Semana Santa has come and gone, meaning that I have three weeks left of classes and another week-long break. I can't even begin to understand how the time has gone by so fast!
Since I knew I was only going to be in Sevilla for the first day of Semana Santa I decided to make the most of it: ten hours in the streets watching the pasos. It was very impressing! I had seen photos and even videos of it beforehand, but there is nothing like being there amongst the people watching the huge pasos being carried past you. The nazarenos were surprisingly not as scary as I thought they were going to be. They wear robes and tall pointed hoods that cover their faces; some are all white, some all black, some white with purple or blue or green or red. The ones in all white look a lot like the KKK, so it's a bit creepy at first. As a sidenote: the KKK stole their outfits from the nazarenos. The nazarenos have candy that they give to the children who ask for it, singing, "Nazareno, dame un caramelo" (Nazarene, give me a candy).
Later on that night I took the bus from Sevilla to Madrid, and then flew from there to Milan. Took a bus, and then the train, and eventually arrived in Pavia. My cousin Valentina met me at the train station. We went to her apartment to eat and then went for a walk around Pavia. It was such a nice change from the hectic crowds of Sevilla. The Università di Pavia was beautiful. It’s a pretty large university; Valentina is studying medicine there. In the afternoon I took a nap; turns out it would be the beginning of a pretty bad cold with a fever – I’m still sick! Ugh! The next day I went to Sanremo on the train. Valentina’s brother, Alberto picked me up and we went to the house to eat. It was so great to be back with Monica and Giuseppe; I love my family!! The next morning Alberto and I went around Bordighera and Sanremo. We also met up with another cousin, Tommaso, for lunch. Later in the afternoon Monica and I went to Dolceacqua, a little tiny town tucked away in the hills. The town consists of steep little streets and buildings that have arches between them to hold them up during earthquakes. It’s a quaint little place, and it feels like you’ve stepped back in time. It was a perfect way to spend the afternoon. Thursday I headed back to Milan; I spent the night there and saw more family, Elisabetta, Giuseppe, and Federica. Friday morning I flew back to Madrid and took the bus to Sevilla.
Tomorrow I am going back to Cordoba to see a professor from Mt. Holyoke who is home for sabbatical. After that I have a week of school, and then it will be Feria. I am going to the beach for a few days and hopefully Trisha is coming to visit for the last weekend. Two weeks of school after that, then the trip home. I can’t believe how fast it has flown by!!
