Well, I realize this is quite a bit late, but I figure if I don’t finish these entries now, I never will! I am going to do my very best to try to remember my usual amount of detail, but this is going to take some memory work. It is also very difficult to reminisce at this point, because I am home and missing Spain terribly, but I will do my best!
The week leading up to the trip was rather eventful. We were preparing for our big “Pre-Feria Flamenco Parade,” which would be happening at school the following Wednesday. For this occasion, we almost all of the girls who took the dance class were trying on a bunch of Flamenco dresses that were lent to the school for the parade. The only issue is, Flamenco dresses are intended to fit like a glove. Literally, if you can breathe without difficulty, it’s not tight enough. Consequently, trying to find secondhand dresses that fit well is nearly impossible. And it so happens that all of the women who had donated their dresses for these 2 weeks, didn’t really have shoulders. Even some of the very very very thin girls were having issues trying to find a dress, so what was I to do?! I had asked my host family, choir, and friends if they knew of anyone who might have one that would fit, but I was coming up short.
That Tuesday was the first parade practice, and my dance teacher Lola, & my favorite director, Virginia, had told me that if I couldn’t find one by then, that they would help me get a practice skirt that I could find a blouse to go with. I was so disappointed. I had been the only one really looking forward to this thing from the beginning of the semester, and the thought of being the only one without a dress, (the rest who couldn’t find one had just given up on participating in the parade by this point), was really tough to swallow. However, the day came, and my wonderful friend Claire let me try on the dress that she was to wear, which belonged to her host sister. It was red and ruffly with tiny white polka dots. And it fit. It was perfect, and I felt like I owned the world when I was in it. But… that was Claire’s dress to wear. So out of the goodness of her heart, she tried on all of the dresses left that had been lent to the school, and she found a purple velvety dress that she fit into, with green compliments, in which she looked absolutely radiant. She let me wear the red dress, and we both looked fabulous!!! I was so excited; I could’ve probably passed out.
The practices were a little uncomfortable. We all stood in a line on the side of the patio, and one by one took turns strutting down the aisle to different styles of music. It was incredibly awkward and we all felt like idiots. Some people got really mad that we had to go to 3 practices to practice walking, but I think by the time the day of the parade rolled around, they understood why it was necessary. Claire and I found out that a bit of wine before the rehearsals helped immensely with our self-confidence.
We rehearsed Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday was my favorite day of that week, though, because Brittany and I went on an adventure! Isa had invited us to her house for lunch and, after the customary pushing-back of our meeting time and buying a bouquet of yellow flowers for her family, we walked 10 minutes away near the Parque de los Principes where I would go to journal, and hopped on the metro for a quick ride to the San Juan Bajo station. Isabel had reminded me to text her when we were getting on, but of course I forgot. She was there within minutes to collect us, though, and we drove in her little city car to her neighborhood, Castilleja de la Cuesta.
Castilleja is a beautiful little town outside of Sevilla. You can tell there is more money in this area than in some others, and I was so excited to see a new part of our home. We pulled in and parked by her house. All of the houses are very close together, and have a big wall out front with each house having its own gate. We went in and hugged her mother, to whom I gave the flowers. She was quite touched by our gesture, which was good. I had been pretty nervous that maybe the Spanish don’t do those things, but Carmen said it would be fine, and usually my host mom knew what she was talking about.
Isa showed us around her house, which was pretty big! The kitchen was nice, as was the living room. There were Flamenco dresses all over the living room that belonged to different people, as well as the half-completed red dress that Isa’s mom was making for her for this year’s Feria! It was gorgeous, and I couldn’t wait to see it done! Isa’s room was quite what I expected it to be. She has a ton of bags, a desk with her computer where she spends all of her time studying, posters of bands and places on the wall. She’s such a hipster, I swear. Her sister Adelaida, (Ade), had recently gotten her own apartment, so her room was fairly empty, aside from the massive pile of purses on her bed, which Isa claims don’t belong to her, but I’m not sure if I really believe her. We also saw her brother Antonio’s room upstairs, which seems like the perfect man cave hideout, similar to my brother’s room in my house at home.
