lunes, 19 de diciembre de 2011

Final Farewells

A few weeks ago, Isabel told us about when her daughter studied abroad in England. "Is your father a bull fighter?" her host parents asked her. "Is your mother a gypsy?" After her daughter said no to both of these, the mother was very surprised. Later, she showed her a telephone for what she thought was the very first time. "You can call people with this," she explained to her. "I know, I have one at home," her daughter replied.

Now, when I left for Spain, I certainly did not think that every guy was a bull fighter and every girl was a gypsy. I also did think it was a third world country, as the British family that Isabel's daughter lived with seemed to think. Still, I did not know exactly what I was getting into and there was a lot that I did not know about Spain. Here I am though, four months later and Spain seems very comfortable to me. I have learned so much about their culture and I will never forget this experience.


After our final exam on Friday, we said  our final goodbyes to all of the teachers and everyone who would not be flying on the group flight. Our class of intermediate students bought a picture frame for Ana with a picture from our dinner at her house.

Saying goodbye to Isabel was definitely one of the hardest goodbyes. She said she was not going to wake up as we left because she did not like goodbyes. Instead, she just wanted to pretend like we would see her the next day and we said "hasta luego" (until later) followed by some besitos (the cheek kisses) and thank-you's before she went to bed. I will definitely miss her and how she definitely did everything she did for us with love.

For our final night on the town, we enjoyed one last Flamenco concert before heading to bed for two hours, as we had to leave at 3:30 to walk to the airport bus stop. The sleeping did not actually happen for me, as my mind was racing with feelings of happiness yet sadness.

After a quick flight to Madrid, we had what was supposed to be a short layover before getting onto the plane bound for Chicago. After we were all ready to go and on the plane, we got the terrible news that they found a problem with the brakes. We did not have to wait too long before this was fixed, but then we had to wait another 40 minutes before we could take off because of Portugal's fly-over restrictions. After the 40 minutes were up, we thought we were good to go. Wrong. Now there was a problem with the de-icer and we waited another hour and a half before we could finally take off.
I said goodbye to this as I walked over the bridge for last time.

So, after spending over 12 hours on the plane, we finally landed back in the United States. A lot of the students missed their connecting flights because of the delay, so it was a very hectic atmosphere as we said our goodbye's.

Overall, I am sure this semester will stick out to me as I look back on my college life. I have learned a lot of Spanish and hopefully I will find opportunities to continue practicing it. I am very happy to be home right now for Christmas and I can not wait to see all of the people I missed for so long. Thanks for reading my blog!

miércoles, 14 de diciembre de 2011

Christmas is in the Air

Walking around in Sevilla at night just got even more enjoyable. Now there are Christmas lights over almost every street, and each street has a different theme. It is a sign that Christmas is very near, and it also means that we are almost done with our semester abroad. 

The last couple weeks have been filled with "villancicos," or Christmas carols. First, we sang them at the Hospital de Caridad," where I had been playing bingo and dominoes every week. We sang what seemed like  20 carols for them, most of which were bilingual. The men seemed very happy to hear us despite our general lack of talent as a singing group.

The next week, we sang songs for the children at a convent at their Christmas party. We had bake sales throughout the year to raise money for the party, so we were able to buy all the kids gifts. In Spain, the main "gift givers" are the three wise men and not Santa, so who better to give the gifts than the three guys in the program? It was great getting to see the kids open what would probably be one of their only Christmas presents with such enthusiasm.

We also played a holiday-themed game with the kids. We divided into teams and then raced to blow up balloons as fast as we could. This was the easy part. Next, we had to stuff 4 balloons into each leg of a pair of nylons, which proved to be much harder than I would have thought. The point of this was that when you put the balloon-stuffed nylons on your head they looked like reindeer antlers. We had eight separate teams so at the end of the game, we had eight reindeer running around with their new, very floppy, antlers. 

I also got to see Isabel setting up her nativity scene, which seems to be a very big deal here in Spain. Several of the churches had signs advertising their nativity setup inside the church and there was a huge fair going on for the past month outside of the Cathedral that sold figurines for the nativity scenes along with any animal you could possibly want to accompany them.


lunes, 5 de diciembre de 2011

The Great Peacock Debate (along with some other site seeing)

Despite having lived in Sevilla for so long there were still a few must-see places that we still had not visited until recently. Therefore, we dedicated the last two weekends to doing just that.

First, there is the palace called the Alcàzar. Most of the palace is now open to the public, but some of it is still private so the royal family can still use it. The inside of the palace is yet another example of the Muslim influence from their reign in Spain. It has a lot of traits of the Muslim architecture including baths, mosaics and a dome. 

My favorite part of the Alcàzar, however, was the world of gardens outside the main building. If you are walking in the central of Sevilla, it is hard to picture where they would possibly be able to fit so many gardens right in the middle of a city, but they were there.  

The gardens are complete with a small hedge maze, waterfalls, fountains and, of course, peacocks. A fun fact is that peacocks in Spanish is "pavo real," which means "real turkey." There were peacocks all over the gardens, but  we also saw a cat, and we wondered if it would try to attack the peacocks. 

Thus sparked what has now become the "Great Peacock Debate." For the past week, Luke and I have been arguing with Mark about who would win in a fight between a peacock and a cat. The two of us are convinced that with a cat's agility, claws and teeth it could easily take down a "real turkey" after the initial shock of their huge feathers. We have been asking teachers, students, and senoras alike what they think about who would win, most of whom agree with us. However, Mark still thinks the peacock would win and the subject is sure to come up again. 

Despite tempers flying in the debate, Mark and I were still able to go on a trip together to Aracena, a small city about an hour and a half west from Sevilla. 

The most noticeable thing about the small town is that there is a castle on the top of a hill that you can see from almost every spot in the city. When we went up here, we could see everything including bulls that, are used in the bullfights according to Isabel.

We also went on a cave tour while in Aracena. The caves were beautiful and there were huge crystal formations all over along with some of the clearest water I have ever seen. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take pictures in the caves, but they probably would not have done them justice anyways. 

The final must-do thing that we did was climb the Giralda, the huge tower connected to the Sevilla Cathedral. It is kind of sad that we had not done this yet, but we were waiting for a non-busy Sunday, when it is cheaper. 

Upon entering the cathedral, we saw yet another breathtaking display of pipe organs, altars and Christopher Columbus' grave. After taking all this in, we headed to the tower and walked up 34 small ramps once used by men on horses to ring the bells, and finally arrived at the highest point in Sevilla. 

From the Giralda, we could see everything from the Plaza de Toros to the huge bridges along the river. I could have stayed up there for a lot longer than I did, but it was still an amazing site. We waited for the sun to set behind the mountains before making our way back down.

This week, we have yet another week of holidays, with classes only on Wednesday and Friday. I am going to try to make the most of it as it is the last week before exams and then my return.