Final thoughts. Thanks for following!

If you know me at all, you know I always use a planner. Before this year, I decorated my planner (like usual) and chose two Hello Kitty stickers to put on the front: one Hello Kitty with a backpack and one writing in a notebook, to represent travel and research - what I thought were my two goals/major activities for the year.

It turns out that neither has been the focus of my year. It turns out that what has been most important, enjoyable, and valuable for me has been getting to understand the culture of Spain and of the different regions of Spain - people's mentality, attitudes, beliefs, way of thinking about things - through the friendships I've formed, expanding myself and seeing what I can learn and adopt from a different culture, and understanding myself and others in the context of where we come from, and what we have in common despite coming from different backgrounds. I've learned that I can really connect with people from a different culture and language, which I didn't really realize with my past times abroad. I know this sounds kind of empty and like what I write in application essays, but now I've lived it and I know it's true! I really value my friendships from this year.

I guess it's fitting that both stickers have since fallen off, despite my many attempts to press them back on.

After a year of pretty intense immersion here, I've been feeling more and more Spanish. Staying out late with friends (1...2...6 am) seems normal now - the idea is have fun while you can, and worry about work and sleep later. I'm getting more comfortable with the idea of never planning ahead very much - for example, a few months ago I was thinking about doing a big multi-city trip at the end of my time here to see some new cities and visit friends. It turned out it was SO hard to plan ahead of time and coordinate with people here...in general that's just not how it's done. I ended up planning my trips weekend-to-weekend. And of course everything turned out great and did most everything I really wanted to. Also...I had big plans to review material for my classes at Berkeley this fall, but completely did not - the idea is I don't want to right now and I'll just worry about it when I get there and I'll probably regret it, but oh well. Also, I barely use my planner anymore.

All of this might sound like bad things, but I think it reflects the more in-the-moment and less rigid mentality of Spaniards. In general. I know I've loosened up a little and will be able to handle stress better. Partly from taking in the culture of Spain and partly just from living on my own for a year and getting more life experience.

I've also just really thoroughly enjoyed this year - although of course I had hard times (more at the beginning/middle of the year) when I felt lonely or lost or like I wasn't getting anything done. I loved getting to travel a lot and see new places, both with friends and on my own, and to both places where I don't know anyone (like Paris) and places where I have friends (like Madrid). My work at the lab has been interesting and not overbearing or stressful, and I've learned what it's like to have a life outside of school and work and have time for myself.

A year has been a good amount of time to live here, though, and I'm ready to move on. Next up is starting grad school (chemistry PhD program) at Berkeley next month! Thank you for reading. I hope this blog has served its purpose of keeping you updated on my year and hopefully it's been entertaining and/or insightful for you. Stay in touch y ¡hasta luego!

Colorín, colorado

I'm down to my last few days here - hard to believe! I'm definitely going to be sad to leave after such an enjoyable year...I've made a lot of good friends and feel really comfortable here! I'm getting more and more excited to see my family, though, and my goodbyes here are spread out, so that's making it easier to leave.

This weekend I've been packing and saying goodbye to friends, tomorrow will be my last day in the lab (I'm working up until the very end!!), Tuesday I'm packing, then that night I'm leaving!

I figured I may as well start with a wrapping-up post…

Research-wise, this year has been incredibly valuable. I've had the whole year to focus on doing research, without classes or teaching. I've learned a lot about what kind of research I want to do at Berkeley, where I'm starting grad school this fall - I still want to do computational physical chemistry, but I want to go into a more theory- and methods-based area. I've learned more about what things I like about how groups are run, how I like to manage things (like how I like to arrange my notebook and computer directories, and how I like to approach projects), and it's more clear to me what I want to get out of grad school and why I want to go.

I've loved having a really cohesive lab group this year, being friends outside the lab, eating lunch together every day, etc. I've also enjoyed the incredibly relaxed and non-competitive atmosphere in the lab. At the same time, this year has helped me realize I'm really looking forward to doing my PhD at Berkeley - being surrounded by a ton of intellectual, motivated people doing top-notch research - although the pace will be quite a bit faster and more stressful. Before I didn't think I needed a gap year before starting grad school, but now I see it's been so valuable for getting more perspective and experience, decompressing after undergraduate, and growing up a bit.

And I have an article published with my group!! My first one. I nearly have the story and results for a second one…and need to figure out how to get it done.

