NO ME FALLES, YO NUNCA TE HE FALLADO

Sunday morning I went to my very first live football match (soccer game for my Americans readers). I was very excited to see what happens at a spanish sporting event. Americans take their tailgating pretty seriously, myself included, but unfortunately this tradition hasn’t quite made it across the pond. There is of course a bit of “pregaming”, beers and disgustingly fattening food is sold and consumed at trucks surrounding the stadium.

I was told that this game was not the complete experience because it was at noon on Sunday, instead of later in the day. Apparently, as I’ve previously experienced since I’ve been here, the Spanish are not morning people. And noon on Sunday is just too early for the beticos (Betis fans) to get going. The fans were pretty dead for the first half of the game, except the one section called aficionados (I think), who are comparable to bleacher creatures at Yankee Stadium. They were on their feet singing and cheering and cursing the whole game. Speaking of which, I learned a few new words during this game, none of which I are appropriate to repeat here.

By the second half, people had woken up a little more, or recovered from their hangover from the night before, and the crowd livened up a bit. The game also got a little more interesting. Real sociedad (the bad guys) had two goals and Betis had none. In my opinion, Betis was controlling the game just couldn’t get the ball in the net. But what do I know about soccer.

Finally, Betis scored two goals to tie the game and everyone was going crazy. Did I mention they haven’t won a game in the past 8 games? Well they haven’t, so this was an exciting opportunity for them. It appeared as though they would at least tie. But then in the very last minute, a real sociedad player launched the ball towards the Betis goal in a last ditch effort (is that the right phrase) to win the game, and miraculously the ball flew right over every Betis players’ head, including the goalie, and landed right in the net. It was a pretty incredible shot but I wish the bad guys did not score it. I was pretty sad to see Betis lose, everyone in the stadium just sat in their seats in awe/crying.

Go to 3:26 in this video if you want to see the shot.

poor betis:(

Even though they lost, I think I have officially been converted into a Betis fan. Te quiero Betis.

**side note—the name of this post is part of a song the beticos sing during the game. I cannot remember the rest of it for the life of me.

A Spanish Thanksgiving, Round Two

This year was technically the third time I’ve been in Spain for thanksgiving. Although it is an American holiday, not celebrated here, I have never let the day go by unrecognized. The first time I was in Barcelona and the family came to visit. Although we did not have anything close to a typical thanksgiving feast, it was nice to be surrounded by family—a very important part of the holiday. During my semester abroad in Madrid, I did not have family visiting, but I did make a delicious meal with my roommate Christina (she actually made most of it) and we had a little celebration in our home stay with Conchi, Louisa and some friends.

This year was a little different because I had to work all day on Thursday, at school and then tutoring. Even though I didn’t get home until 6pm, I still got to celebrate thanksgiving with a proper meal thanks to my roommate Chelsea and her mom who is here visiting. They spent most of the day cooking for us: stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes and gravy. We bought some rotisserie chicken because we couldn’t find a turkey, nor would we have been able to cook one in our oven. For desert we had a delicious apple pie because pumpkin was just too hard to find. We also added a little Spanish flair with a tortilla española (potato omelet) and olives and bread. (only took one picture that doesn't properly capture the yumminess of the meal)

Although it wasn’t a typical thanksgiving, I still had a great day. At school we celebrated Fruit Day, Day against Violence, Children’s Day (everyday no?) and we even dedicated a small part of the day to discussing thanksgiving. I had to stand up in front of the whole school and speak to them, in Spanish, about the holiday. At first, I was pretty nervous to have to speak in front of so many people in Spanish, but I was glad I did it. One of the second grade classes did a cheer for me when I finished, so that made it all worth it.

I had a lot of fun at school yesterday. We got to eat fruit, yummy! (however, I was not happy about how many bananas I had to peel, yuck!) They were playing music (New York, New York when it was my turn to speak) and the kids, and some teachers, were dancing. There was also a nice moment when the students released balloons with an anti-violence ribbon on them into the sky. I don’t know exactly what the significance of that action was, but I suppose it had to do with the release of violence at the school and in the town.

Now I have the post-thanksgiving uffs. I had another plate full of leftovers for lunch, which I am really regretting. But it only happens once a year so why not enjoy it while you can!

After two consecutive weekends of travelling, I am looking forward to staying in Seville this weekend. Hope everyone had a happy thanksgiving day!

