Papa Noel y Año Viejo

Most of my friends and I traveled back to our home countries for Christmas. Before left Spain, in several of my classes at the instituto I gave presentations on Christmas in the US and we talked about the differences between that and Christmas in Spain. One of the main activities for Spanish families on and around Christmas is to make a belén, or nativity. The belenes are a very big deal here. One of my students even said that he and his family go to the beach and lug buckets of sand back to their house to make a belén the size of a kitchen table out of it. At all the little Christmas markets you can find nativity figurines.

When I asked most of my young students at the Instituto what they wanted Santa, or "Papa Noel," to get them for Christmas, an IPad was definitely the most desired item. Also, a lot of the older students at the instituto told me that they rented a house together as a class to stay and party at over the break with no supervision! These are 16 and 17 year-olds! My parents would have never let me do this at that age. Lucky kids. Although, it is not too surprising--I have found that, in general, there is a lot less adult supervision over kids and teens in Spain than there is in the US. Also, drinking isn't as taboo (if at all) in Spain as it is in the US--drinking accompanies every major religious holiday and celebration and 'underage' drinking isn't really a thing. Drinking is more publicly sanctioned and in the open, and therefore is not seen as a big deal like it is in the US.

New Years Eve is called "Año Viejo" (Old Year). I talked with one of my adult students at the academy about how he celebrates this in Spain. Most eat dinner with their family and then go to be with friends later in the night. No one really starts drinking until AFTER midnight, which obviously is a huge difference, as here in the US everyone is usually already trashed when the ball drops. In Spain when the bell tolls midnight there are 12 strokes. On each stroke you are supposed to put a grape in your mouth--so 12 grapes. I asked several people "why the grapes?" and each just said that it was tradition. My student said that by the end of the strokes everyone is usually in fits of laughter with their mouths full of grapes. The secretary at my school asked what tradition we usually uphold when the clock strikes midnight. I told her that by then everyone is usually drunk and it is tradition to make out with someone standing near you. Ah well haha. Merry Christmas from the family!

A weekend in Granada

There is a national holiday in Spain two weekends before Christmas break starts and everyone has that Monday and Tuesday off of school or work (if your an English teacher you have off school AND work heh-heh). Spanards call these long weekends "puentes" which translates to "bridges"...I dunno. Anyways, some friends and I decided to make the trek to Granada for this weekend. Granada is a city in the mountains of Andalusia. Granada is well-known for being a young city because of its university and many people who study abroad in Spain end up here. Also, fun fact: Granada means pomegranate in Spanish. There is some mythical story that goes along with this about a princess that may or may not be true but I can't remember it sooooooooo, sorry! Either way, there is a lot of pomegranate decor around town and in a different season there would have been ripe pomegranates on a lot of the trees.

Granada is also a hippy-ish city. There are a lot of Rastas and alternative-looking folks. This probably has something to do with the liberal-student population. There are a lot of cool little hippy clothing and jewelry shops. Also, the Moroccan influence is strong here and there are a lot of food and souvenir shops of the like. This all contributes to the city's cool eccentric feel.



I really enjoyed Granada for all of the reasons above and because it seemed familiar in some ways.  It is a bigger, more crowded city than Huelva, which reminded me of auxiliary neighborhoods of NYC. Also, all the Christmas lights were up in the streets which gave me the warm-and-fuzzies of course. Spain likes the decorative light fixtures that hang above the streets. As far as I can tell there aren't so many string lights. Also, because of Granada's location, there are a lot of trees around and throughout the city. I didn't realize I missed seeing trees that weren't palm trees until this. It was great to see trees whose leaves had changed colors like in PA, since in Huelva there really is no fall. Also, the narrow cobblestone streets with the building walls closely crowded along reminded of Cuzco, Peru. Which I guess is no surprise since most of that architecture got there from the Spanish.



We walked around the city doing some shopping at the holiday booths and went out to some bars for tapas and beers at night. (In Granada, you get a free tapa with every drink!) We had to bundle because in Granada, it gets really freakin' cold at night! Most Spanish houses don't have heating so when we stayed with a friend in Granada in her big Spanish house, we were sleeping under many layers--it was frigid. In general, the city is beautiful but I definitely need to explore it more since we actually spent a lot of time outside of the city at the Alhambra and hiking (to be explained in another post).