After the tour, we went downstairs just in time for Ade to arrive with her new golden lab puppy, Lennon, (Yes, he is named for John Lennon). That puppy is so darn cute. He has the biggest paws, and was so very sleepy the whole time we were there. We played with him for a while and then sat down once Isa’s mom started serving lunch. She set out a tray with meats and cheeses for us to ‘picar,’ which is kind of like to pick at. They call finger foods like that picos. The main meal was Salmorejo, which is a cold tomato-based soup with cheese, egg, and ham. I really liked it, but Antonio, Ade, and Isa complained that it was way too vinegary. Isa’s mom even thought she had messed up the recipe somehow, and told us we didn’t have to eat it. But as Americans, the strong flavor wasn’t unusual for us.
She also made tortilla de papas, which Carmen made for us quite often, but Isa’s mom’s was better, as were her croquetas. They kept encouraging us to eat more, but I thought I might explode if I did! My favorite part of the meal was watching Isa and her family interact. Ade is the oldest, then Isa, then Antonio, who was actually turning 24 that day. So after the meal, their mom came out with a surprise birthday cake, and we sang to him before he blew out the candles. It was such a serendipitous thing that we had come on his birthday! The 3 siblings cracked me up. They were constantly at each other, but clearly out of love and respect for one another, which made me miss my big brother and sister immensely. I had really been missing this aspect of my life, and it was super cool to see Isa interacting with her siblings. Once you’ve seen someone’s home and met their family, you just understand so much more of where they come from. They were hilarious and I loved all of them.
We let our stomachs settle for a bit and then the 3 of us took a walk to go to one of Isa’s favorite bars to have a drink and check out the ambience. It was about a 20 minute walk, and it was extremely hot out. We settled into a nice shaded seating area outside and I ordered a very lemony, sugary drink, which was Isa’s recommendation. It was delicious, and packed a bit of a punch, too. Brittany had a tinto de verano, which has always been her favorite, and one of mine, too! We talked a lot about the possibilities of future visits to the US or Spain, and what we would all be doing during the summer and such. It was starting to set in that we wouldn’t be seeing each other too many more times before our trip home, and that freaked me out a little. I love Isa and not seeing her for a few years would be the actual worst thing. I knew that I really needed to enjoy this time that we did have left together.
We walked home, thanked her family, and Isa drove us back to Triana. It had been a fabulous day, and I was in a great mood. Brittany had gotten frustrated as the day went on, because everyone was speaking really quickly, and it does get hard to keep up. We spent about an hour quietly relaxing in our room before I had to walk to the school to meet for the “Only Speaking Spanish” nominees’ dinner thing. Everyone who had won a week of the Spanish Only competition was invited to go for tapas with 2 of the professors from school, one of which happened to be Mila, my lit prof, who I love dearly. We went to a really neat place a few minutes from school to which I had not previously been. It was really nice. I sat with two friends, Emily and Natalie, both of whom I like very much, and everyone spoke Spanish the whole time, which was so refreshing compared to the usual English chatter. I ordered tortillitas de bacalao, which are like, fried strips of dough with a bit of cod and vegetable in it, along with the house white wine. They were super delicious. We then had a second round, for which I ordered a montadito de salmon almohada, which is a smoked salmon sandwich, which I also liked. It was a very enjoyable evening, and before I knew it, it was 10:30, and I needed to get home! The walk home was beautiful that night. The air was clear and a perfect temperature. My favorite accordion player was on the bridge that night, too. It felt like Spain. I was in heaven.
Thursday I had my classes all day, including a meeting at 11:30 for the weekend’s trip to Portugal! Also, instead of having my bocadillo lunch in the lounge as usual, Claire and I went to the Taj Mahal for some more of our favorite Indian cuisine. It was so fun. I love spending time with Claire so much, and our practice was pretty fun, too, though we both had eaten enough to make zipping our dresses a more difficult than before. We weren’t sorry. I was getting pretty excited for the parade, even though about 8 people hadn’t shown up for rehearsal, since they were all beyond doing all of the practice that us amateurs were attending. Whatever.
I spent some time that evening reading my book, Entre Visillos, that I would need to finish soon to write my final paper for my Women Writers of Spain class. (I can’t remember if I’ve written about this book yet or not, but it is a difficult social commentary of over 250 pages, and some other people’s , were about 50 pages and easy, which became frustrating). If I remember correctly, I had had a few invitations to go hang out with people that night, but knowing that I needed to be up early the next day was my motivation to stay in and get some extra sleep. The Portugal trip would need all of my energy for the weekend!
