Feria de Abril

I've been excited about this week since we first arrived in Spain, and although I'd heard how great it was from so many people, I must admit I still wasn't exactly sure what to expect. For those of you who don't know, Feria de Abril is a week long festival in Sevilla where women wear flamenco dresses and everyone flocks to Los Remedios (a neighborhood in Sevilla) to celebrate for a week. I think Feria can best be described as a cross between New Years Eve, prom/Halloween, the state fair and a football tailgate.

Feria began on Monday night with the "alumbrado" or illumination of the portada (gate) of Feria at midnight (hence it felt very much like New Years Eve then). My friend Molly's senora let her invite some friends over to have Sangria and watch the alumbrado from her balcony. It was really nice to be able to go into someone's house for a change. Once midnight struck, her senora even broke out a bottle of champagne for all of us!

A group of us inside Molly's senora's house

Outside of the portada/gate after the alumbrado

Around 12:30 or so we all headed down towards the party. Feria is set up with hundreds on hundreds of private tents that families pay for and invite guests too (hence the tailgate aspect). Then past all the tents are tons of amusement park rides and carnival games (thus the state fair feel). The first night, we met up with some people and had no trouble getting into 2 different private tents. It seemed as though even there was a guard at the door checking names, if you just walked in like you knew what you were doing (or followed a group in), then you'd have no problems! Pretty sweet deal.

Rachel and me inside our first private tent

Gabi and me in the street between tents. I LOVE the little lanterns that light up the streets at night

Decoration inside the second private tent

The most exciting part of Feria is watching all the women dolled up in their flamenco dresses with huge flowers and jewelry (ie the prom/Halloween aspect) dancing the sevillano. After a while we all started trying to learn the dance, but it seemed to be a bit more complicated than we had anticipated. Nine times out of ten we just ended up stomping our feet randomly and flicking our wrists in the air with as much sass as we could.

On Tuesday we slept in until lunch and then headed over to see Feria during the day. There were tons of little girls and boys dressed up, and I spent most of my time trying to dodge the countless horse-drawn carriages in the streets.

There are tons of men riding around on horses. Lots of times you'll see women riding side saddle behind them in their flamenco dresses.

Side street during the day

Four horse drawn carriage. There are TONS of these!

Inside a public tent. Our friends Gabi and Priyanka got to borrow flamenco dresses from their senoras to wear.

On Wednesday, Pilar and Luis took Maria and Carmen to Feria. Little Luis, however, was apparently just too cool for Feria...which I guess makes since seeing as he is 13 and doesn't like dancing. Maria and Carmen looked absolutely adorable in their flamenco dresses! They danced around and did a photo shoot for us. Carmen is a handful, but she does look cute in pictures....although she has quite the attitude on her. The other day she told Colleen and me that we couldn't tell her what to do because we don't live here. Maria made her go apologize to us later. Colleen is convinced that she is the devil. I must say at times she gets to be too much. Plus, as a random side note, she still wears diapers when she sleeps. As Colleen puts it, if you're able to put on diapers by yourself, you probably shouldn't be wearing them anymore. The other day she was eating breakfast in the family room and told us she had gone to the bathroom last night. She then took off her diaper and spent the rest of the morning sitting on the couch naked. At times I think this family is far too comfortable with us. Especially after I just happened to see Luis (the 13 year old) walking around naked while my door was wide open. Having little siblings is an experience I don't think I was fully prepared for!

The girls in their matching dresses. Pilar made them last year and made her own this year too!

Whole family minus Luis

Carmen and me

Anyways, getting back to my week. On Wednesday, Colleen and I went to a Sevilla basketball game with Luis and 3 of his friends. Luis was so sweet to invite us and treated us as though he were our big brother. He defended our spanish speaking abilities to his friends, made sure we knew where our seats were and insisted we stay put once the game was over so he could come find us and we wouldn't get lost. At first the whole thing made Colleen and I a little uncomfortable and at first it did sort of feel like a double date, but Luis was so great about keeping us in the conversation on the walk over there that we really felt included. He is such a sweet kid! (even if he walks around without clothes on sometimes...). The game itself was actually pretty fun! The crowd was much more into it than I was expecting. I guess Spaniards just love any excuse to be loud. They ended up winning 60 to 55 or something like that.

Sevilla's team color is pink and Valencia's is purple. Only in Spain.

Wednesday night was particuarly cold in Sevilla so Colleen and I stayed in and watched the Hunger Games online. I haven't read the books yet, but the movie was pretty good. All in all with the basketball and movie watching, I felt like I was back in America for the day (minus all the women walking around in flamenco dresses outside).

I've spent the rest of the week sleeping in and staying out late at Feria. It really is something that is hard to explain to someone who has never seen it. Hopefully the pictures I posted will help give you a better idea.

Colleen and I finally went and got the 5 beer for 3 euro deal yesterday! Checked it off our "bucket list" if you will

Thought I'd leave you guys with this gem of a picture. No one was hurt in the process.

Oh! And although I still don't have class until Wednesday, I leave for London on Monday. It's my last trip with RyanAir so that is something to be excited about! I honestly cannot believe it is almost May. UNC just had their last day of classes, and in ten days we'll be getting summer students from UNC. Time is honestly going by far too quickly!