Thanksgiving in Spain

As you know, Spain does not celebrate Thanksgiving. In a couple of classes at the high school I work at in Lepe I gave a little presentation about Thanksgiving. I talked and showed pictures about the fall weather in Pennsylvania, how the leaves change and what frost is like. I talked about football and the Macy's day parade, and of course about all of the food. Lastly, I recapped the main ideas about Thanksgiving, that is: peace, giving thanks and spending time with loved ones. I lead one activity in which I asked the students what they would have at their ideal Thanksgiving feast. For the second activity I asked the class what things they were thankful. The first three answers to this question were "dinero," "jamón"(ham) and "cars!" Yeeeeah..

This Thanksgiving was the first that I spent abroad and without my family. So, I was really happy when my two good friends, Jess and Jane, that live in the apartment above me hosted a big Thanksgiving dinner. Jess and Jane cooked the turkey and everyone brought a dish to share. I made pumpkin pies for the first time in my life and they turned out pretty damn good, if a little burnt, if I do say so myself. A shout out goes to Alex for bringing me pumpkin puré when he came to visit, because it is impossible to find here. There was about 20 or so of us in my friends apartment. Our Spanish, Italian and UK friends

got to benefit from our American and Canadian holiday. It was a good night of excessive food and drinks as it should be..

Setting our sights on the Mediterranean

From the first moment I laid eyes on the Mediterranean, I knew an indelible bond had been formed. I would always be drawn to this sea, always want its waves to crash around me, always want to bask in its wondrous sun beams.... just kidding. I first laid eyes on the Mediterranean through a veil of cold sideways rain. The wind was heartlessly wrecking our 5-euro-newspaper-stand umbrellas and eventually I gave up holding one at all. Huddled in our wet coats and gloves, Alex and I stood by the water, the sea and the sky both wearing similar shades of grey. The city of Barcelona stretches right up to the waters, and I am sure it is packed with beautiful people and sunshine in more favorable conditions.


Actually, wind swept through our coats and rain soaked our heads and feet the entirety of the weekend we spent in Barcelona. It made seeing and appreciating the city difficult because we were constantly shivering and stomping around in soggy shoes, seeking shelter in cafes and bars for 3 hour long 'bites to eat.' Although, during one of these lunches we enjoyed excellent paella, which Barcelona is famous for. I had fideua, a Barcelonian(?) version of paella; instead of rice it has thin noodles. I still think about how delicious this was from time to time.

We stole away from the rain in the Picasso Muesum, which was really great. It has hundreds of Picassos (if not more?). I thought it was really interesting to see his paintings from when he was still young and attending school. For example there were some self-portraits from when he was 11. They are stunning realist portraits--so different from the famous quirky, abstract Picassos we all know too well. The museum did a great job of showing how dynamic Picasso's career was;
from his younger realist works, to his blue period, to his bright, abstract paintings (including his forty some renditions of Velásquez's 'Las Meninas'). My favorite part of the museum was actually works done, not by Picasso, but by a photographer friend of his. This photographer gave the museum hundreds of black and whites he had taken of Picasso, his home, and Jacqueline, his second wife. These photos gave a window into Picasso's home life and intimacy with Jacqueline. It was cool to see his goofy smile candidly captured or a photo of him in his later years, shirtless, chubby stomach pushed forward as he slumps in front of a marked-up canvas. I liked seeing this side of him, rather than the way we are sometimes taught about artists, that is, as if they are aloof and untouchable people.

We also visited the History of the City museum which is an archaeologist's wonderland. Barcelona was first inhabited by Ibericos nativos and then it became a Roman city. The museum has countless artifacts from these periods. The best part is that they had excavated under the building that the museum is housed in, uncovering a portion of this old Roman city. You can walk through reading plaques about what different walls and rooms/buildings were. Good stuff.

Flamenco en Sevilla

Apparently, flamenco originated in Andalusia. It is extremely popular here. When I asked students their favorite hobbies at my school in Lepe, a large number of the girls (ranging from ages 11-16) said dancing, and more specifically flamenco dancing. It is something that a lot of kids learn here starting at a very young age. There are a few flamenco hubs in Huelva. I have been to a few bars where a flamenco show was happening, sometimes a scheduled band and other times a few men and women taking turns strumming the guitar and singing while friends clapped along. The dance is more complicated than it looks at first, because to the untrained eye it initially looks like some twisting of the wrists and lifting of the arms. However, there is organized steps as well, often hidden under the long skirts traditional flamenco performers wear. There is also different types of clapping that go along with the different flamenco songs. Audience members who know the clap participate. I, for one, watch and admire.

