dancing lessons- well not really

Salsa Dancing Thursdays


So Thursday is salsa dancing nights. My friends always had time to go last semester to this club that gave out free passes for salsa dancing lessons. Since I never seemed to have time or was too tired by 11pm every Thursday night last semester I never really went. Well I did go the last night of the the semester and I loved it! It is really fun because everyone gets on the dance floor like line dancing and an instructor, that is extremely energetic and amazing at salsa, teaches and leads the dancing. I had a blast.

So when we figured out it changed to another club and was still free we knew what our plans were for every Thursday night! Problem was this time we were a little late- which was ok at the last discoteca- but for some reason there where no lessons and instead it was just like walking into any old bar. That was a bummer but the atmosphere was really nice so we stayed. Here are some pics of us just playing around in the bar.

Carnaval itself

CARNAVAL

Carnaval where do I begin.. well how about Saturday at 4 or should I say 4:30 because that is when Pedro actually picked me up and we went to Juan’s to wait another 2 ½ hours for him, and Pedro to eat (Juan made me and Antoine a drink with some Bailey’s Irish Cream, and some milk to make it “mas suave” while he and Pedro ate. Don’t get me wrong they offered food to us too but I had just finished eating about an hour before) then everyone got ready at Juan’s house- took pics. Then we made our way to pick up Julia. Julia is another student studying abroad in Sevilla- she’s from Austria and I had met her before when I had met the guys with Tanya to sit next to the river and listen to them play music. Anyways we went to pick her up which meant another 30 minutes waiting in Macarena.

Finally we set out and Pedro drove us the 2 hours to Cadiz and we listened to music the whole time and they played the theme song they intended for us to sing to go along with our costumes. Let me just say that I never joined into the song-it was some folk song from Ireland and they loved it and they really sang it a bunch. Anyways it took a while to enter Cadiz as there was an atasco (traffic jam) as so many college students and teens swarmed the city for Carnaval. We finally got in and found an awesome parking spot near the old tobacco factory. We then walked the 20 minutes to the center of the city where we passed under some old arches and encountered the mob!

Now when I mean there were people crowding the streets I mean it! These streets were crammed with people and the only way we stayed together was by holding hands like a train and moving and pushing around people. I was told that there was around (500,000 people crammed in centro that night- that means just in this part of the town there was that many people if you can imagine that) There were a couple points where we, (Pedro and I because Pedro wasn’t allowed to lose me as I didn’t have my cell on me as I had no pockets and the backpack was carrying my stuff and Pedro had that too) and it was only when Antoine held up his battle axe above the crowd that we found them a lot. However, at one point we lost the group all together because a guy splashed his beer into the crowd and Pedro got hit right in the face and while I tried to help him wipe the beer away we lost the group.

So we wandered through the millions of costumes going in and out of plazas, stopping to talk to the random person that would turn to comment on our costumes (mainly Pedro’s because he didn’t have a shirt on and so many couldn’t believe he wasn’t freezing- it was pretty cold for Cadiz). We stopped a couple times to jump up and down to the beat of some drums groups of guys played. All in all we had fun but it got to the point I would worry that the group would wonder where we were so we called them. Which didn’t work as neither side could hear the other with all the drunk people yelling so finally they started texting and found we were in the same plaza as them and after a bit of random yelling conversations met back up with the group. Who were at this time DRUNK.

The rest of the night we moved around laughing at drunk people we met, admiring new and creative costumes, drinking, and moving to different plazas to dance and talk to other people. We did stop around 5 to go to a club and it was nice for the warmth but it closed after an hour so we returned to the streets to meet some more people and for the sunrise we were next to the plaza de Espana in front of the ayuntamiento dancing to the beating of a drum. The crowds had calmed down around 4:30 so we were among the survivors.

We ate churros and listened to a drunk 19 year old guy talk about relationships- I really was waiting for someone to punch him. That is something that is neat about Carnaval with as many drunk people you would expect a lot of fighting and really I didn’t see any. I only saw one act of violence and that was a group knock down a street sign- but otherwise there was nothing at all. What is neat about this is that, Pedro told me this, Spain has the least amount of robberies, assassinations, and rapes in all of Europe. I just figured it would be the opposite because of these kinds of festivals but it is just the opposite- something I pondered at 5 am in the morning.

