Tio Pepe, the uncle I never knew I had.

This weekend marks the annual celebration of dia de Andalucia, the region of spain that I am in. The actual holiday was yesterday (Sunday), but the Spaniards jump on any chance they get to shut things down and siesta, so everything was closed down today. The long weekend gave everyone the chance to travel, but I stuck around with a few others and am very glad that I did. I really needed the weekend to just collect myself and had the chance to go explore some parts of Sevilla that I hadn’t seen yet. My senora Yolanda and roommate were both gone all weekend, so I had the apartment all to myself! I watched movies and laid around eating for most of the weekend and it was fantastic.
On Friday, some friends and I set out to have a really Spanish day, and I think it was pretty successful! We went to the movies and saw Princess and the Frog, the new Disney movie – we figured they’d talk slower in a children’s movie. We got palomitas (popcorn!) and crowded into the theater, which oddly had assigned seats. It was a pretty good deal for the whole experience, about six euro. After that, we went to a play put on by students of the University of Sevilla. It was a two-person show about two children whose fathers had gone off to war, and the play depicted the effects of the war on the children through the way they played and interacted. I thought it was pretty clever.
Yesterday, I tried to go to mass again. I liked it a little more than last time. I went to the University mass this time around, which was all right. No singing again, which bothers me. There were cell phones going off and people talking and many other distractions, which I am beginning to suspect might just be a norm at mass here. The church itself was much less gaudy than the first one, which was nice. However, I am still looking for my church!
After mass, I had some time to kill before I met up with some friends for exploring, so I found a little park and ate there. I hung out there eating and reading for a bit, and I was even asked for directions by a Spaniard! I am sooo legitimate. So once all the eating and reading and directing was done, I found my friends and we went to the Plaza de Espana, which I think is the most impressive thing I’ve seen in Sevilla next to the Catedral. Plaza de Espana was built in the 30s-ish when Sevilla hosted the World Fair, or something like that, and it was just amazing. An enormous plaza with different tiles at least ten feet tall, each depicting a different city in Spain. Pictures soon!
Today, out of a little bit of boredom and a lot of a bit of a desire to experience a bodega (winery), Becky, Lauren, Emily and I hopped on a bus and went to Jerez, a town about an hour south of here that is considered part of the pueblos blancos. It’s known for its sherries, and the bodega we toured did not disappoint. We toured Gonzalez Byass, where Tio Pepe comes from – a type of wine (sherry? Same thing? Maybe? Clearly I learned a lot today…) Tio Pepe is one of Spain’s biggest exports, so it was a pretty big deal. The tour was a blast – we rode a train around the bodega, and the weather was beautiful, and there was a wine tasting at the end which we all very much enjoyed. We spent the rest of the day just wandering Jerez, although there was not much to do there as they were celebrating dia de Andalucia too. It was a good way to spend a day off, I think.
We have a short three-day week of classes this week, and then on Friday I am headed to Gibraltar for the day! Pictures with monkeys soon to follow.