La feria de abril y Gibraltar / the fair of April and Gibraltar

Two weeks after la Semana Santa, la feria de abril comes to Sevilla. La Feria is basically a huge, gigantic fair with attractions, food, drinking, and general merriment. It’s located at the end of Calle Asunción in the neighborhood Los Remedios. I live in el Centro so it’s a little bit of a walk from my house. It lasts about a week from April 14th to April 21st. I would describe it as a classier version of a state fair because everyone dresses up really nice. For instance, the women dress up in trajes de flamenco, or flamenco dresses, and the men wear formal suits (Lord, as if the Spanish couldn’t get more beautiful!).

The Thursday before feria started el Centro Norteamericano hosted a pre-feria fiesta. The students (basically all girls and one boy – you go Cody!) had a chance to be models and wear trajes de flamenco. It was super fun as we walked down the stairs into a crowd of people. Our host families were invited as well as any friends and intercambios we brought along. In fact, my host mom and her best friend, Olga, came early to help the women put on makeup and style our hairs with flores y peinados (flowers and elaborate combs). The process of putting on a traje de flamenco and putting on makeup reminded me a lot of high school prom haha. After we all processed down the stairs, we took pictures, and we danced las sevillanas, which I learned last semester in dance class. It’s the classic dance of feria which includes four dances. Here’s a link of it being danced, which you can skip to 0:52. It’s often confused as flamenco dancing, but it’s more of a branch of it – that’s what my teacher said at least! Flamenco is not choreographed normally. I love dancing it even though I still mess up the third and fourth dances. I’m hoping to bring it back to show to my ballroom dance club in the States.

During actual feria, I wore Olga’s dresses from when she was younger. One was red with black polka dots and the other was white with blue polka dots. I felt very Spanish in the red one which you can see above and to the left. Look at my beautiful roommate! I spent the first night of feria with my classmate, Reanna, and a super fun group of Americans who don’t go to my school that I met here. We had a blast! On a side note, the popular alcoholic beverages of feria are rebujito, a sherry drink mixed with soft drinks, and manzanilla, which is another type of sherry. I’ve tried both, and I like both very much. Much better tasting than the beer Cruzcampo. Anyways, feria is extremely exhausting. I ended up going the first two days and on Thursday. Somehow, my host mom’s parents who are in their eighties go every single day! I just can’t do that. Also, on the bad side, I lost my wallet… which contained several important items of documentation as well as my house keys, but at least there wasn’t much cash inside. RIP my long-lived coach wristlet. I shall miss you dearly.

In other news, I went to Gibraltar for a day with my friend, Aaron, to see the monkeys. Gibraltar is located in the very southern tip of Spain, but it’s actually considered British territory. We went to the Rock of Gibraltar by cable car, which gave us a magnificent view of the sea. It’s a gorgeous deep blue. As we explored Gibraltar, we saw the monkeys. They are so cute but don’t be fooled by their cuteness. We literally leave the convenience store, and there happens to be a monkey on the railing. I knew as soon as I locked eyes with him, I was doomed. He jumps on my head to steal my Twix that I was eating! Pretty crazy. I was wary afterwards.

It’s been a wonderful week, and now I think I have a fever because the weather has finally changed from chilly to hot. Overall, my general feelings are a mixture of sadness and happiness. I do NOT want to leave Spain, but at the same time I’m just trying to live out the most I can while I’m here so I’m having fun. I don’t want to say goodbye. Less than a month left in paradise!