Fiesta, Fiesta

Hola todos!

Well, I'm sorry I'm a bad blog-updater. ;) Things have been pretty crazy around here with papers and exams and presentations. But I don't want to bore you with that stuff... so let's see...

This past Friday I visited a monastery called La Rabida and replications of Christopher Columbus' ships (except, they call him Cristobal Colon here... it's kind of strange how the whole name changes). That was pretty cool, and it got even better when we went to the PLAYA afterward. :)

Tonight is the first night of Feria, and to kick it off, they're going to light up the giant arch that serves as the entrance to the fairgrounds. It's going to be crazy crowded and chaotic, but I think it'll be fun to see!

On Thursday I'm leaving for Portugal for the weekend (to escape the crowds of Feria! hehe). We're headed to Lisboa and Lagos, and I promise to post some pictures when I get back. :) And after Portugal, there's only one week of classes and then finals! Ahh!

Okay, I'm just going to leave you with an old picture now, but it's one of my favorites from Semana Santa. This was after our churros adventure - we stopped a bunch of the musicians from one of the paseos (they were almost all finished by this point in the night) and got our picture with them. Sweeeet!

Hasta luego!

Morocco and Semana Santa

Hola!! It's been so long! A lot has happened since my last post... went to Morocco for 6 days, enjoyed the festivities of Semana Santa for a couple days, and now... back to school and papers and exams.

But first - Morocco. What an incredible experience. It was crazy - we took a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar and BOOM! We were in Africa. Ha ha. :) My favorite part was the time we spent in the Sahara Desert. We rode camels out into the desert and camped out in tents next to this giant dune. When we got to our set-up, we climbed that giant dune to watch the sun set. That night we listened to the Berbers (the natives) play the drums and danced a bit. We slept outside, and I woke up in the middle of the night and looked at the sky - the moon had set, so it was pitch black with only the clear stars to light to night. I really have no words to describe how beautiful it was. The next morning some of us woke up early and climbed the dune again - this time to watch the sunrise over the border of Algeria. It was simply amazing.

And of course, I have to mention the food - Moroccan food is fantastic! I discovered I really like dates (they have them in all kinds of dishes), almonds, and apricots. The most delicious dish was a meal called pastilla - a flaky pastry filled with chicken and sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. Mmmm. I'm going to learn how to make it (hopefully!).

I took about 300 pictures in Morocco, so I don't think I can post them all up here... but I'll put up a couple favorites. :)

After returning from Morocco, it was Semana Santa here! Semana Santa is a week-long holiday leading up to Easter (although they don't really celebrate Easter here). There are all kinds of processions (we called them "paseos") - it's basically a giant fiesta for the city. Thousands of people come to see the processions, so it's crazy-crowded. But it was a ton of fun and Ruth even came to visit from England!

Wellll, I think I'll leave you with some pictures of my favorite week here so far, because I should probably go write a paper or something like that. ;)

Partidos

Holaaaaa!

What a crazy week it's been! School is picking up and I've had lots of exams and presentations in the last two weeks. Right now I'm picking topics for my two final papers, and I need to get started writing them.

BUT! Before I do that... I'm going to Morocco! I'm so excited! I leave on Friday morning and I'll be there for 6 days. Then when I get back to Seville, Semana Santa will have started. Semana Santa is a week-long holiday leading up to Easter. There's lots of parades and festivities, and Ruth is visiting for a couple days! I just have to get through 2 more days of school...

This past weekend we went to the mercado - kind of like a giant flea market, but Spanish! It was a lot of fun and we'll definitely go back there again (we have to get our futbol jerseys!).

Anyway, I'm about to get some cafe con leche, so I'll keep this short and be sure to update you all when I get back from Morocco!

Peace and love. :)