Sevilla is known for its flamenco. You can see it everywhere when you go there--there are posters for sale, sandwich boards advertising "the best flamenco show in town," flamenco music in bars and cafes and flamenco street performers. Alex and I stopped in Sevilla for a night before heading off to Barcelona a few weeks ago. We left the center of the city, crossing the bridge to see a flamenco show that a friend recommended. Both of us ended up being so glad we took her advice.

The show was wonderful. It was in a very "Spanish" bar--AKA I think we were the only non-Spaniards there, which was all the better in my opinion. The bar was decorated with the traditional ceramic plates and bowls hanging on the walls as well as pictures of saints and the regalia of decorated flamenco performers of the past in glass-doored wooden cabinets. There were about 40 or so straight backed wooden chairs huddled in a semi-circle around the all male band of singers, a guitarist and a drummer. We had to straddle and climb over other guests to squeeze into two seats somewhere in the crowd. The place was packed and the drinks were passed. (By the way American bartenders got nothing on the Spanish, the fill the class at least 1/3 or more of the way with the liquor before pouring in the mixer). The band was great and we were really enjoying ourselves. As they wanted, various people got up and danced flamenco in front of the band. One man in the band, referred to by our waitress as "el Gordo" was clearly the alpha singer. He stood while the band played for him and sang in the dramatic way of flamenco, looking as if he was pleading to some long lost lover. (If my spanish were better, I could tell you whether this was actually the case or not).

The true intricacy of the dance makes itself evident when you get the chance to see a partner dance. The organization of it all comes out here. The couple, usually a man and a woman, dance facing each other while a band plays. Every so often in the dance, and I not knowing much about flamenco can't tell you when it is, the couple swings around each other and switches sides. There is an exact timing for this, and if one didn't know the timing the two would certainly collide. But in all of the flamenco that I have seen, the timing has been precise, and the couple dips around each other with ease and expertise. With each verse the dancing finishes with the woman usually turning into the mans arms, her back to his chest and she flings her outside arm above her head, bent at the elbow in a dramatic pose. What I found most striking about the dance is how the couple barely touches each other, yet the level of intimacy is heightened even so. Even as they dip past each other to switch sides there is a small distance between their bodies. I kept on thinking of it as marble painting. Have you ever used the marble paints in art class where you had different colors that, because of something in their oily consistency, they never mixed but swirled around each other in a interesting design? Well, this is what the dance looked like to me--and I loved it!

The strangest cathedral I have ever seen

Alex and I went on an excursion to Barcelona last weekend and of course we went to Sagrada Familia, the famous cathedral that Antoni Gaudí designed. The cathedral is completely unique, and for the most part not at all what you expect churches to look like. The cathedral is also famously known as the cathedral that is never finished. I am not sure when the construction of Sagrada Familia began, but Gaudí died in 1926, and it is still being worked on today.

One facade of the cathedral is a strange mix of modern and earthy. Large sculptures of figures and events surrounding Jesus's suffering and death cover the large entrance area. These sculptures bring in the modern element--the are composed of smooth simple lines and the figures turn out to be rather crystalline. The supports around the entrances look like tree roots, or something more maluable-like. Maybe like in the pizza commercials when they lift a piece from the pie and the cheese stretches all gooey and such--or maybe that is a really stupid comparison. haha see for yourself.

The inside is the kicker. That's when the size of place hits you. The pillars and buttresses were sculpted to look like tree trunks and branches. The ceiling is covered in repeated, concave spiked circles to imitate a canopy of leaves. There are glowing orbs, looking like spores, in the tree pillars. It gives the place an almost alien feel. It's like a forest, but on another planet. Gaudí modeled his architecture from nature, and even noted the plant-life on the land before the construction of the cathedral and incorporated these elements into the building.

The other outside of the cathedral is astonishingly ornate. There are figures from Christ's life tucked in little decorated alcoves and arches on arches on more niches on those arches. It's definitely the strangest cathedral I have ever seen. It is a refreshing deviation from the normal gothic style. See it if you can.

Real Alcázar

I made another trip to Sevilla with Alex last Thursday-Friday. This time we went to visit the Real Alcázar, one of the oldest royal palaces in the world and originally a Moorish fort. The Almohades first built the palace near the end of the 11th century. It is simply incredible. We spend about 3 hours in the palace, but realistically, could have spent most of the day there.

