16.4.09.
Finished for the week and finally have some time to write about Semana Santa.
Semana Santa is the week before Easter and started on Palm Sunday here the 5th and ended on Easter, the 12th. All Spanish towns have their own Semana Santa which means Holy Week. Sevilla is said to have the best in all of Spain. What happens is every day and sometimes during the night, all of the churches around the city (called hermandades) send a paso to the Cathedral of Sevilla. Literally, paso means pass but physically it is a mini parade. The "float" is normally a statue of Jesus and/or the Virgen. The popular themes seem to be the crucifixion or Christ carrying the cross. Anyway, each of the pasos is normally covered in candles which are lit at night. Coming before (and sometimes after) the "float" are the Nazarenos. I don't have a translation for them. They are people dressed in robes with tall conical hats that march often with crosses and/or candle walking sticks in front of the paso. In all honesty, they look like KKK members. They come in a lot of colors like black, blue, green, red, and white. After the "float", sometimes a marching band follows, blasting their trumpets. You can hear the beat of the drums as the paso approaches. Beneath the "float" are the men who shoulder it. The statues are very heavy and so the men can only go about 15 yards or so before they have to stop and take a rest. While they rest, the band plays a song. All of the people clog the streets around the Cathedral to get a glimpse. The paso eventually enters the Cathedral where I expect they rest by praying and then they return back from where they came. Some of the pasos can be very long. One I saw took 12 hours for it to come back to its church of origin. If it rains, the paso ducks into the first church it can find (and there are a lot here). All of this goes on for SEVEN days. It's incredible and a little bit weird.
When the week first started and everyone went out of town, I was feeling pretty down because I was sure I was stuck in Sevilla all by myself. Anna had left for Portugal and Valencia as well. However, I realized on Sunday while laying at the river that there were at least 5 of us who had remained behind. The river was the place to go to take refuge from the enormous crowds and to catch a few rays of sun. The weather was fantastic during the beginning of the week. Also, at the grassy part where everyone lounges, you can see the Triana Bridge. Many of the pasos have to cross the bridge to reach the Cathedral and so I saw four or five of them that way. Palm Sunday was funny because I actually had forgotten about it. The day was very nice and so I put on my bathing suit underneath my sundress to go lay out. Little did I know that Palm Sunday is a HUGE deal here and everyone in the streets is dressed in a suit and tie and the girls in heels and fancy dresses. I tried to hide my bathing suit straps the 45 minute walk down but I still received some stares.
Monday, we were all very excited about watching the National Championship game. Unfortunately, because of the time difference the tip off wasn't until after 3 in the morning here. All of us who were in town met up and had some drinks before. Then we went to Viapol, an open shopping center where they have Wi-fi. Even though it was all closed, they hadn't turned off the internet and so we were able to catch a signal to view the game. The first half was great and everyone could already tell the Heels were not struggling at all in a game everyone had told us would be "tough". During half time, half the group went to get a power cord from home to plug in the computer we were watching it on and to get some late night pizzas from this gas station that stays open. During the break, we were playing music and someone heard because a guy from across the street came and told us we couldn't be there. He went and woke up the night guard who told us the same thing. When the group was reunited, we were all kind of bummed about being kicked out and not seeing if we had won. Two people went home but then we remembered we could get a signal at the University gates. We saw the last minute and thirty seconds and by then it was obvious that UNC had won the 2009 National Championship! We turned on the music again and jumped, yelling and getting stares from the street cleaners. Even though I missed the celebration on Franklin street, who can say that got to celebrate in the streets of Sevilla? We told everyone who was out what had happened and got some of the Spaniards to celebrate with us. After, we went to get churros from the churro stand near the river and watched the sun rise from the river bank. It was a fantastic night. I did not get home until 930 in the morning but Cristina just laughed at me and said she would leave lunch out for me to eat it whenever I woke up. Woo!
The rest of the week was very laid back. Most people started coming into town on Wednesday. Everyone wanted to go see the pasos but by then, I was sick and tired of Semana Santa. I did go see one of the more famous ones, called El Silencio (the Silence) which begins at 1 am on Good Friday. It is supposed to represent the death of Christ and so there is no band that follows the paso. All the Nazarenos wear black (creepy!) and everyone is asked to be silent. We saw it leave from its church. At 5 til one, all of the street lights were cut off and the gigantic crowd of Spaniards we were stuck in fell silent. It takes a good 30 minutes for the whole thing to get out of the church and for awhile, all we could see were the hats of the Nazarenos and camera flashes. Jesus with the cross came next and was followed by a man singing in Latin. Very somber and somewhat creepy. After that though, I was done and headed in for the night.
Easter was funny because it actually was not a big deal here. I figured it would be since Palm Sunday seemed to be so popular but Easter felt like any other Sunday. Who knows.
Not much else is going on here at the moment. I don't leave for my trip to Morocco until the 24th (which should be amazing!) so I'm sticking around town for another weekend. We are hoping the weather will look up. We did rent pedalquivires which are little pedal boats that you can take up and down the river. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time. I definitely want to do that again, hopefully wih Mom and Dad when they come. The weather has gone a little down hill but hopefully, it will rain and then warm up for good. I've been getting into a good running routine again and will try to keep that up through the rest of my time here. There are NO hills in Sevilla! It's so strange. Running flat is great but after awhile, you're begging for a hill. It'll be a big transition back to running in Chapel Hill which is nothing but hills.
I've talked to the roommates some and they seem like they are doing well. Oh, Alexis had her little piggies burned during the Franklin Street celebration. This time was not her fault (she fell into a bonfire one time and burned her tush) because another girl had slipped while jumping one of the bonfires and knocked ashes everywhere. Alexis was wearing flip flops and so had all of the toes of her right foot and two on her left foot burned pretty badly. Sara took her to the ER on Tuesday. Because the burns were on her digits and the doctors did not want them to become infected, she had surgery for a deep cleaning and they also put pig skin on tops of the burns to facilitate growth and healing. She has now been forbidden to go near bonfires by friends, family, and doctors. I talked to her on Saturday and she seems alright. She had a doctor's note to miss class until today but she had been in a lot of pain and was pain killers. Sara told me that the bandages were so big that she could only were her Uggs. Hopefully, they'll all heal soon and she'll be back to normal. The doctors told her she should not have much/if any scarring. And that, kids, is why we don't play with fire.
Cristina's daughter also named Cristina is in town. She has been living in Italy and working on her career as an actress. She seems very nice and is a lot easier to understand than Cristina. Her boyfriend (el italiano as Cristina, the older, calls him) and two of his friends will be coming tonight to stay for the weekend. It's going to be a full house!
Still arguing with my computer about memory space and editing the pictures. I'll put up some once I can.
love you and miss you all
Elle
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