La Semana Santa
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| A procession in honor of Holy Week. The participants are members of a brotherhood, and wear their robes and hoods as a sign of penitence. |
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| A float depicting the crucifixion is carried on the shoulders of men beneath it. |
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| Solemn music played by a marching band accompanied the procession. |
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| A few men carried crosses on their shoulders. |
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| The view from the roof of our hostel. |
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| The Catedral |
April 24, Easter!
I woke up to the Italian chatter of our two new roommates and bells tolling from the cathedral. After breakfast, Tilden, Anne Byrd, Dave and I hung out on the roof of the hostal, where there are benches, tables and plants that give “The Living Roof” its name. Lindsey and Megan came over and we all walked to the Plaza de Toros, where the first bullfight of the season was taking place that afternoon. Tickets were sold out, but we hung around for a while and got to watch the matadors enter the stadium (some of whom were quite attractive).
We waited out another rainstorm in a coffee shop called Café de los Indias. When the rain cleared, Linsey and Megan went back to their hotel and the rest of us explored Sevilla. We walked through a really cute part of town, with local art shops, apartment buildings and restaurants on cobblestone streets lined with orange trees.
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| We often encounter these street performers. |
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| A monument in honor of Ferdinand and Isabella. |
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| We passed through this beautiful park which is filled with orange trees. The trees are beautiful, but the oranges are inedible because they are so sour. |
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| Some other sights encountered on our walk. |
We found a great restaurant where we ate dinner outside. Our waiter, Reda, was super chatty and friendly and helped us select our meal: Grilled vegetables, ox tail and my first-ever paella. Everything tasted delicious, even the ox tail, which sounds weird and unusual but tasted a lot like pot roast. After we finished, paid the bill and got an invitation from Reda to the beach for the following weekend, the four of us walked back toward the Cathedral. Across the street from the Cathedral, a man was standing on the corner, playing violin. We bought ice cream from a nearby shop, Mascarpone, and sat on the steps of the Cathedral to eat and listen to the violinist.
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| La Catedral at night. |
April 25
After staying up sharing life stories until 5 a.m., the four of us woke up with enough time to pack up and check out of the Living Roof at 11. We moved our luggage to Lindsey and Megan’s room at the Hotel Bequer, then went for a run along the river. It was a beautiful morning, clear and warm, and the run was a great way to check out another part of the city. When we returned to the hotel we checked into our own rooms, showered, changed and met with Professor Bailey and the rest of our class for lunch. The meal consisted of three courses, first a kind of wrap with ham inside, then chicken with vegetables and French fries, and ice cream for dessert. Professor Bailey treated us to café con leche, and then we walked around the center of the city which is filled with all sorts of shops, including many selling flamenco dresses in every imaginable style and pattern.
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| Our room at the Hotel Bequer |
After about an hour of walking we returned to the hotel for the siesta. At 7:30 we had an orientation session with the Center for Cross-Cultural Study, the school where our classes will take place. Dinner followed orientation, and we enjoyed salad, a dish resembling vegetable lasagna and some sort of pastry for dessert. After dinner we walked to a restaurant where we sat outside and shared a jar of sangria and enjoyed the cool evening.
April 26
We woke up at 7:30 on Tuesday for our first day of class. The hotel served a buffet-style breakfast of coffee, fresh-squeezed orange juice, pastries, fresh fruit, various meats and cheeses, cereal and other hot foods. When we finished eating we met Conso, a CC-CS professor who teaches our class of medieval art. She gave us a brief tour of Sevilla, including a fresh-foods market, the Plaza de Toros and CC-CS, then brought us back to the hotel where we loaded into taxis to transfer to our homestays.
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| Fresh fish being sold in the market. |
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| Frozen octopus! |
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| Spanish version of fast food. |
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| Plaza de Toros |
My host mom, Carmen, lives in an apartment across the river and is the sweetest woman ever. She gave me a tour of the apartment and then we chatted while she cooked lunch and waited for my roommates, Danielle and Stephanie, to return from school. Danielle is from Indiana and goes to school in Louisville, Kentucky, and Stephanie was with a group from Lewis and Clark University. After lunch—bread and cheese, spaghetti, olives and fruit—Danielle and I went shopping until we had to return to CC-CS. After a short intro class with Professor Bailey, our class walked down the street to a bar for tapas. I tried octopus for the first time, and while I thought it was pretty good I stayed away from pieces that still had tentacles attached. I have trouble eating food that looks like the animal I am eating, such as the octopus, or shrimp with the eyes and legs intact. All the restaurants have their ham hanging from the ceiling, with the hoof still attached. I’m all for trying new things, but it’s hard not to think about exactly what you’re eating when it’s staring back at you :)
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| Ham, paella, olives...all your typical Spanish cuisine |
April 27: Itálica
I met up with Liz and Victoria, who are living nearby, and we walked to class together. We got a little lost along the way, and arrived a few minutes past ten. After our first lecture on medieval Spanish literature, our class walked down the street together for café con leche. Café con leche, which is half espresso and half steamed milk, might possibly be one of my favorite things here. We returned to CC-CS for our first art class with Conso, after which we took a bus to visit the ruins of Itálica. Itálica was built by the Romans in 206 A.D., and the remains of the amphitheater, some houses and the underground sewer system are still standing. The houses have beautiful mosaic floors which are surprisingly detailed. The images have retained their color because they used naturally colored stones to create them.
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| The remains of a house in Italica |
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| The stones mark where rooms would have been divided. |
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| A mosaic floor and behind it, a bath. |
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| The pictures in the floor portray the seven gods who represent the days of the week. |
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| The entrance to the amphitheater. |
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| Conso discussing the history of the site. |
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| La clase! |
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| Entrance to the halls under the stadium. |
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| This hallway circles around the theater and has access to stairways to the seating area above it. |
When we returned from Itálica I went home for a late lunch (lentil soup and chicken), which I ate while I chatted with Carmen. Later in the afternoon, the class met up at Ciente Montaditos, a restaurant that sells drinks and tiny sandwiches where everything is only one euro on Wednesdays. After eating we walked over to an Irish pub called Flaherty’s to watch the soccer game between Real Madrid and Barcelona (los jugadores españoles del fútbol son muy guapos!) until dinner (pasta with olive oil and a ham omelet).
April 28: El hospital de caridad
After class, Conso took us to el hospital de la caridad to check out the beautiful, ornate church which is full of Baroque-period artwork and ornate decorations.
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| The courtyard outside of the church. |
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| The church in the Hospital de la Caridad. |
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| Finis Gloriae Mundi by Juan Valdes |
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| The ceiling of the church. |
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| El entierro del Cristo |
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| The altar |
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| The angels on the ceiling are all holding items that symbolize the crucifixion. |
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| The four gospels are portrayed just below the domed ceiling. |
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| The crypt |
That evening we attended a pre-Feria fiesta at CC-CS, where we met with other students and watched flamenco dancing. After, Liz, Victoria and I went to dinner, where I ordered a dish that consists of French fries, fried eggs, ham and chorizo. It was probably terribly unhealthy, but tasted delicious! When we finished we met up with our group at club called Buddha to celebrate Dave’s birthday.
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| Fiesta at CC-CS |
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| Buddha! |