The Long Awaited Post

Ok my dear blog readers, here it is, my long awaited next blog post. It has been brought to my attention that it is no longer Halloween, and is in fact almost thanksgiving. So I apologize for not writing for so long and that you had to see “today was Halloween” for so long. I guess I’ve been kinda busy…or maybe just lazy. Many things have happened since Halloween but I don’t think they are the most interesting events to recount. I’ve picked up another private lesson, thank god! And yesterday, I started a new language exchange, or intercambio (I like that word better), with a Spanish girl named Isabel. She is really sweet and has already invited me to do a ton of things with her and her friends.

In the past two weekends I’ve taken two really fun trips. First I went to Arcos de la Frontera to visit a friend I made on my flight to Spain. Cece, the friend, kindly hosted me and three other Sevilla amigas in her awesome apartment that she has all to herself, and pays for it as much as I pay for my room... The price you pay to live in a city; although the price I pay would buy me one kitchen tile in NYC. En fin, Cece showed us around her lovely pueblo blanco, her very hilly pueblo blanco. At least I got some exercise, although at the time I wasn’t much enjoying the climb up and down the hills to get to her house. After seeing the old town, eating some delicious food, and hitting up the Friday morning market, we made our trek back to Sevilla. We had a fun night out on the town, and I met a few of Cece’s Spanish friends here, super fun.

After another busy week of doing I don’t know what, I went to Madrid for the weekend. It was sort of a spur of the moment decision, but I am SOOOOO happy I decided to go. It was great to be back. I stayed with my host mom from my semester abroad, Concha. She was and is so great. She gave up her room so that I could stay in it with a friend. Also, Concha and her sister Louisa cooked us almost every meal we had there. It was really nice to eat real meals three days in a row, however it did make my potato chip lunch on Monday that much worse.

In Madrid it was cold and rainy so I didn’t do that much sightseeing, plus I have already seen a lot of the sites. We did walk around a bit and eat chocolate con churros at the city’s famous San Gines. One night I went out to dinner with a girl, Marts, who coaches/plays for the girls’ lacrosse team in Madrid. After dinner she showed us around town a little. It was a really fun weekend. We didn’t get back into Seville until 11:30 Sunday night (after a miserable 6.5 hour bus ride) so needless to say, Monday was a difficult day for me.

This Thursday is thanksgiving, as most of you know. As an entirely American holiday, it is not celebrated at all here in Spain. I do have plans to eat thanksgiving dinner with some American friends so hopefully that will be fun, if we can find a turkey.

¡Mira, es una bruja!

Today was Halloween at school. Today was also the second time in my Spanish life that someone has pointed at me and said “mira, es una bruja” (look, it’s a witch). The first time was during my semester in madrid. After a night of dancing, when we finally left the club I was wobbling a little in my heels. I am not very good at wearing heels in the first place; I am especially not good at dancing in heels. So I guess someone thought I was walking like a witch and exclaimed to their friend, look it’s a witch!

Well today the incident was a little more deserved, as I was indeed dressed like a witch. At school one of the teachers painted my face. She must have done a really good job because the kids hardly recognized me. I also know she did a good job because I could not get the paint off without washing my face about ten times.

Anyway, as I was walking home from the spot that I get dropped off at in Triana (the part of town I live in), a lot of people were staring at me because my face was painted and I was wearing a witch hat. People definitely know that today is Halloween, but outside of a few primary schools, that doesn’t really mean anything here. So I can understand why some people would think it’s strange to see a witch walking down the streets. I knew I was in for a treat on my walk home because on my walk to the bus this morning I got a lot of looks. And all I was wearing was black pants and shirt, orange and black striped socks and black boots. I hadn’t even put on my flashing pumpkin earrings yet!!

All in all, today was a fun day. A lot of the kids dressed up, of course as either a witch, a vampire or a skeleton (see previous post). We did a little trick or treating (kids say trick or treat, teachers hand out candy), and I had some spider rings and plastic bats that the kids loved. I don’t know why some people don’t like the holiday here, apparently there was a parent who complained about the school celebrating Halloween. But I’m happy we did.

Now time to celebrate Halloween with the big kids…HAPPY HALLOWEEN a todos!

h-a-double l-o-double u- double e-n...spells halloween

Although Halloween isn’t actually a holiday here in Spain, some Sevillanos have come to take it quite seriously. For the past week, I have seen kids dressed up as witches, vampires and skeletons (because of course those are the only 3 acceptable costumes). It is interesting how different people react to the incorporation of this American holiday in spanish culture. At my school for example, I have been carving pumpkins everyday for the past week, and we have been preparing for a Halloween celebration tomorrow. Some of my friends are working at schools that aren’t doing anything to recognize Halloween. I am personally happy that I can share this American tradition with my school, but by the time I got to carve my sixth (and best) pumpkin, I got a little tired of the classic Halloween activity.

