Feria!!

Last week was one of the biggest festivals of the year in Sevilla!!  It was their annual Feria!  This is the time of year that they set up fair grounds and everyone goes out and dances!  During this time, there are tents that families or groups of people can rent for the week.  In these tents, there are meals and drinks served!  Most of the tents are private so you need to know someone to be able to get in but there are a few public tents as well! Anyone can go in the public tents.  Many women during Feria wear flamenco dresses and dance a fun "Sevillana" dance.  The idea of Feria started in the 1840's.  It started off as a livestock fair.  Today the only thing that is the same as the Feria in the 1840's is the horse and carriage.  There are a bunch of horse and carriages that are decorated and they take citizens to and from their tent to their homes.  At the front of the fair, there is a "portada," which is basically like the entrance to the Feria.  The design of it changes each year and they light the portada at midnight of the Monday of Feria.

Here is a picture of the protada lit up at night:

Here is an example of some of the typical flamenco dresses worn during Feria:

Here is an example of the decorated horses that are carrying a carriage:

We got a surprise performance of Sevillana in one of the public casetas!

We spent one day riding a few rides at the carnival part of Feria and we spent one on a tour of Feria!   It was quite a different experience but it was so much fun to see everyone dressed up in their dresses!  On the last night, there was a firework show and we went to that! It was pretty.

Adios!
-Kelli :)

Weekend in Valencia!!

We got up early and walked to the bus stop, rode the bus to the airport. We didn't have to wait long and the flight to Valencia went well. We picked up a map and wandered around and found our hostal and checked in. It was fairly nice, nothing special but clean and a bed for pretty cheap, with breakfast included. We had an Italian guy as a roommate, so that was interesting. We had quite the language barrier and he seemed a little weird, but it was alright and had the hostal experience. hehe We got some lunch and had some wine then walked around Valencia and saw some of the more modern architecture and the alameda, which was pretty. We went to a friends apartment who we met while they were visiting Sevilla a few months ago. They made us dinner and had a small party with some of their friends. On Sunday morning we walked around and looked at some stuff at the market on the streets. We even saw a cafe/bar named Nebraska!! Then we rode the metro to the beach. All afternoon we laid on the beach and took some fun pictures. We loved just laying on the beach and relaxing! We went our for dinner and decided to try something new, which ended up being little octupus-looking things, maybe squid? It was really chewy. Then we went on a bar tour with the hostal. It was really fun. We got to see a few different bars and try some different drinks! The next day we went on a walking tour of Valencia. We learned a lot about the history of the city and lots of the buildings. It was pretty interesting. We tried Horchata, a special drink of Valencia made with Tiger nuts and it looks kind of like milk. Then we got ice cream and walked around and sat in a park for a while. Then we rode the metro back to the airport and waited there. The flight back was the rowdiest flight we've been on. People were talking so loud, shouting to friends on other sides of the plane, getting out of their seats and walking around. It was crazy, but kind of fun. It was a great weekend overall and Valencia was very pretty!

~Morgan

Semana Santa

The 2nd-6th we did not have class for Semana Santa, or Holy Week. The whole city was transformed for this week before Easter. The churches make huge "floats", or pasos, with scenes that depict the last parts of Jesus's life. There is also another float they usually carry with the Virgin Mary with candles and an elegant cape. They are very intricate and detailed. It is sort of like a parade, but more serious. A band plays loud, moving music and there are many nazarenos wear capirotes, the pointed hats and walk along carrying candles or a large cross to symbolize repenting their sins and many in the processionals walk barefoot throught the streets, as well. Someone carries incense. Some children even dress up and walk, too, which is cute; and some of them pass out candy. Some of the processions last 14 hours! Starting Thursday some women wear black veils to represent mourning the death of Jesus. It is all quite expensive, so they do not go out if it is raining, which it did most days. We were lucky enough to see probably seven different pasos throughout the week. Some at night, as well, which was very cool because they rely on the candles. Here is a video of a paso close to our house. We got to see them exit the church, which was very cool. They have to bend down because the paso is too big! There is also a common food eaten during Semana Santa called torrija that we had to try. It is a little bit like french toast but it is made with honey, eggs, and milk or white wine. We learned a lot this week and saw a lot of new, cool things. It was a great thing to experience!

~Morgan

Portugal!

On Friday night, we were invited to our house sisters birthday party! She had a few friends over and had some food to eat.  It was really fun to be able to talk to some of them!  They even asked us to sing the National Anthem! HA! It was funny

The weekend of April 1st we went to Portugal!! We went with a company called We Love Spain so they organized everything and we just went along for the ride!  We left on Saturday morning and dropped our stuff off at the hotel and then went to explore the city!  This actually ended up being the only day that we could lay out :( so we took advantage of that!  We made a few friends too!  We had dinner with our new friends both nights!

