Sevilla, Sevilla Sevilllllla!

Sevilla 2.1.2011 – 4.17.2011

While studying abroad, I traveled a lot and I saw many things I had never imagined seeing before… thanks to cheap traveling in Europe and generous aid from the Gilman Scholarship Association. However, one thing I failed to mention enough was my hometown of Sevilla. Sevilla is a city of life, a city where orange fruits flourish the streets at its every corner, a city where a cloudy day is still sunny, but more, it’s a city where the Spanish culture is still prevalent. When arriving, I instantly loved this city, and when I was leaving my love for this city grew more and more. This city had given me friends that I will cherish for a lifetime, it has given me a language in which I love to speak, and it has truly given me a new take on life. It goes to say that studying abroad in Sevilla was the best time of my life. It was a conglomeration of not only the green, yellow, and red marbles in the bag, but it added to my collection the off- colors that I would have never seen before;  colors like Sundance, Christine, Aquamarine, and Paradiso. It gave me the perspective in between and broadened the spectrum.

While in Sevilla, I let my camera go free from my hands. I did so because I never wanted to feel like a tourist in my own city, and so I basically left most of my pictures for the last few days I was there. I think that helped a lot in making it feel more like a home. Every time I returned from and stepped foot in Sevilla, I always felt the welcoming feeling from the people around me like we shared the same home, and indeed, it became my second home.

Now I didn’t take many pictures to show the best images of Sevilla, but the best way I can describe the city is by comparing it to the central core of a blooming sunflower. Let’s take Spain to be the sunflower and when one looks at such a flower, they are often distracted by the colors and shapes of the petals that are formed around it. The petals are bright, colorful, and bigger. The central core, in which produces the nectar and pollen, is usually overlooked. That’s natural and very easy to understand because we all do it. To me, the petals of the flowers symbolize some of the other big cities of Spain, and so they change dramatically depending on what variables it accounters. For example, if you water a sunflower with red water, what was supposed to be your yellow flower will now be orange. The influence is exact and distinguished. I saw these changes in the other cities of Spain like Barcelona, Madrid, & Malaga. Here, tourism and a mix of foreigners changed what the city once stood for. Now back to the flower, the central core will stay the same, and it will continue to do its purpose, and that’s what I saw of Sevilla. Just like you imagine, I saw the bull fights, I saw and heard the flamenco along the streets and squares of Spain, and I saw a culture that was just happy to be where they were. They enjoyed the simplicity of life, they were the core, important, overlooked, but happy to have the position they contained. They were in the center of Andalucia, the paradise of it all. Sevilla will keep holding strong with its belief and culture, and I can’t wait to go back and pick it up right from where I left it.

Ferria de Abril

So what all did I really do in Sevilla??? Well, the Spring semester only had 4 days of school a week. That gave me a lot of room to travel, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I had class from 9 am – 8 pm with a 3 hour break to eat and siesta in between so I was pretty busy those days. I had three Spanish classes every morning and two business classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and they were all awesome. Now, every student trying to learn a language should know you can’t just take 5 Spanish classes for 3 months and think you’ll be fluent. You need to practice, practice, practice. So I took what I’d learn and go out with some of my friends to plazas and meet random Spaniards to converse with them for hours. I think I knew I started getting a hold of the language when my jokes actually crossed the language barrier because it’s already hard enough for people to understand my jokes in English… so you could just imagine the Spaniards staring at me like a deer in the headlights the first couple months. But overall, that was one of my favorite pass times in Sevilla. I will always remember Plaza de San Salvador, where I basically did my Spanish hunting. J

Plaza de San Salvador

Without a doubt though, my favorite thing to do was my 1 hour per week with my guitar teacher Francisco. My friends who studied in Sevilla in the past both took lessons from him, and they passed his info onto me. Those 1 hour lessons in which I was in his room were some of the best hours in Sevilla. Not only did I learn how speak and understand a true Sevillano, but I learned a new language… Flamenco. As a drummer, I have always found the rhythms and styles of Flamenco to be very interesting, but Francisco expanded my taste and my ability to play it. We never used sheet music, he would just play something to me, and I would try to play it back. By the end of the lesson, we would capture about 3 minutes of him on video so I could go home and learn it second by second. I began learning bulerias… and my music world changed from there. I remember by the 4^th lesson when I’d play with him, and we’d just smile. It was another language, it was another feeling. I don’t want to say I ‘practiced,’ but I ‘played’ my guitar just about every day I could. Traveling on weekends would lead to withdrawals and countless hours of playing my guitar after I returned on Mondays. Even cooler to know, Flamenco was born in Sevilla, more so it was born in Triana. It just so happened that his lessons were at his home in Triana, so I was learning flamenco where it originated. It kind of gave a different meaning when taking lessons there. Francisco was my guitar teacher, but I have to credit him to more. He is kind of my innocent eye- opener. I say so because I vividly remember our last lesson and him asking…

“Y que vas a hacer ahora ?(And what are you going to do now?)  Vas a devolver? (Are you going to return?)”