After carving 6 pumpkins you can only imagine how many pumpkin seeds I have. Since the majority of people in Pilas have never carved a pumpkin before, I assume they haven’t eaten roasted pumpkin seeds, although pipas (sunflower seeds) are almost as important as beer here. So I took it upon myself to cook these pumpkin seeds I myself scooped out of each pumpkin. Now normally this would not be an incredibly difficult task, but given the fact that my oven only has one setting that turns from hot to extremely hot without any notice, it was more difficult than I was expecting. With the exception of a few seeds however, I’d say the experiment turned out pretty well. Plus I figure if they aren’t the best seeds, the kids don’t really have a point of reference so they will just think they don’t like the taste of pumpkin seeds.

Other than carving and making seeds I have been busy coloring pumpkins, ghosts and haunted houses. I also made some ghost lollipops a la grandma Terri, but not enough to share with everyone so I’m not sure how well that’s going to go over. I have had a lot of fun preparing for tomorrow; it’s fun when there is a holiday or something else specific to focus my attention on.

Tomorrow is Halloween day and I am going to school to celebrate. Some schools decided to take the day off because Tuesday is a holiday here, Día de los Muertos (or difuntos as they call it here). It is typical in Spain to make a long weekend, or Puente, when there is a holiday on a Tuesday or Thursday. My school decided to take the Puente another time, but I’m okay with that. I’m excited to sing Halloween songs and trick or treat around the school. I’m not sure how many more times I can here the skeleton dance before going crazy, it is already stuck in my head all the time, but hopefully tomorrow will be a fun day.

the rain in spain...

isn't very common. but today i experienced my first rain of the season. it was a nice change of pace; i was actually feeling cold for once instead of sweating for most of the day. however, i did not really appreciate the rain this morning during my 15 minute walk to the bus station during which my umbrella decided it was too tired to actually protect me from the rain.

so i spent the whole day pretty wet. one of the teachers asked me why i didn't bring a change of clothes with me. i thought that was a pretty interesting question..the answer that immediately popped into my head was "because im not 5 years old". but it is a good idea now that i think about it..or maybe ill just buy some rain boots.

anyway, seville/spain in general is kinda on mañana time most of the time but when it rains, mañana time seems like speedy gonzalez. My bus was running ten minutes late (my roommate's was 30 mins late so i guess it could have been worse).

By the end of the school day (2 pm) the rain had finished. It went back to the nice sunny weather I have experienced since I got here, except the temperature finally dropped so it was a very pleasant afternoon.

and halloween is in the air. i carved my first pumpkin today (i will be carving a total of 5--one for each bilingual class in the school). tomorrow i go to apply for my foreigner's identity card so i don't get kicked out of the country when my visa expires on december 1. Wish me luck!

A day on the magical island

Yesterday was an adventure filled day for me. After complaining to my boss about being a little bored here in Sevilla—I only work three days a week—he invited me to go to La Isla Mágica with him and his family. This theme park is Sevilla’s version of six flags I suppose, but more for children, which I still kinda consider myself to be. When I got to the entrance of the park where we were meeting, I found his family and eight other extended family members/neighbors too. Spain is a very family oriented society, which is something I really like here. Families typically don’t move around the country, or leave it, and many people raise their kids in the same town or at least province they were raised in. Another thing I love about Spain is how parents dress their children in the same clothes to make it easier to find them in amusement parks (genius!) I know sometimes children in the US are dressed the same but I think its like an every time we leave the house kinda thing here.

We met up at the gate and I was introduced to everyone, at least the people that were over seven years old and not running around in circles with excitement. There were a total of six children (all under the age of seven), 6 parents and one me. And even though I was on kiddy rides most of the day, and watching children’s shows (which are about at my level of Spanish) I really enjoyed myself. Amusement parks are always fun, and it was nice to do something different. It was also a nice change of pace to be around families (although it did make me miss my own a lot!).

Since Halloween is coming up, the park had some special Halloween themed shows and rides. When one of the seven year olds asked me if I was scared, I said yes to make him feel better in case he was too. But I think towards the end of the night, when we were walking through the haunted house, I actually was scared. However, if a three year old could make it through without screaming or crying, I figured I should keep myself composed as well.

At the end of the night, all the kids could hardly keep there eyes open (including me). It was a long day of pirate shows and 4D movies, boat rides and magic shows. I essentially went right to sleep because lacrosse practice was bright and early this morning, 9 AM, on a Sunday. The field is apparently very overbooked because there is another one nearby that is under construction. The captain of the team told me he wasn’t very happy with the practice schedule because 9 AM is “not an hour Spanish people know.” I think I was supposed to be Spanish…