Everybody else sat in the sun near the bay while Pedro and I walked around and starred at all the destruction- the town was a mess! I have always been an impatient individual and can’t stand standing still so Pedro accompanied me on some short excursions to see the bay and then on the other side of the plaza to look at waves of the sea and the morning sun. I have got to say it was really nice. We returned to the plaza got everybody else (including drunk 19 year old that I really didn’t like) and went to the beach to sleep for a bit. I ran in the waves (my body was tired but I just wasn’t) then laid down for a bit. 19 year old didn’t sleep either instead he was playing with poor Antoine who was trying to sleep but kept getting sand thrown in his hair- when I got back 19 yr started trying hit on me so it was nice when Pedro sat next to me and we talked and I could give 19 yr old the idea that I didn’t really want to be around him.

We walked back to the car around 12 and in our costumes (some of the only few still in costumes and awake around the city- everybody else was passed out in cars, on park benches, or the beach) and got out of town around 12:30. I slept until we got to a gas station where we got out food to snack on and continued to Sevilla. I was pretty worn out so when I got back to the house I ate with Alfonso and Reyes then went to bed until Anne got back around 5- woke up for two minutes to say hi then slept until 9 had dinner then went back to sleep. I was tired to say the least.

Friday before carnaval

16/2/07 Friday

There are times when I don’t understand how the Lord has time to look over every person in the world. I believe that he is packing on overtime hours on me because I am so blessed. I have an amazingly supportive family back at home that diligently write me Emails about what is going on back at home and offer support when I begin to miss home. I really miss my mom and I knew I would because even when I left for UW I would call and email her just to know what was going on and ask for her guidance on papers, signing up for classes, and sometimes just when I needed a friend to talk to. My mom has always been there for me and supported me on any of the wacky ideas I come up with. When I explain her to other people I can’t just say she’s only my mom because she’s also my guidance, hero, and most importantly my best friend.

My dad has been worrying about me nonstop since I left- he warned me not to fall in love with any Spanish boys because he’s worried that I won’t come back- I miss watching movies with him as he and I were always the only ones that didn’t fall asleep through the Hallmark channel movies on Sunday nights and thus were the only two crying at the end. He was the first one I called when I got to Spain and I was scared and feeling extremely lost. I am told that he still plays a message I left during my first days in Spain in which I am extremely upset and hurt that I couldn’t get ahold of any of my family. I think he is just worrying himself silly and someone should delete that message so I can leave a happier one hint hint. One which would include I CAN’T WAIT TO GO HORSEBACK RIDING WITH YOU DAD!

As for my sisters its funny I remember how much we fought when we were young and now all of us are feeling sad that we are so far apart. Adar is really an amazing volleyball player and more importantly a dedicated and aggressive soccer player. I am hoping that they will still have some games going on for me to watch her play when I get back. I know that she is living the high life as the only child in the house but from what she has said I think she’ll be more excited about having KJ and I back for the Summer. She has also met a boy that really is sweeping her off her feet with really surprising Valentines Day surprises and bringing the Rock Springs vs Green River rivalry home J Everybody has told me that this guy is really nice so I am waiting to meet this guy when I get back-maybe he’ll learn to make fried ice cream and immediately be accepted for movie nights at the Westling household.

As for Kayli well everyone is so proud of her right now with her acting skills that have impressed people world wide. Mom, Dad, and Isaiah write me about how amazing all of her plays have been and bum me out that I am not there to watch my little sister be pregnant in Little Women (where she looks like she is going to POP and in a ton of pain) and play an inspiring woman in the premiere of a religious piece. Kayli has been really busy with balancing school work, practices, work, and a social life. I know that KJ is missing Tyler, well not just KJ but all of us do, it was good that they left as friends and I really do think that the trip to Spain certainly didn’t hurt. Kayli hasn’t had a decrease of dates though and I am really curious about this upcoming blind date…… more to come.

I really do love my family a whole bunch and when I decided to go study abroad in Spain I never really imagined how much it would affect my family. My dad and his answering machine, my sisters having to wait for our “girl talks” and Adar I have started writing on internet instead, making amends for our long lost talks, my mom always making time to write me about things that are going on in town, what is going on with the family and reminders that I will always be in their hearts. I love you guys and miss you a whole ton but don’t worry I am coming home in May and then you’ll probably get tired of me really quick- especially when I compare everything to spain for the first month and insist upon speaking Spanish at all possible opportunities.

