Religious pageantry now behind us, it's time for the Feria! Gatito has Wed-Friday off of school and before the beach on Thurs, we need to see what this is all about.
As Ms. Bell says...what makes grown women put on polka dots and ruffly dresses and parade around town accompanied by men with pants so tight they must unzip to sit...?
To help answer that question, I've invited two friends from Paris...so far we've had late nights, shopping days and I have 2 (not 1, but 2!) new pairs of Camper shoes..both fancy, high heels. As Alexandra said, "We NEED good shoes for our balance." Upon returning home and modeling these beauties, the Don kindly chose to remain mute rather than take the opportunity to remind me of the shitty exchange rate for the dollar.
So back to Feria, got the shoes, got the visitors, got temps in the high 70s, but it's sort of like a private party where people have "casitas" and you have to have an invitation to enter. This is where gatito comes in. We've got an invite from one of his school friends today, so tonight we'll be heading to the Feria at the outskirts of town and my biggest problem is that besides great shoes, I have NOTHING TO WEAR!!! (=?more shopping?)
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Semana Santa II
Last night we met up with parents of gatito's friends at 8:30pm. That was "right!"
(The wrong: me wearing faded jeans, hiking shoes and a black fleece.....their family looks like they stepped out of a fashion magazine. Gatito's friend in shorts, colored boy stockings, matching shoes and a little Berber-like coat. My family steps out of grunge.)
Attire aside, they led us through the crowd to a side street along the procession route where we could almost breath. We stood with thousands of others and watched the hundreds of nazarinths pass. Our children are pushed to the front so they can see (but where we can't see them). A man from the front calls back to us: "I've got one hand on each child's shoulder". Then he tells them that when the nazarinths give them candies, he wants a cut! They entertain themselves asking for candy, little cards with pictures of virgins and Jesus on them and then wax from the candles carried by the same nazarinths (the candle is turned on its side, the melted wax is collected onto a ball of paper that grows in color and size with dripping wax through all the days and years of processions). When the SECOND procession passes (11:00pm), and the Jesus float stops right in front of us, a woman from a balcony above begins to sing. Everyone hushes to listen to her beautiful, plaintive song. I had goosebumps.
THIS was my idea of Semana Santa. People not just drinking to drunkeness, eating and talking on cell phones with intermittent glances at the procession, but a mass of people actually engaged with the spirituality. Even if I don't feel the religion, I loved the moment of people coming together in good spirit and mood. Quite beautiful.
After that, they led us to a tapa bar where we elbowed our way inside to eat and drink. The Don returned home at that point (it being 12:30am) because he had to do early morning field work, but gatito and I stayed on for 2 more processions, finally "leaving the friends early" and walking home (the streets were PACKED PACKED PACKED with people). It was 2:30am.
I'm rather trashed today...all that excitement meant I didn't sleep until 4:30am. Gatito's first words upon waking. "Anoche fue muy divertido." I agreed.
And then he reminded me that the Esperanza de Triana, who is around the corner from our house, is coming out at 3:00am tonight/tomorrow. His ball of wax must grow!
(The wrong: me wearing faded jeans, hiking shoes and a black fleece.....their family looks like they stepped out of a fashion magazine. Gatito's friend in shorts, colored boy stockings, matching shoes and a little Berber-like coat. My family steps out of grunge.)
Attire aside, they led us through the crowd to a side street along the procession route where we could almost breath. We stood with thousands of others and watched the hundreds of nazarinths pass. Our children are pushed to the front so they can see (but where we can't see them). A man from the front calls back to us: "I've got one hand on each child's shoulder". Then he tells them that when the nazarinths give them candies, he wants a cut! They entertain themselves asking for candy, little cards with pictures of virgins and Jesus on them and then wax from the candles carried by the same nazarinths (the candle is turned on its side, the melted wax is collected onto a ball of paper that grows in color and size with dripping wax through all the days and years of processions). When the SECOND procession passes (11:00pm), and the Jesus float stops right in front of us, a woman from a balcony above begins to sing. Everyone hushes to listen to her beautiful, plaintive song. I had goosebumps.
THIS was my idea of Semana Santa. People not just drinking to drunkeness, eating and talking on cell phones with intermittent glances at the procession, but a mass of people actually engaged with the spirituality. Even if I don't feel the religion, I loved the moment of people coming together in good spirit and mood. Quite beautiful.
After that, they led us to a tapa bar where we elbowed our way inside to eat and drink. The Don returned home at that point (it being 12:30am) because he had to do early morning field work, but gatito and I stayed on for 2 more processions, finally "leaving the friends early" and walking home (the streets were PACKED PACKED PACKED with people). It was 2:30am.
I'm rather trashed today...all that excitement meant I didn't sleep until 4:30am. Gatito's first words upon waking. "Anoche fue muy divertido." I agreed.
And then he reminded me that the Esperanza de Triana, who is around the corner from our house, is coming out at 3:00am tonight/tomorrow. His ball of wax must grow!
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Semana Santa
I knew it was big, but I didn't realize HOW big until I got the 20 page booklet (complete with advertisements and bacalao recipies) with the entire SEMANA SANTA schedule.
