Where have the weeks gone? I can't believe Christmas has already flown by. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday with friends and family. I fear as always with this blog, I am playing a bit of catch up, so here we go!
Last weeks of the semester:
The last two weeks of the semester were a tad overwhelming. I'm used to final exams being spread out over a week's worth of days, but this semester they were compressed into 2 days. On top of that, each of my 4 classes had a final paper, also due on exam day. I powered through though, and now I can say that I am six credits away from being done with my spanish major! Yaaaay!
Final Goodbye's:
The end of the semester was extremely abrupt. Exams ended on the 13th of December, and the majority of the semester long kids flew out the very next day. The night of the 13th, pretty much the entirety of CIEE gathered at a well known spot along the Guadalquivir River to say one final goodbye. These goodbye's were some of the saddest that I've ever had to make. I've met so many lovely people this semester, and while we will all be back in the US one day, we are all so incredibly spread out, that it will make visiting difficult. Being in Spain has definitely made me realize just how big the United States is, and how little I've actually seen of my own country. Hopefully I will be able to visit some of the fantastic people I have met this semester. Sevilla is going to miss you all dearly, as will I!
Christmas in Sevilla:
On a happier note, I have yet to blog about Christmas in Sevilla! While the Christmas season is pretty much over in the US of A, Spain's Christmas season extends to January 6th (Epiphany), the day the wisemen came to deliver gifts to baby Jesus. In Spain, Epiphany, not Christmas, is the day that gifts are generally given. Here are a few of the other differences I noticed about Christmas in Spain vs. the States:
Belenes- In Spain, families do not put up christmas trees, but rather nativity scenes, which are called belenes. These nativity scenes are beautifully ornate and intricate. Near Seville's cathedral, a giant Belén market is put up where you can buy everything for your belén, including statues of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, donkeys and other livestock, carrots and cabbage to feed your fake livestock, guitars, moss, potted plants, and other shrubberies. It really is amazing how decorative these things can get.
Lights- I've seen a few big cities at Christmastime, and I can honestly say that no one does Christmas lights like in Sevilla. All the main streets had huge banners of lights that absolutely lit up the night. Palm trees and orange trees were lit up as well, definitely giving off a different Christmas vibe than back home. My pictures don't really do it justice, but here is Sevilla by night at Christmas:
Sevilla's government building, El Ayuntamiento
Walking along the main street by La Catedral
Lit up orange trees
Lit up palm trees
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire- Yes, literally on every street corner of Sevilla during Christmas season there is a man roasting chestnuts. I had never really tried them before, and let me say, they were quite a delight.
Christmas Goodies- Apart from chestnuts, Spain has many other traditional Christmas treats. Some of my favorites included turrón, rosco de vino and polvorón. Turron was an almond based sweet. There are two types, one being really hard and crunchy while the other was really soft and would melt in your mouth. Roscos de vino were essentially little donuts covered in powdered sugar, which were delicious. Polvorón was kind of like a shortbread, which is very crumbly and has a lot of cinnamon. Yes, the following pics are from google images, because I failed to take pics :P
Left- hard turrón, Right- soft turrón
Roscos de Vino
Polvorón
In general, I would have to say Christmas in Spain is much less commercialized. Yes, they have the lights and the treats, but stores and TV commercials were not as gung ho about buying buying buying. Christmas in Spain definitely focuses more on the religious aspect of Christmas. It was quite a different feel than being at home during Christmas.
Speaking of home, I arrived back in the States on the 23rd to enjoy the holidays with my family. I'm so thankful I was able to make it back for the holidays. It has been so great to get to see everyone and catch up. I'm here in the great state of Illinois until the 15th of January, and hopefully during that time I will be able to blog about the 6 days I spent in Italy before going home! Until then, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
Alright, guys. I am blogging instead of working on my 4 papers or studying for my exams which are all next week, so you better be proud of this commitment. Ok, who am I kidding, I'm procrastinating. :P I'll try to keep this post short so I can get back to legitimate productivity.
Last week was same old same old. Classes are gearing up for finals and the semester long kids are making preparations to leave Sevilla. It will be so weird to be here without them!
Last weekend was absolutely fantastic! My friends Jessica, Michele, and I flew up to Northwestern Spain, an area known as Galicia. We were in the town of Santiago de Compostela, the capital of this area which is known around the world for being a famous pilgrimage destination.
The apostle Saint James (San Santiago) is the patron Saint of Spain. Legend has it that St. James preached in both the Iberian Peninsula and Jerusalem, and after his martyrdom, his relics were transported to the town of Compostela. Ever since St. Jame's relics were placed in the Cathedral, it has attracted pilgrims from around the world. There are several different routes to Santiago de Compostela, starting in England, France, and Southern Spain.