Changing topics: really improving my Spanish has definitely been one of the highlights of my year. I don't think I will ever feel like a native speaker, but I feel really proficient now! Before this year I knew all the basics about grammar, but this year I've learned so many nuances about words and phrases that people use here, grammatical structures, intonation, pronunciation…I've also learned a ton about the subtleties of different accents within Andalucía and within Spain. I'm going to miss speaking  and hearing Spanish Spanish once I leave!!

I've noticed how much I'm thinking in Spanish now especially when I talk or write in English - lots of times there are words or phrases that I can say in Spanish, but I can't figure out how to make it come out right in English! Which is fine when I'm talking to someone who speaks Spanish, but if they don't…then it can get frustrating. In the past few weeks I've said or written "explication" instead of "explanation" (it's explicación in Spanish), "traduction" instead of "translation" (Spanish: traducción), assistance instead of "attendance" (Spanish: asistencia), "you're pulling my hair" instead of "pulling my leg" (Spanish: me estás tomando el pelo - you're pulling my hair) … also I'm really struggling right now typing on my laptop, because after hours and hours every day in the lab on my Spanish keyboard, I'm much more used to the Spanish keyboard.

This year I've also talked and emailed/chatted more than I ever have with non-native English speakers. I've really learned to say exactly what I mean, cut out unnecessary words, eliminate vague or meaningless phrases, speak clearly, and gauge how much the other person is understanding. I really think this is useful not only for talking with non-native speakers but rather in absolutely any situation!

I will be enjoying my last few days here and will be back with another post before I leave this blog for the year!! Thanks for getting through a long post!

Getting close to the end...

I can't believe it's finally close to the end of my Fulbright year! I have two weeks left here and it's become a little frenetic - but in a good way - with trying to wrap stuff up at the lab, last-minute trips, and seeing friends here as much as possible!

Last weekend I went to Madrid (4th time this year? 5th? 6th?) and got to see a lot of the Madrid Fulbrighters at an informal goodbye/get-together event. Most of them I've only seen at orientation in September and at the mid-year meeting in March, so it was great to catch up with some of them. I'm reminded that I am so lucky to be part of the Fulbright group - great people doing some amazing things.

Fulbrighters!

In Madrid I went back to some of my favorite places: el Rastro market, Sol, Plaza Mayor, el Retiro, Mercado San Miguel, and saw some new things: the Salvador Dalí exhibit at the Reina Sofía museum, the botanical gardens next to the Prado, a 2200-year-old Egyptian temple that's randomly in the middle of the city.

On this trip, especially, I remembered my first time in Madrid (in the summer of 2007 in high school with the Indiana University Honors program) - being in Plaza Mayor, taking the metro, standing in front of the Royal Palace. It seemed so big and exciting and foreign back then. Now, the city is so much more familiar to me and really has more of a pueblo feel. It makes me realize how much I've learned about Spain and how comfortable I've become here!

Last visit to Cádiz

This weekend I took my last trip to Cadiz, to see my Fulbrighter friends Lauren and Lindsey there. We've spent a lot of time together this year and I will miss these girls! I'll definitely be seeing them in the US, but we'll be farther apart there than we are now in Spain! Two Fulbright friends from Madrid also joined us this weekend.

It was an incredibly fun and relaxing weekend. We played volleyball on the beach and dipped our feet in (too cold to swim!), enjoyed pescaito frito (fried fish) at the famous pescaito frito restaurant that I hadn't made it to yet, and went again on my favorite walk out to the fort in the ocean. The fort has been closed all year and I finally got to go in it this time!

Playa :)

Pescaito frito (fried fish) - the place definitely lived up to its reputation!

Beautiful Cadiz. You can see the fort in this picture. If this is badly framed...it's because my camera is finally starting to go - screen is broken so I need to use the viewfinder. :)

Cadiz is small so I got to see pretty much all of it again. I had missed the city and will miss it! It makes me realize I will miss Sevilla even more! I have three weeks left now in Spain. I'll be doing a bit of last minute traveling in Spain to see friends, trying to wrap up research the best I can, and enjoying the last of my time in Sevilla. I'm definitely going to be sad to leave and am dreading leaving, but I'm trying not to think about it! :)

Trip to the States, follow-up

I'm back in Sevilla now, after my trip to the US!

