The first weekend of break my friend Kacie from Minnesota and I headed down to Cadiz for the weekend. The capital city of Cadiz is on a peninsula. It is small city, but has a beautiful cathedral and is on the beach. We spent our one day in the city seeing the sights and walking on the beach. I got to see a beautiful sunset, which I really don't get to see that often in Huelva. The next day we went to a city called Jerez de la Frontera. It is in the Cadiz region but inland. It is known for it's equestrian and its Sherry. We took a tour of a sherry bodega in the afternoon and explored the city in the evening.
A big part of Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Spain is what they call processions. Anyone who has ever studied Spanish culture thinks of these things as the people who dress up like the KKK. But it has nothing to do with that, obviously, different country, different history. Well each church has something called and Hermandad. It's like a brotherhood. Each one has something that is kind of like a float in a parade, but it isn't pulled on wheels. They are recreations of scenes from Holy Week, or of the Virgin and men carry them on their necks. They shuffle all around the city with these 'Jesus floats.' The brotherhood in their robes go in front, and then a band plays behind them. It is quite the sight to see. We got to see a procession when we were in Jerez and then we spent the day in Sevilla on Sunday to see the processions there. It was craziness. There were so many people in Sevilla you could hardly move around. Our train tickets home were for 8:30, but by about 4 we had had enough. After 3 processions in massive crowds and the heat, we decided to cut our loses and buy bus tickets home for the next hour. Totally worth it.
Starting Monday of this week off it started raining, and it pretty much hasn't stopped since then. I mean I can't really complain because before this week we had 3 1/2 straight weeks of sunny gorgeous weather, it is just kind of a bummer it has to be crappy on our week off. So my plan of going to the beach everyday has pretty much been ruined. It is also a bummer because they have had to cancel a lot of the pasos here in Huelva, and I was looking forward to seeing them. But they have managed to fit a few in, and Kacie's apartment is right above one of the main roads they come down. So I've gotten to soak up a bit of culture this week. Speaking of culture i've had 2 very cultural experiences this week that I would like to share. First has to do with soccer, well actually futbol, which is what it is called everywhere in the world except America. On Tuesday night Madrid played Barcelona. HUGE rivals, when they play it's a big deal. Well Kacie and I were hanging out, watching a movie on TV, flipping back and forth between the game and the movie. Well we are watching the movie and all of a sudden we here shouts and screams coming from outside, she says I think someone just scored. I quick flip to the game and sure enough, Madrid has scored a goal. We could hear the cheering all the way in her apartment. Then as I was walking home I was surrounded by celebration. My whole 20 minute walk home cars were honking, people shouting out of windows and to each other on the street. People were setting off bottle rockets and a group of kids were standing on the fountain by my house waving their shirts and flags cheering. You just don't experience that in the US, they really love their futbol here.
Experience number 2, also happened has I was walking home one night. As many of you know the culture here is way more about the night life. Dinner is eaten much later, and the general public just tends to stay up much later than our culture. Walking home at midnight, it is perfectly normal for the streets to be filled with people. So as i'm walking home at 12:30 I bumped into 3 brothers I tutor. They are ages 4, 5 and 9. They were walking out of restaurant, having just eaten dinner. We chatted a bit (about the Madrid vs. Barcelona match, good thing I watched it the day before) and then they were off to play. The 4 year old was off to play at 12:30am as I was walking home to go to bed. And the thing is, that is perfectly normal here. I just had to chuckle at that. So anyways, that is what has been happening around here. My time is just dwindling away too fast and I'm just trying to take it all in before it's gone. I'm excited to get back to school next week, and I'll let you all know how the play turns out.
Happy Easter everyone!
Hasta luego
Kati