Recovery, Reunions, and Semana Santa

Oh man, sleeping definitely felt great. I slept through the entire night ultimately waking up at 12:45 Thursday morning. It was a warm, bright, sunny day and I was excited to be back in the Sevilla heat. Stacey and I got ready and walked over to the gym to find that it was closed. So much for burning off Amsterdam this week. In fact, everything was closed...it was jueves santo (Holy Thursday) which I had no idea was such a big deal here. Crazy holy week. So we just sat around the house; I showered and started working on my Amsterdam blogs until we ate lunch at a little before 2. I guess since it was just the 3 of us eating and we were all around Maruja decided to serve lunch earlier. Maruja seemed so pleased that I was home and asked about my trip. She seemed in a really good mood. I think that she legitimately likes Stacey and me a lot and missed having girls around to keep her company. I also think that Semana Santa (holy week) puts her in a good mood; she goes to mass a lot and I think that it restores some sort of inner peace and love the more she goes to church. Lunch was so good--I had missed Maruja's cooking despite all of the delicious Amsterdam food I had consumed. We ate this awesome cold bean-olive-tomato-tuna-onion salad (tomatoes are so sweet right now), and tuna-tomato-egg empanadillas (mini empanadas). For dessert we each got our own kiwi which were so sweet (except I hate the aftertaste of kiwis). It was such a good meal! Maruja was also in great spirits and even joked around with us. Oh Maruja! After lunch Stacey and I got packed up and ready to go to the center of town to do some work. We walked outside and felt overwhelmed by the heat--we had no idea it was going to be so hot out! I hear that it hit 30 deg. (about 80-83 deg. farenheit) which is insane. It was so hot out! As we neared the Plaza de Cuba by the Remedios bridge we noticed a huge crowd of people of all ages and heard processional music. We looked over and saw that there was a Semana Santa procession going on in los Remedios. It included a looooong line of bright purple dressed Nazarenos which was really strange at first, of course. I don't know, though, we stayed there and watched the procession for awhile and I started to get used to the Nazerenos. I mean, the connotation here is completely different than the States so it's starting to sit better with me. It was so strange, though: there are Nazarenos of all ages! Men, young boys and girls...even some babies in strollers (Nazarenos in training?). Oh man, it's crazy. It's like, kids aspire to be a Nazareno...they aspire to dress like the KKK basically. Spain is so crazy. The Nazarenos walked really slow and on beat with the huge band playing epic marching music. The processional was taking awhile and we were growing restless...you can only see so many purple pointy hats. In the distance we saw the big Virgin Mary altars coming towards our direction. However, at their pace it would take a bit of time before Stacey and I caught a glimpse of it. All of the barrio processionals (each happens on a different day and have different altars and their own colors for Nazarenos) march towards the Cathedral, so perhaps we'd catch a glimpse of the processional along the river as they marched towards the Cathedral. We walked down the bridge to see that all of Paseo de Colon was completely blocked off to motor traffic due to the processional. As we walked we also noticed all of these Spanish women dressed all in black with the lacey black veil that stands erect on their heads--ya know, the stereotypical Spanish veil you see in movies or on TV. I didn't think women still dressed like that! I read later that the women dress like that on jueves santo to represent the preparation to mourn Christ's death the next day, Good Friday. On the corner of the bridge and Paseo de Colon we stopped by one of those new, special quioscos (kiosks) where Stacey bought a bag of fresh, candied almonds and I bought an authentic candied apple. I couldn't help it--I was so intrigued. You see, the candied apples are actually, well, candied. They're coated in a pink candy coating that tastes like strawberry hard candy. We found a seat along the river, but opted to sit in the shade under the canopy of lilacs since it was so hot out. I struggled with my candied apple, it was so sticky and messy. My whole face was filled with pink stickiness, as were my hands. After eating nearly half of the apple I gave up. It wasn't even that good, I just wanted to know what it was like. It was difficult to eat and sticky and too sweet. I prefer the American version much more, thank you very much. We then went out into the sun and sat out in the sun...I started reading one of our assigned plays for Lope de Vega (it's quite boring, damn Golden Age) while Stacey, who had intended to write postcards, sunbathed. It was very hot and sunny. While sitting out we saw many interesting sights such as families dressed in coordinating outfits, people taking family photos on the river, women in those black outfits, and Nazarenos of all colors non-chalantly walking down the street. That's the weirdest part--they just prance down the street like it ain't no thang. I mean, they're dressed like ghosts, basically. They're dressed like hateful, racist, violent American men to me. And they just walk down the street like that. The weirdest think I noticed was that they walk around barefoot. I learned that it's so that they feel pain so as to be humbled as they carry statues of Christ and Mary. It's so they feel the pain and suffering a little bit as Christ did when carrying the cross. Crazy. After an hour of sitting out Stacey received a phone call from Katie...she and Melissa were at the river, too, sitting merely feet away (and none of us were aware). I guess both she and Melissa tried contacting us via text message but my phone was on silent still