Finally!

Hey everyone! I can't believe it has been so long since I've posted. I'm sorry about that! The time is just running away from me here - I'll be home in less than a month! The reason I haven't been able to write is that I have had a lot of visitors, which is always fun. Shortly after the Feria of Sevilla ended my friend Erin came out to visit me. She flew all the way from Salt Lake City, Utah just to visit me! Shortly after she left I got a nice visit from my dad who was here to celebrate my birthday with me. It was a really exciting couple of weeks, but I cannot believe how fast it went!

The first thing on Erin's and my agenda was the Feria del Caballo, the Feria that takes place in Jerez de la Frontera the week after the Feria of Sevilla. I have a lot of friends from Jerez, so I was looking forward to checking it out and seeing how it compared the Sevilla's Feria. All in all it was pretty similar. There were lots of casetas and people dressed up, and a lot of horses and carriages in the streets. The major differences are the following: 1) It was much smaller, not nearly as big as the Feria of Sevilla. 2) All of the casetas at the Feria of Jerez are public, so you don't have to know anybody to get in - they are open for everyone. A consequence of that is that the casetas are a bit bigger and less personal. 3) There seemed to be less people dressed up in general. There were tons of horses and they were very impressive, but it seemed that fewer women wore flamenco dresses. Despite the fact that it was different than the Feria of Sevilla, we still had a great time. I was glad Erin got to get a taste of one of these Spanish festivals.

Another cool thing that happened that week was that Erin came with me to a Rotary Club of Sevilla meeting. It was a special meeting where the club hosted an important speaker, the grandson of Aníbal González. Aníbal González is a famous Sevillan architect that designed many impressive buildings in Sevilla in the early 1900's. Most famous and impressive of all is the Plaza de España, which is one of the major tourist attractions of the city. Aníbal's grandson has made it his life's work to research his grandfather's career as an architect. The talk was very impressive with lots of beautiful pictures (which I think helped Erin to understand a bit better, despite her problems with the Spanish language). I was most moved by the speaker's passion for his grandfather's work and really enjoyed hearing him speak.

Erin and I had a great week together, but when she left I had just 2 days before my dad arrived in Sevilla. He was on business in Europe and decided to pop down to spend my birthday with me in Spain! It was great to see him after having been apart for so long. My parents visited Sevilla several years ago, so he had already seen a lot of the main tourist attractions. This was nice for me, because we spent most of our time walking around, talking, eating, and relaxing.

This week I am finishing up my classes and all that is left is studying for exams! The Rotary District 2203 Conference is June 2-5, then I take my two exams and head home in mid-June. The time sure is flying by! Thanks for reading everyone