Final Week

I still don’t know if it has really hit me yet that I only have a handful of days left in Spain. My emotions are highly mixed about returning home. I’m excited to get back to my friends and family of course, but at the same time I’m sad to have to close this chapter of my life…and a big part of me knows that after a week back home working with children in the Georgia heat I’m really going to wish I was back in Spain. I’ll try not to bore you for too long…as I plan to dedicate a separate blog post to Spain versus the US tomorrow or Tuesday.

This past week has been a great one. Pilar has been in the best of moods and I’ve finally finished up all my finals. With the strike that the university decided to go on, the last two weeks of class ended up being canceled.  This ended up making one of my university exams that was supposed to be on May 23^rd a take home exam…easily the best present I could have asked for. I spent a good while last weekend studying for my history of movies final. I took that on Monday and left feeling like I had been cheated. The professor only asked us to write 2 essays, 1 about a general topic and 1 about a specific movie we had watched in class. Throughout the semester we had watched 3 full movies and so I had studied the directors, actors, key scenes, etc for each of those 3 movies. Then I get to the test and he instead has us write about a 10 minute movie clip we had watched back in February.  Then the other question just asked about Westerns (a topic we had only spent 20 minutes discussing during one class). At UNC for a final you are expected to know everything. Here its more luck of the draw with what question you will get asked. I guess I ended up studying Russian, German, Italian, and Japanese cinema for nothing. Luckily, I only need a 5 out of 10 in the class to pass so hopefully I will squeeze by.

On Wednesday I decided to put off doing my final paper for Historia del Cine and go to Cadiz for the day with Colleen and Jess. We spent the day soaking up the sun on the beach and even met up with 3 other UNC summer students while we were there. Spanish beaches are about 50/50 with topless women…a concept I couldn’t quite understand completely. Why do some women walk around topless while others (who look and sound equally as Spanish) are fully covered? It’s a mystery I guess, but it sure made for some interesting and at times very uncomfortable people watching.

On the beach

View from the point

The city of Cadiz

Thursday was unfortunately a library day for me (although Spanish libraries are far less convenient than UNC’s 24 hour UL or Davis). I finally had to suck it up and write my movie analysis of the Wizard of Oz that I’d been putting off since February. If you had told me five months ago that I’d be able to write a 22 page paper in Spanish in one day, I don’t think I would have believed you. But by some miracle I was able to finish up the entire thing and hand it in on Friday morning. I guess my Spanish has gotten better after all.

Thursday was also Carmen’s 5^th birthday…a day she had been reminding us about for as long as I can remember. She also kept dropping comments about how we had to buy her a birthday present…and she even went so far as to write it on the family calendar to remind us. Calling her a brat would not even begin to describe her. But Colleen and I, being the nice people that we are, bit our tongues and went to Corte Ingles (a department store here that has everything you could ever want…and a barbershop and dry cleaners too) to find her a present. We eventually decided on a pretty cute green stuffed animal frog for her (mostly because the price was right). After dinner that night, her godmother came over and gave her a cute tutu, shirt and new sandals. Carmen of course ripped through the bags, looked at the presents, and then had a face that seemed to be asking: is there more? But without so much as a thank you, she went into her room to put her presents away. Colleen and I told her we had a present for her too. She quickly skipped into our room, and Colleen handed her the bag. She pulled out the stuffed animal, did not so much as smile, and then ran into her room to put it away. Maria rolled her eyes and apologized for her. And wouldn’t you know it Carmen then came running back in the room and asked me where my present was for her. I told her the stuffed animal was from both of us, and she turned right back around and left. I can only hope that one day she’ll wise up and outgrow her brat phase, but at this point it isn’t looking promising.

The slight smile you see on her face lasted long enough for me to snap this picture

A funny side story about Carmen: last Sunday Colleen woke up around 11 and went to the kitchen to get some breakfast. Pilar was still asleep in bed, and papa Luis was sleeping on the couch in just his boxers with a gallon of water next to him (needless to say, they had gone out drinking with friends the night before). She then walks into the kitchen to find Maria eating cookies dipped in fruit milk for breakfast, and Carmen eating raw spaghetti noodles. I guess that just goes to show that even after being here 5 months, you never know what to except with this family. 

Now for perhaps the most interesting part of my week: Maria’s first communion. Even on the very first day we got here, Maria asked us if we were going to be here June 2^nd. But although Colleen and I knew what a highly anticipated event this was, we still had absolutely no idea what to expect. So crossing our fingers that we had interpreted the Spanish dress code correctly, we walked over to catch the bus to Marchena with our family. (Papa Luis’s parents live in Marchena, about 30 minutes outside of Sevilla, and they own the egg factory where he works…which is where the communion after party was held). On the bus we met a ton of relatives…including the highly anticipated meeting of Pilar’s sister, husband, and their 2 year old, redheaded son who knows 4 languages. When we arrived in Marchena, we all walked to the church together. The ceremony lasted about an hour, and the priest randomly would sing different parts of the prayers and homoly. Colleen and I were both a bit confused as to what was going on, but we managed to follow along pretty well. I did take communion, even though I’m not catholic…but no one questioned it so I think I slid by. 

