mullets and peasants and...guns (??!) OH my

Well, once again, I am sick. I don't know why. I went to bed early last night and when I got up this morning, I came to the Catedral to use the internet and Skype. But on entering the plaza I found a ton of people standing around with their fingers all in their ears. I walked across the plaza towards the direction they were all looking, and found a group of 20-30 men dressed as soldiers, and 20-30 men and women dressed as peasants, I guess. They were standing about 50 feet from each other, and yelling. Kind of weakly. Actually only the "peasants" were yelling. The soldiers just stood there silently. All of a sudden a gun was shot, and I understood the plugged ears. I think I jumped about 4 feet. Plus because of the plaza, it echoed! There were more shots, back and forth, more yelling, more shots, and all of a sudden the soldiers raised all their guns at once, and shot all at once. I'm surprised that all the pidgeons managed to escape, since they stupidly left the safety of the ground to fly up into the air. Right where they guns were all being shot...Hundreds of pidgeons. And not one fell. And it's not like they were fake guns. They were definitely real.

Last night I went back to the market in San Antonio for dinner with a couple of friends, thinking we would try something new. Turns out for a sausage and some bread it cost 10-15 euros. So we wandered around for a while, and then went to find some other place to eat. This market is really strange. It's like a cross between the Portland Saturday Market, the Rose Festival Fun Center, and Disneyland. If they were all to take place in the Middle Ages. Unfortunately, none of my pictures do it justice. Plus you have all the Spaniards walking around with their gigantic baby strollers (I think carriages is probably a better word choice) and their bizarro fashion choices...Seriously, I don't know where they get these ideas. I mean, I was definitely expecting painful faux-hawks and mullets, scattered with your pair of Hammer Pants, but this is bad. Anyone who looks in the mirror with their blunt bangs/mullet with the 3 dreadlocked rat tails in the back and say "Damn, I look good" has some issues (And these aren't just men here. The women "rock" this hairstyle, too). And then to proceed to put on a pair of parachute pants, and match your shoes to your belt to your scarf to your purse...I have no words. And they look at me like I'm dressed weird! But back to my point. All these people have come to this market, where all the vendors are dressed in something like 16th century peasant garb or like pirates and pretending (...maybe) to be drunkenly singing and dancing. It's the weirdest congregation of people I have ever seen.

new addictions acquired daily

It seems as though Spain is out to get me. Everywhere I go, I find something new and delicious. (Too bad it's not at home here...) The girl who works at the chuchería where I buy my water every day recognizes me on the streets now and waves when she sees me. (I admit I don't always just buy water. The almonds are delicious. As are several other things...) I was officially introduced to the owner of the German Bakery, which I try to avoid visiting more than once a day, and where upon entering, I find myself unable to order for at least 15 minutes. Oh, and I'm only allowed to buy one thing. Maaaybe two. Even the people at the university cafeteria (which has the best/cheapest coffee in all of Europe, I'm convinced) know me by name.

To make matters worse, Cádiz is celebrating the signing of the Spanish constitution and therefore, the Ayuntamiento has filled Plaza San Antonio with vendor tents. Medieval style. Yes, there are actually people walking around in Medieval peasant clothes. It reminds me, actually, of the Saturday Market in Portland...if it were Medieval themed. Did you get that EVERYTHING is Medieval? Good. There are a lot of not so interesting things in there, but there are also lots of food stands. There are hundreds of traditional Spanish baked goods. There are dried fruits, nuts, caramels, hard candies. There's even a barbecue. Today on my way back from class I had the pleasure of seeing an entire wax-like pig skewered on a 1-2 inch pole roasting over a fire pit that probably had a diameter of 7 or 8 feet. But let me come back to the dried fruits and nuts. There is one stand in particular that I like. It's run by a group (family?) of Africans (I'm not sure what part of Africa...). The table was covered with baskets filled with incredible dried fruits - mangos, pineapples, coconut, cranberries, oranges, papaya, apricots, strawberries... And next to the tent they had a huge roaster, filled with sunflower seeds. I've never been much of a fan of sunflower seeds, but they let me taste some, and they were amazing. They had been roasted with a little bit of sugar, or something. Not a lot, but just enough to make them completely irresistable. And completely addictive. I guess it's a good thing, then, that I have never seen them anywhere else here. Apparently they were from the center of Africa. I will have to stock up by Sunday, when this whole festival ends.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll manage to get some pictures...

