Ginormous Post

Hey ya'll.  Haven't written in a while - these have definitely been the 2 busiest weeks everrr...thus, lots of updates so proceed with caution.


Carnaval
Last weekend, we had the opportunity to attend Europe's 2nd biggest carnaval - appropriately named Carnaval located in Cadiz, Spain.  It's basically like Halloween in Madison on steroids - as if the entire Madison CAMPUS (not State Street) is crowded with people.  Everyone dresses up like on Halloween as well.  I went as a hippee where as other people in our group went as gypsies, french maids, guidos, etc.  Aside from losing some of the people in our group and dealing with people puking on the bus, it was a fun night! (Although I have zero pictures to prove it)


Gymkhana
Our program is doing a scavenger hunt where we have to find all of these somehow relevant places around the city, take pictures in front of it and turn it in for points.  My group and I ventured into the rain (the 3rd rainy day of what was soon to be many) in efforts to get some early points on the first weeks missions.  We're not striving to be the best - only 2nd best - the 2nd place prize is a spa day for the whole group...sign me up please.  


Cuaresma (Lent)
As you all know, Lent started this past week.  We decided to celebrate Fat Tuesday since a friend's boyfriend was visiting from the States - so we of course had to show him how Sevilla-Americana life is (Fundicion, Betis).  After class on Wednesday morning, I decided that going out on a school night isn't really my cup o tea.  On Ash Wednesday, I walked about 45 minutes in the cold rain to go to mass, but never ended up finding the Church.  That was fun.  Speaking of fun, I had a blast telling my senora that I couldn't eat meat on Ash Wednesday and all the Fridays during Lent.  After mucho tiempo debating whether I should ask her if this would be possible or not, I decided to give it a go.  Of course, her political/arguing self started ranting about "los catolicos de los estados unidos son tan antiguos" (the Catholics in the US are so old-fashioned) and brutally asked me why the Pope and the fathers can eat meat, but I can't.  All I wanted to do was tell her to PIPE DOWN and to stop being so closed-minded when it comes to cultural differences.  
Also, I ventured to La Catedral this morning before class to attend a mass.  La Catedral is the 3rd largest church in the world (so I've heard) so they have about 7 or 8 masses every day.  It was extremely eye-opening going to mass and hearing everything in a different language.  I figured I would at least have an idea what was going on since it would be the same concept but boy was I wrong.  I had to awkwardly look around constantly to see if I was behaving/reacting in the normal way (ie. when you get Communion here, they put it straight in your mouth, not in your hands).  Being here has made me want to be more involved with my religion, so one of my Lent resolutions is to go to mass every week and I'm hoping I'll get into the swing of things sooner rather than later.  Another interesting note is that the mass only lasted 25 minutes.  My senora almost went on another rampage when I told her that masses at OLOL lasted almost an hour and a half.  I'm starting to think I should just keep our conversations to the weather... 


Actividad de Finanzas
For our classes here, there are required activities that we have to go to in order to get full participation points for our final grade.  We had our finance activity this past Friday where we took a bus to a family-owned company based in Sevilla called Cafe AB.  It was interesting to see the business aspect of one of Spain's most  popular traditions.  We toured the warehouse and also the store and even got some free coffee!  Fun fact: the most expensive coffee in the world is a type where a certain animal (forgot what kind) eats the fruit of a coffee plant and digests the coffee beans.  His digestive fluids give the beans this insanely rich flavor so companies go out and collect this animal's feces, wash it and use the beans for coffee.  LOCO!  I wonder how they figured this out in the first place.  Anyway, this coffee costs over 600 euro/kg.  


Cordoba
Much like our day trip to Cadiz, our program ventured to Cordoba this past Saturday.  It's a small town about 2 hours northeast of Sevilla.  And just to get an idea of how beautiful Cordoba is, it's currently a candidate for Europe's Cultural Capital for the 2016 election along with 5 others.  We got to see the amazing Mezquita/Catedral and la Juderia (old Jewish neighborhood).  Kind of cool because I learned in one of my classes that Cordoba was taken over by Muslims in 1492 - which was evident in the architecture of the Catedral.  The picture below shows all of the arches in the Catedral - no two are the same and the bannisters are actually leaning (our guia compared them to the Leaning Tower of Pisa) We then had free time to eat our bocs (bocadillo = sandwich), get some yummy ice cream (the ice cream here is really growing on me - definitely better than in the US...) and wander around and take pictures.  I still hadn't received my new camera at this point, so all pictures on here are taken from others.

Midterms
This week is our midterm week.  Yay.  Despite the 7 straight days of rain, I still cannot seem to concentrate for longer than 5 minute on studying.  I finally hiked (and by hiked, I mean walked 5 minutes in the pouring rain) to the library and buckled down.  Not sure if my Spain version of "buckling down" is going to suffice for 5 finals in 30 hours but that's a risk I'm willing to take.  We've heard that since these tests are in our 2nd language, they understand that it's a little harder so they make the tests a little easier...and I'm hoping that remains true.  None the less, I am fully equipped for exam week - thanks to my mother dearest who sent me the MOTHER OF ALL CARE PACKAGES...yayyyy for the biggest bag of Peanut Butter M&Ms you can imagine, fun size chocolates, Jelly Bellies and Oreos.  (In addition to a new camera, clothes from my closet (sick of my clothes here already) and a calculator (the lack of has slowed me down quite a bit in finance class).  

Final Thoughts/Comments
1.  Hidden Valley Ranch should really establish themselves in the salsa (dressing) market here - I've had enough of the lettuce with tomatoes and vinegar/oil!  Every time I get yet another salad, I want to pull my hair out.  I truly believe I will turn into a head of lettuce any day now.  Por favor, dame el Ranch!
2.  End of midterms + St. Patty's Day on Thursday + Irish Pub = __________
3.  This Friday will mark 8 weeks left here....unbelievable.
4.  I may have to take the leap of faith and ask my senora to start serving me less food.  She always prepares and serves me so much food and since I often times eat earlier than the others due to class, I don't want it to go to waste or seem ungrateful so I just eat it.  The reason I haven't said anything earlier is because I'm nervous that once I say something, she won't give me enough food and then I'll feel stupid asking for more after I already told her to give me less.  But, this is becoming a problem.  For those of you who know me (and you don't necessarily have to know me well), did you ever think you would hear me say the words "too", "much" and "food" in the same sentence?  Neither did I.  She'll probably go on a rant once I ask for less, but I'll keep you posted :-/
5.  Getting very excited for this summer - CUSA, Summerfest, tubing, cookouts, farmers markets, you name it, WE'RE DOING IT, my friends!  It's a shame that adulthood doesn't allow for summer vacations.
6.  Thoughts and prayers go out to Austin Bice and his family.  (Study abroad student from California who was found dead in the river in Madrid after missing for a week)...also everyone in Japan.  Tomorrow is no guarantee so don't waste today!

That's all for the massive upload...

Peace and blessings.

Peace. and. blessings.