Ronda, May 24th

Yesterday I went to Ronda, a city about a 2 hour bus ride from Sevilla. What a gorgeous place. Its a small town, not all that much to do there, and judging by the huge quantity of shops, restaurants, and hostels, completely geared toward tourists. The city, with its whitewashed walls and quaint flowers on windowsills, is built on a plateau which spans a dramatic gorge. The buildings go right up to the very edge of the cliffs, and the gorge is spanned by a dramatically tall and thin bridge.

We had heard from friends that you could hike down to the bottom of the gorge, so after walking the length of the city (not a very time-consuming endeavor) we found the stairs that go down by the old moorish muralla (wall) and started down a not very well worn path. No one else was there. The path was just wide enough for your feet . . . in some places. If we hadn't been determined to get all the way down we might have lost it at a couple places. It was an absolutely beautiful hike. A river runs through the gorge, and it looks like they had channeled the water out to the cliff side, so there were many waterfalls and ruins. And waterfalls on ruins. And ruins with running water in the basement. And shady ruins with windows overgrown with leafy vines lookinout onto the waterfalls of the gorge. Lots of combinations of ruins and water, in general. I climbed through a doorway that had a waterfall flowing over it at one point – I had my umbrella, but I still got quite wet.

We made it down to the bottom of the gorge and ate lunch – I explored a bit farther to find the actual river, and touched it so I could say I really had gotten to the bottom. Then we started back up, and we found another branch of the path that we hadn't noticed before, leading back up toward the bridge and the city. From above, I had noticed a man-made cut in the rock face, and I hoped it would lead us there. We climbed through even more ruins, and waterfalls (yes, through), and sure enough, we found the cut in the wall. Except it wasn't a path; it was a channel for the water to go through, with a maybe 14 inch man- made wall closing the water in. On the other side of the wall was sure death. DEATH. I'm really serious, it was extremely sheer, and extremely high- we were only maybe halfway or a little more of the way down the gorge wall. I was the last person in line (I like to poke around taking pictures) so I could see Terry and Mariam standing on that thin wall – I was so nervous, I really wished they'd come back in. Of course, they're like “Karen, its actually not that bad!”, but they couldn't see the entirety of that sheer cliff. Once I got out there I realized that it wasn't too bad – it was easy to ignore the cliff on one side since you could keep one hand on the wall on the other – but I still felt a lot better when everyone got back. I would never have forgiven myself if someone had tripped on a tuft of grass and fallen to their death. I actually feel kinda bad for going out there myself, since I'm (perhaps a little irrationally) terrified that Francis will die before we get married and there I was taking a risk I didn't have to take.

Anyway, I waded in the river on the way back in from the cliff side, which was nice, and then we headed back up to kill a bit of time on the quiet, pretty streets of Ronda until our bus left. It was a really great day, I'm really happy I was able go before I left Spain.

Performance of our play!

On Friday night we performed our play for my Teatro Hispanoamericano class. We did a play because our professor offers a performance as an alternative to a final exam, and he makes it clear that he prefers us to perform than to take a test (he said he tends to give high grades for the performances). We were a group of foreigners 6 americans, 2 french girls, and one german, doing acts 2 and 3 of a play called Trescientos millones (Three Hundred Thousand) by Roberto Arlt. I played the Rufian Honrado (the Honorable Ruffian), aka. the viejo (old man). I'm not actually very honorable, I'm looking into buying the daughter of the protagonist to bring her to my “school” (aka whorehouse).

Anyway, after a bit of stress sorting out the lights and coordinating with the group of spaniards and a lot of fun putting talcum powder in our hair to make it grey and lines in the creases of our eyes and a moustache on my upper lip, we started – I had to sit in the audience because I entered from the stairs, so I got to see the whole first act before I got on stage – it was pretty good, not great, and confusing (but then, its just a confusing play), but our professor seemed to really be enjoying it. I was really happy to see that a lot of our friends had come – I hadn't really expected them to come, so it was a really nice surprise.
Aaron had a bit of trouble getting through his long monologue at the beginning of act 2, but in general things went well! I got through my lines well (oooo I was shaking!), and afterwards several people told me they about died laughing when I went down the stairs onto the stage because I was doing this crazy old man walk with a cane, haha! Also, Hannah and Gaelle almost lost it on stage when I took my hat off and put it back on, because there was so much powder in my hair that the motion caused a big cloud to appear around my head, of course super obvious in the stage lights. In general I got a lot of compliments, it made me feel good #1 because I've never been in a play ever before and #2 because it sounds like the people who came to see us actually enjoyed the play, though they didn't really understand it. It was an awfully big relief to get it done.

