Salimos (we left) through the back gate of the pool, which plopped us right on the boardwalk. Along the boardwalk was a reallllly long strip of other hotels and resorts, restaurants, and other tiendas (shops). We walked past a beach-pool, which was pretty cool, and eventually made it to the actual beach. Had the weather been nicer, I'm sure we would've set up camp there but it was kind of chilly without the sunshine. After a while, we headed back to the hotel... JUST in time for our entertainer friend's sangria demonstration!!! He called out to everyone on the pool deck and began a humorous presentation on how to make his famous sangria, which consisted of more alcohol than it probably should have. He was a crowd favorite, appealing to all the oldies, and he even gave us 2 cups (more than plenty). And by the time this was all over, the sol (sun) had reappeared!! We ended up spending the rest of the afternoon/early evening out by the pool simply because it was beautiful enough to! Just before dinner, the Cornell girls we had met up with in GIbraltar arrived, so our duo was expanded! It was nice to catch up with everyone and we went to dinner, and then called it an early night... we were drained from the sun... The rest of the trip was sort of a repeat of this sequence of events-- SO pleasant and relaxing to be able to sit back and not feel like you have to run to a million museums! One more girl from Cornell, studying in Sevilla, also joined us, adding to the party. She caught onto our routine really quickly! I think our favorite night was our last night at the hotel. Laura and I were feeling really deshidratadas (dehydrated), and went down to the bar with the sole intention of buying water bottles. But with out order, one of the bartenders started mixing something out, threw down 2 coasters, and serves us this great drink-- reminiscent of a mojito! "Es gratis, chicas" (It's on the house!) We ended up sitting down and talked to him for a while, going back and forth in English and Spanish. We were dying because their jefe (manager) was close by, kind of fiddling with the cash register but clearly eavesdropping on our conversation, actively nodding in agreement with some of our comments. He seemed like a tough one to crack, but soon he was also talking to us! And then another bartender came out from the back with another drink he had mixed up, gratis of course... being friendly really gets you far!!
Overall, this was definitely the spring break trip we were craving, and I don't think I'd change a thing! Por casualidad (coincidentally), we were on PEDRO the cry-baby's flight back home, and he did scream his head off the whole ride but we weren't going to let that discolor our overall great impressions of the trip.
Back in Sevilla, life went back to normal. Our teachers were giving out their warnings that we should try to come to every class from here on out, considering we could easily count the number of classes left... scary thought! I also experienced something at the university I've never experienced in my life: my poetry teacher FINALLY had the results from our midterms, and BOY did she let us know how disappointed she was. In front of a class of about 20, she started screaming, in Spanish of course, about how we are a bunch of disgraces and "no sabéis escribir" (you don't know how to write). She threw up our papers in the midst of her rage, and then the humiliation began... One by one, she called out the students' names, their grades, and gave them a personal lecture on the spot. Out of 10, kids scored 5.5 and below. She called a few students "lastimas" (pities), provoked tears and urges to run out of class, and told some kids they should drop the class-- because that's really feasible at this point, right? I felt SO bad for some students whose cheeks were burning red hot, and the dynamic of the classroom was very tense after the fact. I'm not sure how, but in some milagro (miracle), I managed to get a 9, but her comments were merely "buen trabajo, un poquito breve" (good work, a little short). Awkwarddd...
In other news, Laura and I still had one more trip to look forward to at the end of the week: Lagos, Portugal! We spent some time in the center, loitering around the Discover Sevilla office because we booked the trip through their company. We signed up for the optional sangria sailing excursion and bugged them to give us cool roommates, because the hotel rooms were designed for 4 people...
We actually spent a lot of time in the center during the week, thinking about it. Julieann was visiting Sevilla for 2 days so we tried a new restaurant our friends recommended: Los Coloniales. It was a delicious tapas place, and we ordered SOO much food to split... and the bill came out to under 10 euros per person, even after all we ate! After dinner, we went to La Carboneria to see some free Flamenco... we've been there a handful of times now, and the show doesn't really change, but it's still a lot of fun to go.
Towards the end of the week, my computer charger finally gave way after a voltage converter mix up... but I guess it wasn't SO awful because I knew we'd be away for the weekend and we'd have it cleared up by la semana que viene (next week)... little did I know my experience with Apple in Spain would be completel HOROROSO (horrendoussss and horrific)!! There is no official "Apple Store" in Sevilla, so I was sent to GoldenMac-- a company licensed by Apple to sell their products. They really have no idea what they're doing and caused more harm than good, but at least I have a computer!
OKKKK, I've said enough... next post will be about our adventures in Portugal and the CRAZY birthday week (Laura and Andrea) and end of class celebrations that followed.
FOTOS ASAP YAYYY!!!
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