Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. It was hot and sunny here this weekend, but I think that is the norm from now on. The sun is so strong here and it gets so hot during the day (up to 90 one day this weekend), so much so that I cannot imagine what it will be like in June. Thankfully I won't have to experience the sweltering months of July and August! Even with the heat, it is still really pleasant in the shade, so it is still possible to get out and do things (I don't know if I will be able to say the same in June, but we'll see!).
This weekend Sevilla hosted the annual "Encuentro de Alternativas," which is essentially a big hippie festival held in the Parque al Alamillo. Alamillo is a huge park with tons of grass and trees - a great place to spend a weekend afternoon. This weekend part of the park was set aside for the festival. There was lots of live music and booths set up selling a variety of crafts and food. There were stands of crepes, falafel, pitas, fresh pizzas and pastas...pretty much any organic, all natural food. I had a chocolate and banana crepe and it was delicious! The other booths were selling things like handmade clothes and jewelry and natural oils. There was even a couple of hair booths where they were doing braiding and dreadlocks (I've never seen so many dreadlocks in one place in my life). We spent some time checking out the festival and listening to the music, but we also took some time to lounge in the grass and play games. Andy bought an American football awhile back, so we taught my roommates Marta and Iván to play - it was pretty hilarious. Everyone else in the park was looking at us like we were crazy, but we had a great time. In addition to American football, Marta and Iván taught us to "jugar a la pelota" Spanish style. Literally it means "to play with a ball," so when Marta said it I was like, play what? She told me that you don't play any particular game, you essentially just hit a ball around for while. It was basically stand in a circle and hit the ball to each other without letting it hit the ground. Very entertaining, and made even more so because we were using the very mature and discreet SpongeBob Squarepants ball (Bob Esponja, in Spanish).
After a great weekend on Monday it was back to work. I headed into school early to get to work on our article. After weeks of hard work we finally have it just about ready to send back to the journal. It was a really great team effort between Luis (my advisor), Beatriz (a graduate student/researcher), and I. Monday night was the final talk of the series of political conferences that the Rotary Club of Sevilla has been hosting. This week was Pilar González of the "Partido Andalucista" (Andalucía's Party). The two other talks had been given by the larger and more popular parties, the PP and the PSOE, so it was interesting to see a presentation by a smaller party. The focus of the talk was much different - instead of focusing on specific things that the candidate would do if elected, she discussed more the major principles of her party and the reasons they would benefit Sevilla. Even though she likely will not win, there is still a chance that her and her party could be elected to one of the committees within the Ayuntamiento (City Hall), and thus still have their voices heard. I was also really happy to see such a strong, confident woman in a position of authority.
This week is the last week of class before a week of vacation for Semana Santa, or Holy Week. Sevilla has the most famous Semana Santa celebration in Spain, and people from all over the country flock to Sevilla to see the processions in the streets. Every Hermandad (Brotherhood), has 2 floats (Virgen and Christ) that process through the streets on certain days. There are a lot of churches in Sevilla, so this makes for a LOT of processions. Some of the processions begin in the middle of the night and last until the early hours of the morning. I'm really not exactly sure what to expect, but it is supposed to be one of a kind. That being said, I have also been warned that it can be a bit overwhelming to be in Sevilla for the whole week, what with the massive amounts of people, so I am going to use the vacation from class as an opportunity to do a little traveling as well. On Friday I am heading to London to meet up my brother, Steve. We are going to spend 3 nights in London followed by 2 nights in Madrid then return to Sevilla on Wednesday. That we, we make it back to Sevilla for the biggest days (Thursday and Friday, as I've been told). I can't wait to see Semana Santa, I can't wait to visit London and Madrid, and most of all I can't wait to see my big brother!
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