last week of school and Christmas

I’m done with school. It was a really good feeling on Thursday at 5 pm when I finished my last exam. All of the finals went really well. Last Friday I went to someone’s Spanish family’s beach house on the Atlantic coast southwest of Sevilla. We were a close group of friends so it was nice to have our own place the last weekend of the semester. We made pasta, frozen pizzas and french fries and hung out in the apartment. The water was freezing cold but it was warm enough during the day on Saturday to lay out in a swimsuit and tan for part of the day. Saturday through Thursday I wrote three papers, prepared for two presentations and studied for four exams so I never had time to go out or even post a blog. And then the wireless internet went out, so that’s why there’s been a long delay in updating the blog.

Our program’s fall semester ended last Thursday. That night they had a little party in a courtyard at the University. There were drinks and snacks, they said some final words and we watched a slide show and there was live music - Spanish guitars. Everyone split up for dinner. I walked around Sevilla for a bit, the city has put up tons of Christmas lights. The lights in the shape of snowmen look out of place because it never snows here so snowmen don’t exist. There was a little outdoor ice rink and everyone was out to shop, skate and eat. I got tapas with some friends at our favorite restaurant and then we went to Plaza Alfalfa. It was the last time we could do this any of this, not my last time but it was the last night for most people. Some students have family visiting this week for Christmas and then are traveling. A few students are going home and then coming back in a few weeks for the spring semester. Most of the students are going home for good. Almost everybody meet up at a little bar by the river. It closed at 2 am but it was so packed that we didn’t care and stayed until 3:30 when we finally got kicked out and had to go to somewhere else. Most people had early flights so they had already packed and said goodbye to their host families so that they could stay out until 4 or 5 before they had to get their luggage and go to the airport. It was really fun but definitely sad, bittersweet, it was our last night, we reminisced about the whole semester, how much we’ve seen and done, and how fast it all went. Everyone was trying to spend the last of their euro coins. It was hard to have to say goodbye to about 60 people, lots of good friends, and I had to break up with my girlfriend and say goodbye to her too. When I woke up on Friday (at 2 pm), I realized that I now have nothing to do. I can relax, but it’s kind of an empty feeling. Sevilla will never be the same without all my classmates, its really triste.

During the afternoon on Friday I went to the biggest mall in Sevilla. I’ve never been there because it’s pretty far from my house but I felt that I had to go check it out. There was an ice rink there too. I saw King Kong later that night. If you can look past the absurdity of a hidden island full of savage cannibals and dinosaurs and a giant ape and a young woman falling in love, it’s a really good movie. On Saturday I did my last minute Christmas shopping, getting lots of chocolate, cheese, sausages and pancake mix for my family. In the afternoon I walked around with a friend and her parents and sister who are visiting. We went on a carriage ride through the city and the big park; the carriages are a cozy fit for five people. It was a nice day, it warmed up to about 60 degrees. It definitely didn’t feel like Christmas. I ran into three other students who were out with their parents.

December 24th was the dad’s birthday and the day when families get together, go to mass, exchange gifts and a lot of people go out because no one works the next day. Christmas day isn’t as big, traditionally, Papa Noel (Santa Claus) doesn’t bring gifts. During the first week of January, Los Reyes Magos (I forgot their names but they’re not the three wise men) bring gifts and parades are held in every town in Spain.

Christmas Eve dinner at home was absolutely crazy. The family went to the grandparent’s house nearby to visit for part of the afternoon, I was gone when they went. In the evening the mom’s brother stopped by with his wife and kids, I think they had four kids, I can’t remember and they didn’t stay for very long. They spent a lot of time preparing a ton of food and setting up the dinning room to fit all of us and all of the food. We had shrimp, pork loin, iberian ham, cheese, crackers, tuna and ham empañadas, little ham sandwiches, potato salad, white asparagus, wine, champagne, soda and two birthday cakes. With the two tables pushed together we barely all fit. There was lots of left over food. I handed out all my gifts - the food I got that day and some hackey sacks, scarves, gloves, a big serving bowl, a rope with 13 clay avocados on it (one for each of us in the family), and some coffee mugs and stuffed animals. They loved all of it. Amancio, the 19-year-old, got a new computer last week and put it in the dinning room. He played music through some huge speakers while Pepe, the 17-year-old, played the guitar and everyone clapped and sang Spanish songs, mostly flamenco and flamenco rock. Jesús (the dad) served his birthday cakes and got some gifts, he turned 54 that day, the 24th. Jesús (the 25-year-old son) opened a bottle of champagne and the cork shot straight into the ceiling. He then shook the bottle and sprayed half of it everywhere. I was 8 feet way and got wet. I don’t know what he was thinking. The mom was kind of drunk, she started dancing flamenco. They did some karaoke, singing into a microphone plugged into the computer. The speakers were turned way up. Someone was always playing the guitar and the flamenco drum. It was a lot of fun.

We watched some of the Christmas specials on tv. Every Christmas Eve the king makes a speech, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and reflecting on the year. I had heard about it before and when it went on, every channel showed it, so it seems like a big deal, it was cool to see it. There were some American Christmas movies on, we watched part of Jingle All the Way. A lot of Spanish Christmas specials were on and all of them had some sort of live music. It seems like Spaniards love to celebrate with lots of music.

On Sunday, Christmas day, I ate breakfast at home, lots of leftovers. And then I caught a train to Utrera in the afternoon. Joaquin, Maria’s son, met me at the train station and drove me to their house. There was a lot of family over - Maria’s husband Pepe, her sister brother-in-law who flew in from Damascus, Syria. A nephew came in from New York City. A niece who was studying in Italy for the fall semester was there and so were their three children, Vincent, an arquitect who lives in Sevilla, Joaquin, who lives in Pamplona, and Antonia, who is a university student in Madrid. And Nicky was there too. He gave me several big bear hugs when I met him. Their dog was really hyper because of all the visitors. We had had a huge meal together, eating baked ham, salad, mashed sweet potatoes, soup, cookies and a date cake with whipped cream. We sat around for coffee and dessert in the living room, which had a little tree and little old iron fireplace/heater. It rained on and off all day long and when we went out for a paseo around town it was drizzling lightly. We stopped in two churches to see their Belems (nativity scenes). One was the biggest one I have ever seen. It wasn’t just baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the three wise men and some camels, it was the entire city of Bethlehem. The was a baker with a glowing bread oven, street lamps, a spinning windmill, fields of real grass, hundreds of little people and every few minutes the lights would dim and a backdrop of stars would light up. The Spanish tradition of sneaking a “caganer”, a little person in the nativity scene, trousers down and pooping was very evident. We found three little people squatting down and pooping. Back at home we exchanged some gifts and ate some more. I took the last train back to Sevilla at 11 pm.

Nicky kept saying it was such a great Christmas. I agree.