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!