It is huuuuge, for one. I had no idea about it's mammoth size until we were actually walking through, hallways sprung from hallways and rooms from those hallways and courtyards from those rooms and so on. The architecture is one of my favorite styles-it's mudéjar, a type of Iberian architecture. Basically it's got numerous columns and arches, the floors, doors, walls, arches and ceilings are covered in intricate carved or plaster designs that can make you dizzy if you stare at them too long. Which is actually kind of the point I think. I remember learning in one of my classes at the university that the typical intricate line designs of architecture associated with Islamic buildings was supposed to represent the complexity and beauty of God. The complicated designs were supposed to help you get lost, or meditate on the glory of God. Hmm, I can't remember exactly, but sounds good, doesn't it?

I think my favorite part of Real Alcázar was the gardens. It has huge walled-in outside gardens with fountains, stylized hedges, flowers, winding walkways, different trees, lawns, benches and small, intricately-decorated buildings scattered throughout. The different sections and gardens have their own names. Peacocks and other birds wander about. Also, there was a hedge maze--a hedge maze!! So cool. If we had planned the day better we could have walked around in the gardens for hours and taken a nap in one of the lawns.

Living near the beach

Huelva is not exactly on the beach, but it is close to many. In fact, from my piso's balcón, I can see the high rises of the beach condos at Punta Umbría. Punta Umbría is the most popular/commercial beach around here. Punta is only about a 20-25 minute bus ride from here. I have heard great things about several other less-traveled beaches in the area, but have admittedly only been to Punta.

For someone who has lived in land-locked Western Pennsylvania all her life, living this close to beaches was a big perk (and one of the original reasons why I put Andalusia as my preference when applying for this program). The last time I went on the trip to the beach was with Alex (friend from the US) a week and a half ago! So it was still nice enough out to go to the beach in November, which is fun to brag about. Admittedly, we ditched all crazy ideas about swimming when our toes touched the freezing water for the first time that day, but we still had a great time enjoying the sun and peace. I have gone swimming several times before then, however, and loved it. We are still on the Atlantic side over here. We play beach volleyball and always end up stopping for tapas at the cafe that is on the beach.

Punta is great for sea shells and coral. I have probably taken over a hundred home with me. My apartmentmates don't mind, as our apartment is still pretty empty, and the seashells are great poor people decorations.

Casual Meetings

For the private English lessons that I teach, I go to the students' apartments. One of my students, Cristina, is in her mid-thirties and guides trips for German and Spanish tourists (she speaks German too). I always enjoy our lessons because her English level is advanced. We sit for two hours a week and discuss whatever we want--sometimes it's about Spanish history, sometimes about the pro's and con's of bilingual education, and the latest, this Monday, was about the TV series Homeland and the media's obsession with vampires. Good stuff.

Anyways, it is about a 20 minute walk each way from her piso to mine. Along the way are numerous restaurants with their tables spilling out into the sidewalks. There is also this little section of metal booths and venders--mostly selling hippy jewelry and leather accessories. After my lesson with Cristina, I was perusing around here when two men who own one of these venders started a conversation with me, because, as the rightly guessed, I am not from around here. One is from Ecuador and the other is originally from Cameroon.

Even though I had no idea who they were 1 minute ago, we passed by most of the standard small talk and went straight into talking about serious issues. Like love. Like happiness. Like belief in afterlife. Like the right to bare arms. Like women's rights (well of course). They poured me out a beer from their storage of Cuzcampo 40s and we debated whether true happiness was possible without a partner, the nature of Latin American men and the best places to live as a woman. The man from Cameroon said that he used to want to move to America, but now he doesn't because from an outsider's perspective, the US is very violent. In Spain, on the contrary, people do not have the right to bare arms and do not have access to guns. The man from Ecuador is a classic romantic. He said he doesn't think one can be truly happy without a partner. He has been single for two years and is in search of a tranquil, strong woman to complete him. I stood outside at their counter for a good hour or so chatting. By the end of this hour I knew I had to get home to have some dinner and it was only then that I found out their names: Victor and Gaspar.

Scary Stuff

As my Spanish friend whom I give English lessons to told me, "Halloween" as a fun celebration didn't become a thing here until about 5 years ago. Halloween here is still very different than in the United States---it's actually about being scared. Imagine that. I have tried to explain to a few Spaniards that people in the US usually dress up in funny, silly, sexy or just plain stupid costumes. These Spaniards were very confused when I used a banana suit as an example of a common American costume. Even little kids in the US don't usually dress scary. Instead they are princesses or their favorite cartoon superhero. But here, in Spain, it's scary, or nada.