The week leading up to the trip was rather eventful. We were preparing for our big “Pre-Feria Flamenco Parade,” which would be happening at school the following Wednesday. For this occasion, we almost all of the girls who took the dance class were trying on a bunch of Flamenco dresses that were lent to the school for the parade. The only issue is, Flamenco dresses are intended to fit like a glove. Literally, if you can breathe without difficulty, it’s not tight enough. Consequently, trying to find secondhand dresses that fit well is nearly impossible. And it so happens that all of the women who had donated their dresses for these 2 weeks, didn’t really have shoulders. Even some of the very very very thin girls were having issues trying to find a dress, so what was I to do?! I had asked my host family, choir, and friends if they knew of anyone who might have one that would fit, but I was coming up short.
That Tuesday was the first parade practice, and my dance teacher Lola, & my favorite director, Virginia, had told me that if I couldn’t find one by then, that they would help me get a practice skirt that I could find a blouse to go with. I was so disappointed. I had been the only one really looking forward to this thing from the beginning of the semester, and the thought of being the only one without a dress, (the rest who couldn’t find one had just given up on participating in the parade by this point), was really tough to swallow. However, the day came, and my wonderful friend Claire let me try on the dress that she was to wear, which belonged to her host sister. It was red and ruffly with tiny white polka dots. And it fit. It was perfect, and I felt like I owned the world when I was in it. But… that was Claire’s dress to wear. So out of the goodness of her heart, she tried on all of the dresses left that had been lent to the school, and she found a purple velvety dress that she fit into, with green compliments, in which she looked absolutely radiant. She let me wear the red dress, and we both looked fabulous!!! I was so excited; I could’ve probably passed out.
The practices were a little uncomfortable. We all stood in a line on the side of the patio, and one by one took turns strutting down the aisle to different styles of music. It was incredibly awkward and we all felt like idiots. Some people got really mad that we had to go to 3 practices to practice walking, but I think by the time the day of the parade rolled around, they understood why it was necessary. Claire and I found out that a bit of wine before the rehearsals helped immensely with our self-confidence.
We rehearsed Tuesday and Thursday. Wednesday was my favorite day of that week, though, because Brittany and I went on an adventure! Isa had invited us to her house for lunch and, after the customary pushing-back of our meeting time and buying a bouquet of yellow flowers for her family, we walked 10 minutes away near the Parque de los Principes where I would go to journal, and hopped on the metro for a quick ride to the San Juan Bajo station. Isabel had reminded me to text her when we were getting on, but of course I forgot. She was there within minutes to collect us, though, and we drove in her little city car to her neighborhood, Castilleja de la Cuesta.
Castilleja is a beautiful little town outside of Sevilla. You can tell there is more money in this area than in some others, and I was so excited to see a new part of our home. We pulled in and parked by her house. All of the houses are very close together, and have a big wall out front with each house having its own gate. We went in and hugged her mother, to whom I gave the flowers. She was quite touched by our gesture, which was good. I had been pretty nervous that maybe the Spanish don’t do those things, but Carmen said it would be fine, and usually my host mom knew what she was talking about.
Isa showed us around her house, which was pretty big! The kitchen was nice, as was the living room. There were Flamenco dresses all over the living room that belonged to different people, as well as the half-completed red dress that Isa’s mom was making for her for this year’s Feria! It was gorgeous, and I couldn’t wait to see it done! Isa’s room was quite what I expected it to be. She has a ton of bags, a desk with her computer where she spends all of her time studying, posters of bands and places on the wall. She’s such a hipster, I swear. Her sister Adelaida, (Ade), had recently gotten her own apartment, so her room was fairly empty, aside from the massive pile of purses on her bed, which Isa claims don’t belong to her, but I’m not sure if I really believe her. We also saw her brother Antonio’s room upstairs, which seems like the perfect man cave hideout, similar to my brother’s room in my house at home.
