Thursday, April 29, 2010

Just made a facebook account so it is faster to upload pictures!!!

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001050497445&ref=ts

Hopefully it will work! It's been a little funky.

La Feria de Sevilla


For my Spanish civilization class we had to write a paper about any aspect of Spanish culture. I wrote about Feria, the flamenco festival that was here last week. It was so fun! Here it is in Spanish for all you speakers out there.

La celebración de feria en Sevilla es un festival grande de baile, donde se bebe y se divierte la gente. Es la única del todo el mundo. La feria tiene comida, la moda, y bebidas especialmente del tiempo. La historia y la cultura de la feria es muy rica y especial para los Sevillanos.

Hay muchas partes diferentes de la feria. La gente va a las casetas durante el día y la noche. Casetas son áreas cubiertas con las mesas y sillas, una barra, comida, y un área para bailar. Hay más que 1.300 casetas en Sevilla. Las casetas son públicas o privadas. Para las casetas privadas, una persona necesita billete o amigo dentro de la caseta para conseguir entrada. Las casetas privadas son más pequenas y tienen decoraciones en las paredes. Cada caseta tiene el nombre y el número en el exterior con las cubiertas rayadas que están frente a la calle. Este año, habían seis casetas públicas de districtos municipales. Durante el día, la caseta es una lugar para comer y beber. Durante la noche, la gente de la caseta baila el flamenco.
La calle de Infierno es una parque de los cacharritos. Es muy divertida. Es una zona grande con muchas atracciones para todas las edades. Hay más que 500 atracciones, por ejemplo las norias y los tiovivos. Desafortunadamente, es muy cara. También hay los juegos donde se puede ganar un premio para su novia o un niño. Hay muchas tiendas de comida. Los algodones dulces, helado, y dulces son populares.

La costumbre de feria comenzó en 1846. Narciso Bonaplata y José María de Ybarra tuvieron una idea de una celebración durante el mes de Abril. Las fechas originales eran 19, 20 y 21 de Abril. Hoy las fechas son las mismas, más o menos. Por ejemplo, este año la feria fue durante 18-24 de Abril. Ahora es una semana (seis días). Típicamente, comienza dos semanas después de la Semana Santa. La feria comenzó como ganado justo en el Prado de San Sebastian. La primera feria tuvo 19 casetas. En 1850, la feria cambió y se separó de la mercadería del ganado. Desde entonces ha habido muchos cambios y crecimientos. Cada año, hay un cartel oficial anunciador de la feria. Es muy bonito y muestra una característica de Sevilla o la feria. El primero fue en 1890. En 1910 se distribuyeron folletos. Los tres días cambiaron a cinco días en 1914. Cambiaron a seis en 1952.

Es posible para llegar a la feria en un taxi, por autobús o caminando por las calles. Las calles toman mucho tiempo porque el Barrio de Los Remedios no es en el centro. Los autobuses no son rápidos, pero son más caros. Los taxis son la manera más rápida, pero los conductos aumentan los precios durante la feria. Es posible tener que esperar en tráfico.
La entrada de feria es un símbolo de Sevilla—el “NO8DO.” Este es el lema de la ciudad y significa “No me ha dejado.” cubre la ciudad de las calles al Ayuntamiento. Viene de una leyenda sobre Alfonso el sabio cuando la ciudad permanecía con él durante la reconquista mientras que él luchaba con su hijo. El ¨8¨ representa una madeja. Esta entrada se llama la portada. Comenzó en 1949 y es 50 metros de altura. Este año, la portada es nueva y un diseño de José Manuel Peña Jiménez porque es el centenario del primer vuelo sevillano del ‘Blérot XI,’ un avión. La portada es muy interesante porque es reversible. Se ven iguales de la salida y de la entrada.

La primera noche de feria es el lunes en el Barrio de Los Remedios. La gente recolecta delante de la portada y espera para ver las luces dentro de la feria girarse. Es muy hermosa. La última día, domingo, hay los fuegos artificiales grandes muestran sobre el río que celebra el final de una semana acertada. No hay bailando pero la calle de infierno está abierto. La día más popular es miércoles.

La moda de la feria es único a Sevilla y al feria. La gente no viste iguales durante el año. Las mujeres llevan una traje de flamenca o las faralaes. La moda de las mujeres consisten de los zapatos, volantes, pulseras, alfiler, mantón, zarcillos, peineta y los flores. Es muy colorido, brillante, y vibrante con modelos de flores, de rayas, cordón o de lunares. Muchos vestidos tienen los chaquetas. Los hombres llevan los trajes o un traje corto con los cordobés. Los hombres que conducir los carros desgastan un equipo formal con un sombrero de copa.