The one person I haven’t mentioned is one that I don’t know how to describe except by saying he’s my constant. He’s my light when I am feeling down, he’s my surprise when I get time to sneak away from schoolwork to write, he’s my long absence hug when I am feeling sad, he’s the man that made me fall in love with Green River all over again right before I left- kind of him I know., and he’s the one that will send me millions of emails on two accounts and leaves his phone on to hear when I reply. The others try really hard not to make me miss home while I think its Isaiah’s mission to do just the opposite. He does an amazing job at explaining important events in detail so I feel like I was actually there with him, he tells me about what is going on with my family and makes trips to visit with them and give Pooka some exercise. As my dad put it he was my Christmas present but really having my mom come down early and (my poor family had to have Christmas without her which I know that was tough for them) then the rest of them come really meant a whole lot to me and I thank God daily for that break I got to have to just explore Spain with the people I love. Without their support and love I would never have made it through my first semester in Spain as well as I did I LOVE YOU GUYS!

As if having an amazing family and boyfriend weren’t enough the Lord has granted me other miracles as well and the first is Mario. I met Mario through a girl that had studied abroad in Sevilla two years ago. He has been my intercambio and has repeatedly called me over and over again to get me to come out with him and if not with his friends we talk about random topics and I get one-on-one conversations in Spanish as well as discover the city from a local’s perspective especially with the Sevilla vs. Betis games and Sevilla and Triana discussions.

Yestaurday Mario called me to go the Carnaval in Cadiz on Saturday night. I have booked a trip with an American group called Discover Sevilla but they didn’t have any openings for the first weekend so his asking me was really perfect. It turns out that he can’t go because for some odd reason he has an exam on Saturday (which there is still room if he changes his mind). So yestaurday from 5:30 to 2am I was working with a group of friends making our costumes for Cadiz- the group theme this year is Vikings! It is really fun because the guys are a blast to talk to, they are really creative in designing costumes, well prepared, and really laid back- well besides being extremely excited about Carnaval and that excitement is infectious.

11/2/07 Domingo

11/2/07 DOMINGO or in English 2-11-2007

Yestaurday night was a lot of fun and I experienced a lot of new things and had a blast in Sevilla with our Spaniard friends, and no alcohol was involved (actually that is pretty weird because I have noticed that all of Europe tends to drink a lot of alcohol..it is just more widely accepted kind of like coffee). Anyways, the evening started with me meeting my intercambio Mario across the street from my house. We walked down to meet this new girl in the program that I went shopping with earlier with my new roommate Anne. Her name is Jessica and she had just taken a bus from Nervion to Encarnacion and walked to la plaza del museo and I just told her we would pick her up there just so she didn’t get lost.

Together we walked into Triana, which is just over the bridge two blocks from my piso but as I was informed by Mario it is a completely different city. Now he is from Triana and anybody from Triana proudly talks about how much better Triana is from every other part of the city. It is odd because I really do think they treat Triana as another city within Sevilla because the tourist office signs say they give tours of “Sevilla and Triana”.

Mario, his friend Antonito and usually one of my friends have been traveling more extensively around Sevilla in Antonito’s car and so far all the parts of the city I know are Centro (where I live), Nervion (which Ashton and I discovered accidently when lost one day-and the place that our host dad can’t believe we walk to as it is so far, he has actually never walked to Nervion “porque lo es muy lejo” but he walks beside the river daily with Beatle (the family dog) daily.) Los Remedios (beside Triana where I went to el Teatro-my first discoteca in Spain) Macarena (which is the area I have been exploring lately as I had a volunteered to walk a blind elderly man home there on Friday and then also learned their was a protestant church there was there again this morning-didn’t get to go to church though because Cari Anne didn’t make it in) Isla Cartuja (which is an island next to Triana (well it is connected to Triana and only has the river on two sides but they call it an island- it also has their theme park Isla Magica, the Expo, and El Mercadillo every Saturday and Sunday.) Sevilla oeste (where we watched the Sevilla vs. Betis soccer game last weekend) and Sevilla este (today I went there to watch Virginia “V” one of Mario’s pretty good friends play soccer).

So back to my experience yestaurday well Jessica Mario and I set off walking through Triana to meet Antonito, V (I am told there are together but you wouldn’t guess it just watching them) Fran- a new friend I had never met, Lorenzo (Loren for short, we watched the last Sevilla vs. Betis game with him last weekend in a bar and it was nice because he is a Sevilla fan as well). And a girl and a guy I have seen a lot just really don’t remember their names we all greet each other but Loren, and these two tend to branch off and for this particular night we didn’t see them again.