First on the trip, I attended the Fundamentals of Adsorption research conference in Baltimore, along with a good portion of my group. I presented a poster, got to know a great group of PhD students from all over the world, got to talk more with some of my boss's collaborators, and listened to talks. The topic of the conference is somewhat specific, so I had background knowledge on most of the talks, which made them more interesting. It was also useful for thinking more about the kind of research I want to do in grad school and what I want to do after grad school!

With my group and some of our collaborators

Then, onto Washington, DC, with the three other PhD students in my group - we saw the Capitol, White House, monuments (Lincoln, MLK, Vietnam, Japanese-American), American Indian Museum and Natural History Museum, had a nice lunch from the food trucks, sitting on the lawn. It was SO exciting and a little surreal seeing the Mall, the White House, and the Lincoln Monument for the first time!

La Casa Blanca

Cheesecake Factory - they were astounded by the amount of food!

Finally we spent a few days in New York City! We saw the Statue of Liberty, 9/11 memorial, Chinatown, Brooklyn Bridge, Times Square, Central Park, MoMA, public library, Macy's, Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, Chrysler Building, Grand Central Station, UN center... obviously there's so much to see and we had a great time in the city! The four of us stayed in a room in a really sketchy hotel haha, but it was perfectly located right around the corner from Times Square.

Brooklyn Bridge

On the screen in Times Square

It was really fun for me to visit all these places with Spaniards who I've known all year. For all of them it was their first time in the US! They were amazed by the sheer diversity of people in New York, all mixed together. It was interesting to see what struck them as typically American: yellow school buses, fire hydrants, fire escape staircases, black kids playing basketball, the fact that all cars are huge, the continental breakfast at one of the hotels (they tried biscuits and grits, cinnamon rolls, bagels and cream cheese, ... hehe)

As for me, I was struck (as usual when I come back to the US after a while) by being able to talk to any random person and understand absolutely everything they said, be able to pick up on any accent they have, and be able to reference cultural/local events. I was also SO happy and relieved to eat American food that I've been missing in Spain: things like a hummus-and-roasted-vegetables pita sandwich, yogurt parfaits, Chipotle, and veggie burgers. :)

So even though the trip was fun, I'm really happy to be back in Spain. I was just a little surprised (pleasantly) when I got back to Sevilla by how extremely un-foreign-feeling it seems to me now. Actually, New York felt more foreign to me. I gave New York the basic "treatment" I've been giving any city I've visited this year - ask everyone I know who's been to New York about where to stay, what to see, etc., look up the major attractions, look up airport and local transportation online - and this probably contributed to New York seeming as foreign as any other European city I've visited!

Trip to the States

I'm going to a research conference next week in Baltimore with my group! It's an international conference held every three years, rotating between the US, Europe, and Japan, called Fundamentals of Adsorption. (Adsorption is basically the adhesion of atoms or particles to a surface. I study adsorption of hydrogen on microporous materials.)

From our group, the PI, a researcher/lecturer, and three other grad students are attending, as well as our experimental collaborators in Oviedo (northern Spain). I'll be presenting a poster at a poster session, and otherwise attending other talks, poster sessions, dinners, etc.!

Afterwards we're spending a couple of days in Washington, DC, with the entire group, and then the three other PhD students and I are going to New York for a few days. This will be my first time in Baltimore and DC, and the first time in the US for all the other three students, and for one of them his first time out of Spain. I'm looking forward to being a guide and seeing what they think of the US, after having spent all year with them in Spain! It will also be a little weird, being in the US more as a visitor/tourist, and being out of Spain for the first time in 4 months.

In any case, I'll be back in 2 weeks, at which point I will update you on my trip and on my final month in Spain!!

Day in Córdoba

Last Saturday I took a day trip to Córdoba, one of the other major cities in Andalucía, less than two hours away from Sevilla. I've been meaning to go all year!

This weekend the Patios (courtyards) festival was going on in Córdoba. For this festival, families and institutions decorate the courtyards of their homes and buildings with tons of colorful flowers, fountains, birds, etc. Viewing the patios is free and open to the public, and the best-decorated patio wins a prize.

I went with two other Fulbright girls (one researching frog ecology in Sevilla and the other researching immigration and public health in Granada) and one of their friends who's working temporarily in Sevilla. We saw a few patios (see pictures below!), the famous mezquita (mosque), the Palacio de Viana (palace that has 13 patios), and the synagogue (built in the 1300s).

You can probably tell from the pictures that it was perfectly sunny that day. It was also pretty hot - summer has most definitely arrived here in the south. Highs have been regularly in the upper 80s - hot! But people here are quick to remind you that in July and August in Sevilla, it easily gets up to 50 C (122 F)!

