Family and Semana Santa

¡Hola!

So not much exciting went on this week, besides the Huelga General, on March 29^th.  This was a strike across all of Andalucia against the Labor Reform currently being implemented.  Due to the economic crisis in Spain, many cutbacks have been made in which the people are against.  Last Sunday also marked an election, in which PP, Political Party, won.  Regardless of who won the elections, a strike was planned for Thursday, March 29.  So, we were warned by our program many times to avoid the strikes, and prepare for the worst: minimal services were provided across the region.  Flights were cancelled, businesses didn’t open, and buses didn’t run.  Only minimal services were provided by all.  As I was heading to work Thursday morning, I pulled into Plaza Jeronimo, where my office is located, to find a small group of strikers gathering.  For the next hour at work, I could see, from our fourth floor office, many groups of strikers were passing through the plaza, headed for a meeting point in El Centro.  And finally, the crowd started to move.  Whistles were blowing, horns were honking, and fireworks were going off.  The crowd walked through the plaza below my office (and this wasn’t even everyone striking), but they were there for a while walking and making noise.  I went downstairs with my co-workers and watched, as the restaurant below us locked their doors and the protestors marched on.  I took some pictures…check them out on my Facebook page.

Besides that, not much is going on.  So I wanted to do a general post, which has been on my list for a while now.

My Family

Recently, everything has been good, but before a few weeks ago, things were getting rough.  Lola is a single mother, who works in the mornings and comes home stressed out around 3:00, 3:30.  So, lunch for us isn’t until around 4:00 generally, which is much later than the normal 2:30 or so lunch time here in Spain.  Most days she makes lunch the night before, so if I need to leave early for class, I can reheat a small pot of food for myself.  Another food issue here is my family doesn’t eat a ton of fruit, which is tough for me coming from a healthier lifestyle (which doesn’t include deep-fried hot dogs for dinner…).  Recently, we have been having more fruit, which is great, but not always.  We used to have salads with every meal, but that isn’t as common anymore.  Another issue here has been laundry.  At school, I do laundry at least once a week.  Here, we are guaranteed laundry once a week, but it also takes a few days to hang dry.  Lola was mad at me for asking to do laundry more often because I didn’t have enough clean socks/underwear/undershirts, because she thinks they aren’t dirty.  If it doesn’t smell or if it’s not stained, she says, it’s not dirty.  So, I now re-wear them all twice, because I’m not going to pay an absurd amount of money for new clothes (can’t find any cheap stuff).  I bought a few new pairs of underwear and socks, so those have been fine, but it’s just a frustrating situation in general.  But this is how it works adapting to another culture, that’s all.  It’s been fine since, but travel weeks are tough – for example, on Tuesday I’m going to Amsterdam.  If I want clean clothes before I leave, I need to pace out what I wear because my clothes won’t be dry and ready to pack by the time I need to leave.  So, lots of strategizing what I’m wearing ahead of time, which is just a little more work, that’s all.  I did talk to the housing director here, who is one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met, and she said she will talk to Lola if I want her to, but I would prefer to do so (but haven’t yet because I think it would be awkward).  If the situation between the clothes and food worsens, I’ll speak up.

Other family issues going on…José Manuel, my brother, had his girlfriend living with us for most of February.  Sandra is awesome and I consider her part of the family, but it puts a lot of stress on Lola, I’ve noticed.  Sandra was having issues with her parents and refused to live at home for some time, so she ate, slept, and lived here, without compensating Lola for food and utilities and what not.  They made an agreement that she would be out on March 1^st, but she wasn’t until about a week after that.  Another thing is that Jose’s computer broke right before I arrived in January, so he doesn’t have one.  He used Sandra’s while she was here, but now that she is gone, I offered to let him use mine when I’m not using it, which is fine by me, but a little nervraking with the amount of private information on my computer for my internship.  So, I made him his own account and leave my computer and charger out in the kitchen for him when I’m not using it, but just tell him I need it when I’m back.

And now, for some background on Semana Santa!  This is Holy Week, the last week of Lent and the week before Easter.  Sevilla’s celebration of the holiday is a weeklong festival, famous around the world for its pasos, or wood or plaster sculptures of individual scenes of the events that happened between Jesus' arrest and his burial, or images of the Virgin Mary showing grief for the torture and killing of her son.  From Sunday to Sunday, processions are held every day.  In each procession, each church has their own paso, band, and group of nazarenos or brothers who follow the float.  From Wikipedia: “These pasos are physically carried on the necks of costaleros (literally "sack men", because of the costal, a sack-like cloth that they wear over their neck, to soften the burden) and can weigh up to five metric tons. The pasos are set up and maintained by cofradías, religious brotherhoods that are common to a specific area of the city, whose precede the paso dressed in Roman military costumes or penitential robes. Those members who wish to do so wear these penitential robes with conical hats, or capirotes, used to conceal the face of the wearer. These Nazarenos carry processional candles, may walk the city streets barefoot, and may carry shackles and chains in their feet as penance. A brass band, marching band, a drum and bugle band may accompany the group, playing funeral marches, religious hymns or "marchas" written for the occasion.”  All of the pasos walk from their churches to La Catedral de Sevilla, the main cathedral and the third largest in the world.  The nazarenos, when approached by kids, offer little candies and the wax from their candles.  Kids have balls of wax that they try to grow as large as possible every year.  Another note on the nazarenos – they dress exactly like the KKK.  Yep.  I went to a session to learn more about the week, and we were asked if we wanted to try on the traditional clothes, and nobody did….but the Spaniards know why it’s weird to us at least.  At our session, we got to try some traditional Semana Santa foods, such as torrijas.  These are little squares of bread which get soaked in milk or wine, they are lightly friend and doused with honey.  Drenched.  Showered.  Smothered.  Use whatever verb you want to.  They are SO SWEET and delicious.

                           

The weather lately has been pretty nasty, between being chilly outside and rainy.  I’m hoping the weather gets better so Semana Santa can go on!  We leave 1am Tuesday morning for Madrid, by bus, then off to Amsterdam.  I’ll blog after Amsterdam.  Happy Semana Santa (aka spring break 1 of 2)!

Here are some pictures from Google...https://www.google.es/search?q=semana+santa+sevilla&hl=es&client=firefox-a&hs=UQe&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=imvnsl&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=egB3T4XyDcWKhQeBxoSWDQ&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&sqi=2&ved=0CDIQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=629