pijota music festival

It turns out the Gran Gymkana del Doce is something put on by the Ayuntamiento. It's essentially a citywide talent show/scavenger hunt, the winner of which gets five laptops. It looks like it's done in groups (which is I guess why you would get 5...I thought 5 laptops was kind of a lot for one person, but that's just me...). I still don't know what this giant ramp is for in front of the catedral, though. I think it's for something else...

Last night I went with a few people to a concert at La Punta (the part of Cádiz where all the clubs are). It was called la Pijota Music Festival and was a bunch of independent bands from Cádiz. I really enjoyed it. But somehow, despite the fact that we got there 3 hours late, we still managed to make it for the opening band (which wasn't so good...). The first big band that played, though, was called The Milkyway Express. They were really good - sort of blues-y. I wish I had bought a cd, but I'm sure I can find them online. I don't know the name of the next band that played, but I didn't really like them and left early. I hope I can make it to more concerts while I'm here.



It was also exciting because I got to meet a bunch of people who are from Cádiz and I got to speak a lot of Spanish. I feel like it's really hard to meet gaditanos that are my age, but maybe I just need to learn the right places to go...

Today is a beautiful day - it's sunny and there's a light breeze. I think I'm going to buy a bocadillo and take it with me to the beach. I went to the beach yesterday, too, but it was so hot (with no breeze at all) that I couldn't stay longer than 2 hours. It was nice not to have sand blowing in my face all the time, though.

I'm sitting at the cathedral again, cafe con leche in hand, and there are all these people dressed in bright orange t-shirts. They all have numbers on their backs. A group of them just entered the plaza, marching and playing drums. I have no idea what's going on! They've also set up a gigantic red ramp leading up the steps of the catedral. I'm assuming it is related. There are flags up that say "La Gran Gymkana del 12." At the bottom of the flag there is a picture of a soldier, and I keep hearing "guerra" (war) in the lyrics of the songs. And a group of orange people just walked by carrying a historical looking stretcher with someone dressed as a soldier on it. I think it has something to do with the Ayuntamiento, but I don't know what it al means....

77 degrees and living in a cave

Not too much new... I've been spending lots of time at the beach, though! The weather has finally cleared up, and it's very warm out. Cádiz is soo much nicer in the sun...

On the other hand, the light bulb died in my room. Which wouldn't be so much of an issue if the window let more light in and the ceiling were a little lower, but that is not the case. I never thought I would complain about high ceilings, but no one can change the bulb since it's so high! But last night a ladder appeared outside my room, so I'm hoping that there will be light when I get home from school. It is soo dark in there now. I literally have to carry all the clothes in my drawer out and over to the window to even be able to tell any color difference at all.

Also, I thought I would include a couple of links relating to the bullfight that I will....not....be seeing. It should be noted that the second is not for the weak stomach. The first is more artful. Enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQzDKvKN7HE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5r9AfSjVsdA

carnaval (+/-)