There are 8-10 processions per day. Each procession consists of 2 floats: first Jesus with cross and then the virgin. Each virgin or Jesus has been carved and painted (many dating back to the 17oo and 1800s); the floats are painted shiny gold or silver and all include flowers and huge candles. Each float is carried by about 20 men who switch out with other-twenty-men during the course of the procession. These floats are followed by about 50 'nazarenths' who, people dressed bizarrely like KKK. Incense is burned and it's all followed up by a screeching brass band and drums so loud you understand why everyone in Spain screams when they talk.
The booklet also has the mapped-out route for each procession...from the church where the stay during the year, past the enormous cathedral and then back again. Some processions START at 2am; some END at 2am. This goes on for 6 days. All hours of all days.
The second most popular virgin of Sevilla is here in Triana: La Esperanza. She'll be out on Friday, the biggest day. People push their way in to get near her, to brush their fingers to the silver. They cry. They faint. They feel a passion for idols that I cannot comprehend.
The most bizarre part is the fact that right now, it's 1:32 am and my street is FULL of Americans and Germans who have come for the festivities...all drunk and very loud (hence: me awake now).
This being the beginning, I don't know what to think.
Update to follow....
There are 8-10 processions per day. Each procession consists of 2 floats: first Jesus with cross and then the virgin. Each virgin or Jesus has been carved and painted (many dating back to the 17oo and 1800s); the floats are painted shiny gold or silver and all include flowers and huge candles. Each float is carried by about 20 men who switch out with other-twenty-men during the course of the procession. These floats are followed by about 50 'nazarenths' who, people dressed bizarrely like KKK. Incense is burned and it's all followed up by a screeching brass band and drums so loud you understand why everyone in Spain screams when they talk.
The booklet also has the mapped-out route for each procession...from the church where the stay during the year, past the enormous cathedral and then back again. Some processions START at 2am; some END at 2am. This goes on for 6 days. All hours of all days.
The second most popular virgin of Sevilla is here in Triana: La Esperanza. She'll be out on Friday, the biggest day. People push their way in to get near her, to brush their fingers to the silver. They cry. They faint. They feel a passion for idols that I cannot comprehend.
The most bizarre part is the fact that right now, it's 1:32 am and my street is FULL of Americans and Germans who have come for the festivities...all drunk and very loud (hence: me awake now).
This being the beginning, I don't know what to think.
Update to follow....
Monday, March 26, 2007
Sevilla: Museum of Tiny Art
On Sunday we went to the museum of fine arts here in Sevilla. The museum is housed in an old, gorgeous 15th century convent with traditional tiles on some of the walls. The collected works are mostly those of famous Sevillan artists.
The really fun part was being in the museum with Adrian and realizing how much children notice!
"Look, Sylvia, how Jesus is so calm on the cross."
"What?" I ask.
"That picture way down there."
I look down at the other end of the room and see a huge painting. In the middle of the picture is Jesus on the cross. There are two other crosses, one on each side of Jesus. Each has a man on it as well (the thieves?).
"See?" Adrian says. "See how Jesus is so calm, accepting it, but the other men are fighting their deaths."
I look and see. Not only had I completely glazed over this picture (one of many with religious themes) but even when I looked at it, I didn't really SEE it. Thank god for the little people of the world who make us see.
The really fun part was being in the museum with Adrian and realizing how much children notice!
"Look, Sylvia, how Jesus is so calm on the cross."
"What?" I ask.
"That picture way down there."
I look down at the other end of the room and see a huge painting. In the middle of the picture is Jesus on the cross. There are two other crosses, one on each side of Jesus. Each has a man on it as well (the thieves?).
"See?" Adrian says. "See how Jesus is so calm, accepting it, but the other men are fighting their deaths."
I look and see. Not only had I completely glazed over this picture (one of many with religious themes) but even when I looked at it, I didn't really SEE it. Thank god for the little people of the world who make us see.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Off with their heads!
Who would have thought that killing people could be so much fun? Here I am writing this science laboratory based murder mystery novel and already I've learned a few big lessons:
1) Lowering your standards, gets words on the page fast.
2) Don't despair when you think you've lowered your standards too much! Pick up the 2 books you bought at the airport and browse. Realize your standards are fine.
3) Learn that killing people is not only EASY, it's FUN.
4) Why stop at just one? All the books have at least two murders, so go ahead, kill off that gerbil-like other guy too. He's got to be guilty of something (that part you can figure out later)
5) Tired of finding new adjectives to describe your book's location? Switch location. Add an exotic trip to coral reefs to find new snail toxins. Never been scuba diving? That's okay. Make it up! Later, there are fact checkers for that (aren't there?)
6) Finally, even if your characters aren't all that interesting, it's important to give them good heroes:
Like the one that my female graduate student character adores: Emelie Chatelet, an 18th century French mathematician & physicist. She figured out that Newton screwed up about the laws of motion: The energy of a moving object wasn't proportional to its mass x velocity, but rather velocity needed to be squared, e.g. E = mv2. Sound familiar? It should. Nearly two centuries later Einstein figured out e=mc2 based on her correction.