The symbol of the pilgrims is a seashell. There are a few legends explaining why. One is that on route to Santiago from Jerusalem, his body fell off the boat and into the sea. It washed ashore completely unharmed and covered in scallop shells.
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The Cathedral was the highlight of Santiago. It is a beautiful building and it was astounding to think that people have been traveling here for hundreds upon hundreds of years.
Apart from the Cathedral, Michele and Jessica and I spent a lot of our time walking around the city, which is really easy to navigate. Santiago was magical. It had a really old world feel. Most buildings are made of stone and have moss and greenery overtaking them, which makes the whole city feel cozy and charming. We went to several beautiful parks and just soaked in all the greenery, which is lacking in Sevilla.
Michele knew a Spanish university student who lives in Santiago, which was great! It's always a lot more fun if a local can show you around and teach you about the city. We got to eat some fantastic Galician food, a lot of which is seafood because they are so close to the ocean. My favorite thing I ate was an octopus empanada. Since the octopus was mixed into a pastry, you didn't get the full on squishy texture, which is why I think I could stomach it.
Pulpo (octopus) in a storefront window
Our trip to Santiago, while cold, was so fun and relaxing. It was the perfect way to take a breather and chill before the last week of classes and finals. So much has to be done this week; it's a bit intimidating.
I have made one major dent in my pile of work, and that is finishing the 1100 page nightmare that is Don Quijote! Don't get me wrong, Cervantes is a literary genius. There are some brilliant ideas and themes hidden within this book, and I'm proud to say that I've read it. I'm also so incredibly relieved that it's over.
Reading Don Quijote was a lot of this:
Gah, do I have to?
And this:
ummm wat?
And this:
zzzz
But now it's over, and I can just put the book up on my shelf, and point it out to people and say, "Hey... look, I read that. Be amazed. :P"
Alright, I should really get back to studying. There is so much to be done in a week. I hope to make a blog post about Christmas in Sevilla sometime soon. The decorations and the food are amazing!!! Hasta luego!
I hope you all had a wonderful time celebrating with friends and family! My Thanksgiving was a little bit nontraditional, but it was an enjoyable evening nonetheless.
Explaining Thanksgiving to Spaniards was a little interesting. I could explain the historical origins just fine, but trying to explain what it means in general as a holiday was a bit harder, and I basically just summed it up as a day of gathering and giving thanks for the most important things in your life. Food was also REALLY hard to explain. I mean just think about stuffing. Also the word calabaza is used for any type of gourde, and I think some Spanish people thought that Americans make squash pie on Thanksgiving...
I still had class on Thanksgiving day, which felt a little strange, but mostly it just felt like any other week. It actually was weirder to see people's facebook statuses about Thanksgiving and going home and celebrating; I definitely felt very detached. Though not detached enough to not go out for dinner with my fellow Americans! My friends Rachel, Matt, Katie, Michele, Brett and I met up and went to the most American place we could find: TGI Fridays. Yup, they exist even here in Spain! The traditional Thanksgiving meal was a wee bit pricy so I got a good ol' bacon cheeseburger with a side of cheesy mashed potatoes. Quite classy.
'Murica on a Plate
I don't really like pumpkin pie much to begin with, so I split a chocolate brownie with Michele for dessert. Fantastic choice.
yummmm
Overall, I would have to say the food was a bit lacking (nothing can compare to home), but the company entirely made up for that. We had a grand old time, chatting, laughing, and living it up.
Study Abroad Family!
Since it is Thanksgiving, I figure it's the perfect time to blog about some of the food I've been eating here in Spain. My host mom, Macarena is an absolutely fabulous cook, and my goal is to learn some of her cooking secrets before I leave!
In Spain, the biggest meal of the day is not dinner, but lunch, which is usually served around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. Lunch at Macarena's house usually consists of salad, a HUGE plate of whatever the main course is, and a side of fruit or vegetables.
Here are some of my favorite dishes:
Lentejas (Lentils)
This might be my all time favorite dish that Macarena makes. It's a lentil soup with carrots, sausage, and sometimes eggplant. It's such a hearty meal, and I am always stuffed afterwards.
Pisto:
The best way I can describe pisto is like a Spanish version of ratatouille. It contains tomato, peppers, eggplant, zucchini. I usually end up taking second helpings of this dish.
Sopa Mexicana:
My host mother lived for 10 years in Mexico and learned a lot of fantastic recupes while she was there. She oftentimes just calls this blackbean soup Mexican Soup. It is AMAZING. It's served with a variety of toppings (onions, rice, parsley and meat)
Verduras con Aceite:
This is a side dish that is so simple but so delightful. All it is is tomatoes and cauliflower seasoned with olive oil and pepper.