One of the patios in Córdoba - flowers everywhere! and tourists.

Inside the mezquita (mosque)

Salmorejo - a soup originating from Córdoba, made of tomatoes, bread, olive oil, vinegar, and garlic. Similar to gazpacho but thicker.

Fulbright friends

Watch

I've been wearing a watch ever since 1st grade or so, and whenever I forget my watch or it runs out of batteries, it's pretty disrupting to me. A few months ago, the chain on my watch broke. For the first few days, it was awful. But for the rest of the months since then...I've realized I haven't missed my watch at all. Not one bit. A lot of the reason is probably that I'm on the computer at the lab all day and have the time right there, and in general I have fewer appointments than usual. But I feel like part of it is adopting some of the laidback Spanish culture where people aren't rushing to places and jam-packing their schedules and micro-managing their time, and where things just happen when they happen. Of course, that's a big overgeneralization, but I think my watch habits are indicative.

Day trip to Jerez

Last Wednesday I had the day off for Día del Trabajador (Labor Day), so I met up with my friend Lauren (Fulbrighter in Cádiz) in Jerez de la Frontera, a little city in the province of Cádiz between Sevilla and Cádiz city.

We saw the alcázar, a Moorish fortress/palace dating from the 11th century. There's an Alcázar in Sevilla, and the one in Jerez looks like a little play-size one in comparison. :)  We had a nice lunch at a random little restaurant on a plaza: gazpacho (cold tomato-based soup) and cazón (dogfish, a type of shark), cooked with a tomato and pepper sauce. We also took a tour of the Tío Pepe bodega (winery), the best-selling brand of sherry wine in the world. Jerez is famous for its vino de Jerez (sherry wine) - a type of white wine with versions ranging from dry and light to dark and sweet. The microclimate around Jerez is such that this small region of Cádiz is the only place in the world where sherry wine can be produced! We saw the grounds and also got to taste some wine: one really dry and one really sweet.

At the alcázar in Jerez de la Frontera

Tío Pepe bodega - vino de Jerez (sherry wine) aging in American oak barrels

Wine tasting

In any case, it was gorgeous weather and a very carefree day and trip. I have a feeling I'm going to miss days like this next year! I'm trying not to count down, but I have less than two months until I go home, and I'm starting to get to the point where I don't want to leave Spain!

Learning Spanish, part II: more musings

This is now by far the longest I've been immersed in the Spanish language, and I'm loving it. I have enough time here that I can make the same mistake 30 times before I finally get it right, and that I can learn a really random word one day, and it comes in handy in a different situation months later. Phrases and grammatical structures come out of my mouth that I didn't realize I had learned. A few months ago I felt like I had hit a roadblock and wasn't improving at all but now...I feel like I'm flying. Most of the time, that is.

Mostly I'm getting a ton of oral practice, with my roommates, at the lab, and with friends, since most of my friends here are Spanish. I almost never write in Spanish though, and as for reading, I usually read the newspaper on the metro (I buy actual newspapers at the stand outside the metro stop haha) and a book in Spanish at night. I love running into words and phrases I don't know and having to pick them up from context, since that really rarely happens in English. And again, I have enough time here that I can incorporate those new words and phrases into my speech.

One phrase that shows how far I've come and how long I've had here is the phrase "en plan". It's a colloquial phrase that means something like "in a manner" or "like" or "kind of". It's hard to explain, and that's why it's taken me so long to learn! Here's an example that I just overheard at the lab - one girl was asking another if she had used a certain computer program, and the second responded: "lo he usado pero nunca en plan serio." - "I've used it but never really seriously / but never in a serious manner / but never, like, seriously". I first noticed this phrase this fall because I heard it everywhere, but I didn't even know what people were saying - one word? two words? did it end in n or m? I had an in-depth conversation with my roommates about what it meant, and kept listening for it and hearing it, and have since had a few more in-depth conversations. Anyway, after several months now, it's incorporated into my speech! At least, I'm pretty sure I'm using it right.

