the weekend in greater detail...

well, after a not-so-perky weekend post, i have returned today with smiles and a happy heart, because my weekend ended up being pretty great, all things considered.

thursday night, chelsea and i met up with one of my intercambios, dani. dani is a lawyer in sevilla and he speaks very good english. we met up at the mall and went and ate tapas together. it was actually pretty enjoyable. we talked about spain and traveling (i was absolutely appalled to learn that he has never traveled to barcelona. i mean, he´s a native SPAINARD and he´s never been there!!!) and he was incredibly jealous to learn about all of my plans (which, as of today, include a trip to london and hopefully dublin the first weekend in december!). anyways, it was a good conversation. i enjoy hanging out with both my intercambios, because it´s nice to get a perspective on spanish life that isn´t from a professor (who are mostly older) or my señora (who qualifies as a senior citizen). after returning home, we crawled into bed because we had to wake up at 5:00 am for our trek to morocco.

amazingly enough, we woke up on time and walked all the way across town to meet the bus--a brisk, hour-long walk. it was interesting to be in the city that early, because hardly anyone was out. we hopped on the bus and took off for the coast. when we arrived at the port of algeciras, a terrible storm was pounding the coast. it was pouring rain and the winds reminded me of a hurricane--palm trees were blown practically perpendicular to the ground. i could hardly believe it! we entered into the ferry station around 9:30, and found out that the 10:00 ferry was cancelled (much to our dismay). we decided to wait and try for the 11:00 ferry, but that too was cancelled. we watched in horror as ferry after ferry was cancelled, and our fabulous trip to morocco faded. finally, around 1:00 pm, our guide informed us that the ferry company was going to buy us lunch at a nearby hotel (we hadn´t had anything to eat all morning). we grabbed our coats and headed out into the rain. it was pretty ridiculous. the wind had blown down several trees and a couple of fences. there was a main building right off of the ferry station that had some scaffolding. the police had roped off the entire building as a hazard, and we had to walk all the way around the block in order to enter the hotel for lunch. lunch in the hotel was a relief. the food was decent (i enjoyed the vanilla mousse most). while sitting in the restaurant, we could hear the wind howling and see the ocean--a complete mess of white caps. after lunch, we rushed back to the ferry station to see if the port had opened. finally, after waiting around until 3:00 pm, we heard the announcement that no boats, not one single boat, would be leaving the port that day. yikes. we were all really disappointed, and our poor guide had to scramble to figure out what to do with us. he finally got in contact with someone from the school, and we had to wait while a bus drove all the way down from sevilla to algeciras. we arrived home around 9:00 pm, making our journey to the ferry station and back a whopping 14 hours. it was quite the adventure, what can i say!

me and my friend liza being blown around in the horrible wind outside the ferry station at algeciras.

i was pretty sure that chelsea would actually blow away, and i was glad when she didn´t. here´s the ferry station, where we spent our entire friday (i have few fond memories...)

chelsea and i woke up saturday morning to a terrible wind. rain was pounding down on the roof so hard that it actually woke me up (a huge feat). i went to look out the window, and the sky was an eerie shade of yellow, and i suddenly panicked and tried to remember everything i knew about severe weather (aren´t yellow skies a sign of an impending tornado?). anyways, the storm woke chelsea up too, and we snuck downstairs hoping to catch some information on tv. of course, spain doesn´t seem to have an advanced weather warning system (or any weather warning system, for that matter), and all the tv was normal, weird saturday morning programing, including a strange japanese cartoon dubbed over in spanish. we decided that, since there wasn´t anything on the news, it couldn´t be that serious. we climbed upstairs and went back to bed, but i woke up an hour later to another terrible storm. it was crazy! we spent the rest of the morning hanging around the room, reading, and doing homework. during lunch, our host mom turned on the news, and we watched with wide eyes as a story about two shipwrecks (i´m not even kidding... real shipwrecks) flashed across the screen. apparently, they opened the port at algeciras saturday morning, and two boats were blown ashore because of the terrible storm. another boat blew into a cliff around gibraltar (very close to algeciras) and it actually broke in half. pretty scary stuff, really. chelsea and i both sent up a little thanks to God for sparing us that adventure!

