Carnavales, Discotecas y Setas

Since I left you last, I have had many weekend adventures. On Friday, some girls and I went to a discoteca called “Buddha” to get our first taste of the young nightlife in Sevilla. It was a very nice dance club, much nicer and cleaner than anywhere else I have been to in the states. It had four stories and the only word I can use to best describe it is…lush? It had an air of luxury, with rich golden colored tapestries, images and statues of the Buddha everywhere, and dim lighting with dance floors and disco balls on every floor. It was interesting to see how differently young people dress to go to the club here than in the states. It is still more dressy and formal in Sevilla, even during the night. All of the young men were wearing a dress shirt with a sweater over the top, some with jeans, some with khakis; and the ladies were wearing dresses or skirts but they all had tights on, and there was not a low cut shirt in sight. Modesty is valued highly here, and I respect that quite a bit. It shows that you don’t need to show off a lot of your body in order to look beautiful.

After we all parted ways to go home, I received a call from my friend and she told me that her host mother had locked the deadbolt at her house, which she did not have a key for, so she could not get into her house. Despite how many times she called and called her mother and rang the bell, no one answered. I told her to come over to sleep at my house, since she had nowhere else to go. I let her sleep in my bed, and I went upstairs to sleep in the guest room. In the morning, Ebony woke me up, and we went to meet her friend Rob, who is studying in the city of Grenada, which is only a few hours from Sevilla. His group came to visit Sevilla for the day, and so we went out for tapas with him at our favorite restaurant, and then we took him up the Giralda (the top of the cathedral) to see the amazing view from the top. After he left, I went home to get ready for carnavale. Carnavale is like a mix of mardi gras and Halloween, except it puts any American Halloween party to shame with its amazingly creative costumes. My friends and I all wore different colored wigs because we didn’t want to spend a lot of money on elaborate costumes. We took the bus to Cadiz, which is a city about two hours south west of Sevilla, on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. Once we arrived, it was chaos: people in costumes everywhere. The streets were crowded and packed with people of all ages. I didn’t really think that it was appropriate to have such small children there when there was so much drinking going on, but it is a part of their culture, so I guess they all grow up with it. We arrived in Cadiz at 8pm, and we didn’t return to Sevilla until 4:30am! It was much too long for me, because all there really was to do was walk around amidst the chaos and socialize with people and look at the various costumes. I thought that it would be more like carnavale in Brazil or Venice, where there are parades and music and cultural demonstrations. But Cadiz was just a pure fiesta. Needless to say, I was very glad to return home to Sevilla and sleep for a long long time.

Sunday, I spent the day sleeping and relaxing, as well as finishing up homework.

Today, Monday, I went to class till 1:30pm, then I came home to eat lunch and do my homework. I had a bit of a cultural misunderstanding with my host mom when I tried to hang some of my clothes out to dry off the balcony from my bedroom. She told me it was very impolite to hang my clothes there, and that I should do it on the rooftop clothesline that we have. I told her that I didn’t have the key to open the terrace door, and I had to hang my wet clothes somewhere. I apologized profusely, trying to understand how to make things right, and she showed me where the key was and I moved my clothes. It put me in kind of a bad mood because I don’t like to disappoint her, but at the same time I also didn’t understand how clothes on a balcony were so offensive. In retrospect, I know that I should have asked her before I put them there. At least I know now for the future. After lunch, I went back to school to use the computers and the printer to write an essay, then returned home to nap for a while.

However, the best part of my day, which made all of the other bad things worth it, was getting to hang out with my intercambio, or Spanish speaking partner, Paz! She is so sweet and she is so understanding with my Spanish, because she is also learning English. She took me out for ice cream and we walked all along the river together talking about anything and everything. It makes me feel much more confident that she can understand me, and very rarely has to ask me to repeat myself or clarify something that I have said. She is very shy to speak English with me, but she is definitely good at it! I want to help her get better like she is helping me with my Spanish. After we walked along the river, we walked back through the heart of the city, and then we went to this large monument of sorts called “la seta” which means mushroom. It’s a large white structure that is shaped somewhat like a mushroom, I suppose, and you can go to the top of it and see all of Sevilla. It is the most beautiful view, especially at night. And all the doubts and tiny pangs of homesickness that I had this morning fell away just like that when I saw the city that I have come to love, all lit up and beautiful. I can’t wait to hang out with Paz again, and I am so glad that I have a Spanish friend to show me around and tell me all about the city.

This week, the intensive period ends, and the continuation period begins on Monday, so I will be finished with the two classes that I have now, and begin three new ones. I am excited and scared all at once. I know that if I could handle these classes though, that I can also handle the new ones.

I hope everyone has a great week! I miss you all!