I feel like there are too many things that happen to my every day to write about. Even the 15 minute walk from my home stay to the school is an event in itself, trying not to get hit by a car or a motorcycle. However, yesterday was a particularly “bad” day, the only poor one that I have had since being here, in fact. My roomie and I are becoming good friends, and we love to stay up and talk at night. Last night was no different, and we only ended up sleeping for three hours before we had to wake up for classes. Ay, que pena. Yesterday, and for the next two Thursdays, we have excursions in groups through the city. Classes end early, and we go around 11:30 to different locations. I went to Alcazar, an ancient and beautiful Spanish fort, essentially. It’s like a walled city that was used during wartimes. It has both Catholic and Muslim influences in its architecture because of the changing hands that were in control during the 11-1300’s. The buildings were beautiful, but what I loved the most were the gardens. Hedge mazes, coy ponds, palm trees, orange and lemon trees, peacocks roaming free, everything was like a dream. Except for the fact that I was so tired and hungry that I was basically stumbling through it all in a blur, although it was a happy blur.
This is where things got…interesting. I left Alcazar with mi amiga, Mika, and we started to walk through one of the main plazas to head back to our homes, which are close to each other in the same barrio. We saw one of our friends, Britney, walking alone so we called out to her. She looked dazed and confused, and she was holding a small leafy plant in her hand. I looked at it and I knew that she had had an encounter with the gypsies. The gypsies here have a long history of displacement, and they have origins in India, Portugal, Morocco, Romania and Southern France. They speak a blend of Spanish and some other languages as well, and it is well known that they like to try and scam people in the streets and pick pocket them, especially blonde American girls, like Britney. The “gitanos” try to lure you in by offering you these plants. If you take one, they then try to read your palms. While one gypsy woman is holding your palms out, other are distracting you by murmuring all sorts of words in foreign languages. While this is happening, other gypsies, usually children, are robbing your pockets/purse. Unfortunately, this happened to Britney, and her camera was stolen. The police were no help at all, since this happens a lot, there really isn’t a whole lot that they can do about it, sadly.
Not only did Britney get robbed, but my roomie Ebony lost her diamond necklace from her boyfriend. We assumed for a while that it had also been stolen, however, we luckily found it under the dresser in our closet after tearing our bedroom apart.
In good news, I love my host parents and I am getting to know them more and more as the time goes on. I am learning so many new things from them about the culture here, as well as new words and phrases that I never knew before. I can’t wait to see how much I have improved in my Spanish 3 months from now. When I came home the other day, Flamenco music was blaring from our stereo and the two of them were cooking and dancing around the kitchen. I love how much they always love together. Que romantico. My madre, Tony, took Ebony and I shopping the other night to some of her favorite local places. It was nice to see the city from a local perspective, and it was the first time we went out with her to explore the city. She took us to a church that is specifically meant to pray to specific saints for your different wants/needs. She bought us the customary red candle, which you hold in your hands while you pray to the saints for whatever you so desire. Then you light the candle, and place it amongst the other hundreds of red candles that are glowing there, and dancing in the dark night. It was a beautiful site, and since I am catholic, I felt like it helped me get closer to my faith. I have a feeling that it will grow and deepen the longer that I am here.
It’s only been 8 days since I’ve been here. It feels like 8 months and I am not complaining one bit.
