Portugal. Interesting trip. Our destination was the beach but we had awful rainy weather. Our hotel was right at Playa Algarve, which is absolutely gorgeous but would have been more so had we had nicer weather. One day we had sun for a few hours and that was lovely. It reminded me a bit of our family trips to Cayucos and the hikes we take along the coast. Lagos, the town we were in, was pretty small and there wasn't much to do. I was surprised by how different Portuguese sounds from Spanish. I can understand it alright when it is written, but spoken I have no clue. So we didn't really get to meet any native Portuguese people. I was hoping to meet some relatives :) We did have an INCREDIBLE meal one night. Usually Jackie and I hit up supermercados (grocery stores) and buy bread and meat for every meal to save money. So we did that the first day and then found out there were no refrigerators in the hotel. Let's just say I ate a lot of bread and meat that night. We decided to splurge and eat a nice meal. I got halibut and it was delicious. Our table was piled with all kinds of food. And our waitress gave us some wine on the house so that was nice and unexpected. But really I have little else to say about this trip. I wanted to buy some cool Portuguese stuff but the day we had to shop around was Sunday so all the cool stores were closed. Bummer.

We came back, had a day of school and then Feria began. Feria is crazy. It's basically a huge week-long party. My hostsister and her friends absolutely thrive on it. As do all the youth of Sevilla. There's one part of the Feria that's like any Ventura fair-rides, greasy food, middle school kids mackin on ferris wheels. Then there's the big, cool part-the casetas (tents). Tons of tents are set up and families can rent them out as a designated hang out place during Feria. The thing that sucks about it is that, if you don't know anyone with a caseta you can't get it. Fortunately for me, I have a bomb host family so we've been in tons of casetas. They are a blast. They all have a bar, food, and dancing. My favorite day was Tuesday when we went out with Maria, Charri and her husband Joselete. Maria is a really good flamenco dancer (which we've been told repeatedly by everyone who knows her /observed ourselves) and it was so fun to watch her dance with her dad. Charri even got in there and danced at one point. All the women are dressed in flamenco dresses and they all look so beautiful and colorful. I don't think I've ever just sat and watched people so much.

You all have probably heard about the volcano in Iceland that has caused epic travel woes. Jackie and I experienced some of this ourselves because our flight to France was cancelled. We were supposed to leave Tuesday night. Didn't happen. The main reason we were going was to see my favorite band, Mumford & Sons, perform live. But don't worry! I think it actually might work out for the best. I was a bit bummed to be leaving for Feria so at least we're not just stuck here with nothing cool going on. And I recently saw M&S are going to be playing in Rome next weekend so we're going to try and make that work. A dedicated fan I am. Plus Rome's amazing I hear.

So I can't not tell you guys about Semana Santa. It's a huge deal in Sevilla. It is celebrated the whole week before Easter. This was my Spring break so I missed most of it but I saw the most important days, Thursday through Saturday. Jackie and I got off the bus, dropped our stuff off and headed to the city center at 12am. It was hard to figure out where to go because we didn't have any Spaniards with us to direct us so we ended up wandering around looking for processions. What happens is every church has a "paso" or a float like thing with scenes of the Passion or Mary on them so they leave from their respective churches and all end up at the cathedral.

That night is kind of a blur for me because Jackie and I were so exhausted from our travels but we wanted to see as many of the processions as we could (they lasted from 10pm Thursday night until 2pm Friday so people don't sleep). But we ended up seeing quite a bit. It's a bit unnerving at first because the majority of what you see are people dressed up in what looks like KKK outfits carrying crosses and candles. Their outfits have nothing to do with the KKK, rather it's a simbol of penance and humility before God. Then every once in a while you will have the pleasure of seeing a paso. They are absolutely beautiful, all with different scenes on them and incredibly intricate. They require 40 men to hold them up from underneath!

There were SO MANY people there so it was really hard to see a lot of the processions. And there are special seats all along the center reserved for priveleged families to sit so everyone else just kinda has to stand in awkward places to watch. Near the end of the night I ended up climbing a tree to see better. We made it until 5am and then we crashed in our beds. We slept beautifully and then the next day we became honored Sevillanas. I will explain. My host sister Maria has a friend named Rocio whose family is very involved in Semana Santa (she is actually one of the nazarenos-KKK looking people). She is wonderful and she knew that we were alone the weekend (Charri and Maria had gone to Arcos) so she invited us to watch the processions with her-in the special seats!!! It was a really big deal. I felt like a celebrity. Rocio told us we were probably the only Americans to be sitting in the seats. It was so much fun because we got to meet a bunch of her friends and family and sit right in front of the processions. Much more comfortable.