Hay comida especial para este semana. Todas las casetas tienen un bar o cocina. Comen mucho al pescado, el jamón y la comida típica de Ibérica. La feria tienen una bebida—los rebujitos. Un rebujito consiste de la manzanilla, vino blanco sevillano, con Sprite or 7-Up. Es muy delicioso, ¡pero es peligroso también! La feria ofrece muchas dulces y los restaurantes acerca de la feria apretados y abráse tarde. Las chocolaterias son muy populares.

La feria es una celebración de los bailes flamencos. Tienen muchos golpes y vueltas. Es común para dos mujeres bailar a junto. Hay cuatro bailes de Sevilla. Las sevillans rocieras son más lentas. Las corraleras son muy rápidas con cantadas por voces roncas y graves. Los cortesanas son las más parecidas a las seguidillas originales. Algunas casetas tienen una banda, pero otras tienen la música registrada. El mujer gira sus manos en el aire como si ella esté escogiendo una flor, oliéndolo, entonces lanzándolo lejos. Los volantes del vestido fluye con el movimiento de los pies. Flamenco es la música de Andalucía y Sevilla. Origina de los gitanos y consiste de la guitarra, los palilos, las palmas, el cajón y la voz. El tema de la canción es dependiente de la persona o la canción, pero la amor y los tradiciones de Andalucía son típicos. Los caballos y los toros son los tradiciónes populares durante la feria también. Hay muy común para ver los coches de caballo en las calles, transportando la gente a la feria.

La feria de Sevilla es una tradición muy hermosa y acerca de los corazones de la gente de Andalucía. Es más de que una celebración de flamenco y bebidas. Es una celebración de la vida andaluz.

Is this real life?

Where: SAI
Listening to: Lady Antebellum
Phrase of the day: "esclavo"

Yesterday we had some issues with Vicki, our host mom. We asked for more toilet paper since we had been out for a while (we stole a roll from school and even that was gone). I was asleep for it because I have a bit of a sore throat. I'm trying to get as much rest as possible so I don't get more sick before finals next week or before my travels starting next Friday. It's a bit hard to do since this is our last full free week in Sevilla, so we are trying to live it up as much as possible. But Laura asked for more TP and Tricia asked if we could eat dinner earlier so we could go out with everyone. Vicki got really mad and asked Laura what we were doing with it, blowing our noses or using it for eye makeup, which we don't. Then Vicki got more mad that we wanted to eat at 9 or 9:30 because she said that's when we usually eat. However, we never eat before 9:30. Sometimes we have eaten as late as 10:30. So then we end up spending more of our own money on food to keep up from starving in between lunch (which is at 3:30) until dinner. Apparently Vicki told Tricia (whom she calls Patri...hilarious) that she always feeds us that early, she came home from having coffee the other night to feed us and that she is our slave. Clearly something is lost in translation here. On Sunday when we came home, we asked our brother Alfonso if he could call Vicki and see if we could eat a little earlier so we could go see the fireworks at midnight down at Feria, the flamenco festival. Walking to the Festival takes about an hour, at the least 45 minutes. Tricia made sure to say only ask her if it's not a problem, if Vicki can't come home, it isn't a big deal. Vicki didn't seem mad at all when she came home so it was extra strange that she flipped out. By the way, Vicki has a beach house and goes there for 2 months every summer. Clearly money is not an issue to her. Or maybe it only is when she has to spend it on us. That night when we were leaving (right after she yelled at us), the whole family was like "Oh you look beautiful!! Que guapas!!" What?!?! It is just a little confusing as to what exactly is going on here. Sometimes I feel like I'm walking on eggshells. Yesterday the light in our room went out too. I was really scared to go ask for a new one.

Of all things, I am scared to ask the lady that I pay thousands of dollars to for a new light bulb.

Besides that, things have been great. The weather is bright and sunny. The Yankees in my program (everyone but me) have had a hard time adjusting to the heat. It was 104 yesterday. I'm pretty fine with it. It's amazing how much it reminds me of home, except there is no humidity here!

I've been putting together a youtube account with the videos I have taken. So far I've tried to upload about 6 videos and only gotten two to fully upload thanks to an extra slow Internet connection. But it now is ready for debut!!! http://www.youtube.com/aksteffensen

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

The Numbers in Studying Abroad Vol. 1

So I've decided to start a little list showing how often or rarely we encounter things, just for fun.