Malaga, 25-27 abril

For our very last MCP Sevilla group trip we went to Málaga this last weekend. Málaga is a beach town, though ask any spaniard and they will screw up their faces in disgust: “Go to the beach in Málaga? Why would you do that?”. And truth be told, the beach itself is.....well, “nasty” is a little strong, but its just not all that great. The sand is pretty dirty, rough, and has a lot of soil in it, and the water is a bit dirty as well. This did not, however, deter us from spending all of Saturday on it, just taking in the sun, braving the cold water every once in a while, and chatting. The city itself, everyone agreed, has something California about it – it has a pleasantly chill beachy vibe. There's not that much to say about the city itself since I've seen so many cathedrals and alcazares and narrow streets now that its not longer surprising, though we had a really great time exploring the Alcazaba, an 11^th century muslim fortress up on the hill. There were a lot of little stairways and passageways to explore in it, and you can't beat free entrance on Sunday afternoon! In general I really liked Málaga – it has a beach, good weather, lots of palm trees, leafy parks, not too much traffic or noise, and a lively downtown.

The view from our hotel balcony

The crappy sand

A little arch in the Alcazaba.

This is the beginning of the end. I leave here on June 6^th , in about 6 weeks, just in time to get back for my cousin Sarah's graduation party. Part of me is relieved and part of me is sad. I want to spend 6 more months here and, at the same time, go home as soon as possible. This is what we like to call “wanting to have your cake and eat it too” – unfortunately its just not possible. :(

I'm kind of glad that I have so much to go back to, otherwise it would just be that much harder to leave. My home life is eating away at the edges of my mind, crowding in and not letting me live in the moment. I have so much to do when I get there – I start work full time the monday I get back, I need to find someplace to live in Ann Arbor next semester, I need to start looking into applying to grad schools and to jobs, I need to talk to my church about the wedding, I need to plan the entire wedding . . . I don't like having this sort of huge thing hanging over my head, and I want to get on it.

An average night in Sevilla

My bedroom window faces the Calle Pagés del Coro at the corner of Antillanos Campo, and on that corner there is a bar called Casa Anselmo. Every night I fall to sleep to the sounds of laughter and clapping in that bar, but last night was one of the more special ones. I was reading a book for a class and I heard singing outside – I looked out and there was a huge group of people, mostly women, waiting outside for the bar to open (I think it opens around midnight, and there are often people waiting for it). They were all singing jollily, and singing well, and clapping in rhythm – they didn't even stop when the bar opened, and they were clearly just so happy that I had to smile. I felt serenaded by Sevilla. Its a testimony to how people live here – these were not college kids or teenagers, and they did not appear to be drunk. They were middle aged adults out to have a good time till the wee hours of the morning, as per usual – keep in mind, this bar is hopping every night of the week until 4 or 5 am, and the crowd is always middle-aged. Its how they roll here.

I guess it wasn't very sevillana of me to be doing homework on a Saturday night, hm?

Francis comes on THURSDAY. I cannot express how much I want to fast forward the next three days, and then go for the next week on slow motion. That combined with the fact that its starting to actually feel like my family is coming, and I'm pretty happy!

Side note: I am currently the most tan I have ever been this early in March.

Granada: day 2

The next day, Sunday, was ALHAMBRA DAY. Unfortunately it was a little (a lot) overcast and chilly, but I was still excited. The students who are here for the whole year and have been to it before came again just because they wanted a chance to see it again. The Alhambra is actually not one single palace or fortress, but a kind of mini-city. It consisted of several palaces, workshops, and gardens to support the sultan and his harems, but only three palaces still stand. As per usual, when the christians took over, they tore down the original mesquita and built a church instead, and Carlos V decided to build a big fat renaissance palace right in the middle of it (which he never actually saw because he only came to Granada once in his life). Ironically, this is the same king who apparently was horrified at the gothic cathedral build in the middle of the mesquita of Cordoba.... We had a tour guide take us through, though I didn't get as much out of the tour as I could because I was too busy taking pictures (this happens to me a lot). We first went through the Jardines del Generalife, up to see the summer palace. Those gardens are actually quite new, but they're copies of gardens that used to exist in the Alhambra.

