Carnaval and Cordoba (Feb 4)

Last Friday we went as a group (through MCP Sevilla) to Cordoba for the day – we drove out by bus (a bit less than 2 hours) and were shown around by tour guides. I think our tour guide thought we were a lot worse at Spanish than we are- she enunciated demasiado and she had the annoying habit of repeating certain words she had said in English. The weather was cold and windy- not a bit of sun. We went first to the famous mesquita (“mosque”- though its no longer a mosque, its a catholic church, but they still call it a mosque) which was absolutely beautiful (but freezing cold). The majority of the building is filled with columns that have white and red double arches, giving the space the feeling of a forest. It is amazing to see mosaics with verses from the Qu'ran (sp?) right next to gothic arches and the quintessentially Muslim geometric adornments surrounding Jesus on the cross.


Right smack dab in the middle of the mosque is a huge opulent baroque cathedral; other bits had been done in a very gothic style, and randomly there are a couple of places that are completely neoclassical. This type of juxtaposition is pretty common in Spain I feel – when los Reyes Catolicos re-conquered the peninsula, they didn't destroy all the mosques, but rather they just made them all into churches, adding catholic elements to the arab buildings. The mesquita de Cordoba, however, is probably the most beautiful example I've seen so far.


The rest of Cordoba seemed completely deserted, except for some other tour groups. They sell absolutely beautiful silver jewelry there (didn't buy any though) and are famed for their good food, including salmoreja (a cold tomato-based soup similar in concept but distinctly different from gazpacho) and robo de toro (or something like that, I can't remember exactly, the point is that it's cow tail). We putzed around the city the rest of the day (I saw a huge stork nest on the
tip top of the steeple of a decrepit church, kinda cool) and then headed home.


Saturday night basically our entire program went to Cadiz for Carnaval. I almost didn't go at all (partying all night didn't really seem to be worth the 25 euros) but several people (Spanish people, adult people) said it was really worth going, that it was the most famous carnaval celebration in Spain, so I went. I've never seen so many people in costumes in my life. We saw cows, pirates, chickens, princesses (only male ones though), knights, gypsies, nuns, and several groups of people dressed in white body suits carrying large red circles, which is a reference to a tv station ad (Cuatro). I saw a pair dressed in overalls, one in red and one in green, and when I yelled out “Mario y Luigi!” they started singing the Mario music in unison – pretty funny. :-) We were approached by tons of well meaning (but definitely drunk) spaniards. Spanish is hard to understand when they're slurring their words.

Jeff and I are the responsible ones, keeping track of where we are.

A lot of people have pictures of drunken spaniards all making about the same face as this guy. The look on my face is pure terror.

I felt pretty safe though- the whole thing was very good natured, and I didn't see any fights. Hannah went as a pirate; I went as Mother Nature.

Hannah has her ¨Lewis and Clark pouch¨, como siempre jaja.

I also learned a silly song from the drunken spaniards in Cadiz, and now I have it stuck in my head. Huge groups would just start singing it and dancing about:

Alcohol
alcohol
alcohol, alcohol, alcohol
hemos venido
a eborracharnos
el resultado nos da igual

Alcohol
alcohol
alcohol, alcohol, alcohol
we've come
to get drunk
we don't care about the outcome [of the (soccer) game]

*disclaimer: this song is not meant to express the opinions of the writer of this blog

Quick review of Spanish History

Quick, basic, overly simplified review of Spanish history:

1. Romans (1^st century though 4^th century)

2. Muslims (~5^th century, more in the south of Spain than in the north, where there were christian kingdoms)

3. Christians (They took the last Muslim city, Granada, in 1492, and united Spain under one crown instead of the several small kingdoms that there had been before)

There's a lot more to it, but understanding those three influences really helps in understanding why the country is the way it is. For example, if you look at a map of Sevilla, it has the completely disorganized mesh of streets that (for example) Cairo has, because it was originally founded by the moors. The mudejar style, a mix of arab and christian styles, is something you see quite a lot, even in buildings that are quite new. Keep in mind here that when referring to Spanish stuff, I'm using “Muslim” and “Arab” pretty much interchangeably, because in Spain (at least when talking about the past) they're synonymous.

Overview of my program

So, I thought I´d write a short overview of what exactly I´m doing in Spain, for those who don´t know:

I´m in Spain for the semster (through June) through a program called MCP Sevilla, a joint program between U of M, Cornell, and Penn. There are 40-odd students, only about eight of which are boys. We spent the month of January taking culture and grammar classes, along with a discussion, here at the MCP Sevilla program center (the ¨center¨). Now we´re starting with new classes for the actual semester - my first classes with the center are today, and my other three classes (I have five total) start next week. I´ll be taking a latin dancing class too, which starts the week after.

All of us are living with host families, though many of the families are single women. Most students have roomates too - mine is Hannah Gluckstein, who happened to actually go to both middle and high school with me, though we didn´t really know each other. My family is really nice- we really lucked out. The parents are probably in their 50s (Meli, short for Emilia, and Ernesto) and they have four kids: Ana, Ernesto, Maria, y Rosa. Ana and Ernesto don´t live at home anymore- they´re in their late 20s. I share a room with Hannah, then Maria and Rosa share a room, and our new american host sisters Britney and Raquel share another room (they´ll be here through May). Ernesto (the elder, though the son is actually studying to be a cook too) loves to cook, so we eat like kings at that house, which is fortunate because a lot of people take exchange students just for the money, and try to save money by not feeding them too much. That is definitely not the case here. They definitely don´t seem like they´re doing it for the money- maybe its a bonus, but they seem to really like having all the kids around.