We then walked-the 6 of us Antonito, Mario, V, Fran, Jessica and I to a restaurant/bar in Triana and sat at a small table and had tapas and watched the Sevilla vs. Betis game. It was fun because they chose what tapas to order and while we were always involved we really don’t know the choices as well as them. We shared 5 plates first (and one of the most amazing!) was papas al Ali-Oli. Now this was chunks of fried potato covered with a white sauce called Ali-Oli that is a lot like Mayonnaise but then with ajo (garlic) pimiento (peppers) aceite (all oil a stable here!) and some other stuff all to make this creamy white concoction- Jessica and I feel in love and dipped crackers and papitos (cracker sticks) into the sauce the whole time.

The next tapa was called cazon I believe and it was described to us as shark-it was served fried and breaded-and good. It was an interesting taste that while I didn’t fall in love with it- it was good. Then a type of beef marinated in whisky with French frys and some olive oil-really good. Then our last one was calamari-always amazing. This was really fun and the rivalry between fans in the bar really picked up as the game wore on and Sevilla had a couple really close attempts and Betis had one. Ending the game 0-0 yet again, alas Sevilla makes a ton of really good shots and just can’t get them to count!

We made our way toward Calle Betis and stopped at a hooka bar called Baghdad. It was really fun because we sat on poofs and all of us got some type of drink. I got a batido (milk shake and it was AMAZING). Others got cocktails of wild flavors, and others warmed milk that was different flavors and came in an arab tea pot with a cup that Mario equates to Ms. Pots and Cup from the Beauty and the Beast. We had a ton of fun in the atmosphere talking about movies (it is so hard to understand their accents when they are saying English words a lot for me-especially English names) They said Grease once I just figured they were meaning the color gris and didn’t pick up on what they were trying to say. However, the night was fun and we even added another person to the group, Carlos.

We then walked to the bridge of Triana and Antonito, V, and Fran called it a night (it was 3am by now) and Carlos, Jessica, Mario, and I made our way to Carlos’ car and drove to a discoteca, that I never got the name of, in Sevilla este and danced for a long time. It was nice to be in a place with so few Americans and it had a lot of room to actually dance. The other clubs usually are packed and you can’t dance you just sway with the crowd, so this was a lot of fun. We left at about 4:50 and I was so happy to crawl into bed for a little bit of sleep- as I was up at 9am the next day for church.

Ireland

IRELAND

Ireland well let’s see where do I even begin to describe Ireland lets start with when we first landed in this foreign country. My first glimpses of Ireland- and this never changed- was it’s color GREEN. It was really cold outside but always the grass and trees were all a beautiful green. We spent the majority of our 5 days in Ireland jumping around trying to see all the sights and jumping into pubs to keep warm. We walked every day and took in the St. Patrick’s cathedral, Dublin Cathedral, the Dublin castle (I loved it-and our tourguide was a redheaded college guy that had that wonderful Irish accent that is so fun to listen to) Trinity college, field hockey at St. Stephen’s Green, Bank of Ireland (outside of it a civil upheaval too place and you can still see the bullet holes in the stone walls that took so many lives, as well as go inside and see the old parliament chambers that was sold by the British to a company with one rule: it had to eliminate all remnants of the old Irish Parliament, somehow the chambers is still intact because it was use as a conference room and has some great displays), the national museum now in Collin’s Barracks (It was here that I learned I really knew nothing about Ireland and its wars), Chester Beatty library (which had a free tour of the ancient texts they have found of all the major religions in the world- the four apostles’ still in Hebrew well displayed and most were fragmented) Some really neat malls, around Parnell Sq., a pub crawl (that was done by two actors and they took us to pubs that famous Dublin writers sat in while writing their plays and books, and even a few pieces performed at trinity college and a cathedral along with the history behind all the places we were walking to) and of course the tour of the Guiness Brewery and Temple Bar to drink guiness and Bailey’s irish cream, as well as listen to the traditional music- Tard.

