Una Experiencia Cultura

¡Hola a todos!  I had my first real cultural experience yesterday during the celebration of San Cecilio.  He is the patron saint of Granada because a long, long time ago, he brought Christianity to Andalucia, the area that Granada is in.  Granada is also the name of the province and the capitol of the province.  I live in the capitol.  So this enormous festival is famous throughout Granada and almost everyone showed up.  The biggest downside was that we had to climb a big upside.  That was my pun for the day.  The Catedral de Sacromonte is in a neighborhood of Granada called Sacromonte.  He was also a guy, but I don't know his story yet.  The neighborhood of Sacromonte is on a hill with the cathedral at the top.  The service started at noon, but we tried to get there early to see everything.  We succeeded and met up with another fellow APIer and his host brother.  This guy was decked out in old fashioned attire and carried around a staff.  He filled us in on everything we needed to know about the ceremony and even snuck us into the fountain that lies in the courtyard.  Since it had been below freezing, 0 degrees celesius, there was some ice still on the fountain.  In fact, some of the spouts did not even work.

He then told us that the festival would start with the playing of the anthems of Granada, Andalucia, and Spain, but then he had to leave to get into place.  Soon, hoards of people were rolling in and we noticed a police barrier around the entrance of the church.  This was to ensure no one got too close to head of the Spanish military, besides the king.  Yep, apparently he was stationed near Granada and wanted to enjoy the celebration.  He was joined by lots of other people, some dressed formally and some dressed in their military uniforms.  Some were even wearing these interesting Darth Vader hats that did not look like they were very good hats.  They didn't protect from the sun or the rain.  I guess it's just part of tradition.  Everyone listened to the three songs and then the important people were escorted into the church followed by a mad rush of people trying to get as close to the front as they could.  This group mainly consisted of elderly people who were pushing on each other to get into two small doors.


Then there was the service.  Now, I probably have been to a few Catholic services before, but I don't remember them, so I dressed as if I was going to a nice service.  I had a button down shirt and nice pants and nice shoes, but it was all for naught.  I didn't realize that we were hiking up a hill and that the majority of people had less formal clothing.  But I looked nice for church.  Además, furthermore, this service also happened to be in Spanish, which made things more difficult.  Luckily, I was sitting next to my friend, Nick, who is Catholic and comes from a big Italian family.  He told me what was going on and what to do.  I couldn't follow the service because the bishop was speaking so quickly, so I looked at all of the ornate decorations.  This church was built in the 17th Century, but it had the most amazing back wall (I don't know if there is a formal name for it).  It was gold and had figures jumping out of it and looking down at the pulpit.  It had panels that depicted scenes from the Bible, but in 3-D, so I examined that for the majority of the hour and a half service.  I did take communion though, which was tasty.  And then the service ended and everyone fled for the small doors again.

Outside, they had paella, beer, and wine for decent prices, so we indulged.  I was starving because I had scarfed down two muffins pequeñas, small, before I made the trek Sacromonte.  They made the paella for hundreds of people, so the pan they used was huge.  You would think that would make the rice dish unsavory, but it was really good and it went well with my Alhambra beer.  After we ate, we looked around and saw some amazing views.  We were at a very high point of the city and could see for miles all around.  It's moments like these were not only does it take your breath away, but you don't want to breathe because then the moment is gone.

Then we proceeded down the hill to get a free goody bag.  The party favors included: raw beans, bread, and raw, salted fish.  I didn't eat the fish, and I only tried a few beans, but the bread was really good.  Also down here was flamenco dancing and nut/dried fruit vendors.  Among these included gypsies trying to sell you anything you can.  They actually live around this area in caves.  Yes, caves.  The townie that I told you about said that the caves remain at a constant 70 degrees Celsius throughout the entire year.  I think I could live with that if I'm ever buying a house and a cave is on the market.  So that was the festival and I was really glad that I forced myself to get up at 9 AM after being out until 5 AM.  Yes, the night life here never dies.

And then there was today, my first day of classes.  Mom didn't get a chance to take a picture of me with my backpack, but nevertheless, I went to school for my class at 8:30 AM.  This is in fact the earliest class time that I've had throughout my entire college career.  I grudgingly went to my first class, Literatura de España durante los Siglos XIX y XX, or Spanish Literature during the 19th and 20th century.  I didn't know what to expect, so I went in with an open mind.  The teacher is very nice and speaks slowly and also had a nice activity where we walked around the room looking at different authors' works.  She also told us that we don't need to buy books for the class as she will be providing photocopies.  Though a great money saver, this came as a disappointment to me.  I really wanted to read some Spanish novels, but alas, she said there isn't enough time in the semester.  Then I went to my second class, La Historia de España, or simply, the History of Spain.  This class was a lot of fun and the professor is really interested in our learning.  She's so interested, in fact, that she doesn't assign a lot, if any, homework.  These are my kind of classes because I learn 90% in the classroom.  Then I had my Producción de Oral y Escrita, Writing and Speaking Skills.  This class was a little more difficult because it is essentially participation.  I love to participate, but I find it hard when there are some people with loud opinions in the class.  The teacher is nice and tries to get everyone involved, but there are definitely several kids that dominated the discussions.  All in all, this may be a very easy semester, but I will learn a lot of Spanish and a lot of facts.  That's what I would call money well spent.  And did I also mention that after this semester I will have completed my Spanish Minor? Well, that's true too :)  With all of these happy thoughts, I will leave you with this picture of a gypsy house that is covered in pots and pans.  ¡Hasta luego!