Today I am sitting in the Plaza de la Catedral at a cafe drinking a café con leche and some orange juice, which I expected to be fresh, since it always is here, but this isn't. A couple of German women just sat down at my table. It's funny, actually. They're dressed really conservatively, but one of them has super long metallic blue nails. And they just ordered some kind of alcohol with their espresso. There's a man that keeps walking by trying to sell lottery tickets. Everyone is ignoring him and he keeps saying "Ay, no vendo nada...no vendo nada." I think he even tried inside the cathedral...that doesn't seem right though. There's also a man with an accordion. I hope he doesn't come over here. It seems like they always play whatever song is most stereotypical of the country you're in. Like in Italy they always played the Godfather theme. Here, I don'tknow what the song is called, but it's always the same song. And it was the same story in France.
Last week was Carnaval, which according to all the guide books is this incredible event, you must see while in Cádiz. I saw about 2-3 hours of it, and that was more than enough. But I will come back to that...
The week before Carnaval I left Cádiz to meet Hans in Sevilla, and to travel up to Barcelona and Paris. I have to say that I was a little nervous at first because I've never even planned a trip just for myself, let alone for someone else, too. But for hte most part it worked out. I've found that the things that didn't work out how I expected have fallen to the background.
In Sevilla we stayed at a hostel called Hostal Van Gogh. For some reason there were a lot of these...Hostal Picasso, Hostal Velázquez, Hostal Zurbarán, Hostal Da Vinci, Hostal Goya... The hostel wasn't quite what I had expected, but it was situated right next to Alcazar and very close to the cathedral and the university.


We didn't manage to go into the cathedral, but it was interesting just to walk around the outside and look at the architecture and ornaments. And I really liked the university. It was built in the 17th or 18th century, and from the outside looks nothing at all like a university. In fact, before I got to the hostel and found out what it really was, I thought it was some sort of government building or palace.

We visited Alcazar, which was really beautiful, and wandered a lot around the city. We also visited the Plaza de Toros where the bullfights take place. I don't think that I could actually go to a bullfight, but it was interesting to see the ring.

After 2 days in Sevilla we took the train down to Cádiz for the day. It was the Friday before Carnaval, and everywhere they were setting up booths and carts with chuches (candy), snacks, and Carnaval masks. People were walking around dressed as different things (lots of smurfs). At the end of the day we went back to Sevilla for the night, to catch a plane to Barcelona in the morning.
In Barcelona we had an apartment that was a short distance from La Rambla and the waterfront. It was a really nice apartment, but very small, and the way it was set up made it difficult to get around in it. It had an elevator that opened right into the room, and to get into the building you only had to touch the key to a pad on the outside, but once in the elevator, you had to turn the key in a keyhole. I thought that was kind of weird...
[A couple just walked by dressed entirely in white, both with perfectly white hair.]
While in Barcelona, we walked around a lot, and got to see some parts of the city that I'm pretty sure not many tourists see. They definitely aren't in guidebooks...But it was really interesting to see. Also, it contrasted a lot to Cádiz, where you would have to walk for hours to come to a part of the city that you "wouldn't want to be in," and by that point, you would no longer be in Cádiz anymore. However in Barcelona, it seemed as though we just turned a corner and were in a kind of sketchy neighborhood. On another note, we did the typical touristy things, as well, like visiting the Picasso Museum, Park Güell, and Sagrada Familia (Which we did not go into - I had forgotten how much I didn't like it. Parts of it seem so kitschy to me, like how it says "Sanctus" all over the towers. I hate that. Hans was right - it seems like they've made a cathedral into some sort of Disneyland.)

The food we had in Barcelona was the first actually good food we had. We found a take-away restaurant called Pim Pam Plats, that was amazing!! Everything they had was delicious, and while it wasn't exaclty cheap, it was no more expensive than anywhere else, and the food was the best (I highly recommend it...).
After about 4 days we flew to Paris for the remainder of the trip. I loved Paris, but it was really difficult and frustrating not being able to communicate. And it defintely seemed like people weren't as friendly to us, maybe since we didn't speak French. Again, I loved the food. I miss it. I'm so tired of fried fish... The salads were delicious. No more iceberg lettuce. I had a list of things I had to try, including hot chocolate, a croque monsieur, a ham and cheese baguette, madelienes...the list goes on. It was, however extremely expensive. While in Cádiz the most expensive coffee I've found was 1.60 euros, in Paris we paid 8 for two coffees on more than one occassion.
Our hotel was in Montmartre (Le Regent Montmartre) and was... NOTHING like the pictures they had on their website. The website made it look like a really nice place, but when we arrived it was far from nice. It defintely could have been worse, but their website was extremely deceiving. And it was the most expensive place we stayed. On the bright side, we somehow managed to get free breakfast the whole time we were there. I definitely got my money's worth back in packaged Madeleines... We visited the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay...


