It has been a LONG TIME! Haha. So much has gone on! School was coming to an end (hence the busyness)…and now I am SO happy to say that it is DONE. Hallelujah. I couldn’t stop repeating that fact on the last day of school, after I finished my art history exam on a beautiful, sunny day. But here I sit on the bed in the basement of an Italian family’s home in Lecco, Italy. Summer has begun, and boy, is it sweet so far. Brynn, a good friend of mine, has planned our entire Italy trip, and thanks to her, we have hit the JACKPOT. She found Pietro, a 19 year-old guy on couch surfing, and so we are staying with him and his family for three nights. For free! I recommend couch surfing to anyone. He has been so nice, and we’ve just had two of the most wonderful days here. We just got back from a long hike up mountains that Lake Como surrounds. Imagine a huge lake with reddish-roofed houses sitting along the contours of this lake. Beautiful. And the weather—spectacular. Yesterday we walked in the rain around their neighborhood, getting to know Pietro and his lovely 16 year-old sister, Serena. And last night their aunt Rosana, who had come down from Switzerland, cooked us a delicious meal of breaded pork chops, fresh salad, bread, a big block of cheese, and strawberries and ice cream. Yum!
But before we get to into our Italy trip, I want to catch you up on Sevilla and how it ended up. School got busy, but not bad at all. All of Semana Santa, or holy week that leads up to Easter Sunday I spent in Sevilla, which was a good time to get work done while everyone was taking vacations. Also, I got to spend good quality time with Ana, my Spanish friend who is going to App State this fall (!) and my Spanish intercambio (or English learner partner through school), Laura and their friends. Semana Santa is a HUGE deal in Sevilla and in other parts of Spain. There are large, heavy pasos (or floats) that are incredibly intricate, and they are literally carried by strong, stubby men underneath throughout the streets. A band of trumpeters and drummers follow them, along with other Ku-Klux-Klan looking Nazarenos, who walk and carry crosses to supposedly gain penitence for their sins. This entire presentation is practiced during the course of the entire year for just this one week. It is an important part of their culture, especially for the really religious people, as the pasos carry sculptures of Jesus and Mary and are named according to a certain theme of the crucifixion/resurrection scene. It was very interesting to watch among the really crowded people!
Then Mom, Dad, and Mr. and Mrs. Nierste all came to visit me! Or rather, I was their excuse to travel throughout some of Spain and Portugal haha. We had a delightful time. My favorite part was taking a ride through Sevilla with them on a horse and buggy. I had the challenge of translating for them what Ricardo, our “driver” was telling us about the history of the different sites. It was really good practice and such a relaxing ride. We went out for tapas and ice cream, I showed them the street I live on (my favorite street so far in Sevilla), and we saw flamenco at my favorite venue! It was really cool to show them around “my” city and spend time with them.
Morocco came next!! It’s funny; I really never had the desire to see Morocco until hearing multiple times about how cool it was. So Max, Brynn, and I all went during Feria, which I’ll get to later (yet another vacation week off—there’s so much time off in Sevilla for these celebrations!). We flew there and spent two nights (one full day) with a family who is mutual friends of Max. Good people! Three very smart, home schooled kids. The parents are from the States, but have lived and raised kids in Casablanca for the past fifteen years! It was cool to spend time with them over lunch, a traditional meal called tajine, with potatoes, veggies, and chicken, all in a huge pot that you use bread to eat it out of. Also, we got to see a market, and the dad brought us to see a mosque, the second largest in the world! It was beautiful, and so was the weather. Then we were off to Marrakech, which was so so cool. That was quite the cultural experience. Markets swarming with people, Moroccans trying to sell you henna, orange juice, spices, clothes, meals… left and right. From mosques everywhere you can hear prayer calls throughout the day. Vibrant colors of the spices and clothes, crowds, smells of flat bread and spices—this place was busy, stimulating, lively, hectic, and fun. I absolutely enjoyed this place. I recommend it very much! It’s a different world, just a little ways away from Spain!
We came back in time to see a little bit of Feria, and boy was that fun. This holiday has historical roots, mimicking the gypsies of long ago who sold livestock from their homes that resembled tents. So right by my apartment is where this takes place, a huge area of tents that are uniquely decorated like houses called casetas. These are either private or public, and Brynn, Kristen, and I were invited to go into Ana’s private caseta, where her family goes, and everyone orders classic Spanish food and drinks (which we did—delish!). There’s music and Sevillanas, which is their type of flamenco dance that the whole world seems to know from birth. Most people are dressed up, especially the women, who wear long dresses with lots of fabric, long, dangly jewelry, and their hair up with big flowers in it. Very fortunately, the mom whose son I teach English to GAVE me her flamenco dress!!! Can you believe that? So the night I got to go the Feria I wore it, and after the caseta, our whole group and I went to a different caseta and danced the night away; I was there until almost 3:30 am! It was a BLAST.
Then…my friend Caitlin came! (Some of you know her as Wotan haha.) And this was very, very nice. She is my friend from high school and college, but ironically, her visit was the most amount of time we have ever hung out. We took walks, showed her that same flamenco venue, had tapas, I took her to our friends’ picnic in Sevilla’s largest park, we had ice cream at Rayas, the best ice cream I’ve had in Sevilla…we just had a good time, with lots of good conversation. Also, one day we went to Ana’s house (Kristen, Brynn, Caitlin, and I), and Ana taught us how to make Spanish tortilla and salmorejo, a cold tomato soup. We feasted and had a great time. She was such an easy guest to have, and fortunately, her hostel was literally two minutes from my apartment! She says that that was her favorite weekend in Europe so far, and that makes me so happy! Right now she is studying in Copenhagen, Denmark for a semester and is loving it. It was so cool of her to come visit!
The semester ended bitter-sweetly. I don’t consider my adventure to be over, since I’m in Italy right now, and Scotland is to come (! Unbelievable!), so I won’t go into the reflective state just yet. But school was a really good experience, I think, and the exams ended just fine (which is a miracle…I really had not much motivation to study super hard). The other night we went out to some bars and just danced so much. At the end of the night, the dj played “Thriller”, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”, and other oldies…literally the PERFECT end of the night. I got so into it haha. The office of foreign exchange students (they are SO nice and good to us!) planned out an end of the year party at Isla Magica, a theme park! So all of us foreigners went there and had a blast riding the rides. Then we had tapas and just mingled and then after a while, we said our long good byes, some of which were really bittersweet for me. But I hope to see people again; it’s cool, we now have friends all over the country!
Well, it’s about time for dinner, and Pietro is upstairs, probably ready to start cooking. So bye for now, lovely people! Stay tuned, and thanks for stopping by!
