Monday was the longest day ever. It's bad enough that Mondays/Wednesdays are 7.5 hours of class... it's worse that I'm also subconsciously (unconsciously?) aware of it to the point that I've been sleep talking and disturbing the world at the worst hours. Definitely not ideal... But because we were watching a movie in my Propaganda class-- La lengua de las mariposas -- I decided to leave. We watched that movie in my actual Movie class the week before Semana Santa, and because Propaganda was my last class of the day, and I was hungrier than usual, I came home. And I'm glad I did, because I came back to the most BUENISIMO (DELICIOUS) new dish: Gazpacho. It's an Andalusian tomato soup, meant to be served cold, which is so perfect during the spring/summer. In fact, it was SO good that Manolo repitió (had 2 servings). Now, if you know anything about Manolo, it's that nunca repite (he never has more than 1 serving). It doesn't matter what it is, or how large or small his first portion was. And the running joke is that a pesar de (despite) Ana's complete awareness of this fact for years, she ALWAYS offers, "Nolo, un poquito más?" (Nolo [her affectionate name for him], a little more?) So the fact that he had two helpings this time spoke volumes, and showed that he's definitely mejorando (getting better) healthwise.
Monday evening was also muy divertido (a lot of fun) because I met up with my intercambio, the boy with whom I talk in both Spanish and English. His name is Alfonso and he's 22, and he is definitely very accomplished already! We walked for about 20 minutes until we plopped down on a bench, exchanging Spanish and English the whole time... the best thing about this kind of arrangement with a Spanish boy is that there is never a dull moment, an awkward silence... nothing of the sort. He ALWAYS had something to say, something to laugh about, something to ask. I learned that he is in his 3rd year of his carrera (his particular university program), studying aeronautical engineering (he lives in Sevilla during the academic year, but his home is actually in the neighboring town, Huelva). I didn't understand half the technical terminology he was throwing out there, but it certainly solidified the fact that he is muy inteligente (very smart)! Every once in a while, he stopped to check in, "me entiendes?" (do you understand me?) He explained that he has this grand desire to learn English because he sits on the executive board of a "congreso," a congress of engineers who travel internationally, presenting projects and ideas. He feels that sitting on the board of the Sevilla chapter has taught him a lot, but he wants to go even BIGGER-- this definitely puts on the pressure to learn some more English. Our expected hour together turned into almost 2, so he ended up driving me home so I didn't need to walk in the dark. Quite nice, right? So we've been talking via Facebook, and I think we're going to meet para cenar tomorrow night (Friday). It'll be nice because I've never really had dinner outside the house in Sevilla, because Vicky always takes care of that and I like being with the family. So hopefully this works out!
Wednesday night, Laura and I decided to take a walk on the wild side-- we went out the night before un examencito (quiz)! It's OK, it was for Art History. And I think when we told Ana we were planning to salir (go out), she was very encouraging of it! She did her classic pinch-fingers-together, raise-hand-to-bowed-forhead, "oy oy oy," gran sonrisa (big smile), so I would take that as approval. She has mentioned many times before that she thinks we need to be living life, taking advantage of the fact that we've had some beautiful nights to be out now that the rain has stopped. And, of course, "tiempo está volando." (time is flying)! We had "studied" plenty, anyway, and needed the break.
We didn't go anywhere too intense, but we were excited to be trying somewhere new: Cervecería Internacional (International Bar). The bartender was saying that this place has 250 different kinds of European cerveza (beer) from all different countries! Now, I HATE beer. There's really no drink I despise more, and usually I'd rather drink nothing than have a beer. But the bartender did an assessment and came out with the fruitiest of the batch and cracked open a cherry-flavored beer from Belgium... and I actually liked it! I also tried this nutty-flavored kind, which I didn't love so much, but I definitely exposed myself to lots of new possibilities, now that I know that all beer doesn't suck (just the gross kind that we have at school, and anything non-flavored). While we were at the bar, we met one of our friend's intercambios... he was an absolute riot and spoke English very well. We talked a lot about the big upcoming event: La Feria de Abril!!! During this week-long party, the men and women dress extravagantly in Flamenco attire and march through the streets, participate in flamenco performances, watch SPECIAL bullfights by the best masters, and line up for la Paseo de Caballos (local celebrities ride on ornate horse carriages). People are usually out by about 12, when the horse carriages make their way through the city to Los Remedios, and stay out til around 5 in the morning! The highlight of La Feria, especially according to our new intercambio friend, are the HUNDREDS of casetas--marquees with loud music and a bar. While some casetas are sponsored by public venues, the very rich "exclusives" pitch their own and have little parties... and our friend nos invitó (invited us) to HIS! YAY for feria plans!
Our new friend-- I may as well refer to him by his name, Carlos, also made it clear that we MUST show up looking our best, decked out in vestidos de flamenco (flamenco dresses). Now, I've seen pictures... these women go CRAZY. They go through the year saving up, some of them to blow a few thousand euros on a dress they will wear once. You can google flamenco-wear, but the idea is a very formfitting torso, and a skirt that flares and ripples below the waist. Some women wear long sleeves, others wear straps with ruffles. And the colors are also outrageous! They also wear HUGE pendientes (earrings), collares (necklaces), and big, bright flowers in their hair! Fortunately, one of Ana's grandchildren is just my size, and she offered (kind of coerced) me one of her dresses... it's definitely beautiful according to their standards, so I'm excited to wear it!! Laura still needs to find the perfect dress and I still need to accessorize, so Vicky offered to take us shopping. She knows of some stores de segunda mano (second-hand) that sell cheap dresses that have been donated. And if we don't have luck there, there are some great markets on Sunday "con montones de trajes" (mountains of dresses), in Ana's words. Sooo, "vamo a ver" ("we'll see" -- note: dropped the 'S' to be Andalusian).
Anyway... the art quiz ended up being more than fine. We ended up handing it in, and of course Judy made a comment to the effect of, "I'm going to miss you guys so much! Please make sure you send more students from Cornell!" ...right, then. Later in the afternoon, I met up with Andrea for coffee.. Unfortunately, Starbucks is the ONLY place that sells café con hielo (iced coffee) the way it should be, so we indulged. I think we had grown accustomed to getting kicked out of places for overstaying our welcome-- we could usually sit down for hours on end talking, to the point that restaurants usually need to inform us they're closing and that we can't stay. Well, not a problem in Spain where the waiters serve you and then ignore you until you go up to the cashier for your check. So we happily sat for 3 hours, thoroughly caught up, and took a lap around el Parque de Maria Luisa. She won't be here for the bulk of Feria, but she'll be back by Sunday so we can all meet up and watch los fuegos artificiales (fireworks).
All right, time for la siesta... I've been lazy with pictures, I know, but they'll be up soon! CIAOOO!
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