 I told him. “Claro que voy a regresar, pero no creo que puedo vivir aquí porque tengo un trabajo, una escuela, y una otra vida en Estados Unidos. Me gustaría vivir aquí, pero no sé… (Of course I’m going to return, but I don’t think I can live here because I have work, school, and another life in the US. I would like to live here, but I don’t know…).”

He then told me: “Si, pero si te gústalo, porque no? Esto es Sevilla, esto es Andalucía, donde el sol ilumina y las personas aquí son felices. También, el flamenco está aquí. Esto es el paraíso. (Ya, but if you like it, why not? This is Sevilla, this Andalucía, where the sun shines and people are happy. Also, the flamenco is here. This is the paradise)”

All I said after that was “Si… si.. si”

I really didn’t know what to say. I was speechless. I didn’t get what just happened there, but within a few within a few sentences he made me realize how much I was going to miss this place. I said bye to his wife and his two little girls, and walked out of his apartment with emotions of an 8^th grade cheerleader. I’ve always known I wanted to work abroad, but he made me think about what marketing emphasize over and over… “location, location, location.”

Anyhow, here are a few vids I made showing the stuff I learned over the semester and what not.

    Bulerias

 Alegrias

Other than the guitar, I would play soccer on Mondays with students from ISA (International Studies Abroad), the program I was studying with. Every Sunday and Monday I looked forward to playing indoor football. Like any team grows, we grew to know each other more and more as we played together. After those two hours, some of us would then play basketball at the outdoor courts or some people would go to a tapas bar or something. The setup was sweet though. In Triana, they had outdoor soccer and basketball courts on a concrete slab, with the covered grand indoor court. Often times, we would play basketball with the Spaniards and what not.

I must say though, my program was amazing thanks to ISA. I literally had the best directors you could possibly imagine. Each and every one of them was the nicest and sweetest person I could imagine. If it wasn’t for them, the experience wouldn’t be as real and as fun. They were always trying to teach us about the culture of Spain and they were always trying to make our struggles as fluid as possible. These are people that I KNOW I will see in the future. The people that were in my program were amazing too. It was kind of like high school because everyone knew everyone, and you basically saw everyone every day. Just about everyone had a lot of energy, was open- minded, and was ready to see the world. I definitely got lucky to study abroad with the people that were there.

Other cool stuff to do in Sevilla was the simple things in life. Stuff like going to plazas (especially plaza de España) just pass time by relaxing and talking outside. Everybody is ALWAYS outside in Sevilla. The kids always have a soccer ball they are playing with, just as you imagine from the movies. I would either go to the plazas, or go to the River. When the weather would allow, you could see 1000’s of people our age just sitting by the river. There were always people canoeing/ kayaking along the river. People were lying down on the grass, tanning, talking, playing guitar, and just enjoying life. The older cities back then were constructed around the rivers because the rivers gave them water and thus life. Until this day, the river in Sevilla prospers life and happiness as it did centuries ago. In retrospect, it seems too unreal, but it was true. All of it.

Then there are cafes, tapas bars, restaurants, and more at your every corner. Other than siesta, people are always out, and not much time should have been wasted inside. There was always something to do, and people to see.

Carboneria was a free flamenco place I’d go to often to check out flamenco. I can’t remember a single dull moment there. Like I said before, flamenco originated in and around Sevilla, so there were plenty of places that held flamenco shows.

Carboneria

Sevilla was a very different life for me. I will be honest though, it took some getting used to. I remember thinking everyone there was over joyous and lazy for the first month and a half. After a few months though, I realized something else; these people were truly happy. The Sevillans had it down… live life happily and just don't worry too much, no matter what the conditions are. Now, a lot of people in the US live like that too, but for me to realize it, I really had to go to Spain where 90% of the people thought and lived like that. They were just happy to walk outside and be in paradise. Their happiness flowed from within each person and caused a vibrant city. Each and every person that goes there can feel it. Sevilla has set the standard of living, and I’m now going to compare and contrast the city to every other city I go, and who knows… Sevilla may be waiting for me as a home sooner than I know.

I’m getting to the end, but I want start ending this blog with a last few words. In Sevilla, there was always something to do. There was either a soccer game to see, people to hang out with, sports to play, squares or parks to go to, tourist stuff to visit like the Cathedral or Alcanar, and quite simply put- a life to live. With all the energy, there was still siesta time in the middle of the day to just chill out for a while. I remember when I returned for a day after my backpacking trip, I couldn’t believe I was leaving such a beautiful place. Art and music were at every corner, and so were the smiles of everyone around you. I never thought real life could seem so unreal.

Bar Phoenix during Champion's League Quarters

Parque de Maria Luisa

La Alcazar

La Catedral (one of the biggest in the world)

So it’s been over a month since I left, and I still think about this city multiple times a day. It’s not only me though, but it’s all my friends that studied abroad as well. We all still talk about it, we all still miss it, and we all want to go back. If anyone reading this has something they want to say about their study abroad experience, leave a comment below. I want people who are thinking about studying abroad to know what we think months after doing so.

From the first day I arrived in Sevilla, to the day I returned from backpacking after 3 weeks, Sevilla had always remained a home to me. I walked in and out of those streets and I feel like I knew them like the back of my hand. The day I return waits.

Sevilla, para mí, me espera,

Y Sevilla, por ti, espero