- Bea during breakfast, making fun of a very tired Katie who accidentally said 'atostumbrarte' (aka not a Spanish word) instead of 'acostumbrarte' in a pre-coffee sleepy stupor. This is funny because it's a pun on tostada, aka toast, and 'to become accustomed,' because we were talking about how cold it is here.
...jokes don't translate. never mind.
This past week has been incredible - basically defined by me shirking my duties to cram in as much as possible. After I got back from London, I went to the Cathedral on Tuesday evening to celebrate the Festival de la Inmaculada with Belen and Jose, which was so fun - everyone was gathered in the main square by the Cathedral, around a statue of the virgin Mary, where Los Tunos sang and performed. Essentially, Los Tunos are a combination between mariachi and acapella with a religious twist. The different troupes are formed from faculties in the university, social clubs, or smaller cities - we got our picture taken with a group from Malaga, who were a bunch of goofy teenage guys. Their costumes are also important to mention - they wear the Goya-esque three-pointed hat, breeches, and black capes with patches that look like girl scout badges, and of course sashes in colors that are particular to their troupe. When one group performed a song called "Clavelito," the entire crowd started to sway and sing along, and it was overall an atmosphere of quiet chatting and attentiveness. I know that this is kind of a lame description, but it's kind of hard to explain - it was so fun though! In the huge crowd, I couldn't really see, and Jose essentially forced me on his shoulders - luckily I wasn't the only one! Hahaha. The other wonderful part about that night was the gentle rain, which was just beautiful, and the newly-mounted Navidad decorations all over the Centro. There were lights strung between the streets, figurines of the Tres Reyes Magos, and eight-foot planters of pointsettias everywhere - definitely the most Christmasy it's been thus far.
I then had to force myself to study for my geography exam on Thursday, and when that was over, my friends and I went out for tapas on Thursday evening to celebrate. We went to a bar called Las Golandrinas, where I ordered pisto con bacalao (a white fish in ratatouille), and though I once again said that I didn't need anything to drink, was still brought a tinto from the waiter. Oh lord. Needless to say, it was a super relaxing little excursion, and a wonderful way to end the week.
On Saturday, I had more to look forward to - friends from Barcelona came to visit me, and I got to feel like an expert Sevillian and show them around! It also proved to be an excellent opportunity for me to see some sights one last time (tear...) - we hit up the Alcazar, toured the university, walked through the Murillo Gardens and Santa Cruz, got THE MOST AMAZING PAELLA in Arenal, saw the Hospital de la Caridad (which I had yet to see, and houses the awesome Valdes Leal paintings), and finally went to the Cathedral and walked around the centro. At the Cathedral, we saw a special performance put on by the kid's choir and the altar boys - they performed "the dance of the seises," and were dressed in little blue bull-fighting outfits with big feathered hats. It was one of the cuter things I've ever seen.
Sunday was the great decorating day here at home - we put up our nativity scene, which was quite the intricate process. They mounted some plywood on top of a cabinet, arranged old tree bark in the background to look like mountains, put up a night sky, and covered the board with sawdust, rocks, tinfoil, and a million tiny figurines that we had to unwrap (and reglue some appendages, in some cases). The funniest part to me was the figurine of an assassin with a bloody knife in his hand, holding a dead baby upside down - apparently this represents the decree that all babies were to be killed to prevent Jesus from becoming king. However, it still found a place in our scene amongst the pastors and peasants and chickens and lambs, and in the end it turned out quite impressive! :0)
That evening we got together with the entire Costas-Guerrero family one last time, which I now hold as one of my most wonderful memories from my stay here. They had all of us students go around and share our favorite memory with the family, mine of course being the day that Rocio and I went to the market. We munched on sandwiches, took about a million pictures and videos, danced, tackled eachother, laughed, and chatted - I love having experienced being a part of a big family. They're absolutely crazy! In the end, we all arranged ourselves in front of a self-timed camera to take a final family picture, which was quite the ordeal to organize with a million squirrely kids (and adults!). I love them all so much.
Well, I lament to say that I am DYING of cold here - suddenly the temperature dropped to a chilly 10 celcius, and the combination of our minimal heating in the house/nonexistent heating in the open-patio layout of the university means that I am only warm in a. my bed (occasionally) and b. the shower. I'm probably running up their electricity bill like whoa with my spaceheater, but as I'm typing this, my hands are still thawing. Forget that I'm from Colorado - I'll never boast again about my cold tolerance. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go hug my heater and put on a third pair of socks.
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