Sevilla is a city in the south of Spain straddling the river Guadalquivir. The weather here is pleasant, though it can get quite chilly at night, and apparently it will get unbearably hot in a month or two. I´m really having a nice time - I miss my family and I (sorta) miss engineering and I definitely miss Francis, but I´m learning a lot, and I´m glad I came. :)

Puente de Isabel II, which I cross a couple times every day

El fin de semana...... (Jan 28)

Friday was the last day that our compañeras americanas in our host house were there, so we went out to have a bit of sangria- but Hannah and I were tired, so we just came home at like 12:30, which is when all the spaniards are leaving. We´re actually getting two more american sisters this week. I´m really hoping they´d be willing to compartir the cost of internet with Hannah and I, because its a bit much for just her and I but between four it would be quite cheap, and then so much easier to keep in touch. This weekend I think Francis spent like 10 bucks to talk to me for a half hour total. :(

Yesterday we tried to watch the futbol game, but the tv at the bar we went to was broken, so we went to this random bar to just chat for a while, and we danced a bit but stopped because no one was dancing.... it was....fun-ish. Yesterday was nice though- we walked to the Plaza de Espana, this gorgeous plaza, to read a bit and chat with some of the other girls. I ended up going home and polishing off the book (in spanish no less!) that afternoon. :)

Cadiz! (Jan 25)

Today we went to Cadiz, which is about a two hour drive south of Sevilla, on the coast. They took us by bus- I listened to flamenco music all the way there to get myself in the spanish mood. :) First, we had a nice little tour of the old parts of the city- the tour guide seemed to know everyone, and brought us into the houses to show us the sea rocks they were made of and to explain that many of these three or four storey houses, which are now divided into maybe eight apartments, have to share two bathrooms for the whole building since the buildings are so old that they're difficult to retrofit. Cadiz also has a magnificent neoclassical cathedral – my pictures can't capture the feel of those soaring columns. The crypt was especially cool- it had a large, low, bowl-shaped ceiling which (quite creepily) echoed your steps perfectly as you walked below it at certain spots. Unfortunately, the cathedral is slowly decaying; our tour guide described it as a cancer in the stone, caused by the salty air and humidity. Que pena, because its really beautiful.

After our tour, which culminated in climbing one of the tallest towers in the city to see the view (there are lots of little towers on the tops of houses in Cadiz so that people could see when ship/pirates were coming in the time after the discovery of America, when Cadiz was the entrypoint to Spain) we decided to meander to the beach, first taking some time to go through the market and buy some sangria to drink with the bocadillos our families made us to eat for lunch. I tried sea urchin (yuck! after I had eaten almost all of it, they´re like ´´no, only eat the orange bits!´´ because the rest is mostly sand. ick). The beach was perfect- there weren't many people at all, and there were tons of little rowboats tied up in the little bay, with the alcazar of king something or other jetting out into the ocean. We sat and ate and chatted until we had to head back to the bus, buying ice cream on the way. It was lovely.

Francis called today – this whole not having internet thing makes it hard. I think about him all the time, and I hate not having a good way to get a hold of him! It felt great to hear his voice.

A long birthday......

Well, I'm in Barcelona now . . . for rather longer than I'd like. The flight from FRA to BCN was close to 1 ½ hours late, so of course I missed my flight. The information guy here told me that there are lots of thieves here at night, so I've put all my luggage in a locker (actually, I'm sitting here chilling in the bathroom – it feel safe ere, and its a bit quieter). I'm excited though- I'm reading the tour book and learning stuff about Andalucia (though its also scaring me because they're very clear that Sevilla's not too safe at night), trying to develop some sort of “to do” list in in my head. I hope I have the guts to really pull off this semester well! I just wish I was there, because then I would have already started- curse my sometimes overzealous frugality!

I hear women speaking frighteningly rapid Spanish here. I was comforted when i could understand the children on the plane (who were, by the way, ridiculously adorable – there's nothing like foreign 4 year olds!) but I'm pretty apprehensive about talking to actual people.

Anyway, I really should try to get some sleep. I'll be on my way tomorrow!

En Route

I'm still in the airport in Frankfurt. I feel as if I've been here for an eternity. It's 12:30 pm at home, but its 6:30 pm here, and my body tells me its more like 11:30 pm. After navigating FRA for a long time (somehow I went through passport control 3 times and through security twice) I'm finally at my gate to get from FRA to Barcelona. Its been delayed and they can't check my bags through to Sevilla - a double whammy meaning that I'll probably spend the night in Barcelona (erg). I feel bad - I'm late to the program. But I suppose its my own fault. I could barely sleep on the flight here - my head was too full, thinking of what life might be like in Spain, thinking about all the things that might go wrong and what I'd do if they did, and thinking about how desperately I wished I didn't have to end my call with Francis once all the passengers had boarded. Its different for my family - I can go a couple days without talking to my parents, but with Francis hardly a day goes by when we don't talk both at lunch and at night before, having nice long conversations about nothing. I'm getting the shakes - I need a hit! :) I was stuck with all my luggage all today, so I just sat at the terminal reading The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (which was really good), but now I've finished so I don't have an excuse not to write (hehe). Oh! I almost forgot - I'm 22 today! About now exactly, actually. Dad says I'm old because they had to buy two boxes of candles for my cake.