Number Action
4 Months since I’ve driven
12314 Amounts of dog poop avoided stepping in
1 Dog poo stepped in
1 Flights missed
3 Full plates of peas eaten courtesy of Senora Vicki
1341328 Times said “Ahh, si, si!”
13 Credits taken at the Spanish-American Institute
7 Weeks without a computer
4 Days that we have class per week
3 Trips taken with the school
4 Times Vicki has washed our sheets since January
5 Pairs of jeans packed
2 Pairs of jeans actually worn
12 Postcards sent in one day due to boredom of not having computer
3 Times I have accidentally put two contacts in one eye
7 Gelatos eaten while in Italy for a week
8 Times said “You sound like you’re from London!” while in London
29 People from around the world that make fun of my Texas accent
9 Buses taken for over 1 hour
3212588 Times I have realized I need to update my blog

Saturday, April 24, 2010

LONDON CONTINUED

Where: bottom bunk, Sevilla
Listening to: "Little Secrets" by Passion Pit
Phrase of the day: "Heyyyy girl"


It was really weird walking around in London since they drive on the opposite side of the road. At all the cross walks on the streets, they had painted "LOOK LEFT" or "LOOK RIGHT." Guess they get a lot of dumb tourists (us) that forget!

After the Evensong worship, we went back to the hostel to get ready for our evening. Trav showed off his catching skills. Jack left to go to Normandy for a day. Since he had left, we had a new roommate named Dan. Dan was a very interesting Chinese twentysomething who was coming to London just to get some paperwork so she could stay in England longer. She started talking. And would not stop. She showed us these high-waisted pants she had bought at H&M and asked us what we thought. Apparently her friends thought they made her look "fatty," among other things. You definitely meet some characters while staying in a hostel.

We met up with the other Mizzou girls that were visiting and went to dinner. Sarah has been studying in France for the entire year and actually studied abroad with one of my friends from high school! The more I study abroad and travel, the more I feel like the world is a tiny place. We went to Devonshire Arms, a cute boutique restaurant in Kensington. It was actually kind of evil vintage princess themed! By that I mean dark wood embellishments and gold accents instead of the white and silver that I have in my room. So naturally I loved this place. I got wasabi crab cakes to eat and they were AMAZING. I literally could have eaten them forever. They came with this little mango jelly. Absolute delicious.

THe other Mizzou girls went home because they had to leave really early the next morning. At that point, we met up with Lindsey Wolf and Elizabeth Strickert, our Chi Omega sisters at Mizzou. We took the tube (aka the Metro) with Lindsey and Elizabeth to a bar called O'Neill's who has a band that plays. They said it was a good one filled with lots of college-age students studying abroad--and they turned out to be right! Directly after we walked in, I ran into my friend Elisabeth N. who went to Duchesne, the other all girl's high school in Houston. HOW WEIRD. That's the second time I have accidentally run into Elisabeth! Further proof of a small world.

After hanging out at O'Neill's for a while, we threw in the towel and headed back to our hostel by taking the night bus. The night bus was not easy for us to figure out. I liked it though, because it is referenced in Harry Potter. Trav came home really late because he went to the casino afterwards and won 50 pounds.

On Friday, April 9th, we went to get lunch at Harrod's. Harrod's is a famous department store that is unlike anything we had ever seen. We went to a couple of the restaurants and looked at the prices, but they were a little expensive. We went to the take away food area and got a variety of things. Trav got some sushi, Haley got some interesting food, Tricia and I got a chicken, avacado, and mango salad. It was so delicious. We couldn't eat it inside so we went and ate it on a street corner overlooking a park, like the true hobos we are. There are dozens of sections and restaurants. Everything has a theme and ornate decorations. I loved the store window displays. Most were Alice and Wonderland themed so they had over-the-top decorations with bright, vibrant colors. We walked around for a bit, just soaking in all extravagance. Tricia bought perfume and a dress. I bought a French Connection black and gold heart necklace. I wanted a gold necklace that I could wear with my Danish Georg Jensen daisy jewelry, so this was perfect!

We finally left Harrod's after a long day of wishing we were millionaires. We had all bought cupcakes and Tricia and I ate some of ours while we were walking home. Once again, amazing.

We made a quick stop at the Victoria and Albert Museum which was down the street from our hostel. A lot of the museums in London have free entrance so we were lucky enough to save a bunch of money and go back to the museums repeatedly. This museum had everything! Lots of artifacts from all over the world, ironworks, sculptures, anything you could think of. We walked through their exhibit on clothes, which oddly enough had a Juicy Couture velour track suit in it! It's weird to think that our clothes might one day be in a museum.