after lunch, we headed into town to alleviate our sadness over a missed moroccan adventure and a rainy sevilla weekend with some retail therapy. we spent time wandering around my favorite street (calle sierpes) and i had a little bit of luck. mostly, we explored the street some more with rachel, sophie, and a new friend hanna. it was really nice--much better than staying couped up in the house. we returned home feeling a little bit better and ate a nice dinner with rosario before heading upstairs to read, relax, and go to bed.

sunday morning dawned just as cloudy and rainy as saturday, only without the hurricane winds and tornado-threatening clouds. chelsea and i got ready for the day and bundled up in our raincoats, determined to make it to an internet cafe. we found one close to our house, and enjoyed the walk around our neighborhood (it didn´t end up raining on us after all). we returned home for lunch and watched as the news told us about all of the havoc wrought across the spanish countryside. pictures of flooding, houses destroyed by mudslides, and roads completely washed away made me grateful that sevilla´s storms were a little bit more merciful. in the town of cádiz, only an hour´s drive away, hundreds of trees were uprooted and their beautiful beaches were completely scattered with huge, terrible-looking debris. in madrid, we watched as water poured into the first floor of houses, reaching at least 5 feet high. it was pretty scary. i hope that sevilla keeps hanging in there strong. so far, the weather hasn´t caused any major damage, except a few lame weekends.

after eating lunch, we made plans to meet up with some friends for a movie. we headed out to meet them around 6:00. before we left, rosario told us that there would be a virgen parade that afternoon at a church very close to our house. as you all know, spain is very a catholic nation. of the major traditions here in spain the sharing and parading of different virgenes. these virgenes (which means virgin in english--pretty easy cognate) are different manifestations of the virgin mary. many different churches across spain and across sevilla have beautiful representations honoring these virgins. the best way to describe them is gorgeous parade floats, only they aren´t on wheels and they remain stationary and on display most of the time in their home parish. sunday, nuestra señora de pilar (our lady pilar) was paraded from a church in nervion (our neighborhood) back to her home church in triana (a sevilla neighborhood across the river). chelsea and i met up with our friends and postponed our movie plans to partake in this cultural wonder. after standing outside the church for an hour, the parade began. a group of young people, who were all members of a local catholic brotherhood, led the way, playing traditional spanish music. they resembled a high school pep band, but their uniforms looked more like navy uniforms to me (see illustrative picture below).

church where the virgen parade originated...

these youth are all members of a catholic brotherhood, and they play like a high school marching band. they come out for special religious celebrations, including semana santa (holy week) and various virgin parades (i really don´t know the technical term for it).

after the group of students marched down the street from the church, different groups of people (all members of some sort of church organization or brotherhood) proceeded after them. some of them carried sceptors adorned with a cross. some of them carried HUGE candles! these groups of people included both men and women of all ages, including some very cute toddlers and little kids! all of the groups were divided by some sort of sign, whether it be a banner or a sceptor, and all marched in a somewhat casual manner. in fact, one banner carrier was actually chatting on his cell phone during the whole thing, which i found pretty ironic! in addition to the various props, some groups were dressed in formal, religious clothing, including robes and tunics. it was quite a sight to see, and i wish i had more knowledge and could explain the entire event better, because it really was something special.

a little girl parading with her giant candle.

after huge clumps of people walk past, out came the virgen. she was larger than i expected and dressed in all white. she was carried by a group of men who actually hid underneath her float, covered completely by a white table cloth. all that could be seen were their feet, and two men (on in front and one in back) whispered directions to the carriers. i could not imagine working my way through such a crowd while being completely blind to my surroundings! it was unbelievable. the virgen was surrounded by lit candles and a mantle of white flowers. she had a halo around her head, and tears were streaming from her eyes. when she appeared from the church, everyone clapped and cheered. after she passed people, they would all hop in line behind her, making the pilgrimage with her back to her home church in triana. it was so interesting to watch. following the virgen, another band came out and continued to play songs. the total parade, including leaders, bands, and followers of the virgen, probably extended for at least half a mile. it was very impressive.

nuestra señora de pilar--the virgen float.

in height, the float was probably at least 15 feet tall. you can see how ornate and beautiful she is, and how real flowers and lit candles cover the area around her. also, you can see a single tear on her cheek.

me with all of the people and the virgen marching down the street.