Empanadas:
Macarena makes homemade empanadas, which is just a fancy name for stuffed bread. Some empanadas are made with tuna, some with chicken, some with cheese; it depends on the day. All are delicious.
Spanish dinner is usually served around 9 or 9:30 and is smaller than lunch. If there is dessert, it's usually fruit. I've grown fairly accustomed to having either orange or melon for dessert. And let me tell you, Spanish oranges put Florida oranges to shame.
Here is a typical Spanish dinner:
The omelette looking thing is called tortilla de patata, or tortilla española. It is kind of like a potato quiche. All it consists of is egg, milk and potato. Tortilla española fills you up really well and we have it a lot for dinner. The side dish is white beans with tomatoes and peppers all doused in olive oil (olive oil is used SO much here; it's great!) Also on the side is jamon serrano, or spanish ham. Spanish ham tastes strikingly different from deli ham in America and is much more salty.
And that's all I have about food today. Seeing as Christmas is coming up soon, and there are a bunch of traditional Christmas noms, I'm sure I'll be blogging about food again sometime soon!
So I'm trying really hard to not fall off the bandwagon with this blogging thing. The semester ends in about 3ish weeks though, so it's getting to be crunch time. Lots of things have been happening in Sevilla this past week, so let me give you the sitch!
Sindicatos = Labor Unions
While classes went on as normal with my study abroad program, most Sevillano students at the University of Sevilla had the day off on Wednesday due to a general strike that was taking place across Spain, Portugal, and Greece. The entirety of Sevilla shut down for the day. Stores and businesses were closed, public transportation was down, classes were cancelled, and thousands upon thousands gathered in the center of Sevilla to protest against the government.
Why such protests? Spain is currently in the middle of a serious economic crisis.(Warning: I really am not that knowledgable when it comes to economics; these are just my understandings from having talked to people here and watching the news) Many people have blamed the crisis on the banks, which have been giving out loans to people who could in no way afford to pay them back (remind anyone of the US in 08?) When the banking system started to fail, everything went awry, and people have become upset for a number of reasons. Large spending cuts have been made in education, healthcare, and general welfare. When considering the fact that Spain's unemployment rate is at 25% right now, 50% of that being young people under age 35, it is understandable that people are upset with these programs being cut or taken away. People can't find work, and therefore refuse to spend, which is a terribly hard cycle to break out of. People have come to blame the capitalist system in general and are demanding the resignation of the government.
Here's a short video that explains the crisis much better than I can. This video is about a protest that occurred in Madrid in September, but it explains the economic crisis and people's concerns well:
On Wednesday people surrounded Sevilla's government offices, protesting against all the recent cuts that have been made. I didn't really get to see much because I had classes, but I could see the damage that had been done throughout the city. New graffiti was everywhere. Many banks are covered with "fuck capitalism" graffiti, and stores that decided to stay open were also heavily vandalized.
Here's another video of the streets of Sevilla during the day of the strike:
Apart from Wednesday, the rest of the week in Sevilla was calm and went on as normal. On Friday I woke up to go to Barcelona for the weekend with my interest group "Other Realities of Spain," the same group which took me to Gibraltar! Barcelona, which lies on the coast of northeast Spain, is the capital of the province of Catalonia. The language of Catalonia is not Spanish but Catalan, a Romance language that sounds like a bit of a mix between Spanish and French. While the majority of the population is bilingual with Spanish, currently many people in Barcelona are unwilling to speak it due to the Catalonian Independence Movement.
Another big story in the Spanish news is Catalonia's desire for independence from Spain. Catalonia has desired independence for a long time, but the sentiment grew much stronger after Franco's regime, which largely oppressed Catalan culture. Coupled with the economic crisis, the desire for Catalonian independence is at a significant high point. While Catalonia would be free from Spain's economic troubles, they would no longer be part of the European Union if they became independent, thus losing all of the benefits (the euro, free transfer of goods, etc). It is an interesting story, and all of Spain is anxious to see what will become of Catalonia.
CiU, a political party campaigning for independence As you can see from the graffiti, not all are in favor.
Friday en Barcelona:
We got to Barcelona around 10am and after grabbing some lunch and getting settled in at our hostel, we pretty much immediately started exploring the city. One of the first things we saw was the Olympic Stadium/Museum. Barcelona hosted the Olympics in 1992 It was hard to believe I was just a newborn when these Olympics took place!