A couple of other random observations:

- Really early on (back in September) I started saying the word/noise "huy", which is what people here say involuntarily as a reaction to something unexpected and not good, for example if you run into something, if you drop something, start to cross the street and realize a car is coming, etc.
- I recently played Spanish Bananagrams for the first time, with some people in my group. None of them had even heard of it, and they ended up loving it. Anyway, I thought I was going to be at a terrible disadvantage...but after a few games, I ended up winning a lot of the rounds! I realized my vocabulary's larger than I thought, and also that k and w are incredibly rare in Spanish.

la Feria: one crazy week

I had a blast at la Feria last week. If you recall: Feria is a week-long festival that takes place on the Feria grounds - a big, open space with roads throughout. Around Feria, casetas (tents) are set up along the roads, so it ends up looking like a little village. Each caseta is owned/run by a group of people, and each person pays throughout the year to be a member. During Feria, these people can enter their caseta whenever they want and invite whomever they want. Inside the caseta it's like a little bar/restaurant.

Ana, a PhD student in my lab, is a member of a caseta; the original group of people owning this caseta all worked at the bank where her dad used to work. I was extremely lucky that she invited me to her caseta for Feria!

I first went Monday - the first night of Feria - where everyone dresses up (in normal clothes), eats pescaito frito (fried fish) for dinner, and sees the alumbrá (lighting up of the main entrance way and of the lights throughout the Feria grounds).

Lunes de pescaito, in Ana's caseta, with Ana and Juanjo from the lab and Ana's sister and her boyfriend

Tuesday and Wednesday I went the entire day, from afternoon until early morning. Starting Tuesday, all the women and girls wear their trajes de gitana (Feria dresses), and I got to wear a dress that Ana lent me and that her mom adjusted for me! The days consisted of sitting or standing around tables in the caseta, talking with friends of Ana (from the lab, from school, and her family), and getting up every once in a while to dance sevillanas or to take a walk around the Feria grounds. Basically the way it works is it's really hot, you're wearing a long heavy dress, and you dance sevillanas, so you're thirsty, so you drink glasses and glasses of rebujito (Manzanilla white wine mixed with 7-Up) since that's what you drink at Feria, and since you're drinking constantly, you eat constantly - I had so much Spanish food in just a few days! Pescaito frito, tortilla, croquetas, jamón, queso, aceitunas gordales, revueltos, lagrimitas de pollo, almendras fritas, montaditos...

With people from the lab

Again, sevillanas is the traditional folk dance that everyone dances at Feria. It's danced in partners, and the steps are set (ie you don't need to make up your own sequence of moves). Here is a Youtube video (wait 10 seconds) to give you an idea - it's a really fluid dance, with lots of arm movement, and can be really showy if you want. I had learned the steps from Ana in the lab and gotten some help from another Fulbrighter who's in Sevilla this year studying flamenco, so by the time I got to Feria I knew enough to be able to pick up the rest and dance pretty convincingly I think. In any case, everything came a lot easier in the atmosphere of the caseta, with the music, wearing the dress with the ruffles, with everyone else dancing, and with some rebujito.

Dancing sevillanas with Elena

This is probably the only festival I've been to where the absolute only objective is to have a good time and enjoy spending time with your friends and family, for hours and days on end. I think if I had just gotten to Spain and gone to Feria, I would have found it weird and overwhelming, but now that I've been in Spain for months...it all just makes a lot of sense.

And because you can only take so many days of the intensity of Feria, I went with some other people in the group to Sanlúcar de Barrameda, a town on the coast in the province of Cádiz, for the rest of the week. We enjoyed hanging out at the beach, cooking at home, playing board games, going out, staying up late... so that made for one week of total, complete fiesta! (oh, with a day and a half of work thrown in somewhere in there, in true Spanish fashion. :)

Feria this week

Feria starts this week, on Monday! Feria in Sevilla is a week-long festival. Lots of towns in Andalucía have their own Feria sometime in the spring or summer, but Sevilla's is probably the biggest and best-known.

The bulk of Feria in Sevilla takes place in casetas (tents) located in a big open space in the neighborhood of Los Remedios, which incidentally is very close to my apartment. Each caseta is owned by a group of families or a company, and holders of the casetas invite their friends and family to their caseta during Feria. From what I gather, it's basically a big party with all your friends and family where you eat, drink rebujito (7-Up mixed with white wine), talk, and dance sevillanas, a traditional folk dance from Sevilla.

I'm lucky enough that one of the girls in my lab has a caseta in the family (actually, it's the bank's where her dad used to work), and she invites the people from the lab every year. So, I'll get to experience Feria from the inside! She's also lending me a dress (a typical Feria dress - brightly colored with polka dots, form fitting with lots of ruffles at the bottom) and all the accessories (shawl, flower for your hair, jewelry). For the past week she's also been giving sevillanas lessons to me and another labmate after work, and I've gotten some help also from another Fulbrighter here in Sevilla who's studying flamenco here (and used to teach sevillanas classes in New York!)