Wow there is just so much to talk about I am going to have to only talk about a few. The first is the Guiness Brewery which was actually a blast and I would never have gone if Brian didn’t insist. We had fun walking the floors seeing the huge displays of ingredients with facts like “the word beer is thought to have originated from the Anglo-Saxon word Baere meaning barley”, “At St. James’s Gate brewery guiness use 100,000 tonnes of Irish grown barley per year” and “water, barley, hops, and yeast, 5th ingredient Arthur”. We watched them make a cask by hand called coopering, and don’t use gages or rulers but a compass once for the lid. This certain brewery (St. James’s Gate) makes 200,000 pints every hour every week and I witness a guy push the button for batch number 3889, then sent out a picture of me at the factory to my parents, saw a ton of old guiness ads (did you know that they only used people who love guiness for every one of their ads- yeah so they have a lot of potential actors) my favorite ad was this one from 1970s that was about a race that these two brothers have every year. They are both late 60s and one brother swims the river liffey and the end of his journey when he hits a booey they start the clock and he has to swim to the shore and into this pub and hit the counter before a glass of guiness is poured, settled, and tipped off. A huge crowd is out watching this race and the brother that watches from a spy glass and starts the time clock describes that his brother always worrys he isn’t going to make it in time every year and he always assures him he will, and then you see that when the brother is about 15 meters from the booey he starts the clock always giving him the advantage. I thought I was cute. Then to a floor with computers in tables surrounded by peg stools and with the use of headphones we played trivia games learning more facts about alcohol through trivia games and listening to stories about past alcohol experiences a group of college teens had had. I learned from this that back in the old days ladies in waiting were given 1 gallon of guiness for breakfast every morning as part of their rations. Also the best way to cure a hangover is a boiled egg, and the word honeymoon came from a gift given to a couple of honey alcohol and it lasted a month (for a full moon). Last but not least was going all the way up to the top and being able to see the whole city and drink our free pint of guiness.

The Dublin Castle was really neat and the tour guide (as I already said) just was so entertaining and really Irish to me because he had an accent, redheaded, and was a blast to listen to because of his jokes. We started the tour by walking up some stairs and looking at some tapestries- one had a deliberate mistake with a man’s feet being sewed on the wrong legs, and the crests of all the past Irish Presidents. This was neat to me because for the past 22 years the presidents have been women named Mary or as the tourguide put it “most Irish youth believe the president is always a woman named Mary- and that can’t change”. Then to a side room that had some chairs that had mothergoose rhymes stitched into them, and a beautiful view of the garden behind the palace that had bricks laid in it in a celtic symbol. A drawing room that was used by women during balls to relax, fix make-up, and adjust their petticoats. It was designed with mirrors all over the walls to help add light to the room because of the side of the building it is on and even mirrors close to the floor to help with petticoat readjustment as if your petticoat was loose so were your morals. The throne room and ballroom that had statues and a beautiful chandelier that had a lot of symbols intertwining English, Scottish and Irish rule. The St. Patrick’s ballroom actually had a tapestry in the middle done by an Italian that showed King Henry (some number) sitting on a throne at a battle scene with two women next to him. One represented the English people and the other the Irish people and the Irish one had a breast exposed showing the Irish people as submissive.

The building itself is set up with a huge inner courtyard in the middle and the reason is it was built around the old castle which was later destroyed by a huge fire in 1684. The Vikings lived on this piece of land first because it was defendable because three sides of it were surrounded by water from the River Liffey and another ancient river called the Puddle (it was fun to hear the tour guide say this word) that now has dried up. The Normans conquered the Vikings and built the ancient castle. They also built the walls of the city with the castle as the center and those that were allowed to life within the walls had to pay huge taxes but were secure from the wild bands that raided frequently- within the walls you received trade benefits. We got to go down and see the excavations they have been working on we saw the powder tower from the old castle which was where the armery and gunpowder was stored. They have done a composition analysis and found that the wall was of ox hair, horse blood, and egg shells. This tower was built so that interrupted the flow of the Puddle River and traders had to maneuver their boat through a gate around the tower and pull up alongside a wooden dock that was one of the only entrances to the castle and the gate and guards made it heavily guarded. These walls were over 800 years old and it is a miracle they could find them still after all these years.
The Museum

This was cool to me because it had so much history that I didn’t realize about the Irish I was entranced by the barracks first British and then Irish when they finally gained control of their land again. I learned a whole lot about the Irish and their seek for independence and how amazing it is they were always helping another country fight its battles and when those battles ended they would go back to Ireland just to fight a civil war to gain control of their own country. Some things that interested me (this museum was really interactive with lots of information being portrayed in a variety of ways- kept things interesting). When the barracks were under British control the soldiers were allowed to have spouses and the names for these women varied upon the rank of their husband. Officers had ladies, sargents had wives, soldiers had women. Also the militia solders tended to be catholic and the officers protestant.