HEDGE DOORWAY IN THE GENERALIFE

CRAZY BUSH ROOM

You can see that the weather was kinda not so good, but I Picasa'd the pictures to make them look more like they felt (yay for the saturation option!). Past the gardens and in the summer palace is the Patio de la Acequia, which is absolutely gorgeous.

PATIO DE LA ACEQUIA

Next is the Jardin de la Sultana, which is striking because of the sheer noise of the water, and which has a 700 year old cypress tree in it where some sultan supposedly found his lover cheating on him.

JARDIN DE LA SULTANA FROM THE TOP. YOU CAN SEE JUST HOW MANY FOUNTAINS THERE ARE

Next, we walked back to the main boy of the Alhambra to go to the Palace of Carlos V and the spectacular Palacio Nazaries. I don't know if I can even really describe the Palacio Nazaries. Its described as the most brilliant Islamic building in Europe. What gets me is that the palace as it is now is not even close to what it was – its very well preserved, but when you see the intricate plasterwork that makes up all the walls you have to imagine it all painted in bright colors, and all the pictures I took of windows filled with intricate woodwork have to be imagined with colored glass filling all the holes. All the light that came in those rooms was richly colored, as were all the walls. I can't even imagine how spectacular it was.

THIS IS THE SORT OF THING THAT COVERS ALL THE WALLS

THE DELICATE COLUMNS OF THE PATIO DE LOS LEONES. THERE ARE 124 COLUMNS IN THIS PATIO ALONE. THE FOUNTAIN ITSELF IS NORMALLY SUPPORTED BY 12 MARBLE LIONS, WHICH ARE BEING RESTORED RIGHT NOW. LEGEND HAS IT THAT WATER WOULD COME OUT OF A DIFFERENT LION'S MOUTH EACH HOUR OF THE DAY

When we were done with our tour I felt like I wasn't really very done with the Alhambra yet, and luckily some friends decided to join me to go back through the Jardines del Generalife. I'm glad we did because the sun came out a bit and they were even more beautiful with a bit of light on them. There's nothing quite like that in the states – check out my pics on picasaweb (www.picasaweb.google.com/chameleon021) and maybe you'll get a better idea.....Granada was amazing.

Granada: day 1

Before I start, allow me to explain my fascination with Granada:

My parents went on a two week trip to Spain for their 15th wedding anniversary (I'm pretty sure it was the 15th). While we stayed home with my grandparents (a period I will always remember as paradise because Grandma would give us a little dessert after lunch – crazy! unheard of!), my parents were roaming the southern half of the country. When they got back, I was absolutely captivated by what they showed me and told me. I was particularly enchanted with my dad's descriptions of this exotic city Granada and it's grand palace the Alhambra – I really think that my love affair with pomegranates has a little something to do with the fact that granada is the word for pomegranate in Spanish, and my parents' description of that city just fascinated me so. There were two photographs in particular which I have had in my head for years, wanting to visit the Alhambra to see those places for myself. I found out a couple days before I left for Spain that those two pictures were actually of the baths in the Alcázar of Sevilla.......but that doesn't change the fact that ever since I was a little girl I have wanted to see this city and particularly the Alhambra.

We came in by bus on Saturday – about a 2.5 hour ride, I think – and got dropped off at a pretty swanky hotel. My friend Kristin is dating a spaniard, Pedro, who went to university in Granada, so he gave her a few suggestions as to where to go and she, Hannah, Natalia and went out to follow what we affectionately called The Pedro List. He led us well - it took us through the center of town (nice, lots of shops) and into some narrow streets filled with little stores that sold exotic-looking cloths, lamps, floor lamps, jewelry, sequined slippers with toes that curl up, and hookahs. We got a coffee at a plaza he recommended, then went past the catedral (a little hard to see because its so surrounded by other buildings) and through town to look for the famous teterías (teterías being places where you get tea – Granada is famous for having tons due to the arab influence in the city).