Basically I'm super excited for this week. Stay tuned for details. :)

Visit from my sisters :)

My two sisters visited me here in Spain last week over their spring break! My older sister Nora spent a year in Valencia with a Fulbright grant two years ago, so she's quite familiar with Spain. For my younger sister Lily, however, it was her first time in Europe!

They flew into Madrid last weekend and we stayed there overnight, met up with some of me and Nora's friends, and visited some of the major places like Plaza del Sol, Plaza Mayor, el Rastro market, and el Retiro park.

Plaza Mayor in Madrid

Then we spent a few days in Sevilla, and all of us slept in my little room in my apartment. We saw the main sites (Plaza de España, the cathedral, the Alcázar, all of which you should recognize if you've been reading my blog :) ), met up with some of my friends, went to the lab for my sisters to meet my labmates, had a dinner at home with my roommates, and saw some flamenco. We made sure Lily tried some typical foods like tortilla española, jamón, salmorejo (like gazpacho - cold tomato soup), churros con chocolate, and croquetas (croquettes).

Tortilla española for dinner with my roommates

Plaza de España

Waiting for flamenco to start at La Carbonería

Last of all, we spent a couple of days in Valencia. We stayed with a family that Nora spent a lot of time with during her year in Valencia: the parents, the daughter who's in her second year of college, the aunt and uncle, the 6- and 12- year old little cousins, and the grandma. With them we did some sightseeing in the city (the cathedral, City of Arts and Sciences, the market, the beach) and hung out at home: we dyed Easter eggs and baked oatmeal butterscotch cookies with materials brought from home, played Just Dance and Wii karaoke, and they prepared every single meal for us (including homemade paella and fideuá, both of which are typical Valencian dishes).

Sightseeing in Valencia

Paella lunch with the family!

It was a whirlwind trip, and we did a ton of things in one week! It was so nice to have time with my sisters, especially now as I realize that it's getting harder and harder these days to have us all together. It was also fun getting to show Lily around for her first real trip out of the country. Their visit also made me realize I feel pretty established in Spain - I have friends here, I know how to get around, and can show people around!

RASPA on the news!

My research group here in Sevilla was on the news recently! A local channel did a special on "la mujer trabajadora" ("the working woman"), and they interviewed different working women on Andalucía. One of them was Sofia, the PI of my group! Click here to see our section of the program. You can see me in a few parts!

In case you don't speak Spanish, in the clip Sofia talks about what the group does: there are many projects going on, but all of them involve molecular simulations to study materials with technological applications, such as capture of carbon dioxide. She says that Spain is a strong country for research, but that the recortes (government spending cuts) will make it difficult to keep up the level of research. At the end she says of her work, "Do what you like. To do something well, you have to like it." :)

Semana Santa!

Semana Santa is holy week, the week before Easter. Sevilla has some of the biggest and most important celebrations in Spain. The week revolves around processions: each participating church has one procession one day during Semana Santa. The processions start and end from their individual churches, but all of them at some point pass through La Campana, down Calle Sierpes, along the town hall, and in and out of the cathedral. It takes around 2 hours to see an entire procession - there are multiple bands, hundreds of nazarenos (church members wearing robes and pointed hat/mask), and the main attraction are the pasos (large floats), typically one with a statue of Jesus and one with the Virgin. The pasos are super heavy and are carried by around 40 costaleros, men who walk underneath the paso and support it on the back of their neck. The pasos can be centuries old and have a lot of gold and silver. Because of this, if it rains at all, the processions are simply cancelled. Lots of people in Sevilla look forward to their church's procession ALL year, so if it rains, it can be pretty devastating.

Luckily it hasn't been too rainy so far! On Sunday, the official beginning of Semana Santa, I saw one ENTIRE procession. The church is in the neighborhood where I live, and I pass by this church several times a week, so I feel slightly more allegiance to this procession than to others! My friends and I got lucky and were standing right in the front. Here are a few pictures from this procession:

Nazarenos in the procession of the Hermandad La Estrella

Here comes Jesus!

