Thursday, April 2, 2009
This morning I really really tried to pay better attention in lit class since I obviously didn´t the whole first half of the semester. It wasn´t awful but definitely what I would call difficult. After that I did some walking around and stumbled up an imagen para Semana Santa! I was going down Calle San Antón and wandered into a church where a lady had set up a table with pictures of the imagen that she was selling. (An imagen is a big figure of Jesus or the Virgin Mary that´s paraded through the streets throughout the week of Semana Santa led by guys who look like the KKK) She saw me looking around and encouraged me to go in and kiss the feet of Jesus. It was so solemn and the life-sized crucified Jesus was sooo realistic. I wish I could´ve taken a picture but it just didn´t feel right. It was definitely an experience - I´ll say that! I´m really looking forward to seeing all the Semana Santa stuff, it´s what we talked about in Granada Seminar this week. There´s so many details and customs that I don´t totally understand but I think it´s going to be spectacular! After that I had Art History, then a huuuge lunch (which is saying something!), finished up some packing/organizing, then went to POE.
I´m writing this ahead of time, but hopefully our bus will leave at 8:15 from the bus station, head to Algeciras (about a 5 hour ride I´m told) then we stay in a hostel. Tomorrow morning we get on the ferry for Tangier, Morocco!!! I´m sooo excited about the program - we have a really detailed itinerary and an amazing video that you can see on the website: http://moroccoexchange.org/ (On the side, there are links to two videos called documentary and Morocco Exchange)
I´ll get home Monday night pretty late, quick shower, repack, meet all of Julia´s family then leave our piso Tuesday morning before 5:00am. wow. Buuuuut I´ll be getting to see Mom and Dad in Italy!!! How lucky am I?
I´ll update in a couple weeks.. ¡Hasta luego!
Got to Algeciras after 3 hour bus ride. Aida’s family was there waiting for her and they were so excited to see each other - adorable. She gave us our return bus tickets then we waited for a while until Rick and Ben, the tour guides for our two groups came strolling up and said, “Uhh, are you here for the Morocco Exchange program?” Oh really... how could you tell? Was it because we were the only people left in the bus station, because we were a bunch of American college students, or did our huge backpacks give it away? They’re pretty relaxed guys and didn’t seem nearly as anxious about this trip as we were. They led us to the hostel and after a huge mess with keys, passports, and papers, I finally had to ask what time we were leaving in the morning. They told me two separate times but they worked it out and Taylor and I settled into our cute little room and called it a night. Somewhere in my stay at the hostel in Algeciras I lost my very favorite white tank top that I wear under everything :( I am lost without it and it’s irreplaceable.
