Well, here I am... 2 months out of Sevilla and yes, life has moved on. Not a day goes by where I am not thinking about all of the wonderful memories I had with my friends, my roommate, the city, and of course, Pepi. I'll hear a song on the radio that will remind me of those 5 special months. I'll smile and think about how wonderful it was. But what I never did was wrap up my journey on paper. So with some much needed pressure from my family, I sit down now to close the book...
The last blog I wrote about was my trip to Italy. Leaving off from there, a lot of things happened, but I just couldn't find the time to sit down and write when all I wanted to do was spend my last few weeks with my friends.
For Spanish class we had been "reading" a short little story. Each week someone would have to give a summary of the chapter they were assigned. But of course, no one read it unless it was there week to present in class. Well it came that time at the end of the semester where everyone realized how screwed they were because no one had read a page and we had an oral exam on the entire book during the last week. So it came the weekend after Italy and everyone in the group was off to Lagos, Portugal. I had already gone with some of the girls a different weekend. I didn't write a blog about it because it was more of just a vacation. But anyway, everyone was leaving for the weekend and Marissa and I decided to be productive. Marissa would translate and I would type. This book was about a detective, Lola Lago, who is solving a mystery. So we always referred to the book as just "Lola."
-"Have you read Lola yet?"
-"HELL NO, I'M SCREWED!"
That's how the conversation usually went. So Marissa and I sat on my bed and we translated the entire book. Okay, all credit really should go to Marissa. Damn her Spanish is good. She literally could read the entire thing. So I typed and added humor here and there because I was getting so bored. Plus, I thought anyone reading the summary needed a little laughter along the way. Well, boy oh boy, did we save everyone's ass. Everyone came back from Portugal with a lovely surprise on our group Facebook page. There was our good deed for the week. So everyone read our summary and passed their final. Bravo!
Catherine and I took our final together for Spanish. There were cards faced down on the table with simple questions about the book and we had to ask them to each other. Estrella, my retched teacher, did not smile when we did. I really wanted to ask her to remove the big stick that was up her ass for 5 months, but I decided to take the high rode and just leave with Catherine. Stupid Estrella... I'm so "over her" as Carolina would like to say.
We had so much studying to do for our finals. It was honestly not what I imagined my study abroad classes to be like, but in the end, I am so fortunate to have been taking the classes that I did. Not only did I live in Spain, but I learned so much about the history and culture through my classes. It was nice to know WHY the elderly are so short, and WHY the people are the way they are, and WHY the government is run a certain way. I had some of the best teachers I have ever had. I guess I just got lucky.
IBCP, International Business & Culture Program, had a farewell party at Flaherty's, an Irish pub in town. Before the party we had an UPO (my university) farewell boat ride. We all got dressed up, grabbed a drink at the kiosk, and then headed off on to the boat. It was kind of dumb and useless, but we had a good time anyway. Of course 3 kids jumped off the boat for shits and giggles just to say that they did.
But after the boat ride we headed to Flaherty's. Now, background information. Our coordinator, Alayna, had sent out an email saying we were having a writing contest. I had known about this contest for months ever since I started writing this blog and one of my entries was put on the IBCP webpage. So, I was very excited for this moment. I started writing one night and 4 pages later I could not put my thoughts together. I decided to write a poem instead. It didn't take me long and I chose to write about some of my favorite memories in my travels. But I quickly took all of the other things I wanted to talk about and put them in a short essay and sent it off. Alayna wrote me back and told me that I went over the word limit and she would have to eliminate my poem. I was so sad. That was the best part! I was kicking myself over this because I hadn't put that much time in the little essay I wrote. I had no idea there was a word limit.
But Marissa and I were talking and somehow the contest came up in conversation. I avoided asking her if she was writing something for it because I selfishly wanted to win! We both laughed because she did the same thing too. At the time we were the only two to write anything until Alayna sent out a reminder message. So at Flaherty's... I was waiting to hear the results. About 15 people wrote essays.