We also went to this place they called the End of the World!! Many people thought that if you went off this coast that there was no other land, until they discovered America! Here we are at the end of the world:

One of the days we got to go to a beach where you could see through the water!! I have always wanted to swim in one of those, sadly though it was too cold to swim that day!! But heres a picture anyways!

When we returned back to Sevilla, we were greeted by lots of rain!! This was the first time that we had encountered rain in our time here in Sevilla!

Next blog we will post about Semana Santa or Holy Week!!:)

WOO!

Adios!

-Kelli :)

This week we have been continuing our studies at the University.  We have been busy keeping up with notes and homework and trying to improve our Spanish!  We have made it half way through classes! Also, since we have started classes we have not had to go to a full week of classes because each week there has been at least one cancelled!  This week we did not have classes on Thursday because there was a nation wide strike going on.  From what we gathered, there was recently a labor reform passed.  We don't know the exact details but we do know that it made it easier for companies to fire employees.  There were fliers and stickers all around the city and many of the city workers chose to not work for the day.

They have also been busy setting up for Holy Week next week.  They have put up many bars to create walk ways and sitting areas for the week.  We are excited to see what all is going on during Holy Week.  We do not have classes the whole week in observance of the holiday.

We also learned this week that instead of Friday the 13th being a day where the superstition says there is bad luck, it is Tuesday the 13th!  Kind of different!

Not too much going on here for the past week, we are excited for the upcoming month because we will be able to see a lot of the Spanish culture during Holy Week and during the Seville Fair!:)

Adios!:)
-Kelli!

Last Saturday was St. Patrick's Day, as you may know. One of our Spanish friends is like in love with Ireland. The people, the beer, the country. So, we met her and some of her friends at an Irish Pub. We got there they were already drunk, so that was quite funny. We drank Guinness beer (which is from Ireland) and they painted the Irish flag and a Shamrock on our cheeks. I got a hat that says St. Patrick's Day. Then we walked to Calle Betis which is this street with a lot of bars. We went one place and danced awhile. When we left we got churros con chocolate on the way home. It is sooooo goood!!!! We got home at about 3 am and that is considered kind of early here. But it was really fun and her and her friends were so nice to us. Plus it was so funny to see her so excited about everything Irish. Like one time she grabbed me and was like, help me find a really cute Irish boy to talk to here! haha Sunday we went to the Catedral...finally. It was so big and there were lots of different chapels/rooms. My favorite part was going up the 34 levels to the top of the Giralda and looking out over the city. We have also started doing Jillian Michael's "30 Day Shred" every day on the computer to hopefully get beach bods for Portugal next weekend! haha

~Morgan

Gibraltar and Beyond!

This past week we have just been continuing to be good little students and do our homework and go to class. We had two classes that were cancelled because the teacher was sick so that gave us a little bit of extra relaxation time :)!

On Saturday, we went on a trip to Gibraltar!  It is in the southern most part of Spain but it is a British territory.  We took a 2 and a half hour bus ride to get there.  We started the day off with a guided rock tour.  The airport that we got picked up at is the only airport where traffic has to stop when a plane is taking off or landing!  It was pretty interesting.  Our first stop was Europa Point.  At Europa point you could see Africa and another part of Spain.  You could also see where the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean meet!

Here is us at Europa Point, you can see Africa on the left and a part of Spain on the right:

After Europe Point, the tour bus took us to St. Michael's Cave!  In the past, the cave has been used for different kinds of things, but it is now used as a theatre!  Outside of St. Michael's Cave, we got to spend some time with monkeys!  Monkeys are popular in Gibraltar. They are Macacas and they are tail-less!  Although nobody is sure how the monkeys got to Gibraltar, they are quite a tourist attraction.  One monkey sat on my shoulder!!  One of the bus drivers helped lure him onto my shoulder and the monkey was eating sunflower seeds out of my hair!  Here is a picture to prove it: 

After St. Michael's Cave, we went to the Apes Den.  Here the monkeys were a lot more aggresive and there are very strict rules not to feed them or touch them!  We saw two monkeys get into a fight!  After all of that sight seeing, we went to the town center and had lunch with two girls from Pennsylvania!  

In Gibraltar, most of the people speak both English and Spanish.  Also, they used to drive on the left side of the road beacuse they are a British territory but because they are connected to Spain, it caused a lot of confusion which led them to switch to driving on the right!  Their monetary unit is Pounds but they also accept the American Dollar and the Euro.  It was a really great trip and we all enjoyed it so much!

 That's all for now!

Adios

-Kelli :)!