Despite this difference, my friends and I still wanted to use this semi-holiday as a good excuse to drink. We were motivated to dress up because the local cafe/bar was offering a pint of beer for one euro to anyone who dressed up. We painted our faces like the Dia de los Muertos masks and called it a night. That is a standard, easy costume in the US but it hasn't hit Spain yet. Most people were confused or slightly intrigued by our painted faces.

As I mentioned, Halloween in Spain is about being scared and is still mostly a kid or young teenager holiday (drunken college Halloween parties are just starting to pop up here). One of my private English lessons (clases particulares) is a 15-year-old-vampire-fantasy-loving girl. One time I asked her if she could open her own restaurant what would it be named and she replied "Restaurant of the Dead."After thinking that she would make an awful businesswoman she informed me that all of the waiters would be vampires but it would be a vegetarian restaurant (clever girl!). During the lesson we had before Halloween we practiced talking about our fears. I asked her if she was afraid of death and she answered (in all seriousness) that she was but if she would die by means of a vampire bite that would be a okay by her. hahaha, oh geez. Also, during this lesson we read a "spooky" Halloween tale called "The Vampire Hermit" (http://americanfolklore.net/halloween.html). I thought this story was really silly and ridiculous but when we read it together she actually got scared! I actually felt bad because she had previously told me she had been having scary dreams lately. Woops.

Well there you have it. In Spain Halloween is supposed to be scary. Hmmm...

Torbjorn Pedersen: Once Upon a Saga

Torbjorn Pedersen, or Thor, is from Denmark and is on a mission to travel every country in the world! All two-hundred-and-something of them! He is the one I mentioned in the previous post. Olivia and I met him at a hookah bar in Cordoba on Friday. Thor is being sponsored by the Red Cross and a few businesses. He is only traveling by airplane, train and bus--no planes. Thor investigates and writes stories about the Red Cross in every country he stops at. He also takes a little souvenir of sorts from each country and gives it to someone in the next, as well as takes a picture of the sunset and a picture of someone's eyes from every country to later compile in a collage collection. He is super nice and extremely interesting. What a life. He plans to do this all in 3-4 years and will be one of the only people to have ever traveled to every country. Here is the link to his blog and facebook group https://www.facebook.com/pages/Once-Upon-a-Saga/320287321444752 and http://www.onceuponasaga.dk/. You should follow him if you think this is as cool as I do! 

Adventures in Cordoba

This past weekend Olivia and I went to Cordoba! There is a bus that goes from Huelva directly there and the ride takes about 2 hours. For this trip Olivia and I tried out couch-surfing for the first time (https://www.couchsurfing.org/). It was definitely an interesting experience. On a short notice, a host from Cordoba named Ricky took us in for Friday and Saturday. He is from Britain and teaches English with Academia Britanica (one of the best, largest and oldest English academies).

Cordoba is a really cool historical city. It used to be one of the biggest and most important cities when the Ottoman empire still had control over a lot of the Iberian Peninsula. This means that the Arabic influence is very present in Cordoba and there are lots of old churches and other buildings such as a the ruins of a Roman temple.
This is Calle de las Flores in Cordoba >>

Upon our arrival Olivia and I wandered around the city center and ate some dinner at Cien Montaditos (100 Sandwiches). We found one of the main plazas in the city and had a little botellon there with our favorite Don Simon white wine. We then met our generous host and went out with him for some night life in the city. We first went to a hookah bar where we met an American working in Madrid and her Spanish boyfriend and a man named Torbjorn Pedersen. Meeting this guy is a crazy awesome story that I will write a separate blog post on! We then proceeded to drink the night away at a few different bars around the city until 7am as is the Spanish style of partying. On a side note, for reasons unknown Spaniards love the musical Grease and at several different outings at bars/clubs I have heard the sound track play. Puzzling.

We slept in too late that Saturday but still managed to visit the Mezquita. The Mezquita is amazing! When the Arabs ruled over Cordoba they built a mammoth mosque. It's decoration is extremely intricate and ornate and the columns and arches seem to multiply endlessly, as if you are looking at them by a series of mirrors. You should just google image it, it's amazing. But that's not it--when the Christians took back control of the area they built a large cathedral inside of the mosque! The cathedral is incredibly ornate and beautiful as well. So the building is a very odd combination of Muslim and Christian elements. My description doe not even come close to telling about the place.