3rd place went to my friend Liz. Her essay was amazing. "Shit." That's all I thought. She won 50 Euros. 2nd place-- Alayna read, "2nd place is the essay titled "Goodbye Sevilla'".... THAT WAS ME!!! Oh was I excited. I couldn't believe it. My essay won 2nd place and I won 75 Euros!!! So I went on stage to read it. I started off with hearing some laughter, and then the laughter turned to tears.Of course, I cried... and so did everyone else. It felt so meaningful to have read my speech in front of my friends. So now 1st place..... goes to MARISSA!!!! I took 2nd and she took 1st. It couldn't have been more of a bitter sweet ending. We both wrote about Pepi. At the end, Alayna asked Marissa, ''You and Sara live together, right?'' When Marissa said yes, Alayna said, 'Well you must really have a special Senora." And we sure did :-)
Here is my essay:
It’s hard enough to understand Spanish or even more specifically Andalusian Spanish, but on top of Spanish and Andalusian Spanish, we have Senora Spanish. A special language it is. Not only do our senoras speak a completely different language that we know, but they are true master workers of blending words together and deciding whenever they feel like it to cut out letters from the beginning, middle, or end of words. And the fact that when you ask them to repeat what they had just said, they still will say the same exact sentence, maybe a tad bit slower, but really, just louder, practically shouting the sentence at you. Well, lady, no matter how LOUD you say it, I still don’t know those words you speak of. We went back and forth with the word “azucar” many, many a time. Learning to communicate like that was something I have never done before. Thinking about how you could say something with limited words, tricking your brain, but somehow we manage to get our point across. I’m surprised we never had a puppet show or played Pictionary in our house. That’s pretty much what it came down to for the first 2 months.
But even if I don’t understand everything, I’m proud to say I can hold my own at this point. I can sit with Pepi and have an honest conversation. I can go to the doctor and communicate with him as well. I might not have studied as much as I wanted to, or kept in touch with my intercambio like I should have, but I have learned and grown here. After taking 3 culture classes here, I have fallen in love with Spanish culture. The relationship and importance of family, the customs and traditions, the language; it is all bitter sweet to me. I’ve become very emotional already thinking about leaving. This city, our friends, I just can’t bear to go.
Through the weird diets and the fried food, the siestas and the cold showers, the long walks and the warm sun, the stares and the glares. Through the singing and the dancing, the catcalling and the looks, the music and the vino, the culture and the history, the oranges and the blossoms, the parks and the river. Through the talks and the chats, the flamenco and the sevillana, el café y la leche, the tortilla and the croquette, the agua and the tinto, the churros and the chocolate, the motos and the vespas and the jokes and the pranks. Through the “como?” And the “que?” the shorts and the stockings, the guapos and the guapas, the hola and the gracias, the photos and the videos, the tans and the burns, the horse and the buggy, the trips and the vacations, el jamon y el queso, the Cathedral and the Alcazar. Through the senors and senoras, the family and the friends, the fun and the excitement, the adventure and the exploration, the passion and the comfort, and the love and the laughter, I wouldn’t and couldn’t change a thing. I will wrap up these past few months and hold them close to my heart forever.
______________________________________________________________________________
After the awards were given out, we all hung around and drank before heading out for the night. I got in a hysterical argument with 2 of my guy friends.
The topic?
Goat cheese vs Feta.
Who talks about these things!?!? Well, we do. And that's why I loved this group of people so much!
I didn't get to read my poem at the goodbye party, but I brought it with me on my last evening at Torre del Oro (Gold Tower) to read to my friends. Actually, I lie. My friend Dani wanted to read it and so I sent it to her. The printer at school wasn't working so she hand wrote the whole thing and brought it to Torre. I couldn't believe her!! But she really wanted me to read it. So I grabbed my close group of girl friends and read it to them. They asked me to put it up on the IBCP site but instead I'll just put it here. It will include a lot of jokes you won't understand, but here it is anyway. Feel free to skip ahead...
Oh Sevilla, There’s so much to say,
Let’s begin with such a glorious day
We arrived at the airport, scared as could be
On the bus graffiti is all we could see,
Oh no, wow, this doesn’t look good,
Is this the ghetto? I didn’t sign up for the hood.