We climbed to the second level of the Eiffel Tower (and there had cheesecake and coffee). From the top of the Arc de Triomphe we saw Paris at night, the Eiffel Tower lit up with the searchlight turning round and round.


We were there for 4 days, and I was very sad when it was over and Hans and I had to go our separate ways (he to Amsterdam and I to Sevilla). I was especially sad when things got complicated and I was travelling on my own back to Cádiz... I had many flashbacks to my first trip to Cádiz in January....

I had been travelling with Hans for almost 2 weeks, and when I finally got off the train from Sevilla and walked into the first plaza I came to (Plaza de la Constitución), it was like I had hit a wall. Of... stench. The entire city smelled like pee and stale beer. There were hundreds of people out in the streets, mostly drunk. The ground was completely covered in confetti and streamers, and there were tractors all over that were pulling carts full of musicians. When I stepped out of my building, I found that the street was completely blocked by probably 100+ people all crammed into the narrow Calle Arbolí, watching an unofficial "chirigota," a satirical group, usually all male that dresses with a common theme, and sings songs based around that theme. It's very typical during Carnaval to cross-dress, but this group was dressed as angels and were joking about God creating the world in their lyrics. After watching for a while, I only managed to move to another street when the chirigota finished performing and moved on to their next location, the crowd of people following closely behind them.


All over the city there were similar groups posted up, the official ones pulled by tractors and the unofficial ones packed into the streets. All over there were people throwing (maybe more accurate would be dumping) confetti on their friends and their family and everyone was singing along to the lyrics of the chirigotas. There were cotton candy stands, candied nut stands, miniature donut stands, beer stands... There were half drunk bottles of Cruzcampo everywhere, and plastic cups scattered all over that the wind would pick up and blow into little piles in the street corners and at the base of every tree and trash bin. And nowhere could you esccape the lovely scent of pee and stale beer...

a long story short

So I guess I lied about the cutting and pasting. Won't let me. So to make a really long story really short...
1. My bag didn't come for almost a week.
2. I got really sick and had to miss a couple days of class (only to find out AFTER that we're only allowed to miss 3 days out of the entire semester!!)
3. And my bag still didn't come..
4. And then I got food poisoning when I thought it would be good to try out a true gaditano acquired taste...raw sea urchins bought from a street vendor during the pre-Carnaval erizo festival. Or it could have been from the raw oysters that had probably been sitting out in the hot sun for an hour too long...





5. And therefore missed more class.
6. On the bright side, my bag finally came!
7. I saw the Torre Tavira, one of Cádiz's oldest towers, which has a gigantic camera obscura. The tower wasn't so interesting, but the camera obscura was definitely worth it.



8. Went to some more pre-Carnaval celebrations. The plazas in Cádiz get completely packed to the point where you cannot even move. There are stages set up in many of them and large all-male-choirs that sing very emphatically with really big hand gestures.





9. I started classes at the University of Cádiz: 2 language classes, Spanish history, linguistics, and translation. They're all interesting, but some definitely seem like they'll be significantly more dificult than others (translation most of all...)
10. My 21st birthday came and went. Came and went very well. Although, I think I might have been the first person to head home from the bar and go to sleep...
11. Tornado warning (thankfully a false alarm...)
12. Joined a gym. Weird. There are virtually no women (except the girls from UW who by this point have practically over-run the gym) and it is very small. With too many mirrors, so you can't tell where anyone or anything is in relation to you.