We also had to try the Salmorejo since Cordoba is famous in Spain for it. Salmorejo is a popular Spanish dish that is usually a thick garlic tomato soup. We ordered a traditional Salmorejo and an asparagus and jam flavored one as well. They were both wonderful. We also stopped at another restaurant that a Spaniard recommended for us. Salinas is known for its high-quality traditional food. It was great and the waiter gave us a complementary glass of the house's sweet wine which is always a plus!

Teaching: A New Thing

I am here through the Auxiliar de Conversación program. With this, I was randomly assigned to a school in the Huelva province. My school, La Arboleda, is an instituto, which is roughly equivalent to a high school in the US. The students range from about 12 to 16 years old. After students graduate from here they have the option to go to a "college" which consists of a 2-year education in a specialization. After this, they can go even further which their education if they choose.
La Arboleda is one of the biggest school's in the Huelva province, which has made my job pretty complicated at times. It is large enough that there should be multiple auxiliares, but since the crisis, they only have me. This means that I work with nine different teachers in a range of subjects: history, science, math, technology, music, social science and physical education. Some of these teachers have different classes with each of these subjects. In effect, everyday varies a lot for me. My role in the classroom is an assistant teacher. I am only to speak English with the teachers and the students to help them speak and understand the language better. All of the teachers and students I work with are part of a bilingual program at my school. For the classes that I am in the teachers teach the class in their subject in English. I usually read the materials or present the lesson for the day and lead activities with the students. Some classes go better than others. In some classes the students do not care to learn or are too timid to try to speak in English, so the class seems to drag on with little participation and energy. Other classes are better, these are usually with the younger kids who are more excitable or with the oldest students who have a higher level of English. I am still trying to get used to this work. It is out of my comfort zone to be in front of the class, especially if the class is struggling to understand my English.

I also teach English at an academy in Huelva called Kedaro. This is an adult class of A2-B1 level English speakers. I usually enjoy this class. The students are my age or a bit older so we can joke and connect more easily. For this class I am teaching out of the Cambridge English book. I feel more like a teacher here.

And lastly, I teach 3 private English classes where my students either come to my apartment or I go to theirs and we have 1 hour twice a week practicing English conversation and grammar one-on-one. So far I am enjoying these as well. The hour goes quickly.

So English, English, English--this is my life here. I swear sometimes I wake up at night thinking that people need me and are asking me questions about how to say things in English or about grammar. It's silly but true! I have never thought about grammar so much in my life.

Sevilla

My friend Olivia and I decided to do a day trip to Sevilla. Sevilla is only an hour away from Huelva by bus. So after a late start due to a late night before, Olivia and I set out. We heard that there was an international food festival going on so obviously that was one of our top priorities. We grabbed a map at the bus station and began showing ourselves around the city, starting with a walk along the river park to the Torre del Oro (Tower of Gold/Gold Tower) which is an old military watch tower that the Ottoman Empire built in the 13th century. From there we walked into the city winding through cafe tables and shops until we made it to Plaza de España. Plaza de España! It was beautiful and huge. It's basically an enormous half circle government building full of columns and arches. There is a large fountain in the middle, and a canal that wraps around the inside where you can be all romantic and rent row boats. There are ornate bell towers that come up from the middle and both sides of the wrap around building and bridges that stretch across the canal. One of the most striking things about the plaza is the tile work. The cool tile design is everywhere: railings, posts, the ground, walls, etc.

We spent a lot of time wandering and taking pictures here then headed over to the food festival. This was great. There were kitchens from dozens and dozens of countries set up in the park. Olivia and I tried Indian, Mexican, Peruvian and South African. At the South African stand there we ordered a Montadito de Cebra (Zebra sandwich)! The menu at the USA kitchen was interesting; it had chicken nuggets, fries, hotdogs, and "Obama ribs" as the options. After vegging out here we explored the city more.
Sevilla is beautiful. It is a bit bigger than Huelva and has all of the beauty of Huelva x 50. We wandered through narrow corridor streets no wider than a normal hallway where plants and flowers hung down from balconies and stopped in shops that popped up along the way. Sevilla is known for its flamenco and we got to watch a few street performers put on a little show. Sometime I will have to stay the night and see a full flamenco show. Finally we stopped at the cathedral. This cathedral is the largest in the world, volume-wise. Its enormity is impressive. A wedding was happening when we visited but we still got to walk inside a little. The other famous site in Sevilla is an old Ottoman palace. Unfortunately is was closed by the time Olivia and I arrived. We still got to wonder around the outside its walls and towers.
After missing our bus we waited around in a park having our own little botellon (a common thing in Spain where young people drink in parks with friends. Sometimes these are really big and organized) with a box of Don Simon wine.  :)