Maybe we should wait, wait and see,
For the Cathedral and the orange trees.
Oh that warmth, oh that sun,
Now I feel at home, this is going to be fun.
How many montaditos from cien?
Should I get 1, or 2, or 10.
Oh the shower, I have to hold it with my hand?
Well I can fix that, with a rubberband.
“Sudzing” with one hand, soap in the eye,
If I hadn’t fixed it, I wouldn’t have survived
Intensive Session with the best teacher ever,
All of the funny words, “Don’t tell Alayna!” Not never.
Then we moved on to UPO for class,
Enrique’s stories were such a blast.
IBCP, we just had it great,
Sevilla Spring 11, it was just fate.
We went to Morocco, an adventure at that,
The culture, the beauty, and all of the cats
Oh the Hamam, and getting naked,
Why God why would I eat all that bacon!?
The fear, the terror, the faces were great,
“Who wants to be scrubbed!? “We couldn’t wait!
Trips to Cordoba, Huelva for hikes
Afte 4 ½ months, I’ve had no dislikes.
I will never figure out, the mystery of the food,
Milk left out, In the US you’re getting sued
Cheese and dairy, anything and all,
“Comes quesito, you’ll get big and tall.”
Big you say? Wait what’s that?
Oh my three chins, and all my fat.
That’s right, that’s right, fried food is okay,
Okay Pepi, I clearly don’t have a say.
A beer a day is good for you?
Pepi your words are always so true.
Eggs for breakfast? Huh? No way,
Fruitita! Fruitita! That’s all she’ll say.
I might have given my dinner to a bum or two
Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.
We put all of those hotdogs to use on the street,
Pepi’s dinners, they just can’t be beat.
I’m really being so sarcastic and mean,
But I have the best Senora Sevilla has ever seen.
I will miss her talks, her comfort, her smile,
Her tortilla, her flan, and her screaming grandchild.
Someone to laugh with and to wipe my tears
To hear of my happiness and of my fears.
We talked of boobs, we talked of “gay”
Gay Pepi?? Did you mean “rey”??
Nope she meant gay and that was that
You wouldn’t believe the talks and the chats.
We’ve had some good times, some great ones for real,
While watching tv, with every meal.
Pepa Buena from TVE,
I feel like I know you, you’re like family!
And how is it when Pepi isn’t home
We eat like she does, except without answering the phone
When she leaves us dinner, when she isn’t there
We eat like she would, cheese, crackers, and nice chairs.
My friends, my friends, I haven’t spoken of you yet,
I could tell some good stories, wouldn’t you bet?
My dearest Jordyn, my travel buddy,
The adventures we’ve had were oh so funny.
Marissa you chose Sevilla for us,
Barcelona? Nah. I didn’t even put up a fuss.
Our Italy trip was the best one yet,
Lots of pictures? Yep, the timer was set.
When I hear that people want to study where we are
When they haven’t even seen it, they’ve just heard from afar.
They’ve heard how perfect it is, the culture and the sun,
How Spanish it is, how’ve we’ve grown, what we’ve done
Abril, Boss, Torre and more,
We danced, we drank, it was never a bore.
When you’re standing at Torre with no bottle in hand
And still have fun, talking of future plans.
You know you’ve met special people when
You can talk of food and life until 1:10
This really is such a special group
Friends who will do anything, ones who will jump through hoops.
We came here first, we leave here last
With you IBCP I’ve had a blast
So grab your glass and raise it high
It’s come that time to say goodbye.
So here’s to the laughs and to the tears,
What’s one more drink, let’s have a cheers.
To all of the memories, and to the new
Here’s to Sevilla: This one’s for you
______________________________________________________________________________
I wrote that with the intention of reading it to the whole program. Oh well. I'll take my 75 Euros :)
That night we went out to Buddha, one of our favorite clubs. Everyone was a bit crazy that night and as usual, it was a blast. We dragged our sweaty bodies home after all that dancing very late that night, and had to wake up super early to catch a bus to Cadiz (an hour away) to go to the beach. My dear dear friend Lauren comes rolling in 2 minutes before the bus pulled away without a cell phone, money, or shoes Hungover? I think so.