After the tour, we went downstairs just in time for Ade to arrive with her new golden lab puppy, Lennon, (Yes, he is named for John Lennon). That puppy is so darn cute. He has the biggest paws, and was so very sleepy the whole time we were there. We played with him for a while and then sat down once Isa’s mom started serving lunch. She set out a tray with meats and cheeses for us to ‘picar,’ which is kind of like to pick at. They call finger foods like that picos. The main meal was Salmorejo, which is a cold tomato-based soup with cheese, egg, and ham. I really liked it, but Antonio, Ade, and Isa complained that it was way too vinegary. Isa’s mom even thought she had messed up the recipe somehow, and told us we didn’t have to eat it. But as Americans, the strong flavor wasn’t unusual for us.
She also made tortilla de papas, which Carmen made for us quite often, but Isa’s mom’s was better, as were her croquetas. They kept encouraging us to eat more, but I thought I might explode if I did! My favorite part of the meal was watching Isa and her family interact. Ade is the oldest, then Isa, then Antonio, who was actually turning 24 that day. So after the meal, their mom came out with a surprise birthday cake, and we sang to him before he blew out the candles. It was such a serendipitous thing that we had come on his birthday! The 3 siblings cracked me up. They were constantly at each other, but clearly out of love and respect for one another, which made me miss my big brother and sister immensely. I had really been missing this aspect of my life, and it was super cool to see Isa interacting with her siblings. Once you’ve seen someone’s home and met their family, you just understand so much more of where they come from. They were hilarious and I loved all of them.
We let our stomachs settle for a bit and then the 3 of us took a walk to go to one of Isa’s favorite bars to have a drink and check out the ambience. It was about a 20 minute walk, and it was extremely hot out. We settled into a nice shaded seating area outside and I ordered a very lemony, sugary drink, which was Isa’s recommendation. It was delicious, and packed a bit of a punch, too. Brittany had a tinto de verano, which has always been her favorite, and one of mine, too! We talked a lot about the possibilities of future visits to the US or Spain, and what we would all be doing during the summer and such. It was starting to set in that we wouldn’t be seeing each other too many more times before our trip home, and that freaked me out a little. I love Isa and not seeing her for a few years would be the actual worst thing. I knew that I really needed to enjoy this time that we did have left together.
We walked home, thanked her family, and Isa drove us back to Triana. It had been a fabulous day, and I was in a great mood. Brittany had gotten frustrated as the day went on, because everyone was speaking really quickly, and it does get hard to keep up. We spent about an hour quietly relaxing in our room before I had to walk to the school to meet for the “Only Speaking Spanish” nominees’ dinner thing. Everyone who had won a week of the Spanish Only competition was invited to go for tapas with 2 of the professors from school, one of which happened to be Mila, my lit prof, who I love dearly. We went to a really neat place a few minutes from school to which I had not previously been. It was really nice. I sat with two friends, Emily and Natalie, both of whom I like very much, and everyone spoke Spanish the whole time, which was so refreshing compared to the usual English chatter. I ordered tortillitas de bacalao, which are like, fried strips of dough with a bit of cod and vegetable in it, along with the house white wine. They were super delicious. We then had a second round, for which I ordered a montadito de salmon almohada, which is a smoked salmon sandwich, which I also liked. It was a very enjoyable evening, and before I knew it, it was 10:30, and I needed to get home! The walk home was beautiful that night. The air was clear and a perfect temperature. My favorite accordion player was on the bridge that night, too. It felt like Spain. I was in heaven.
Thursday I had my classes all day, including a meeting at 11:30 for the weekend’s trip to Portugal! Also, instead of having my bocadillo lunch in the lounge as usual, Claire and I went to the Taj Mahal for some more of our favorite Indian cuisine. It was so fun. I love spending time with Claire so much, and our practice was pretty fun, too, though we both had eaten enough to make zipping our dresses a more difficult than before. We weren’t sorry. I was getting pretty excited for the parade, even though about 8 people hadn’t shown up for rehearsal, since they were all beyond doing all of the practice that us amateurs were attending. Whatever.
I spent some time that evening reading my book, Entre Visillos, that I would need to finish soon to write my final paper for my Women Writers of Spain class. (I can’t remember if I’ve written about this book yet or not, but it is a difficult social commentary of over 250 pages, and some other people’s , were about 50 pages and easy, which became frustrating). If I remember correctly, I had had a few invitations to go hang out with people that night, but knowing that I needed to be up early the next day was my motivation to stay in and get some extra sleep. The Portugal trip would need all of my energy for the weekend!
(Hey, what do you know? It doesn't take half an hour to put a picture on here in America!)