after that awesome experience, chelsea, our friends afton and sheila, and i headed back towards the mall to watch our movie. of course, the theaters were packed, and we couldn´t get tickets to the show we really wanted to see. instead, we ended up seeing 'mamma mia', the american musical starring meryl streep. it was so funny! i laughed so hard, and i totally enjoyed it more than i thought i would! it was pretty hilarious, because all of the voices were dubbed, but the songs weren´t. i got to hear pierce brosnan sing (he wasn´t very good), and read the spanish translation of ABBA´s lyrics, which made for a really entertaining show. all in all, i seriously enjoyed it and i was really pleased by the whole thing. after the movie got out around 10:30 pm, we walked down a block to an indian food restaurant. the whole place smelled wonderful and, after struggling to order indian food in spanish, we all settled in and had the most amazing meal of my trip yet! the food was so excellent! we all sat and ate (over-ate, really), enjoying the atmosphere and the company. it was so nice to have really spicy and savory food, because the food in spain (though generally pretty excellent) isn´t necessarily very flavorful. indian food was an excellent way to break things up. i enjoyed it so much! we finally left the restaurant 2 hours later, and chelsea and i walked home and fell into bed, incredibly full but incredibly content.

my new favorite restaurant: the taj mahal.

monday morning dawned with clouds, but no rain! chelsea and i didn´t have class because it was a national holiday (yippee!). instead, we woke up and had a date with rosario, our hostmom. we headed out for chocolate con churros (chocolate and churros, another easy cognate). first, we stopped by her daughter´s house in order to pick up carlos, rosario´s grandson. carlos in an incredibly rambunctious and slightly chunky four-year-old who is completely adored and spoiled by his grandmother. we stopped by the piso (apartment) and i finally met rosario´s son-in-law (carlos sr.). imna, rosario´s daughter, showed us around the apartment, and it was pretty nice. the coolest thing, though, was carlos sr.´s replica jet. he has an actual plan cockpit in his house, complete with controls and about 5 computer screens so that he can simulate flying. it was pretty unbelievable. i don´t think i´ve ever seen anything like it outside of the air and space museum in washington, d.c. i couldn´t imagine what anyone would do with such a thing in their house, but carlos sr. explained that it was his toy. wow. quite a toy!

after grabbing carlos jr., we headed down the block to this hotel called virgen de los reyes (virgin of the kinds), which rosario assured us had the best chocolate con churros in the entire city. she did not lie. they were SO GOOD! i hope that heaven has these churros, because they were absolutely delightful. we spent two hours sitting, eating, drinking, and socializing. it was a wonderful, lazy morning. carlos became pretty impatient after awhile, so i started to try and teach him easy things, like the thumbs up and thumbs down gesture. when that seemed to be a hit, i made him a table-top football out of a napkin (like i used to do in junior high) and we played table-top football. man, was that a success! he loved the game and, of course, i let him win. everytime he scored a goal, we would throw up our hands and cheer 'gooooooooool', just like they do during the soccer games. after a while, we left the restaurant and made our way back towards rosario´s house. along the way, we ran into one of her good friends, alfonso, and he invited us back to his apartment. we stopped by for a chat with him and his wife, anní, and they were so sweet. they invited us to come back any time, telling chelsea and i that we now had three spanish homes (rosario´s, imna´s, and theirs). we finally made it home from our morning excursion around 2:00 pm. the rest of the afternoon was spent reading, working on homework, eating lunch, and then working on more homework. finally, around 6:30, chelsea and i decided to go for a run. man, did we run (well... i more walk/jogged). it was pretty great! we found this HUGE park just north of our house and we ran around it. we didn´t end up getting home until after 8:00, which was a pretty big accomplishment considering that this was only my second time running ever! after we made it home, we organized, read, and did homework (i had quite a bit this weekend). then we ate dinner and headed to bed.

me, with the famed and wonderful chocolate con churros. spanish drinking chocolate is fairly thick--somewhere between the consistency of milk and pudding--and has this wonderful, rich taste. i am a BIG fan! mom, dad, kevin: we are SO going for chocolate con churros one morning!

so all in all, the weekend was by no means terrible. i am actually really content with the things i got to do and experience. just goes to show that sour lemons do make really awesome lemonade! i still haven´t found out about the fate of my morocco trip. there has been whisperings of an attempt to reschedule (which would be futile for me, as every remaining weekend this semester is booked with a trip or visitors) or a full refund. either way, i´m okay with the fact that i didn´t get to experience northern africa, and i´m sure the rest of my travels with suffice. in fact, they already have!