The beach was really windy and we all were covered from head to toe, but it turned out to be a great beach day. We even went swimming. The night before my friend Davide, a beautiful Italian who was in my class, found a girl's purse at the club. I took it home with me. Her iPhone was locked, but someone called it and I was able to get in contact with her. After the beach I met up with her by my house to return her stuff. She tried paying me, but I said absolutely not! I told her she needs to pay it forward to someone else...
So moving on, the last 2 weeks were really rough. I cried at almost every meal. I would open the refrigerator, and cry. I would sit down for dinner, and cry. One day I started crying and Rachel, Pepi's daughter was there for lunch. The two of them stood looking at me telling me how it's a wonderful experience yada yada yada. CAN SOMEONE JUST GIVE ME A HUG ALREADY!? Ugh, couldn't stop crying.
On our last night Pepi didn't even have dinner with us!! We think she knew we would be emotional. What did she leave us? Hotdogs. Mmhmm... our favorite... NOT.
So Pepi came home finally and we snapped one last picture with her. Then, we gave her some presents. I gave her the cheese knives from Italy. I hope she actually uses them. We cried, and cried, and then hugged and went upstairs to get our bags. At this point, the trip had come full circle, literally. We had to drag our 4 bags down the stairs with the help of Pepi. She thought holding on to my wheel would be helpful. Well, at least she tried. So after breaking a sweat from dragging 4 MASSIVE bags down 2 spiral stiarcases, we were done.
That night, as I said before, we went to Torre which is by the way was where all of the gold came through from the Americas. Christopher Columbus sailed right down our river to leave on his journey. And at this spot, this is where we all met up before going out. So it was only appropriate to be together at this spot. We signed banners, swapped stories, cried, hugged, and kissed. At this point, I was all cried out. And I knew in my mind it was time to go home. Looking at them for the last time was so weird. Having to truly say goodbye was so weird. It felt like it wasn't happening.. that it just wasn't possible.
Everyone's flights were super early and so we got to see some people for one last second. Marissa and I were the first 2 people on line to check our bags. The worker lady was trying to tell me that is was gonna cost some ridiculous price to get our bags back. After getting into "lawyer mode," I got those bitches to make some calls and figure it out. So $50 + 20 Euros later... we checked our bags.
The flights were long and annoying. I was zonked out before we took off from Sevilla. I woke up and realized I had missed saying goodbye to Sevilla. I got over that quickly when I decided I could "say goodbye" to Spain when we left Barcelona. So Sevilla to Barcelona, Barcelona to Munich, and Munich to Newark International Airport in my state of New Jersey.
It felt so good to be home.
And it still does, but I do miss it. I'm hoping one of my friends goes back to teach English so that I would have a good reason to visit.
I gave a bride a tour the other day who studied in Sevilla as well. We both lit up when we figured that one out.
But I also wanted to share some interesting facts about this blog. It has been viewed (at this point) 1,472 times. The top countries to have viewed it were the US (1,184) Spain (164) India (16) Singapore (16) Italy (12) UK (10) Denmark (9) Canada (7) and many, many more. I unfortunately cannot see every listed country, but I do know it was viewed on 5 continents :-)
Some search keywords:
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the mushroom sevilla
how do they make mushrooms in san sebastian
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undress naked ladies locker room shower <----------- FREAK!
"ooh la la" nervion sevilla
"sara mintzer"
candy land is born
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I though it was interesting so I thought maybe you would too.
I traveled to 23 cities in 9 countries, took 18 buses, 4 trains, and 23 flights.
I'd like to thank everyone who supported me, and this blog. Hearing your feedback meant the world to me. I'm glad I had a way to share with all of my family and friends and even people all over the world who I have never met how wonderful this experience has been. It was life changing, unimaginable, yet as real as it gets. I will continue my friendships, travel more, and eat well. As I hope to inspire you all to do the same.
Sevilla, always an advenutre...
Besos,
Sara
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