1992 Olympic Stadium
Castillo Montjuic
After the Olympic Stadium we took the bus over to Castillo Montjuic, a fortress built in the 1600's that has been used throughout the centuries. The views of Barcelona were beautiful, even though it was a fairly blustery day.
After leaving Castillo Montjuic, we commenced on a walking tour of the city. Compared to Sevilla (population around 700,000), Barcelona (a little over 1.5 million) felt HUGE. We first walked around the modernized part of Barcelona, which started being built in the late 80's, early 90's, as Barcelona was getting ready to host the '92 Olympics. I kind of felt like I was back in Chicago when walking through this part. It felt very modern, and the street that our hostel on was essentially the Michigan Avenue of Barcelona, with all its fancy shops and restaurants.
We eventually made it into the old historical center of Barcelona, which was definitely my favorite part of the city. We toured the two old cathedrals in the center, The Cathedral of St. Eulalia, and the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Mar.
The Cathedral of Santa Eulalia always keeps 13 geese in their cloister because St. Eulalia was martyred at the age of 13.
Santa María protects all
seafarers.
After the walking tour, we had the rest of the day to tour at our leisure. My friends and I went to the Picasso Museum of Barcelona, which was absolutely fantastic. Picasso lived in Barcelona in his early teens, and it was here where he completed most of his early work under the training of his father, an art instructor at the fine arts school.
Alright, I'm about to go on a slight art tangent about my two favorite paintings in the musem:
Ciencia y Caridad (Science and Charity)
This was Picasso's first painting which was well received by the public, and he painted it with only 15 or 16 years of age! The scene is of a dying woman surrounded by a doctor (science) and a nun (charity). It is kind of a depressing scene, but it was interesting to see nonetheless. It was much bigger than I expected!
Las Meninas:
Las Meninas is actually a series of 58 paintings done by Picasso, who was inspired by Veláquez's world renowned painting, Las Meninas. Velazquez was a baroque painter who painted for King Philip IV. This is probably one of the most famous works in Western Art. (I need to get to Madrid to see it!) Picasso, influenced by Velazquez recreated and reinterpreted this scene, invoking his style of cubism.
Las Meninas de Velázquez
Another Las Meninas de Picasso
Saturday's Gaudí Tour:
We woke up fairly early on Saturday for a tour of Antoni Gaudí's Barcelona. Gaudí is a Catalan architect who is famous for developing the style of Catalan Modernism, which is marked by the use of iron, ceramics, and the mimicking of nature.
Not even a block away from our hotel was Casa Batlló, which was built in 1904. People often call it La Casa de los Huesos, or "the House of Bones" because a lot of the architecture looks skeleton like. To me the facade looked a lot like mushrooms, with a super awesome dragon roof on top.
We then visited Casa Milá (1905), also known as "La Pedrera" or "The Quarry." This one was a lot simpler than Casa Batlló, but very cool. In Gaudí's work, there is no such thing as straight lines; everything is curved.
We didn't go inside either of these houses because it's fairly expensive to get in, so after looking at the outsides we hopped on the bus over to Park Güell, Gaudí's famous park, which is free to everyone!
Park Güell, (built 1900-1914) was originally going to be the house of the Count Güell, but it failed as a housing site and was converted into a park, which is fantastic because everyone now can see it! Gaudí's use of mosaic and ceramics is very prevalent, and it feels kind of like you entered a gingerbread wonderland. It was a lot of fun to walk around, although I wish we had gone earlier in the day because it was getting dark and we didn't have a whole lot of time to explore. This park is definitely a must if you are in Barcelona!!
Sunday at La Sagrada Familia:
On Sunday we concluded our Gaudí tour by visiting La Sagrada Familia, Gaudí's magnum opus. Believe it or not, the construction of this church began in 1882, and guess what? It's STILL not finished! That's right, construction has been going on for over 130 years. A lot of things have delayed the construction of this church. Firstly, it has mostly relied on private donations. It has been delayed throughout the years by WWI and II, the Spanish Civil War, Franco's regime, and other economic crises. The goal end date is 2026, which would be the 100th anniversary of Gaudí's death.
drippy sandcastle outside
cool forest ceiling inside
La Sagrada familia is a radical reinterpretation of Gothic architecture. When you tour it, you can definitely see the inspiration of ancient Gothic cathedrals, but it is done in a way that looks entirely modern. You would never guess that this was a project that got underway in the 1800's! My favorite part was the stained glass. The colors refracted everywhere throughout the building, which made the whole building bright and colorful.
After La Sagrada Familia, we had a quick lunch, and then headed off to the airport to fly back home! Barcelona was definitely a cool city to visit, and I'm so glad I got to go there with my interest group!
