Semana Santa, Feria, y Más

I have a whole lot to write about from the past few weeks, but before I get to that, I have to say that I am absolutely fascinated by watching kids learn English. I just got back from observing a small class of second-graders, courtesy of Karen, the English teacher from the daycare. They weren't doing anything that sounds particularly exciting on paper, but experiencing it is a totally different story. The kids don't know very much English yet- they're still learning basic things like "What is your favorite color?",  "I am from Seville," "What's the matter?" , and "My birthday is in May." Even so, the class is taught entirely in English, which really makes you realize how much we can communicate with body language alone.

It was such a strange feeling, having not just Spanish-speakers but seven-year-old Spanish-speakers be the ones to break the very language barrier between us that I'm always trying to break myself. It's really exciting to watch them learn and use words that I recognize as my own language. Had I encountered any of these kids on the street or in a park today, I would have been the one trying to keep up with them, praying to be familiar with whatever vocabulary they might choose to use. But in an English classroom, they are the brave ones who are there to try to form odd-sounding sentences and words in order to communicate with me. I know that was a statement from Captain Obvious, but it's difficult to describe the feeling it gives you, having a girl who doesn't speak English carefully ask you "Where are you from?," or watching them hop out of their chairs when you say "Stand up!", or pat their tummies and yell "Tummy!" after you silently show them a flashcard with the word on it. IT'S SO COOL THAT THEY UNDERSTAND!!

Okay, moving on from my happy obsessive teacher moment...

Since I last posted, I've basically had two Spring breaks separated with one week of classes. The first was Semana Santa, aka Holy Week, and this past week was Feria de Sevilla, aka the Seville Fair.

Semana Santa is known mostly for its processions through the streets. There are a lot of them- 60 in Sevilla according to Wikipedia- and they each have their own route, beginning from their own church, then passing by the cathedral (usually) and ending back in their church. Though some are accompanied by brass bands and candies are handed out to children, the processions are not at all your typical happy, energetic parades. They are done as an act of penance with a solemn atmosphere. The nazareños typically carry either a candle or a cross, and the costaleros are at the tail of the procession walking under an elaborate wooden float that they carry. Many are barefoot, and as for how they dress...

It's not what it looks like!! They wear penitential robes and conical hats that conceal their faces, but no, they are not the KKK. From my understanding, the KKK basically stole the look from the nazareños and made it look bad.

The robe colors vary based on their cofradía.

It rained here for a lot of Semana Santa, so many of the processions had to be canceled. There was one day, however, where I was out wandering the city and got caught between a bunch of them on my way home. I had to seek alternate routes everywhere I went and ended up getting lost for three hours. (Clearly I inherited my dad's sense of direction.)

On to the cheerier of the Spring breaks...

Illumination of the fairground entrance- the opening of feria

The entrance is at the end of my street. It was packed every night.

Half of feria is what you think of when you think of a fair- overpriced but delicious unhealthy food, games with obnoxious stuffed animal prizes, and rides lacking in the safety harness department. The other half of the fairgrounds is the more traditional, sevillano part. The roads are lined with casetas (party tents, but more sophisticated), most of which are nicely decorated and privately owned within families and such, others bigger and open to the general public. People dress up for the event, usually in traditional flamenco dresses or suits, and do a whole lot of eating, drinking, and dancing. In a way it was the real-life display of a stereotypical image of Spain. There are also carriages all over the streets of Sevilla, with horses wearing jingle bell-adorned harnesses.

Chocolate and white chocolate-drenched gofre.

Feria ended last night with fireworks over the river at midnight, signaling that it's my last week here and time to study for finals. This is enough catching up for tonight, but in the next couple of days I'll be writing again about my trip to Gibraltar, seeing a flamenco show, and all kinds of other good stuff to summarize my views on my semester as a whole!

Mullet count : 27