Maria with Pilar and Luis at the church

Us with the girl of the day!

After the ceremony was over, we were expecting to head to the factory for the after party where Pilar had said there would be a pool, tennis courts, and a tent with food. For some reason though, we killed an hour bar hopping before getting back on the bus to go to the factory. Colleen and I weren’t sure if we were going to be allowed to drink, so we just stuck with diet coke at the bars. After the adults had worked up a buzz, we got back on the bus and eventually arrived at the factory. Pilar did a great job setting everything up. There was a tennis court and soccer field for the kids to play on (they weren’t allowed to swim for safety reasons), and an open bar for all the adults to take advantage of us. As soon as we walked in, Colleen and I headed straight for the snacks. We hadn’t been giving any breakfast that morning and were starving by the time 2 came around. We still weren’t exactly sure whether we would be allowed to drink. Pilar and Luis drink Cruzcampo beers like water in our house, but they have only ever served us when our parents came to visit. It was a fine line to walk, so we decided to wait and see if they would offer us anything first. As luck would have it, party-man Papa Luis came over and told us to take advantage of the open bar and have whatever we want…and listed cerveza in a list of options. He didn’t have to tell us twice, and as soon as we finished talking to him, we headed straight for the bar. The 6 hours we spent at the party went by very fast. Food just kept coming out and the bartenders just kept pouring. We were given everything we could have possibly imagined to eat: chips, bread, tortilla de patata, caracoles (snails), gazpacho, ham, cheese, sandwiches, paella, candy, and 7 different kinds of cakes. Needless to say we made it into our breakfast, lunch and dinner for the day. And even after the food had stopped and we decided we were still a little hungry around 7:30, papa Luis got us some sandwiches…he was easily my favorite person that day.

Enjoying the caracoles (tiny little snails)

Colleen and I with Princess Carmen

Pilar's brother preparing the paella

Juan (the redheaded Spanish 2 year old who knows 4 languages)

Papa Luis showing off his flamenco skills (he was actually really good!)

Carmen on the tennis courts (I think I like her better behind bars)

Maria was a bit of a diva all night while Carmen oddly enough acted like a perfect angel. Colleen and I were convinced some sort of Freaky Friday moment was going on. Pilar was also very friendly with us as were every guest at the party. Different aunts, uncles and cousins came up to us throughout the night asking, “Are you THE Americans?” It was very funny, but we got to practice a lot of our Spanish with them. A good amount of people there had also studied abroad in Ireland with Pilar and Luis and were eager to practice their English with us. Pilar’s brother was great at English and was super friendly to us. He apparently is the one who taught Luis had to make paella. Being from Valencia, he is quite the expert on making some pretty delicious paella. He also made sure we had drinks in our hands throughout the night. Spaniards certainly know a thing or two about parties! There was a rather creepy family friend who asked us a bunch of deep questions in Spanish like would you rather be happy or please other people? Or, do you want children? He had 3 kids that were all at the party, but that didn’t stop him from taking a picture of us, calling us beautiful, and then holding up 2 lemons to Colleen’s chest. Needless to say, we did our best to steer clear of him. But all in all the party was a huge success and we found ourselves not wanting to get back on the bus to go home. 

Us "helping" with the paella

Today has been a sad day. Colleen and I woke up early to go check out some street markets. Along the way we crossed off the final thing left on our Sevilla bucket list: eat churros with chocolate. They weren’t anything fantastic, but they are extremely popular here so we thought it’d be a shame not to have them at least once in 5 months. Colleen goes home tomorrow, and our room is already looking sad. Pilar came in to tell us our lunch was in the oven (they are all eating out with relatives), and realized Colleen had packed up. She said we shouldn’t be too sad because it’s not goodbye, it’s until later. We gave her a framed picture of us with the whole family from when Colleen’s mom visited, and she started to tear up. Maria then came in and remembered how soon we’re leaving and her face just dropped. It must be so hard for this family to get close to girls every semeseter and to continually have to say goodbye after a few short months. I’m so grateful that a family as great as this one opened their doors to us. They have truly made my time in Spain the best expereinece I could have hoped for. They were supposed to take in girls for the summer, but Pilar is mad at our program director who shorted her money for this month since both Colleen and I are leaving before our program officially ends. I completely agree with her though. Our parents have already paid for us to be here and it isn’t fair for the program to pocket the money that was supposed to go to them if we had stayed. I can only hope that they will work things out though. This family is truly too great for UNC to lose as a host.

Churros and chocolate (they look a bit like organs, but they were pretty tasty)

Tomorrow morning Colleen leaves to go back home, and on Tuesday night I head to Madrid to spend the night before my morning flight home on Wednesday. I don’t think it will completely hit me that I’m leaving until I get on the plane…or maybe once Colleen leaves tomorrow. I promise to write one more blog post soon though, and after that I’ll be back in the states!

A random picture I don't think I ever got around to posting. It's from a rooftop hotel bar with a pretty spectacular view of the cathedral. I sure am going to miss this beautiful city!