Chag Sameach!!

Happy Passover everyone! so far I've had a very pleasant Pesach experience here in sfarad (Spain). After my parents left, we went to Cordoba and Sevilla for the weekend with our group. We saw the great mosque of cordoba, with the red and white striped arches, and the cathedral and plaza de Espana in Sevilla.... and that's about it. unfortunately it was pouring down rain almost the whole weekend. Luckily we were staying in a 4 star hotel that allowed for me to take great afternoon siestas.

But anyway, the point is that Pesach started on saturday night and luckily, my friend Jess on my program has a friend from high school studying in Sevilla who has a Jewish friend on HER program who managed to find a seder!!! I got so lucky that I mentioned in passing that I wanted to find one. The Jewish community in Sevilla has about 90 people but it does exist! So my friend Dana and I took our map and our umbrellas and went in search of the tiny little synagogue. there we prayed the evening service and then after the shabbat had ended they i helped set up for the seder. There about 8 other Americans who had found this tiny synagogue and 4 Israelis who were in Sevilla for the year studying flamenco guitar and dance. I was so happy to find Israelis!! I was surprised at how easily I was able to switch from Spanish to Hebrew. I think i'm going to survive when I got to Israel this summer. The seder was very traditional all in Hebrew. The rabbi made all the israelis and me read (which is rather embarrassing because I'm out of practice and I don't read as well as the Israelis obviously... but it was fine) and it was so great that we all knew the same songs and the same tunes etc. at the end of the meal we sang some zmerot. and to sing am yisrael chai (the nation of israel lives) in Spain, a place where the Jews were persecuted during the Inquisition absolutely gave me the chills.

i had a fantastic pesach experience and i'm finding that keeping kosher for pesach is pretty easy here. i've adopted the sefardi tradition of eating rice (because we are in sfarad) so its not so bad. speaking of food, its lunchtime! hasta luego!

oh spain...

well, I woke up for my 8:45 class only to find out that it had been cancelled when I arrived at the modern language center. great. this is the same teacher who didn´t show up to class on tuesday... mildly frustrating. but now I have plenty of time to check up on my email!

LIfe is pretty sweet here in Granada. it´s been rainy and gross though, the past few days which is not fun since I walk everywhere in this city. yesterday, we stayed inside and watched a spanish movie called jamon jamon. It´s one of Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem´s first movies. they´re both soo young in it and there´s so much racy material. after the fall of Franco´s dictatorship in the 1970´s there was a cultural explosion in Spain. now that movies and music are uncensored, the 1980´s were crazy years in Spain. so Spanish films tend to not hold back on juicy details. if you´re interested in seeing Javier Bardem, the current pride and joy of spain, bull fighting naked, I advise you to see this movie.

That´s it for now... my parents and sister are coming to visit tomorrow!!!! they´ll be here for the week. I can´t wait to see them and show them around granada!!!

hope everyone´s having a great week!
ciao!

End of our mini semester

Friday is our final exam for our grammar class. (yes i actually do take classes here believe it or not) we´re already finished with our culture class. tomorrow we´re just meeting to receive our grades and get coffee with our teacher. The monday starts our new mini semester of history, art history, and political science. I, unfortunately have class at either 8:15 or 8:30 every day. ew. that´s way earlier than I ever take classes in Delaware!
This post is kind of boring, but I havent really been doing too much since i´´ve been back from spring break... umm lets see. i did go to a tiny little candle lit bar to hear live music. This argentinian guy was playing really soft, really chill music that i loved. i´m on the lookout for hole in the wall places like that in this city where i wont be surrounded by americans. i think tonight is reggaeton night at boogaclub... might try that...

anyway, i´m gonna go sit outside and study for my test.
paz afuera!