We came back to the hostel and we made dinner! We went to the store and got some pasta and salad. We made so much that we had enough extras to feed pretty much the whole hostel. It was really good though. The Astor Kensington hostel was nice enough too that it had a fully functional kitchen that we were able to take advantage of. Anything to save money!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Welcome Home to Vicki´s and America´s Motherland

Where: SAI
Listening to: "Can´t take my eyes off of you" by Lady Antebellum
Phrase of the day: "Dear John"

We had a fabulous dinner our first night back in Sevilla. It was huge! Could Vicki be turning around? Last night for dinner we had a plate full of noodles with nothing on them (she had ketchup on the table for us to put on it) and a sandwich of white bread with one slice of cheese and a single slice of ham that was so thin I could see Laura´s astonished face on the other side of it when I held it up. Meal valued at .56 American cents.

Welcome back to Casa de Vicki!!

Lack of nutrients aside, our most recent trip to London was a resounding success. We left Sevilla April 7th and flew to London Stansted via RyanAir. RyanAir is unlike any other flight I have been on. The flight attendents sell things up and down the aisles, particularly lotto cards. We also crashed into the ground upon our landing. However, it´s cheap so I guess you get what you pay for. It took us a while to get to our hostel...and by a while I mean arriving at 3 a.m., about 4 hours after we had landed. The tube was closed so we had to find our way in the dark night through the bus system which wasn´t easy for our sleep deprived minds.
We stayed at Astor Kensington, which is my favorite hostel by far. I loved it. We met so many friendly and crazy people that were all just doing the same thing as us. I liked that the environment was so open and welcoming. People were inviting us out, talking, just acting like we had been friends for years. I was sad to leave it come Sunday.

Thursday morning, April 8, we woke up and hit the town. Coincidentally enough, some of our friends from Mizzou were staying at our same hostel!! We knew they were going to be in London, just not so close! We went down for the free breakfast and ran into them! Unfortunately our friend Mark booked his hostel too late so he had to stay at a different one than us. Add in our lack of being able to communicate in foreign countries--our phones ran out of minutes, he couldn´t access the Internet--and as you can guess, we didn´t see much of Mark. We waited for him and messaged him on Facebook, but it was to no avail. So we headed on our merry British way and took the free tour of London sponsored by New Europe. We were able to see the whole city--Big Ben, Westminister Abbey, Buckingham Palace, St. James, a few parks, gentlemen's clubs, Parliament and Wellington Arcade.

After the tour, we got fish and chips and ate at a park in front of Westminister Abbey. To go inside of Westminister Abbey, you have to pay like 15 pounds which is equivalent to a semester of the price of the food Vicki serves us. So like $27. We went inside for free by attending the 5 p.m. Evensong, a short worship session with Bible readings, prayers, and best of all, music, put on by the Abbey every day. I was a little disappointed that we wouldn´t be able to hear the renowned Abbey Choir, but the visiting choir was the ST. CECILIA SINGERS!!!! That is the exact name of my grade school choir! Very ironic. The service itself was beautiful. I loved hearing the music, some of which I have sung myself like The Magnificat, performed in such a legendary place. The fabulous acoustics reminded me of my choir directors flourishing and brandishing their arms higher into the air like whisps of smoke, rising and falling with each intake of hurried breath. I felt like I was performing there.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Just touched down in London town...

Where: Astor Kensington, London, U.K.
Listening to: some English car racing TV channel...who knew they were into that...
Phrase of the day: "OH NO!!! MY LIP GLOSS!!!!" "SPLAT" "Are you guys pumped for LONDON"

Well, we've made it to our mother country safely, but not without the persistent lack of sleep, money, and food. However, we've still been able to make the most of the day!

We went on the New Europe free tour of London today. It's a 2.5 hour walking tour of the city. Wearing heeled boots was not the best idea.

Afterwards we grabbed lunch (fish and chips!) and went to Evensong, the evening worship at Westminister Abbey. I LOVED the Abbey. It reminds me of my room--big with good music and lots of random things in it.

Just wanted to give a quick update. I've been really bad lately, but hopefully my laptop will be back once I get back to Spain. Then I'll be able to catch up!

Tonight we're off to play with our Chi Omega sisters, Elizabeth and Lindsey. Can't wait to see the town with the locals!!

Cheerio mates.