Graffiti

Despite the small town feel of Huelva, there is a lot of interesting graffiti around. A Huelva-famous artist who goes by the name of Man-O-Matic, does incredible graffiti. He has a lot of beautiful, realistic portraits about and business's commission him to paint their garages and doors. I also visited El Parque Alfonso Sanchez the other day. It is an incredibly strange park. It is an enormous and consists of ramping cement tiers that raise up and culminate into a kind of lookout walkway that one can get a pretty good view of Huelva from. Not only is it's structure strange, but it looks like a place completely abandoned. All the cement walls are covered in years of graffiti, plants and small trees grow up out of cracks, and beer bottles and other debris little the area. I was told that big concerts happen there in the summer but it was hard to picture the place being used by anyone. However, I did like the place a lot; the graffiti was fun and the grungy aesthetic is cool to look at.

Other nice little things..

There is a neighborhood in the city center of Huelva called Barrio Reina Victoria. It's quite odd actually. It's located on a hill top and sectioned off by a low wall and gates. All the residences here are small old British style houses, with little verandas with overgrown flowers and climbers and little streets. Everything seems miniature. As the story goes, way back in 'the day' during Queen Victoria's reign, this neighborhood was built to house poor British mining families that worked in Huelva. Now, the Barrio Reina Victoria is a site to see and an expensive little neighborhood to live in.
Also, one evening I took myself on a little walk down to Muelle de Riotinto, which is a kind of long pier that curves out into the Rio Tinto. Beyond the Rio there are a lot of marsh lands and eventually the Atlantic coast. At sunset this place is gorgeous. I took a breather here and read my book for an hour or so.

Cristóbal Colón

I was shocked when I experienced Christopher Columbus day here. Back in the US, it is just another great little holiday to have off of work. Here, in Huelva, October 12th is a big celebration. Little did I know before I moved here, but Christopher Columbus/Cristóbal Colón spent time in Huelva and actually embarked from here in the three ships to America! There is a museum about the discovery of the Americas and 3 ships docked nearby that are recreations of Columbus's three ships. These recreations actually sailed the route to the US on the 500-year anniversary of Columbus Day. I also had the opportunity to visit an old monastery nearby that Columbus stayed before he left on his voyage. The monks of the monastery helped and gave advice to Columbus. The monastery still has some original frescos and 4 monks still live there and maintain the place. It's very beautiful.

Huelva

I haven't talked about Huelva yet. I love the town so far. I guess it is technically a small city. Coming from living in New York the past 4 years, I was afraid I would dislike living in a city as small as Huelva, but so far, I like it a lot! It is big enough that if you want to go to other parts of the city you need to take a bus, or go for a pretty lengthy walk. On the other hand, the city center is small enough that you can walk across it in 20 minutes. Huelva is my first taste of a European city, and I think it's beautiful! I think the European aesthetic is more beautiful in general. There are lots of older buildings everywhere, no skyscrapers here, and all the buildings have lots of balconies with plants dangling down and beautifully designed tile walls or detail. There are numerous plazas and small parks, palm trees, and several old churches. In the city center, the streets are for walking and socializing, not for cars. In some of the older buildings you can see the Arabic aesthetic influence, which I love. The streets are all stone brick and cafe tables sprawl out into the streets everywhere. On a more general note, never having been to Europe and coming from the US, it seems to me that this city has a old European romantic feel. It is pretty family oriented and cute old folks stroll down the street or smoke cigars on one of the many street-side benches chatting about whatever it is that cute old people chat about.
There is one cafe which quickly became a regular haunt for us-Bar Aqua-it has wifi for one, every Tuesday there is a language exchange where people from all over come together and practice speaking different languages with each other, every Wednesday there is trivia, and every Thursday its is board game night. We are now on first name basis with the wait staff, so we feel extra cool when we go in there haha. Also, the food and drink in Huelva are cheap and it is totally acceptable to get a wine or beer (or two) casually at any time during the day.
This type of street layout (that is, for walking and gathering at cafes) really reflects the 'slowness' and socially-focused nature of the Spanish culture. As an American coming from the North East, this really stuck out to me. In general, things move slower in Spain, everything takes longer to get done, but there is a really refreshing social intimacy that comes out of this. It is the norm to get desayuno/breakfast (consisting of a cafe/coffee and tostada media/half a toasted bun with oil and a tomato based sauce--the Spanish think eggs for breakfast is ludicrous haha) at a nearby cafe anytime between 9-11, head to work until siesta at 2-5/5:30 during which everything besides cafes shut down, and return to work until close around 9pm. Dinner is at 9. This style work day has the effect of some inefficiency (as we unhappily experienced trying to get things fixed in our apartment) but one has to wander if Americans were more like this, would we be a little less neurotic?