from the plane. So they came and sat with us, and of course we got nothing done. Katie and Melissa had bought themselves some Shandy and were drinking on the river. We all caught up, talked about our trips, Stacey got to see Katie's piercing (I wanted to keep it a secret for better reaction), we got to hear about Melissa's beach trip and her Lisbon trip (it's so cool she did all of the same stuff as I--she looooved Lisbon), and Stacey got to tell all about Paris. It was so fun to be outside and catch up. We had all been apart, we were all reuniting! Katie and Melissa's senora had gone out of town for the remainder of Semana Santa so they decided to hold a real pre-game piso party at 10. Stacey left a bit early to go run errands while Katie, Melissa, and I stuck around and discussed the night. We made plans to play Kings (yay! my fave drinking game!) at their place and then head out to check out one of the special Semana Santa bars (there are bars that have a religious theme and only open during Semana Santa). We definitely wanted to go out because the whole "gang" would be reunited and also, according to Maruja "Hay mucha gente en la calle" (There are a lot of people out). I guess that on Holy Thursday people stay up all night waiting until dawn when the big processional occurs. So businesses around the Cathedral stay open all night while people of all ages (well, not little children) hang out, go to bars, cafes, restaurants, or just hang out outside and wait for the big procession. Gotta love it. At around 7:30 Katie, Melissa, and I walked back to los Remedios and made an OpenCor stop. I bought Stacey and myself 40's (as did Katie and Melissa) and a deck of Cinderella cards (they were the cheapest they had!) to play Kings. Then we parted ways. I got home and went online for awhile and got ready for the night while Stacey showered and whatnot for the night. At around 9:15pm we were all ready to head out. We told Maruja that we wouldn't eat at home since due to Semana Santa we had no idea what our night would hold or where we'd end up. We walked down la calle Republica de Argentina to find a lot of places that serve food closed so we settled on Vips for dinner. I just bought a sandwich, granola bar, and water, and we walked over to Melissa and Katie's piso. We went upstairs and just hung out for awhile--Stacey and I ate while awaiting Jessica and Courtney's arrival. They came at around 10:45 and it was so good to see them! We all caught up and told stories. Katie and I talked about Amsterdam, Stacey talked about Paris, Melissa and Jessica talked about Lisbon, Jessica also talked about London (she went on some study abroad conference for a few days before heading to Lisbon), and Courtney went to Rome and Florence to visit friends studying there. Everyone had such a great time and we were all so happy to be back hanging out together. It's so weird that we had all gone different places and had comletely different experiences. We were all literally all over Europe in COMPLETELY different places. We put on some Bob Marley and sat around making rules for Kings, or, what we called, "Princesses" (hence the cards). I opened up the deck to find out that the cards were only numbered up to 8! Turns out they're more like Go-Fish cards than playing cards. I don't get this country at times, OK? Oh well, we made up rules and it makes the game go faster. So we all sat around and played a really fun game of Kings...I missed that game...and I missed the girls! It was so fun. We even finished a whole deck of cards (thanks to my negligence) so that was an accomplishment. I was drinking my forty really slowly because I went into the game with a mild headache so I was getting drunk quicker than usual. Everyone else started drinking vodka tonics or taking shots while I just chilled on my forty. We then spent time hanging out and looking at people's pictures from their trips. I love it! Not only was it a good reunion, but it just felt so great to be able to hang out and play good ole drinking games in someone's apartment. It feels like Ann Arbor and that's pretty comforting. It's what I miss most, I'd say. When we hang out in Spain we can't just go over to people's places and chill like we do back home--we're almost forced to go out at night. Ah well. Speaking of Ann Arbor, school gets out there in a week. I can't believe that this schoolyear is ending for all of my friends. We're just about halfway through over here! I'm just weirded out because I know that a year from now I will be finishing college and in about year from now I will be graduating. That's just so strange. At around 1am we all headed out towards the center of town to find the Semana Santa bar. It's located, according to the website I found, parallel to Alfalfa which is right next to the Cathedral. This would be perfect because we'd get a glimpse of the jueves santo action. We walked across the bridge to see a bunch of businesses open and the street FILLED with people! It was amazing! I mean, everything was packed, I couldn't believe it. It was refreshing to walk along the streets in the middle of the night and to see them filled with people. There were all of these seats set up next to the Cathedral for people to sit and watch the procession at 5am, and people were already sitting to reserve their seats. Crazy! Stacey stopped on the way at Flanela, an ice cream joint, and got a major ice cream cone. Gotta love the Semana Santa. We got to the Alfalfa area and I was having a hard time finding the street of the bar so I asked one of the cops blocking the road to motor traffic. He directed us, but we still had issues. So we just decided to go to Alfalfa. On the way we passed this churros con chocolate stand with outdoor seating just opening...it's right next to Alfalfa and we had never noticed it before. Jessica and Courtney had never tasted churros con chocolate and really wanted them so we stopped