Nazarenos and costaleros

On Monday I went with friends to the center of the city - near the cathedral and the town hall - where the crowds are the biggest, and saw parts of a couple of processions. It was great experiencing the atmosphere there, but we couldn't see as well since a lot of the path is blocked from view by the seats that people pay for to watch the processions from.

Procession of Hermandad San Gonzalo on the route to the cathedral

Paso with statue of Jesus

Tuesday evening it was raining, so there was absolutely NOTHING in the way of processions. That night, though, I went with a friend to one of the most famous dessert/pastry shops in Sevilla, and we tried torrijas, the typical dessert of Semana Santa in Sevilla. Torrijas are a slice of bread dipped in eggs and milk or wine, fried and with sugar or honey on top. They were delicious but quite possibly the most empalagoso (overly sweet) dessert I've ever tried!

Trying torrijas with friends

I first learned about Semana Santa in high school in Spanish class, and I've been hearing about it ever since I got here this fall, since it's such a big deal here. I've actually only talked to one person my age who says they like Semana Santa in Sevilla - others I've talked to say it's too much, or that they prefer Semana Santa in their own town, or that they see it as hypocritical (not going to church all year and then going all out for Semana Santa).

In any case, I loved finally experiencing Semana Santa in person and getting to see little things like how some of the toddler-age nazarenos hand out candy to kids in the crowds and how kids in the crowd have balls of wax that they form by collecting dripping wax from the candles of the passing nazarenos; seeing the pasos stop and the costaleros changing out and seeing a mom walking with her kid-nazareno give him a sandwich during the procession (they can last up to 14 hours!). Also, I was actually less creeped out than I thought I would be by the nazarenos - they do look like the KKK, but once I saw them up close, walking on the streets, and putting on their robes, it is clear how they are normal people underneath!

Living in Spain

I've been in Spain for 6 months now, the longest I've lived in a different country, and I'm feeling less like a foreigner and realizing how much more I feel at home here.

There are little things like: a couple of weeks ago when I met someone in Sevilla, I recognized the name of the company he works at and knew that it's based in Sevilla. I recognize the news reporters on TV, and I'm getting really good at 24-hour time, to the point that am/pm looks weird and writing the month and then the date looks weird. I've realized I can now name and locate all the autonomous communities in Spain, not because I memorized them but because now I know someone from or something about each comunidad.

Importantly, my stomach is finally, finally, finally getting used to the meal hours (late lunch and dinner). I mean, I've been fine with the schedule but it's only recently that I've realized that it feels absurd to, for example, eat dinner at 7pm. I'm not sure I'll ever adjust to staying out until 4 or 5am on weekends (a respectable hour to go home), however I was out until 1am with friends last Saturday and felt like an old lady for going home so early! Phone calls are no longer stress-inducing, and I've realized that the streets, buildings, shop signs, the weird door knobs in the middle of apartment doors, everything doesn't strike me as foreign anymore.

I love talking with Spaniards about the different accents in the country, and I'm finally starting to be able to differentiate between accents. I can definitely distinguish Spain and Central/South America now, and within Spain, I can now hear the difference between my friends from Galicia, Valencia, Madrid, and Andalucía. And furthermore, within Andalucía, I'm starting to be able to, for instance, hear the difference between people from Sevilla and Cádiz. To give an example, people from the city of Sevilla tend to talk with seseo (pronouncing c and z as an s instead of as a th, like in the rest of Spain) whereas people from Cádiz tend to talk with ceceo (pronouncing s as th). My roommates are from the province of Cádiz, and some of their accent has been neutralized by living in Sevilla for a few years, but their Cádiz accent tends to come out more when their parents or friends visit. :)

Last time I was in Spain (the summer of 2007, with a program through Indiana University for high school students), all of this was totally over my head! It makes me realize how much more I've learned about Spain and also makes me excited that I still have a few months left to learn more!

Lo Sabe No Lo Sabe

I see the show Lo Sabe No Lo Sabe ("knows it doesn't know it") at least a few times a week in the evening with my roommates. In each episode, the host Juanra goes to a different city in Spain and chooses a contestant off the street. The contestant has five questions. For each question, he/she needs to choose another person off the street who either knows the answer, or doesn't know the answer, depending on the question. If the contestant gets to the end, he/she wins up to 6000€. It's one of my go-to shows to watch - the host is funny, it's interesting seeing different cities, and of course any show is helpful for improving my Spanish.