Semana Santa is a beautiful thing to see in Sevilla, although it is much slower than I thought it would be. The majority of what you see are thousands of nazarenos walking and then pasos dispersed throughout the processions. But it's incredible to see how the people respond to the pasos. Many of them cry and they all stand up and become silent. It was a treat to see, and a beautiful way to spend a bit of Holy Week.I guess Easter Day isn't a big day to watch the processions which I thought was kind of funny because it's the most important day in our faith so I ended up going to church by myself. That was kind of sad but it was a great service. It was so crowded I ended up sitting behind the band, on stage facing the crowd. But from what I've observed here, Easter isn't nearly as big of a deal here as it is in the States. Interesting.

I'm back in school now, just celebrated my 21st birthday which was very fun. I'm headed to Portugal this weekend and then France the next week so I will have many more stories to tell soon!

Back in Sevilla! This past week I've been traveling for spring break. Jackie and I started in Barcelona where we met up with my friends Zach and Angie from Whitworth. We were pleasantly surprised to find that our hostel was literally right on the beach! Unfortunately the weather didn't permit us to enjoy it too much, we did have one nice day to soak up some rays. We did a lot in Barcelona but by far my favorite thing we saw was La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's cathedral that is still in the process of being built. In almost every one of my Spanish classes I've been shown pictures of Gaudi's work, but standing in front of it was a different experience altogether. It's unbelieveably massive. My eyes had a hard time figuring out it was 3D. We all were absolutely floored by it's size and by the detail. And they still have 16 more years until it's finished! Incredible. After googling it to learn more about the cathedral I read that Gaudi built it so it would be 1 meter lower than Barcelona's Montjuic mountain because he believed his work should not surpass God's. I thought that was neat.

We also went to Gaudi's Park Guell, Casa Batllo and Casa Mila. It was fun seeing them in person after seeing so many pictures. I would have loved to go inside but they all cost money so that was a bummer. One day we took a gondola up Montjuic and got a great view of the city from a fortress at the top. We had some unfortunate misunderstandings on our last day because we didn't realize that every museum in Spain is closed on Mondays which we had planned to be our museum day. And we were told (by our hostel) that the Magic Fountains (this huge fountain performance) happened every night after 7 so we went Sunday only to find out it was just on Fridays and Sundays. We all reeeeeally wanted to see it but I guess that just gives me another reason to come back :)

Monday we took a bus overnight up to Bilbao (very north of Spain) to save money on our hostel. Even though we were only in the city 2 days I really enjoyed it. It has a river and it's surrounded by big green hills. It made me realize how much I've missed greenery (Sevilla has very little). Bilbao is mostly known for the Guggenheim museum, which was the main reason we went. It was amaazing. Well, the outside at least. It has mostly modern art which can be pretty weird but the outside is incredible. We had some rainy weather but our day at the Gugg was nice and sunny. Throughout the trip we referred to it as the "Duganheim" because a friend of Jackie's thought that's what it was called. I just loved that. The second day in the city was really rainy so we ended up playing cards in random bars and cafes which ended up being super fun. We had some pretty intense games.

Zach and Angie headed back to Murcia Wednesday night while Jackie and I headed to San Sebstatian for a day trip. It's only an hour and a half bus ride away from Bilbao and we got an early start so we had a nice amount of time to spend there. It is absolutely GORGEOUS. The town is centered around a beautiful little cove with a little island in the middle and hills on each side. And the town itself is small and pretty with lots of little cobblestone streets and cute little shops. We both fell in love with it. First we walked up one of the mountains with a really cool fortress. It was a reat little hike right along the ocean. Then we walked all the way across the cove and walked up the other mountain. That was tougher but definitely worth it. We were so excited to reach the top but when we got there we had to pay to get in, which we did because we really wanted to see this castle tower at the very top. But it ended up being this cheap carnaval place where everything cost money and all the workers clearly didn't want to be there. I got pretty frustrated because I hate how people turn such beautiful, simple nature into money-making schemes. So we left pretty quickly. But it was still an awesome view.

We headed back to Bilbao that evening and then flew home to Sevilla. So nice to be back. I had a lovely time on this vacation. Not only did I get to see some of the most beautiful creations but I got to do it with wonderful friends who made it all so much fun. And we got to meet all kinds of people in the bars and cafes, something I love about Spain. People are very open and friendly here and it's so interesting to hear their stories. What an amazing time I'm having here :)