(In case you're wondering, her theory was demonstrated by dropping metal balls into clay. When dropped from twice the distance, they sunk 4x into the clay, i.e. the square of twice as far and not twice as far as Newton predicted.)
Plus, she was quite the independent women. Had numerous affairs (all fine with her husband who had his own) including Voltaire who said she was a great man whose only flaw was being a woman! She died at 44 after giving birth to a child from another affair (Voltaire was mad).
7) Accept (once again) that you aren't a woman genius, but do a couple of sun salutations for Carl Djerassi.
1) Lowering your standards, gets words on the page fast.
2) Don't despair when you think you've lowered your standards too much! Pick up the 2 books you bought at the airport and browse. Realize your standards are fine.
3) Learn that killing people is not only EASY, it's FUN.
4) Why stop at just one? All the books have at least two murders, so go ahead, kill off that gerbil-like other guy too. He's got to be guilty of something (that part you can figure out later)
5) Tired of finding new adjectives to describe your book's location? Switch location. Add an exotic trip to coral reefs to find new snail toxins. Never been scuba diving? That's okay. Make it up! Later, there are fact checkers for that (aren't there?)
6) Finally, even if your characters aren't all that interesting, it's important to give them good heroes:
Like the one that my female graduate student character adores: Emelie Chatelet, an 18th century French mathematician & physicist. She figured out that Newton screwed up about the laws of motion: The energy of a moving object wasn't proportional to its mass x velocity, but rather velocity needed to be squared, e.g. E = mv2. Sound familiar? It should. Nearly two centuries later Einstein figured out e=mc2 based on her correction.
(In case you're wondering, her theory was demonstrated by dropping metal balls into clay. When dropped from twice the distance, they sunk 4x into the clay, i.e. the square of twice as far and not twice as far as Newton predicted.)
Plus, she was quite the independent women. Had numerous affairs (all fine with her husband who had his own) including Voltaire who said she was a great man whose only flaw was being a woman! She died at 44 after giving birth to a child from another affair (Voltaire was mad).
7) Accept (once again) that you aren't a woman genius, but do a couple of sun salutations for Carl Djerassi.
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Spring Thoughts of Nothing
Spring has arrived to southern Spain. We've got temps in the 70s, lots of sun. The dark house is light once again. On the weekends, the strip of grass in front of the river is crowded with young people (does it mean you're old when you start referring to 18-25 year olds as "young"?)...They are out, scantily clad, the males riding their vespas past the females, guitars, and lots of rum and coke...This all looks fine, but later, they come stumbling home by my house, screaming and breaking bottles and often vomiting outside my door....
One things I won't miss in Spain. Well, 3 things, actually: garbage in the street, dog shit in the street and passing vomit on my way to gatitos school.
Why live here? This past weekend, we rented a car and went out with the Danish friends to explore the countryside. We visited 3 sets of Roman ruins, one right next to the beach with columns and statues and a salting factory where they salted the tuna and made garum....a delicatessen condiment made from fish guts and other things. Apparently, this stuff was more expensive than caviar. I love walking the old Roman streets, smelling the rosemary that has been planted there and imagining Trajan and Hadrian who were born and lived in these places. In so many ways...so little has changed: people live, eat, die, fall in love, out of love, empires rise and fall....(odd to think we're on the downturn of our own empire right now.....what will they say of the USA people 2000 years from now?)
One things I won't miss in Spain. Well, 3 things, actually: garbage in the street, dog shit in the street and passing vomit on my way to gatitos school.
Why live here? This past weekend, we rented a car and went out with the Danish friends to explore the countryside. We visited 3 sets of Roman ruins, one right next to the beach with columns and statues and a salting factory where they salted the tuna and made garum....a delicatessen condiment made from fish guts and other things. Apparently, this stuff was more expensive than caviar. I love walking the old Roman streets, smelling the rosemary that has been planted there and imagining Trajan and Hadrian who were born and lived in these places. In so many ways...so little has changed: people live, eat, die, fall in love, out of love, empires rise and fall....(odd to think we're on the downturn of our own empire right now.....what will they say of the USA people 2000 years from now?)
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Suffering the Consequences
Gatito finally got me to rent rollerblades! Once I had them on I was a lot less sure about the plan than before I put them on, but away we went on the not-so-smooth Spanish sidewalks. He, of course, is a little pro and he was able to give me pointers:
"The first time, is hard. The second is easier. After that, you'll get really good like me."
So, we skated around the 'route' he'd invented for us and when we passed by one of many half-dead caterpillars trying to cross the sidewalk, gatito says, "That caterpillar is suffering the consequences of the end of life." He then explained to me is the same as "suffering the consequences of the end of the game."
So there I have it. Philosophy from gatito!
"The first time, is hard. The second is easier. After that, you'll get really good like me."
So, we skated around the 'route' he'd invented for us and when we passed by one of many half-dead caterpillars trying to cross the sidewalk, gatito says, "That caterpillar is suffering the consequences of the end of life." He then explained to me is the same as "suffering the consequences of the end of the game."
So there I have it. Philosophy from gatito!
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