and sat outside while they ate them. I tried a little bit of one and realized that they were nowhere near as high in quality as the ones near our place in los Remedios. The churros at this place were thinner, and the chocolate was not the thick chocolate bar-like stuff but more like hot cocoa mix heated up with milk. However I think that they enjoyed them. I don't know, I was not really "with it" at that point. I decided to go use the bathroom in Alfalfa, which was pretty deserted (strange to see) due to Semana Santa festivities. After using the bathroom I realized that I was a bit "off" and needed something in my stomach. The only food place except for churros on Alfalfa that was open was the pizza parlor. So I ordered a small veggie-filled pizza and texted Melissa saying where I was (she has an Amena phone so it's cheaper to contact her). They all met me there and we got a table and everyone else ordered pizza and nachos. My food came and it turned out that it was a small pizza, but it was a whole pizza nonetheless. So Melissa gave me some money and we split it. It felt good to get some hot food in me. At around 4am we decided that we were all tired and just wanted to head home. The heat does that to ya, I guess. So we walked around trying to find the way out, which was difficult since the main way that we walk out of Alfalfa was blocked to everyone except people with tickets (it's the prime seating area for the procession). We parted ways with Jessica and Courtney since they had to walk in a different direction back to Nervion. So Melissa, Stacey, and I (Katie went home hours earlier) got a bit lost but found our way back to la calle Constitucion, the main street in which the big procession was to occur. The awesome bakery across the street was open, and Stacey was drunk and perky (she's a perky drunk, I like it) she wanted to get a palmera pastry from there. It was PACKED. I couldn't believe it--this fancy, family-owned bakery open at 4am. Usually businesses open at that time are pretty shady and nothing special. The place was packed and Stacey's not too good at being aggressive when wanting service (you have to be aggressive at bars/cafes/cafeterias/bakeries) so I and my drunken self pushed my way to the front and asked if they had palmeras de yema (egg yolk and sugar frosted), but they didn't. So we pushed our way through to the exit to Constitucion which turned out to be blocked off...there was a cop there asking for tickets since that was the main seating area. So we had to go way out of our way to find our way back to Paseo de Colon to get to the bridge. It was a challenge and a hastle, but all of the people filling the streets of Sevilla kept us in good spirits. It was really exciting to see Sevilla so awake! Stacey and I were pretty stimulated by the liveliness of the streets that we just wanted to find a bench and stay up for the parade and just people watch. I mean, we had less than a half hour before the procession began. We actually saw the first Nazarenos walking down the street and the band beginning to play so I got some great pictures! Melissa was really tired and wasn't feeling that so we just walked back home. We walked Melissa home and then Stacey and I got home around 5. Then it happened. We were getting into the elevator. I held the door open (like I've described, you have to open the door yourself which opens to the actual elevator doors. I don't know, all of the elevators here are like that. So I'm holding the door open, then I get into the elevator and I stopped paying attention to my arm for a second and the door slammed on my right pinky finger. Granted, I was under the influence, but I definitely was not that drunk. It just kind of happened. It hurt a little, but not bad at all. I then looked at my pinky to see that the entire upper left side of it was spotted red (I had broken a bunch of blood vessels), my fingernail was turning deep purple, and I started bleeding out of a cut right below the cuticle. I couldn't feel my finger, either (I had broken nerves, apparently). I wasn't in pain, but in shock about it. I started to panic thinking I had done something really terrible to my finger and started to panic a bit. We got back into the apartment and I ran my finger under cold water for awhile. It stung on the cut, but I still couldn't feel the tip of my finger. I was feeling light-headed, I asked Stacey to get me a glass of water and she went to get ice. I dashed to the couch. Stacey came in with water, and since Maruja doesn't have ice nor an ice tray (weird) she brought me a frozen, foil-wrapped chicken filet and I used that to ice my finger. Stacey looked at it and it had swelled to twice its size. Stacey, who is awesomely pre-med and a former athlete who experienced all sorts of injuries, assured me that it just got badly jammed and badly bruised and that it will heal although it will hurt. She also said that the spotting will go away and hopefully my nail will remain intact. She said that I won't need a hospital and that I just need Neosporin and to give it air and time to heal. Phew. Thank god for Stacey Hahn, let me tell you. She made me feel so much better, so comforted and calm. We turned on the TV and watched a live broadcast of the big procession on Constitucion as I iced my finger for an hour. It's crazy, Semana Santa is all over TV showing live broadcasts of processions all the time. At a little before 6am I realized that there was nothing more to do than sleep. So I put a medicated bandaid on my pinky, got ready, and we fell asleep around 6am. It was quite an eventful day, but a great day at that. Yes, I injured myself, but I'm in Spain and I'm alive and it's Semana Santa and I'm among some awesome people who care about me and are basically so much fun to be with. It's very fitting to say during Semana Santa that I am so blessed to have this experience here. It's great to be back in Sevilla.