The Hunt Commences

The hunt for a apartment (piso) began. Miriam and I decided to join forces for this battle. We copied numbers down from "Se Aquila" signs throughout Huelva, snatched slips from advertisement posters on doors and lampposts and messaged people advertising pisos on apartment-renting sites online. We went on piso visits and once again, THANK THE LAWD I had Miriam there to communicate with the Spaniard landlords. Miriam is completely fluent; she majored in Spanish, studied abroad in Argentina, and did a similar teaching program to ours in Chile this past year. At one of these visits we met Illaria. Illaria is a super friendly Italian who is also in the program. She was visiting the same apartment as us one day. We got along immediately and exchanged contact information and considered moving into an apartment together if we found one available for three. And that we did.
Alas, as fate would have it, after a week of tiring ourselves traversing this unfamiliar city looking at apartments we were not too excited about, we settled on an apartment directly below Jess and Jane's in the same building, with almost the same layout exactly: C/ Marina 29, 9A - Huelva, Spain 21001 (if anyone wants to send me cookies feel free). The piso is in the center of town and has a nice balcony that looks out onto the sunset and Rio Tinto. There was a slight catch to finally locking down this apartment, however: it did not have electricity, internet nor hot water when we first moved in. Jacabo, our initially charismatic landlord but whom we will learn to scorn, predicted we would have these things up and running in three days. Little did we know at first, but this was a Spanish three days, which in actuality turns out to be more than two weeks! We spent the first two weeks in our cool new apartment using candles for light after sundown and still relying on Jess and Jane for hot showers and a place to charge our phones. Not an ideal start. Although we still have candlelight dinners sometimes when feeling nostalgic for old-times sake.

Cheers to Being Clueless and Receiving the Saving Graces of Others!

Okay! After three flights (Pittsburgh to Washing D.C. to Frankfurt to Faro), 24 hours in the air and airports, two bags of trail mix, a bowl of miso soup in Frankfurt, only a few hours of off and on dozing, I arrived perfectly sweaty and delirious in Faro, Portugal on the pleasantly sunny morning of September 24th. (Hats off to the German Airlines Lufthansa; I got to watch Star Trek 2, eat two meals, and enjoy three glasses of wine and one glass of Baileys on the house!).
My checked suitcase came through (Thank god!) and I wandered through the airport out to where I believed and hoped the bus would arrive that would take me to the bus station where I could catch a ride into Spain. To my slight relief, there were others waiting cluelessly as well; we were all doing our rounds back and forth from the bench to the bus map and exchanging "welp, I hope this works!" looks. The bus eventually came and a nice woman I was sitting next to directed me about which stop to get off on to get to the station. The open-air bus station in Faro was buzzing with humidity. I bought my ticket, sat down on a bench next to a smelly garbage can, rested my head in my arms on top of my suitcase and proceeded to fall in and out of sleep for the next three hours until my bus arrived.
The ride into Spain was pleasant--the part that I remember that is, for I fell asleep almost immediately. When I woke, I asked the woman next to me "Cuál es el nombre de esto ciudad?" to which she replied "Ayamonte." Ayamonte is a pretty little white-washed city very near the Spain-Portugal boarder on the Spain side--I was on my way. Huelva came about an hour later. A friend of mine, Miriam, whom I only met via facebook the week before met me at the station and brought me to another friend's apartment. By another friend I mean another person I met on facebook the week beforehand. Jess and Jane! Our Saviors! Jess and Jane are two second-year auxiliares with the program. They graciously allowed Miriam and I, mere first-years, to crash with them for the first week while we scrambled for an apartment. So my first experiences in Europe and Spain are all defined by my own cluelessness and other's willingness to help me--from the women on the buses, to  Miriam (Miriam is from Philadelphia), to Jess and Jane allowing two strangers to sleep and eat in their apartment. I feel very lucky; things came together, I met nice people and I survived the trip and my first days in Spain.