NATALIA LOVIN HER COFFEE WITH A MAD HATTERESQUE ENGLISHMAN IN THE BACKGROUND

I think a small amount of history is due here: Granada is one the largest southern cities in Spain, and it was the very last arab stronghold in Spain before the Christians took the continent. The taking of Granada in 1492 (yes, when Columbus sailed the ocean blue) marks the end of arab power in the Iberian peninsula. Hence, Granada has a very strong arab influence, and its most famous feature, the Alhambra, was built by the last sultan in power there.

Granada itself is fairly hilly, being built in a valley with steep hills on the sides. In the background are snow-covered mountains – apparently you can ski out there. We went climbing up the hill to find some teterías and got distracted by the huge quantities of colorful exotic stuff too look at. I mean, those little shops were truly beautiful – if only I could bring it all home, I'd decorate my room with the little floor lamps, pretty colored glass, little silver teapots, and blankets with mirrors sewn into them.


SHINY THINGS.....

It was cold and rainy on our way back down the hill, so we decided to stop at this rather sumptuous looking tetería on the way down. We were seated at a little tiled table with a big hookah and a candle on it and given the menu of teas - I decided to go for the “Paquistani”. They brought us each our own little silver teapot, with string wrapped around the handle so we could hold them, and colorful glass teacups. My tea was AMAZING. It was made with milk, and the leaves were loose in it so I had to be careful not to get a mouthful of them. Actually, each of our teas were really (I mean, really) good. It was a great place to sit and warm up and chat.

OUR TEA TABLE

After visiting the Plaza Nuevo, which is right at the base of the hill where the river (well....stream really) runs, and hearing some really cool street music, up up up the hill we went to get to the mirador de San Nicolas. It is a plaza at the side of a church (San Nicolas, coincidentally) which has a spectacular view of the Alhambra, which is on the top of an outcropping finger of the hill. At sunset the red bricks of the Alhamba are lit up from behind, but we were not fortunate enough to experience it, since it was by this time raining lightly but steadily. We got a beer by the church (it was called La Alhambra, but it mostly just tasted like a slightly less tangy Cruz Campo* to me)

MY FIRST REAL VIEW OF THE ALHAMBRA. ITS COLD AND CLOUDY, BUT YOU CAN STILL KINDA SEE THE SNOW COVERED PEAKS IN THE BACKGROUND. ISN'T IT HUGE?

THERE WAS A LOT OF INTERESTING GRAFFITTI ALL OVER TOWN– THESE CATS WERE EVERYWHERE. I'M NOT SURE WHAT THE HANGED ONE MEANS.....

*Cruz Campo is THE beer in Sevilla. Most places, its the only one you can get, and for sure if you just ask for a “beer”, thats what you will get, no questions, unless you are in a pub. I kinda don't care for it.

Flamenco

I just got back from seeing a flamenco show at Casa de la Memoria (House of Memories – sounds overly dramatic, no?). It was awesome. It was a thing organized through our program – 12 € for a pretty impressive show. I mean, thats not actually that cheap at all, but I still loved it, and I had already paid for it anyway.

The show was in the courtyard of a gorgeous old building in the city's historic barrio of Santa Cruz (I sound like an ad don't I?), with 2 rows of chairs lining 3 of the walls and a cascade of vines from above covering the fourth. They had fresh flowers and candles for decoration, and a stage in the middle of the courtyard. First, the guitarist and singer did a song, then they had the female dancer come out for a song, then a guitar solo song, and then the male dancer. I don't think I've ever seen a male flamenco dancer – its actually pretty neat – not like tap dancing or irish dancing in the least even though essentially its the same thing. Its distinctly....flamenco.....and also distinctly masculine, surprisingly. The dancer himself, however, wasn´t so much. As Hannah pointed out, he looked like some sort of love child between Fabio and Antonio Banderas - thin, dark, with curly black hair almost down to his waist.

When we left the place everyone was commenting to each other how much they liked it. I saw my (very american) friend Seth wandering out of the doorway, twirling his hands distractedly, like the dancers. He informed me that he's going to marry a flamenco dancer and that he had a man-crush on the guitarist's hands.

Today I heard two bands practicing at the bank of the river. Its kinda cool to walk along, the lights shimmering in the still water of the river, the Torre de Oro towering on the bank and the cathedral in the background, hearing spanish marches float out over the water. I expect that they're practicing for Semana Santa.