The exciting news is that last Saturday afternoon I ran into them filming an episode right here in Sevilla!! They were on a pedestrian street really close to my apartment. I was so excited!! It was basically exactly like on TV - an older man was the contestant, Juanra asked him the questions, and the guy chose people off the street to answer the questions. I followed them around for maybe half an hour, along with a group of other people, some of whom were equally excited and some who had never heard of the show. Of course I took a million pictures - here are a few!

First Paco (the contestant, right) chose this woman, hoping she would know the answer.

The woman didn't know the answer, so Paco used his one phone call, and the person he called did know the answer.

For the next question, Paco chose this guy as he biked through the camera crew. The guy was supposed to not know the answer, but he actually did, so Paco lost here.

And I got a picture with Juanra the host!

Explaining scrambled eggs

With a Spanish friend the other day, all in Spanish:

Friend: What are you making for dinner today?
Me: Eh, probably eggs.
Friend: Ah, are you making a tortilla?
Me: No really, just eggs.
Friend: Oh, like a revuelto?
Me: Yeah, like a revuelto, but with only eggs, nothing else.
Friend: (Looks at me.)
Me: I just put the eggs in a pan and cook 'em.
Friend: So huevos fritos.
Me: But no oil.
Friend: No oil?? How strange.

(Tortilla: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_omelette
Revuelto: scrambled eggs with stuff mixed in
Huevos fritos: fried eggs)

I've learned that in Spain, there doesn't really exist the concept of eating plain scrambled eggs, plain oatmeal, plain lentils, plain black beans, plain vegetables...everything needs to be cooked into a dish!

Fulbright conference + more travel!

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind, in a good way, of traveling and things going on!

Last week I went to the Fulbright midyear conference in Zaragoza, Spain, where all the American Fulbrighters in Spain this year (about 100 of us) met. We had sessions for discussion and reflection on how our projects and experiences are going and how our perceptions of Spain and the US are changing. A number of Fulbrighters (including me!) gave brief presentations on our projects or any aspect of our experiences - for example I talked about my research and my experience working with my group, another Fulbrighter talked about her project making an interactive 3D model of a cathedral in Barcelona, and another talked about her experience being Chinese-American in Spain. We also had a lot of socializing/networking time, and I talked to so many cool people doing diverse, amazing things. It makes me feel lucky to be part of the Fulbright group!

Fulbrighters on the steps to one of the buildings of the University of Zaragoza

The previous weekend I had a long weekend (for Día de Andalucía) and I took the opportunity to take a trip to Madrid and Oviedo! In Madrid I met up with some Spanish friends I had met during the molecular simulations course I attended in Amsterdam in January, and they showed me around all the city. I've already been to Madrid maybe 5 times but now I want to go back even more!

In Oviedo I visited the host family I lived with in the summer of 2007 when I participated in the IU Honors program. It was great to see them again, and very nostalgic being back in their apartment! The family is a mom and a son who is now 14. I loved getting to see the people from the barrio who I spent time with that summer and to see all my favorite things in the city, like the cathedral, town hall, Parque de San Francisco, and statue of Woody Allen. I was pleased to find out that I still remember the city really well, as well as the route for the 20-minute walk I used to take every day with my IU Honors friends to class. :)

The cathedral and statue of La Regenta in Oviedo :)

Granada take 2

This weekend I took a short trip to Granada, a city about three hours east of Sevilla by train. You might remember I went there in the fall, but this time, I got to see the Alhambra (Islamic palace complex) and visit another Fulbrighter who's doing research in Granada this year. I also went with my Fulbright friends Lindsey and Lauren from Cadiz (whose names might be familiar if you've been reading my blog!). We had fun walking around the city, going to the lookout point of the Alhambra where all the postcard pictures are taken, and tapeando - at almost any bar in Granada, a free tapa comes along with any drink you order.

The Alhambra itself was very impressive, as I expected. It's a huge Arabic palace/fortress complex that was constructed over the 10th and 11th centuries. Not even all the buildings and gardens are open to the public, but that's more than enough to take up a 5-hour visit and to hold the thousands of people who visit every day! I liked the intricate tile and stucco decorations, the pretty patios and fountains, and great views of the city. I had also read some of the Tales of the Alhambra, short stories/legends/fables by Washington Irving inspired by the time he spent there in the 1800s, and it was cool to see what his inspiration was.

I still have more trips coming up in the next two weeks so stay posted for more travel updates! :)

View of the Alhambra, and this is from within the complex!

The famous Lions Patio

Awesome view, and we lucked out with sunny weather!