Since I am so behind on updating my Blog, this is going to be one giant recap of the past couple of weeks. So here goes….
As I am sure most of you know, last Sunday was Easter. However, in Spain and especially in Andalucía, the celebration starts a week before Easter and this week is called Semana Santa (Holy Week). Because of Semana Santa, I had another 10-day break. I decided not to travel anywhere outside of Andalucía because I wanted to experience all of the festivities of Holy Week in Spain.
Saturday 3/15-Sunday 3/16 - The first part of the break, I went to the beach with two of my friends from the program. We went to a small town in the Costa Del Sol called Nerja. The first day there (Saturday) it was kind of chilly and a little windy so we didn’t get to fully enjoy the beach and sunshine. We had beautiful weather on Sunday and were able to go out and enjoy the beach, warmth, and sunshine. The town is beautiful. There is a famous spot there called the “Balcón de Europa” and there is a great view of the mountains and coastline of the beaches. It is definitely a place I would visit again – for the beaches and I also want to see the famous caves of Nerja.
Monday 3/17 - My friends and I spent Monday in Granada. We were able to see our first Semana Santa processions. In order for any of what I am going to say to make sense, I think I must bore you with a little history lesson. Semana Santa has been a tradition in Andalucía for hundreds of years and with the declining number of “practicing catholics” it is becoming just that – more of a tradition and a thing that must be done every year than a display of faith and Christianity. Nonetheless, each of the larger churches in Granada (and most of the other cities in Andalucía as well) has a brotherhood that organizes their procession for Semana Santa. Each procession usually contains two pasos (statues) – one representing Jesus and the other representing the Virgin Mary. There are people that walk in the processions – los penitentes (people that wear outfits similar to the KKK for purposes of anonymity and some even spend the duration of the procession walking the streets without shoes), las manolas – women that dress all in black with veils of black lace and carry candles and finally there are los costaleros – these are the people that carry the statues. They all walk underneath and it takes a lot of practice and following the strict cadence of the drums to make it work. I am amazed at the people who are part of these processions. Some of them would last as long as five or six hours each. Each procession also has a band and a drum line. There is no way to accurately describe the sound of the band except to use the word squeaky. I think they find people for these bands that only play their instruments once a year for Semana Santa and do not practice otherwise. However, by the end of the week, it had almost become a comforting sound. I will describe a few of them in more detail but I must stick to my chronology of the week!
Tuesday 3/18 – Wednesday 3/19 – I had the privilege of going to Almuñecar (another small town in the Costa del Sol) with my señora and señor (Paco and Pilar). Their daughter and her husband and their two-and-a-half-year-old daughter were also there. It was a lot of fun to hang out with my family here and to bond a little. We spent some time at the beach and even watched a procession pass through the streets of Almuñecar. We went out for tapas and drinks on Tuesday night and I ate dried octopus! It was not too bad and I would definitely eat it again. The rest of the family stayed until Thursday night but I took a bus back from Almuñecar to Granada on Wednesday afternoon so that I could be home for dinner with my friend’s parents. My friend Liz (who I knew before coming to Granada) invited my other friend Emilee and I to dinner and a Flamenco show with she and her parents. It was so much fun. We went to Venta El Gallo which is the same place we all saw a Flamenco show at the beginning of our stay in Granada. We had a great 4-course dinner and watched the show while we ate. After we ate, we waited around for a while to see the Procession of the Gypsies (one of the most famous of Granada). It was raining during the procession and it didn’t help that they were climbing a huge hill with the floats to get to Sacramonte (the neighborhood that is highly populated with gypsies and is located in the caves of the mountains very close to the Alhambra). The teamwork of the costaleros and encouragement of the thousands of people who came out to watch the procession was just amazing.
Thursday 3/20 – Saturday 3/23 – I did not do much for the rest of the week. I stayed in Granada and watched processions and relaxed. Thursday night, a big group of us watched the Procession of Silence at 1:00am! It was a very cool procession but one that I might only want to see once. They turned off all of the lights in the city wherever the procession went and everyone is silent as it passes. The men are all dressed in black, along with the women and the only sound comes from one drum (just to keep the cadence). There was only one statue and it was of Jesus. There was a person near the end of the procession who was wearing chains around his feet and they were dragging on the ground and making a very grim sound (to represent the death of Jesus). It was a very powerful image. The last procession that I really liked was on Saturday and it was the only one that occurred that day. It was the procession from the Alhambra and the float contained the famous statue of Mary holding Jesus. The base of the float was very cool and had details similar to the Alhambra.
Sunday 3/24 – Easter Sunday. It was weird to be away from my family for Easter but I made it through. I did not wake up to an Easter basket full of candy but my friends did give me a little basket the next day and I was very happy. I went to church with Liz and Emilee and it was nice. I took communion for the first time in Spain. I had been trying to respect the catholic tradition of communion (since I am not catholic) but I could not imagine abstaining from communion on Easter. What they don’t know won’t hurt them!
Monday was back to the daily grind of class and homework. It was hard to get used to being back in class but we all adjusted well. I have one more class today and then it’s another one of those great 3-day weekends that we have every week! I am going to Cordoba tomorrow with a group from our Spanish school (Cegrí). I am excited and have heard that it is beautiful. The thing that I am most excited about, though, is the arrival of my parents in 5 days! They get in at 1pm on Tuesday (4/1) and I can’t wait. I am so excited to take them around Spain. We are going to spend the weekend that they are here in Barcelona. I will try and do my best to keep everyone updated of our adventures while they are here.
It is hard to believe that half of my time here is gone. It is going to be a bittersweet day when I leave at the end of June. But I will deal with that when the time comes.
Hasta Luego,
Em
