13 April 2008- Feria!

At long last, I have returned to Sevilla with a bit of a new outlook, ready to face my last few months, papers, and exams. Just two weeks after Semana Santa, we’ve had another full week off, this one for the yearly Feria. I jumped town Friday, and had a gorgeous train ride through the Italian countryside up to visit Dominique in her home in Switzerland.
The weekend consisted of seeing the small town, lots of wonderful food, setting the table and watching movies. I was treated just like another member of the family, which is something that I miss desperately here. It was also really great to catch up with Dominique, who I haven’t seen in about four years. It was interesting to me to see how we’ve grown up, and really how similar we are. From there, I hopped down to Rome (!) which was, as can be expected, extremely cool. We saw all the touristy sights and ate some incredibly good pizza and gelato.

Italy made a really wonderful impression on me. The language is incredibly emotional and also rather hilarious, because it really does follow the “mamma mia” stereotype, complete with dramatic hand gestures. I had a few hours to kill in Milan, and I walked down the streets, amazed at the variety – Kebab places, Latin American cuisine, and Chinese corner markets – and gawping at the pastries. Italy has made pastries into an art not only in taste, but to look at as well. In Rome, admittedly in the touristy downtown, all of the hosts and waiters of the restaurants were incredibly nice and funny, and usually at least trilingual. Of course you can’t get to really know a city in two days, and of course you can’t judge an entire country from seeing a couple of cities, but I came away with such a great feeling from Italy. I felt an affinity there, maybe because I was just passing through, but I hope to return, and hey, maybe its time to start studying some Italian too?

What has been going on in Sevilla during this Feria? Well, it’s like the state fair! The similarity ends at the rides and games though. The Feria is characterized by flamenco dresses on the women, horse and buggy rides, small tents which operate as individual bars, accessible by invite only, and the typical drink of white wine and seven-up. Although only present for one day, I feel like I got enough of the experience. Tomorrow it’s back to classes, and to the grindstone to finish papers. I’m looking forward to the end of my CIEE classes, and then steady studying for my University exams. Yay, school!